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16th July AMA: I’m Courtney Youngblutt, Xplan expert. Ask me anything about site administration

courtney.youngblutt

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Hi everyone 👋

I’m Courtney Youngblutt, Xplan expert at Iress.

If you’ve ever worked in an Xplan site where someone could not find the right client, had access to something they should not have, or spent too much time working around inconsistent setup, you will know how important good site foundations really are.

We recently shared a new guide for site administrators, and I’d love to use this session to answer your practical questions about how to set your site up in a way that is clean, scalable and easy for your team to use.

I’ll be live here in the Xplan Hub on Thursday, 16 July to answer your questions, hear what is working in your business, and unpack some of the common pain points that come with managing users, capabilities, groups and permissions.

To spark ideas, you might want to ask about:

Structuring hierarchy levels across a licensee, business, state or practice
Best practice onboarding and offboarding tips
Back end set up across WealthSolver, Risk Researcher or Portfolio
Site wide template management
Standardising site defaults so your team works from the same playbook
What to review first if your site feels cluttered or inconsistent

Drop your questions below, whether you are designing a new structure, cleaning up an existing site, or looking for ways to make Xplan easier for your team to use every day.

Looking forward to the conversation.

💬 This AMA is text-based, so I’ll answer your pre-submitted questions during the scheduled session.

🔔 Don’t forget to hit the bell in the top right corner to be notified.

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Comments

frances.mcclelland

Welcome to the AMA thread! @courtney.youngblutt will be live here next Thursday to answer your questions.

Let's get the conversation started now:

Comment below: Drop your questions here ahead of time. (Text-only, no video/audio needed).
Be respectful: Keep the conversation friendly and professional.
Keep chatting: Follow-ups and new topics are highly encouraged!

🚀 Before you post, be sure to review our Site administration guide to learn more about establishing solid site foundations.

svincent

HI @courtney.youngblutt Any suggestions for dealing with the dilemma of managing workflow for couples?

Where we have clients who are couples we run threads, reviews and tasks against the Client entity because it reduces the duplication of tasks and number of clicks for team members but this method doesn’t allow us to automate the update of specific data against partner entities, or effectively use alerts to identify partner entities with missing data.

An example of where this limits us is: Prospect Appointment thread is attached to the client entity only. This is where our AML/CTF ID process would naturally sit. Client and Partner need to be individually identified but we cannot create separate tasks within the thread for each, nor can we automate a task template from the thread for the partner entity as well as the client entity. So, we rely on advisers ‘just knowing’ they need to also ID the adviser, and we aren’t able to update fields as part of the completion of the task and we can’t utilise alerts like Task to ID completed but field remains blank.

wilbur.wilson.741

Hi @courtney.youngblutt I've recently taken over site admin for a pretty messy Xplan site. Do you have any tips on where to start and what areas I should focus on?

courtney.youngblutt

Hi @svincent, thanks for the question. Thinking it through, there currently isn't a straightforward way to have a task / thread update both client and partner records.

A couple of things I can think that you could explore to see if they would improve your process include:

You could use a task checklist to prompt collection of partner data.
You could consider having an outcome of an earlier task indicate if a partner exists and if so have duplicate tasks - one for client and one for partner (although, yes, you would not be able to update the partner fields automatically using this approach).
You could also have an outcome of an earlier task indicate if a partner exists and if so have a 'mini' thread activate for the partner that calls out the partner specific actions. (Auto add the new thread with 'prompt to edit' set as the user would need to assign the new thread to the partner entity)
Similar to the above, if you are using Cases, you could have a main case with key tasks and then have the 'mini' threads linked to the case. When linking a Thread from within a joint Case, you can link threads with either the client or partner as the entity on the Details tab. It will also allow Threads with the client as the entity that have the field is joint equal to yes to be linked.
You could create a wizard that contains all the fields that need to be updated for both and automatically direct the user to the wizard at the completion of a task.
You could explore how the “Is joint” case option works in conjunction with benchmarks. More information on this is located here: What the 'is joint' field in a Case will do.

I am also going to raise this through our new internal feedback process as I think it is a valid use case.

I hope some of the above ideas provide some food for thought in the meantime and can help you streamline your workflow further.

courtney.youngblutt

Hi @wilbur.wilson.741! welcome to the wonderful world of Xplan site admin! Taking over a messy site is a big undertaking, but it is incredibly rewarding once things start falling into place.

My biggest piece of advice right now is to remember that having a best-of-breed Xplan site is a process, not a project. It takes time, so set realistic expectations for yourself and the team on what can be achieved and when.

Where you start will likely be based on what is hurting your business most right now:

If data quality is your main pain point

Data is a team sport—often the people closest to it are the best placed to fix it. Get buy-in from your team to help identify and flag issues.

