Introduction

Alerts are an important tool for lending companies to make sure that their employees are notified about important information in a borrower's account. These alerts can be setup at both the tenant-level and loan-level. This article will go over the different types of tenant-level alerts that you can create in LoanPro and how they fit into your lending processes. 

Once you understand how alerts work, you can learn how to setup each type of alert by browsing through our Alerts section of articles. 

Highlights

Tenant-level alerts will automatically display across any loans within the company that meet the conditions set by the rules that you write for your company. Loan-level alerts are created and displayed specifically within an individual loan account. If you're not familiar with writing Clojure rules, we recommend reading our Intro to Clojure Rules article before setting up alerts in your company. 

Below we will explain each of the five alert types and how they function within the software.

Stoplights

Stoplights give you a glimpse of how an account is performing. These are based on the rules that you write, so you can configure them in any way that suits your servicing needs. For example, if a loan is past due 30+ days, you may want to write a Clojure rule that puts a “red” stoplight on a loan. This will tell a servicer anytime they happen upon a loan with a red stoplight, they'll know that it is past due 30 days and may need a little more attention in collections.  

A loan can only have one stoplight at a time, but you can create as many stoplight rules as you'd like. If a loan meets more than one rule for a stoplight, the system will display the stoplight for whichever rule has the highest priority. 

Warning Flags

Warning Flags will tell you about about a loan's condition. These flags will show up on a loan based on the conditions you set using rules applied. Each flag will have a name that tells the servicer what the account is being flagged for. There are several flag colors to choose from for each set of conditions, but you can use a color more than once. Since there are a variety of colors to chose from, we recommend that you use one color for each set of conditions to prevent confusion. If you do choose to use the same color, you'll want to make sure that the rules don't conflict and that your name for the flags are different enough so that a servicer won't be confused. 

Unlike stoplights, a loan can have more than one flag. If a loan has several flags, this would be a good indicator for a servicer to look into the account further to see how the loan is performing. 

Usury 

Usury alerts will trigger when you create or edit a loan that is breaking the input usury standards. These alerts are not based on rules-applied and will need to be manually set up. Because of this, it is critical that your company researches the Usury laws applicable to your business location before setting up usury alerts.

We recommend taking some time reading through the Usury and Creating a Usury Alert articles so that you understand how this tool can help you avoid any legal issues. 

Account Click-through Alerts

Account click-through alerts are a “click-through” message that appears when a loan is opened. These alerts can be both rules-based and set up manually within a specific loan. Any number of alerts can appear when you open a loan. 

Each alert will have an expiration date, so putting in information as an account click-through alert that you'd like to have on the record would not be the best decision. Instead, you can create a note that will be stored in the loan's note history. This tool is helpful for servicers to be notified immediately about any urgent information relating to the loan.

You have the option have having account click-through alerts display in the UI and on the Customer Facing Website. When opened on the customer website, it will display as a pop-up message. 

Where Do Alerts Fit?   

Setting up alerts within your company will keep you updated on a loan's performance and lessen the chances of servicers and collection agents making an error on a loan. 

Specifically, flags and stoplights work in tandem in helping servicers understand a loan's performance at a glance. This is especially helpful if they have a large portfolio of loans that they need to service. Instead of going into each loan account individually, they can quickly look through their list of loans in the Account Manager and gauge the condition of each loan from the stoplights and flags associated with it. Servicing managers may also find this helpful when assigning loans to their servicers using the Servicing Queue. 

Alerts may also prove helpful in keeping your company compliant. Usury alerts are particularly useful for this since they will alert the servicer if they are breaking their usury laws when creating or editing a loan. Other alert types can also be a great resource for a variety of situations that'll help your company stay compliant. Account Click-through alerts, for instance, can have rules set to notify the servicer in the loan account when a loan has entered the bankruptcy process. That way, the servicer will immediately know to not attempt to collect on the loan and not violate Chapter 7 bankruptcy. 

This Feature is Not 

• Loan Alerts work at the loan-level, not at the tenant-level like the alerts discussed in this article. If you've run into the Loan Alerts feature in the software or in our knowledge center, you are probably wondering why they are not mentioned here. Loan Alerts are set in an individual loan account in the Note Manager/Alerts tab. Because they are found at the loan-level and function a bit differently than the tenant-level alert types, we discuss it further in our Intro to Note Manager article.
• Usury alerts will not prevent a user from creating or editing a loan if they do not meet the usury law standards. The usury alerts will only provide a warning when they are violated. They will not change anything in the loan—it is your servicers responsibility to take the next steps when a usury alert is triggered while they are creating or editing a loan. If you want to eliminate the possibility of making a mistake, you can use preconfigured loans and limit user access to just those. 

What’s Next?

Now that you have a good grasp on what alerts are in LoanPro and how they work, we recommend taking a deep dive into each of the alerts types articles to better understand them individually:

• Stoplights
• Warning Flags
• Usury 
• Account Notices & Click-through Alerts