Release Notes: Billing

Currently, on the account editor you can go to Account A and set it to pay for Account B.  Then you can set Account B to pay for Account A.  This development will no longer allow circular reference where two accounts pay for each other’s fee.

This enhancement enables you to delete any user-created or manually created adjustment types that have not been used in a bill. 

You will now be able to take an existing fee schedule or payout rate, make a copy, edit changes, and then save it as a new fee schedule or payout rate.

When you creates a final bill for an account, then the account is no longer aggregated with other accounts for renewal bills.

This update allows you to delete ‘Asset Level Fee Schedule’ through the custom imports with this template ‘Delete Asset Level Fee Schedule.’

You can now create ‘Fee Schedules’ through the custom imports with this template ‘Fee Schedule Add.’

This enhancement enables you to update all billing fields for any given active account through the custom imports.

In the Billing Audit app on all of the Account Audit views, we updated the Pay Method ‘Direct From Fund’ to ‘Direct’ and ‘Paid by Another Fund which is Direct’ to ‘Indirect’.  This update brings continuity to all other pay method visuals within Orion Connect and pay methods on reports.

If an advisor calculates prorate bills on cash flows in advanced then cash flow transactions need to be marked as billable transactions.  Previously, if the transaction was a positive amount, then you had to click on the “New Money Ready” box and if the transaction was a negative amount then the “Advanced Billed” box needed to be checked.  This new development has combined the two boxes into a single “Cash Flow Bill” box.  Any interested party will need a database option “Toggle Cash Flow Bill Option” changed from False to True.

This development allows fees calculated on canceled sleeves to be rolled up to the custodial account number on the TDA fee file.

This development allows the creation of the Folio Institutional Fee File.

This development allows financial planning fees to be added en masse.

With this new import, any receivables that are calculated outside of Orion can now be imported into the Orion platform and stored on our receivable tables. The purpose of this import is to display totals only.  Therefore, the import will only allow the sum of each account fee per bill instance.  For example, if an account is billed outside of Orion using a tiered schedule, then the import will not allow the tier breakouts, but will accept the total of those tiered fees.  Please contact your service member for more information and instructions.

The Payee field in Firm Profile for Bill Entities, Broker Dealer, Representative, Sub Advisor and RIA is now sorted alphabetically.

How to get there: Orion Connect > 

Firm Profile > Bill Entities > Edit an entity > Payee is sorted alphabetically

Firm Profile > Broker/Dealer> Edit a Broker/Dealer > Select Payee is sorted alphabetically

Firm Profile > Representative> Edit a representative > Select Payee is sorted alphabetically

Firm Profile > Representative> Edit a RIA > Select RIA is sorted alphabetically

Firm Profile > Sub-advisors> Edit a sub-advisors > Select sub-advisors is sorted alphabetically

One of the primary goals for the billing team in 2022 is to redesign all billing features in Orion Connect based on the Orion Product Language (OPL).  This new look will combine all billing apps into a single location and improve the user’s experience.  The adjustment type is one of the first items we are testing out this new look and feel.  If you are interested in helping us by providing feedback, please contact the service team and they can turn on the Consolidation App.  The Consolidation App will not be released to the public until the end of the year.

The new Bill Detail feature will allow users to see all bills that have ever been generated for a household and then allow you to drill down into that bill.  The Bill Detail will display the fee and payout calculations, what assets were included in the bill, any adjustments, and pay for information.  Currently this feature is only located in Portfolio Audit, but soon the user will be able to access this feature in the Billing Audit and from the Bill Generator.

As a rule C Shares should not be billed or included in the billed market value. For firms who provide C shares as an option, we now have the ability to exclude them by selecting a database option. Once this option is set to true then any account with a C share asset will automatically be excluded for billing.

Users can now create parameters around the deletion of a default rep. This new enhancement will require that a new default rep is set before the current default rep is deleted.  A new message will appear providing instructions, “Cannot delete a default representative. Please set a new default representative first.”

If the firm uses fee hierarchy, we now have the ability to have any new account default the “use fee hierarchy” to true at the account edit screen.

Tracking outstanding receivables for advisors who use sleeves used to mean multiple line items would be used to display the management fees calculated for each sleeve.  This development allows management fees to be rolled up at the registration level.  This way the post payment app will match the information that was provided to the custodian on the fee file, thus making it easier to match and post fees.

Now an Advisor has the ability to change the default representative that is assigned to all new households, by selecting the Default Representative box inside the representative edit screen.  Please be aware that changing this default could result in a rep seeing account information for client’s that are not under their representation.  Best practice is to create a “New Account Rep” or your firm’s name (“Show Me the Money Financial”) as the default representative instead of an actual individual.

Previously if an advisor ever wanted to change the message on an invoice about the pay method, they would have to provide the message to their Orion service team and wait for Orion to update that message.  Now an advisor has the ability to change the message without having to reach out to Orion. We have even added balance due and due date tags so the message can display invoice specific information within the message.

Previously when Advisory Fee Reports were created by the billing team, those reports were stored and viewed in the Advisory fee Reports App. For those who use both the Advisory Fee Reports and the Payout Dashboard, we found it was unnecessary for them to have to go to separate apps just to review the different reports. Therefore, we combined the reports into a single storage and location.

