The mortgage industry is faced with many challenges – one of the biggest being margin compression. Mortgage industry leaders may be wondering how they can relieve margin compression in creative ways. Two ways that you may not have thought about is outsourcing with an offshore team and automating your mortgage accounting, or outsourcing ICE Encompass help desk.
When most think about mortgage business process outsourcing or automation, many mortgage lenders will think first of origination, servicing, or title and settlement. However, virtually all back office facing tasks can be outsourced offshore or automated with the right partner. Mortgage accounting and Encompass support and consultation are commonly overlooked.
Compliance and security are common concerns that lenders have when considering outsourcing mortgage accounting or ICE help desk support. When considering a partner with offshore resources, customers should make sure the vendor is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified as a part of your due diligence process.
Accounting is one of the most commonly outsourced functions, so it is a natural step for mortgage lenders to outsource mortgage accounting. It is important to pick a partner with a dedicated offshore team that is fully trained in AMB, Loan Vision, QuickBooks as well as various mortgage LOS’s and servicing systems. When you outsource mortgage accounting, you alleviate the headache of commission schedules. Outsourcing partners, like Verity, help with many of your mortgage accounting functions, like commission calculation, MI payments, GL entries/transaction posting, and more at a fraction of the cost. As an example, your employees performing investor reporting or bank reconciliation functions could cost you $120,000+ or approximately $60/hr. With a KPO or BPO like Verity, you can save up to 60% utilizing our skilled workforce.
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Sample Loan Level Accounting Functions to Outsource |
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| - Reconciliation with LOS | ||
| - Accounting of Expenses | ||
| - Vendor Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable | ||
| - Income Statement & Balance Sheet | ||
| - MIS Reporting | ||
| - UHS Bundle Upload & HMD - 1098 and Any Year-end Assistance to CPA, if Required | ||
| - Calculate Commission Schedule | ||
Another challenge many lenders report with mortgage accounting is recruitment and retention. Many mortgage lenders report difficulty finding experienced mortgage accounting personnel. If you use a dedicated offshore resource, you can easily deploy trained, experienced mortgage accounting professionals at a fraction of the cost. Deploying a 24/7 global offshore workforce, you can scale up and down on demand as needed.
Another function that is easily outsourced that mortgage companies may not think of is ICE Encompass support, the industry’s most-utilized loan origination software. Recruitment and retention of Encompass administrators can be difficult. When you outsource Encompass support, you make sure you have a dedicated resource and can scale up and down on demand without the recruitment or onboarding costs. Plus, working with an offshore team, like in India, your mortgage company’s Encompass administration can be managed 24/7 by your global team.
Watch Our Five Ways to Relieve Margin Compression Now
When a mortgage company is choosing a KPO or BPO to outsource Encompass support, it should consider finding a partner that is a certified Premier Partner. You will rest assured knowing your team is fully trained and ready to handle anything. Typically, when a mortgage lender outsources Encompass support, the KPO or BPO expert applies resources that assist with programming functions, implementation and technical support at a fraction of your current cost. Most clients see cost savings of 50% with Premier Partners.
| - | Create and manage custom forms and fields with custom calculations. |
| - | Create and manage users, personas, user groups, company setup, password manager, organizations/users and milestones. |
| - | Create and manage business rules depending on requirements. |
| - | Manage eFolder setup, including documents, stacking templates, groups, conditions, condition sets, email templates, etc. |
| - | Manage docs setup, including disclosure and closing docs templates and their plan codes. |
| - | Manage and create loan templates such as closing cost, data templates, docs set, loan programs, loan temple set, etc. |
| - | Manage loan setup, including alerts, tasks, custom print forms, conditions forms, print form groups, loan duplication, loan numbering, setting up loan folders, etc. |
| - | Perform super admin role such as manage user access, system analysis, fee tables and contact setups, dashboards and custom reports, reporting database and audit trail fields, and troubleshooting errors. |
When choosing the best mortgage KPO or BPO to work with, make sure they provide level one and level two ICE Encompass support. Here are some functions that are possible to outsource:
| - | Create and manage users, personas, user groups, company setup, password manager, organizations/users and milestones. |
| - | Create and manage conditions, condition sets, post-closing conditions and condition set. |
| - | Create and manage custom print forms and print form groups. |
| - | Create and manage simple business rules. |
| - | Create and manage loan folders. |
| - | Basic troubleshooting for Encompass™ (eFolder issue, access-related issue and milestone issue). |
| - | Create and manage eFolder setup (documents, export template, stacking templates, document groups). |
| - | Manage reporting database. |
| - | Create and manage alerts, logs and tasks. |
| - | Create and manage custom reports and dashboards. |
| - | Create and manage contact setup. |
| - | Troubleshoot disclosure-related issues. |
| - | Manage docs setup (eDisclosure and closing docs package, stacking template). |
| - | Troubleshoot issues (service disruptions, error-related to DU, Mavent, Credit, etc.). |
| - | Manage Encompass™ plugins. |
| - | Troubleshoot issues related to Encompass™ plugins. |
| - | Create and manage advanced business rules with custom advanced conditions. |
| - | Create and manage loan templates (loan program, closing costs, input form, settlement service providers, document sets, task sets, data templates and loan template sets). |
While accounting and Encompass support and consultation may not be the first functions that come to mind when mortgage companies think about outsourcing, it could help relieve margin compression. Work with a KPO or BPO partner who studies your workflow and matches FTEs to your specific needs.
Verity Global Solutions is an expert labor and automation solutions provider for the mortgage industry and is a Premier Partner for ICE Encompass support. The Verity team is also fully trained on AMB, Loan Vision, QuickBooks as well as various mortgage LOS’s and servicing systems to assist with your mortgage accounting. The Verity team is available on demand and ready to start immediately. Contact Verity today to learn more, and if outsourcing mortgage accounting and ICE Encompass support and consultation is right for your mortgage company.