Release of the Individuals & Sole Traders form scheduled for release in this week's Xplan release.

Following the initial analysis of the recent FAAA/FSC legislative updates, a delivery schedule has been finalised to integrate the updated Customer Identification Forms into Xplan.

Release Schedule

• Individual and Sole trader forms (this week): The updated form for Individuals is targeted for deployment in this week’s Xplan release.
• Related entities (subsequent releases): Due to the structural complexity of these frameworks, forms for Related Entities (including Companies and Trusts) will follow in subsequent, staggered releases shortly thereafter.

Important note:

To expedite the availability of the core forms, this initial release focus prioritises standard identification pathways to cover the majority of client onboarding scenarios. Support for the Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (ECDD) sections is out of scope for these updates, and these specific workflows will sit outside the automated Xplan template for the time being.

Original publication & context

(Originally posted following the 7 May 2026 updates)

We are aware that the Financial Services Council (FSC) and the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) recently released updated Customer Identification Forms to align with recent AUSTRAC regulatory updates.

The newly published forms represent a significant structural change from previous versions, introducing a higher level of data complexity. This includes:

• Granular Verification Links: Linking specific verification methods to distinct pieces of information.
• Expanded Data Fields: Capturing additional details around Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and the specific services being sought.
• Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (ECDD): Accommodating deeper compliance information and workflows.

Because the legacy Identity Check fields within Xplan were built for the previous framework and did not capture this level of detail, our Product and Tech teams undertook a comprehensive analysis phase to map out these software changes, resulting in the phased delivery plan outlined in the update above.

Related information

For more information about what we have coming for managing your client's AML Risk rating in Xplan, refer to this article.

🔔 Select the AML/CTF tag below and click the 'Follow' button to be notified of future updates.

Why? Compliance reporting often means digging through old file notes or jumping between different screens. This update centralises that data directly within the client record. It lets you capture standard risk levels, moving your practice away from fragmented, manual workarounds and into a structured framework designed to turn complex regulatory demands into a streamlined, high-visibility part of your client management.

How? Once active, navigate to a client record and open the Key Details menu, then select the AML/CTF screen.

From here, you can:

• Record a formal risk status (Low, Medium, or High).
• Link the assessment straight to a specific Document Note containing your rationale.
• The system then automatically snapshots the entry into a non-editable log for regulatory audits.

Because this data integrates with Xmerge and Advanced Search, you can pull an instant AML Register whenever you need it.

Read our feature overview here: 

Streamlined compliance with native AML/CTF risk ratings in Xplan

💡Your site administrator will need to turn this on by enabling the View & Edit AML/CTF Risk Rating user capability.

To streamline things further for your team, you can use Managed Field Content to create a selection of pre-determined rationales. This keeps the data entry consistent across the entire practice and saves you from typing out the same compliance wording every time.

Why? Practices use tags to categorise client correspondence, compliance documents and advice files. When tags are just text, they blend into the background screen. Colour coding makes your core tracking indicators stand out immediately when viewing a client's history, which reduces the time spent skimming notes.

How? Navigate to System Settings > Client Focus > Document Note > Colour Coding. Change your preference to "Use colour for tags" and select your preferred colour for each tag.

Can't see tags in your client note section? Choose the settings icon and tick to show on screen!

Find out more about note tagging in A guide to tagging your Document Notes.

Whether you frequently monitor tasks for specific advisers or manage a collective team workload, saving these views eliminates the need to manually re-apply filters and sorting every day. You can capture your preferences once and access them instantly whenever they are needed.

These are the notes that have been added from outside a client record and forgotten to be linked to a client, the forwarded emails that couldn’t find a matching email address or the notes that have been accidentally unlinked from an entity.

Checking for these regularly should be part of every good site administrators routine activities.

🖥️ Hubs > Notes & Documents > Change your List filter = Unallocated > Search

How often do you check for unallocated notes?

