BEAM Quick Start Guide
COPYRIGHT 2013 Beam4D Enterprises, LLC Published on 6/2/2013 All Rights Reserved. This document is designed to provide accurate and useful information regarding the BEAM debt purchasing and receivables management software for the customers and prospects of Beam4D Enterprises, LLC. Technical information herein is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any means without the prior written authorization of Beam4D Enterprises, LLC. TRADEMARKS The BEAM logo is a trademark of Beam4D Enterprises, LLC. BEAM, Quick Search and Search Core are registered trademarks of Beam4D Enterprises, LLC. All other names, products and services are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. CONTACT Beam4D Enterprises, LLC - 9009 Town Center Parkway, Suite 320 Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202 Telephone 800.212.2326 Facsimile 941.360.8993 Email sales@beamsoftware.com Internet www.beamsoftware.com THIS DOCUMENT COULD INCLUDE TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. BEAM4D ENTERPRISES CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM INADVERTENT OMISSIONS OR ERRORS IN EITHER THE SOFTWARE OR THIS DOCUMENT. CHANGES PERIODICALLY ARE ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. BEAM4D ENTERPRISES MAY RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DESCRIBED IN THIS DOCUMENT AT ANY TIME. 0709
Table of Contents Introduction...1 The Portfolio Buying Process...1 Your Excel Import File...2 The File Conversion Wizard...5 Interest Rates... 10 Field Mappings... 11 Mapping Order... 14 First: Common Account Data... 15 Second: Debtor Information... 16 Last: Other Account Information... 16 Last Step... 18 Beam4D Enterprises, LLC Table of Contents
Introduction The process of mapping a purchased file is relatively simple. You will use the File Conversion Wizard to select your Microsoft Excel file, enter some preliminary information about it and then map the columns in the worksheet to data fields in BEAM. The newly converted file is imported and stored as a preview until it is rejected or it is accepted into a Portfolio. The Portfolio Buying Process The following is an outline of the steps required for the portfolio buying process in BEAM: 1 1. Add Debt Seller to CRM if needed. Only the company name is required. 2. Add Investor(s) to CRM if needed. Only the company name is required. 3. Create Venture if needed. BEAM supports highly sophisticated Parallel Economic Deal structures. 4. Create a new Portfolio inside the Venture. 5. Map the Excel purchase file and save it into a Preview. Follow this document for those directions. 6. Review random accounts in the Preview. Double-click on accounts in the Debt Commander grid view to look at them in the Account Center. Compare them with the accounts in the Excel worksheet. Reject the Preview if there are any problems by right-clicking on the name of the Preview and selecting Reject Portfolio preview. Re-map your portfolio and repeat the preview process until your purchased portfolio data is precisely how you want it in BEAM. 7. Accept the Preview by right-clicking and choose Accept Portfolio Preview. All accounts in the Preview will now be officially associated to the unique portfolio you created in Step 4 above. 8. You are now ready to perform any or all of the following on the new portfolio: a. Scrub it. b. Outsource it. Instructions for outsourcing accounts and working with BEAM and non- BEAM agencies will be presented in its own User Guide. c. Generate letters. d. Work the accounts internally. 1 You may have already completed one or more of these steps. 1 P a g e
Your Excel Import File It is important to review the contents and quality of your file before attempting to import it. Be sure that you have looked through all of the data in your spreadsheet and check for (and possibly fix) the following items: Phone numbers Phone numbers can be 10 digits or formatted like 800-555-1234 or (800) 555-1234. They cannot lead with a 1 or a country code! A good formula to use to remove the leading 1 from a telephone number is this: =IF(LEFT(cell with phone number in it,1)="1",text(right(cell with phone number in it, LEN(cell with phone number in it)- 1),"#"),TEXT(cell with phone number in it,"#")) The sheet name At the bottom of your worksheet is a section with sheet names. Be sure that your worksheet name is short and is only a few characters long. Social Security Numbers Can have dashes or not. Zip codes If they are less than 5 digits (e.g., if they start with 0 like the ones from the New England states do), we ll add the zero. Zip+4 numbers may or may not include the dash. Quantities of debtors, phone numbers, addresses No limits. Unique record identifier You will need to select a column in the spreadsheet that represents a unique identifier for each account. For credit cards this would normally be the account number. In other cases it may be a customer number; just so that it uniquely identifies each account. 2 Balance components For portfolio purchases it is necessary that the balance you paid for is mapped to the BEAM Acquisition Balance field. In most cases, if interest and fees have accrued since charge-off, you won t be paying for them. You will need a column in the worksheet that, when multiplied by your purchase price (e.g., $0.05 per $1.00 face), yields that account s cost to you. You may map a single Interest and Fees since charge-off amount during conversion. This will by default be added to the account s balance, but it will not figure into the calculation of the cost of a purchased portfolio. 2 Some import files may have more than one row for the same account. For example, a Home Shopping Network file may have multiple purchases by the same customer on separate rows. The conversion wizard will combine all rows with the same unique identifier into a single Beam account with the separate purchases listed in Specialized Account Data. When we get to the mapping screen, you will see that this unique column has been mapped for you to the Beam field Issuer Account Number. You will be able to undo that auto-mapping if it is incorrect. 2 P a g e
