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 Michael Varney: Managing Partner
Tel: +61 3 8872 8777
“With Desktop Super, the screen tells you how to do things and so data entry is really simple to get right. Once the data is input, you want reports and DS generates reports really easily. In this regard it’s much faster than BGL. Much faster and much more efficient.”
We were one of the very early firms talking to APS back in 1999. We’ve been committed users ever since and now have Advance Practice Management, Xcede Professional Accounting (XPA), Advance Tax. Most recently we implemented Desktop Super (DS).
After quite a degree of thought, we took on Desktop Super at the beginning of this financial year (FY08/09). It’s been a great success for us and we have 5 users on the system in total.
We had been using BGL ‘Simple Fund’ prior to DS – and had been on it for quite a number of years.
Really it came down to the complexity of using BGL versus what we thought looked like a very easy-to-use Desktop Super.
One of the problems we had encountered with BGL Simple Fund was that it was very time consuming to use and in our opinion, very disjointed. But with Desktop Super, you have a single screen to manage all your input and output.
It looked to be just what we wanted and, once we had moved across, this is just how it played out. The integration showed itself to be very good and we saw an immediate improvement in areas such as the accurate calculation of members’ entitlements.
Importantly, the ease-of-use was as good in practice as we had hoped it would be.
To start with our team was worried about changing software – everyone was so used to Simple Fund. Once the new Advance Desktop Super software was configured onto our system, we had one day of training – and on reflection, we probably needed two days.
Of course, to get fully up to speed took some time, particularly since in our first year we had the significant task of converting each fund over to DS. That said, it has been a worthwhile exercise – because everything is done much faster. For example, in DS it is much quicker to process matters and generate reports.
Before we were on DS, it would take about 2 hours to run the final report for a client – now we are on DS it doesn’t even take 30 minutes.
It’s not one single thing, more the overall simplicity of the whole application. The screen tells you how to do things and so data entry is really simple to get right. Once the data is input, you want reports and DS generates reports really easily. In this regard it’s much faster than BGL. Much faster and much more efficient.
Also, the whole audit trail is simplified – and this makes checking the client file very simple indeed; it’s easy to read which saves us time and ultimately gives our clients certainty.
Another item of key importance to us is the ‘drill down’ capabilities in Desktop Super. One or two clicks and you can access whatever supporting information you need. Link that to the reporting effectiveness and you have a powerful piece of software. For example, a trial balance can be run off in seconds.
The main problem we have is in Pension Mode – we’d like to streamline the actuary percent in Exempt Pension Income. We understand this is already underway but we’d like to see that come through in the next version.
Similarly, when it comes to loading the prices of Public Company shares, there is some room for improvement, particularly in relation to the ‘import’ function.
This software has been a long time coming. Finally we have a fairly simple, efficient and a more accurate software package to service our end of the market. |
