Cost Centres

Thursday, 11 July 2019 by John Rickard

finPOWER Connect version 3.2 introduces the concept of Cost Centres for tracking requests made to third party interfaces such as Credit Bureaus. In other words, finPOWER Connect now better supports users that want third party credentials and other settings to vary based upon their Business Units.

A new Admin file, "Cost Centres", defines these third party credentials and options, rather than one Global configuration. The trade off is each request to a third party must also define a Branch, which in turn defines the Cost Centre.

Cost Centres are a new Add-On module and require the Branches Add-On as a pre-requisite.

Overview

In earlier versions of finPOWER Connect, credentials for third party interfaces, such as Centrix, were defined once under Global Settings. This meant all Centrix Credit Enquiries were tagged to the same Centrix Account and billed together on one invoice.

A new Admin file "Cost Centres" now defines these third party credentials and options.

Admin, Cost Centres

Then, as each Centrix Credit Enquiry is processed, the User can select the relevant Branch to allocate the Credit Enquiry fee to. This in turn defines the Cost Centre and related Centrix Account, so each Branch/ Cost Centre can appear on different invoices from Centrix.

Credit Enquiry wizard

Note, the Branch will default from the relevant Client or Account.

  • Branch is used to find the Cost Centre Credentials by:
    • Review the Branch
      • Each Branch now optionally defines the related Cost Centre
      • Does the Branch define a Cost Centre?
      • Does that Cost Centre define the Service?
      • If Yes, use the Credentials defined here
    • If No to either of these then review the Branch's Entity
      • Each Entity now optionally defines the related Cost Centre
      • Does the Entity define a Cost Centre?
      • Does that Cost Centre define the Service?
      • If Yes, use the Credentials defined here
    • Finally if not found already, use the credentials defined in the "Global" Cost Centre

Services that support Cost Centres

Currently the following third party Services are supported in Cost Centres:

  • Centrix (New Zealand)
    • Credit Enquiry, Defaults, Monitoring
    • Security Enquiry
  • CreditSense
    • Bank Account Enquiry
  • Equifax (Australia)
    • Credit Enquiry
  • Equifax (New Zealand)
    • Credit Enquiry, Defaults
  • illion BankStatements
    • Bank Account Enquiry

More services will be introduced to Cost Centres in the future.