business process automation · business process automation implementation & configuration guide...

BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION IMPLEMENTATION & CONFIGURATION GUIDE

Information on

BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION (BPA)

FOR

RECKONAPS CLIENTS

BPA Implementation & Configuration Guide | Reckon APS Clients |

Reckon Limited | PAGE 2 OF 38

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this manual. However, neither Reckon Limited, its subsidiaries, employees and agents, cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions. This document should not be relied on as a detailed specification of the system. In addition, Reckon Limited reserves the right to issue revisions, enhancements and improvements to Reckon APS software at any time without notice. Every effort will be made to ensure that the manual is updated concurrently and that the user is not inconvenienced as a result of any change.

Author

Created and Published by Reckon Limited Level 12, 65 Berry Street North Sydney NSW 2060 ACN 003 348 730 All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2016 Reckon Limited

Copyright

No part of these materials may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, without written permission of Reckon Limited.



Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 5

Pre-Requisites ............................................................................................................................ 5

What is Advance BPA? ................................................................................................................ 7

BPA System Configuration .......................................................................................................... 8

Core Tasks Introduction ............................................................................................................ 10

PM_01. Timesheet Standard Hours ........................................................................................... 12

PM_02. Incomplete Timesheets ................................................................................................ 13

PM_03. Fees to Process ............................................................................................................ 15

PM_04. Debtor Receipts ........................................................................................................... 16

PM_05. Changed Client Details ................................................................................................. 17

PM_06. Staff Weekly Budgets ................................................................................................... 19

PM_07. Outstanding Invoices .................................................................................................... 20

PM_08. Relationships Not Set ................................................................................................... 21

WF_01. Matters Approaching Due Date ..................................................................................... 22

WF_02. Matters at Fee Budget Threshold % .............................................................................. 23

WF_03. Milestones Approaching Due Date ................................................................................ 24

PIQ_01. Partner and Manager Ranked Analysis.......................................................................... 25

PIQ_02. Partner and Manager KPI’s ........................................................................................... 26

PIQ_03. Workflow Summary Current Milestone Responsible ...................................................... 27

TaxAU_01. Tax Maintenance..................................................................................................... 28

TaxAU_02. Sent for Signing ....................................................................................................... 29

TaxAU_03. Return Due Date Approaching ................................................................................. 30

TaxAU_04. Held for Lodgement Today ....................................................................................... 31

TaxNZ_01. Tax Returns at Locked for too long ........................................................................... 32

TaxNZ_02. Returns at IRD confirmed for too long ...................................................................... 33

TaxNZ_03. Unpaid Provisional or Terminal Tax .......................................................................... 34

WM_01. Project at Status ......................................................................................................... 35



WM_02. Projects at Status2 from Status1 .................................................................................. 36

VC_01. In-Tray & WIP ............................................................................................................... 37

Inclusions ................................................................................................................................. 38

Exclusions ................................................................................................................................ 38

Authorisation ........................................................................................................................... 38



Introduction

This guide is to:

• Provide a framework for discussion at the Pre-Implementation Meeting

• Provide you with concepts, background information and available configuration options for the implementation of Advance BPA based on the standard tasks

• Raise awareness about any decisions you may need to make and advise you of any practice-specific information you will need to provide our Consultants with during the implementation

• Provide a place for APS Consultants to capture this information

Understanding and completing as much of the information as possible prior to the Implementation Meeting will help to achieve a painless, expedient and most of all ‘successful’ implementation.

Pre-Requisites

Reckon APS Software

Advance BPA is dependent on Practice Management as a data source. The current minimum version is:

▪ Advance Practice Management Version 9.1.3

Note that the installation of Advance PM assumes that the requirements are met to host the SQL Server

application environment.

For the latest requirements and platform compatibility, please refer to the Advance Suite Platform

Matrix, found under the User Area of our website.

