This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to effectively use the Lodestar's Closing Clarity tool to streamline your sales contract review process. The Closing Clarity tool helps you automatically analyze sales contracts to correctly assign transfer taxes and fees, saving your company time and money.
To be able to use this tool, you will need to make sure it is enabled within your Encompass integration. If you are interested in enabling the tool, please reach out to support@lssoftwaresolutions.com. Most importantly, this tool is only available within EPC. It will not work within SDK.
Step 1: Launch LodeStar within Encompass, select your title agent provider and click 'Calculate'.
Step 2: After clicking 'calculate', you will upload the sales contract for analysis. This tool supports the following contract formats:
- Within the 'Closing Cost Details' screen, click on Section E 'Taxes and Other Government Fees':
Step 3: Once in Section E, click the button 'Select File'. This will load the EPC file picker tool:
- There are 3 different ways to upload a file. Pick one of the below options:
- Method 1: Drag and Drop: For the quickest upload, simply drag the file from your desktop and drop it into the designated area in the top right of the file picker. *LodeStar recommends this method*
- Method 2: Browse Local Drive: "Click on 'Local Drive' at the top right of the page and navigate to your file to upload it."
- Method 3: Select from Encompass Folder: "To use a file already stored in Encompass, navigate to the folder, select the file, and then click 'Upload' followed by 'Done'."
Step 4: Once the file is uploaded, it will start processing and status icons will start to pop up by the transfer taxes. See below the explanations for the status icons:
- Red Icon: Identifies a potential discrepancy. Our AI recommends moving this fee to the seller's side. Click the icon to review the specific recommendation:
- Green Icon: Indicates that the fee is correctly assigned:
- Purple Icon: Fee not found in file:
Below is the explanation of the recommendation when identified by the 'red icon':
When you click the red icon, it will take you to a detailed recommendation page. This page will show the transfer tax fee name, it's current assignment and LodeStar's recommended assignment. The user will then have two options:
- Accepting the assignment: Clicking 'Accept' moves the fee to the recommended side. A yellow icon will appear, confirming the AI's suggestion was applied.
- Declining the assignment: Clicking 'Decline' keeps the fee on its current side. The same yellow icon will appear, indicating that the AI's suggestion was reviewed and a decision was made.
Step 5: Once the user has reviewed and acted upon the AI's recommendations, return to the main closing cost details window by clicking 'Back' and the click 'Export to Encompass':
**Keep an eye on the 'Closing cost details' page. If you see an 'Action Suggested' message, it means the AI tool processed a file and has actions that need to be taken (If the user has not already done so).
Lastly, when you click on 'Export to Encompass', it will automatically export the AI results for the accepted recommendations into the eFolder within the LodeStar PDF that gets uploaded into the eFolder. You will see the recommendations on the last page of the quote:
If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, please reach out to djoshi@lssoftwaresolutions.com or kwright@lssoftwaresolutions.com. We are constantly working on improving this tool for our lenders!