Welcome to the Mclowd Practitioner Update for April.
Introduction
While a number of large administration firms, including Super Plus and Super Factory are scheduled to migrate to Mclowd for FY19, nearly 100 firms are already actively using the software.
Speaking of his participation in the Community, Perth-based practitioner Frank Genovesi had this to say: “Over the last 12 months my confidence with the software has grown tremendously, thanks to the responsiveness of the Support Team, as well as the constant improvements that have been delivered in that period.
“While not a large practice, I am now able to run all my SMSF clients on Mclowd, and have begun to invite them to collaborate with me online. This approach reduces their overall costs, while ensuring I get full value for the time I spend on a particular file.
“I can also engage with the Marketplace for those services which I do not provide, enabling me to craft an end-to-end solution. The net result is that
I’m punching above my weight in what is an increasingly competitive landscape.
“I encourage all SMSF professionals to engage with Mclowd. Based on my experience I expect it to become the backbone of the industry.”
Pensions
As flagged in the March Practitioner Update, support for internal transfers has now been enabled.
We have also created a standalone pensions administration area within the interface to distinguish between pensions at fund migration and pensions created during the financial year.
Further improvements are planned for this area to streamline the workflow associated with the creation of interim balances.
Managed Fund and Equities Data
Thanks to our alliance with Morningstar, June quarter targets associated with managed fund and equities data are already well under way.
The new screens are referred to as Asset Maintenance. The initial release is available for review in the Beta environment (under the Settings tab), and includes the following:
- Price history for ASX stocks and managed funds
- Basic stock attributes
Current work-in-progress involves the following additional features:
- Five years of dividend history for ASX stocks
- Distribution history for Australian managed funds
- Asset allocation for Australian managed funds
- The ability to add new physical asset classes
- Improved taxonomy of financial asset classes and security types
- The ability to add and maintain assets at the practice level
TBAR
We have completed the specification process for our TBAR solution and are beginning development this month.
Practitioners who would like more detail are welcome to contact me directly, and we will provide visibility to progress in the May update.
Multi-Year Licensing
Alongside improvements to the Transactions screen all of the above are scheduled for release into production for 1 July so that firms large and small can take advantage of the multi-year licensing arrangements that are on offer through to 30 September 2018.
This commercial model is designed to provide early adopters with a significant commercial advantage. The quantum of these nominal savings can be estimated using the savings calculator on the website.
Introductory Webinar
Existing and prospective users looking for more information on the above are welcome to join our next Introductory Webinar on Thursday April 12th at 12:30pm AEST.
Due Diligence
Practitioners looking to conduct due diligence on Mclowd are reminded that access to the Pro version (usually $30 per Fund per annum) is free for the first five Funds through to the end of FY19.
For those who have not yet joined the Community, simply click here to get started.
Conclusion
Recent M&A activity illustrates that the SMSF sector is undergoing considerable change.
The continued growth of the Mclowd Community represents a key part of these structural shifts, both as to:
- The per unit cost of technology infrastructure
- The manner in which professional services are delivered
As always, please keep your feedback coming.
Regards
Graeme McGuire
Product Manager
Mclowd Pty Ltd