There are BPA standard tasks available that have been designed to work in conjunction with other Advance Integrated Modules and can only be enabled should these modules be in use in your practice. These include Advance Tax, NZ Tax, Workpaper Management, Practice IQ and Virtual Cabinet. While most of the data still resides in the Practice Management database, these modules must be of a minimum specific version.

System Requirements

The following are the supported operating systems for the Advance BPA Server and Client software. The

Client software is the management console and can be installed at the same location as the server.

Advance BPA Server

▪ Windows 2003 SP2

▪ Windows 2003 (x64) SP2

▪ Windows 2003 SR2 SP2

▪ Windows 2003 SR2 (x64) SP2

http://www.aps-advance.com/secure_area



▪ Windows 2008 SP2


▪ Windows 2008 R2 SP1

▪ Windows 2012

Advance BPA Client

▪ Windows XP SP3

▪ Windows Vista SP2

▪ Windows 7 SP1


▪ Windows 8



What is Advance BPA?

Advance BPA is task-orientated software system that uses application data to drive business processes. Each task that is implemented is triggered by event based customer-specific parameters and serves to

automate or prompt for an action.

Business Alerts

Email alerts can used to send notifications of critical events before they happen and provide the information required to act accordingly. These alerts can take the form of exception reports that indicate a breach of business rules, or schedule KPI reporting, to provide a quick summary of how your work is tracking.

Workflow

Accounting and taxation services are becoming increasingly driven through structured business processes. These Workflow processes enable a practice to manage the time, cost, and quality controls for their clients. Advance BPA can be used to automatically trigger key events, identify bottlenecks before they happen, and aid process users in meeting Workflow KPI's. All of which result in a higher level of service being delivered to the customer.

Integration

Each business is supported by a number of different systems, databases and applications. Many of these systems have common threads, such information about Clients and Staff members. It's become increasingly important to synchronize this data, as close to real-time as possible. Advance BPA is equipped with range of widely-used data "connectors". These connectors are a common language between systems, used to update data between the different business applications as required.



BPA System Configuration

The following information will be required for the installation of Advance BPA. This includes general system information such as where BPA will be installed, and what configuration details are required to run on your environment.

Minimum Specification Requirements

Please confirm your infrastructure meets the minimum hardware and software requirements:

Yes - I have read and understood the minimum software and hardware requirements and there are no additional hardware or software installations/upgrades are required.

No – I have read and understood the minimum software and hardware requirements, and the following hardware or software installations/upgrades will be required:

Please detail what is required to meet minimum specifications and what the estimated timeline is for this to occur

Infrastructure Details

Please complete as much of the following details as possible:

BPA Server (Usually installed on the same server as the APS Database, but can be hosted on a separate box)

Server Name:

Operating System

BPA Service Account (Required to run BPA Server)

Login (DOMAIN\Username):

Password:

Login is a Domain Administrator?

Login is a SQL sysadmin?

Login is a dbo for the DSQL?

BPA Client (Management Console - at locations in addition to the BPA Server)

Server / Workstation Names

Users to require access (Domain\Username)



SQL Server (hosting aps_dsql)

Server Name:

SQL Server Instance?

SQL Authentication (Windows / SQL):

SQL Login:

SQL Password:

Exchange Server

Server Name:

SMTP Port:

Authentication Required?

Open Relay enabled? / Connector has been created for the BPA Server?

Remote Access

VPN Address:

VPN Login:

VPN Password:

RDP Address:

RDP Login (DOMAIN\username):

RDP Password:

Global Configuration Settings

These are non-specific configuration settings.

BPA Email

From Name (default: Advance BPA):

From Address:

Site Administrator Email Address:

Test Email Address:



Core Tasks Introduction

The Core tasks available constitute a starting point for BPA functionality. The tasks should cover a good cross section of the key modules within the APS Software Suite to help with information management, data integrity and help streamline processes within the firm. Each task comes with its own set of email outputs and configuration options.

