Reducing Data Entry

Autopost

When an Autopost is run for a client the system calculates all the dividends etc. that are due to the client. This is done using the information in the securities history. You are offered these results and can tick the ones that apply or edit the amounts if necessary. For instance, in the case of a rights issue you tick whether to sell the rights or take them up. Finally, the system posts the selected entries. This saves a large amount of Data Entry. If you often work in this way, run the Autopost to generate the entries the client should have received and then reconcile the client’s bank account at the end of the year to check that they actually received them.

Bulk Dividends and the Global Autopost

Rather than post all the dividends etc. for a single client at one time, some users receive a bulk dividend (i.e. a single receipt on behalf of multiple clients when a company pays a dividend). This happens if the practice keeps the clients’ holdings in a nominee account. If you want the Autopost to generate the dividends for all clients who hold a particular security, the option Global Autopost works in this way.

CCT Wizard

Some corporate events, such as takeovers and demergers, involve a transfer of cost to another security. These events can be a nightmare to process manually or on a spreadsheet. The biggest problem arises on funds subject to CGT, because a proportion of the full capital history needs to be written up on each of the successor securities. If the client received scrip dividends in the parent company, or if they dealt actively in it, then writing up the capital history can require dozens of calculations and entries for a single holding.

One of the most powerful features of Trust Accounts is that it makes these events easy to process. The details of Complex Capital Events are set up in the securities history. They need to be set up manually as they are not supplied as part of the Exshare feed. If there were several options (e.g. a cash option, a shares option and a mixture of shares and cash), then all three can be recorded. However once this is done the data can be used on any client using the Complex Capital Transactions Wizard (CCT Wizard).

The CCT Wizard is available as part of the Autopost. If a Complex Capital Event is encountered, a Wizard button becomes available. If there were several options then the system asks which option was taken and shows each of the resulting holdings and any cash element. These figures can be adjusted if needed. The system then posts the necessary cost write down and cost write ups ensuring that both the accounting and CGT treatment are correct. An accompanying report is also produced.

Transactions Import (aka Trimport)

The Autopost and the CCT Wizard automatically generate transactions based on information in the Securities History. This can supply many transactions automatically, but it cannot supply purchases and sales of investments, nor can it supply nominal transactions. You may already have these transactions on other systems within your practice and are faced with the task of re-keying the entries to produce the accounts which is both time-consuming and error-prone.

The optional Transactions Import licence allows these entries to be imported electronically. A new proforma Transaction Import spreadsheet system makes the process simpler to use and also offers immense cost savings.

The Transaction Import spreadsheet system will automatically save the transactions entered for a specific transaction type as a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file ready to be imported into CCH Trust Accounts using the Transaction Import facility .

You can import journals, trial balances, investment ledger and property ledger entries using the Transaction Import spreadsheet system combined with the Transaction Import process within CCH Trust Accounts. The Transaction Import process validates the CSV file before importing it. This ensures that you can pick up any possible errors and fix them before doing the full import. A report can be produced of any invalid entries to help in resolving queries. The import process automatically adds new nominal accounts to the client chart as long as they exist in the Master Chart, and new investments can be added to the client's portfolio as long as they exist in the master securities list as required.

The batch of entries can be posted even if some are still invalid, however care should be taken to ensure that incomplete journals or trial balances are not imported in this way. If this is done, there is a facility to save the posted batch. When the batch is later restored the system remembers which entries have already been posted and does not re-post them. You can only correct the invalid entries and post them.

The most important prerequisite for importing transactions is that there is a source of the transactions that includes the fields needed by Trust Accounts. In relation to investment entries the security code is particularly important as banking systems often have a record of the cash entries made but lack the security code. If one broker is used for the bulk of the transactions then this is a more promising source. Also using an in-house investment management system can be a good source. It is not a problem if the client code in the source system differs from that in Trust Accounts because Trust Accounts has an Alternate Client Code field and this can be used instead.

It is straightforward to import the most common transaction types such as purchases, sales, dividends and interest, however importing the more complex transaction types may only be possible with additional inhouse programming resources.

Standing data import

An additional benefit of having the Transaction Import licence is that there is also now the ability to import other standing data information by using a separate import routine. The CSV file for this can also be generated from the Transaction Import spreadsheet system.

The standing data which can now be imported using a CSV file includes:

• Client import
• Client Nominal chart import
• Master securities import
• Master Securities History import (Dividends etc)
• Master security Prices import (Valuation information)

Professional Services and Support can offer assistance in setting up the Transaction Import and provide access to and advise in the use of the Transaction Import spreadsheet system, although a day’s Consultancy is generally necessary.