Client Spotlight

The Client Spotlight is a series created to focus on Junxure users who exemplify best practices. It focuses on how a firm uses and integrates the software within their day-to-day operations and workflow. This month we have chosen to spotlight McLean Asset Management Corporation of McLean, Virginia

This independent wealth management firm in Northern Virginia is led by Dean Umemoto, CFP, and Alex Murguia, Ph.D. They have 5 advisors and 8 full time staff members. Collaborating on these responses are Alex Murgui and Pat Ward. Alex is Managing Principal and Director of Investment Management. Pat is Director of Client Services and functions as the office Manager

How do you use Junxure in your role / position within the firm?

Alex: Through the Actions Dashboard section within Junxure I can view our company’s varied activities across the different departments. With the dashboard, I begin my day by getting a bird’s eye view of our current workflow and then continue to drill down to a more granular view by the client, employee, or process levels. In my capacity as Director of Investment Management I also focus on the outstanding investment management processes. This affords me the confidence that unresolved client issues don’t slip through the cracks.

Pat: The vast majority of my client-related daily tasks are generated by and tracked in Junxure. All documents are created and saved in Junxure. The consistency of our client service operations is completely dependent upon the use of Junxure, as is client-related communication between departments.

What is your most commonly used feature within Junxure? Why?

Our most commonly used feature by far is notes/actions. Every interaction with or action on behalf of a client is recorded, including follow-up monitoring and actions. It is the underlying fabric of our workflow.

What is your favorite or most valuable feature? Why?

 This is a difficult question since there are so many. A very valuable feature to us is the use of action sequences because it allows us to provide a consistent client experience. For example, we have a set sequence of meetings for prospective clients. Before each meeting, we automatically assign preset actions (e.g., develop portfolio proposal, prepare applications) to the different corresponding departments within our firm. This ensures that we are able to orchestrate the preparation for each meeting consistently at a high level of quality.

A couple features that are perhaps less significant but are still favorites are the “hide” button, which is so helpful when an interruption requires you to move elsewhere in Junxure, and the Agenda, which provides a centralized location where any staff member can enter subject matter to be discussed at a client’s next meeting.

How do you maintain consistency of use of the software among all team members in your office?

This can be challenging, particularly as we grow. Periodic reviews of different aspects of Junxure during staff meetings are helpful. Ongoing communication of procedures and new features is important.

What other software do you find valuable in your day-to-day work?

Other software programs most frequently used in our office are Microsoft Office and Portfolio Center. In addition, we like Laser Apps in the client services department, and Alex finds that Mindjet has become invaluable in his day to day functions.

Do you use ClientView, if so how has it benefited your firm?

We utilize ClientView and, like Junxure, it is becoming an integral part of our business processes. It has reduced the ominous quarterly reporting workload by at least 5 business days a year for 2 full time equivalents. Other than the obvious cost savings in reduced labor and office supplies, our staff no longer feels handcuffed during reporting season and our clients receive their reports more quickly. Hence, the decision to reduce costs, improve morale, and provide better client service is an easy one to make.

Are you using Junxure to go paperless? If so how?

We scan every client-related document that comes through the door. Once scanned, we save it within the individual client folder maps provided by Junxure. This has worked great. We have just recently decided to purchase a document management system to compliment our overall document retrieval process.

Is there any other information about Junxure, CRM Software you would like to share?

During our recent SEC audit, we found the Print Hard Copies feature to be quite useful in gathering selected client correspondence. Also, since we had established many recurring actions for scheduling/performing most required compliance tasks, providing the Recurring Actions History report was an excellent way to demonstrate to the examiners that we had a functioning program in place.

We could not talk about Junxure without mentioning the outstanding service provided by the technical staff of CRM. Their responsiveness and willingness to find solutions is most impressive. We have been users of Junxure since the early days, and can honestly say they have never let us down.

Any articles, books, or personal publications you would like us to reference in our spotlight article?

We have written extensively about investment portfolio construction and management, and we invite you to review our peer-reviewed articles that have been published in professional financial journals. In addition, please review our newsletter, Occam’s Razor, for a better understanding of our view of the markets and the investment management process on our website, www.mcleanfn.com.

Murguia, A., Umemoto, D.T. (2006). An Active Approach to Indexing. Journal of Financial Service Professionals. Vol 60 (1), 73-79.

Murguia, A., Umemoto, D.T. (2005). The Risk/Return Benefits of Shorter-Term, High-Quality Bonds. Journal of Financial Planning. Vol 18 (11), 76-90.

