15. System settings
This allows certain system wide configuration to be set. Settings are broken down into different areas of the system that they relate to.
Allocations
Property alert emails
Customers can be allowed to opt in to receive weekly emails of available properties, based on specified criteria.
Once the property alert emails have been enabled a new section is displayed on the View your alerts page of the Public portal.
Customers will be sent an email each week if there are any properties that match their criteria. The email will contain key information about the property and a link that will take them to the advert on the public portal.
The content of the email can be updated by amending the Comms Template 'Property alerts email (Your properties)'. The content of each advert can be configured through the Advert types.
Bidding
Applicants can be stopped from bidding on future properties if they are Suggested offer or Offered a property.
Homeless
Send email acknowledgement to DTR referrer on submission
Once enabled sends and email to the referrer using the specified comms template when a DTR is submitted.
A Comms template needs to be created using the Message sub type of 'Homeless referral referrer email' before this functionality can be enabled.
General
Comms centre SMS
Once enabled applicants will be able to receive their reminder messages via SMS as well as email.
In order to use this functionality you will need an account with GOV.UK Notify.
Item | Details |
SMS Provider | The provider that will be used to deliver the SMS messages |
API key | The API key for the GOV.UK Notify service to be used |
Template ID | The Template ID to be used for sending messages |
Placeholder | The Placeholder that the message text will be added into |
Sender ID | The Sender ID that will be used to send the message |
Automated case archiving
When enabled this allows cases with no active case strands to be automatically Archived.
| Item | Details |
| Number of days after all case strands closed before case automatically archived | The number of days after the last case strand is moved to an 'end' state before the Case is automatically archived |
If a Case only contains a Bedroom assessment then this will be not be classed as an active case strand. The Bedroom assessment will be Archived along with the Case.
Generate case title using first name + surname only
When enabled case titles are generated using just the applicants first names and surnames, instead of the default format which includes first name + middle name + surname.
Once enabled it only affect new cases created from that point onwards, or any cases updated from then on.
Case people show reason for leaving
When enabled a Reason for leaving must be selected from a dropdown when an End date is assigned to a person on a case.
The dropdown field uses the values contained in the lookup entitled Reason for leaving case.
Housing register
Housing register renewals
Once enabled applicants will be sent a message to renew their application after the required timeframe.
Item | Details |
Housing register states | What application states should be included in the renewals process |
Public portal accounts only | Determines whether the renewals process will be started for applicants that do not have a public portal account |
Exclude those who have bid within the last x days | Excludes any applicants that have placed a bid, or been included in a generated shortlist within the specified number of days |
How often (months) | How many months before an applicant needs to renew their application |
Completion target (weeks) | How many weeks does an applicant have to complete their renewal |
Comms message to send when renewal starts | What template should be used to create a message when a renewal is started |
Comms message subject line | What subject should be added to the comms message sent when a renewal is started |
Include 'My xxxx' | Determines which forms an applicant needs to review as part of the renewal |
'My xxxx' page confirmation required | Determines if the applicant needs to confirm every page of the form as part of the renewal |
Display message | The message displayed when the applicant is prompted to review the form |
Confirmation message | The message displayed in the confirmation message at the top of the page |
Confirmation checkbox label | The message displayed next to the confirmation checkbox at the bottom of the page |
Automatically close applications | If checked any applications not renewed by their target date will be set to a Closed state automatically |
Exclude applications without a public portal account | Only displayed if Public portal accounts only is unchecked. Exclude applications that do not have a public portal account |
Grace period (weeks) | The number of additional weeks to add to the target date before automatically closing applications |
Exclude applications that have active offers | Exclude applications that have active offers from being automatically closed |
Exclude applications that have active bids | Exclude applications that have active bids from being automatically closed |
Exclude applications with an active homeless application | Exclude applications that have an active homeless application on the same case from being automatically closed |
Comms message to send if closed automatically | What template should be used to create a message when an application is closed |
Comms message subject line | What subject should be added to the comms message sent when an application is closed |
Automated closure of incomplete housing register applications
When enabled this allows applications where the applicant has not completed their outstanding actions after a period to time to be automatically closed.
| Item | Details |
| Housing register states | What application states should be included in this closure process. Normally this would be set to Submitted online. |
| Exclude applications with at least 1 completed action | Excludes any applicants that have completed at least 1 of the actions assigned to them |
| Number of days after action was created before reminder sent | How many days after the last action assigned to them was created should a reminder be sent |
| Number of days after reminder before application automatically closed | How many weeks does an applicant have to complete their renewal |
| Comms message to send for reminder | What template should be used to create the reminder message |
| Comms message subject line | What subject should be added to the comms message sent when a reminder is created |
| Automatically close applications | If checked applications will be closed after the number of specified days following the reminder being sent |
| Comms message to send if automatically closed | What template should be used to create a message when an application is closed |
| Comms message subject line | What subject should be added to the comms message sent when an application is closed |
Automated closure of submitted pre assessment applications
When enabled this allows pre-assessments in the Submitted pre assessment state to be closed automatically after a period of time if the applicant does not continue to submit a full Housing Register application.
| Item | Details |
| Number of days after the pre assessment submitted before application automatically closed | The number of days after a pre assessment is submitted before it is closed automatically if the applicant has not submitted a Housing Register application |
Automated closure of ineligible pre assessment applications
When enabled this allows pre-assessments in the Ineligible state to be closed automatically after a period of time.
| Item | Details |
| Number of days after pre assessment ineligible before application automatically closed | The number of days after an ineligible pre assessment is submitted before it is closed automatically |
Enable local connection band override
When enabled this allows a band override to be assigned for a particular local authority parish for an applicant.
