NRS ComplianceGuardian™
for Investment Advisers
User Guide

Table of Contents

Overview

HowTo

Tools

Administration

Overview

NRS ComplianceGuardian™ is an all-in-one web based tool that has been built to assist compliance professionals in keeping up with a myriad of new rules and regulations. It will assist you in completing the necessary compliance tasks of your firm and will keep you updated throughout the year on any compliance related changes.

Included in NRS ComplianceGuardian™ are tools for managing and maintaining your Policies and Procedures, Code of Ethics, Privacy Statements as well as your Form ADV. NRS ComplianceGuardian™ also includes a powerful research tool which gives users access to state-by-state requirements, SEC, FINRA Rules and Regulations as well as an archive of news articles. Additionally, NRS ComplianceGuardian™ contains model investment adviser contracts for you to customize for your firm, personal securities trading documents and guides covering, among other things, best practices and disaster recovery.

How To

This "How To" section provides quick instructions on how to perform common tasks with NRS ComplianceGuardian™. More detailed information on specific steps can be found in the individual component sections.

Creating an initial set of Policies and Procedures

To setup an initial set of Policies and Procedures, the firm's administrator must perform the following tasks before an active version of their firm's manual is ready and can be viewed by users. Access to the following steps can be found by going to Administration, then My Manuals.

Administrators also have the ability (if needed) to:

Creating an initial Code of Ethics

To setup an initial Code of Ethics, the firm's administrator must perform the following tasks before an active version of their firm's code is ready and can be viewed by users.

Administrators also have the ability (if needed) to:

Formatting Text in NRS ComplianceGuardian™

There are several places within NRS ComplianceGuardian™ where users require word processing capabilities (e.g. when editing the content of the policies and procedures). For these situations NRS has incorporated a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that allows you to graphically edit your content like you would in any word processor.

Due to the fact that the word processors in ComplianceGuardian™ are HTML based, by default, hitting the Enter key will insert a paragraph break as opposed to a line break. To insert a single line break, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and press Enter once. This will work in all sections of ComplianceGuardian™.

Whenever you click in a field that allows word processing a floating toolbar will appear that will include buttons for each of the formatting function. These include Bold, Underline, Italics, Font Type, Font Size, Indents, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, and many others. Along with these formatting functions the toolbar contains drop down lists for selecting font face and size. The standard buttons and their functions are as follows: 

    Copy     Hyperlink
    Cut     Horizontal Rule
    Paste     Bold
    Select All     Italic
    Deselect All     Underline
    Align Left     Ordered List
    Align Center     Bulleted List
    Align Right     Find and Replace
   Text Color    Outdent Text
    Indent Text    Sub-Script
    Super Script    Background Color
    Indent Text     Delete Table
     Insert Table     Insert Table Row
     Set Cell Attributes     Insert Table Column
     Delete Table Row    Check Spelling
     Delete Table Column    Paste as Text
   Background Color  

Along with the standard word processing functions the floating toolbar may also contain buttons that perform functions specific to the page that you are on (e.g. creating links to uploaded file attachments in the Code of Ethics and Policies and Procedures.)  The extended function buttons are as follows:

Button Where Available
    Link to Attachment Policies and Procedures and Code of Ethics

Merge Fields – Merge Fields are codes that can be entered into the content of the Code of Ethics, the Policies and Procedures Manual, and e-mail templates, that are dynamically replaced with information from the firm profile. These fields can be very useful when entering repetitive information throughout your manuals. When using merge fields, if there is ever a change of the information used in the firm profile, it will be automatically updated throughout the appropriate documents. For example when referring to your CCO, enter %CCOName%. Please be aware that Merge fields are case sensitive.
 

Updating the Policies and Procedures

NRS distributes updates to its model Policies and Procedures and Regulatory Reference once a quarter to stay consistent with ever changing regulations and best practices. It is critically important for you to review these changes and incorporate those that relate to your business practices into your manual.

Each quarter NRS will notify administrators via e-mail that the latest system update has been applied and is available for review. A complete update notice describing the regulatory and system changes can be accessed by clicking "Administration" and then "System Updates" from the menu bar. This document will briefly describe any major regulatory activity and how it has impacted the NRS model policies and procedures and the regulatory reference.