The core tasks, available out of the box are listed in the table below, the detail on each task & the configuration options available are documented further down this document:

Practice Management PM_01. Timesheets Standard Hours

PM_02. Incomplete Timesheets

PM_03. Fees to Process

PM_04. Debtor Receipts

PM_05. Changed Client Details

PM_06. Staff Weekly Budgets

PM_07. Outstanding Invoices

PM_08. Relationships Not Set

Workflow WF_01. Matters Approaching Due Date

WF_02. Matters at Fee Budget Threshold n%

WF_03. Milestones Approaching Due Date

Practice IQ PIQ_01. Partner and Manager Ranked Analysis

PIQ_02. Partner and Manager KPIs

PIQ_03. Workflow Summary Current Milestone Resp, Manager & Matter Resp

Aus Tax Tax_01. Maintenance

Tax_02. Sent for Signing

Tax_03. Return Due Date Approaching

Tax_04. Held For Lodgement Today

NZ Tax Tax_01. Returns at Locked-Signed for too long

Tax_02. Returns At IRD Confirmed for too long

Tax_03. Unpaid Provisional or Terminal Tax

Workpaper Management WM_01. Project at Status

WM_02. Projects at Status2 from Status 1

Virtual Cabinet VC_01. In-tray and WIP



Preparing for BPA

Prior to the installation of BPA – some Database housekeeping is required - as a minimum, the following should be done:

• Fee Earner records – review all Fee Earner records and ensure the Email address for each Fee Earner is populated with the correct email address

• Partner records – Via the Partner console, ensure all Partner records are linked to the correct Department (where Department is used) and Fee Earner (this would usually be themselves)

• Manager records – Via the Manager console, ensure all Manager records are linked to the correct Department (where Department is used) and Fee Earner (this would usually be themselves)

• Review the fields on your Client Details and Client Attributes area and document whether or not you have these fields or fields similar. These will be discussed in your pre-implementation meeting:

o Category – Drop down list – usually: Client / Contact / Prospect / Supplier etc

o Client Type – Drop down list – usually: Individual / Company / Partnership / Trust etc

o Date Record Added – non-editable date field, records when a new record is added to the database, can be added by your consultant if it doesn’t exist already

o Date become Client – date field used to determine when a record transitioned from a

prospect (if used) to a client – can be added by your consultant if it doesn’t exist already

o Termination Date – confirm what happens when a client leaves the practice, this date

should be completed to determine clients that leave the firm

o Partner / Manager – advise if these fields been renamed (eg Partner renamed to Director)

o Matter Responsible – do you maintain this field?

Standard configuration options

The following sections provide the detail on each task & the configurable options available as part of the standard BPA Implementation.

Significant customisation to these tasks will be dealt with separately and may incur additional costs.

Tasks outside of these standards will also be dealt with separately as a consulting exercise & only once the standard tasks are delivered & signed off. This is to ensure we deliver on the standards in a smooth and timely manner.



PM_01. Timesheet Standard Hours

Purpose

Sends a list of staff members and their comparison between Standard Hours and Actual Hours for individual days in the last timesheet period.

Lists can be sent to the relevant Staff Manager, Staff Partner or other related party (Admin).

Features

Configuration

Enable this task?

Day of the week to run?

Time of day?

Day of month end, or day after month end?

Time of day?

Email Recipient?

Any additional configuration?



PM_02. Incomplete Timesheets

Purpose

Send a reminder to Staff to complete and post their timesheets, followed by an optional summary report of staff that still have incomplete timesheets to Staff Manager, Partner, or other related party (Admin).

Features

▪ Reports on Timesheet Headers that have a status of ACTIVE or IDLE up to the current week, or timesheet period

▪ Standard Hours for time period must be greater than 0 and to exclude Periods where there are no Charge Days

▪ Is designed to run once a week, and the day or day after the month ends ▪ Staff Reminder and Staff Summary report can be enabled or disabled independently of

each other and run on a different schedule

Configuration

Enable Staff reminder?


