General Settings
The General Settings are available from General Configuration and Agency Setup. These settings determine default behavior for your agency preferences and workflows. This article will guide you through the configuration of important settings for your agency.
Your initial HawkSoft installation comes with some General Settings already configured.
This article describes each of the settings available and the impact each setting has on the agency. Review the options described below and select settings according to your preferences.
See Agency Configuration Overview to learn more about setting up your agency in HawkSoft.
This task is typically performed by an Owner/Administrator, Manager, or Bookkeeper.
Required Permissions
In order to complete this task, user permissions must be set to include:
Agency Setup > General Configuration
See User Permissions for more information.
To access
Click the 
Setup icon, and then select General Configuration > General Settings.
Under construction: As we continue to move settings to the cloud, you will find some settings in Agency Setup and other settings in General Configuration. This article includes information for settings in both areas and instructions on how to find each setting.
The following list describes the available Settings, and the effect each setting has if selected.
Action Menu
Launch Action Menu when launching Website – Launches the Action menu for documentation purposes when a user clicks on the website button
on the main HawkSoft toolbar.
Auto Attach Sent Emails – Attaches email messages to log notes and to the Attachments List in the client file when an email is sent through HawkSoft.
See Email Overview for more information.
Insert
Default Status & Company to Prospect on New Policy – Sets the Policy Status and Company on the Policy Information screen to Prospect when inserting a new policy.
This setting should be set to encourage the use of the Sales Pipeline.
Edit
Uppercase the Name and Address Fields (Client Level Only) – Sets the information entered for a new client in the Name and Address fields to uppercase. It does not affect existing information on existing clients.
Show country list on mailing/physical address fields – Allows users to select a country on mailing and physical address fields available on the Name and Address and Policy Information dialogs.
Create Change Form on policy changes – Launches the Change Form dialog after any changes are made to a client/policy.
Print disclaimer on policy summaries – Prints a disclaimer on Policy Coverage Summaries. (Recommended)
Print disclaimer on summaries – Prints a disclaimer on client summaries. (Recommended)
Always use State Specific ID-Card if available – Defaults ID cards to print state specific ID cards, if available.
Database Configuration
Microsoft Word Integration – Uncheck this option if you do not have Microsoft Word installed on all workstations.
ID Card Days
Controls the number of days until the ID card expires when creating a temporary ID card in HawkSoft. If the expiration date of the policy term is prior to the default ID card date, HawkSoft prompts the user to use the expiration date of the policy term.
Enter 0 to use Policy Effective Date and Expiration Date.
Auto Logout
Automatically logs users out of HawkSoft if the program is inactive for a specified amount of time. The default is set to 30 minutes. You can set any amount of time between 2 and 480 minutes (8 hours) by typing a number into the field. You can enter a 0 into this field to set auto logout to the maximum of 8 hours.
This option cannot be disabled and is used to help keep client information confidential.
MVR Source (Motor Vehicle Record)
Select an option from the MVR drop-down menu to set as the default MVR source for your agency. This determines the codes used in Motor Vehicle violations/accidents.
By default, the MVR Source is set to HawkSoft.
Scan Output
Sets the default scan type to PDF or TIF when using the Scan Utility.
Agency Logo
You can import your agency logo to be included on invoices, credit memos, and receipts generated by HawkSoft, ACORD ID cards (other than state specific), and on your agency's Start Page.
For agencies with multiple offices, only one logo can be imported.
The Agency Logo Importer supports the following graphic formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, ICO, WMF and EMF.
For best results, use an image with a resolution of 1150 x 280 pixels.
Click the Import button next to the Agency Logo field.
File Explorer opens.
Navigate to your agency logo file, and click Open.
The ID Card Logo Import dialog opens with your logo displayed.
- If the logo looks correct, click Finish.
To import logos into your correspondence, see Custom Agency Logo.
Remove Agency Logo
Click this button to remove the imported agency logo.
Policy Snapshot
Check this box to enable the Policy Snapshot feature and to configure how Policy Snapshots are created for policy changes. If left unchecked, Policy Snapshots will not be created when changes are made to a policy.
A Policy Snapshot can be created from the Internal Action menu without any configuration. See Internal Action menu options for more information.