Murguia, A, Umemoto, D.T. (2004). An Alternative Look at Hedge Funds. Journal of Financial Planning. Vol 17 (1), 42-49.

Murguia, A, Umemoto, D.T. (2002). Portfolio Analysis in the Crosshairs. Journal of Financial Planning. Vol 15 (11), 74-83.

Special thanks to Alex and Pat for spending the time with us for this interview, and to the entire firm for leading by example and providing a staple of Best Practices to our Junxure users.

We welcome feedback about the "Client Spotlight" feature by emailing us at support@gowithcrm.com.

CRM Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
PO Box 30607
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. 33420-0607

Reporting in Junxure

Batch Reports

Many of the reports available on each client’s record are the kind of reports that advisors need when a client comes in for a meeting – an insurance summary, a net worth summary, maybe a goals report, cash flow report and client to-do’s, etc. In the past, you’d have to remember to go to the insurance tab, then the assets tab, then goals, cash flow, then a button at the top of the screen.

Now, with Batch Reports, you can make this process more efficient. To the top-right of each contacts screen, you’ll find a Reports button. When you press it, you’ll see a list of client reports. Simply select the reports you want to run, enter a date range (some reports may require this parameter), then click the Print Selected Reports button. In one-fell-swoop, Junxure will print the reports you’ve selected.

Saving Batch Reports

You can also save frequently used batches. Do you run the same reports every time a client comes in for a quarterly meeting or an annual review? Save those batches with the Save Batch button. Then you’ll only need to select the batch (in the Load Saved Batch) area to the top right, select a date range and print.

Time Reports

Junxure makes it easy to track the time your office is spending on client activity. It’s invaluable information when trying to analyze your clients. Who’s taking up more time than their assets under management justify? Who needs their fees raised (or service level lowered)? Who needs to be fired (or referred toanother advisor)? The time spent can be a factor in answering these questions.

Data entry for the time spent on client activity is done inside an action. There are three ways time can be tracked – time spent by client, by action type and by employee. Inside each action, above each of the three large text boxes, there are is a field to enter minutes spent (see action example). Any time entered into the Minutes box above the Note text box will be applied to the employee who entered the action (red in the example). Any time entered into the box above Action Description will be applied to the employee the action was assigned to (green in the example). Any time entered into the Follow Up Action Note box will be applied to the employee who completes the action (dark blue in the example). All three boxes are added up and applied to the same client and action type (light blue in the example).

There are two ways to enter time in the Minutes boxes. You can simply click on the box to get a Time Calculator. The time added is cumulative. You can also use the stop-clock to the bottom left of the action. Click the 1 button to add time to the note box, 2 to add time to the Action Description box, 3 to the Follow Up Action Note box. To track time spent on one client, click the Clock button to the top right of the client’s record and enter the date range.

To track time spent on multiple clients, go to the main menu > Reports > Report List > Time / Billing / Expense Reports. To the left of the ensuing screen, enter the date range and the rule. You can then run your time reports with three levels of detail – all of the details, just a summary, or simply the totals. Again, these can be printed by client, by employee or by action type. To help make sure time is entered for all actions, there is a View Actions Missing Time button to the bottom of this box.

Actions Rules and Actions Reports Wizard

The Actions Rule Builder works under the same principle as the ‘regular’ Rules builder. Whereas ‘regular’ Rules will group a particular list of contacts together (e.g., all estate planning clients or all clients turning 70.5 this year), Actions Rules help you gather a particular list of Actions together.

With the Actions Rules Builder, you can search on most areas of actions. The boxes at the top of the screen search for basic data like the field storing the employee who entered an action or whom it was assigned to – also the Planning Processes, ‘regular’ Processes and Action Keywords.The tabs across the bottom allow searches on areas like due dates and completion, expenses and FYIs. If there are certain actions you wish to group together, think “Actions Rules Builder.” To report on these actions, use the Actions Report Wizard.

The Actions Report Wizard is similar to the ‘regular’ Report Wizard, except it reports on specific actions rather than a contact’s general info. First, you must create Action Rules to gather specific lists of Actions to report on. See the Actions Rule Builder above for more information.

In Box 1, you can pick a pre-saved report – all of the other fields will then fill in with the saved info.

In Box 2, choose the Actions Rule to use. These are the specific actions that will show up on the report. If you don’t already have an Actions Rule created, you can create one here.

