ValuedAMC Website Package Manual

NOTE: The features of ValuedBASIC and ValuedPRO are also described here, as they are all included within ValuedAMC.

Last Updated 7/18/10

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• If your site version is older than the last updated date you see above, there may be some new features described in this manual that are not in your website. You can always ask to have your website upgraded to the current version in order to take advantage of any new features.
• Your website makes extensive use of JavaScript helpers. If you don't have JavaScript enabled in your browser, you can still use the website, but with JavaScript it will behave more smoothly. See your browser's help files for how to enable JavaScript (most browsers have it enabled by default).

This manual is arranged by sections that correspond to the links you see in the left-hand sidebar when you login to your site. This manual is written primarily for site administrators, though appraisers and agents can also reference any parts which apply to them.

Logging In

In order to use the website, you must first login. The login page for administrators and appraisers is located at www.yourwebsite.com/a (just substitute your actual website's name for yourwebsite). Some websites will also have a login box enabled in the public part of the site.

TIPS:

• Your website will start out with one admin account, and you should create at least one appraiser account as well.
• If you have forgotten your login, you can make use of the login reminder feature to have it instantly emailed to you.
• If you leave the site unattended for a period of time, you may need to login again.

Welcome / My Info / Print / WebMail / Help / Logout

These links appear at the top right of every page within the admin/appraiser web interface.

Welcome

The welcome page tells you if any new orders, appraiser, or clients have been added recently. Also shows quick instructions, user tips, and news about the latest upgrades. This page, and parts of this page, can be turned on and off within Site Settings > Misc Site Options.

My Info

Clicking here will allow you to edit your account profile information such as your password.

Print

Clicking this link will print the content area of whatever page you're on when you click the link. In order to save paper, the left-hand navigation links will not be printed.

WebMail

Assuming you have a yourname@yourwebsite.com custom email address, you can access its webmail here, which you can use when you're traveling or at a different computer than your regular work computer. When you use WebMail your email piles up on the server, so you may at some point reach your disk space quota unless you periodically use regular email software to flush your email from the server and save your email on your own computer. Or you can upgrade to the unlimited disk space option for $199/year.

This page will also tell you how much disk space your account has left (versions since 3/18/10).

Help

This link leads to the Valued Websites help pages (this is one of them), where the reader can (hopefully) get in-depth information about the functioning of your website. In addition to this resource, you may also have noticed the liberal sprinkling of little question mark boxes () throughout your site. You should be able to point to them and get quick explanations of things on that page that may be tricky. If you're seeing the question marks but they're not popping up information, you have Javascript disabled in your browser and you should enable it. This can usually be done from within your browser's Preferences (be sure to restart the browser).

Logout

Clicking this link will logout the current user from the site. If you have an admin account and an appraiser account and wish to switch from one to the other, just logout first. This will return you to the login page where you can then login as the other account.

Manage Orders

This section links to all your orders, and also allows you to process new orders into the system. The different order statuses can be enabled or disabled under Site Settings > Data Fields > Multiple Value Fields > Order Status, and you can determine there whether appraisers and/or clients can select them. Order statuses include:

• New: When a client submits an order through the front end of the website (through your website's order form), it will show up here. New orders must be processed by an admin and assigned to an appraiser before that appraiser can work with that order.  
• Open: An open order is a new order that has been assigned by an admin to an appraiser, and is being worked on. 
• Final Review: After an appraiser has uploaded their report for an order, that order's status will be automatically set to Final Review, and an email will be sent to the admin telling them to review that order. This order status works best when you have the Draft Reports setting enabled under Site Settings > Misc Site Options.  
• Completed: After an admin has reviewed an order that an appraiser has submitted for final review, the admin can set the status of the order to Completed, and this will send an email to the client telling them their report is ready to view. 
• Suspended: Select this order status if you or the client needs to put the order on hold.  
• Cancelled: If the client cancels the order, this is the order status to use.  
• Archived: Set orders to this status to denote they are old news.  

