Sharesight + Xero for financial advisers

Financial advisers are the fastest growing Sharesight's professional plan client channel. This took us by surprise, but after chatting with recent converts we've discovered the reasons why.

Advisers are looking for solutions to aggregate client holdings. They want a browser-based, cloud-based, experience just like the apps they use everyday (news, social, travel, etc.). They need to track assets from platforms, wraps, and brokerage accounts in one place. If a client is moving off-platform, they need a way to seamlessly track holdings not bundled to execution or research. They don't want portfolios to disappear into an offline black hole or impossible to use old-school software. And it needs to be accessible both for them and their clients.

Embedded content: https://player.vimeo.com/video/88323587

Sharesight solves all of these problems. Don't believe us? Try it for free. But we don't stop there. We're building connections to an entire ecosystem of other applications. In the past, investment product providers and their in-house IT obsessed over losing clients, so they rushed out lots of portfolio admin technology, which was never their core competency. Their focus was on getting client assets under management. As such, Sharesight isn't an execution platform, or a research platform. And it's not an accounting platform. We stick to what we do best: portfolio tracking and reporting.

Enter Xero. They're making inroads into dealer groups from two directions: they're helping financial planning firms run their businesses efficiently, and they're helping advisers create budgets for their clients. Xero does bank reconciliation beautifully, and with Xero Cashbook, advisers are empowering their clients to take control of their finances. Getting a handle on your household P/L or your latte expenditure has never been more fun (actually it was never fun, but it is now!)

After the budgeting is organised, that's where Sharesight comes for investment tracking. Once an adviser has setup their client portfolios, we send all investment gains, losses, buys, sells, and dividends to Xero automatically in real-time. And since we sync with over 40 brokers, all client trades flow from execution to Sharesight to Xero in less than 60 seconds. Clients are now able to see their household budget from council rates to corporate actions- all in one place.

And for cash accounts, we're building a seamless link to pull back the closing balances from the bank accounts maintained in Xero. This way we'll let Xero do what they do best, and we'll roll up the cash positions into the overall portfolio calculations.

_{Example of a dividend sent to Xero. Itemized. Automatically.}

The Sharesight + Xero connection for financial advisers is a huge step forwards, but we realize more can be done. We're working with other apps to bring them into the ecosystem: risk profiling, SOA generation, insurance, property, the lists goes on. One thing is for certain, a collection of best-of-breed apps is much better than one piece of technology trying to do too much.

FURTHER READING

• Blog -- Beat the tax time rush -- or at least prepare for it
• Blog -- Why do accountants love Sharesight?
• Blog -- Why do financial advisers use Sharesight?