A more intuitive, connected digital experience for your clients
In 2026, we are evolving Xplan with a renewed focus on unlocking more of its capability through better experiences, smarter tools and deeper client focus.
You told us that while Xplan is trusted and powerful, the opportunity is to make it easier to access, simpler to use and more valuable every day. The Xplan Client Portal UX uplift is the first step in this journey - delivering a faster, more intuitive and secure digital experience that helps clients engage with advice and advisers build stronger relationships.
What is the refreshed Client Portal?
We know that delivering a premium digital experience requires an intuitive, hassle-free environment that matches consumer expectations. To help your practice stand out, we are embarking on a long-term program to uplift the Xplan Client Portal experience.
We are excited to introduce the first step of this journey: a refresh to the layout and navigation of your portal. This initial update introduces a clean, vertical menu on the left side of the screen and a streamlined way for your clients to view important updates, without the visual clutter.
Our goal is to lay a contemporary foundation that drives meaningful client engagement, building trust with your clients while we prepare to roll out further feature screen uplifts down the track.
Pre-requisites
There is nothing you need to do right now. Once the functionality has been released, your site administrator will be able to toggle the feature on in the Client Portal configuration space.
Key features
Here is what you and your clients can look forward to in this update:
- A clear left vertical menu
- We have moved the main menu bar from the top of the screen down to the left-hand side. This layout is much more natural to navigate and frees up valuable screen space, allowing you and your clients to focus on information that matters most whilst significantly reducing visual clutter and cognitive load.
- Streamlined notification banners
- To ensure high-priority tasks are never missed, important alerts that require your clients to take action (eg filling out a fact find or signing a document) will now appear at the top of the screen in a single, prominent banner. This banner stays in place as they move from page to page, making sure high-priority tasks are never missed, without interrupting their normal workflow. Please note that new messages won’t pop up in this banner. Instead, they will show up as a simple notification badge next to the “Documents & Messages” item in the main menu.
- Organised account settings
- We have grouped all profile management settings into one easy-to-find spot available from a dropdown from the client’s name at the top right corner of the screen.
- Mobile phone optimised experience
- Your clients can securely access their financial information on the go. The entire interface smoothly adapts to smartphones, featuring a clean slide-out menu. This ensures the portal looks professional and remains easy to use, whether your clients are viewing it on a desktop computer or checking updates from their mobile phone.
Next steps and rollout strategy
We understand that every practice has its own established workflows and speed of adapting to change.
Therefore, we want to give you control over rolling out these changes, giving you time to communicate to your clients.
- Site admin controlled: When the new design is released, it will not be switched on automatically for everyone. Instead, your site administrators can choose the exact date to toggle it on via the Client Portal Configuration space, allowing you to introduce the change to your clients whenever it best suits your schedule.
- Transition window: There will be a three-month window to make the switch. At the end of this period, the older layout will be retired, and the updated look will become the standard experience for all users globally.
Key dates
- 13 August 2026: General Release (The option to switch on the new look becomes available to all Site Administrators).
- 13 November 2026: Final Changeover for Australian and South Africa sites (The refreshed layout is activated for all users and the legacy experience is retired).
- 30 November 2026: Final Changeover for United Kingdom sites (The refreshed layout is activated for all users and the legacy experience is retired).
This is just the beginning
The Client Portal refresh establishes the foundation for an exciting roadmap ahead. Over the coming year, we will also be rolling out:
- An improved, contemporary, and secure client login experience (Global Identity).
- An updated, simplified Fact Find experience.
We will keep you fully updated as the rollout plans for these future phases approach.
Support and questions
If you have any questions about managing this transition, please feel free to reach out to our support team.
If you or your clients experience any issues during the transition, please raise a support ticket on the Iress Connect Portal using the I have an Xplan issue form, adding Client Portal in the field where it asks "where you have an issue".
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