Are your back-office operations functioning as efficiently as they should be? Maybe you’re unsure. Or perhaps, you’ve got a good idea that they’re in need of improvement, but you’re not sure where to begin, so you put off addressing it. Or, worse yet, you convinced yourself that it’s not that bad. According to market research […]
Spreadsheet Dependency Dependency on spreadsheets exposes an investment services firm to risk, especially when they rely on spreadsheets for their business-critical functions (such as managing their incentive compensation program). If spreadsheets play an integral role in your daily operations and are part of manually intensive processes, then you should assess this dependency and its inherit […]
How much time does your advisor team waste on shadow accounting? In the world of incentive compensation, shadow accounting is the process in which a salesperson tracks their production separately, creating and maintaining a parallel record so that they can double-check their incentive compensation payout. Shadow Accounting Drains Time and Resources Shadow accounting impacts […]
Single Points of Failure Do any of these sound familiar? “We better not lose John, or we won’t be able to pay our advisors for weeks.” “No one can cover for Jane, and no one wants to learn pivot tables.” “John plans his vacation around month-end closing.” If so, then your firm has a single […]
Improving the Monthly Closing Process The month-end close process for broker-dealers is anything but simple. Intricate commissions and incentive compensation plans, plus regulatory oversight add to the already complicated, tedious process. Poorly executed procedures can be detrimental to a firm. Making sure advisors are paid accurately and on time plays a crucial role in retaining […]