Time of day?

Day of month end, or day after?

Enable Summary report?


Time of day?

Send summary report to? (eg. Staff Manager)




PM_03. Fees to Process

Purpose

Send an email to Staff when a fee is promoted or demoted to them and they must take some form of action.

Features

▪ Summary email sent to Staff for all Fees where they are the current user ▪ Breach conditions can be based the number of days since the Fee was created - ie after 2

days or, you can set the alert to run at scheduled intervals (like hourly), either showing a summary of all invoices or just new invoices.

▪ If your firm tends to raise the bulk of all Invoices at the end of the month, then consider this with your scheduling, you would not want emails being sent to relevant staff as soon as invoices were promoted to them (this would be disruptive)

Configuration

Enable Alert?

Number of days as a breach condition? eg invoices promoted 2 days ago?

If you want to show all invoices, regardless of when they were promoted, then your breach condition will be 0 days

Time of day? Eg hourly

Do you want to show all invoices or only new invoices?




PM_04. Debtor Receipts

Purpose

Reports on payments received for a specific time period.

Features

• Displays receipts per Debtor, per configurable time range

• Schedulable as daily, weekly or monthly

• Can be sent to the Debtor Partner or Manager or the Family Group Partner or Manger

• Can be grouped by Family Group or Client

Configuration

Enable?

Days of the week to run?

Time of day?

Time period to report on?

Email recipient?




PM_05. Changed Client Details

Purpose

Report on new clients and prospects that have been added to PM, clients or prospects that have left the practice, or be alerted to specific fields updated on a client record. Requires Advance Practice Management auditing to be configured for the fields to be tracked. And a Client Category field (or something similar) to identify client and prospect records

Features

• New, terminated or changed record reports can be individually enabled or disabled

• Specify different schedule, reporting period and email recipients per report

• Verify Partner, Manager, Debtor, and Family Group details of new Clients

• Be alerted to outstanding WIP and Debt balances of Terminated Clients

• Customise what changed client details to report on

• Changed details are shown in a single report

• Auditing must be enabled in PM to track changes

Configuration

New Clients

Enable?

Report on Clients only or Clients & Prospects

Advise how you identify these type of records

Period to report on?

Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?

Any additional configuration? eg columns to show / sort order?

Terminated Clients

Enable?

Report on Clients or Clients & Prospects


Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?


Changed Client Details

Enable?

Report on Clients or Clients & Prospects

What details/attributes to track changes of?

eg Postal, Street, Business Address Primary Email & Invoice Email


Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?




PM_06. Staff Weekly Budgets

Purpose

Sends an email to Staff Managers or Partners listing staff members that have not reached the target billable hours for the week just past. This alert is designed to run on a Monday to capture the entire previous week, regardless of whether there is more than one Timesheet Period involved.

This Alert relies on individual staff budgets setup in the PM Budget module.

Features

▪ Shows weekly budgeted hours, weekly actual hours, and the difference between these two values

▪ Covers all periods in a week, i.e. if there is a month-end within the week

▪ Sends the result to the staff manager or partner

Configuration

Enable?

Time to run on Monday?

Email recipient?




PM_07. Outstanding Invoices

Purpose

This task is intended to list clients that have invoices that are over a certain threshold of outstanding amount. This amount can be configured on deployment. It also lists clients which have reached certain threshold numbers of days outstanding. These thresholds are also configurable.

Features

There are 3 separate streams:

• List of clients invoices at (or just past) the number of days set.

• List of all invoices for clients with at least 1 invoice at (or just past) the number of days set.

• List of clients invoices at (or just past) the number of days set.

Configuration

Enable?

Days Threshold?

Time to run?

Email recipient?




PM_08. Relationships Not Set

Purpose

Intended to find companies without directors, partnerships without partners, and trusts without beneficiaries and send an email to the Client Partner, Client Manager or an administrator.

