Hey there!

We're continuously working to improve our platform. Below, we've outlined a few small but valuable updates we’ve made at the start of this year.

📝 Payment Authorization Popup

We've added a new Payment Authorization Popup that can be displayed when a customer submits a payment on the portal.

Key Features:

• Can be enabled for different checkout types: Payment Plan, Payment in Full, Partial Payment, and Settlement Offer.
• Fully editable text with support for variables related to the current payment plan.
• Customers must check the box and click Agree to proceed.
• Acceptance is tracked in our system, including the text version and variable set shown to the customer.

This feature can be enabled upon request by contacting our support team.

We recommend enabling this feature only when required for compliance, as additional steps may affect the user experience. If not necessary, keeping the payment flow as seamless as possible is best.

📊 Reports

• Chargebacks Report: added a Gateway Name column to easily distinguish between gateways.

• Payment Plans & Scheduled Charges Reports: Added a Payment Method column to indicate the type of payment method currently connected to a charge or plan (ACH or Card).

🏦 Bulk File-Based ACH Payments

We've introduced a feature that allows organizations to process ACH payments in bulk using a file. Once enabled, organizations can upload a file with debt accounts, amounts, and bank payment method details to SFTP. The system will automatically import the file, create charges, and process payments.

These transactions will appear in the Transactions Report with the Payment Source labeled as Batch Import.

📬 File-Based Email Campaigns Improvements

We're continuing to develop our new Campaigns product, first announced in our previous post. While still in its early stages, it has already proven effective for several clients.

We now support multiple types of campaigns that automatically launch when a file is uploaded to SFTP. Emails are sent in compliance with allowed sending windows—either based on the customer's ZIP code or a general safe window for all U.S. customers.

This is just a brief overview—more improvements are on the way!

If you're interested in sending email campaigns to your customers, please contact our support team.

🏷️ Customer Portal: Settlements UI

• When customers accepts a settlement, they will be able to see now both: the Current Balance and the Settlement Balance making it more clear and transparent.

• We added ability to customize Settlement Offer disclosures. It can be updated by a request to our support.

🎮 New Metadata-Based Payment Rules

We’ve expanded metadata-based payment options management to cover all options. Previously, this was available only for Payment Plans, but now it also applies to Pay in Full and Partial Payment. With this update, any payment option can be enabled or disabled for a debt account based on a metadata attribute (a flag in the file with 1/0 values).

🔧🤖 Bug Fixes, Optimizations, and Monitoring Enhancements

• Improved Customer Profile loading speed on the Customer Portal for a better user experience.
• Optimized Scheduled Charges Report for faster load times.
• Migrated Console to the latest front-end framework.
• Expanded internal monitoring to detect and alert on failures in file imports and exports.
• Fixed various bugs 🐛

📬 File-Based Email Campaigns

We’re excited to introduce the first version of **Email Campaigns**, a feature designed to send debt collection emails to consumers. This powerful tool supports emails such as **MVN, Settlement Offers, Pre-Suit, Post-Judgment, and Just Served**.

Key Features:

• File-Based Campaigns: Campaign recipients and email types are defined by files uploaded to SFTP.
• Compliance First: Emails are fully compliant and will only be sent during allowed Contact Hours.
• Portal Integration: Campaigns are integrated into the Tratta system, enabling the generation of passwordless login links for the portal, which can be included in emails as links or buttons.
• Customizable Variables: Files can include any information needed to dynamically populate emails with variables.
• Deliverability & Engagement Analytics: Gain detailed insights into your campaigns with metrics on email deliverability, including opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and bounces. These reports help you evaluate campaign performance and optimize your strategy for better results.
• UTM Support: All campaigns include UTM tags, enabling detailed tracking in the Customer Analytics report. This allows you to trace the entire customer journey—from clicking a portal link in the email to completing a payment.

For now, this feature can be set up for your organization with the assistance of Tratta Support. If you’re interested, reach out to us at help@tratta.io.

This is just the beginning! Stay tuned for more updates to expand and enhance this feature.

