Overview
Information is provided when it is beneficial to create a new office in Resware along with an overview of the basic setup. Articles and the use of Resware help will be referenced to provide further information and setup instructions.
Reasons to set up a new office
- The business entity is truly separate and operates as a totally unique business that will not share clients or internal staff.
- Each business entity needs to separate their web presence with its own branding.
- Integrations and/or office options need to be unique to the business entity.
- The business entity must use a separate file numbering scheme that can’t be based on available substitution fields in Resware (Client, Client’s File Number, State, Date, Product). This is rarely a good reason to use a separate office.
- Internal users need to have different email identities when sending emails to partners.
- Internal users need to be entirely blocked from seeing files that belong to the other business entity. See below for an alternate way to handle this using an office role.
Items that can be handled without setting up a new office
The following items can be separated and automatically assigned by adding a branch partner type to a file.
- Separate bank accounts and ledgers using Override Ledgers on the branch partner on file.
- Separate teams/coordinators using Override Coordinators on the branch partner on file.
- Unique company name on documents using conditional fields.
- Unique company name on settlement statement using the default settlement agent partner type.
- Different product types and workflows using client product groups and partner restrictions on actions.
- Ability to generate financial reports by ledger, which can be set on files based on partner, such as Holds, Receivables, Receivables Aging, and Unpaid Bills.
- Separate remittances and/or agent IDs by setting up separate underwriter partners.
- If there is a need limit a user’s access to a file, enable the office option for Misc: Limit Access to File Based on a User’s Team. This is office-specific and cannot be limited to specific internal users.
- If there is a need limit a user’s ability to complete actions, disable the internal user role for Actions: Edit and mark Actions that are Not Assigned to the User’s Team.
Before setting up a new office, please call support to talk through reasons for doing so to ensure that an alternative setup isn’t available and unnecessary work is done.
Creating a new office
Admin/General Setup/Offices
- Click Add.
NOTE: The first tab, General, contains office-specific information. The remaining tabs (Accounting, Actions, Admin, etc.) contain office options that can be enabled or disabled as needed for office-specific functionality.
- Enter the Office Name, Internet Order Email, System Email, and other office information details as needed.
- Click Set Hours to define the standard calendar hours.
- At a minimum, define weekly business hours for all seven days of the week.
- Optionally, but recommended, define Holidays with Shared Holiday Groups and/or Calendar Specific Holidays.
- Enter the Standard Business Day Hours.
- For each day of the week, enter an Open Time and a Close Time or enable the day as Closed in the Weekly Business Hours.
NOTE: Shared Holiday Groups can be added to multiple offices and all the holidays contained within each group are inherited in the office’s standard calendar and prioritized in the order they appear. These groups can be added and edited at Admin/General Setup/Shared Holiday Groups. Calendar Specific Holidays are restricted to the standard calendar on which it is defined and is not shared with other offices. These holidays will override any of the same dates contained in shared holiday groups.
Banking holidays used in Resware calculations for prorations and disbursement are set up in Admin/Accounting/Banking Holidays and are not related to Shared Holiday Groups. If banking holidays should affect actions, include them in a shared holiday group.
- Click on Help for further details on standard calendar creation.
- Click Save.
- To manage specific office options for this office, either click on a tab or use the Search field in the top right corner of the Edit Office panel.
- Enable or disable office options as needed. To see a description of the office option, hover over it.
- When done, click Save.
File numbers
Admin/General Setup/File Numbers
The global and office incremented file numbers are available as a way to keep file numbers unique and in sequential order. When an incremented file number is used, the next file number will use the next number in the sequence. The global incremented file number is shared across all offices in Resware, while the office incremented file number is office-specific. The office incremented file number is incremented for each file within a specific office.
- Select Office from the dropdown.
- Enter a starting number in the Office Incremented File Number field if an office-specific numbering format is desired.
- Create the Primary File Number Format using the Substitution Fields. This allows a consistent format, but with dynamic content.
- See the screen shot below for options.
- Click on Help for further details on file number formatting.
- Click Save.
Ledgers
Admin/Accounting/Ledgers
While bank accounts may be shared between offices, a ledger is used to associate a bank account to the tab on the file where it is being utilized. For example, a bank account tied to a settlement ledger will be used on the Settlement tab for settlement-related functionality. Ledgers can only be associated with one bank account; however, bank accounts may be linked to multiple ledgers that share the same or similar functionality in Resware. Ledgers use either a two-way or three-way reconciliation based on functionality. Bank accounts can only be linked to multiple ledgers that use the same reconciliation method.
Ledger types in Resware include Bills, Clearing, Filing Fees, Receivables, Recording Fees, Remittance, Settlement, Sub-escrow, Sub-escrow Invoice, and Trust. See the Bank Accounts & Ledgers article for a full explanation of ledger uses in Resware.
- From the Office dropdown, select the new office.
- Click Add.
- Enter a Name for the new ledger.
- Select the Bank Account from the dropdown to which this ledger will be associated.
- Select the Ledger Type from the dropdown.
- Set the county location(s) where this ledger will be automatically selected. One ledger per ledger type must have default counties set in order to for the ledger type’s tab to appear in a file with a corresponding property location.
- If this ledger will be limited to specific underwriters, then enable Selected and Add as needed, otherwise All is enabled by default.
- Click Save.
