Creditor Names in BkAssist® Tutorial on entering and managing creditor names

Scope of Tutorial This tutorial covers how to enter creditor (and other) names, including: –The common name/address dialog that BkAssist uses nearly everywhere. –Managing the creditor database. –How to recall creditor names and addresses Who should view this tutorial: anyone who will use BkAssist.

Common Name/Address Dialog (1) BkAssist uses the same method to capture names and addresses everyplace a name and address is needed. This example happens to be the dialog you see when you add an additional notice party to a liability, but there are many other examples of the same layout. We’ll discuss this screen dialog in the next several slides.

Common Name/Address Dialog (2) First, type in the name, then hit the Tab key to move to the next field. In many cases, BkAssist will pop- up a list of partially matching names from your creditor database as soon as you start typing in the Name blank.

Common Name/Address Dialog (3) Type in the first line of the address, then hit the tab key. If you don’t know the address, click on the google button at the bottom-right corner to popup a google.com search page in your web browser. If the address is outside the U.S., use the mouse (or type Alt + I) to check the “international address” box. –Sorry, but BkAssist doesn’t presently support international addresses for debtors.

More About International Addresses BkAssist supports international addresses everyplace except on the Debtor and Spouse pages. Check the “international address” box (mouse click or Alt + I). Specify the address according to the country’s postal regulations. Type the country name in UPPER CASE letters. –Power user tip: use the TAB key to move from one field to the next. When you’re ready to type the name of the country, advance to the country field by typing Alt + y.

Common Name/Address Dialog (4) If necessary, enter the second line of the address. Then hit the Tab key. If you don’t need a second address line, just hit the Tab key or type Alt + Z. The cursor will now be in the Zip field.

Common Name/Address Dialog (5) Type in the zip code (5 digit or 9 digit), and then…

Common Name/Address Dialog (6) … hit the Tab key. BkAssist will lookup the city and state for the zip code.

Common Name/Address Dialog (7) Hit the Enter key (or click on the OK button with the mouse). In many cases, BkAssist will ask whether you want to add this entity to the creditor database. We don’t recommend always answering this question “Yes” because you’ll sometimes want to enter names and addresses of relatives or other individuals that you’ll never need to recall later.

Common Name/Address Dialog (Recapitulation) To recapitulate, you can train your fingers to quickly enter names and addresses in this sequence: –Name, TAB –Address, TAB TAB - or - –Address1, TAB, Address2, TAB –Zip code, ENTER

Creditor Database (1) BkAssist keeps a database with the names and addresses of every creditor you’ve ever identified in the past. In some states, the BkAssist Setup program will pre-initialize the database with names and addresses from a regulatory website.

Creditor Database (2) To manage the creditor database directly, select the Creditors choice from the Settings menu on the main window. In this example, we scrolled the list and let the mouse hover over the entry for Schlock Motors.

Creditor Database (3) You can add or delete individual creditors by using the Add and Delete buttons. You can inspect or modify the information about an individual creditor by clicking on the Edit button (or by double-clicking the name within the list). –Note: changing a creditor’s address in the database does not change the address in the matrix for any existing case. Power user tip: click on the Copy button to copy this name and address to the Windows clipboard, from whence you can paste it into a word processor or other document.

Creditor Database (4) Use the alias list so you can easily recall the name and address of someone who services a private-label credit card. E.g., the Macy’s store card is serviced by Department Stores National Bank. You will be able to type “Macy’s” in a name blank and recall this address automatically.

Creditor Database (5) You can also import and export creditor names from/to an external file. Refer to the help page for “Creditor List” for details about this feature.

Creditor Database (6) BkAssist can also automatically remember new creditors that are contained in credit reports you download. Select the appropriate option from the Credit Reports tab of the General Settings sheet. We don’t actually recommend this option because credit reports have so many cryptic names and incorrect addresses. You’re better off adding the creditor by hand—and maybe adding the cryptic name as an alias.

Recalling Names (1) If a name is already in the BkAssist database, you can recall it simply by starting to type and selecting the name you want from a list of partially matching names. This sequence of slides shows the interaction. To begin with, here is a portion of the Liability Dialog for a new debt:

Recalling Names (2) Let’s suppose we want to enter a credit card debt owed to the Bank of Avarice. We begin by typing the letter “b”. A new dialog pops up with a drop-down list in place of the name blank on the liability dialog:

Recalling Names (3) We continue typing until the drop-down list has been whittled down to the point where we can see the name we’re looking for. In this case, there aren’t many creditors in the database with names beginning “ba”, so two characters is enough:

Recalling Names (4) Using the down-arrow key, we select the name we want and hit the Enter key:

Recalling Names (5) Now we inspect the address to see if it’s the one we want to mail notices to. If we’re happy, we hit the Enter key a second time.

Recalling Names (6) After the second Enter key, we’re back to the Liability Dialog:

Editing a Creditor Address (1) To edit the address of a creditor for a particular debt, open the Liability Dialog and click on the “…” button next to the name:

Editing a Creditor Address (2) When you click on the OK button in the name/address dialog after changing the address, BkAssist will ask whether you want to save the updated information in the creditor database. Unless you answer “Yes”, BkAssist will preserve the address that’s already in the database.