In Box 3, choose a ‘regular’ Rule to winnow your list of reported actions to only show those that pertain to contacts that meet the criteria of the ‘regular’ Rule.

In Box 4, you can name the report, categorize it and give it a description.

In Box 5, choose the fields you wish to show on the report.

In Box 6, click the View Action (Clickable) button to view the Actions in an actionable’ screen.

Just double-click on an action to see its details. You can reorder the columns by dropping-and-dragging. You can sort by any column by clicking on the column header. You can filer a column by clicking the down arrow button on any column.

Also in Box 6, click the button to view the data in Excel spreadsheet format. This is the best way to print the data out – just send to Excel, format the data as you please in that program and print.

Finally, in Box 6, click the Save This Report button to save the report and use it whenever you’d like.

The reports are just as dynamic as the Rules and Action Rules they’re built on. Each time you click the View Action button or send the data to an Excel spreadsheet, Junxure queries the database for the particular actions pertaining to the particular clients you’ve designated in Box 2 and Box 3.

CRM Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
PO Box 30607
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. 33420-0607

In our monthly Tech Talk feature the technical gurus at CRM Software share answers to some of the common questions they face each month. You can submit your questions for tech talk by emailing support@gowithcrm.com.

How do I add a picture to a record in Junxure?

In the P:\Junxure\CompanyFiles\Lastname-Firstname-ID folder, put in a jpeg (.jpg) image, and it will be displayed in junxure under the contact info tab in the photo area. It must be put in the root folder not any of the subfolders. You can browse to that folder through windows explorer or under the documents tab in the contact record by clicking on the yellow folder icon with the asterisk on it.

Can I create a single action globally?

You can create global actions very easily within Junxure. The easiest way to do this is from the main menu go to People > Actions Management > Global Action Wizard. This wizard will walk you through creating an action for all clients in a rule you select. Essentially you are going through the letter envelope wizard, except you are not merging a letter you are just recording the actions.

How can I globally change classifications, keywords, interests, process, and action keywords?  

In order to globally make one of the aforementioned changes on the main menu go to database tools > data cleanup/correction > client data maintenance. Once you are in the client data maintenance screen there are two dropdown lists. On the first dropdown list select X (e.g. Classification, Keywords. Etc.) to change, then select change all occurrences of selection to: whatever you want to change that to. Once you do that hit the change button and that will make the change globally.

How can I adjust the position and Margins of the quick envelope?

To adjust this go from the Main Menu in Junxure to Maintain System > System Options, and choose Envelopes under Local Options, next click the Setup Quick Envelope button. A new page will appear that allows you to set margins for the envelope and test it out. If it is not setup correctly you will get a #error.

Can I assign the action to someone and notify another of it?

Yes, within the action you have a section to assign the action to a person, but you also have a section to FYI another user. When you FYI someone it does not mean that this action is assigned to that person, or that they have to take action on the item, but rather that they will be notified in a FYI alert and the My FYI area of Junxure. It is a tool that just informs the person of the action and sends them a popup.

CRM Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
PO Box 30607
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. 33420-0607

Quick Tips

Do you find yourself typing in the same text into the Action Description & Notes boxes day after day? Here is a quick tip that will save you lots of time! It’s called the Notes Library and with just a few clicks of your mouse you can enter text in a matter of seconds rather than minutes!

The setup is easy:
(A) Access System Set Up
(B) Choose List Data Maintenance
(C) Select Actions
(D) Select Notes Library – Everyone can view and use the same “Notes”
(E) Enter a Description – “Thank You Letter-Payment”
(F) Enter Text (this will appear in the action)“printed and mailed thank you letter with payment receipt”
(G) Select Add New Note—Close Notes Library

Now that you have them ready for use:
(A) Select the action text you want to update -
(B) Double click in the “action note” box 2 times – (or any of the boxes!)
(C) Double click on the “note” you want entered into the “action” from the list that appears.

CRM Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
PO Box 30607
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. 33420-0607

Technology Outsourcing

You know you need a solution for sharing calendars and more advanced email capabilities.  You want to share calendars, sync to PDA's, and cell phones to expand your data availability.  With these needs you begin to look at the advantages of small business software/hardware. You also notice the increased cost of these new tools. Your business is growing up and it is time for a IT overhaul. The only solution is to increase your IT budget and invest in IT consulting services, right?  Not always! 

***Please note that the companies listed in this article are not an endorsement by CRM Software, they are for your reference only.

CRM Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved
PO Box 30607
Palm Beach Gardens, Fl. 33420-0607