⭐​ Opex Solution | Xeppo - Service Pack & Opex Assent App

📌 What🔨 How to set-up👉 How to useℹ More information

What it is

The Opex Assent App solution in Xeppo has your service agreement doco covered - generate your renewal and/or new agreements, and include an FDS and/or fee consent forms where needed - how simple or comprehensive you make them is up to you! 

Enhancements to the Opex Assent App are being released iteratively over the next 6-12 months as the industry and technology adapts to the new legislative requirements. Keep checking here to stay up to date with enhancements to the solution as they become available.

How to get it set-up

How to get the solution for your business

How to request the solution 

Let Opex help you achieve peace of mind managing your Ongoing Fee Arrangements and associated compliance obligations through the Assent App (previously known as Auto FDS App).

Request a demo by emailing [e-mail]  and one of our Sales Team will be in contact.

How you can change it

Standard options

A complete setup guide can be found here. You must have a subscription to the Assent App prior to completing the setup. If you do not have a subscription please get in touch via the Opex Support team. 

How much

Learn how to use our Service Pack solution with the Opex Assent App in Xeppo and the different options you have available. 

Duration: 21 mins 16 secs

This video provides a walk-through of our Opex Assent App on Xeppo solution:

Assent App: Administration Settings:

• Admin > Settings inputs

• Admin > Providers (starts at 2:22); this is a new feature in the Assent App so even if you've been utilising the previous FDS App you will need to complete this. 

• Admin > Advisers (starts at 3:00)

• Admin > Fee Categories (starts at 3:30)

• Admin > Service Packages (starts at 3:52)

Assent App: Managing client data in bulk

• Adding/Adjusting Service Packages across your client list (starts at 4:50)

• Adding/Adjusting Opt-in/FDS Data across your client list (starts at 9:08)

Assent App: Generating an FDS and Service Agreement

• End to end run through of entering the data and generating the document (starts at 10:08)

💡 There's a whole lot of 'new' in this space - and there will be even more over the next 1-2 years as the industry adapts to this. Check out the below for some key tips to help you navigate the changing landscape - we'll keep adding to these in response to common questions we get.

💡 Tip 1: Expect change

Change will be the only constant as your business, product providers and technology solutions re-calibrate to accommodate this new style of managing the service end of your client.

Change - even the good kind - is disruptive. And expensive. And takes time and effort to figure out.

To help your business manage the changes coming in this space over the next 12-18 months - in a time and cost effective way - we’ve released the Service Pack template as part of our Best Practice Toolkit solution for Xeppo. So, if your business is under our standard Opex Assent App subscription, you'll get it. This means we can be more agile in our responsiveness to enhancements - and solve the same core problems once, for everyone - and, of course - means you can get our enhancements without having to ask and pay for them.

💡 Tip 2: See what else we're thinking about in this space

•  Option to include an estimate fee on the Revenue Tab
As per the ASIC FAQ released June 15, practices can include an estimate of the amount of fees for up to 60 days of the 12-month period:

•  Power BI Reporting - updating the existing FDS App Power BI report to make it easier for you track your Ongoing Fee Arrangements. 

•  Digital Signature Capability - does your business utilise an online digital signature platform? The Assent App can integrate with any of the below Digital Signature platforms:

• Adobe Sign

• DocuSign

• Eversign

• HelloSign

• OneSpan Sign

And many more... Interested? Get in touch with the Opex Support team. 

💡 Tip 3: Know your licensee & legislative compliance requirements

Opex is not a licensee. We provide technology solutions to help businesses in the financial industry manage their clients. It is the responsibility of your licensee to ensure their disclosure and compliance requirements are being met within our solution framework.

Using the same methodology as our other solution builds, our Service Pack solution provides a framework to assist your business in managing the service agreement, FDS and fee consent obligations. However, it is the responsibility of your licensee to interpret the legislative requirements and ensure our solutions enable you to incorporate the specific content they deems required to meet its legal disclosure and compliance requirements.

For more information on the legislation relating to service agreements & fee consent:

🔗 View legislation 🔗 View ASIC FAQ 🔗 View 'relief' (FDS estimates)

💡 Tip 4: Know what services your business will offer

Keep it simple.You will need to individually offer, deliver, track and prove each of these services, so keep your service list clearly defined and manageable.

Explicitly confirm what services will be available for your business to offer to clients in your service agreement.

This will ensure your business is comfortable in knowing what it needs to deliver, to who and when - and thus what is required to meet your contractual obligations of the service agreement.

💡 Tip 5: Know what service evidence is required for each service

For each service, identify what the service evidence point will be and how you plan to store this against the client.

For software to automate service tracking, it needs to be given clear rules. For staff to effectively meet the rules the software is looking for, they need to be simple and fit logically within their usual processes. At audit time, the auditor is looking for proof the services offered have actually been delivered. Having a review marked as complete, a diary event in your calendar or a field ticked provides no evidence these events actually occurred.

We HIGHLY recommend using activities and/or documents only for capturing & tracking all services. This enables consistent treatment of all services, supports capture of the service evidence points (attachments, emails), can be manipulated into onscreen service views and/or coded out. Make sure you identify the specific type/subtype each service will be tracked under (noting the selected combo needs to be used for that service ONLY).

💡 Tip 6: Create activity templates for each service evidence point

The best way to capture service evidence is for staff to be able to do so quickly and consistently as a simple BAU function at the time the service is delivered.

Service delivery is a high volume activity area that will be completed by different people at different times, so every layer of complexity at any point in this process increases the risk of staff inadvertently missing a step - and thus the process failing. A failed process, may result in a contractual breach of a service agreement.

On that cheery note(!), if your business has clearly articulated its services, mandated all service evidence to be captured in the client's activities, and has identified the explicit type/subtypes to capture these - you're in a very good position.

Now you just need to create an activity template for each key service item. You can make these as simple or complex as you like, but at a minimum, preset the type, subtype and subject line - and name it as a 'Service - XXXX' template. This will enable your staff to quickly locate and use the service-related activities during their normal BAU operations and know they are capturing the key service agreement related functions correctly so it gets picked up in tracking. So win-win - the software gets the defined rules it needs to automate tracking - and your staff are able to capture evidence quickly and consistently as part of normal BAU.

Note - legislation also has specific record-keeping requirements around service-related documents such as your executed service agreement, fee consent forms/notices, termination/variation requests - so create templates and/or filing rules for these too!

For a refresher on how to create activities on Xeppo 🔗 Xeppo Training Webinar: Activities

💡 Tip 7: Know what fee consent methods your product providers will accept 

Each product provider will have different rules around what methods of fee consent they will accept. Check this before you get your clients to provide fee consent to ensure it is being obtained in a format the product provider will accept.

If your fees will be paid from product providers, find out what methods of fee consent they will support...

• Will they accept custom forms or their own fee consent methods only?

• If accepting custom forms, do they need to pre-approve the format and content of these first?

• Do they have accept the same fee consent methods for all agreement types, or have different requirements for each agreement type?

• Will they accept digital signatures via Adobe Sign or DocuSign, or wet signatures only?

Other articles that may be worth a look:

On our portal:

⭐ XXXX

🍏 XXXX

On the Xeppo Helpdesk Portal (requires login):

🔗 XXXX

Other webpages:

🔗 Parliament - Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2020

🔗 ASIC - FAQs: Ongoing fee arrangements

🔗 Treasury - Relief for financial advisers to meet their ongoing fee disclosure obligations