SMS Events

Your ISN now has the capability of sending out SMS/TXT messages in the same fashion used to create / send Email Events. You will see a new menu item at the top of your ISN called SMS. From there you can create SMS events to inform your agents and clients or even remind your inspectors before each inspection. The SMS system uses a similar engine as the email events so you can create whatever you desire with regards to when and what to send! Furthermore, you can even reply to incoming SMS messages from clients and agents. Here are a few answers to some frequently asked questions about the SMS events:

Q. What is SMS?
A. SMS stands for short message service. SMS’s are commonly referred to as a text message. The service allows for short text messages to be sent from one cell phone to another cell phone, or from the Web to another cell phone.

Q. Do SMS events cost more in ISN?
A. No! All of the messages sent from the ISN are included in the per-completed-inspection fee and paid for by ISN. If an inspection cancels or you are not able to complete the inspection we will still pay for any SMS events you may have sent. There is no additional cost to you.

Q. What number do the SMS messages come from?
A. All of our SMS messages are sent from one of our Las Vegas-based numbers so all messages will have a 702 area code.

Q. Can I use my phone number to send the SMS messages?
A. Unfortunately no, it is not possible based on the design of sending text messages. We must use one of our devices to send the SMS messages. The messages depart from one of our network devices and will have a 702 area code.

Q. What happens if my clients or agents reply to the message?
A. At this time you will get an email with the content of the reply. There is not a way to route the SMS to your phone so you will receive replies to your email inbox. Currently we send the email replies to your Office Manager’s email address which is located in Office Settings and then Office Contact Information.

Q. Why can I only send 140 characters?
A. Most US cellular carriers: AT&T, Verizon & Sprint support a 7-bit SMS message so we can send up to 160 characters per message. The ISN reserves the last 20 characters for unsubscribe information. Therefore you are only able to send 140 characters. The limit is due to the maximum message size of 1120 bits which is part of the design and not controlled by ISN.

RecallChek Upgrades

The ISN’s RecallChek page has gained several features:

Appliance Upload: It’s now possible to put your appliances into a CSV (Comma Separated Value) or Tab Delimited (Text File) file and upload them into your inspection. Download the pre-formatted CSV file now!

Instant Appliance Submission: As an alternative way to send your appliances to RecallChek, you can now submit them instantly instead of letting the system auto-submit.

New Dashboard Widgets for Company Owners

Now company owners can see the gross dollars over time right from the dashboard. These new widgets allow for you to quickly view gross dollars per day, week, month and even year. You can activate them in the configuration area of your dashboard (near the bottom of the dashboard).

Paid Invoice Updates

We have added additional information to the PAID invoice stamp. It now shows the type of payment and minimal information about the payment such as last four of credit card or the check number.

Replacement Values

We are constantly expanding the amount of replacement values you can use for your report numbering, email templates and invoice numbers. Stay tuned for a new page in ISN that will detail all of the replacement values and where you can use them.

Add Attachments to Incomplete Inspections

You are now able to add attachments to incomplete inspections. To add one click on View and then on Incomplete Inspections. You will see the familiar attachments icon which will allow you to add an attachment to an incomplete inspection.

Cross Streets

In the subject property area of the ISN there is an option for Major Cross Streets. Throughout ISN there were areas where the major cross streets were not showing. This has been repaired and updated.

Access Keys for 3rd Party Access

In this release we are starting our service offering for ISN Access Keys. This will allow you to interact with 3rd Party software vendors through an access key instead of your username and password. This will enable you to work with other 3rd Party software applications while not handing over your username and password to ISN. This keeps your account 100% protected and allows you to control 3rd Party Software access via your access keys. At anytime you can invalidate your keys and all 3rd Party Software applications will no longer have access to your account via ISN while you have still maintained your username and password for ISN. The 3rd Party application will specifically ask for your ISN Access Key and your ISN Secret Access Key. Both of these keys are located in Settings –> My Access Keys.