🎮 Metadata-Based Payment Rules

This update allows you to control payment rules on a per-debt-account basis. Currently, four payment rules are supported, covering minimum payment amounts and allowed payment options for logged-in Payment Portal customers:

•  Minimum Payment Amount (metadata format: amount in cents or dollars)
•  Payment Plans Enabled (metadata format: 1 for true or 0 for false)
•  Full Payment Enabled (metadata format: 1 for true or 0 for false)
•  Partial Payment Enabled (metadata format: 1 for true or 0 for false)

With this feature, a specific metadata column (sent via file or updated through the API) can be bound to a payment rule. If the selected metadata exists on a debt account and contains a valid value, it will override the default rules. If the metadata is missing, blocked, or invalid, the default rules in Payment Settings will apply instead.

This setting is currently available by request—contact us at help@tratta.io.

We plan to expand this feature to support additional rules in the future.

🤳 IVR UX updates

Simplified Partial Payment Prompt

• We’ve streamlined how partial payments are entered in IVR. Previously, callers were asked separately for dollar and cents amounts. Now, it’s a single step: callers can use the star key (*) as a decimal point. For example, entering 50*50 will be recognized as $50.50 - simple and efficient!

Alphanumeric Account Verification Update

• For alphanumeric account numbers, we’ve introduced an optional streamlined prompt. Callers can now use corresponding digits for letters in their account numbers: for A, B, or C = press 2; for D, E, or F = press 3; and so on. For example, if the account number is AD123, the caller would enter 23123. The correct account will then be confirmed with a second verification method (SSN, DOB, or ZIP). This update makes it significantly easier for callers to verify accounts with alphanumeric identifiers.

💳 Allowed Card Networks Icons on Payment Forms

• If your organization does not support certain card networks, we can now customize the list of allowed networks for you. This change will be reflected on payment forms, ensuring that customers only see supported card options. This update helps prevent failed payment errors and improves the payment experience.

🔧🛡️Bug Fixes & Security Updates

• As always, we’ve continued our efforts to maintain the system, optimize performance, and implement security enhancements.
• Various bugs were fixed—thank you for reporting them! 🐛

Location-Based Payment Plan Rules 🔥

We’re introducing a powerful new addition to Payment Settings! Our latest update adds a Payment Plan Rules subsection, allowing you to set tailored payment plan rules for specific locations (creditors name/codes or other product types). Do some clients prefer no payment plans, or require specific maximum plan durations? Now you can set these preferences with ease.

To get started, go to Settings > Payment Settings > Payment Plans Rules and create your first rule. Each rule lets you select one or more locations (just like in Settlement Offers) and apply tailored settings:

• Enable/Disable Payment Plans

• Set Maximum Allowed Duration (in months)

We’re excited to expand these settings further - your feedback is always welcome!

💼 Legal Policies Settings

• We’ve added a new toggle in Legal Policies to enable checkboxes in the Legal Policies popup (Settings > Legal Policies).

📁 Documents Search Update

• Enhanced Documents Search now supports searching by Email Subject or Document Name. Use the full or partial (beginning) Subject or Name to locate specific emails or documents.

🏦 Locations

We've added new columns to Locations list in Settings:

•  Active Accounts: Displays the number of active accounts per location.

•  Has Settlement Offer: Indicates "Yes" or "No" based on whether the location is selected in at least one offer setup.

More updates are on the way - stay tuned!

We've made some valuable updates to one of the most popular areas of our Console App — Reports!

Let’s dive in and explore these new features!

Reports Search 🔍

If your organization has a large volume of reports, finding the right one just got easier. With the new search feature, simply type the report name to filter matching results instantly. This search works with the Report Type filter, so you can narrow your search to specific types as needed.

Private Reports Feature 🔥

We’re excited to introduce Private Reports! We noticed many users creating reports with their names in the title to signal they shouldn’t be edited or deleted. Now, each user has a Private reports tab, visible only to them, allowing you to create personal reports without concern about edits or clutter in public reports.

How to Create a Private Report?

1.  Create a New Report
2.  Duplicate an Existing Report

In both cases, simply toggle the Private Report switch to "On." That’s it!

