Solution of the Month:

Tracking Commissions and Fees with ACT!

Did you know ACT! can track the income your are due or have already received?

That’s right! ACT!’s Sales Opportunities tab allows you to track not only possible sales but also completed sales. These completed sales can generate a sales report that can show you how much money you made or how much you should collect.

Click on the Sales Opportunities tab and click on New Opportunity.

Act4Advisors 1.5 comes with some sample Product and Type data to help you understand how you might use these features. Customize these for your own practice type.

For example, if you are a Fee and Commission advisor, you might have products and services in the Product area. (Use your F2 key in these fields to customize.) If you prepare taxes, do financial plans, sell managed accounts, mutual funds or insurance, you can create a product for each. The type can be a subset of each of these products such as fee, commission, insurance, investing, services, etc.

The Sale Information area allows you to input the potential revenue OR the sold revenue. Some advisors only want to track commissions and not potential sales. We recommend both which helps you stay focused on what you have in the pipeline. ACT!’s sales reports can show sold business with a summary of revenue or a sales forecast of opportunities.

Let’s try an example:

Assume your client is going to invest $250,000 with you in a managed account. You can either choose Managed Account from the product list or add it by clicking on the F2 key. If you would like to be more specific about the actual account, you might want to input the actual account in the Product list, ie. Lockwood, SEI, Centurion, Campbell, etc. If you choose this approach, be sure to add Managed Account to the Type area. To decide how to use the feature, consider the reports you want to generate and what you want those reports to say.

Because ACT!’s Unit field will only accept whole numbers, input the amount to be invested and in the Unit Price, add the management fee you expect to collect. If this is a Sales Opportunity and not an actual sale, determine the date you plan to close the business and the probability of closing. This can be tricky but if you have been in the business for more than 5 years, you can be fairly accurate based on your experience. Otherwise, you might want to consider the sales stage you are in to determine how likely you are to get the business.

For example, if you have met the client twice, prepared an asset allocation report and are meeting again to go over recommendations, you might choose 80% or higher. Choosing the Probability is more Art than Science.

The Sales stages established in ACT! by default were created by Dale Carnegie and are a proven method for sales people. The problem is, most financial advisors have different sales methods based on how many meetings they have with the client before they actually close the business. Consider your own sales processes and change these to fit your circumstances.

If you have already sold the account and only want to track the fees and commissions, enter in the Product and Sale information and click on the Complete Sale button.

If you would like to track “why” the client decided to go with your recommendations, input a Reason and then click on OK. This will record a closed sale.

Completed Sales Report

To print out sales reports, click on the Reports menu choice, Sales Reports, Sales Totals by Status.

On the Run Report dialog box, click on the Sales/Opportunities tab. Choose Closed/won sales, Date range desired and your Sort Sales by criteria and click on OK.

The Sales Report will display Total Units and Total Sales. Total Sales is your revenue.