Using the Xplan Integration

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Overview

Our integration with Xplan provides a seamless data flow between systems, keeping your clients in sync with their critical financial information. Data moves in both directions (with some exceptions), making it simple to keep your business management and financial planning platforms up to date. 

Please note: This functionality will not be available in your organization if the integration has not been enabled. For information on enabling the integration, please consult our Enabling the Xplan Integration article.

Integration Summary

This integration creates a direct connection between client records in both Practifi and Xplan, which causes all related child records—People, Income, Expenses, Goals and Asset & Liabilities—to be shared between the systems. This means that if a Practifi record is linked to a client indirectly, e.g., an asset linked to a service linked to a client, that record will not be included in the sync. Certain child records sync in only one direction, such as Portfolio, Policy and Chatter Post records.

If your Practifi client contains primary and partner contacts, they will initially appear in Xplan as unlinked contacts, which can cause some data accuracy issues. For example, if income is owned by the partner, then upon the initial sync it will appear to be owned by the primary contact. You can resolve this by linking the contacts in Xplan and then resyncing from Practifi. 

Once clients are in sync, any updates to existing and newly created child records will be shared. Changes made in Practifi are sent to Xplan in real time, while changes made in Xplan are sent to Practifi on a scheduled basis or through manual intervention using the Send to Xplan button. The schedule of this sync can be configured by your administrator. 

Please note: All Feed posts, notes and files can be synced manually by using the Send to Xplan button and also by a scheduled job for Feed posts.

Using the Integration

Sending a Practifi Client to Xplan

  1. From the Client record in Practifi, select the caret beside the Change Owner button on the record side panel. From the drop-down menu that displays, select the Send to Xplan option.
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  2. A pop-up message will display to confirm that you have sent the client to Xplan. Select Finish to close this message.
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  3. This process can take some time—around two to five minutes—but the process is completed when the client is visible in Xplan. You will also receive a new notification under the Notification bell in the upper right-hand corner of Practifi to confirm the completion of the process.
    Xplan3.png

Sync Unlinked Xplan Clients

  1. In the App Launcher of Practifi in the upper left-hand corner, search for and select Integrations. The Integrations table will open, displaying a list of all clients in your Xplan instance.
    xplan4.png
  2. Click the Sync Xplan Clients button at the top of the list to fetch all unlinked clients from Xplan. Refresh the list after some time to see the new unlinked clients. Once unlinked clients are displayed on the table, they can be linked individually with existing Practifi clients or a new client can be created for them in Practifi.
    xplan5.png

Linking an Existing Xplan Client

  1. In the App Launcher of Practifi in the upper left-hand corner, search for and select Integrations. The Integrations table will open, displaying a list of all clients in your Xplan instance.
    xplan4.png
  2. Locate the client within the table and select the caret in the furthest right-hand column. From the drop-down menu, select Edit
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  3. A pop-up will display all the fields in the record:
    • To associate an Xplan client with an existing Practifi one, enter the client name in the Account (Practifi Client) field. 
    • To create the Xplan client as a new Practifi client, check the Create New Client box.
    • To create the Xplan client under an existing Practifi one, select the Parent Account field and check the Create New Client box. This will create a new Client Entity record under an existing Practifi client. 
  4. Once you've chosen which clients you wish to link and how to link them, select Save
    • Please note: If you populate the Practifi Client and Create New Client fields for a single Xplan client, the sync will fail as it would mean the Xplan client is synced to two Practifi client records.
      Xplan7.png

Updating Records Manually

There are situations where you might want to force the systems to update each other. For example, if changes have been made in Xplan that a Practifi user needs to see, but the scheduled job has not yet run. In order to force a manual update:

  • From Xplan to Practifi for a singly linked client: Go to the Client record and select the caret in the record side panel. From the drop-down menu, select the Sync to Xplan option. This process can take up to ten minutes to complete.
  • From Practifi to Xplan for a singly linked client: Go to the Client record and select the caret in the record side panel. From the drop-down menu, select the Send to Xplan option. This process can take up to ten minutes to complete.

