Well, thanks everybody for for joining our six pitfalls to avoid at quarter end webinar. My name is Joe Badalucco. I work on the business development team here at Orion. Today we're really going to be talking about quarter end and ultimately some of the advisors, some of the issues that advisors commonly face as they go through a quarter end or month end process. So we're going to take you through the quarter end dashboard. Additionally, after this slide, slide deck and then show you that tool and and also you know speak to how that might be able to help you with your corner and processes. The presentation at the end is being recorded and will be available for you shortly after we conclude. If you have any questions, please use the Q&A box at the bottom of your screen at any point during the presentation and then we'll do our best to respond to those questions via the chat. So first, first thing that most advisors run into during quarter end or month end processes is, is really time constraints. You know, do they have the time to manage this, do they have the staff and folks in place to be able to maintain that operational efficiency. So you know effective planning is is really essential for successful quarter end processing. You know folks that have come to Orion in the past have streamlined not only their quarter and billing but also their reporting. Processing takes them about 50% less time to achieve their quarter and processes with Orion than it previously did. So being able to provide and and create a detailed checklist of all the tasks that need to be completed and it's assigning specific responsibilities to team members to ensure that everything is complete and on time. And really what what we've found is that you know we found advisors that have come to Orion are really looking for a forward thinking business model and technology to support that business model to be able to to grow and become efficient you know using the same amount of time that everybody has in their in their days. #2 is really going to be around data accuracy. So you know we found a lot of advisors that commonly run into data accuracy issues and and data accuracy is crucial not only for day-to-day operations but also when you get to those month end or quarter end processes as well. So being able to review all data inputs, reconciliations carefully to ensure that everything is correct. You should also consider using tech tools, so again such as a Ryan quarter end dashboard to detect errors and inconsistencies. As it pertains to some of the audits that you would go through in a review process. Software issues. So you know, we we find a lot of firms that come to Orion, you know, they've either been using outdated software or they've had outdated processes in place for so long that you know to make a transition to Orion is is really scary and really kind of fearful for them. So being able to have a technology partner in place to be able to automate a lot of the tasks that are not only involved in the day-to-day process but also that quarter end area. So again, surrounding data reconciliation, the reporting, the billing, making sure you have everything succinct and you know, having those checks and balances in place and then investing in the right technology. So again, investing in the right technology to help you streamline and reduce the risk of errors when you go through your processing. Couple of different things that we've heard from firms lately is really you know kind of overall Orion as we continue to grow, as we continue to build out our infrastructure, being able to have a platform that's really built for all sizes and shapes of every firm that's in the industry. So you know the small mom and pop RA's to the large institutional RA's, broker dealers, you name it. So the out of the out-of-the-box functionality that we provide really allows firms to ramp up. Very quickly with with little investment in terms of time overall. Communication. So having clear and effective communication is really going to be essential for having a successful quarter end or month end processing. You should ensure that all team members are aware of their responsibilities and deadlines and have a clear understanding of the overall process. So having a checks and balances not only through the Orion platform but also internally through regular team meetings can ensure that everybody is on the same page. Again you know Orion greatly increased efficiencies. So again coming from a previous you know one of our clients, so Orion has increased their efficiencies across the board automating tasks and processes to make things much easier and less time consuming. So really the the ultimate driver behind that statement is you know you as an advisor, you as a firm. Your focus. Your time should be spent on addressing client servicing issues, being able to go out and attain new business. You know, not spend your days or your weeks or your months going through your checks and balances to be able to run your processing. From a compliance perspective, so just staying up to date on all the relevant regulations to ensure that all would be reporting and other tasks are compliant. It does you know may involve attending CE sessions, training sessions or consulting with outside compliance experts to ensure that you're up to date. But certainly you would have capabilities within our platform to be able to maintain those, those regulations and those audits. And again you know just kind of an example from a client, so Orion's constant improvement, innovative attempts to make the advisors life easier, our compliance dashboards you know save us so much time and provide us exactly what we need. So again just a testimonial to to let you know Orion's technology really has those items in place for you. From a rebalancing perspective, you know you want to avoid last minute rebalancing challenges, try to proactively review client portfolios well in advance of the end of the quarter. So making sure that you're up to date. You're you know raising cash that needs to be raised, you're spending cash and needs to be spent. You're doing your tax off harvesting, bringing things back into you know back to target in terms of a rebalance whether that's across a model or a portfolio. And then we do have ways to or. Advisors to automate the rebalancing process using our software tools and our trading platform. So again back to you know the the overall story of this webinar is is creating efficiencies for for all of your back end processing and and again a couple of client testimonials. So you know one of them said that they're significantly more efficient in trading which was a pain point from the previous software provider. So you know market volatility over the last year to year and a half you know obviously has been a big sticking point with not only. You know. You know, putting stress and onus on a technology provider to be able to respond accordingly to what the advisors are needing, but also having the advisors have Peace of Mind from a technology provider to be able to respond to those client questions. And then just another one, Orion is crucial from a compliance and not trading operations standpoint. Again, really starting to rely heavily on Orion in terms of the billing and the reporting pieces overall. Now we'd like to take 10 minutes to show you the Orion quarter and dashboard and see how we can and show how we can help with many of the common pitfalls that are you know at an advisors top of mind. Welcome to the demonstration portion of today's webinar. So you know for folks that are currently using Orion and also for folks that are not currently using Orion. As you can see we do have Orion framed inside of Redtail CRM as we speak. So this is a live integration. And an assimilation of the technologies after our