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What Is CreditWatchExpress?
CreditWatchExpress is a product to keep track of any companies or persons that you extend credit to- monetarily, contracted labor, etc. This is done by us providing you with weekly updates of Public Record filings. Our program allows you to quickly search and view documents that relate to your list of customers. CreditWatchExpress has summaries and reports which show useful consolidated information about your searches, and also does individual searches and summaries.
Many businesses have databases of their customers, contractors or other businesses they deal with. Or perhaps your business deals with decisions where it's important to run credit checks on clients to discover if they have liens, or foreclosures, or any sort of derogatory marks to their credit.
Each week through the internet, CreditWatchExpress will download and install new data which you can search through. Any type of document on Maricopa County's Site can be tracked with various useful searches and reports, showing data in easy-to-read understandable ways. Furthermore, the program allows you to view and see the original document associated with the results in the program.
QuickStart
To Begin Using your copy of Credit Watch Express you must do these three things:
1. Import a Client List
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What Is a Client List?
A Client list is merely a list of your customers, companies, or owners that CreditWatchExpress uses to match against. We do not use this information whatsoever, and it always remains on your computer in the program's local database. If you need this information to remain secure in your own company, you may of course choose to 'Enable an Administrator Password'. Once enabled, when CreditWatchExpress loads, you will be asked for a password before you will be allowed to continue.
Your Client List is a very necessary part of the program. Without this list when you attempt to search for things, the only type of search that will produce any results will be the 'Doc Code' Search. The 'Match By Both' search and the 'Match By Customer' search both use this list to make matches.
To Import A Customer List
Once you have opened the program and you are on the main form you will see that there are three buttons on the left. Those buttons are 'Client Data', 'Update Data' and 'Search Data'. Following are the steps you should follow to correctly import a file into your Client List.
Step 1.
The first thing you need to do is click on the 'Client Data' button. 
You will see a screen just like the screenshot following (fig 2a).
Step 2.
Click on the Import button to bring up the Open File Dialog Box (fig 2b).
(Fig 2a)
Step 3.
The next thing you should do is select your CSV (Comma Separated Values) file.
Click here to see what format CreditWatchExpress requires the CSV files to be in. Headers are required, but it is not necessary to have the exact same field names we use. At minimum you must have at least a company name field.
(Fig 2b)
Step 4.
Once you have chosen your CSV file, CreditWatchExpress will show the Import Dialog. Here you tell the program which fields in your CSV correspond to fields in our program. Refer to figure (4a) to see what each of the controls on the Import Dialog do.
Step 5.
The next thing that you must do is drag the field names from the box on the left into the respective boxes on the right. Refer to figure (5a) to see how this is done.
(Fig 5a)
Step 6.
Select 'Ok' to Save. A dialog box will come up showing you how many were successfully imported. If any are duplicates (they are already customers in your 'Client List'), then they will not be added again.
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2. Download the Newest Data
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How is my data updated?
CreditWatchExpress is designed to automatically retrieve updated data from our servers. Data is posted every Monday morning. It is only necessary to update your data once a week. Data files are small in size, so they're quicker to download.
How do I update my data?
Data is updated in a few simple steps.
Step 1. Open the Form
The first thing you need to do is click on the Update Data button. (Fig 1A) 
This will launch the Update Data as shown in Figure 2A.
Step 2. Updating Data
I am a Registered User
I am using the Trial Version
First Time Registered User
You will need to provide the user name (e-mail) and your password (as shown in Figure 3A) that you set up at the CreditWatchExpress website when you registered for the program. You will only need to supply this information once as CreditWatchExpress will save this automatically. Simply click Sign In and the program will begin updating as shown in Figure 3B
Figure 3A: Sign In
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Figure 3B: Data Updating
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Registered User
Registered users only need to hit the Update Data button and the update will commence as shown in Figure 3B.
Evaluation User
Step 1: For Evaluation Users you can update the data by clicking the Get Latest Data button as shown in Figure 4A.
Figure 4A: Get Latest Data (Evaluation User)
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What do I do if my evaluation copy has expired?
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3. Perform Some Searches
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Why Do I Need CreditWatchExpress?
