Key features in the first release are:

Flexibility - Expanding on the current version of Simple Fund, Simple Fund 360 will have a highly versatile and robust General Ledger with clever automated data input screens, multi category chart of account structure with the ability to add user defined accounts and labels.

Reliability – Simple Fund 360 will have the same reliable and proven create entries calculation that has been relied on by SMSF administrators for over a decade and is used today by over 350,000 funds.

Automation – Simple Fund 360, will provide the most sophisticated automated processes available in the SMSF industry.  Connected with web services, Simple Fund 360 will automatically load bank, broker and registry data and use BGL SmartPost to automatically allocate transactions. Fast searchable grids will be available to sort, search and group transactions ensuring users have access to relevant and timely information.

Business Intelligence reporting – An intuitive new reporting engine makes accessing valuable SMSF data simple and fast.  By using the latest technologies Simple Fund 360 will allow users to fully customise all reports. Simple Fund 360 will also include all the ledger, financial, member and investment reporting available in Simple fund today.

Paperless Solution  – Simple Fund 360 will be the only end to end paperless Document Management solution for SMSF Administrators. Simple Fund 360 will includes a fully featured document, letter and minute generation functions, including BGL’s SmartSign technology (digital signing), meaning users will never have to post or email documents again.

At the conference BGL will have a number of surprises for delegates. We will show delegates the future of SMSF compliance and administration and how BGL can make the SMSF dream come true for you.

So please take this opportunity to visit our stand to find out how you can have a fully automated paperless SMSF process in your organisation

BGL’s CAS software continues to be recognised as the world’s leading corporate secretarial solution with almost 3,000 clients in 12 counties (including Australia, Hong Kong New Zealand, Singapore and the UK) using our software everyday to prepare documents for clients and corporate regulators.

Recently, BGL has added BGL SmartSign for CAS to Portal by BGL. Clients can now digitally sign CAS forms and documents from anywhere in the world at any time and on any device (computer, tablet, smartphone). Portal by BGL gives clients the ability to simply distribute CAS forms documents to clients and third parties resulting in improved levels of services and providing incredible efficiencies.

In May 2011, BGL introduced the first actuarial certificate process to be fully integrated with an administrator’s SMSF software. The Simple Fund Actuarial Certificate Wizard automatically extracts all the data from the fund ledger, completes the calculation of the exempt income percentage and pre-fills a draft actuarial certificate for review and approval by the actuary. One of the nice things about the process is that the client has full control over the data meaning any processing or data errors can be easily fixed prior to actuary review.

The BGL process supports multiple actuaries (Act2 Solutions, Bendzulla Actuarial and Cumpston Sarjeant)  giving our clients unparalleled choice.

Self managed super fund (SMSF) administrators BGL attracted around 140 new clients representing roughly 20,000 new SMSFs in the last quarter, according to the firm’s managing director Ron Lesh.

The new clients are mostly accountants, with many joining from competitors as well as many new clients, some of whom haven’t had SMSF software previously, Lesh said.

One factor Lesh attributes to the growth is automation. BGL has been focused over the past 12-18 months on automating necessary processes and is now nearing the point where a SMSF holding only listed securities can now be fully automated, he said.

SMSF administrators (including accountants and advisers, as well as genuine self managing trustees) are looking to reduce their data input obligations. They are also making sure a fund complies with all its legal obligations, with payments and contributions a major potential tripping point, Lesh said.

“We’ve tried to warn people of those things within the software. If they’re processing every day they get to the contributions, or they see the pension limits, then the software will tell them,” he said.

Lesh said that BGL administers around three quarters of SMSFs in Australia. He anticipates that the current growth of the SMSF sector means the rapid growth in BGL’s business will continue for some time.

BGL is currently looking at adding a web-based version to increase the options for how trustees and administrators can administer funds, Lesh said.

Self-managed super fund (SMSF) administrator BGL will likely continue to see rapid growth along with the sector, and has outlined a plan to push into the Asian marketplace through its compliance software.

The firm attracted 130 to 140 new clients, mostly accountants, in the third quarter of this year, representing around 20,000 new funds.

BGL software is used by roughly three quarters of Australian SMSFs. If it maintains that proportion it will continue to grow at a significant rate without needing to change much about the current offering, although it would require continual recruitment in support staff, according to BGL managing director Ron Lesh.

BGL’s corporate affairs software is also used to submit more than 40 per cent of Australian Securities and Investments Commission forms, which may provide an avenue for significant growth through expansion into the Asian marketplace where the firm has already established a Hong Kong office, Lesh said.

Lesh partly attributed the growth to fund automation. BGL has been focused over the past 12-18 months on automating necessary processes and is now nearing the point where a SMSF holding only listed securities can now be fully automated, he said.

SMSF administrators (including accountants and advisers, as well as genuine self-managing trustees) are looking to reduce their data input obligations and also making sure funds comply with all their legal obligations, with payments and contributions a major potential tripping point, Lesh said.

At the conference, we met numerous clients and introduced our products and services to many potential new clients.

Thanks you to all the clients who came to visit us at our stand, showed us their love for BGL by wearing their I LOVE BGL badge and attended our product update, digital signing and SMSF Q & A sessions

I will be doing 2 presentations at the conference:

Monday 17 October 2011 at 10.50:  BGL , the web, new products & services

Tuesday 18 October 2011 at 13.55:  Digital Authentication

I will also be a panelist at the SMSF Q & A session on Tuesday 18 October 2011 at 8.15.

BGL will also have a stand at the conference so please use this opportunity to come and chat with us

The Forum had many speakers including Bill Clinton, Ban Zander, Jack Welch, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill George, Gary Hamel, Robert Rubin, Martin Feldstein, Marina Gorbis, Tal Ben-Shahar, Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Tamara Erickson, Howard Schulz, and Patrick Lencioni.

The thoughts, ideas and experience these speakers bring to the audience is second to none. Over the next few months, BGL will be working to implement many of the ideas that came out of the Forum.

I would highly recommend this event to our clients.

This year we have had almost 500 attendees at CAS Product Information seminars across the region. These seminars introduce prospects to our market leading CAS company secretarial software as well as new ways of doing business using the web to deliver data and documents to clients. There is nobody else doing what we ware doing in Asia and after many years BGL is now being seen as the leader in corporate secretarial compliance in the region

CAS for Singapore also prepares XBRL financial statements which are required for all Singapore companies. Most of the other suppliers of similar software have either pulled out of Singapore or have not updated their software for changes to the XBRL specifications. The Asia / Pacific region is growing and BGL wants to be part of this.

At the same time, BGL has forged relationships with the regulators and professional associations in the region. We can’t do what we do alone, so their support is important for our success.

Over the next 5 years, we will continue to build our Asia  business by offering innovate productivity tools to our Asia clients.