Main Features

Around ninety improvements, additions and fixes have been made since the last update at the end of October, particularly in regard to GDPR, Notes and Accounting.

Itemised List

• You are no longer able to put free format text in the Action field for Appointments (or Notes) – the options have to be set-up properly and selected from the list. However it has come to light that some of our users have been using free format Actions as a summary of the Appointment (or Note) so we have added a new Summary field.  If any historical Appointments have free format text in the Action field that text will be copied to the new Summary field and the Action field will be cleared.  The Diary week view will show the Summary field for an Appointment if the Action is not set, or the Action field otherwise.
• For CFS users a ‘Secure Message’ button has been added to the Client Details screen next to ‘Search name’. This will attempt to open a new secure message to that client or will take you to the login screen if you are not currently logged in to CFS.  Add the url for the CFS instance you wish to use for messaging in the ‘CFS url’ setting under ‘Setup / CFS’.  For example https://yourcompanyhere.cfsnetwork.co.uk.
• Added an option under ‘Setup / Client notes, Policy notes and Claim notes’ to ‘Set new notes as done’. This is unticked by default in the update.
• If a complaint is outstanding, i.e. does not have a Stage set as ‘Completed’ in setup, then you will be warned of the complaint when clicking the Policies (or Claims) toolbar button from Client Details.
• When creating an SMS message from Durell the ‘Send on’ date is now defaulted to today.
• The name ‘Synety’ has been re-branded as ‘CloudCall’ in Durell (n.b. this is the optional service for recording telephone conversations in the Doc Viewer).
• Added new feature for Cloudcall users where the telephone number in a Diary appointment may now be used to open the same dial-to-call window as in Client Details.
• The task bar button for Notes now still flashes after an outstanding note has been re-allocated to a different policy.
• A new filter has been added to the Notes to ‘Include attached docs’ (e.g. to include or exclude notes regarding docs attached to contacts).
• Notes locked (via the ‘…’ button to the right of the ‘Action’ dropdown) may now still be accessed, for example, to allow their text to be copied & pasted.
• When using the F5 to F9 keys instead of a mouse for selecting contacts the routine to add a Client Note now remains in sync.
• The Print Diaries routine now only includes the correct ones when multiple users’ diaries are selected.
• In the Data Protection section of the Client Details screen a tick box has been added to confirm the client’s agreement to be contacted via CFS.
• In the Data Protection Setup a new option has been added to ‘Set consented date to the current date’ (i.e. if not ticked then the consented date will be left blank).
• Data Protection defaults can now be set without affecting any contacts (via the ‘Update Data Protection’ Signpost option in Client Details, and then using the new dropdown option of ‘None’ in the ‘Set data protection in’ prompt).
• The ‘Edit’ value for the user access right regarding ‘Data Protection’ now allows you to edit it (whereas previously only ‘All’ allowed this).
• All of the new Data Protection field values can now be passed to Excel or Word templates
• A column for the computer ‘Record ID’ may now be included in the scrolling list of all Policies..
• When a list of similarly named contacts are found the system now also displays their Post Codes and Record IDs.
• Searches by Postcode through all address sets no longer result in an error, and also do not confuse capital o with a zero.
• In Accounts, the Monthly Spreadsheet report now correctly displays Cost Centre figures.
• Added an option in ‘Accounts / Period End / Lock Down’ whereby cashbook reconciliations requiring adjustments to invoices dated before the last Lock Down date will now automatically create them at the earliest date thereafter.
• Many new options have been added to the Cashbook Listing report, particularly in regard to groupings and totals.
• The Cashbook’s ‘Reference’ field has been increased to 30 characters and made alphanumeric.
• The ‘Print Bankbook’ report will now include the same items as displayed on screen (controlled by the Signpost button’s ‘Filter’ option to include checked and/or unchecked lines).
• The insurer’s second email address field (insureremail2) and all of its second address fields are now available to Excel and Word templates.
• The ‘Export To’ and ‘Import From’ Excel routines now use a more reliable file format (and for example, you could use this to export a selection of policies to Excel, change the Adviser, then re-import them).
• Added a new Setup menu item called ‘Import Policy References’ which allows all policy refs in Durell to be changed according to a spreadsheet (e.g. from Aviva).
• The ‘Percentage of Business’ report now correctly works for introducers.
• The ‘Sales Analysis’ report now correctly displays commission when selected for a particular date range.
• On the ‘Policies’ screen searches by Adviser or Lead will now automatically also sort the resulting data by Start Date, Client Name and Product.
• Durell will now run on screens with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (previous limit was 2048 x 1152).