- Repeat above steps for each ledger type needed for the new office.
- Click Close.
Teams
Admin/Teams/Teams
Teams are office-specific and will need to be set up for the new office. Internal users are assigned to one or teams. When a file is created, a team is assigned to each coordinator type that is used on actions in the file.
For initial access to team setup for the new office, the admin will need to give themselves access to the new office. See the Internal user management section.
- Select the new office from the Office dropdown.
- Click Add to add a new team for the new office.
- Enter a Team Name.
- Select a Notification Coordinator Type from the dropdown.
- NOTE: Using the same coordinator types for the new office will allow the use of the same action workflows. If there are specific reasons to create new coordinator types, leave this option as Not Set until new coordinator types are added, then return here to select the Notification Coordinator Type.
- Click Save.
- Repeat the above steps for each team as needed for the new office.
- Click Close.
Internal user management
Admin/Internal Users
Internal users can be shared between offices. Access must be enabled for each office as needed.
- Edit an internal user to give access to the new office.
- Enable access in the Offices area. Enable the following options as needed:
- Default – This is the office into which the user will be placed by default when logging into Resware. Each user must have a default office selected.
- Access – Gives the user access to the files in the office. If access to multiple offices is enabled, the internal user can switch between offices.
- Copy – Gives the user the ability to copy files from the selected office to other offices to which they have access. The internal user must also have the Files: Copy Files general access role enabled.
- Click Add in the Teams area to add user to teams as needed.
- Highlight the team(s) to add, then click Add.
- Click Save.
NOTE: The internal user’s email address will be used by all offices. If an internal user is required to use a separate email address for each office, then create a new internal user instead of adding office access to the current user.
Coordinator types
Admin/Action Lists/Coordinator Types
Defaults for coordinators types are office-specific and will need to be set up for the new office. Coordinator types are the job functions within a file. Each action on a file is assigned to a coordinator Type. Internal users are assigned to teams, and a default team is assigned to a coordinator type. Multiple coordinator types may be assigned to the same team or internal user. Using the same coordinator types for the new office will allow the use of the same action workflows.
- Click Edit.
- Select the new Office from the dropdown.
- Select the Default Team/User from the dropdown.
- Click Save.
- Repeat the above steps for each Coordinator Type to add the new office.
NOTE: If the new office will be using separate action workflows from the other offices, then add new coordinator types instead of editing the current coordinator types.
Template categories
Admin/Documents and Templates/Template Categories
Template categories are used in Resware to manage templates in groups and display them in offices where they are used. Template categories may be shared with multiple offices. Additional categories may be set up if office-specific templates are used.
- Highlight a category which to grant the new office access.
- Click Edit.
- Click Add in the Use in Offices area.
- Highlight the new office and click Add.
- Click Save.
- Repeat above steps for each category where access should be given to the new office.
- If additional template categories are needed, Click Add.
- Enter a Name. This is used in the template administration to uniquely identify a category. This is not seen by the users on files.
- Enter a Category Name. This is the name of the category displayed to users on files; therefore the same category names can be used across multiple offices.
- Click Add to associate an office(s) in which this category will be available.
- Click Add, then select the template(s) to include in this category (Ctrl-Click to select multiples).
- Click Save.
- Repeat the above steps to create new template categories as needed.
- Click Close.
Client partners
Admin/Partners
While partners are shared between offices, Client partner types are office-specific and have additional functionality specific to this partner type. When creating a file in Resware, clients can be selected based on the office to which they are assigned and are not available to select in other offices. Create new partners for each client needed in this new office.
- Click New.
- Enter the Company Name.
- Click Add in the Partner Types area and select Client.
- Click on Client in the Partner-type Specific Data area.
- Select the Office from the dropdown. Each client partner can only belong to a single office.
- Click Close, then Save.
Additional Setup to Consider
Most of the setup done in the first office is shared with the new office, including workflows, product types, partners (except for clients), and templates. The following list are areas in Resware that are shared by default; however, it may be determined these need to have an additional setup based on company-specific needs. Articles for each topic below can be found on the customer portal.
- Bank accounts: If bank accounts are specific to the new office, these will need to be added (Admin/Accounting/Bank Accounts).
- Client Product Groups: If a different set of products are to be used in the new office, then separate client product groups may be necessary (Admin/Partner-Related/Client Product Groups).
- Document Templates: If the documents were hardcoded with office-specific information, these should be revised to dynamically pull office-specific information using conditional fields (Admin/Documents and Templates/Templates).
- Email Templates: If the Reply To is currently set to a team, new email templates may need to be created and only be enabled for the correct “branch” partner. Or alternatively, change the current email templates to use the Assigned Team option (Admin/Action List/Email Templates).
- Product Types: If product types and/or workflows should be different for the new office, it may be necessary to set up additional action lists and/or products (Admin/Action List/Product Types).
- Underwriters: If the new office uses a different agent ID for an underwriter, it will be necessary to set up office-specific underwriters (Admin/Partners).
- Integrations: Some integrations are shared between offices; however, each integration should be reviewed to see if office-specific setup is required.
- Resware to Resware Between the Offices: If two offices are sharing the tasks associated with an order, then it may be desirable to create a file in each office with specific tasks based on the functions each respective office is performing (Admin/Partner Related/Resware to Resware Partner Mapping).