One of the most popular requests we have received is to add Last Name as a column in the Payout Dashboard slick grids. With this release, we’ve made that functionality available so that now you are able to add Last Name as a column on any slickgrid tab.

Now, when a payment is processed in the Billing app, an advisory fee report can be generated for the sub advisor entity.

Previously, when updating accounts en-masse there was no ability to toggle “Use Fee Hierarchy” from false to true or from true to false. Now however, those advisors who have the entity option “Use Fee Hierarchy” toggled “True,” can toggle the “Use Fee Hierarchy” box en-mass within the Account Update tool.

The adoption rate for the fee hierarchy continues to grow and many of the firms using the fee hierarchy use contribution and distribution sleeves.  Since these accounts are mostly used as sleeves we wanted to provide the opportunity to assign a different default fee.

Apex is a new custodian integration partner with Orion. This fee file allows those who have a relationship with Apex to collect fees.  If fees are calculated on accounts with a Fund Family of Apex then a fee file for Apex will be generated with the other custodian fee file.

This enhancement was developed for firms who have joint reps with multiple rep numbers.  Previously this input held only 100 characters, now the cell is able to hold 1000 characters.

To help identify the Related Households that are being aggregated together for Billing purposes, you can now tag those households with the “@” function.

Currently, when you add a recurring adjustment with a start date during the billing period, it will not apply until the next billing cycle. To improve this, we now allow for a recurring adjustment to be prorated if the start date is during the billing cycle.

A large majority of our clients use the valuation of period ending. In order to get a truer representation of the account they are managing, many choose to bill on cash flows.  Prior to this development, cash flows could not be broken out into a separate section on a report.  Now it is possible to display cash flows in a way that is easier to understand.  This development will clear the way for a large majority of our advisors to convert their invoices into the RB3 format.

Sometimes, you want to be able to view your accounts that are assigned to a zero percent fee schedule to be able to more effectively audit your accounts. To help, we built a new view called “Fee Schedule is Zero” in the Bill Audit app under the accounts section.

To assist when adding an adjustment at the account or household level, we’ve created the ability to limit the responsible entity to one that is in the payout schedule on the account, or an entity assigned through the Fee Hierarchy and the ‘Prorate by Payouts’ option.

As a user in the Bill Generator app, once you have created bills, you are now able to generate new Fee Hierarchy Audit Files when Billing Audit files are created. The new audit file should only generate if you are using the ‘Use Fee Hierarchy’ option.

Now, when you process a payment in the Payout Dashboard, the amounts in the “paid commission” tab will match what was in the “currently approved” tab before the payment was processed. Previously, the initial amount of the payable was being used in the paid commission tab. The Pending approval and currently approved columns were calculated using Initial Amount + Adjustment.

When adding a credit or expense, the adjustment type list is now filtered based on your selection of Credit or Charge. Also, the amount field only allows for positive numbers if a credit and negative if a charge has been selected to help eliminate confusion.

In an ongoing commitment to replicate all Orion’s imports housed on the legacy Custom Imports tool, we’ve made the Recurring Adjustments imports available in Custom Imports 2.0. Now, you are able to import all your Recurring Adjustments en masse, as well as edit in-line and fix upload errors right on the Custom Imports page.

In an effort to transition all of our imports over to our new and improved Custom Imports tool, we’ve created an import for Advisor Fee Adjustments. Since many of our advisors have multiple general account adjustments that need to be applied, we’ve given you the power to import those adjustments yourselves, along with the in-line editing and error fixes you’ve come to love in Custom Imports 2.0.

We’ve heard from some Orion advisors who want to be able to select the Household ID as a column in the post payments app to help identify the correct fees to post. We’ve built that into the Post Payment app. The column is disabled by default, but can easily be turned on by selecting Household ID when it is presented as an available column.

Some of you have asked for an easier way to account for credits and expenses when it comes to the Payout Dashboard. We’ve used the Custom Imports template, mentioned above, to develop the import template for creating credits and debits en masse in the Payout Dashboard. You can now upload and edit Credits and Expenses in the Custom Imports app, which is applied to the Payout Dashboard automatically upon upload.

In order to keep innovating and moving forward, we’ve enhanced the user experience within the Payout Dashboard. The colors that you have seen associated with Pending Approval, Currently Approved, Credits and Expenses, Paid or Total Payouts banner on the Firm Dashboard are gone, replaced by an easier-to-read banner with an outline around each box to distinguish them. Now, when on the firm dashboard, you will no longer be able to filter by payee, as the data should reflect the entire firm rather than a single entity.

As someone who uses the Payout Dashboard, there are probably times when you need the new payment to include all payees so you don’t have to post payments multiple times. Now, when you add a new payment on the payment screen, all payees are listed as the default. You can then check and uncheck based on which payees you need to account for. Once you have selected the payments, the add button will appear. When you click add, a separate payment line for each payee will be produced.

Previously, fee files sorted oldest to newest, meaning you had to scroll down to see the most current fees. We’ve reversed that so the most recent fee files will populate at the top.