Prepare for billing
1.Check billing settingsGo to Billing Center, select Settings and Assignments, then select Settings to review your firm’s fee settings. Make updates as needed.
2.Review client and account settingsCheck to make sure clients and accounts have the correct fee settings, especially if you’ve added any accounts, fees, or offerings this billing cycle. To do this, select Client Assignments or Account Assignments in the Settings and Assignments menu.
3.Review new accounts
Go to Billing Center > Settings and Assignments > New Accounts
◎ Are the accounts in the proper household?
◎ Are the accounts assigned to the correct advisor?
◎ Are new accounts assigned the correct billing setting or excluded from billing?
◎ Review who is paying for the new account, if it’s not paying for itself.
4.Review exclusions
You can customize billing through exclusions
◎ Accounts: Exclude an entire account balance.
◎ Security: Remove a specific security (i.e., cash) from all accounts
◎ Holding: A specific position within a particular account.
5.Run test reports
Select Run Test Billing from the Run dropdown.
◎ Confirm any updates you made since the last billing cycle.
◎ Review any warnings especially unreconciled billing accounts.
◎ Check cash balances against estimated fees.
Prepare for reporting
1.Review your templates
Double check that you’re happy with the layout and design, and make changes to templates if needed. Review whether your tasks are set to run automatically or manually.
◎ Update templates if needed
Go to Report Builder or Report Builder 2.0, select the template that needs to change, and select its name. After you make changes, be sure to use the Save icon.
◎ Add any documents
If you want to add an additional file, such as a PDF, go to Reporting Center, and select Report Packages. Select the name of the package you want to edit, and use the blue “+” icon to add files from the Documents App or upload a new file. To add a file In Report Builder 2.0, select New Page > External Document.
2.Review Settings
Check to see whether you’re set to run reports manually or on a schedule, and make adjustments if you’d prefer a different approach. Go to Reporting Center and then Report Tasks to make those changes. (Non-Recurring Tasks = manual.)
3.Preview a Report
Preview how your report package looks for a sample client before sending.
Select Reports followed by Report Packages. Select Ok to preview the report package or View Package to make edits. Use the slider on the Reports menu to access Reports 2.0.
On the day
Keep in mind you won’t be able to bill until the first of the month (or the first of a quarter).
◎ Fee Calculation Report
◎ Custodian Fee File (Note: If you have clients that pay by check, or if you work with multiple custodians, these reports may not match.)
◎ Billing summary
◎ Upload Custodian Fee File (Note: Schwab and TDA users can do this via the direct upload tool.)
◎ Run client reports if you’ve elected to do it manually.
Check for issues; you’ll see a warning notification.
Download reports. A zip file will download from the task. Head to Documents,select the appropriate folder, then select Save to Local.
