(Version 2.8.13, originally released 02/15/07)
NEW MINOR FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS
Symbility.NET/mobile claims
We see Symbility reducing the time it takes at every stage of a claim's progress (including, most importantly, the time to settle the claim) for our customers. What used to take days will often now take hours. This is the main reason we've added a "Time of Loss" field to the Loss Summary page of claim files. If the field is filled in (only Date of Loss is mandatory) then reports created with the Analytics module can provide data at a much finer level of detail—to the hour—for all "time elapsed from (event 1) to (event 2)" measures.
When entering a time of loss, you can of course enter the exact time in hh:mm format or use the up arrow/down arrow keys to change the current value by 1 minute or the PgUp/PgDn keys to change the value by 30 minutes. If you want to round it off to the nearest half hour, select a value from the drop-down list (click the clock icon).
Any claims that don't have a time of loss entered (including all claims created before release 2.8) will assume the time of loss to be 12:00AM on the date of loss.
Symbility.NET
To help out new users, any Administration fields that are mandatory when creating a new claim are now indicated with a red asterisk (*).
mobile claims
Before, changing the number of risers in the Stair Editor would keep the length of the stair shape constant but change the run length (depth of stair tread). Based on user feedback, this has been reversed—now the run length is kept constant and instead the stair shape (the room length) changes as the number of risers changes.
Mobile users are always encouraged to upload all claim files which they have ownership of as frequently as is practical (remember that uploading retains ownership on the device). This not only makes data collected available to others (if they have permission to view it of course) but provides the only proper way to create a backup to protect against losing the data if the mobile device is lost or damaged. However, in the past, if you were working on multiple claims simultaneously, uploading all of them was a bit of a chore involving selecting each claim in the Claim List and tapping the Upload Claim button (repeating for each claim).
Now, a new command in the Tools menu when viewing the Claim List labeled Mark all currently owned claims for upload does most of the work for you. After invoking this command just synchronize.
Keep track of which guest user belongs to which company
Categorize guest user accounts by type
Sort the list of available guest users by company to easily identify the user desired
Recall at any time any contact details for any guest user participant
The following changes have been made to the Guest User Account contact details page (seen when you create or modify a guest user account):
Added Type dropdown (select from "Insurance Company", "Independent Adjuster", "Contractor" or "Insured")
You can select from a list of existing company names already used for other guest users in the Company Name field. Company address fields (which are also new) are automatically filled in when an existing company name is selected.
When the Provide user address checkbox is checked (when a new guest user account is being created), all address fields are automatically defaulted to the same values for company.
The language (English or French) for the guest user's Symbility.NET interface can be specified. Of course the user can choose to switch between them on the fly.
The following changes have been made to the Add Participant page:
Type and Company Name columns have been added to the Available Guest User Accounts table, allowing you to sort by those fields.
Full contact details are available for any guest user by clicking the briefcase icon ().
Other changes:
Finally, all guest user contact details are also available on the Customize Guest User Access screen.
The guest user's company is now shown in parentheses in the Claim Explorer.
We have streamlined the Audit Report: clicking an audit violation now instantly shows the details for the violation directly below the violation hyperlink, instead of in a new pop-up window.
The "Item Pane Location" section of the Preferences dialog box (Items tab) now allows you to specifically position the Item pane along the bottom of your screen or along the left side. More importantly, using the Auto-detect option will now position the Item Pane in the most appropriate location (at the bottom when in portrait mode or at the left when in landscape mode) automatically and dynamically if you switch your Tablet PC's screen orientation while mobile claims is running (you used to have to exit mobile claims and re-enter).
We've made it easier to locate new claims in your Claim List. Now after synchronizing the Claim List, any claim files that are appearing for the first time (because they were recently created, assigned to you or you've recently been added as a participant) will now appear in bold. The bold formatting of these claims will disappear the next time you synchronize.
The Wall Editor and Stair Editor contain three separate panes (properties, navigator and the cross-sectional view of the wall/stairs) which can be arranged (re-sized) in any way to suit the screen orientation usually used (and personal preference). The problem is most people never bothered to arrange these panes because any arrangement would be reset upon leaving the Editor. Now, how you arrange the panes is remembered after you leave the Editor, and even between mobile claims sessions.
The layout of the Minimum Charge tab has been improved to make it easier to understand, clearly showing the minimum charge item associated with the selected item, the total cost of all items currently in the estimate that relate to the minimum charge, and the amount that will be applied to the Totals page as an adjustment (if the adjustment setting on the Totals page is ON).
The Minimum Charge tab is now also available if you're viewing the properties of an item that has not yet been added to an estimate (i.e. you double-tapped an item in the Database view of the Item Pane).
