Tracking upcoming revenue is critical to practice management, yet many teams I talk to fall into one of two camps: they are either spending hours manually updating a massive, colour-coded spreadsheet, or they are simply relying on whatever revenue happens to land in their bank account from the Licensee.
Both approaches share the same fundamental flaw: they are reactive. When you operate this way, you are always looking in the rearview mirror at revenue that has already arrived, rather than looking ahead at what is coming into your pipeline.
By centralising everything where the client journey actually begins—in Xplan—you can manage your revenue from the moment advice is implemented through to payment.
End the Spreadsheet Struggle: Automate Revenue Tracking with CommPay Lodge
The spreadsheet struggle is a hidden cost in many financial planning practices. It creates data silos, increases the risk of human error, and demands hours of administrative time every month.
CommPay Lodge is the missing link between implementing your client’s advice and actually getting paid. By "lodging" your expected revenue in CommPay the second the work is completed, you effectively bridge the gap between advice and cash flow. You stop guessing what your revenue might look like in six months and start seeing a real-time, predictable view of your pipeline.
Why Lodging is a Must-Have for Your Team
When you "lodge" a policy or client fee at the point of advice from within Xplan, you take the guesswork out of revenue management:
- Total Pipeline Visibility: Using our Estimate reporting, get a real-time look at what's coming your way. You can easily track cases from "Pending" underwriting all the way to "Lodged" status (Fig 1: CommPay Revenue Pipeline).
- Variance Tracking: This is where it gets clever. Once an estimate is lodged, you can compare expected vs. actual revenue. It's the easiest way to spot if a supplier underpaid or how long it is overdue or if a payment was missed entirely (Fig 2: CommPay Estimates).
- Operational Efficiency: By standardising the lodgement process, you ensure that every team member follows the same workflow, reducing the variance in how data is entered and ensuring consistent reporting across the board.
Fig.1 CommPay Revenue Pipeline
Fig.2 CommPay Estimates
Seamless Xplan CommPay Integration at every point of the Advice journey
The best part? "CommPay Lodge" functionality is already built into the Xplan workflows you use every day. You don’t need to leave your planning environment to track your business performance.
Your Xplan Workflow | How CommPay Lodge Automates It |
|---|
Invoicing | Directly link expected fee revenue to a generated client invoice |
Client Focus | Lodge directly under the Client’s existing Assets |
Insurance & Super | Lodge expected upfront and trail commissions directly from the policy details |
Liabilities | Track expected revenue from mortgage or loan settlement |
Portfolios | Lodge estimates directly from the Position or Recommend screens |
What we are truly solving for your business is the pain point of forecasting and understanding cash flow — a key requirement for any healthy financial planning practice. CommPay Lodge bridges the gap between business written and actual revenue received.
If your practice is looking to improve revenue forecasting, reduce manual administration, and gain better oversight of business performance, CommPay Lodge provides a practical solution within your existing Xplan environment.
Whether you need a refresher on lodging a new policy or want to set up automated recurring invoice lodgements, you can find the complete, step-by-step documentation here: Lodge Expected Payments with CommPay.
If you have burning CommPay questions, join Margie Hynes on August 19th for a text-based AMA. Post your question now to unleash the full potential of CommPay.
To learn more, speak with your Licensee or explore the CommPay Lodge training available through our Iress Learning Centre.
