Customisation options for plan charges tables in Genovo
Nigel Ogram
Our October ’24 User Tip Blog covered how Genovo handles plan charges. This month’s blog is a natural progression from that subject – what you can do in Genovo to customise how (and where) the plan charges tables appear.
You’re probably already aware that Genovo is massively customisable. For example, you can change:
- The look & feel of the Genovo app to reflect your company’s brand.
- The colours, fonts and styles of text and tables in the downloaded report.
- The selectable options that show in the steps of the wizard sections.
- The entire boilerplate content of your reports.
Almost everything can be customised – almost…
Tables that are built from the information you enter (or import) into wizard sections in Genovo (for example, plan summary tables, plan comparison tables, and of course plan charges tables) are ‘hard-coded’ (and typically appear as tags in the Report Content Manager). This means they can’t be reconfigured by the end-user. Of course, the fonts, colours and styles of the tables can all be customised using the Report Theme, but the actual structure (rows, columns, table headings, etc) is off-limits.
So – we’ve built some options…
Remove ‘trailing zeros’
Genovo displays monetary amounts to 2 decimal places and percentage values to 3 decimal places and includes trailing zeros by default to ensure visual consistency.
However, after some constructive user feedback, we’ve added the option for users to choose how trailing zeros are displayed in a report.
| Value entered | How it shows in a report | |
| trailing zeros enabled (default) | trailing zero disablised | |
| 1 | 1.000% | 1% |
| 1.2 | 1.200% | 1.2% |
| 1.23 | 1.230% | 1.23% |
| 1.234 | 1.234% | 1.234% |
This article from the Genovo Knowledge Base tells you everything you need to know.
Note this a global account setting and will apply to all users of an account.
Remove blank columns
To ensure a consistent format and make it abundantly clear to see at a glance which charges apply, and which don’t, all four charge types (Product, Platform, Adviser, Investment Management) are included in all plan charges tables as standard – even those that don’t apply.
However, following user feedback, we have added the option for users to decide for themselves whether to show blank charges columns in their plan charges tables.
This article from the Genovo Knowledge Base tells you everything you need to know.
As with trailing zeros, this is a global setting for your account.
Move all plan charges tables to a dedicated section
If you’re writing a report incorporating several plans, you may have quite a few plan charges tables. A fairly standard planning scenario covering the review of a client’s existing pensions and investments, plus new pension and investment recommendations could have as many as six separate plan charges tables.
By default, the plan charges tables appear in the downloaded report in their relevant sections – Current Plan Charges and Revised Plan Charges tables in the relevant review section, and Plan Charges tables in the appropriate new recommendation sections.
However, we know some of our users would prefer to include all charges disclosure in a dedicated charges section so the client can focus on the ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘why’, rather than the ‘how much’…
You asked – we delivered!
On a report-by-report basis, users have the option of moving all plan charges tables from their relevant report section into a dedicated section.
Doing this really couldn’t be simpler – just add the Consolidated Plan Charges *STANDALONE ALTERNATIVE* section into Report Builder and move it to where you want it:
As usual, this is also covered in a Genovo Knowledge Base article.
Investment Management charges detail
OK – this one isn’t strictly a customisation feature, but as we’re dealing with plan charges it follows on quite nicely.
The plan charges steps in Genovo have been designed to allow you to provide the client with a summary of the charges that apply to a plan(s) clearly and concisely, and in a ‘MiFID II-friendly’ format that the client can still easily understand. As mentioned above, within Genovo, plan charges are split into four categories:
- Product
- Platform
- Adviser
- Investment Management
It is anticipated that these four categories will accommodate all plan charges. You should include the combined total of all investment-related charges in the ‘Investment Management’ field. This could include, amongst others, the AMC / TER / OCF, as well as any additional transaction or DFM / DIM charges.
Should you wish to provide a granular break down of the investment-related charges that make up the ‘Investment Management’ charge, this can be achieved using investment strategies:
- Current Investment Strategy for existing plans being reviewed.
- Recommended Investment Strategy for existing plans being amended, or new plans being recommended.
If there are multiple investments in a strategy, the weighted average charge will be automatically calculated for you.
When you’ve populated the investment management charges in a Current Investment Strategy, to save you time, you’ll be shown the granular figures in a really useful side panel when you’re entering the plan charges.
As you’ve come to expect, everything you need to know about Recommended Investment Strategies in Genovo is covered in this Knowledge Base article, and Current Investment Strategies is covered in this article.
Nigel’s knowledge
Genovo’s customisation suite is truly epic! We’ve dedicated an entire Knowledge Base section to the eight main areas that you can customise:
- Advice Options & Reasons Library
- Report Content Manager
- Report Section Manager
- Attitude to Risk Profiles
- Report Theme
- Report Title Page image
- GUI Theme
- Report Footers
Further reading
You’ll find loads more really useful information in:
- Genovo’s series of User Tip blogs
- the extensive Genovo Knowledge Base
- the collection of really useful Genovo matrices
- the ever popular Genovo video tutorials
Of course, if you’re still stuck, or just need a helping hand, you can always submit a support ticket and we’ll get straight back to you.
Finally – make sure you don’t miss any of our hints & tips – subscribe and get email alerts when we update our blog.
Written by Nigel Ogram
Nigel has worked in financial services in one form or another for over 35 years. After a few years as an adviser, he started his paraplanning career in 1997 and quickly found an affinity for building and establishing systems and processes designed to drive efficiencies. While paraplanning, Nigel also developed and marketed an Excel-based factfind / needs analysis system, which opened up a new path working with financial services software. This continued with roles at Synaptic Systems, where in addition to being the in-house subject-matter expert on the core applications, Nigel developed a passion for helping advisers and their teams integrate software effectively and profitably within their businesses. Outside of work, Nigel is a confirmed “petrolhead” with a strong interest in motorsport, which he often combines with his second hobby – photography, which he shares with his two sons.
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