Select one of the following options from the available drop-down to determine how Policy Snapshots are created for your agency. This setting can be overridden for specific carriers in Carrier Setup.
Automatically create Policy Snapshot – Each time changes are made to a policy, a Policy Snapshot will automatically be created and attached to the policy.
Do not create Policy Snapshot (unless overridden) – You might want to select this option rather than leaving the main Policy Snapshot option unchecked, if you don't want to create a Policy Snapshot for most policy changes. This option enables you to set an override for specific carriers that you do want to create a Policy Snapshot for. For example, you might want to create a Policy Snapshot only for carriers that don't download policy changes.
Prompt users before creating Policy Snapshot – Each time changes are made to a policy, the user will be prompted with the option to create a Policy Snapshot.
Prior to v4.9, Policy Snapshot was called Policy History. The Attachments list might contain Policy History documents saved prior to v4.9.
See Policy Snapshot for more information about creating and reviewing Policy Snapshots.
Additional Settings
Click the Additional Settings button to open the General Settings tab on the Agency Setup screen.
PDF Security
This setting is enabled by default to provide an extra level of security for PDF files that are created through HawkSoft. When enabled, your agency staff will be required to enter a password to modify the PDF files. Enter a password for users in your agency to use to access write-protected PDF files.
If you do not enter a password, then a random password will be generated and PDF write-protected files will be permanently locked from editing.
Mask Personally Identifiable Information
Enable this setting to ensure that your client's Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is always masked. This setting is enabled by default.
When enabled, your agency staff can unmask the information by clicking the
Masked/Unmasked icon from the People and Drivers screens on a client or policy.
When this feature is disabled, your agency users can still temporarily mask client data using the
HawkSoft recommends keeping this feature enabled to protect your client's PII.
Contact Information Alerts
Enable this setting to prompt agents to verify client contact information older than the specified interval. HawkSoft sets 90 days as the default amount of days in the Alert agent if Contact Information is older than field, but you can modify the number of days as needed for your agency. See Contact Information Alerts for more information.
Requiring Log Notes on Client Tasks
Users can create a new log note or append an existing log note on a task directly from Task Center or the associated client/policy.
By default, HawkSoft users are required to create a log note on the associated client/policy when a task is created, edited, or closed on the client/policy.
Agency owners, administrators, and/or managers can opt to require a log only when a client task is closed or created.
The following settings are available:
Require a log when creating, editing or closing a client task (Default setting)
Users are required to create a new log or append an existing log.
Only require a log when closing a client task
Users are required to create a new log or append an existing log.
Do not require a log when creating, editing or closing a task
Users have the option to save a task without creating a log.
Selecting any option other than Require a log when creating, editing or closing a client task disables mandatory logging for all users. As a result, some task-related actions may not be recorded.
Users with the Allow Tasks Management permission are able to remove tasks from a client or policy without creating a log note.
Automatically Append Task Info on Edit
This setting allows agencies to disable automatic “Task Edit” appends in log notes. When turned off, edits to a task will no longer generate a “Task Edit” entry in the log.
Disabling this setting stops automatic documentation of Task edits. Any important changes must be manually recorded by the user in a log note. If no changes are manually recorded into a log note by a user, then there may be no documentation of the important change having occurred.
Depending on your agency’s configuration, a log entry may not be required when a task is automatically appended. Tasks are not permanent documentation, and creating a log note is recommended to provide a permanent record of the information.
Show "Remember Me" Checkbox on Desktop Login
Disable this setting to hide the "Remember Me" checkbox on the Login screen for the HawkSoft desktop application. This will prevent users from storing their login credentials, which can enhance security if your agency uses shared workstations, for example.
Multi-Factor Authentication
You can enable or disable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Multi-Factor Authentication is a security feature where, upon a successful login attempt, HawkSoft will send an email to the user's Account Email address containing a confirmation code that the user must enter into HawkSoft before they can log in. This helps prevent unauthorized access to your agency data.
When MFA is enabled, you can change how often HawkSoft will send MFA validation requests. Enter a number of days. The maximum number of days you can set is 180.
Enabling or disabling MFA will not kick-out any user who is already signed in.
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