Automation is key to increasing productivity and improving user satisfaction and efficiency. As a Zennify nCino champion, I’m always looking for ways to configure the platforms our customers use to deliver maximum value while making their jobs easier and faster.
An interesting challenge cropped up for me recently while I was trying to set up record associations for faulty, missing, or incomplete documents in nCino Document Manager for a client.
Using the standard functionality, current reporting on collateral documents with exceptions doesn’t include the associated loan or relationship. The data model doesn’t support showing the related loan or relationship for the collateral record when reporting on placeholders with exceptions.
Put simply, when the system flags a document’s placeholder status as ‘Exception’ to indicate a need for review or an update, the reviewer can’t see any associated loans or relationships to the collateral. Lacking context, users have to dig deeper to find the relevant associated information and then troubleshoot.
This was a problem for the client because they need to understand the loan or relationship related to the document exception in order to resolve the issue. By creating an automation to match each exception to the right record, we were able to save their review team a lot of time and effort. If you’re facing similar challenges, here’s a walkthrough of my solution.
nCino Collateral Document Exception Reporting Solution
1. Create a Toggle field on Collateral Management
First, on the Collateral Management object, create a checkbox field called ‘Has Document Exception’. There’s no need to add it to any page layout—we only want to reference it in the flow and in reporting. Make sure that all profiles have permission to edit it.
2. Create a flow that toggles the ‘Has Document Exception’ field
3. Set entry conditions
Starting from the Document Placeholder object, set the flow to run any time a new placeholder is created or an existing placeholder is updated. Make sure that it will not fire if the document has been flagged for deletion.
4. Ensure users that should bypass automation do not trigger the flow
Using the Decision Element, check if the user has the ability to bypass automation. If they can bypass automation, end the flow.
5. Check to see if the document manager is for the Collateral Management object
We don’t need this flow to run on all document managers; we only want to check the document manager for collateral management records. Using a Decision Element, check that the record that started the flow has a DocManager of llc_bi__collateral__c. If it doesn’t, end the flow.
6. Check that the placeholder is linked to a collateral management record (optional)
If the placeholder is not linked to a collateral management record, we don’t want to continue running the flow. We know from performing queries against the document placeholder object that there are placeholders without a collateral management record that use the DocManager llc_bi__collateral__c. You can run this query as well, and if this doesn’t apply, you can skip this step.
Using a Decision element, check that the collateral management field on the record that started the flow is blank. If it is, end the flow.
7. Get all document placeholder records associated with the collateral management record
Now we want to get all of the placeholder records that are associated with the collateral management record that is linked to the document placeholder that started the flow. (Say that three times fast!)
Here we want to use a Get Records element on the Document Placeholders object. We need all of the placeholders where:
- The collateral management record is the same as the collateral management record for the document placeholder that started the flow
AND - The ID of the placeholder doesn’t match the ID of the record that started the flow
AND - The review status of the placeholder is ‘Exception’. This ensures that we’re working with a collection of records that have exceptions in the next step of the flow.
8. Check the placeholder status for changes
Now we need to check the record that started the flow to see if the status is changing. At this point, we know from our Get Records element and previous steps that we’re working with a collection of placeholders associated with the same collateral record for the placeholder that started the flow and that the collection of placeholders will only be placeholders with a status of ‘Exception’.
Using a Decision element, we want to check:
If the status of the placeholder that started the flow is changing from ‘Exception’ to anything other than ‘Exception’ OR if the collection of placeholders is NOT empty.
Is the status of the placeholder that started the flow changing from ‘Exception’ to anything other than ‘Exception’?
Is there no change to the status of the placeholder that started the flow?
9. Set toggle for Has Document Exception
Now we need to set what action the flow should take based on the outcomes of the Decision element we just created.
When the placeholder status of the placeholder that started the flow is changing to ‘Exception’ or the collection of placeholders on the same collateral is not empty, we want to toggle the field on to ‘true’. We do this with the Assignment element and by creating a new variable.
- Create the variable first by selecting ‘New Resource’ from the Toolbox and choosing a Resource Type of ‘Variable’.
- Set the variable as Boolean and do not give it a default value. You don’t need to indicate availability inside or outside of the flow (but it doesn’t hurt if you do).
- Next, create an Assignment element for when the decision outcome is ‘Change to Exception’, select the variable you just created, and indicate it should be set to ‘true’.
- Repeat this step for when the decision outcome is ‘Changed to no exception’ but indicate that the assignment should be set to ‘false’.
10. Update the Collateral Management toggle
Now that we’ve indicated what we want to happen when the placeholder status updates, we need to set the toggle on the related collateral management record. Using an Update Records element, we’re going to specify the record and field we want to update. The field we want to update is the Has Document Exception field we created on the Collateral Management object, and we’re updating it with the value we assigned in the previous step.
Business Results
Now, when the status of a placeholder on the collateral management object is updated, it will indicate on the related collateral if any of the associated placeholders have an exception.
The value here comes with reporting. Now, there is a shared field across collateral pledged and document placeholders through collateral management. This will allow you to display related loans and the relationship on those loans in reporting so that users can save time working through document exceptions.
Bonus Content
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Here is how to configure the report in the screenshot above.
- Create a custom report type on the Collateral Pledged object. Bring in all the fields from the collateral management object and the loan object associated with the collateral pledge record using the layout editor.
- Create a second custom report type on the Collateral Management object. Add the Document Placeholders object and make sure that at least one related record from Document Placeholders exists.
- Create a new report starting with the Collateral Pledged custom report type you just created.
- Change the report to a ‘Joined Report’ and add a block with the Collateral Management with the Placeholders custom report type you created.
- Edit the filters on the Collateral Pledged block to reflect:
- Edit the filters on the Collateral Management with Placeholders block to reflect:
- Group the report by Collateral Owner Full Name and Collateral Auto Number.
- On the Collateral Pledged block, display columns for:
- On the Collateral Management with Placeholders block, display columns for:
- Save your report.
- Share with your users and celebrate!