For placements it is best to follow this same procedure in order to avoid double counting interest and fees. In other words, don t map the total current balance; map its parts. Charge-off date and amount Occurrence Date Mixed text and numeric data in a single column If the columns required for balance treatment as just described do not exist in the worksheet, you will need to insert and calculate the correct amounts. Every account must have both of these fields. This is a BEAM data field that means: Date of First Delinquency. Some creditors call it Date of Occurrence or FCRA Date. It is a specific field for credit bureau reporting. If it isn t in your worksheet, don t map to it. Microsoft Excel is funny. You may look down a column of phone numbers, for example, and see that some are left-justified and others are rightjustified. This is because Excel thinks that some are text and others are numbers. A column with mixed types like this will not import correctly. This is beyond our control. The best way to handle this is to insert a column to the left or right of the mixed column and write a formula like =Text(X2, # ). Copy this to all cells in the new column and move the column name over, too. This will change everything to text. You ll map this column and skip the original. Don t delete the original after adding the new column or your formula references will all be broken. Contract Interest Rate Another way that we find useful is to map the whole sheet to another new sheet. Say your original data is on Sheet1 and Sheet2 is empty (either because you just added it or it already was). Construct this type of formula and map every cell from Sheet1 to a corresponding row and column in sheet2: =Text(Sheet1!X2, # ). Warning: we lied. Map dates (but not their headers) with: =Text(Sheet1!X2, MM/DD/YYYY ). If present, it must be formatted not as 5.6% or.056, but as 5.6. If you do not have a Contract Interest Rate simply map the Original State to Contract Interest Rate. BEAM will use the maximum allowable state-based interest rate automatically. 3 P a g e
The message here is garbage in garbage out in. Make sure your Excel file is clean before you try to load it using the File Conversion Wizard. At the end of the File Conversion Wizard you will be given the chance to save your mappings in a named file (for example, the name of your debt seller). Next time you need to map a file from this same seller, you will be able to start with the mappings you saved. But don t trust the debt seller s file to be the same as last time. Always be careful! Finally, when you convert the Excel file and import it into BEAM, it is moved into a Portfolio Preview area. You can review each account to see that you have done everything correctly. Look at a number of accounts in the Preview and compare them to the Excel file. If you made any mistakes, you can reject the Preview and rerun the File Conversion Wizard, make small tweaks to your mappings and quickly produce another Preview. Don t worry about making mistakes. They are easy to fix. Do worry that when you finally accept a Preview it is perfect. 4 P a g e
The File Conversion Wizard The File Conversion Wizard is launched from within Venture Center. Venture Center can be accessed by clicking on Collections from the BEAM navigation menu then clicking on Venture Center: In the Venture Center click the Load Portfolio Preview button in the middle of the top row. This will launch the File Conversion Wizard: Click Next. 5 P a g e
Click the Pick File button. This will open a file browser. You may choose an Excel formatted file, a Microsoft Access file or a BEAM Native Format file (.bnf). Why only may? A couple of reasons: Click Open. The name and location of your selected file will show in the Data File field and its data may show in the Preview area. 1. The Excel file you re trying to open is password protected you will see this: 2. The Excel is in the wrong format (something other than.xls or.xlsx). You will see this: 3. You have the Excel import file open in Microsoft Excel: 4. You may have multiple worksheets in your Excel file. Try selecting the Table in the combo box to choose the worksheet that contains your data: Keep trying until your see data in the Preview area. 5. The name of the worksheet is too long or has non-alphanumeric characters in it. If not, you will see this: 6 P a g e
Try renaming the worksheet to something simple and reloading it. 6. Sometimes there is extraneous data in a column or there might be hidden character somewhere. When the data in your Excel file simply will not Preview, you should select all of the data on the worksheet that you are importing from and copy it into another worksheet in the same Excel file. Then name the worksheet. Once you can see the Preview data, if you ve previously mapped a file of this type (or close to it usually from the same source), select the Template from last time using the Template combo box. If this file is completely different, leave the Template name empty. You ll be creating one from scratch. If you happen to have forgotten to save a previously created Template it s okay. BEAM is smart enough to put a date and a timestamp on it for you! You ll probably never use Skip the First n Rows, but, if you do, it means the first n rows after Row 1 which must contain column headers. 7 P a g e