ENHANCEMENT
5687
Rooms now prevented from being accidentally deleted if items from other participants' estimates are attached
Symbility provides many features for collaboration, including allowing multiple estimate writers to work off of a common diagram. One side effect of this was that any claim participant could delete (accidentally or otherwise) a diagram (or object within a diagram like a room or roof) to which items were attached by other participants. This would inadvertently delete all the attached items by all other participants as well.
We have now added a safeguard against this, preventing any participant from deleting a diagram, room shape, roof shape (or exterior shape) if any items are currently attached by other participants.
NEW FEATURE
6173
Ability to superimpose floorplan in roofplan diagram; command renamed
Showing one floorplan diagram in another has been well received since it was introduced in version 2.4 because it makes drawing multiple levels of the same structure very easy (because walls of the diagram you are working on will snap to the walls of the superimposed diagram of another level). We have now extended this feature to roofplans as well (we've also renamed the command to be "Superimpose diagram"). When superimposing a lower level or upper level floorplan on a roofplan diagram, you can now draw the roof shapes more easily to the correct size without needing to measure most dimensions.
Besides making it faster and easier to draw other levels of a structure and the roofplan, and also improving accuracy by ensuring that all walls in the diagram line up as they do in the real structure, using the Superimpose Diagram feature is especially important for automatically creating exterior plans (see below).
Note that currently, roof shapes will not snap to the superimposed diagram of another level when first drawn—only when moved or resized. We have significant improvements to Roofplans planned for our next version, and this will be addressed at that time.
7771
Contact name and phone number fields added to loss address section of Loss Summary page
When the loss address is different than the insured's address, you can enter the loss address separately by checking "Loss address is different than insured". Now you can also specify an alternate contact name and phone number for the loss.
6797
Recoverable depreciation now visually indicated with icon
Before, the only way to tell if an item's depreciation was recoverable or not was to inspect the item's properties (by double-clicking each item). Now any depreciation amounts that are marked as recoverable will appear with a small blue checkmark icon beside them, making it easy to visually determine what depreciation is recoverable.
A new column has been added to the estimate page: you can now opt to show the unit hours and total hours for each line item.
Several minor enhancements have been made to both mobile claims and Symbility.NET that result in an overall better user experience. Highlights of these enhancements include:
In certain circumstances item descriptions would sometimes get cut off if the description was very long or many columns were shown leaving little space for the description. This has been fixed.
The estimate header (that contains column headers) now stays static when the page is scrolled so that you always know which column is which.
A new submenu "Action" has been added to the View menu which allows customization of the display of actions with three different options:
Separate column - this option was already available in previous versions. When ON the action is not included in the item description column but is instead shown in it's own column, which appears after the item description column.
Show short form - a duplicate of the same functionality available in the Item Pane, when ON actions use their shortform version (ex. "Replace" is "Repl").
Action before item - a duplicate of the same functionality available in the Item Pane, when ON actions appear before the item description (ex. "Remove - Drywall") and when OFF actions appear after the item description (ex. "Drywall - Remove"). Only available if the action is not in a separate column.
The "RC/Dep/ACV" view will be turned on automatically if depreciation is specified for any items (it can still be switched to "Total Cost" if desired).
On Symbility.NET, the View and Options menus have been moved to the command box (left side).
Several performance enhancements have been added so that scrolling pages, moving between different pages of the estimate, and showing and hiding columns is much faster and more responsive.
Several enhancements have been made to how digital signatures are captured and stored and the security they provide:
New text accompanies the signature line at the bottom of completed estimates (the estimate status must be set to "Complete" to show the signature line) that allows the estimate to function as a workorder acceptance form. Simply hide pricing information, hide unnecessary columns and provide your tablet to the insured to sign. The workorder text is "My signature at the bottom of this estimate authorizes <estimate author's company> to complete the work detailed in the estimate above for the property at <loss address>."
If the estimate content (prices, quantities, descriptions, notes, photos, voice annotations) is modified in any way after a "work authorization" signature has been captured, the signature is automatically erased. Therefore just like real paper, the insured can be certain that their signature will appear on only what they're seeing at the time they sign.
Once a digital signature is added to a digital form, the form becomes "locked" and no further modifications can be made unless the signature is erased. This protects the person signing the form, even better than using paper forms does! When locked, a small "lock" icon appears over the form icon in the Claim Explorer .
To "unlock" a form and erase the signature so that it can be modified, tap the signature. You will be prompted to confirm—the signature will be erased permanently.