You can also add your own custom order statuses, such as:

• Scheduled: A scheduled order is a new order that has been assigned by an admin to an appraiser and has had a date scheduled for the appraisal.
• Underwriter Stipulations: Use this to denote underwriter stipulations.

TIPS:

• If a status link appears boldfaced it means that an order has been assigned to that status within the past week. For example, if a client submits a new order, the New link will appear boldfaced for up to a week after the client submitted it. This is meant to help catch your attention.
• If you disable a particular order status, any orders that may have had that status will no longer be accessible to you until you re-enable that order status. They will not be automatically deleted.

Filter Orders

This section lets you quickly search through all your orders based on the criteria you specify:

• keyword
• appraiser
• client
• order status
• fee status (unpaid, partially paid, or paid)
• date range (order placement date or due date)

You can either view the results on the screen or export them as an Excel-compatible CSV (comma separated values) file. The keyword field searches the borrower, address, file number, loan number, appraiser, status message, and completion note.

Property Listings

This section is not visible unless you have signed up for the Property Modules option ($97/year).

Manage Agents

This section is only visible to admins. You can add, edit, and delete agent accounts. Agents are not able to add accounts on their own. An agent account is required before property listings can be added.

Manage Listings

This section allows you to add, edit, or delete property listings. Agents can only access their own listings, whereas admins can access the listing of any agent.

In order to set a featured listings which will appear on the site's home page, edit the property you wish to make featured, and you'll see the featured listings option on the first editing screen.

Manage Users

This part of the site allows site administrators to add, edit, and delete site users (admins, appraisers, and clients). If you have the property listings module as part of your site, you would manage agents within the Property Listings section (see above).

Clients > Add

Fill in the required fields and any optional fields and click the button at the bottom of the page to add a new client to the system.

TIPS:

• There is no limit to the number of clients you can add to the system.
• If you have multiple clients who work for the same company, be sure to enter the company name exactly the same for every client who works for that company.This is to ensure that the Company Orders Report and Company Payments Report work properly, since these reports both search by company name.
• When you add a client, an automated email will be sent to the client informing them of their new account username and password.

Clients > Manage (edit, delete)

This page lists all the clients in the system, and you can easily edit or delete them from the system through this page.

TIPS:

• You can sort by company or view all companies (and all clients).
• If you have more than 15 clients, they will be divided into multiple pages.
• If you delete a client, it will not delete any orders associated with that client.

Appraisers > Add

Fill in the required fields and any optional fields and click the button at the bottom of the page to add a new appraiser to the system.

TIPS:

• If you are an appraiser management company, you can utilize the optional contact information fields, but if the appraisers are your employees then these fields are probably unecessary.
• You can enter a default appraiser fee split percentage on this page. You will be able to modify this fee split on a per-order basis in the order editing screens.

Appraisers > Manage (edit, delete)

This page lists all the appraisers in the system, and you can easily edit or delete them from the system through this page.

TIPS:

• If you delete an appraiser, it will not delete any orders associated with that appraiser.

Admins > Add

Fill in the required fields and any optional fields and click the button at the bottom of the page to add a new administrator to the system.

TIPS:

• There is no limit to the number of admins you can add to the system.
• While you can manage orders with an admin account, you can't assign orders to an admin account. So if you're a one-person shop, be sure to create at least one appraiser account so you can assign orders to that appraiser account, but you can continue to use the admin account to manage your orders.

Admins > Manage (edit, delete)

This page lists all the administrators in the system, and you can easily edit or delete them from the system through this page.

TIPS:

• Make sure the admin password is not easily guessable, and try to change it on a regular basis. All your site's information is accessible to anyone with the right login. For even more security, create a new admin account on a regular basis with a username that is also not easily guessable, and then delete the older admin account.
• There must always be at least one admin in the system. You will not be allowed to delete your only admin.
• When you customize the automated emails you'll notice you can have certain emails sent to more than one administrator. There does not need to be a corresponding admin account set up in the website for these emails as long as the various admin email addresses themselves are working.