Sunday Starter?

In Settings –> Office Settings –> ISN Calendar Options you can now have your agenda calendar start on Sunday if you desire. The default setting is to start on Monday; but you can now alter that to a traditional US calendar style with Sunday first.

Attaching files to Email Templates

It is now possible to attach files from the My Files & Folders in the Inspection Support Network™ (ISN). To begin using this new feature, browse to your Email Templates by going to Email and then Email Templates. Next, edit the templates you want to attach files to. Additionally, the files can also be filtered by type of inspection. Please note: email templates with attached files used in email events will also attach the file when sent via the email event!

Send Email Events to Never-Changing Recipients (always send an event to one person)

If you need an email event to go to a single person or email address ALL THE TIME you can now do this. Start by going to your Email Events and Add/Edit any event. In the recipient drop-down choose “Other”. After you choose the other option you can select a single name and email address to send the event to.

Sending Emails from Incomplete Inspections

You can now send Email Templates from Incomplete Inspections! Click on Inspections and then on View Incomplete Inspections. From there you can now send email templates directly from this screen!

Zip / Postal Codes

It is now possible to get Zip and Postal Codes into your ISN and have your Inspectors tied to them. By inserting Zip Codes into your ISN, your Order Form and Online Scheduler will know if an Inspector services that area. In the Order Form, you will get informative messages when an Inspector does not service the subject property’s area. In the Online Scheduler, the Inspector is eliminated as an option if the subject property is in a Zip that he/she does not work in.

To get started, go to Settings -> Office Settings -> Zip/Postal Codes. You can also add them and control which Inspectors work in each Zip by going to Administration -> User Administration and editing each Inspector. There is a “Serviceable Zip/Postal Codes” button and this dialog will help you manage each Inspector and the Zips they service.

Email Event Trigger: Insurance Agents

A new Email Event Trigger is available: Insurance Agent. Head to Email -> Email Events -> Edit or Add an Event to make use of this great option! We have plans to add more triggers in upcoming builds.

PDF Margin Control

PDF’s are great for printing and now you have more control over how much space the margins around the page use up. To change these settings, go to Settings -> Office Settings -> PDF Options. Note that this will affect all PDF printing in the ISN.

New Widget: Weather

A new Widget is available so you can get a quick view of your Weather Location, which you can adjust in your Company Settings. Head to your Home Page and scroll down to the Dashboard Configuration to activate this Widget.

New Replacement Values

The following replacement values are now available to your Email Templates and Agreements:

%buyersagentaddress% and %sellersagentaddress%
%buyersagentaddress1% and %sellersagentaddress1%
%buyersagentaddress2% and %sellersagentaddress2%
%buyersagentcity% and %sellersagentcity%
%buyersagentstate% and %sellersagentstate%
%buyersagentzip% and %sellersagentzip%
%agreementsignedshort% to get a yes/no for if the agreement is signed
%inspectorinitials%, %inspectorfirstnameinitial% and %inspectorlastnameinitial%

Online Scheduler: Setting for following day scheduling

With this new option, you won’t have to worry about someone scheduling an inspection in the evening for the following day. Go to Settings -> Office Settings -> Online Scheduler (v2) Options and in the first tab, General Settings, there is an option for not allowing booking if it is after 5PM local time.

Private Agent Notes: Never print

If there is information about Agents you don’t wish to be seen on your printed Order sheets, then head to Settings -> Office Settings -> Order Printing Options and turn on the Never Print Private Agent Notes setting!

Longer ISN User Email Address Field

You can now have much longer and many more email addresses for your Users and Inspectors.

Agency Dropdowns

The ISN has had the capability to show your Agencies from a dropdown in a customized fashion for a while and now you have more options for how you want each Agency to appear. It can help when you need to add a new Agent or change an Agent’s Agency. It is now possible to change the way the Agency dropdown is sorted and there are more replacement values available for each Agency in the dropdown. Start by going to Settings -> Office Settings -> Agent & Agency Options!

