Fact Find, Main Controls

 

The fact find includes a large number of questions about each client, organised into a number of separate screens (referred to as “sections”), each of which covers a different topic, such as the Client’s Bank Details, shown below. Note that where a section extends beyond the twenty-or-so lines of a screen you will need to scroll down through it, and where it extends beyond the 60-or-so lines of a printed page the print system will automatically insert a page break.

 

 

To access the fact find, starting from the Main Menu…

…or alternatively…

 

 

Option to Skip the Fact Find Menu

You are recommended always to go to the fact find via the “Fact Find Menu” dialogue shown above. However you may choose to prevent this from appearing as follows…

Without the fact find menu to choose from, the user will automatically review the most recently saved fact find, using the layout ticked as “Use as Default fact find”, all as described below.

 

View

The “View” button views the fact find shown in the “Select version” dropdown, which by default will be the most recently saved one. You cannot adjust or resave it. Use the “Select version” dropdown if you need to view an earlier (or “historic”) fact find.

 

 

Revise

The “Revise” button allows you to edit an existing fact find, up to the number of days you enter in “Setup / Client Screens”, where the default is 30, as shown above. This period of time is to allow checking, or for hand-written fact finds to be entered on the computer. During the agreed time allowed for revisions you can continue to edit the fact find, though you should take the option to “Create a new copy...” as soon as you need to enter genuinely new information, as shown below.

 

 

After the time allowed for editing has expired your only choice will be to create a new copy of the most recent fact find for editing. You’ll be asked to enter a brief description for this new version, as shown below. The old copy will be automatically stored, and can be viewed via the “Select version” dropdown.

 

 

 

Print

Use the “Select version” dropdown to select the current or historic version of the fact find that you wish to print (i.e. the actual data at that time), and then use the “Select layout” dropdown to select the layout (i.e. of questions and answers regarding that data). Finally click “Print” to get the following pop-up, where you can either pick individual sections or click the “Check /uncheck all” box to select the whole lot...

 

 

Blank Fact Finds

Use the “Print a blank Factfind” tick box to print one or more empty copies of the layout for manual entry, if required.

 

Page Breaks

By default the printing system will insert a page break where a section extends beyond an A4 page. However if your layout has been designed so the sections naturally fit pages (e.g. by making your “notes” items longer or shorter), or if you have explicitly inserted “Page Break” items, then you may wish to tick the box to suppress the auto page breaks (see Fact find, Setup Rows and Items).

 

Headers & Footers

You can use headers and footers, for example, to automatically put your company name at the top of your pages, or add page numbers at the bottom (see Fact find, Setup Rows and Items). However the option to “Insert header / footer” will be greyed-out unless you’ve included them in the layout to be printed.

 

Close

Click the “Close” button to close the Fact find Menu.

 

Layout (i.e. question set)

You can have a number of different types of fact find, built-up from the many available sections, for example…

These layouts control which sections are selected (i.e. the actual questions and the order in which they appear) and whether they apply to just the first life or jointly (see “Fact Find, Set-up Layouts”).

 

Layouts maybe thought of as filters that allow you to see more or less of the overall fact find data, the whole of which is saved each time. So for example, if you answer all the questions for the short “Term Assurance Fact find”, save it and exit, then select the “Full Fact find” layout and view it, you’ll see all the “Term Assurance Fact find” questions PLUS the ones that were previously not visible. Regarding the “Layout” buttons...

·         Setup - Click this to edit the layout in the “Select layout” dropdown

·         New – Click this to start a brand new layout

·         Delete – Click this to delete the layout in the “Select layout” dropdown

·         Use as default layout – You can set any one of your layouts to be the default one by ticking the box below it, after which that one will always appear automatically on the “Fact Find Menu” dialogue, shown above. If you’ve cleared the signpost option to “Show fact find menu” then you’ll automatically view the “Default fact find” layout without being shown the “Fact Find Menu”.

 

Standard Answers

Use this to create a blank version of the layout in the “Select layout” dropdown, to which you can add standard answers (e.g. if 99% of all your clients are born in the UK, or wish to retire at 65 then you could set these as the standard answers. Subsequently when you “Revise” any fact find, its blank data fields will be populated with your “Standard Answers”.

 

Version (i.e. at a date)

Old fact finds can be selected from the “Select version” dropdown, and then viewed but not changed. You can delete them via the “Delete fact find” button, though only if you have the rights to do so (see “Set-up, Users / Access Rights”).

 

Delete Version

To delete a fact find...

·         Use the “Select Version” dropdown to select the fact find to be deleted

·         Click the “Delete fact find” button

Note that you will not be able to delete any fact finds unless you have the access rights to do so (see “Access Rights” section in “Set-up, Users”).

 

Edit Description

Fact finds for each client will be saved in numeric sequence with the date (e.g. as “Factfind 3 05/08/2010”) but with a blank description. When starting a new fact find you can optionally add a description to indicate why it was done (e.g. “Pension review”, “Private education planning”, etc). To subsequently edit these descriptions first use the “Select version” dropdown to select the data, then click the “Edit description” button and add the required text.

 

Online Setup

Provided you have purchased a Durell web-link licence, and have setup the link to your own website, you can then choose to send fact finds to be entered, updated or just displayed from there (see “Fact Find, On Your Website”).

 

Factfind Planners

Click this to create an Excel spreadsheet based on the fact find data for the current client, which you can use to generate plans and graphs for....

·         Lifetime Cashflow

·         Life Cover Requirement

·         Inheritance Tax Planning

·         Pension Shortfall

This spreadsheet is independent of your fact find layouts, and automatically uses the most recent version of your data. It will use the data in a fixed set of data fields, which you’ll find in a layout called “Planners (rev n)”. If any of these aren’t already in your preferred layout you could “Setup” your layout and either add them individually, or add import the entire “Planners (rev n)” section into it. For mor information see “Fact Find, Planners”