I'm hoping you all just checked then - are you game to tell me how many you had? 😬

Some of you already know that you can file an email to an individual client record in Xplan  by forwarding the email to the client’s “entity id@your xplan site name”. (If you didn't - you do now) but this existing functionality is way more powerful than that.

Simply forward or cc an email to your User Group inbox and Xplan will file it for you. It scans for matching email addresses across your database and files the note against the right client record automatically. Your Xplan Inbox  is your “user group’s id@your xplan site name” (as opposed to your client’s entity id). 

AND you can even have Xplan automatically set the type and subtype of the note that is created based on the email subject by setting up rules that recognise certain words or phrases in the email subject.

💡Pro Tip

If you prefer emailing to each entity individually but are still manually looking up the entity id each time, create an export containing client name and entity id, add a column for @sitenname then use the excel function ‘concatenate’ to create every client’s unique Xplan email address for you - then import into your email client!

If you’re wondering how long this feature has been available, or want to see the step by step instructions, check out this article from 2015! 🤯

https://community.iress.com/t5/Best-Practice-Xplan/Incoming-email-How-to-automatically-file-your-emails-from-any/ta-p/4660

Your Xplan site is the engine of a five-star client experience, but is chaos bubbling behind the scenes? This guide is your essential recipe for operational excellence. 

For Xplan administrators and practice managers, you are the executive chef of your firm’s technology. The client sees the beautifully prepared dish, but you are responsible for the seamless choreography of the kitchen team. This is the definitive blueprint for achieving consistency, precision, and peak performance in your advice practice. 

Inside, you will discover how to master:

• Solid site foundations: Build consistent default settings and control your Xplan environment from the ground up.
• Absolute precision: Configure your advice tools, including APLs and model portfolios, to eliminate errors.
• Workflow Excellence: Master templates and repeatable workflows to ensure a consistent process for every client, every time.
• Actionable insights: Monitor data quality and transform “data drama” into clear, reliable information.
  

Ready to refine your operations, empower your team, and earn a standing ovation from your clients?

Download this essential guide today.

You now control whether the personal signature for the "From / Override From" user is added to your email.

A new option appears when composing or configuring emails:

• Include “From” or “Override From” address personal email signature
• Default: On (ticked) – this keeps the current behaviour.

What this means:

When ticked (default – existing behaviour):

🟪 The From user’s personal signature is added to the email when it’s sent

🟪 The personal signature is visible in Preview

🟪 The recipient sees the From user’s personal signature

When unticked (new behaviour):

🟪 The From user’s personal signature is not shown in Preview

🟪 It is not appended when the email is sent

🟪 The recipient will not see the From user’s personal signature

When to use it:

Use this option when:

🟪 Your template already includes a designed or extended signature

🟪 You’re adding additional disclaimers in the email body

🟪 You want to avoid double signatures (personal + proxy/adviser) or repeated disclaimers

The rest of the email content, including any signature‑style text you add yourself, remains fully editable.

Clicking through from the net position screen to see more detail or, using the magnifying glass on the cashflow screens to jump to the underlying asset detail is a great shortcut. However, if that "View Source" screen is cluttered with fields you don't use, or missing the ones you do, it just adds to the mental load. 

Many site admins assume this view is a fixed system default, but it is actually a configurable interface that can be tailored to match your practice's specific data requirements.

As a site admin, with "Edit Interface" capability, have you noticed the “Edit default product view” menu option on the left hand side? (If you haven't, you are definitely not alone!)

• Navigate to Admin > Interface in the left hand menu.
• Select Edit default product view.
• Choose the Product Type (e.g., Asset List) from the dropdown.
• Use the edit and arrow icons to add, remove, or reorder the fields.
• Click Save at the top of the page.

Once saved, any time a user clicks "View Source" from the cashflow summary or accesses an asset via a dashboard or the net position screen, they will see your newly optimised layout.

