Data administration refers to the task of maintaining system data.   If you are running a single-user system, you are the data administrator.  In a multi-user system, the data maintenance tasks may be entirely delegated to a data administrator, or several administrators for a large organization.  Or the data administration may be split between the end-users, who are tasked with maintaining their client accounts, and a person designated as a data administrator who is responsible for maintaining security specific information since that is shared by all users.

 

The best way to determine how to split responsibilities between end users is to look at the data maintenance tasks which need to be performed :

 

Downloads - Security price quote and financial information quotes are best performed using Captools/net's scheduled automatic download feature.  The data administrator should be the person responsible for configuring the download parameters, e.g. time of download, securities to be downloaded, etc. He/she should also be responsible for reviewing download information for accuracy, by reviewing download logs for major data changes.  For more information on this task see Data Downloads.

 

Imports - For most organizations running the Pro and higher versions of Captools/net, account portfolio information, such as account record updates and transaction and position reconciliation data will come in the form of data files received from the custodian or clearing firm.  These files will be imported via Captools/net's institutional import interface (see Institutional Interfaces for details).  Whether these imports are best performed by a data administrator or by each end user (i.e. advisor or client rep.) will depend upon several factors.  If all advisor/rep accounts are contained within a single file, then the import is best performed by a data administrator.  New accounts may or may not require data administrator manual intervention to assign the proper Rep Id (this will depend primarily upon whether the Rep Id information is contained in the data provided by the custodian or clearing firm).

 

If the custodian/clearing firm provides separate data files for each advisor/rep then it is feasible to have each advisor/rep import their own data files, however your organization may still wish to assign this task to a data administrator so as to relieve the advisor/rep of this effort.  Regardless of who performs this import function, or whether it has been configured to occur automatically, someone needs to review the data for accuracy.  This should be the responsibility of each advisor/rep, since they are in the best position to know what trades or transactions were placed for their clients.  Captools/net contains a Data Reconciliation function to assist in this review process, however this simply identifies difference between custodian and Captools/net data, but does not identify faulty information received from the custodian.

 

Manual Data Entry - Some users may not have access to custodian or clearing firm data for some or all of their accounts.  In these cases data must be manually entered from paper sources.  It will be up to your organization to decide whether this is a data administrator task, or a task to be performed by each advisor/rep.

 

Data Operations - Captools/net can perform a number of Data Operations which modify data across multiple accounts.  These operations include functions such as spin-off and merger transaction generation, portfolio re-allocation or re-balancing trade generation, block trade allocations, etc.  Some of these functions, such as the spin-off or merger transaction generation might be best performed for all accounts by a data administrator, to ensure consistency for all accounts.  These operations are accessible from the Captools/net Desktop using the Data Tools command or from browser interface  (see below).  Other multi-account operations such as the portfolio re-balancing may be best performed by the advisor/rep, since they are most familiar with their client accounts.  These latter operations are accessible only from the Captools/net Desktop via the Batch Ops command in order to allow the user to more easily edit resulting data.

 

Reports - Report generation is another function that can be delegated to a Data Administrator to handle for your entire organization.  However, if a high degree of report customization is desired by each advisor/rep., then this function can be left to them.  A compromise solution would be to have the Data Administrator generate a standard set of reports (this process could be automated), leaving the advisor/reps to generate custom reports on an as-needed basis.  See the chapter on Reports for more detail on report generation.