Features

• Will only report on Companies, Partnerships & Trusts – for ‘Client’ records. This requires a ‘Category’ field in PM, to determine ‘Client’ records.

Configuration

Enable?


Time to run?

Email recipient?




WF_01. Matters Approaching Due Date

Purpose

Designed to deliver a list of Matters that are due to be completed within a set number of days, this is based on the last scheduled Milestone, missing an actual date. (as this would deem the job as in-complete)

The Days threshold can be determined by the practice, the emails can be sent to the person responsible for the last Milestone, the Matter Responsible, Matter Manager or Matter Partner and a summary can be sent to specific recipients.

Features

• This will only show jobs approaching a due date, it will exclude jobs already overdue or due on the day the alert runs

Configuration

Enable Milestone Responsible?

Enable Matter Manager?

Enable Matter Partner?

Enable Matter Responsible?

Threshold for the days until the Milestone Target date should be complete?

1 days threshold, will show jobs where the last milestone Target Date is due tomorrow


Time to run?




WF_02. Matters at Fee Budget Threshold %

Purpose

Designed to deliver a list of Matters that are reaching or over their Fee Budget % Threshold.

The threshold can be determined by the practice, the emails can be sent to the person responsible for the current Milestone, the Matter Responsible, Matter Manager, Matter Partner and a summary can be sent to specific recipients.

Features

•

Configuration





Fee budget threshold %?


Time to run?




WF_03. Milestones Approaching Due Date

Purpose

Designed to deliver a list of matters, where the Target date for a scheduled milestone is approaching and not yet completed. The purpose is to notify relevant staff of the job before it becomes overdue.

The Days threshold can be determined by the practice, the emails can be sent to the person responsible for the current Milestone, the Matter Responsible, Matter Manager, Matter Partner and a summary can be sent to specific recipients.

Features

• This will only show jobs approaching a due date, it will exclude jobs already overdue or due on the day the alert runs

Configuration





Threshold for the days until each Milestone Target date should be complete?

1 days threshold, will show milestones with a Target Date due tomorrow


Time to run?




PIQ_01. Partner and Manager Ranked Analysis

Purpose

Designed to send an email to Partners and/or Managers with a copy of the PIQ Reporting Services Ranked Analysis Report.

Features

Each line is active and when clicked will open up and browser to display the appropriate PIQ summary report. Up to 48 different WIP/Debt measures can be selected – review the report directly in PIQ to determine what measures to show. #BPA 4.6 or above and PIQ 10 or above is required for this alert.

Configuration

Enable Partner?

Enable Manager?


Time to run?




PIQ_02. Partner and Manager KPI’s

Purpose

Designed to send an email to Partners and/or Managers with a copy of the PIQ Reporting Services KPI Report

Features Choose from these available formats:

• Partners Key Measures

• Partners Key Measures including Workflow and AUS Tax

• Partners Key Measures including Workflow and NZ Tax

• Manager Key Measures

• Manager Key Measures including Workflow and AUS Tax

• Manager Key Measures including Workflow and NZ Tax

#BPA 4.6 or above and PIQ 10 or above is required for this alert.

Configuration

Enable Partner?

Enable Manager?

Which Report Format?


Time to run?




PIQ_03. Workflow Summary Current Milestone Responsible

Purpose

Designed to send an email to staff with a copy of the Reporting Services Workflow Summary Report showing a list of milestones they are responsible for that are currently with them.

Features

#BPA 4.6 or above and PIQ 10 or above is required for this alert.

Configuration

Enable for Milestone Responsible?


Time to run?




TaxAU_01. Tax Maintenance

Purpose

Designed to report on tax related data, highlighting the following gaps in tax related data:

o Duplicate TFN or ABN’s o Invalid TFN’s or ABN’s o Client in PM, not in ATO o Client in ATO, not in PM

Features

• Will only report on Companies, Partnerships & Trusts for ABN related data

• For records that are current ‘Clients’ (ie – will ignore ‘Contact’ records and ‘Clients’ that have left the practice and have termination date populated)

Configuration

Enable?


