AMA: We’re Dela Dzadey and Lana Graham, paraplanning and Xtools experts, Ask Us Anything!

Hi Asini.Pathirage69456 

I can jump in here and thanks for your question!

Within Xtools+ you navigate to:

1. Input > Individual > Assets > Property and add the property and enter the relevant details in the 3 tabs (Property Details & Acquisition / Growth, Rent and Expenses / Property Disposal).
2. Then navigate to Input > Individual > Liabilities > Loan Details and add the loan, ensuring you enter the loan details in the other pages too, eg. Rates and Fees / Repayments / Drawdowns / Associate.
3. Within the Display pages, you will then be able to view the cashflow and tax projections.

More details on entering property information can be found in the following Iress Community article: CALM Xtools+ Property 'Remodelling'

I hope this helps!

Hi deepika.deepika ,

You can set up a Company in Xtools+ by:

1. going to Input > Basic Details and the Entities section, where you can model up to 3 Company entities.
2. For each Company entity you will need to navigate to the Input > Company screens to enter the company details (if you have access to Iress Learning Centre then see pages 64 to 67 of  this guide).
3. With the Company set up you can then complete your modelling as required.
4. To view projected information, simply navigate to the Display > Company screens eg. Consolidated or Taxation etc. (see pages 104 to 108 of the guide). Each of these screens allow you to download a PDF version of the information you are seeing on screen through the PDF button that is in the top right of the screen.

Should you need to have any of the information on screen formatted in a certain way or into a report, then you would need to create an Xmerge document (a coded document) that could then extract whichever of the projected fields you wish, to create the document as you require.

If you have access to the Iress Learning Centre, then this eLearning course will take you through how to model a Company entity using Xtools+, and this coding guide gives an introduction to using Xmerge coding.

Thanks for your question deepika.deepika !

I worry your post might not be easily visible to the rest of the community as this is an old AMA thread. Would you mind posting it again as a new thread here?

All you need to press is 'Start a Discussion' at the top of the page. Let me know if you need assistance!

sorry, I am talking about the pension payments from Account Based Pensions, not age pension for Deficit cashflow allocation

I love this question lana.graham

We work across several different SoA wizards and templates, and we find the wizards with sections that dont seem to feed into anything in the plan (and templates that don't run in logical order) can be very time consuming to work on. 

The final area that eats away at our time is flowcharts! We are still looking and open to any suggestions for a simple and quick flowchart tool😀

Hi sarah.schultz,

I had a feeling users would ask to draw a deficit from investment bonds! Unfortunately we had to draw the line somewhere and  move onto other important work. We’ll be doing some work to improve Asset, Liability and Cashflow modelling later this year and into 2025 and Investment Bonds will be high on the list when we get to improving Cashflow. We’ll keep the age and 10 year options in mind.

Regarding the ICR/Pension tables. Is the ICR information for Super being drawn from Xtools+ or Wealthsolver? I think this may be something for our Wealthsolver team.

Howdy ppdyabs,

Sadly the short answer is No.  At the moment there are a number of steps you need to follow to draw cashflow from a company.

1. See tomm ’s question above. You will need to duplicate tabs so you can easily switch between screens.
2. Keep the Cashflow Consolidated or Cashflow Summary screen open so you can see the Net Cashflow.
3. Duplicate the tab and navigate to Display > Company > Assets Details
   1. enter withdrawals to meet your Cashflow shortfall.
4. Duplicate the tab and navigate to Display > Company Dividends
   1. enter Other Cash Dividend amounts to equal the NPAT amount.
5. Now go back to your Cashflow Consolidated/Summary tab and refresh to see the dividend come through.
6. Go back to the Company Assets tab and repeat the steps to cover the cashflow in each period.

I acknowledge that this is by no means efficient. I’m keeping a record of this so we can look at making it easier.

Thanks Alex, great question! There are definitely some 'complex' areas of advice that we paraplanners so more frequently than advisers, so they do lean on us to have that expertise. We are however, finding that the increase in demand for paraplanning services is across all complexities and even review documents. Most advisers i speak to feel that their time is being drained by many areas that aren't client facing (administration, research, ongoing services, compliance). They want to have a trusted partner that can handle the bulk of this for them, while they can focus on seeing clients. Experienced paraplanners give the advisers confidence that strategy discussions and research of products can be done in a time efficient and compliant manner. That then frees up the adviser's time to see more clients - leading to more advice and work for the paraplanners too!

Hi Maria01,

You can set a custom return for super. Note that you need to change the Investment Profile to one of the standard investment profiles instead of the Client, Partner or Joint Risk Profile. You can see the difference between Bob and Betty's Rates in the screen shot below:

A couple of other points:

1. Your licensee may have set a limit on the returns you use, so that it can’t exceed the return for the investment profile selected. In this case, if you want to maximise the return projected, you may need to select the most aggressive investment profile.
2. Did you know you can adjust all of the investment returns in a single place under Investment Returns? See below:

Thanks primrose.foster. We find that this time of year is especially hectic for our industry. Everyone is feeling the pressure and things can start to fall through the cracks. Putting in place clear and simple processes within your practice (and also individually) during the slower periods, means that there is less pressure and confusion when things are busier. I realise this doesn't help anyone now that things are busy, so if you are finding things start to fall apart, use checklists! They should be short, simple and clear for anyone who needs to use them.