Applying items to just a section of a wall or floor by drawing—using the command Set Area to Attach in the item's context menu (tap-and-hold)—is a great way to deal with situations where only a smaller section of a surface is damaged (like a hole in a wall that needs to be patched). However, the drawn section had to be rectangular in shape (until now). The Vertex Mode tool is very useful for morphing the shape of a rectangular-shaped room into any other shape, and now the same tool works in the same way with defined surface areas. Simply draw the surface area to apply the item as before (it can still only be drawn as a rectangle) then use Vertex Mode to alter the shape by dragging the round handles that appear.
7868
Blocks can now be placed in front of other subtractions
We've overcome a small limitation we had with block subtractions (introduced in version 2.6) that prevented them from being placed in front of a door, window or opening.
A new claim status can be used when closing claims. "Claim Closed (Invalid)" is intended to signify claims that were created in Symbility.NET but are not covered by the insured's policy or are invalid for any reason. This claim status is identical to the regular "Claim Closed" status; it differs only in name. This allows "invalid" claims can be separated from other closed claims when analyzing activity in the Analytics module, and "invalid" claims may be billed differently from other claims depending on how billing is set up for your company.
Another enhancement we've added to the defined surface areas method (for applying items to a specific portion of a wall or floor) is the ability to apply the item to all surface area that that doesn't yet have any items applied with other defined surface areas. If, for example, there are two (or more) different flooring materials in a room, you could apply the first item by defining it's surface area, then use the new command Apply to All Unused Surface Area (in the item's context menu—tap-and-hold). A new defined surface area would automatically be created, covering the balance of the floor, regardless of what shape the unused area was.
9010
Ability to display "File No." column in Claim List
Vendors who use the "File No." field can now add a "File No." column to the mobile claims Claim List. This allows you to view each claim's file number and sort the list by file number.
This feature addresses two prior issues: 1) Vendors who are incorrectly assigned a claim by an insurance company are charged for the improper claim assignment (unless the claim is unassigned before the end of the month); 2) When assigned a claim, vendors have no way to decline the claim, short of contacting the person who assigned the claim.
Now when assigned a claim, each vendor will be presented with a dialog box when they acquire ownership of the claim, add a peer or other participant, add a new manual journal entry or view the Loss Summary page in Symbility.NET. With it you will able to either acknowledge acceptance of the claim file (and the $5.00 billing) or decline it—which will allow you to enter a reason and communicate this back to the originator (it is also recorded in the journal).
If you don't wish to be prompted to accept each new claim assignment and would prefer to automatically have them accepted when assigned as was the case before, you can indicate so on the new Claim Assignments page in your Claim Defaults (in Symbility.NET, available to Administrators only). This page shows a list of all insurance companies with whom you can receive claims from. Place check marks beside the ones whom you wish to automatically accept all claim assignments from.
Only users who belong to the Standard user group or above have permission to acknowledge the acceptance of a claim assignment.
NEW MAJOR FEATURES
When an estimate is first created, it's rarely the final version—usually it needs revisions, and often the revisions involve many line items that share something in common. Recognizing this, we have implemented an extremely powerful tool. However this is not the typical "Search and Replace" tool you're familiar with from other software...our Search and Replace tool offers the same basic functions plus a lot more flexibility, specifically addressing the type of post-creation estimate editing our users typically do.
Here's a summary of what you can do with the new Search and Replace tool:
Search for every occurrence of a line item that matches a specified criteria (ex. uses the trade "Drywall Hanger") and select each line item in sequence
Filter the estimate by showing only line items that match a certain criteria (ex. uses the trade "Drywall Hanger")
Develop complex search criteria using Boolean operations (ex. line items that use the trade "Drywall Hanger" OR "Drywall Taper", AND has an action of "Replace")
For all or any subset of matching line items, the ability to make one or multiple changes to any item properties (ex. for all items using the trade "Drywall Hanger", increase the materials price by 10% AND add a note explaining the price increase)
The ability to save search instructions for later recall.
Search and replace functions are independent of each other (although you can only replace in conjunction with searching), and all interaction is done via new toolbars that are shown and hidden via two new buttons on the main toolbar.
Searching and Filtering Estimates
The Search button displays the Search Bar.