"If You're the Last One to Lien, You're the Last One to get paid!" Ron Creeger (2007).
You need to know if the companies you are extending credit to have become a financial risk. With the information our program can provide you with, you can see right away when things begin to go wrong.
One extreme advantage of our program over others is that companies providing these credit checks charge you per customer per search. CreditWatchExpress is a monthly low-fee service designed to give you an unlimited and continuous tracking of your client list. You can also enter as many clients/companies/individuals to your client list as you'd like.
There are so many times, especially in the world of contractors, where something happens which brings whatever is being built to a halt.
Here are some real-life examples of things that can easily happen to Companies, whether they are at fault or not. There are many uses for CreditWatchExpress, but certainly these companies could've used it, and saved tons of money and tons of time, and may even have made the difference whether or not they're still in business today. Names of companies have been changed to aliases to protect their reputation.
Company "XYZ"
Company "XYZ" sub-contracted out work to build some high end condominiums, that were all purchased before building began. Several companies are doing their work when shortly into the job, they arrive to find themselves locked off the job site!
It seems the general contractor filed bankruptcy and now the sub-contractors have to wait for legalities to be sorted before they can access their equipment for their next job along with whatever monies they had not been paid for the work they performed.
Investor “X”
Investor “X” has hired a General contractor stating he has purchased a home needing remodeling. The general hires his sub-contractors for the job. 2 weeks later the general visits the job site to find no one working. He finds his sub-contractors whom state that Investor “X” had not paid them. The general finds the Investor “X” ands secures payment for the sub-contractors to begin working again. A week later the general visits the site to find no one once again. Investor “X” is now unreachable, a few days later a Foreclosure Auction sign appears on the home. It seems the property had fallen into the foreclosure process even before any remodeling began. No one was paid for the full services they rendered.
R J Springer Construction
Last year R J SPRINGER CONSTRUCTION was building housing developments in Buckeye, over the course of the year their sub-contractors contractors started placing liens against them. Springer continued to pull new building permits for more houses while their current sub-contractors were forced to file liens against Springer to attempt to recoup their monies for work performed. Springer’s license was eventually revoked leaving behind 21 complaints & unknown amounts of money unpaid.
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Minimum System Requirements
To use CreditWatchExpress, you must have internet explorer 6.0 (or another internet browser), Windows XP, and preferably a high-speed internet connection. Software should install Net Framework 2.0 and other required components, such as Microsoft's ReportViewer controls. Minimum space requirements are at least 2 GB. Program should be installed to the C drive to function properly.
CreditWatchExpress was written in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and is dependant on the .Net Framework 2.0 to run. According to Microsoft's Site for Minimum Requirements for the .Net Framework 2.0 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229070(VS.80).aspx) the following minimum requirements also apply:
Unsupported Operating Systems (.Net Framework 2.0)
The .NET Framework cannot be installed on the following operating systems.
Scenario
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Operating system
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All platforms
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Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows NT® Server
Windows NT Workstation
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for Itanium-based Systems
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Minimum Software
| · | Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with Service Pack 1. |
| · | Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.8 for data access applications. |
| · | Windows Installer version 3.0. |
Processors
Scenario
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Minimum
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.NET Framework redistributable
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400 megahertz (MHz)
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RAM
Scenario
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Minimum
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.NET Framework
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96 megabytes (MB)
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.NET Framework SDK
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128 MB
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What's In This Trial Version
This version of CreditWatchExpress, while it is a trial version, has all the features of the full program! It is good for two weeks, after which it will still run, but you will be unable to download any new data. This is our first official release, so please feel free to Contact Us with any suggestions, desired changes, or bugs that you may find.
At the end of two weeks, the program will be expired. When you click the 'Update Data' button or select the menu item 'Update Data From Web' the following dialog will come up:
Hitting the "Sign Up Now!" will bring you to our web page, (Or you can click this link.. http://www.CreditWatchExpress.com/Order.aspx) where you can sign up for our service. The fee is quite reasonable, a mere 39.95$ a month. Or for ordering multiples of months, there are discounts for a 3 month and 6 month subscriptions.
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