by Rebecca King

If your practice is like many financial planning practices, you have a significant number of documents that need to be maintained and stored, many of which need to be stored in a compliant manner.

With these needs you may be considering a document management software solution. This article will help you identify the steps you need to take to put together your software adoption plan that will help you select the document management solution best for your practice.

Your answers to nine specific questions will provide an outline for you in terms of the type of software solution you need, what business benefits will likely result and how to implement and monitor your use of the software. Pull out a pen and paper and answer these questions as you read them, or download FPA’s Document Management Software Adoption Plan template.

What Are Your Top Two or Three Business Objectives?
Answer this question in the context of your practice as a whole. If you annually identify your business objectives for the coming year, then you can simply record those answers here. If not, take a few minutes to stop and think about what your business objectives are today. Are you trying to expand your ability to serve more clients? Increase revenue? Work fewer hours per week? Jot down all objectives, then prioritize so you can identify the top two or three.

What Do You Expect to Gain From Using Document Management Software?
Once you’ve got your business objectives, identify the specific objectives that document management software can enable and then develop specific outcomes for the software needed to achieve those key, overall practice objectives. For example, if one of your overall business objectives is to increase the number of clients you serve, the specific document management software objective could include increasing efficiency by saving time looking up client documents and/or saving time scanning and securing documents for compliance purposes.

What Functionality Do You Need From the Software to Gain the Benefits You Want?
With objectives in hand, you can outline the specific functions you need. If you want to save time retrieving client documents, think about the most common scenarios for which you perform that activity. Then identify how you would like the process to be streamlined with a software solution.

For example, you may already know that during tax season, some clients misplace documents they need to file their taxes, so they ask you to send copies to their accountant. For this scenario you may want document management software that allows you to tag documents with keywords so you can retrieve all documents with the appropriate keyword and print the applicable documents with a single click.

Which Current Processes Will You Want the Software to Accommodate?
Sometimes new software will force a change in an existing process, other times new software will fully or partially replace a process. Think about current processes you follow for compliance purposes—such as having a compliant file on hand—that you may want to leverage the document management software to handle.

How Will You Measure Adoption of the Software?
One of the most universal challenges with new software is implementing it and using it effectively. Before the software is chosen or installed, identify how you will measure your use of it. For example, you might choose to set a milestone such as, “100 percent of documents from new clients in Q2 will be stored with the document management software instead of paper files.” Explain to staff members how you expect them to use the software and assign specific responsibilities. Outline how staff will be rewarded for effective use of the software either through new incentive programs or as a part of your ongoing review and bonus/incentive structure.

Who Will Evaluate and Improve Your Use of the Software?
To maximize the business benefits of your new document management software, it is important for one individual to be responsible for evaluating the overall use of the software as outlined in your plan, along with identifying new or improved use of the software based on unexplored functionality or new releases and updates made by the software provider.

What Kind of Access Do You Want?
If you want to have immediate access to your client files at any time from any place, you may want to consider hosted solutions so you can access all the information online. If you prefer to keep your data housed on specific computers, look for software that uses a local installation to your computer.

What Kind of Security Do You Need?
Do certain staff members need to access only limited types of files or only add files but not be able to print, copy or delete them? Make sure you clearly outline those needs on paper so you can eliminate any solutions that do not provide the level of security you need.

Do You Have Specific Compliance Reports or Requirements?
Depending on your business model, you may be required to comply with a number of different regulations for maintaining documents. Make a list of any specific regulations so you can eliminate any document management software solutions that do not provide the type of functionality you need.

Use this document management software adoption plan to identify the specific functions you need to achieve your business objectives. Eliminate solutions that do not provide the functions you’ve identified above, and then evaluate the remainder for ease of use, price and vendor support/training or other benefits.

Rebecca King is assistant director of research and business development at FPA. Contact her at Rebecca.King@FPAnet.org.

TD Ameritrade Institutional, Division of TD Ameritrade Inc., member FINRA/SIPC/NFA. TD Ameritrade participated as a custodian respondent in the study. TD Ameritrade is separate and not affiliated with Financial Planning Association or ActiFi and is not responsible for the policies or services of any third party. In no instance should the listing of a third party be construed as a recommendation or endorsement by TD Ameritrade.

Learn More
Learn more about document management software through the FPA-ActiFi Adviser Technology Report Series (www.FPAnet.org/AdviserTechnologySeries). Four reports are available now and document management will be available in June. FPA members receive these valuable reports free of charge, courtesy of TD Ameritrade Institutional.