23 August 2024
In this bulletin:
- Improved webpage navigation
- Support for common issues
- Portal notifications not sent to reassigned contact
- Trading names and firm misidentification
- Invoicing functionality available from early October
- Accessing your membership certificate
- Progress on the member benchmarking dashboard
- Where else can I find help?
In this third issue of the member portal bulletin, we share improvements to our member webpages and address common issues raised by members, including portal notifications and accessing invoices and membership certificates in the portal. We also provide an update on the member benchmarking dashboard.
We appreciate your continued feedback and patience while we all adapt to new ways of working. Your insights help us to consolidate feedback and address issues that have been raised. Pleasingly, most issues now being raised relate to understanding how the new systems operate. We are seeing fewer system issues and we’re making steady progress in resolving the ones known to us.
We have received positive feedback from members who are experiencing significant improvements in efficiency, complaint visibility and overall user experience.
If you wish to provide feedback or have a question about the portal, please contact AFCA’s Membership Services team.
- Live Chat: available on our website and in the member portal
- Raise a member request in the portal
- Phone:1300 56 55 62
- Email: membership@afca.org.au
Improved webpage navigation
We have refreshed some of our portal-related webpages to help members easily find the resources they need. We have a large amount of information, guides and videos to help you use the portal, and we want to make sure it’s easy to find what you are looking for.
Please visit the member portal homepage as a first step for information, including troubleshooting portal issues.
Key improvements include:
- Categorised portal resources by Guides, FAQs and Videos. This section now has search and filter options. Type in keywords to find related resources.
- New ‘Starter guide’ page for first time users. This covers important information on setting up your portal account and logging in for the first time.
- Easy access to the ‘Known portal issues’ page.
Support for common issues
When we receive your feedback, our first step is to identify if it relates to the system design or processes, additional training requirements, unintended system bugs, or migrated data.
We are continuing to work through all feedback, and we are regularly updating the known portal issues webpage with resolutions and temporary workarounds.
Portal notifications not sent to reassigned contact
Members have raised concerns with using generic emails, particularly relating to portal notifications. As notifications are sent to unique email addresses, these are missed if the nominated case worker is on unexpected or extended leave.
The system allows Admin contacts and EDR managers to change the nominated contact directly in the portal and reassign to a different case worker. We understand there have been some issues where notifications still go to the previous contract, even after a new contact has been added to the case.
This is a known bug we identified, scheduled to be fixed in our August system update.
Trading names and firm misidentification
Since migrating our data, some complainants have experienced issues searching for trading names and aliases when lodging a complaint using the online complaint form.
The issue has been resolved on the AFCA website but remains an issue when lodging a complaint in the consumer portal. We have completed an investigation to resolve this issue, which will be released in either our August or September system update.
We encourage members to clearly state the financial firm or alias the complainant needs to select in your IDR response, where possible.
Invoicing functionality available from early October
Members will be able to view and pay invoices in the portal from early October. This will include invoices from the 2023/24 financial year and user charges. Currently, the ‘Invoices’ section in the portal is not active, and we have continued to issue member invoices via email.
To ensure a smooth transition to invoicing in the portal, we will continue to issue member invoices via email for a period, even after portal invoicing becomes available.
Accessing your membership certificate
We continue to receive queries about accessing your membership certificate. We have previously shared step-by-step instructions on how to do this in the portal.
Read more about how to access your membership certificate
Progress on the member benchmarking dashboard
We recognise the significant impact that delays in the benchmarking dashboard have had on our members and apologise for this inconvenience. This has been our key priority, and we are confident we can release more of the dashboard in early September, pending the completion of additional testing and manual data remediation.
Thank you for your continued patience as we work to ensure the accuracy and reliability of this data. In the meantime, members can access sections of the benchmarking report in the portal, including received, accepted and closed case data.
Where else can I find help?
We have shared a range of resources designed to help members navigate the new portal and address needs at your own pace.