Additionally, the Private reports tab has its own unique URL, allowing you to bookmark it for quick access to your personal reports.

We’d love your feedback on this feature and any ideas for future improvements!

Bug Fixes and Maintenance 🔧

• Scheduled Reports Export: Fixed a bug that added an empty row on blank reports.

• Checkout Type Filter: Resolved an issue with the OR filter, now allowing seamless filtering for multiple checkout types.

• Backend Update: Migrated our core backend framework to the latest version for improved performance and security 🏗️

• Various other bug fixes 🐛

Hello! Here are the latest features and improvements from the first part of October:

🏷️ Settlement Offers - Metadata Filters

• We've enhanced Settlement Offers with metadata properties filters. Utilize advanced targeting capabilities to tailor offers based on specific parameters like scores or other metadata.

🔢 Transaction ID in Payment Confirmation

• We've added Transaction ID to the Payment Confirmation screen on the Portal and in Email Transaction Notifications. This feature helps customers track their payments, verify transaction details, and resolve discrepancies efficiently. Customize this feature in Console > Settings > Property Labels, where you can change the label and toggle visibility (visible by default).

📊 Reports Enhancements

• Accounts Report: Added an Archived At column.

• Customers Report: Added a Registered At column.

These additions enhance sorting, filtering, and grouping capabilities, making it straightforward to generate reports on daily registrations or archived accounts.

🌐 Spanish Localization

• Introduced the option to disable the Spanish language version for the portal, available under Console > Settings > Customer Portal.

🏦 ACH Payments - Ownership Type

• Added a new field to the ACH payment method form: Ownership Type (Personal/Business), supported in Collect, IVR, and API.

🔧 Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

• IVR: Enhanced error handling and responses in the Payment Method capturing module.

• Payment Portal: Updated the flow for changing the Payment Plan Payment Method.

• Addressed various other bugs 🐛.

Checkout Type in Reports 🛒 📊

We've added a new column, Checkout Type, to the Transactions, Payment Plans, and Scheduled Charges reports. This column mirrors the functionality found in the Customer Analytics report, aiding in identifying checkout types. It helps users determine whether a transaction was a regular instant payment or scheduled, full or partial, and whether it was related to a payment plan or a settlement.

Here are all possible Checkout Types:

1.  Suggested Payment Plan 
2.  Custom Payment Plan 
3.  Settlement Payment Plan 
4.  Payment in Full 
5.  Payment in Full Scheduled 
6.  Partial Payment 
7.  Partial Payment Scheduled 
8.  Settlement in Full 
9.  Settlement in Full Scheduled 
10.  Guest Payment in Full 
11.  Guest Partial Payment 
12.  Guest Settlement in Full 

Checkout Type is also available as a Group By column, allowing for new analytical breakdowns in your reports.

E-Sign Legal Policy on Email Change 📧

When the E-Sign Legal Policy is required for acceptance (found under Console Settings > Legal Policies) and a customer attempts to update their email on their profile, they will be prompted to re-accept the E-Sign Policy.

This checkbox 👆is optional and will only be visible if enabled for your organization upon request.

Customer’s Emails Exporting to Zip 📨

We continuously strive to enhance compliance and operational tools. To this end, we have introduced a feature that allows for the automatic export of all customer emails sent from the Tratta platform on a daily basis. Emails are exported in .eml format and archived in a .zip file named with the date (YYYY-MM-DD.zip).

Each email file is named using the following pattern: {date}_{org name}_{email}_{account number}_{notification type}.eml 

This feature can be enabled for your organization upon request.

Stay tuned for our next update in October! 🍁

Spanish Localization Updates 🌐

We've expanded the capabilities to add translations for dynamic content in Console Settings:

• Legal Policies

• Footer Text (Settings > Branding)

Update the translations for your organization today! 🚀

Custom Payment Disclosure 📋💳

We now offer the ability to customize the payment disclosure on the checkout page. Currently, this is an internal setting. Please contact help@tratta.io if you would like to modify the default disclosure text for your organization. Custom text supports both English and Spanish versions.

