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Your Xplan efficiency questions, answered

andrew.wilson's avatar
andrew.wilson
Icon for Iress Contributor rankIress Contributor
25 days ago

I recently jumped onto Advisely to answer all your questions about how Xplan can make your everyday processes more efficient.

Here are four of the most interesting conversations that came out of this AMA:

Q: What does a best-in-class Xplan setup (with all the 'bells and whistles') look like to make the most of Xplan?

One of the key features of Xplan is that it can be tailored to suit your business. For example, if you can clearly define what your workflow is, then you can design a case/thread to mimic this, but you can also remove any manual processes like sending emails.  Once this is implemented, users can view tasks via the Task Hub rather than just in a list. As you can see, the key part is understanding the business before implementing it to ensure the right tool is being used at the right time and in the right place. 

Other areas to consider where this type of logic would need to be applied, would include but are not limited to:

  • Interfaces
  • Wizards
  • Pages
  • Cases
  • Threads
  • Tasks
  • Emails
  • SMS
  • Letters
  • Advice Documents

We also offer Advice Toolkit, which is our out-of-the-box solution. You can get more information here. 


Q: We value Cases for the ability to bundle up all the modules of Xplan that make up an advice record (notes, workflow, wizard scenarios). The one missing piece is Invoicing. Is there a way, and if not, are there plans to introduce a method for linking an invoice to a Case? This would solve a problem we have with associating an invoice with a specific instance of advice.

I agree with you that linking invoices to cases would be beneficial. 

This type of feedback is extremely valuable, so while the functionality currently doesn’t exist to link from the Invoices element, you could do the following:

  • Set your invoice template so it can be quick-merged from invoices
  • Set the type and sub-type so it can be easily searched
  • Generate the invoice after that data has been entered.  This would put it in the Notes
  • Link the invoice Note to the Case  

Q: I am keen to better understand the most efficient, automated functionality for managing (i) fee consent within Xplan and in particular what this looks like with the changes coming into play on 10th January 2025; and (ii) the client review process, including asking clients to populate a pre-review questionnaire that enables question customisation per client.

Concerning the DBFO updates, fee consent changes will still utilise the Xplan elements Opt-in & Fee Consent and Opt-in History. A detailed document is available on the Iress Community here.

For your client review process with a pre-review questionnaire, you could have the questionnaire within the Client Portal. This would allow the client to enter/update data in real-time and provide action steps upon completion. A detailed document is available on the Iress Community here

If you aren’t using Client Portal, you could have a merge document that pre-populates based on the client’s existing data and is conditioned to include/exclude additional sections.  If this is the case, you should look to automate the sending of this to the client off the back of a Diary event, Task, or even using Scheduler.  

There has been some great content regarding the review process published here on Advisely that goes into a lot more detail. Check out this past AMA thread about Workflows and this free guide, 7 steps to automating your client review process.


Q: I know that as a small business owner, it's hard to find the time to focus on where to start and what's going to work best with Xplan automation. I'm wondering if there's somewhere that you can point advisers to something like a "getting started" steps or presentation.

You are definitely not alone. I have found in dealing with many businesses the best place to start is asking, where is the biggest pain point within the business. This generally tends to be one of two things. Either advice document production or Workflows; too cumbersome, don’t know where clients are up to, don’t know who’s doing what on a client.  

Advice document production fixes need to start with a template review. Are you using simple coding like using the client’s preferred name, including the adviser’s signature, etc. Iress Community has a wealth of information available. A great place to start is the Xmerge library.

Workflows can be developed overtime so starting simple and building on that is a great approach.  You will find that there are steps that can be automated, like sending emails or sms. Understanding Cases is a useful place to start. 

If you want to know more about using Xplan more efficiently, head over to the discussion forums and ask a question—don’t forget to tag me at andrew.wilson !

Published 25 days ago
Version 1.0
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