Set Up Your New AdvicePay Account in 6 Simple Steps
All of the features below are available on our Professional plan, while users on the Essential plan will not have all of the options; however, you can still use this guide to get started! More information on our plans can be found here.
In This Article:
Welcome to AdvicePay; we're glad to have you!
We have a lot of great features and customizations available within your AdvicePay account! We're here to help get you up and running quickly! By using the guide below, it's possible to start billing clients within an afternoon once the account is verified.
If you notice your account hasn't yet been verified and it's been more than 2 days, please reach out to us via the blue beacon at the bottom right inside AdvicePay or email us at support@advicepay.com and let us know so we can help with that process.
To begin, we highly recommend checking out AdvicePay's Professional Demo Center. This has a few videos on the main features and is an excellent way to get familiar with the app quickly!
As you complete the following steps, you'll be guided through our most helpful Advisor Knowledge Base tutorials for new users. These can be found anytime, right from inside the app, by clicking on the "beacon" as shown below and using a keyword to search:
You can also access the knowledge base from the dropdown arrow in the top right to search articles:
Step 1: Configure your Firm and Account Settings
The first place to begin is to adjust your settings. Head over to the top right drop-down arrow and click on Firm Settings. Each tab. within those settings has specifics; go through each of them. Add your name and logo under the Company tab, Billing under that tab, and so on.
Below we've highlighted the most popular areas to be customized before issuing invoices to clients:
- Uploading a Custom Logo
- Adding Additional Info to Invoices (e.g., a company address or phone number)
- Adding a Custom Disclosure
- Invoice Date Ranges: In Advance or In Arrears
- Fee Calculation on Invoices (for help on creating a fee calculator, check out Using the Fee Calculator)
- Description of Services
Next, head to Account Settings:
Under Invoice, we recommend reviewing the following to allow the types you want clients to see when making a payment. This article shows the options in the payment workflow, which can then be set per invoice/subscription if needed:
Step 2: Review and Adjust Email Notifications
AdvicePay has a variety of email notifications available for both clients and advisors!
Visit Firm Settings > Emails & Notifications to add a legal disclosure to emails and add BCC recipients for all emails sent across your firm account. There are also a few additional settings for advisors to add bcc or cc recipients in their accounts, along with reports for deletions and voids on eSignature documents.
- See the Full article on: Firm-Wide Email Settings
Next, we recommend jumping over to Account Settings > Emails & Notifications to look at our system notification emails.
Step 3: Add Admins (and Advisors if needed)
On our Professional Plan, you can add unlimited Administrative users at no extra cost.
Each additional Advisor with login permissions will cost $50/month and show this as a warning in the window when adding them.
If you want to add administrators to help with billing and bookkeeping, you'll want to add them using the Admin and/or Analyst types to your account. Head to the left sidebar to Accounts>Admin> Add Admin:
- The Admin (Home Office under the Account Owner) can add/delete and edit any Admin/Analyst for an Advisor at the firm. Admin can also review and export reports, but cannot view billing bank info, change the company name, or delete the account.
- A Home Office Analyst can view activity on the account (e.g., clients, invoices, and transfers) and make exports for transaction reports. They cannot view billing info or make changes in the account.
- An Advisor Admin can add/delete or edit any Admin/Analyst for their assigned Advisor specifically. (Only if they allow Advisors to add Admins).
- An Advisor Analyst can only view and download reports for their Advisor specifically.
Read here for more details: Adding Administrative Users to Your Account
If you need to add other Advisors as well, begin by navigating to Advisors > Invite New Advisor:
Tip: Here's how to invite Advisors, as well as a breakdown of all our Advisor permission types.
Step 4: Add eSignatures
We have two options available to ensure you get all your documents signed in a compliant workflow that's streamlined for you and painless for clients.
Our built-in Dropbox Sign integration option is included in your Professional plan at no extra cost, but you can also link us to your existing DocuSign account (paid separately) or Adobe Sign if you prefer to use either of those integrations. (Check with Adobe Sign if you are unsure if you have workflows; those need to be on your plan for it to work with AdvicePay).
To enable either option, navigate to Firm Settings > eSignature and click the toggle to green to enable eSignature.
Want to use Dropbox Sign? Check out this article.
Want to use DocuSign? Check out this article.
Want to use Adobe Acrobat Sign? Check out this article.
Alternatively, if you're not quite ready to implement eSignatures right now, you can skip this part and incorporate it later!
When adding these, please ensure you have templates in DocuSign and Adobe Sign prior to connection, and please read more about how emails work with documents and payment requests.
Step 5: Introduce your Clients to AdvicePay
When introducing new technology to clients, we provide a link to send an email invitation or, instead, a payment request when ready.
If needed, we've provided a sample email here that you can use to introduce us to your client! Feel free to use it as-is, or simply take bits and pieces to incorporate into your firm's existing messaging.
Many advisors like to send clients the following one-pagers as well (clicking on the links below will initiate a PDF download):
Finally, we recommend letting clients know they can always reference our client-facing Knowledge Base to get help with common "how-to" questions or contact our team at support@advicepay.com.
Step 6: Add Clients and Start Billing!
Tip: Once all of the customizations in your account are completed, one of the best ways to become familiar with AdvicePay is to set up a test client account. With this test client, you can experiment with requesting a payment, go through the steps of paying an invoice yourself, and even experience how payouts work along with any refunds. Note that payments will not be removed if made; however, you can always refund if needed.
To get started, we generally recommend that you do the following together when you're ready:
To add a new client and request payment in a single workflow, start by going straight to Transactions, then Invoices or Subscriptions in your sidebar and clicking Create New.
Select the + Add New Client link in the Client drop-down to add your new client, then proceed to finish the payment request.
If you want to add upfront payments to your subscription requests for increased efficiency, check out how to bundle a subscription and a one-time invoice!
Important: Please note that all emails sent from AdvicePay come from info@app.advicepay.com. Please ensure you and your clients add this to the safe sender list in your email provider or contacts to ensure everyone receives all emails in their main inbox.
Need to reach us?
Our customer support team at AdvicePay takes place over email, however, we offer quick help Monday through Friday between 9 am and 5 pm MT, working diligently to reply to everyone -- including your clients -- within 60 minutes or less. In most cases, you'll hear back from us much sooner.
Getting in touch with us is simple: you can always reach us at support@advicepay.com or in the app beacon, bottom right. Click on the beacon and search keywords or phrases to find an answer, or click "Ask" to send over your question with details.
