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Your credit union’s core processor is a vital part of your credit union. Your sensitive member data is housed there, and the core drives all your other operations, automated processes, and transactions.
Synergent provides hosted Jack Henry™ Symitar® Core Processing to credit unions from coast-to-coast. It is known to be a flexible workhorse of a core that easily integrates with the latest, most in-demand financial products and services. But being the sophisticated core processor that it is, there is a lot of knowledge to maintain for credit unions to maximize their core processing investment. Staff turnover, employees wearing many hats, the need for rich (but time-consuming) member interactions, and the ever-changing world of technology all make it difficult for staff to be sure they are strategically maximizing their Symitar core investment.
The Solution: Synergent Core Consulting
In 2021, Synergent introduced Core Consulting to all partner credit unions. Since that time, our in-house Symitar subject-matter experts have worked with credit unions of all sizes to help them gain efficiencies, grow shares, and increase loans through strategic consults. They bring together all the pieces through a comprehensive approach with a 360-degree view. There are four general types of consultations credit unions can choose from: Efficiency Consult, Targeted Consult, Deep Dive Consult, and New Product Consult.
“Credit unions consistently are surprised with the efficiencies they gain and the profits they make following a core consultation,” said Jennifer Berry, Vice President of Core Conversions & Consulting. “Credit unions who have been on the core for years learn many new tricks that help their staff serve members even more efficiently.”
“This was so valuable to our credit union!” shared Marti Allen, President/CEO of Casco FCU in Gorham, Maine. “There are so many enhancements and efficiencies offered throughout the year but it can be hard to keep track of them all. This deep-dive consult allowed us to talk more in-depth about what would be best solutions for our credit union.”
Expansion of Consulting
As Core Consulting progressed, recurring themes were quickly identified. To best help credit unions, these themes are packaged as funded consults that go beyond the standard consultations.
“While we’ve tried to helpfully group together common funded consultation options to help credit unions envision what we can dig into together, we can tailor consulting to any area of interest that a credit union wants to look at,” explained Berry. “Every credit union has unique needs and we can align core consultations accordingly.”
Funded Consults
Below are some examples of funded consultations that credit unions can pursue.
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General Ledger Evaluation with Branch Accounting Focus
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With a General Ledger (GL) evaluation, together we will review your current chart of accounts, financial statements, GL translation, distribution tables, and batch postings. Using this information, we will provide recommendations for effective reporting. We also review GL account access and accounts payable to gain new efficiencies and to ensure GL postings are clear and precise within each batch job.
- Clean up chart of accounts
- Review GLs against translation table
- Review accruals
- Analyze fixed assets and prepaids
- Complete accounts payable efficiency analysis
- Make GL posting recommendations
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Transfers In & Out
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In this review of your transfer records—including share, loan, IRS, and EFT/payroll transfers—we will analyze all current transfer records and the values contained within each field, as well as complete a review of current exceptions that occur. Our team also will review all related jobs to ensure proper, valuable reports are being created to meet your needs.
- Analysis of all transfer types
- Review batch jobs that run transfers
- Review of all reports (Journal, Exception, Notice of Transfer, Set Transfer, Expiration Journal) and provide analysis of exceptions
- Provide data cleanup recommendations
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Data Permissions and Security Review
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Your data is only as secure as your permissions are within your staff and consoles. This deep-dive review will include reviewing your console, user, and security group setup, as well as reviewing field FM controls and process controls when it comes to accessing accounts or functional areas. Your security and file maintenance journals will also be reviewed to provide the best output possible to ease research in file maintenance and security overrides.
- Analyze all RB.SECURITY.PRIV permissions at user, group, and console levels
- Recommend field restriction possibilities to ensure fields aren’t erroneously changed
- Review print control access permissions
- Discuss restricted permissions within the account records
- Review password settings, override settings, and security reports
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Assessment of Your ACH Process
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Maximizing the member experience and ensuring proper balancing and reconciliation is our goal when reviewing your ACH posting jobs. In this consult, we take a deep dive into your current ACH process, including posting, exceptions, and origination. We also will analyze your lookups and EFT records to ensure the accuracy of each posting.
- Review ACH and origination posting jobs
- Provide updated balancing template for reconciliation of ACH clearing GL
- Review ACH exceptions process
- Shadow staff in processing exception items
- Offer recommendations for efficiencies in posting and reviewing items
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Report Analysis (Core vs. Easy Writer)
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Many reports are available within the core and some may be duplicates of your own reports created through Easy Writer. In this consultation, we will go through each of your Easy Writer reports and provide feedback on core reports that will help you achieve your goals with suggestions for prompts that can be tailored to your needs. We also will explore any manual processes that could be automated.
- Review core reports against Easy Writer reports
- Reduce duplicate reporting and identify missing reports that are needed
- Review core reports run during goodnight process
- Identify Easy Writer reports that can be automated
- Add reporting functionalities and efficiencies
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Ins and Outs of Loan and Membership Processing
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The application process has many moving parts. Reviewing your membership and loan application process to ensure efficiency in creating records and ensuring you have the reports you need for quality control and beyond will be our focus during this consultation. This will include reviewing functionalities within Synergy for document auditing. Together, we will review the workflows, screen definitions, field controls, and your booking process, as well as custom fields and tracking records, to help maintain member data hygiene.
- Discuss current application processes and procedures
- Review application defaults, workflows, and spec file parameters
- Identify changes to make workflows more efficient
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Fee Maximization Review
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Ensuring maximization of your credit union’s income possibilities and ensuring the proper reporting of fees are the key goals of this consultation. We will review your current fee schedule and ensure that your jobs and parameters reflect correct fees and posting accuracy while cleanly providing related reports. We will also offer recommendations on different fee types that could allow for greater income.
- Review current fee structure, reports, and postings
- Compare fee schedule with batch jobs and parameters (ACH, draft, ATM, dormancy, late charge, etc.)
- Review exception reports for inconsistencies
- Review jobs and parameters outside of fee schedule
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Account Cross-Sell Assessment
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Your product and service penetration are as good as your sales culture. To maximize your sales, we will review your current setup to identify any possibilities to enhance your account cross-sell opportunities while allowing for proper reporting and tracking.
- Review current account cross-sell procedures
- Review products/services offered, and criteria set for each
- Review reports to view member profitability and cross-selling efforts
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Annual Data Cleanup
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Data hygiene is an ongoing process to ensure all your data files are accurate and current. While completing ongoing updates as they occur is beneficial, we recommend setting aside dedicated time each year to complete a formal database cleanup. Synergent consulting experts can perform the heavy lifting by analyzing your database, sharing output, and assisting you with a full systematic cleanup.
- Review reports, accounts, postings, vendors, and processes
- Verify account codes and settings
- Cleanup dormant or inaccurate accounts
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Project Management Consultation
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Do you have strategic goals, projects, or implementations you cannot get to? Do you need an extension of your staff to help your team achieve goals on time and within budget? Synergent’s expertise can help you manage progress with a true project plan and set expectations to achieve your goals.
- Create project plan, including complete timeline and resource allocation
- Host project meetings on a frequency that meets the needs of the credit union and any vendors involved
- Provide guidance and expertise to ensure successful completion
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Learn More
Download the product sheet for more information about Core Consulting. This offering remains exclusively available to Synergent partner credit unions. Spots are filling up quickly! Contact us today to schedule your core consultation.