Audit fields & alignment: Run an internal review of what data controls exist. Make sure the exact same fields are being used for the same purpose across your entire network. Lean into standard Xplan fields over custom ones wherever possible to ensure data moves through the tools seamlessly and can integrate with other systems if needed.
Draft a set of rules: Formulate strict, site-wide rules for data input format (take a look at howe to use Regex for data consistency).
Get everyone to agree on a taxonomy for types and subtypes, especially notes
Target Quick Wins: Look for frequent manual fixes. For example, if users are constantly rewriting a letter salutation, fix either the template or the data rules at the CRM level.
Bulk Updates: Don't do it all manually. Utilise CSV extracts and imports to update data in bulk once you've cleaned up the logic.

Datafeeds

Out of balance datafeeds can often be a source of angst. If portfolio data is incorrect, peple quickly lose faith in the data while the business loses out on opportunities to create efficiencies and client-facing wins.

If your portfolio data is correct you save time at every review, can entirely automate portfolio updates to clients and allow clients to view their portfolio whenever they want via Client Portal.

Identify a few quick wins to build momentum.
Resolve those core issues first.
Define an ongoing process to maintain or monitor those areas so they don't slip backward.

Check out the Xplan Datafeeds - Getting Started guide to gain an end-to- end understanding of how dataeeds work and then refer to the Datafeed Troubleshooting Guide for help.

If Site Configuration is the Priority

If the system itself feels broken or clunky, pick one or two key pain points that actively disrupt your users' daily workflow. As above,

Identify a few quick wins to build momentum.
Resolve those core issues first.
Define an ongoing process to maintain or monitor those areas so they don't slip backward.

Tackling it this way lightens the mental load for you, gives your users immediate confidence that things are improving, and allows you to methodically prioritise the remaining areas.

Exception Reporting

Define a process and create exception reports as you go! There's no point resolving an issue if you haven't agreed with the team on the right approach moving forward.

Even with best intentions, things get busy and old habits can return so set up automated reports that will alert you if things start to get missed again. Xports combine with Scheduler are a great way to achieve this.

Your Site Admin Checklist (Areas to Consider)

When you are ready to map out your long-term maintenance schedule, here are the main areas you'll want to review systematically:

Site Review: Check system settings, assumption sets, risk profiles, and access levels.
User & Group Management: Standardise naming configurations and clean up/archive old groups and users.
Client Focus: Streamline dashboards, interface layouts, field definitions, client categories, and note/task/diary types. (Also review FSG versions, Reviews, and FDS tracking).
Portfolio & Tools: Review datafeeds, APLs, Target Sets (Model Portfolios), and modules like WealthSolver, Risk Researcher, and Xtools+.
Templates & Advice Process: Optimise your advice documents (SOA/ROA), general Xmerge templates, emails, and note and case/opportunity templates.
Reporting & Portal: Fine-tune Advanced Searches, Xport reports, the Scheduler, and the Client Portal/Digital Fact Find.

Helpful Resources

To help you get your bearings, definitely check out our site admin guide on how to set up your site to deliver a five-star client experience with Xplan:
👉 Delivering a Five-Star Client Experience with Xplan

Also, as tech is always evolving, make sure to also stay close to the Iress Community, Iress Learning Centre, the monthly in-Xplan Release Notes and the Roadmap Hub to see what new features are being released so you can make the most of everything that is to come

You've got this!

courtney.youngblutt

I'm sure you're doing this anyway @svincent, but also automate processes to check that the data is being updated retrospectively through:

Advanced Search/Xport: You can configure reporting via Xport to extract specific data from Client Groups. This allows you to audit "missing data" (e.g., blank ID fields for partners) across all partner entities in your network on a regular basis.
Bulk Updates: If you identify a backlog of partner entities with missing information, administrators can perform bulk updates to note information, types, and tags, which can help clean up the database.

courtney.youngblutt

If anyone else has any ideas on how to best work with partner entities and threads, I'd love you to share your ideas! ☺️

george.dekavalas

Courtney you are completely correct, partner threads/tasks don't really work well. Personally avoid them.

We have an onboarding Wizard built into our thread, so we actually collect a large amount of data from there rather than the tasks.

The advantage is I can then surface that field at multiple steps of the process e.g. in Fact Fact if AML = Incomplete then show the AML page.
And then again in the SoA/SR wizard.

courtney.youngblutt

Thanks @george.dekavalas. I have raised this now through our new internal feedback process and added your comments to support the use case.

Appreciate you sharing how you are catering for this in your business.

I like the idea of surfacing a field at multiple steps of the process if it has yet to be completed. While it would be great if a client could provide all the necessary information at a single point in time to allow the team to capture everything in the system at once, that rarely/never happens so surfacing the fields until completed is a great idea.

chris.giaouris

Is there a way to get early access to some of the new features announced in the recent AI webinar? I'd love to put my hand up for early access and trialling the new tools.

Sorry for posting here, the other session just closed so I missed my chance!