 Tip
of the Month Archive
March 2008:
Q: Have you always wanted to view, edit, or refresh data directly from the Snapshot?
A: The company Snapshot now supports the “edit” and “properties” icons next to records so the user can drill down into more details. Based on user security, the edit icon may or may not be available. Additionally, a reload option is available to "refresh" specific sections instead of the entire Snapshot which will speed up performance. Both edit and browse users can e-mail the Snapshot.
This functionality is also supported in the people Snapshot.
February 2008:
Q: Wish you could target your searches for faster results?
A: In the Corporate Manager (CM) and Global Entity Management System (GEMS) solutions, most fields are available to search on for targeted searches when looking for information such as your company’s entities, directors and officers, or non-affiliates.
You can perform time-saving grouping searches that can be cached to speed your results. An enhanced document search function lets you narrow searches for example, by asking for documents modified between two date ranges.
January 2008:
Q: Wish you knew if your entity data
was in compliance with governance rules?
A: The Compliance Dashboard Module in Computershare Governance Services’ solutions analyzes the data in your entity management system and identifies areas of non-compliance with statutory regulations, international corporate standards or internal governance practices. It will produce graphical or text reports showing each entity’s percentage of compliance and will pinpoint violations such as not having the required number of directors serving on an entity’s board, missed deadlines for critical reports (financial statements, license renewals, etc.) or overdue filings (registrations, forms filings).
December 2007:
Q: What is the Corporate Manager?
A: Like GEMs, its international counterpart, the Corporate
Manager application is a centralized repository of corporate
entity data. It helps Corporate Secretaries manage compliance
and regulatory matters affecting corporations with a North American
focus while still tracking international entities.
With
built-in reporting wizards, it has features that capture merger & acquisition
data and 10K exhibit reports for annual subsidiary filings. The
solution helps corporations meet the compliance challenges imposed
by SOX and includes capabilities for registered agent management.
November 2007:
Q: Have you heard of the new GEMS?
A: The Global Entity Management System (GEMS) is the
new offering that combines the best of the World Records application
with Datacare’s Global Corporate Manager application.
It includes features not previously available in the former
World Records software, particularly in the areas of data searching,
international capabilities, and a new compliance dashboard.
The last feature analyzes the data for compliance using governance
dashboard to compare the jurisdictional rules set up in the
system against entity data to identify areas of non-compliance.
GEMS, along with Corporate Manager, a software solution designed
for companies with a North American focus, are the upgraded
products being offered through the recently formed Computershare
Governance Services.
October 2007:
Q: Have you heard about the new Computershare Governance
Services?
A: With Computershare Ltd’s acquisition of the
Datacare Software Group this summer, a new organization emerged – Computershare
Governance Services. The alignment of Computershare World
Records, which was a leading provider of entity management
and subsidiary governance solutions in the US, with Datacare,
which held a similar position in the global marketplace, created
the new organization. Combining the best parts of the
World Records software with Datacare’s Global Corporate
Manager application, the group will offer a new flexible, powerful
solution for global subsidiary governance, entity management,
and compliance.
September 2007:
Q: Need a validation process?
A: Data Validation is a great tool to verify the work
edit users do in your database. The Data Validation Process
allows you to monitor transactions that are added to, deleted
from, or changed in your database. Through the Maintenance > Data
Validation tab, you can view a list of changes to the database,
verify that the change is correct, or reject the change if
it is not. Additionally, you can warn your view users that
a change has not yet been verified.
August 2007:
Q: Need
to update a record using the same effective date?
A: In the 6.5 release of World Records, you can perform
Same-Day Transactions. You can elect and resign an officer
or director on the same effective date, transfer shares on
the same day they were issued, create and archive a company
on the same day and more!
Historical records are created automatically when you have more than one transaction
for the same effective date and use the transfer, batch, expire, update, person
replace or archive functions.
July 2007:
Q: Does
your company engage in mergers and acquisitions?
A: If your company participates
in mergers and acquisitions, you’ll be happy to know
you can produce a Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) report directly
from World Records! The HSR Antitrust Improvements Act of
1976 mandates that companies create and provide a pre-merger
notification to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The HSR
pre-merger form and instructions are available on the FTC
website.