Financial Adviser Only

• The system can now revalue multiple Cash funds within a single investment (provided they are matched).
• Closed funds are no longer included in the selection list when adding a Top Up.
• The ‘=‘ button next to Switched Out funds now calculates the original sum correctly.
• System no longer generates an error when the ‘Commission’ button is clicked in the ‘Edit Event’ window of an investment.
• The individual and bulk revaluation of wrap policies is now more reliable.
• Added an option under ‘Setup / Accounts / Cost Centres’ to ‘Show policy cost centre override’, which results in Cost Centre Overrides appearing on the policy posting dialog. These are saved and subsequently also applied to the ‘Post Monthly Commissions’ and fees routine.
• Removed null values in the Fin Express fund prices file, which were causing random errors (e.g. when exiting from events).
• Added three new product types for ‘Pension, Deferred SIPP’, ‘Pension, Deferred SIPP Flexi Access’, ‘Pension, Deferred SIPP Capped’.
• The Commission Download routine will now accept sums (e.g. from Aviva) with no policy holder or policy reference, which were previously causing an error.
• Cost centres are now visible on the Setup dialogue for Commission Download, which will apply to both matched and unmatched entries.
• The offline revaluation process now finds the correct fund price dates in Fin Express and updates correctly.
• System now correctly finds ‘CE Product Types’ during online revaluations, whereas previously it might miss some and hang.
• Added a ‘Renew all’ button to the CE Setup screen, to make it easier to select all funds.
• Added a ‘Load/Save’ button next to the ‘List ALL contracts set for bulk revaluation’ option to let you save the current ‘Revalue’ selection under a given name (and subsequently re-load it).
• The link to Analytics now automatically filters out blank codes, which might cause an error. Furthermore Durell has added the new login credentials required by Analytics for GDPR (so end users will not need to).
• While on a policy in a wrap, if you select ‘Revalue current contract [policy] only’ it will now show the wrap member policy and you can change its settings..
• If you change the accounts set in the policy Sales Commission (or fee) screen the system will now retain that selection, even if you only do a preview.
• New option added to ‘Send to Excel’ on the selection pop-up for the ‘List Policies’ report.

General Broker Only

• Added an option under ‘Setup / General insurance / MTAs’ to ‘Default MTA take-up date to’. This is set to ‘Cover from date’ by default in the update but can be changed to ‘Invoice date’.
• Added an option under ‘Setup / General insurance / Defaults’ to ‘Recalculate brokerage charge on change of premium’. This is unticked by default in the update but if ticked Durell will recalculate the brokerage charges if they have previously been calculated and the premium is subsequently updated.
• In Fleet group header policies any change to the Business dropdown will now save correctly.
• If you click ‘Pass claim details to policy’ from a Motor claim and pass details to a driver set as the “Proposer” then Durell will set ‘On proposer’s policy’ to Yes in Accidents on the policy.
• Added new Commercial product type ‘Personal Guarantee’.
• Added new Other product type ‘Tourer or static caravan’.
• Added a column to the Marine Bordereau (UK and AUS) to display the MTA as well as the On Risk date.
• Bordereau report for Household no longer has a problem with very long risk addresses.
• Added a tick box to ‘Show client record no’ In the Bordereau report setup, which adds the Client Ref to the Policy Holder name.
• The Policy Ref column in the Bordereau report has been made wider at the expense of the Policy Holder one. However to completely avoid data truncation you are advised to export your reports to Excel, which has flexible column widths.
• MTAs are now included in bordereaux when the selection is by a range of Taken-up Dates.
• Columns for the ‘Last Posted Date’ and ‘User Name’ are now included in the ‘Bordereau’ report’s ‘Standard’ Excel layout (including for MTAs).
• In the standard ‘Bordereau’ report Column D (i.e. ‘Policy Holder’) of the export to Excel no longer erroneously displays the insurer.
• If you tick the ‘Show insurer when creating a new quote’ box in ‘Setup / General Insurance’ you’ll optionally be able to setup your quotes for specific insurers.
• Added a Signpost Option in ‘General / Quotes / Copy’ to duplicate the currently highlighted quote.
• When an MTA is taken-up the original policy invoice date is retained, and you can now see/edit the MTA invoice date when you view the MTA details.
• When using Close Premium Finance the list of insurers will now update automatically.
• An ‘Incident Location’ button (that glows red once data is entered) has been added to Claims.
• Fixed error when trying to print a list of claims after jumping to one from a policy.
• When creating a mailshot selection from Claims it is now possible to set the resulting flag against the related Policies or Clients (whereas previously you could only flag the actual Claims).
• Discrepancies with policy Inception Dates have been resolved (i.e. between the Policy record and its Awaiting Dates record).
• The ‘Additional Notes’ field on the Commercial Insurance screen for ‘Sums Insured’ now allows text as well as numbers to be entered.
• ‘Uplift %’, ‘Uplifted SI’, and ‘Premium’ fields added on the Commercial Insurance screen for ‘Sums Insured & Uplifts’ regarding Tenant Improvements, and also included in the ‘Health Club Bordereau’.
• Option added to the ‘Adviser & Lead Commission (Variable)’ report to ‘Show gross premium’.
• A new option to ‘Group by adviser’ has been added to the Brokerage Charge Analysis report.
• Fixed bug where the wrong premium figures could very occasionally be copied to a policy’s renewal..
• Added data requested by Modus for Household quotes via Applied.
• There is no longer any limit on the number of docs that can be requested for a quote from Applied.
• Fixed issue when getting Aviva household quotes via Applied (where a previously blank field now correctly states ‘Total Valuables Within Contents’).
• A tick box to ‘Only mark paid items’ has been added to the Signpost button option to ‘Bulk mark entries for reconciliation’ on the Cashbook Reconciliation screen. This only applies to General Insurers and Advisers, and will restrict the bulk reconciliation to entries up to the selected date provided they’ve been paid (i.e. have a smiley face icon).
• The ‘Item type’ field for ‘Contents Cover / Specified Items’ has been increased in size.
• You can no longer inadvertently enter quotation marks in Conditions of Other / Marine policies (which were causing errors when exporting to Excel, etc).

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