Look in: - select which type of data you are searching for. A column of this type does not have to be currently shown on the estimate. Select from:
Category
Trade
Description (the line item description as it appears in the "Description" column, and includes the item's grade and action if not in a separate column)
Item (the description of the item itself—usually the material—and not including the action or grade)
Action
Grade
Attached note
for: - this is the search criteria; enter what it is you are searching for. Wildcards are implied, so enter any portion of a word (ex. "car" will find "carpet"). Only enter one search term here—you can search the same field for multiple search criteria, but you do that using multiple Search Bars—see below. When looking in Trade, a dropdown list of all available trades can be used to select a value. When looking in Action, a dropdown list of typical actions can be used. In both cases, you can also enter your own search term (for example, if looking in Trade, "dry" would find all items where the trade is "Drywall Hanger", "Drywall Hanger Crew", "Drywall Hanger Crew (incl. Taper)", "Drywall Hanger's Helper" or "Drywall Taper").
Find Next - Selects the next line item in the estimate that matches your search criteria. Note that the entire line item is selected, not just the data that matches. The search begins at the currently selected line item, or at the top of the estimate if nothing is selected. The search begins again at the top of the estimate if it reaches the end and stops (with a message) once it reaches the starting point.
Filter - Filters the estimate by hiding all line items that do NOT match the search criteria. For example if the search criteria is looking in Trade for "dry", the filtered estimate will show only items where a drywall-related trade is used. To show all items again (clear the filter) tap Clear or the Search button again to turn off the Search bar.
Add criteria - Adds another Search bar to create a compound search with multiple search criteria. See below.
Save search - Saves the current configuration of search criteria as a search profile for later use. A dialog box prompts for a name. The search profile is available anywhere you log on to Symbility.NET or mobile claims.
Load search - Retrieves a saved search profile. A dialog box allows you to select one or multiple saved search profiles. By loading multiple search profiles, it's possible to string multiple search configurations together to create a super "meta-search".
Delete search - Allows you to delete one or more saved search profiles.
Clear - resets the Search tool by removing all Search Bars except one and clearing any criteria. Removes any estimate filtering.
Compound Searching
The Add Criteria command adds a new Search Bar; any number of Search Bars can be added. Each additional Search Bar is used to add new criteria, creating a compound search using AND/OR operators.
Each additional Search Bar can look for the same type of data or a different type of data. By default each new additional Search Bar will use the AND operator; tap AND to switch that to OR (toggles between the two). The order of operations is established by the order that the operators appear in. Sequential AND Search Bars are always treated as being grouped, OR search bars divide AND groups (OR bars cannot be grouped). Here are some examples to illustrate:
Look in Action for "Replace"
AND Look in Trade for "Appliance Installer"
OR Look in Trade for "Carpenter"
Look in Category for “Electrical” OR Look in Item for “240V” OR Look in Item for “120V” AND Look in Action for “Replace”
OR Look in Item for “heat”
To remove any Search Bar, click the icon at the right side.
Replacing Item Properties
The Replace button displays the Replace Bar.
Set: - Select which property of the matching line item (according to the search criteria) to change. Details for each are in the table below. The last option in the list "Delete line item" can be used to delete items matching the search criteria.
to: - How to change the property specified. Details for each are in the table below.
Replace - For the currently selected line item found by doing a search, make the changes specified (using the Set and to fields), then select the next matching line item. This command is disabled until at least one item has been selected using the Find Next command.
Replace all - Make the changes specified (using the Set and to fields) to all matching line items in the estimate.
Add replacement - Adds an additional Replace Bar to create a compound replacement, where multiple changes are made simultaneously to line items matching the search criteria.
Clear - resets the Replace tool by removing all Replace Bars except one and clearing any values.
Description
Unit materials
Unit equipment
Base wage
Paid leave
Taxes and Insurance
To make multiple changes at the same time to items matching the search criteria, add multiple Replace Bars—you can add as many as you want.
Symbility excels at providing pen-centric graphical tools to capture all details of most interior rooms and roofs. We have now applied the same graphical, pen-based prowess to exteriors via a new type of diagram that can be added to claim files, "Exterior Plans". This new, unique, cutting-edge feature catapults mobile claims a quantum leap ahead of anything else offered by any direct or indirect competitor on the market today, and it's probably the most difficult feature we've yet developed—certainly one of our biggest accomplishments. This feature provides more effective handling of CAT claims, and enriches the level of detail in your claims and insures greater accuracy.
The goal of exterior plans is, like floorplans and roofplans, to provide a drag-and-drop interface to specify items involved in the structure's exterior, and automatically calculate the item's quantity for any surface. There are two ways to use exterior plans, depending on whether there is also damage to the interior and roof of the structure. If so, mobile claims can automatically create a full three-dimensional exterior diagram based on information already entered for the interior/roof. If only the exterior is damaged, a two-dimensional (cross-sectional) diagram of specific exterior surfaces can be easily drawn in an Exterior Plan diagram page.
A detailed description of the Exterior Plans features and functionality is in a separate document that you can access here.