Online Scheduler

The online scheduler has several new features including location-smart scheduling (sometimes referred to as geo-location or proximity scheduling). The new location-smart scheduling will attempt to align your schedule with your physical location while still offering your clients choice regarding their inspection date and time. Additionally, the new updates allow for required and non-required fields.

SMS for Online Scheduling

If you are using v2 of the Online Scheduler you can now have it SMS/TXT you when an order is started and once again when an order is finished!

SMS Updates

We added the date/time of the inspection to our SMS alerts so you are always informed regarding the inspection.

More Inspectors

You are now able to add up to 10 different inspectors per inspection. The previous limit was three (3). Now the ISN offers up to 10 inspectors per order!

Dashboard

We set the new dashboard as the default home screen and stopped sending you to our retired home screen. We hope you enjoy the new dashboard as we say goodbye to our old home screen!

New Dashboard Widgets

We added new Dashboard Widgets for you including inspections per month overview and mass email progress. To make use of these new widgets add them to your home screen by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the settings panel for the dashboard (the link says Show the Dashboard Configuration).

New Calendar

We added a third calendar to ISN which allows you to view inspections horizontally by inspector. We have found inspection companies with more than one inspector can really leverage this calendar for fast visual scheduling. Give it a try by clicking on the Scheduling Calendar link on your submenu bar (the grey bar underneath the main menu).

Calendar View Changes

The Scheduling Calendar also allows you to pull inspectors from other offices into your calendar for a single view of your inspection companies. This is an excellent feature if you run multiple offices through your ISN.

More Replacement Values for Emails and Inspection Titles

We continue to add additional replacement values to the system for you. We recently added the ability to retrieve the day of the week for inspection and much more. They are available in the replacement value drop down.

Smart Templates

The ISN now allows for Smart Templates. A Smart Template is a template which makes logical decisions based on your selections. Think of it as logical decision making for your templates. For example if you want to only have a paragraph show up in an agreement if you are charging for that service you can now do it. Smart Templates can be complicated so please contact our live support for help on adding them into your ISN.

Order your Inspectors

You can now order your inspectors by visiting Administration and then User Administration. Edit your inspector order by using the up and down arrows (the order of inspectors will be used in the scheduling system and everywhere the system lists inspectors).

Updated Agreement System

We updated the way the agreement system presents agreements to your clients. The new interface is easy-to-use, allows clients to fax the agreements themselves without contacting you. Additionally, this new version allows you to deliver documents/agreements which are non-signable such as a warranty document or maybe additional information about your organization. These new non-signable documents appear like a normal agreement to the client(s) but only allow for printing and faxing.

Duplicate Inspection Checking

Additional modifications were added to the duplicate inspection system to find inspections with unique addresses. Additionally we added a system to re-search for the inspection if the address is changed on the order.

New Order Control

We added a new order control for everyone to use — there is now a label control which can be added to your order form. The label control only shows up in the order process (editing/adding) and allows you to add section headers or text which you want to stand out during the order process.

Email Events by Inspection Type

You can now create email events based on the type of inspection. This will tell the Email Event system to only send a particular event if and only if the inspection is the selected inspection type. This allows you to easily send unique emails for WDI inspections or possibly mold inspections. This feature gives you more command and authority over your email events.

Additional Email Event Updates

Email events can now be directed to all inspectors for a particular inspection. For example, if you have three inspectors on a specific job you can setup an email event now to point to “All Inspectors” and all three inspectors will receive the email from the event.

Android / iPhone Updates

The Android and iPhone applications now show you calendar events as well as inspections.

Report Updates and New Reports

Most of the reports in ISN received visual upgrades, additional fields and much more including a new Canceled Inspection Report. There are too many report updates to mention them all for this Build!

Updates to Report Numbering

We have added new features and replacement fields for your report numbers. Some even allow for you to use padded numbers and padded names in your report number(s).