Scheduled Attempts Number for Declined Card Payments ⏲️💸

Customize the default maximum attempts number for scheduled card charges, which is set at 3 by default. This setting can now be changed upon your request to help@tratta.io

IVR Verification Improvements 📞

We've enhanced the IVR verification flow:

• Only allowed methods for the customer portal (DOB, Last 4 of SSN, ZIP Code) will be prompted by the IVR.
• If the debt account holder lacks information for some allowed methods, these will be skipped.

• If only one method is available for the current account, the IVR will automatically select it and prompt the caller to enter verification information for this method.

Additionally, we've updated the call forwarding feature. Previously, when callers pressed * to speak with a representative, calls were automatically directed to the primary organization phone number. Now, you can customize Forwarding Number to any designated line upon request.

API updates 🔗

• Added Disputes Webhooks.

• Added a payment_source attribute to the Payment Plans, Scheduled Charges, and Transactions webhooks.

For more details, check our webhooks documentation.

Payment Portal Now Available in Spanish! 🌐

To enhance the experience for our diverse customer base, we are pleased to announce that our payment portal is now available in Spanish. This update allows Spanish-speaking consumers to navigate, understand, and manage their payments more comfortably and efficiently. Debtors can easily switch to the Spanish version by selecting Spanish from the language options within the portal.

IVR updates 📞

• We've enhanced the IVR by introducing dynamic verification methods. After recognizing a debtor's account, the automated phone system will now only offer verification methods—such as ZIP, Date of Birth (DOB), and the last four digits of the SSN—for which there is corresponding data available in the system. This will help to increase the verification rate for customers paying via IVR.

API updates 🔗

• New Feature: Ability to Create Payment Methods: We've added functionality for storing payment methods, which can now be used in Charge endpoints. For detailed instructions on how to create payment methods, please visit the relevant pages on our API Documentation or Postman.

Disabling Payment Rules for Agent Payments 💳

In your Settings, you can control all aspects of payments (minimum amount for one time payments, maximum number of months for a payment plan, etc). These rules controlled both consumer-driven self service payments, as well as agent-driven payments on behalf of consumers.

• Following this update, you can now separate these - making it possible for your agents to go beyond these rules. This option can be enabled for your organization upon request.

Stay tuned for more updates in this direction!

Customer Portal Updates 🚀

• Consent Request Popup: We’ve enhanced the consent request popup to align with the latest compliance best practices. The E-Sign policy is now distinctly separated from other policies and includes the required legal wording. Additionally, we’ve introduced an optional feature: required checkboxes to ensure active consent from customers. These checkboxes can be enabled for your organization upon request.

• Payment Plan Page: We've added a brief payment plan summary block to a consumer’s payment plan page. This update allows customers to immediately see the number of payments, the dates of the first and last payments, and to open a popup with the full payment schedule.

IVR Works with Different Patterns of Account Numbers 📞

• We've enhanced our IVR account verification to accommodate numbers that may contain special characters, such as dashes (e.g., 12-21345, MKS-1231). Now, we can configure the IVR system to recognize the patterns your organization uses in account numbers. The IVR will prompt callers to enter their account number without special characters—making it much easier over the phone—while still accurately identifying and looking up such accounts.

Bug Fixes 🔧

• Various bugs were addressed 🐛🐞

Create Debt Account and Create Customer ☑️

Typically, data appears in the Tratta System via file imports or through API integration.

However, there are instances where manually creating new debt accounts and associated resources is beneficial.

We've added the ability to create Debt Accounts and Customers directly within their respective sections—making it easy and straightforward!

If your organization utilizes a Parent-Child account structure, child accounts can now be added directly on the Parent Account page.

Please check out our documentation for more details.

Locations Settings 💼

Creating a Debt Account requires not only connecting a Customer but also assigning Locations.

Locations refer to the categories within an organization to which a Debt Account is assigned. Each Debt Account has a primary location, typically the Original Creditor. Additionally, a Debt Account may be linked to multiple other locations, further classifying it into subcategories such as Current Creditor and Product Types.

We have added a locations management feature in the Settings section.

Now, you can review, add, and edit locations with ease. For more detailed guidance on using this feature, review our documentation.