World Records produces all of section 6 of the report required by the FTC --
sections 6(a) which describes the entities within the person filing notification
(including addresses), 6(b) describing the shareholders of the person filing
notification (including percentage of shares owned by the parent and non-parent),
and 6(c) which describes the holdings of person filing notification (including
name of the parent company, address, other owner name and address, and percentages
of shares held by the parent).
June 2007:
Q: Want
to “Ask
the Experts” about using World Records?
A: You'll have the opportunity
firsthand if you attend the 2007 World Records Annual Conference
in San Diego from October 17 – 19. An "Ask the
Experts" session at the Conference features a panel
of World Records pros (product managers, professional services
experts, support and client service providers) who will take
on live questions and offer insights into the application's
multitude of capabilities. It's one of the many reasons to
take advantage of attending this annual event.
May 2007:
Q: Time for a new entity management system?
A: When spreadsheets, text documents, and
scattered databases aren't helping you meet demanding filing
and reporting deadlines, it's time to search for a new entity
management system for your subsidiary governance. Beth Cook,
of SunGard Data Systems Inc. faced that decision when her
company decided to retire its legacy system. She shared a
firsthand perspective on looking for a better solution when
she co-presented a Webinar on "Choosing an Entity Management
System."Click
here to download it.
April 2007:
Q: Filing forms for limited companies
in the UK?
A: Companies House in the U.K. has designated
Computershare World Records an approved software provider
for electronic filing of forms related to limited companies
in the UK. The World Records application is integrated with
Companies House for direct filing. Only approved software
providers can offer the electronic filing service to deliver
statutory information to Companies House. The service saves
time, increases efficiency, and supports data accuracy.
March 2007:
Q: Need to quickly find your documents?
A: The enhanced Document module search
screen in World Records 6.4 makes it easier than ever to
find your documents. You can search using a combination of
criteria including effective date, document name, description,
content, category and sub-category. This results in a smaller,
more manageable list of matches. You can even sort the list
by column headers to speed the process of locating your documents.
February 2007:
Q: Need to track tasks and due dates for
events?
A: Use the Compliance Calendar within World
Records to track time-sensitive events. An event is any occurrence — e.g.
an annual filing, a quarterly meeting, a registration, verification
date — tied to a due date. Often an event has tasks
that must be accomplished prior to the event date. An annual
board meeting, for example, requires you to determine the
meeting location and prepare/approve materials before the
meeting can take place. To accomplish this in World Records,
just assign tasks to an event. This creates what is called
a "foundation event," any event that has sub-tasks assigned
to it that may involve several people throughout your organization.
January 2007:
Q: Have you seen the NEW Home Page?
A: A new Home Page has been added to the
Version 6.4 release of World Records as a "launch pad" to
the most recently added or visited company, person, or document
records. As an admin user, you can configure the Home Page
to be the first screen you see when you enter the application
or you can access it by clicking the World Records logo at
the top left corner of every screen. Besides being a shortcut
to your system modules, the page includes your Event Notifications
at a glance and a Summary of your active company, person,
and document records.Click
Here for a Screen Shot.
December 2006:
Q: Tired of running to your document storage
room?
A: Why not have all your by-laws, minutes,
security filings and articles of incorporation accessible
through World Records? You can upload documents to your Web
server or link to a document stored in a document management
system, network drive, or on the Internet. Use World Records
to view the contents of the document directly or to download
it to your computer, instead of heading to your storage location.
November 2006:
Q: Need to create specialized reports?
A: The Advanced Reporting tool allows you
to create customized reports with greater flexibility than
the standard reporting module. Highlights of the Advanced
Reporting tool include the ability to:
• Report on standard and custom Data Fields
• Filter reports on standard and custom Data Fields
• Create reports using "user defined" custom labels
• View and export reports in multiple formats, such as HTML, Excel, PDF
and RTF
• Format reports using a standard formatting toolbar to include fonts,
alignment, merging and wrapping cells, and more.
October 2006:
Q: Need to re-elect/resign board members
across your companies?
A: The Global Update function lets administrators
and edit users batch re-elect or resign officers and directors
simultaneously from boards, across multiple companies. It
is accessed through the Maintenance module > Global Update
tab. You have the option of producing a re-election or resignation
document as part of the batch process.
