Moneylender Professional Modification Requests
Moneylender Professional simplifies managing and servicing loans. But what if your lending situation requires something a bit different? We might be able to help.
Contact us and request a program modification. Josh Whitman, developer of Moneylender Professional, answered questions about handling these changes.
How do you decide if it’s preferable, practical or even possible to make a change the Moneylender's program?
If it’s a feature that’ll work for most Moneylender users, I’m usually on board. But if it’s only helpful for a small percentage of lenders — and would also make the program less effective or understandable for the rest of the users— I try to steer people away.
How can a customer request a modification?
Just call or email us.
What’s the turnaround time for a request?
It really depends upon the change. Some modifications take thirty minutes and are available as an update to the program in less than a day. Others take weeks or months to develop. We test a special Beta version with one or more customers before releasing the finished changes as an update for all Moneylender users.
If a user wants a program modification, what does it cost?
I’d say the average is around $500, but prices have ranged from $50 to $5500. The cost depends upon how much time we have to spend on development.
What kinds of issues might customers want addressed?
Often, lenders need loan servicing software that complies with requirements from banks or other funding sources. These institutions need numbers reported in very specific ways.
In other cases, customers have certain ways they run their businesses. Small changes or additions to Moneylender save multiple hours every week.
What are examples of changes customers have requested?
At the very beginning, Moneylender didn’t do much more than print payment vouchers. Over the years, we’ve based its development on what customers have asked for. A small sample of requests we’ve responded to include:
What’s the modification process once you have a request?
If the customer is paying for the change, payment is handled by credit card through our website, and I make the change immediately.
If it’s something we’re doing as part of ongoing development, the modification gets added to our work schedule. Once the change is complete, we put the new version on our website so users can download it.
How is a change assessed to make sure it specifically addresses a customer’s needs?
Many changes are very simple and straightforward. But a complex change might need several rounds of back-and-forth, sending the revised copy of the program to a single user for feedback over the course of development.
Do you make changes in your original software based on requests?
There’s only one version of the software. Nowadays, we only make changes that benefit everyone.
Here's why we work this way: in ’03 or ’04, we were paid to make a custom version of Moneylender Professional 1.1 so a lender could print checks using a dot-matrix printer. Even back then, those printers were unpopular. I had to create a special version of MLP1.1 with the special check-printing support just for that lender. Unfortunately, that business is forever locked into that very old version of Moneylender.
Do you ever recommend a modification shouldn’t be made?
All the time! People often ask for changes that aren’t really necessary. They can actually do everything they need using the existing tools in the program.
Sometimes we get a request to allow the program to support something that’s illegal for a lender to do. In these cases, I share a little experience about how lending laws work and why certain types of calculations aren’t built into Moneylender. Many of these lenders are just getting started. The information helps get their businesses up and running in compliance with local regulations.
Some people ask for functionality that needs tremendous amounts of development time. Often, it’d be impractical for a customer to pay for it. If a modification would benefit all lenders, the change ends up on our list of potential program enhancements.
A good example of a major enhancement is Moneylender 3’s built-in network encryption. This lets users share loan data securely across the internet without a VPN (virtual private network) in the middle.
How do customers know if they have the latest version of Moneylender?
Your Moneylender program can check its version against the currently published version. If there’s a difference, you’ll see the message: “A newer version is available” at the bottom of the main window. Just download the new installer, and it’ll upgrade your existing version of Moneylender in-place.
Contact us and request a program modification. Josh Whitman, developer of Moneylender Professional, answered questions about handling these changes.
How do you decide if it’s preferable, practical or even possible to make a change the Moneylender's program?
If it’s a feature that’ll work for most Moneylender users, I’m usually on board. But if it’s only helpful for a small percentage of lenders — and would also make the program less effective or understandable for the rest of the users— I try to steer people away.
How can a customer request a modification?
Just call or email us.
What’s the turnaround time for a request?
It really depends upon the change. Some modifications take thirty minutes and are available as an update to the program in less than a day. Others take weeks or months to develop. We test a special Beta version with one or more customers before releasing the finished changes as an update for all Moneylender users.
If a user wants a program modification, what does it cost?
I’d say the average is around $500, but prices have ranged from $50 to $5500. The cost depends upon how much time we have to spend on development.
What kinds of issues might customers want addressed?
Often, lenders need loan servicing software that complies with requirements from banks or other funding sources. These institutions need numbers reported in very specific ways.
In other cases, customers have certain ways they run their businesses. Small changes or additions to Moneylender save multiple hours every week.
What are examples of changes customers have requested?
At the very beginning, Moneylender didn’t do much more than print payment vouchers. Over the years, we’ve based its development on what customers have asked for. A small sample of requests we’ve responded to include:
- More report formats
- More custom fields
- QuickNotes
- Third Party / Escrow Fees
- Reports that show data from more than one loan
- The “interest is amount due” setting (added to support construction loans)
- Principal additions to existing loans (also for construction loans)
- Prepayment penalties, including the Rule of 78s
What’s the modification process once you have a request?
If the customer is paying for the change, payment is handled by credit card through our website, and I make the change immediately.
If it’s something we’re doing as part of ongoing development, the modification gets added to our work schedule. Once the change is complete, we put the new version on our website so users can download it.
How is a change assessed to make sure it specifically addresses a customer’s needs?
Many changes are very simple and straightforward. But a complex change might need several rounds of back-and-forth, sending the revised copy of the program to a single user for feedback over the course of development.
Do you make changes in your original software based on requests?
There’s only one version of the software. Nowadays, we only make changes that benefit everyone.
Here's why we work this way: in ’03 or ’04, we were paid to make a custom version of Moneylender Professional 1.1 so a lender could print checks using a dot-matrix printer. Even back then, those printers were unpopular. I had to create a special version of MLP1.1 with the special check-printing support just for that lender. Unfortunately, that business is forever locked into that very old version of Moneylender.
Do you ever recommend a modification shouldn’t be made?
All the time! People often ask for changes that aren’t really necessary. They can actually do everything they need using the existing tools in the program.
Sometimes we get a request to allow the program to support something that’s illegal for a lender to do. In these cases, I share a little experience about how lending laws work and why certain types of calculations aren’t built into Moneylender. Many of these lenders are just getting started. The information helps get their businesses up and running in compliance with local regulations.
Some people ask for functionality that needs tremendous amounts of development time. Often, it’d be impractical for a customer to pay for it. If a modification would benefit all lenders, the change ends up on our list of potential program enhancements.
A good example of a major enhancement is Moneylender 3’s built-in network encryption. This lets users share loan data securely across the internet without a VPN (virtual private network) in the middle.
How do customers know if they have the latest version of Moneylender?
Your Moneylender program can check its version against the currently published version. If there’s a difference, you’ll see the message: “A newer version is available” at the bottom of the main window. Just download the new installer, and it’ll upgrade your existing version of Moneylender in-place.
posted by Josh Whitman at
September 23, 2016
1 Comments