The next element to set is the field that the Wizard refers to the Account Number Column. This is the unique record identifier that represents the account number. But be sure to reread what we say above and choose the best unique column. You must pick an Account Type. In a future release of BEAM, you will be able to create and choose your own. For now you must pick the one that comes closest to representing the type of accounts in your portfolio. Choosing a particular Account Type will trigger different functionality in BEAM. For example, the medical Account Type will trigger the healthcare-related user interface that shows patient and guarantor information, visit details, etc. 8 P a g e
Choosing a particular Account Type also allows you to outsource only asset classes of a certain kind to outsource vendors. For example, BEAM can keep you from outsourcing medical accounts to your credit card agency or payday loan accounts to your student loan shop. 9 P a g e
Interest Rates Now for a discussion of interest calculations in BEAM: (1) It can be ignored. (2) It can be simple. (3) It can be complicated. (4) It can be insanely complicated. Interest calculation is a complex topic. If your import file has an Interest Rate column and you map it to the Beam field Contract Interest Rate, that interest rate will be attached to the principal of each account, not interest and fees. That is, Beam does not compound interest on interest by default. If your file does not have an interest rate column, but you want the File Conversion Wizard to assign a state-specific rate to each account, click the Edit Contract Interest Rates button and verify that those are the correct rates for each state. Just pressing the button means that, on the next screen in the wizard (see below) if you map anything at all to Contract Interest Rate, it will use the data from the Contract Interest Rates that you just looked at, indexing into the table according to the state of the account Original Address. If every account in your file will have the same interest rate, you don t have to map it at all. You will be able to set it after you have imported the purchased portfolio. 10 P a g e
Field Mappings After you ve entered all appropriate data in the first working screen of the Wizard, click the Next button. This will take you to the mapping screen. The first two list boxes contain the columns from your worksheet (in order) and the columns in BEAM that you ll be mapping them to. One column will already be mapped to Issuer Account Number (as shown). You may undo a mapping by highlighting it in the right-most list box and clicking the < button.) 11 P a g e
The recommended way to map columns is to proceed down this list of BEAM fields (the middle list box) and for the most part map them in order, finding each in the left-most list box and clicking the > button to map. But it s a bit trickier than that. 3 In general you re going to map groups of fields in this order: 1. Common account data (like charge-off date, balance information, origination details, etc.) 2. Debtor information. First one debtor completely. Then the next. And so forth. Include with each debtor his or her SSN, name, address(es), phone(s), date of birth, e-mail address, etc. before moving on to the next debtor. We recommend that the SSN field be the first field mapped for each debtor. 3. Other account information. If BEAM does not have an existing data field to map to, the information can be mapped to Other Data or what we refer to as Specialized Account Data. Specialized Account Data is a blob of XML data that can hold an unlimited amount of ancillary account or debtor information. Each time you map a field, you will 1. Click on the BEAM field in the middle list box 2. Click on the worksheet column in the left list box and 3. then click on the > button. The File Conversion Wizard is smart enough to choose the appropriate Data Type for you. However, a good rule of thumb is to check each mapped field by clicking on it in the right list box. Then you will look at the Original Column and Converted Column data at the bottom of the window to see if you got the mapping right. 3 Don t despair. This is the last thing you have to learn. 12 P a g e
What you see in the converted column is how the data will look in BEAM. In general, phone numbers will look like (###) ###-####. Dates will not have times. Numbers will look correct. One more thing! There may be some columns that you want to change or add. For example, the debtor s name may be in all upper case, but you want it in proper case, and you didn t do it in the worksheet. Or you need to add a field that is the same for every account, but it wasn t in the worksheet. Double click the mapping you need to work with in the right-most list box. This dialog will open: From here you can choose how to format the text in your data field. Use the Options tab to affect the case of text fields or to supply a default value to be used if the mapped and converted value is empty. This last feature presents a cool trick. Say you want the Original Product type to be Pay Day Loan, but there is no column in your worksheet containing that value. Try this: Map a text field (like First Name) to Original Product and change the data type to Date. 13 P a g e