targeted acquisition of Redtail Technologies early last year. So you know Orion's 1st frame of mind was to assimilate the technologies. And really you know having Brian McLaughlin, the founder and owner of Redtail CRM be the Orion advisor technology president to help assimilate those technologies and drive the efficiencies going forward is a really nice, nice added feature for again current advisors that use Orion as well as perspective. Advisors that may be looking to leverage Orion as a technology provider. So the Orion dashboard, this is my dashboard configured to my individual settings when I log in. But really for today's purposes, we're going to focus on the quarter and dashboard which as you can see on the left hand side under the menu tree is located right here. So from an advisor's perspective to be able to get in, to be able to go into quarter end dashboard, again whether you're doing that at 1/4 end or month end processing really going to be dependent on on you as the advisor, how you want to structure those items and how you do your your billing and your reporting. For your clients, we just have it named quarter and dashboard and then once we dive into that, the quarter and dashboard is actually going to give us every single quarterly or monthly run that we've done whether you know everything, what the start date was, what the period was, if it's been signed off and then what the, what the completion status was. So on the right hand side you're going to notice that everything has been completed to either 100% or almost 100%. You know from a demo database perspective you know it's probably why things are not at 100%. But obviously from an advisors day-to-day, you are going to be at 100% when you get through this to ensure that you're maintaining your your proper controls. We'll go into one that's previously completed and what it's going to do is, is pull up a full list of items that that you as an advisor can manage and maintain within your quarter end processing. So portfolio audit is a tool within the Orion technology that allows us to be able to dive into particular client household records. You know think of it more of as a as an Excel grid to be able to dive into client records be able to assign. You know, anything that's missing, so maybe we didn't get a Social Security number, maybe we didn't get an address or maybe we didn't get a fee schedule or a model from the custodian as the new account fed into the Orion platform. So you see we'll highlight this missing information line item here. We have 67 households that are missing information. We could very easily go address all of the households that have missing information right in our portfolio audit tool and I'll scroll over to the right and we'll see what's kind of missing so. I referenced date of birth, Social Security number, so it's a demo database. A lot of that stuff is going to be coming over from the custodians, but we could very easily go address that information right from here in math if we chose to. So we can go edit those households, we can go assign that fee, schedule that model, go update an e-mail address or date of birth if it's all pertaining to the same household, obviously. And then the efficiencies that we provide with the quarter end dashboard tool is to be able to get right back to the quarter end dashboard. So I can go straight back to where I was while maintaining my checks and balances as I go through this. So left hand side is you know what are we going to be addressing and then the right hand side is our sign off. So you can see a lot of it's already been signed off. But again you know from going in and and re reviewing everything we can certainly do that. So billing audit again taking us into the missing fee schedules. So 7777 accounts that have a missing fee schedule or an unassigned fee schedule and what that allows us to do again very quickly, very easily goes to you, OK. We have you know, unassigned fee schedules back to the portfolio audit tool where we could go grabbing and selecting a group of accounts. We could go edit those accounts in mass. We could assign a flat fee schedule. If if our advisory firm is is applying the same fee schedule to every account, we could very easily go edit these accounts, apply that fee schedule. You know whatever that might be, whether it's flat, linear, tiered, it's a basis point pricing model, it's a flat annual fee amount. Again either way you want to slice and dice the fee schedule, we can we can pretty much accommodate there. So again edit the accounts, you can do that in mass, you could do it on a one off basis, however you want to justify that and process that piece of the quarter end process and then again takes us right back to that dashboard that we were on and then we could start again continue to go through our checks and balances. Going through product audit, any sort of additional options and settings and then you actually see data Recon. So Orion's data Recon will actually sign off on a couple of these items. So you know again our our reconciliation teams are here to support you from a day-to-day perspective. They even do come in on Saturdays as well to reconcile Fridays close of business files that we received from the custodians and then they will sign off on this as you go through your quarter and process and then we get to. Final dashboard sign off. So we're gonna have somebody, whether that's a CEO or maybe an operations individual sign off on the quarter and dashboard to make sure that we've done our checks and balances, we've reviewed everything and then we have our generation Wizards. So you know once you get through the sign off process, you're going to generate your fee bills, you're going to generate your statements and send those out to the clients. So you know fee billing can be done through a direct custodial account where you're debiting. Direct debiting the client accounts of the custodian or your collecting via you know check pay or you're collecting via credit card. So we do have integration partners that support credit card and debit card collections from a fee billing perspective and then statement batch wizard you know that's really a step by step process to take you through. Your your quarter end processing from a quarterly performance evaluation, so you want to get your clients an e-mail notification very similarly to a bank statement or a credit card statement e-mail that you get. You know that prompts you to say hey your your new statements ready to go view you go into your mobile app environment, go grab that statement review that and then obviously have your disclaimers, your disclosures. If you want clients to give you a call you would include that in your e-mail communication to them as well. And then from an additional compliance perspective, that statement Badge Wizard allows you to BCC and no reply e-mail where you can maintain that for records, books and records purposes. Thank you all for joining us today. Hope you found the presentation and demonstration useful. If you do want to see the quarter end dashboard in action or have more questions about Orion, please click the blue button on your screen to get a personalized demo. _1732539791109

6 Pitfalls to Avoid at Quarter End

Quarter end processing can be a stressful time for you and your firm with strict deadlines, complex tasks, and a high risk of errors.

Join Joe Badalucco, Senior Internal Sales Representative, as he explores the common pitfalls and challenges that you face during quarter end and provides practical strategies for avoiding them. He’ll also share an insider look at the Orion Quarter End Dashboard, one of our most popular solutions - designed specially to streamline your quarter-end and eliminate the hurdles.

0651-OAT-3/2/2023

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