Electra Information Systems (Electra), a provider of post-trade solutions for the buy-side investment management industry, has released new audit and control workflows for its client fee billing solution. Electra Billing 6.0 helps chief financial officers (CFOs) reduce risk by increasing the accuracy and efficiency of approval workflows throughout vital steps in the fee billing lifecycle – from market value, fee calculations and schedules, to invoice formatting, distribution and centralised audit reporting.
Many investment management firms continue to use manual methods, spreadsheets, or multiple systems to track market values, client fee schedules and calculations. Lacking essential workflow and audit processes, these methods often lead to costly errors, data security issues, regulatory audit risk, client billing disputes and revenue loss. On one platform, Electra Billing 6.0 automates and integrates “four eyes” billing review workflows, and provides audit trails across three levels of approvals: market values, fees and invoices. Electra Billing 6.0 also helps firms set a path to Service Organization Control (SOC) 1 Type 2 certification to prove strong operational control.
Craig Rosenblum, Director, Finance at Hardman Johnston Global Advisors, says: “Electra Billing 6.0 provides exactly what we were seeking in terms of workflow checkpoints for client fee billing. Using market values from our portfolio accounting system, Electra Billing provides checks, audits and alerts throughout the billing workflow, which significantly improves efficiencies while reducing risk. We also appreciate Electra Billing’s expanded ‘living’ online documentation which aligns with changes to our procedures – valuable to any user seeking quick answers to questions. In addition, Electra Billing’s out-of-the-box invoices will enable us to provide greater consistency with the flexibility to satisfy specific client requirements.”
John Landry, Chief Executive Officer of Electra, says: “An efficient client fee billing workflow is imperative for investment managers to reduce the probability of risk and revenue loss while improving the client experience. CFOs and CEOs alike insist on speed and accuracy of invoicing, cash flows and personalised client servicing. Eliminating the need for firms to keep audit records in multiple systems, Electra Billing 6.0 increases efficiencies by streamlining review, audit and approval processes into one workflow while enabling firms to stay current with their own policies and procedures.”
Electra Billing 6.0 provides workflow approval options for various billing cycle steps, including billable and projected market values, cash flows, system and account foreign exchange (FX) rates, billable and projected transactions and invoices. It allows for automated data loading from portfolio accounting systems, the Electra Data aggregation service and other sources, monitors for any rejected loads of the same data, and configures user-defined mappings on market values, performance returns and cash flows. Electra Billing 6.0 also expands invoicing features with new controls for instruction labels, custom footers, additional formatting options, as well as invoicing audit and fee accounting information.