The conversion cannot work, and the result will be blank. Double click the mapping to open the options dialog and enter Pay Day Loan as the Value to use if empty. Press Accept. Your mapping will now be as you want it: Use the Lookup Table tab to translate a set of known values to other values. For example, you may have V, M, D and A in your worksheet. Using this tab you can translate them to Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Let s say that your Excel file has a column that reads LOANTYPE and the data in it is simply PDL. You can use the Lookup Table to translate that into Pay Day Loan: Click back on the options tab and choose Accept. The converted column will look exactly as you want it to: Mapping Order You should map BEAM data fields in the order that they are listed in the three tables below. Fields are marked as mandatory (M), optional (O) or recommended (R). If a Mandatory field is not mapped you will get a pop-up window when you try to proceed: 14 P a g e
First: Common Account Data Issuer Account Number Mandatory Account number from the original credit grantor. Issuer Name Original credit grantor name. Client Account ID Mandatory For Agency placements only. This is your client s account ID. Acquisition Balance Mandatory Described above. This is usually the charged-off principal balance. Charge-off Date Recommended Charge-off Amount Mandatory Last Pay Date Last Pay Amount Account Open Date Occurrence Date This is a BEAM data field that means: Date of First Delinquency. Some creditors call it Date of Occurrence or FCRA Date. It is a specific field for credit bureau reporting. If it isn t in your worksheet, don t map to it. Contract Interest Rate Interest from c/o See information above. Original Phone Original Address1 Original Address2 Original City Original State Original Zip/Postal Code Original Product SSN/SIN Recommended Original information that was entered on application or agreement. Since that data usually isn t included in an import file, we recommend using the primary debtor s information. NOTE: You MUST map data into these fields in order for BEAM to properly stratify your portfolio and calculate liquidations based on state. Data fields belonging to the primary debtor are mapped first. BEAM recognizes SSN/SIN as the unique identifier between primary debtor and secondary debtor. Primary debtor references must be mapped before you begin mapping secondary debtor info. 15 P a g e
Birthdate First Name Mandatory Middle name Last Name Mandatory Address 1 Recommended Address 2 City Recommended State/Province Recommended ZIP/Postal Code Recommended Phone Number Recommended Cell Phone Number Work Phone Number Reference Phone Number 1 Reference 1 Phone # Phone Source 1 Reference 1 Name Phone Notes 1 Reference 1 Type i.e.) mother, uncle, spouse, etc. Skip if no data. Reference Phone Number 2 Reference 2 Phone # Phone Source 2 Reference 2 Name Phone Notes 2 Reference 2 Type i.e.) mother, uncle, spouse, etc. Skip if no data. Unknown Phone Number Skip This Email Is Homeowner Enter 1 if debtor rents. Enter 2 if debtor owns. Seller s Account Number Skip This. Second: Debtor Information Map fields for first debtor; then repeat for each additional debtor. Usually, addresses and phone numbers are attached only to the first debtor unless specifically assigned to co-debtors. Last: Other Account Information Flex Tag O This is a flexible text field that allows you to label any account with its own unique identifier. You can search accounts by these flexible tags from the Global Account Search. They can also be used in Debt Commander for sorting or grouping. For example, use a FlexTag for accounts on which the debtor has an open credit line or the number of successful advances paid to the pay day loan company: 16 P a g e
Other Data All other worksheet fields that you wish to capture should be mapped to Other Data. They will be displayed on the main Account Center screen when the Specialized Account Data link is clicked. You may set data type. To view Other Data within Account Center, click on the Specialized Account Data link: Collectors will see your Other Data in the Account Center like this: 17 P a g e
Last Step After all fields are mapped, click Next. You will see the following wizard screen. Saving the mapped (XML) file is optional. The functionality is available in case you have a Preview import error that is so far beyond your ability to comprehend it that you are willing to delve into computer-land. 4 The important fields to fill in are: Descriptive Name: This will be the name of the Portfolio Preview in Debt Commander. 4 Or if, of course, you are requested to forward the file to the Technical Support Team. 18 P a g e
Template Name: If you started with an existing mapping template, its name will be here. To replace it with your newer, updated map simply leave the template name the same. To create a new template, enter its name here. Client or Debt Seller: Choose from the combo box. Click Next. You may encounter one of the following common errors: Your Excel file is still open and you re actively inside a cell in one of the worksheets: Your Issuer Last Pay Date is out of range: 19 P a g e
One of the cells has an excessively long data string in it: The file will be converted and uploaded to your BEAM database, ready to be imported as a Preview. 20 P a g e
Review the numbers in this final step to ensure correctness. Verify the number of accounts and the total value of the purchase. If anything is wrong, use either the Back button to make changes and process the file again or the Cancel button to exit immediately. Your mapping template will have been saved, but in either case the file that was uploaded to your database (ready to be imported as a Preview) will have been deleted. Press Finish to complete the import process and convert the uploaded, mapped file to a Preview. The process of converting to a Preview will take a minute or two. When it is completed, the Preview will be viewable in Debt Commander under Global Selector-Previews with the name you assigned to it in the next to last screen of the wizard. 21 P a g e