Updated Credit Card AUTH Process

If you use the AUTH process for your credit cards you will find the following change: if the inspection has already occured the process will AUTHorize and immediately CHARGE the client’s card (or what is known as an AUTH/CAPTURE). This way the charge happens right away if the inspection has already occurred.

Add Back Taxes

If you need to charge taxes in your area and you added a tax into ISN you now have the option to add tax charges to inspections before you added the tax knowlege to your ISN. This essentially allows you to back-charge taxes to older inspections.

Faster Inspection Grid

We changed a few ways we construct your inspection grids. The “inspection grid” is the grey list of inspections you view every day. The inspection grid is now more responsive and will reach your browser faster than ever! Remember, if you want to make any adjustments to the columns in your inspection grid, navigate to Settings -> Office Settings -> Display Options (Grids) & Inspection List.

Email Replacement Values

We added an %amountdue% replacement value and click-able maps for Google now. Inside your email template editor you can now add not only maps in your emails you can now have the map be a link to the full map application on Google. Consumers will be able to click and setup driving directions or navigate around using Google Maps! Also, when sending an email that contains an invoice, or requests payment, the %amountdue% field will always display the current amount owed. If a client of yours paid $100 towards a $300 dollar inspection, and you made a note of that $100 in the ISN (using the payment system), the %amountdue% field in your email will display $200.00.

Devcon Security

You can now easily send your inspection information over to Devcon security. If you were familiar with the ADT program inside of ISN you will find it works the exact same. Click on Settings -> Office Settings -> Devcon Security Services to begin using the new Devcon Security system and start sending in your leads today. For more information on Devcon security please contact William Gustafson at wgustafson@devcon-security.com.

RecallChek Report

You can now run a report on your RecallChek information by clicking on My Reports -> Inspections -> RecallChek Entries Report. This report will show you all of the entries you have made via RecallChek over a time period specified by you.

RecallChek Updates

You now can disable the emails the ISN sends you regarding RecallChek processing. Previously, if enabled, the system will send you emails regarding the status of the submission of your RecallCheks.

Updated Infastructure

At ISN we have made additional upgrades to our network. We added new application servers and updated networking components on the ISN’s physical network. Additionally we upgraded our Content Delivery Network (CDN) to include 38 different node locations in the world, up from 17 during our last update. Additionally, our content delivery network is now backed by Akamai one of the worlds fastest network providers. Speed on the ISN is essential and we work hard to make sure it arrives at your browser quickly!

Hide Fees from Inspectors

You can now hide the fees from your inspectors on your job and schedule emails. To hide the fees from a particular inspector click on Administration and then on User Administration. Edit the particular inspector and check the box to hide the fees from the inspector and click Save.

Download Agent Email Addresses

Using the ISN’s advanced inspection download option you are now able to include agent and client email addresses into the list. This Advanced Download system, which you can reach from Administration and then Download Inspections, allows you to download any / all your inspection data at the click of the mouse!

Download Clients with Inspection Address

It’s now possible to obtain the inspection address the client was associated with when using the Download Clients (in CSV format) feature. You can access this in your ISN by going to Clients / Agents, and then Clients, finally, click the Download Clients button!

Email Notice Updates

We updated the look and feel of a lot of the emails the ISN sends you. The newer email notifications should be easier to read and will continue to follow the consistent ISN theme: green emails are notifications, orange emails require your attention due to a warning and red emails are things you should look at as soon as possible!

Schedule Email Updates

You will note changes to the nightly schedule emails. The nightly emails now include a small visual property map and better support for companies and offices who chose to pre-determine report numbers.

Calendar – All Events

We have updated the way the ISN creates events for “all inspectors” or “all users.” Some ISN users have reported challenges building these style of events. This feature has been re-tooled and is working great!

Internationalization

The ISN use has stretched beyond North America and we have added features to allow some of our new inspectors to use the ISN in other markets outside of North America.