As well as enabling this option the Band lookup needs to be configured to determine which bands can be assigned as an override. This is achieved by assigning a Tag to the relevant Bands.
People
My addresses
Allows the amount of address history that is needed to be provided on the public portal to be configured.
Duplicate people checking
The level of match required to identify a duplicate record can be set in the system.
The Confidence value determines what fields need to match and at what strength before 2 records are flagged as potential duplicates in the back office.
The Public portal blocking threshold allows a different value to be used on the public website as you may wish to enforce stricter rules there to reduce the chance of customers creating duplicate records.
The text displayed when a customer enters a record that is flagged as a duplicate can be configured through the Public portal blocked message field.
Automated people archiving
Controls people being set to Archived automatically if their case has been Archived.
Item | Details |
Days until auto archive since unlinked from an Active case | The number of days after a Persons case has been Archived that a Person will be Archived |
Days until auto archive when never linked to an Active case | The number of days after a Person has been created that they will be Archived if they are never linked to a Case |
Public portal accounts
Settings related to public portal accounts, including password strength requirements and Multi-Factor Authentication.
Public portal password requirements
Controls the password rules that applicants must meet when creating or updating their public portal account password.
Item | Details |
Minimum number of characters | The minimum number of characters required in a password. Must be between 8 and 50. Default: 12. |
Maximum number of characters | The maximum number of characters allowed in a password. Must be between 12 and 50, and must be greater than or equal to the minimum. Default: 50. |
Minimum password strength | The minimum strength score a password must achieve. The score is calculated based on length, character variety, and patterns, and also checks against a list of common known passwords. Accepted values are 1 (weak), 2 (low), 3 (good) or 4 (strong). Default: 3. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recommends a minimum of 12 characters combined with a strength of at least 3, which provides strong security without making passwords difficult to remember. However you can also set the below requirements in your IT policy requires it |
Minimum lower case | The minimum number of lower case letters (a–z) required. Default: 0. |
Minimum upper case | The minimum number of upper case letters (A–Z) required. Default: 0. |
Minimum numbers | The minimum number of numeric digits (0–9) required. Default: 0. |
Minimum symbols | The minimum number of symbol characters (such as !@#$) required. Default: 0. |
Public portal Multi-Factor Authentication
Controls whether applicants can use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) when logging in to the public portal. MFA requires applicants to provide a second form of verification in addition to their password — either a code sent by email or one generated by an authenticator app.
Changes to these settings may take up to 4 hours to be reflected on the public portal due to caching.
Item | Details |
Allow applicants to enable Multi Factor Authentication | When enabled, applicants can opt in to MFA from their account security page. MFA is not enforced — it is optional for each applicant. Default: off. If an applicant loses access to their MFA device or email, their MFA settings can be reset by editing their public portal account in the back office. |
Require applicants to enable Multi Factor Authentication | When enabled, all applicants must complete MFA to log in — it is no longer optional. Email verification is used by default, but applicants can also set up an authenticator app. Default: off. This setting is only available when Allow applicants to enable Multi Factor Authentication is turned on. Individual accounts can be exempted from this requirement by enabling the Bypass multi-factor authentication option on the relevant public portal account record. Consider notifying your applicants in advance before turning this setting on. |
Subregional
Overview
Settings that determine how data will be shared across the subregional scheme.
| Item | Details |
| Public portal accounts can be registered per organisation | When ticked a customer can use their email account to register a public portal account for each organisation in the subregion. |
Related Articles
How to assign additional priority to a particular Parish for an applicant
The system allows applicants to be assigned additional priority to one or more local authority Parish areas. When an applicant bids on a property in one of these Parishes they are shortlisted based on their enhanced priority, instead of their normal ...Release 9.6.1 24/07/2024
New & Improved Back office Permissions Added a new permission to the Cases: Housing Register applications group, Grant access to Housed (Outside system). This controls whether users have access to the ‘Housed (Outside system)’ state. This permission ...Release v1.18.9 07/05/2021
Fixes Back office Infrastructure Improvements made to the sending of account activation emails to resolve a timing issue that could occur and cause the email to not be sent. Corrected an issue where a journal entry was being created incorrectly ...Release v5.7.1 03/08/2022
New & improved Public portal Property alerts A new View your alerts page has been added to the My Accountpage of the public portal. Customers are able to opt in to receive email alerts when properties matching their criteria are advertised. Emails ...16. Jobs
Job records are used to record details of any overnight jobs that have run. They provide details of the records that have been updated or included in a file as part of the job. Jobs list The Jobs option in the explorer displays a list of all the jobs ...