Setting up Visual Sales & Chain Progression

Visual Sales & Chain Progression (VSCP) was introduced into Expert Agent Touch in September 2014.

We've moved a lot of the chase up functionality from the offers form to the separate Chain Details form. Existing offers won't automatically be added to the Visual Sales and Chain Progression system, though - you'll need to add them in the same way that you would with a new offer.

Add your offer to VSCP

Adding an offer to VSCP is straightforward.

Open the offer - click the Chain Details button lurking in the top right hand corner of the offer's Tooltip. However, only do this if you want to create a new Chain - if the offer in question relates to an existing chain, open the existing offer and add a new element tied into this offer

This opens the offer's 'Chain Details' form with the initial chain element in place. 

1. The example above shows the chain summary panel open - just click it to slide it in and out as required. It shows, in a very easy to follow format, the commission value in YOUR transactions in the chain, then the progress against all the key stages. The first 6 stages (Mortgage Offer to Completion) are fixed but you can add your own in Configure - see Offers Configuration.  You also can rename the Chain from here, Expert Agent picks up the name of the first property relevant to you in the Chain and names it, if you wish to change it however, you can from here.  
2. The Chain Details form will show chain elements vertically or horizontally. The button (2) top right changes this over.

Add other chain elements to your chain

The green chain element shown (3) in the example above is the offer you are working on. Each element is colour coded - there's another pull out panel on the left of the form that explains the colour coding as below:

You now need to add as many other chain elements as you can.

Chain elements can be either

"Internal" - offers on your property stock such that the vendor and purchaser are known or

"External" - the offer in question is being dealt with by another agent and you have very little, some or all of the necessary information.

You've already got one chain element - the green one.

Each element has "tools" down the right hand side.

1. Click the '+' button to add another element

This prompts as follows:

If the element you want to add is the vendor of the property in the chain element currently highlighted, choose Yes. If not, choose No. If you choose "yes", the new chain entry will have the vendor of the previous element set at the purchaser of the new one.

In this case, Miss Targaryen, the vendor of Vallis House, is the purchaser of another property so we choose "Yes".

The Add/Edit Chain Entry form is displayed. This has 5 page tabs - property, vendor, purchaser, dates, notes.

There are 2 version of this form, depending on whether you want to add a chain element that relates to an existing offer on your own system or whether the element you want to add is "external" - where the purchase is from another agent

If the Chain Element relates to an offer YOU are dealing with:

Make sure that the offer you want to link to is already on the system.

Set the Add/Edit Chain entry form up as below:

1. Choose 'UP'.
2. Choose 'Offer on System'. However, the offer has to exist already. So, in this case as Miss Targaryen, the vendor of Vallis House, has already offered on another property, we can hook this new element up to that chain.
3. Just type basic search information into the text box and choose [Search]
4. The results show in a mini grid - choose the required Offer.
5. Click the save icon.

The offer details will show in a small box in the left hand side of the form as below:

Don't worry that this preview doesn't show Vendor or Purchaser details - they have been added and you will see them later.

You'll now need to set up the other page tabs on this form.

OR 

If the Chain Element DOESN'T relate to an offer YOU are dealing with:

So,  in other words, if your vendor is buying from another agent. 

1. Add a new chain element, choose 'UP' and choose 'External'.
2. Enter the property postcode and choose it. If you don't know the full address, "Bungalow in Bournemouth" is fine - you just need something to identify the chain element.
3. Choose or add the agent in question - you'll see the standard EA pick list - recent estate agent records will show and you can search or add a new one.

Once you've got the property details in (regardless of whether they relate to an Offer on the System or an External offer:

Go through the remaining page tabs of the 'Add/Edit Chain' form as below:

Vendor Tab:

Purchaser Tab:

If you choose "Yes" when prompted at the "Do you want to create a new chain element using the vendors details?", the purchaser details will get filled in from the element below.

There's a postcode search for the Purchaser address (1) and a button to add/Change the solicitor (2)

Dates Tab

These inherit the dates set up in the previous element. They don't update automatically after that.

 Notes Tab

We've given you all the dates from the offer form for completeness but imagine you'll just use the private summary and the 'Summary for Lawyers and Other Agents'.

When you've finished, clicked the save button bottom right and the new chain element will be displayed as below:

If you hover your mouse over the edit or date buttons you will see more information.

Click the chain element itself and it will rotate to show the key dates.

Editing a Chain Element

Click the pencil button to the right of the element (above the +). If the element is connected to an Offer, the offer record will open and you can update the information in the offer form. If the element relates to an external offer, clicking edit will open the same form you used to add the chain element.

The Chain Grid