Practifi Usage Changes

In order to use the integration effectively, the way you use Practifi needs to closely match the way you use Xplan. These behavior changes are summarized in the following sections.

General

  • Linking existing clients: When linking two existing clients from both systems, child records will be duplicated. For example, if the same Asset record has been created in both systems and then the client is linked, both Practifi and Xplan will have two copies of the same Asset record. To resolve this, delete the duplicate records from one system or the other prior to establishing the sync.

Data Management

  • Asset and Liability record ownership
    • Practifi allows you to allocate Asset and Liability record ownership to clients, people or client entities. Xplan allows ownership to be allocated only to people and requires that ownership percentages between people add up to 100% in order to sync successfully. As such, you cannot assign ownership to clients or client entities for synced Asset and Liability records.
    • Xplan currently does not accept updates to Asset or Liability records made from Practifi that only change ownership information. If you wish to update these values, either do so in Xplan or make the change alongside another change to the record, e.g. editing the Description field. 
    • Xplan requires that both primary and partner people have their ownership percentages defined, even if one of those is zero percent. Attempting to create an Asset or Liability record in Practifi without both people defined will cause a sync error. When viewing Asset and Liability records in a table in Practifi, the Ownership column will show a person's name even if their ownership percentage is zero.
  • Expense frequencies: Xplan contains expense frequency values with no Practifi equivalent, which may cause some inaccuracies with summary calculations. We've addressed these by setting the expense frequencies as follows:
    • Twice a month - Mapped to fortnightly
    • Four weekly - Mapped to monthly
    • Bi-Monthly - Unmapped; selecting this value will exclude the expense from calculations

Unsupported Behavior

  • Deleting records: Record deletion events aren't synced between systems. If you need to delete a record, it will need to be deleted in both systems separately. Because Practifi syncs in real time and Xplan syncs on a schedule, deleting from Practifi first removes the risk of the record being resynced before it's deleted in Xplan. 
  • Record owners: Modifying user ownership of records that are already synced is currently not supported. Changes to record ownership will need to be carried out in both systems. 
  • Relationship types: Modifying relationship types on records that are already synced is currently not supported. Changes to a relation type will need to be carried out in both systems. 
  • Objective relations: Though syncing from Xplan to Practifi doesn't have any limitations, linking or unlinking the objective relations on objective records that are already synced during the sync from Practifi to Xplan is currently not supported. This is due to the patch on objective relations being unsupported by Xplan's APIs. The objective relation sync from Practifi to Xplan works only under the following conditions:
    • When the client is new, the data has never been sent to Xplan before and it is sent over using the Send to Xplan button. 
    • For a client who already exists in Xplan, the Push Objectives trigger can be disabled in the custom settings. After creating a new objective and objective relations, the trigger can be enabled to try to send to Xplan again via this manual push.

Field Mapping

Below is a breakdown of how information is shared between Practifi and Xplan. Information is either shared in real time or manually and scheduled. 

  • Real-time: The sync of this information between the systems happens automatically upon the creation of the record or through updating the mapped fields on the record.
  • Manually and scheduled: The sync of this information from Xplan to Practifi or from Practifi to Xplan can be done either by manual intervention by pressing the Sync from Xplan or Send to Xplan button, respectively. The information can also be sent via a nightly feed, which requires Practifi intervention and deployment in your organization.
Practifi Sync Type Xplan
Client (Household, Organization with the type of Trust, Company or Superfund) Real-time 
Manually and scheduled
Client
Primary Contact Client
Partner Contact Partner
Dependent (Member) Dependent
Goal Goal
Income Income
Expense Expense
Asset (excluding Investments) Asset
Liability Liability
Objective Objective
Retirement Income Retirement Income
Feed Post (Only related to Client, Primary and Partner contact, includes attachments) Manually and scheduled Document Note
Notes (Only related to Client, Primary and Partner contact)
Attachments (Only related to Client, Primary and Partner contact)
Activities (Tasks & Events)  Real-time
Investment Asset (including Holdings) Manually and scheduled Portfolio (Account and Holdings)
Asset (Superannuation)
Insurance
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