Welcome to the Mclowd Practitioner Update for January.
Introduction
Continued weakness and volatility in financial markets (including property), combined with political instability looks set to make 2019 a challenging year for SMSF professionals and their clients.
However there will be one constant throughout this period – the laser focus of the Mclowd Team on delivering consistent improvements to the software, while ensuring high quality support is available to thousands of active users.
The goals of these efforts are very simple:
- Drive down costs for Practitioners
- Improve net returns for Trustees
Recent Deployments
To that end the following have been deployed this month:
- Support for the Coles demerger
- Improved support for the handling of DRP balances
- Bank accounts are now listed individually in the Detailed Statement of Financial Position
Handling DRP Balances
Based on feedback from (and collaboration with) various users the following are now in production:
- The ability to enter fractional share volumes via the asset and income reinvestment pages
- Surfacing fractional reinvestment balances through the chart of accounts
- Enabling different cash / settlement dates for reinvestment transactions
- Allowing choice between the dividend reinvestment remainder being entered as a cash payment or a carry-forward balance
- The ability to reverse new dividend reinvestment transactions where required
Practitioner Billing
From 1 July Mclowd will move to a simplified monthly billing cycle where active Funds are charged at $2.50 per calendar month (ex GST), rather than $30 per annum.
Data feeds will be similarly charged on a monthly basis (where not included in the Pro version by default).
These changes are designed to make the process of managing client Funds easier (ie adds, edits, deletes), and Practitioners will also have access to improved Firm / Fund billing reports.
We will follow up with active users over the next few months. In the interim anyone who would like to understand the prospective savings generated by these price points can visit our online calculator.
Conclusion
Whether Trustee or Practitioner, poor returns on retirement assets will inevitably lead to a renewed focus on costs.
In that context the challenge for Mclowd in 2019 is quite simple:
Deliver against the development targets required by key stakeholders so they can make a seamless transition to Mclowd from 1 July.
As always, please keep the feedback coming. Regards
Ashley Porter
Managing Director
Mclowd Pty Ltd