Case study: a transition tool built for Class

Client: Class, SMSF administration software The brief: a custom tool to move client data from XPLAN into CLASS Super, efficient enough to matter and simple enough for practices to run without us.

The problem

Practices transitioning to CLASS Super needed to bring client data across from XPLAN and IPS: CRM details, capital gains tax records and transaction histories. Each transition was handled manually: exporting from one system, reshaping the data, importing into the other, then checking it.

It worked, but slowly. Every transition took many hours of skilled time, the reshaping step introduced errors that had to be found and fixed, and data was handled twice or three times on its way across. As volumes grew, the manual process became the bottleneck for the whole onboarding pipeline.

Class wanted two things at once: a faster, more reliable transition, and a tool that practices could operate themselves rather than routing every transition through a specialist.

What we did

We designed and built a custom transition tool that takes data directly out of XPLAN and delivers it in the form CLASS Super needs: CRM, CGT and transaction information, mapped and validated so it can be imported without manual reshaping.

Two design decisions mattered most:

Listen to the exact requirement first. Class had precise, exacting requirements for what the output had to contain and how it had to be structured. We spent the early part of the engagement understanding those in detail (the field mappings, the edge cases, the validation rules) rather than building a generic export and adapting it afterwards. That's the approach we take on every custom XPLAN build, and it's the reason the tool worked first time for the cases it was designed for.

Build for the practice, not the consultant. The tool had to be usable by practice staff, not just by us. That meant clear inputs, predictable outputs and validation that told the operator what was wrong in plain language rather than failing silently. A tool that only a specialist can run hasn't removed the bottleneck; it has moved it.

The outcome

In Class's words:

"The team listened carefully to our exacting requirements and delivered a custom transition tool that takes data out of XPLAN and delivers CRM, CGT and transaction information that could be seamlessly imported into CLASS Super. This process now speeds up our transitions from XPLAN / IPS and reduces errors and double handling of data." Morne Barns, Class

Transitions that previously took many hours for both the practice and Class now take minutes, errors from manual reshaping have been largely eliminated, and practices run the process themselves. The data is handled once, not three times.

Why this matters beyond Class

Most practices don't need a CLASS Super transition tool. But almost every practice has a version of this problem: a recurring, manual data movement between systems that a skilled person does by hand because nobody built the tool. Fee reconciliation. Platform data into reporting. Client data into a new CRM.

The pattern is the same every time: understand the exact requirement, build the integration once, make it usable by the people who actually run it. The payoff is the same too: skilled time back, fewer errors, a process that scales with volume instead of with headcount.

If your practice has a data job that eats a day a week, that's a good candidate for a conversation. A free Advice Tech Health Check is a low-pressure way to find out whether it's worth building the tool.