Time to run?

Email recipient?




TaxAU_02. Sent for Signing

Purpose

Will report on Tax Returns that have a status of ‘Sent for Signing’ for X amount of days, clients can determine the variable – ie 14 days

Features

Configuration

Enable?

Variable Days to report on?


Time to run?

Email recipient? Eg MatterManager / Return Responsible




TaxAU_03. Return Due Date Approaching

Purpose

Will report on Tax Returns where the Return Due Date is approaching, clients can determine the variable – ie Return Due Dates in 4 weeks

Features

Configuration

Enable?

Return Date Variable to report on?


Time to run?

Email recipient?




TaxAU_04. Held for Lodgement Today

Purpose

Will report on Tax Returns that have been held for lodgement – clients determine the variable, ie Returns held for lodgement in the last week

Features

Configuration

Enable?

Variable to report on?


Time to run?

Email recipient?




TaxNZ_01. Tax Returns at Locked for too long

Purpose

Will report on Tax Returns that have a status of ‘Signed’ or ‘Locked’ for X amount of days, clients can determine the variable – i.e. 10 days

Features

Configuration

Enable?



Time to run?

Email recipient?




TaxNZ_02. Returns at IRD confirmed for too long

Purpose

Will report on Tax Returns that have a status of ‘IRD Confirmed’ for X amount of days, clients can determine the variable – i.e. 10 days

Features

Configuration

Enable?



Time to run?

Email recipient?




TaxNZ_03. Unpaid Provisional or Terminal Tax

Purpose

Will report on Clients who have not paid their Tax Due amount by the Required Date based on below:

• 15 January (Provisional tax 2)

• 7 Feb (Terminal Tax – No EOT)

• 7 April (Terminal Tax – EOT)

• 7 May (Prov tax 3)

• 28 August (Prov tax 1)

• 28 of all other months not listed above to allow for Ratio Method, 6 Monthly GST and non-standard Balance dates

Features

Configuration

Enable?


Time to run?

Email recipient?




WM_01. Project at Status

Purpose

This will report on Workpaper Projects that have reached a particular status – such as ‘Ready for Review’ or ‘Manager Review’

Configuration

Enable?

Project Status to report on?

Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?




WM_02. Projects at Status2 from Status1

Purpose

This will send an email to the Preparer or Reviewer of specific Workpaper Project Items – advising the Item has reached a certain status, examples of when this could be used:

o Send an email to the Reviewer of the Work Item or Project, when a work item status is ‘Ready for Review’

o Send an email to the Preparer of the Work Item or Project, when a work item status is ‘Re-Work required’

o Send an email to the specific recipient – when a work item status is changed from ‘Completed’ to any other status

You can either receive 1 email per client when a work item status is reached – or you can combine all of those instances into 1 email – in a table format.

Configuration

Enable?

Project Work item to report on?

1 email per client – or a combined email?

Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?




VC_01. In-Tray & WIP

Purpose

A report showing a list of staff who have unopened documents in their VC In-Tray – that were sent from another staff member. This will assist with visibility around tasks and documents sent to someone else’s In-Tray

Configuration

Enable?

Days to run?

Time to run?

Email recipient?




Inclusions

• Only Items documented here and marked as ‘enabled’ will be installed under the subscription model.

Exclusions

• Significant changes to the Alerts once they are installed & delivered as per the signed specification may result in 1 or both of the following:

o A delay in the project completion date, o Additional costs if the changes are deemed out of scope

• Additional Alerts outside of this spec will be scoped and quoted accordingly once the standards are delivered and signed off

Authorisation

DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUESTED SERVICE(s):

Description of Service

Design, Install & Deliver the BPA Alerts as per this specification.

RECKON APS AUTHORISATION

Name(s)

Date

CLIENT AUTHORISATION

Client Name

Position

For/On Behalf Of

Signature

Date

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