💡 Pro Tip: This configuration is a "hidden gem" because it also controls the view for other areas of Xplan, such as when a plan screen is viewed via a New Business record. If you have spent time customising your main Asset screens to be clean and efficient, it is worth mirroring those changes here so the user experience remains consistent regardless of how your team navigates to the data.

Has anyone else stumbled across this menu before, or are there other "hidden" interface settings you have found useful for streamlining data views?

• Eliminate manual tasks: Stop running reports one by one; let Scheduler do the work in the background while you focus on the actual advice.
• Securely delivery sensitive data: Using Secure Messaging via the portal is significantly safer than emailing sensitive financial data.
• Ensure consistency: Ensure every client in a specific segment receives their reporting at the exact same time, every time.

To set up the automation

1. Configure the File Note Template: Under Notes & Documents > Templates, create the file note template that will be used when you run your Xmerge report.
   • Set the Type and Subtype, Tags and Note Permissions
   • Enter the subject and body you want your client to see
   • Then under the “Related” tab, set Client Access to Yes and choose to Notify the client on note creation (This will send the preconfigured Client Portal email to the client letting them know they have a document to view)
2. Configure your Xmerge Report: Choose your desired Xmerge Template (e.g., Quarterly Portfolio Report). Set Add to Note = Yes
   • Select the File Note template you created
3. Identify your audience: Create a Saved Advanced Search. This ensures the automation only targets the correct group of clients.
4. In Scheduler, create your automation rule to use your Advanced Search criteria and merge your report. When the report is merged, it will automatically add a file note using your note template which is configured to show in the portal and email the client to let them know it’s there! Then schedule it to run automatically.

Not keen on having the reports go automatically? You can still set up the Schedule - but instead of enabling it to run automatically - a team member can choose to run it on-demand

Pro Tip

💡 Think about how you can code your template so that no manual intervention is required. If your report currently requires someone to select a date range, consider updating the code to always merge the previous quarter or previous 12 months.

💡Use syntax to rename the merge report so that it reads nicely when the client downloads it. So instead of “reportout-126484526-54841987.docx", your file can merge as "Fee_Consent_Form_Smith_June_2025.pdf"

Did you know you can import formatted text (bold, italics, underline) into Xplan fields?  

Standard CSV (Comma Separated Values) files are plain text only. They don't store formatting metadata like bold, italics, or font sizes. If you simply bold a cell in Excel and save it as a CSV, that "boldness" evaporates the moment the file is saved.

The "HTML Injection" Method

Most CRM "Rich Text" fields are essentially mini-web editors. They render HTML code. To import formatted text, you need to write the formatting tags directly into your CSV cells.

How to format your CSV data:

Instead of trying to make the text look bold in Excel, you wrap the text in HTML tags.

For example: This is <b>bold</b> and this is <i>italics</i>.

Common HTML Tags to Use

• Bold: <b>Text</b> or <strong>Text</strong>
• Italics: <i>Text</i> or <em>Text</em>
• Underline: <u>Text</u>
• Line Breaks: <br> (Use this if you want a new line without a massive paragraph gap)
• Bullet Points: <li>Item 1</li><li>Item 2</li>

💡Pro Tip

1. Use UTF-8 Encoding: When saving your CSV, always choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). This ensures that special characters or symbols don't turn into gibberish (like those weird é symbols) during the import.
2. The "Test Record" Rule: Never import 5,000 rows at once. Import one test record first to see if the CRM renders the bold/italics correctly.
3. Avoid Excel "Auto-Formatting": Excel loves to "help" by changing formats. Double-check your final file in a plain text editor (like Notepad or TextEdit) to ensure your tags look like <b>Text</b> and haven't been wrapped in extra sets of quotes.

If the specific "UTF-8" option isn't in your main dropdown list, it might be hidden in the web options:

1. Go to File > Save As.
2. Choose CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) as the file type.
3. Look for the More options... link or the Tools button (usually next to the "Save" button).
4. Select Web Options...
5. Go to the Encoding tab.
6. Select Unicode (UTF-8) from the list and click OK.
7. Hit Save.