Company Divisions > Assign Users

Assuming you have this feature enabled under Site Settings > Misc Site Options, the master admin can assign every site user (sub-admin, appraiser, client) to one or more teams/workgroups/company divisions.

Invoices & More

This part of the site allows site administrators to view reports about orders and fees, and also backup the database.

Manage Invoices

Access the site's built-in invoicing features here.

Billing Reports

This page shows all orders for date ranges, clients, and/or companies that you specify. It will also total up the fees for these orders. Reports let you search for orders which remain unpaid, and then turn these into invoices which can be sent to clients requesting payment.

Appraiser Fees Report

This report shows all fee split totals for appraisers for date ranges, clients, and/or companies that you specify. These can be exported as an Excel-compatible CSV (comma separated values) file.

TIPS:

• If appraiser fee splits haven't been set up, this report won't do much for you.
• When appraisers are logged in it will show them only their own fees. This is the only report in this section that appraisers have access to.

Turn Times Report

View turn times by appraiser.

Newsletters / Group Email

This feature allows you to quickly send a plain text email to every client, appraiser, or admin.

Backup / Export

This screen allows you to export all clients as an Excel-compatible file, all orders as an Excel-compatible file, or export the database as a SQL file which can be used to restore the site in case of a server hard drive crash or other meltdown.

TIPS:

• The web database should be being sent to you as an email attachment on a regular basis, negating the need for you to manually backup the database. If this isn't happening, please contact Valued Websites. Additionaly, the server is automatically backed up nightly.

Site Settings

Manage Pages

This section of the site allows you to add, edit, and delete website pages that the public sees. There are three types of pages: public pages, private (logged-in) pages, and orphan pages.

Public pages are the pages that anyone visiting your website can see, such as your home page, "about us" page, and contact page. Private pages are only accessible to your clients after they've logged in. These could include a page displaying your licenses. Orphan pages are ones that are not linked to from the main site navigation. A use for orphan pages would be a "Terms & Conditions" page with a link to it put in your site's footer.

A more detailed tutorial on adding and editing the website's public pages is here.

Page Snippets

Snippets are the bits of content that appear in certain front-end pages that are not editable through the Manage Pages section, but you can edit them on this screen. They are usually short messages displayed to the client after they submit a form.

Faxable Order Form

For your less tech-savvy clients, you can enable a printable / faxable order form that will have the same fields as your regular order form. This can either be automatically generated by the website based on your order form settings, or you can upload your own PDF form.

Welcome Message(s)

Here you can specify the different messages visible on the Welcome page when an admin or appraiser first logs in. Also specify the message clients see when they login to their client area.

Company Info

Use this page to enter your own company's contact information and catchphrase. These display in the public pages of the site, usually in a sidebar.

Photo / Logo

Upload your photo or other image that will display as part of your company info.

Email Messages

Various site operations can generate an automated email, and this page is where you set these up. You can enable or disable them, and control what they say and who they go to.

Data Fields

This set of screens are where you control the data that is collected for each order. You can change the name of order form fields, turn them on or off, and determine whether appraisers or clients can view or edit each field. This is probably the most confusing part of the website, but if you take each page slowly things should turn out ok!

Payment Settings

Clients or borrowers can pay for their orders right on your website, or you can process their payments for them. Supported payment options are Authorize.net, PayPal, and Mal's e-Commerce.

See this article on online payment methods for further information.

Invoice Settings

Settings related to system-generated invoices can be accessed here.

Appraiser Permissions

Use this screen to determine whether appraisers can or can't do certain things within the site.

TIPS:

• If selecting individual appraisers, you can use the Control key (Command on Macs) while clicking on appraiser's names to select (or unselect) more than one at a time.

Misc Site Options

Use this screen to enable/disable certain site features. Of special interest is the Draft Reports feature, which is especially useful to appraiser management companies and larger firms. You can also make it so that clients/borrowers have to pay for an order before they can download your report.

For more information or if you have any questions please email info@valuedwebsites.com.

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