September 2006:
Q: Wonder how others use World Records?
A: When using World Records, have you
wondered, "what's this tab, section, or field for"? Or, "am
I using the system to its fullest potential?" Have you ever
wished you could talk to other users to compare notes?
Your chance to mingle with fellow users as well as industry leaders
is coming in October 2006 at the World Records Annual Conference in
New York City. Click
here for more information.
August 2006:
Q: What are templates and when are they
used?
A: Templates are .rtf files that contain
boilerplate text combined with "tags" that extract data from
your database and insert it into the appropriate place in
the document, similar to a mail-merge program. They are used
to create documents, letters, notices and forms based on
information in your World Records database.
You can configure templates to produce board meeting documents including
resignation, re-election and replacement documents, consents and more.
July 2006:
Q: Need to secure access to information?
A: World Records administrators can provide
groups of users with various pre-defined access levels to
the application (read only, admin, etc.), as well as, secure
specific modules, sections and even fields so that only authorized
users can access them.
Tax, accounting, and legal, for example, can each have access to designated
areas of the World Records system relevant to their work. Key players
can update and maintain data in their areas and run critical reports,
while protecting proprietary information in other areas of the system.
This 'self-serve' capability decreases questions to the administrator.
June 2006:
Q: Have a slow responding IT department
that charges back for expenses?
A: IT departments are often swamped and
may not be able to respond to your World Records needs quickly.
With Computershare World Records’ hosted solution,
the application is hosted in a world class, SAS70-certified
data center. Hosting eliminates the need to purchase hardware
and operating systems or hire professionals to maintain them.
World Records typically has maintenance and enhancement releases several
times a year. On a hosted platform, upgrades to new versions are automatic.
That means quick and easy access to the latest functionality. You'll
save time and money on things like installation and maintenance with
secure, round-the-clock firewall-protected technology, disaster recovery,
and power interruption handling.
May 2006:
Q: Do you ever dissolve, acquire, or liquidate
legal entities?
A: If you need to dissolve, acquire, or
liquidate companies in your organization, using the Archive
Wizard simplifies the process. The Archive Wizard:
• Changes the status of an entity from Active to Inactive
• Creates a history for the entity
• Adds it to the archive list
• Resigns all directors and officers of the entity
• Expires and ends capital (Share Holder and Share Class) and ownership,
as of your archive date
The Archive Wizard is available in the Base Tab, Company section by
clicking the Update link.
April 2006:
Q: Executives: Need to know what data you're
responsible for?
A: Executives can easily find high-level
information for which they are accountable in the D&O
Executive Dashboard, part of the new D&O Governance Console.
The D&O Executive Dashboard provides executives with
organizational data pertinent to their role in a company
or subsidiary, information on the boards on which they sit,
their signatory rights and more.
March 2006:
Q: Do your executives need on-line access
to board meeting materials?
A: Through the NEW World Records D&O
BoardPrep module, executives have secure, online access to
materials such as the board meeting agenda and documents.
After reviewing the meeting and document details, an executive
can add comments and send notification of changes to other
meeting invitees.
Feburary 2006:
Q: Need to view your current and historical
organizational structure?
A: World Records organizational charts
are fully integrated with the application. Ownership structure
can be viewed for any point-in-time. Simply enter a date
into the World
Records Time Machine, click on "Org Chart" and see a
snapshot of your company's org structure for that day!
January 2006:
Q: Need to manage facilities, locations
and their details?
A: You can track information for your organization's
branches, offices, stores, warehouses and more through World
Records new Satellite Facilities Module.
How is this helpful?
Storing information on leases, contracts, opening and closing dates,
billing addresses and so forth in World Records can be a timesaver
when determining deadlines.
December 2005:
Q: Do you know what the Changes Made Audit
Reports are?
A: Changes Made Audit Reports provide an
audit trail for modifications made to Company Status, Company
Name, and Company Ownership information for a specific time
period. You may submit Changes Made Audit Reports on a quarterly
basis to comply with governance guidelines.
Having this information available in the Changes Made History Reports
is a huge time saver. Three Change History reports are located in the
Company Module, Reports Tab: Company Ownership History, Company Name
History, and Company Status History.
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