1. Setup and configuration
- Preparation and configuration are key to a smooth setup.Registering with the Investment Product Provides. This can entail either electronically registering an adviser code with the product provider via webform or sending a registration email or submitting a manual form. Alternatively there are some product providers that will automatically issue you with an adviser code which will need to be mapped to the user adviser in XPLAN.
- You can view the registration requirements for each datafeed provider by going to the XPLAN help menu and going to the page (System Datafeed Setup Addendum)
- Once you have registered all your datafeeds you will then need to map the provider’s adviser code within XPLAN to initiate the feeds. Processing times for each adviser code from the provider may vary from daily to weekly (provider dependant)
2. Mapping
Once the datafeed has been initiated, the providers will push through client investment transactional data through to your site. Each client account will have a separate account reference (IPS External Account ID) which you will need to map to the relevant client record in XPLAN.
It is crucial that at this stage you ensure the right data feed account is linked to the right XPLAN client record. Although it is tedious, getting the mapping right the first time will help to ensure the correct information is fed through to the correct XPLAN entity and will help avoid the headaches of having inaccurate data represented on client’s XPLAN portfolio records.
XPLAN can automatically match clients to data feeds. However this requires some strict naming rules to be present in the feed and on XPLAN and often does not work. Many users prefer to turn this function off and rely on hand to eye matching. This generally only needs to be done once.
3. Regular maintenance and checking
Once you have configured and mapped your client datafeed correctly, ongoing checking and maintenance of datafeeds will ensure it remains correct and accurate.
XPLAN utilises a Platform Summary and Adviser Summary report to give you a summary of your datafeed health. Don’t be concerned if not all feeds are reporting 100% matches back to the platform. Due to the timing of datafeeds, balances may be slightly out and will generally correct themselves when the overnight run of transactions come through. Keep note of these out of balance records and monitor them each day.
When advisers leave your practice or switch between advisers, ensure a remapping, or re-registration of adviser codes is done in a timely manner. Staying on top of this will help with ensuring accurate and quality data is represented in your portfolio client reporting in XPLAN.
For more tips and advice related to XPLAN, don’t hesitate to contact us here.
