Community Portal Enhancements List - March 2025

Community Portal Enhancements List - March 2025

MARCH 2025

There are several design changes that will occur to Community Connect at the beginning of March.  Below is a list of those changes along with a video to show what the changes entail.

General

General Layout and Design (Watch Video (1m59s))

  1. Changes have been made to the general layout and design of the site.

Create Your Account (Watch Video (1m45s))

  1. The flow in which a user creates their account has changed.  In addition, we have added the following into the user creation process:
    1. Link Utility Customer
    2. Setup Autopay

Zift Payment Screen (Watch Video (0m45s))

  1. The Zift payment screen throughout the application has changed from a pop-up to a built-in frame within the web page.

Global Disabling of Credit Card Payment Option (Watch Video (0m54s))

  1. The ability to disable the use of credit cards globally has been added.

Pay as Guest / Other Payments

Pay as Guest / Other Payments (Watch Video (1m59s))

  1. The manner in which these payments work has been changed to a pagination flow allowing users to more easily navigate through information in manageable chunks.

Utility Billing

Manage Auto Pay (Watch Video (1m23s))

  1. The manner in which a user signs up for auto pay has been changed to a pagination flow making it easier for the user.
  2. A user has the ability to set a maximum amount for auto pay.

Bills and Payments (Watch Video (0m40s))

  1. The Utility Bills and Transaction History screens have been merged into on screen titled Bills and Payments.

Online Direct Pay Field in Connect Utility Billing

  1. The Online direct pay field will now be checked on the customer record in Connect Utility Billing.  This field can be found in Utility Billing under Customers | Modify Existing Customers on the Customer | Customer 2 subtab.  This field can then be used to appear on the utility bill form or can be used to create a custom message on the bill form for those customers.

Disabling Credit Card Use for Customer (Watch Video (2m51s))

  1. The ability to disable the use of ACH payments through the portal by a utility customer already exists.  Now, the use of a credit card by a utility customer can be disabled.

Ability to Add Utility Payments into the Shopping Cart

  1. A user can make one payment for multiple items in the Community Connect.  Previously, utility payments could not be commingled with other payments using the Shopping Cart capabilities.  This has changed as long as the two are true:
    1. Utility payments are deposited into the same bank account as all other payments.
    2. The same convenience fee precents are being utilized for utility payments as well as all other payments. 

Communications

Texting Capabilities for Ad Hoc Communications (Watch Video (1m38s))

  1. The ability to generate a text messages from Communications has been added.  Previously, you could only email users of the site.

Interactive Web Forms

Access Interactive Web Form Outside of Login (Watch Video (1m42s))

  1. The ability to utilize the Interactive Web Form outside of the login has been enabled.  This provides users with the ability to fill out the web form without creating a login. 

Additional Form Fields (Watch Video (3m05s))

  1. The following form fields have been added and can be utilized within the Interactive Web Forms:
    1. Signature form field
    2. Rich text/html field
    3. State field

Email Form Fields (Watch Video (1m28s))

  1. An Email Text Box form field has been added and can be utilized within the Interactive Web Forms.

Preview the Form  (Watch Video (0m54s))

  1. The ability to preview the web form while performing the setup has been added.

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