Although there are a number of systems available to manage the functions of Soft Dollar departments, this program was created with the advantage of satisfying all company requirements. This is due to the fact that this major security firm initiated this business with the desire for a customized system. In addition, as requirements changed, this program was able to accommodate all enhancements without any production downtime.
Some of the major features are the ability to download and convert trade data and electronically reconcile revenue figures against the client’s data. Commitments are stored, invoices received and payments are made against the soft dollar commissions.
The generation of monthly customer statements with all auxiliary reports, the primary purpose of this program, is a simple process that takes minutes to produce. Various delivery options are available, including complete mailing packages, emails, transferring of spreadsheets and the publishing of results on the Web. Numerous management reports are included to provide the ability to obtain a status snapshot of all accounts and provide an early warning system for payments exceeding revenues, as well as highlighting any expiring relationships. An estimate report was also included for budgeting purposes, in addition to P&L reports to ensure profitability.
A complete document management system is incorporated into this program to allow the scanning, storing and retrieval of all commitment contracts and invoices on a per client basis as Adobe PDF files. This feature, along with the various on-demand reports, has significantly reduced the paperwork, a major issue in managing soft dollars.
A new company, firmView, provides a Web based system whereby customers can approve invoices over the Internet. Advanced Logical Solutions has worked closely with this company to assist in the initial setup and data conversion as well as the creation of all required bi-directional data transmissions including document images of invoices and commitment contracts. All data transmissions are performed in the background resulting in no interruptions in the production environment. The success of this program allowed the leveraging of the system to other clients, each with their own requirements, including a self-maintained web site to view positions, store and approve invoices and generate numerous status reports. In addition, the storing of documents was performed for one client in Oracle utilizing a BLOB conversion utility.