After receiving notification of an update, administrators should review/edit each of the changed sections by clicking "Administration" and then selecting "Policies and Procedures Content" from the "Policies and Procedures" portion of the "Content" sub menu. If you have not changed the NRS model language, changed text will appear in red and you should confirm that the new language is appropriate for your firm and business practices.

If you have replaced the NRS model language with your own customized language, NRS' updates will NOT overwrite those changes. Instead, a link will appear above any customized section(s) allowing administrators to view the new default language. After clicking this link, they can either replace their customized section with the new language by clicking the "Update" button or manually incorporate the changes as they see fit.

       

Important: It is important to note that different versions of the NRS model language are used based on the answers you provide in your firm profiles. Some of the changes indicated in the update notice may apply only to alternative versions of the model language and you will not see any changes noted by red text.

Once satisfied with the changes, administrators will need to "Publish" their working draft from the "Manage Versions" page in order for it to become their active version.

Tools

Advisor Code of Ethics

The Investment Adviser Code of Ethics tool within NRS ComplianceGuardian™is a comprehensive system that allows you to create, maintain and distribute a Code of Ethics for your investment advisory business. This web based tool makes it easy for compliance officers to customize the NRS' model Code of Ethics to suit the business practices of their firm. Users can view the current Code of Ethics by clicking 'Code of Ethics' and then selecting 'Code of Ethics' from the drop down menu.

In addition, NRS updates the Code of Ethics as regulatory changes warrant so your firm stays current with the most up-to-date requirements and best practices.

The Code of Ethics tool provides the following functions to assist compliance professionals in the maintenance and distribution of their code which are accessible by going to Administration, then My Manuals.


When you are ready to print your Code of Ethics, you have the option to print one section at a time or to print the entire code of ethics. These options are available when viewing your current version or when previewing working draft.

To print one section at a time. Navigate to the section you wish to print and click the small button at the top of the screen that looks like a printer . This will format the section in a more printer friendly view. You will now be able to print using your browsers functions.

To print the entire Code of Ethics at once, click on the small button at the top of the screen that looks like a red book. This will gather all the sections into one document and you will then be able to print out your entire Code of Ethics or save it as a PDF.

You may notice when printing your Code of Ethics that the web address is printed on the bottom of your page and there are headings at the top of each page. This is an Internet Explorer setting. To remove these, simply go to FILE and PAGE SETUP, remove the text under Header and Footer. Take note of these settings prior to removing them as you may wish to have these headers and footers print for other web pages. Alternatively you may save the document as a PDF using the "Save as PDF" link and print from the PDF.

Code of Ethics Profile

When first setting up a Code of Ethics within ComplianceGuardian™, an administrator's first task is to complete the Code of Ethics profile. Completing this profile does the initial customization to create a working draft that contains the proper model NRS language for each of the appropriate sections within the code of ethics.

Once you've answered each of the questions click on Finish to save your answers. This will create the text of your initial working draft which can then be further customized from the manage content screen.

Code of Ethics Content

To customize the text for any given section of the Code of Ethics Click "Administration"  and then select My Manuals and choose 'Edit Content'. Select the appropriate section from the "Select a Section" dropdown list.

Once a section has been selected, the manage content screen allows users to fully customize the text of the section. When you click in the editable field it expands to allow for easier customizing, and displays a toolbar at the top providing users with a wide array of word processing functionality including Bold, Underline, Italics, Font Type, Font Size, Indents, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, and many others.

When you are finished editing the section text click the save button at the bottom of the page. Note:  For security reasons user sessions timeout if you remain on any page for more than 15 minutes (even if you are actively entering information on the page.)  The system will alert users prior to timing out, allowing them time to save. If for some reason a timeout does occur while entering information, the user will be redirected to a login page where they must login in order for their data to be saved.

Code of Ethics Versions

To assist administrators in complying with the books and records requirements NRS has incorporated the concept of versioning into the code of ethics tool. The manage versions screen for the code of ethics is available by clicking "Administration" and then selecting 'My Manuals' and choosing Manage Versions. On this screen administrators can preview their working draft, "Publish" their working draft, and view archived versions of their code of ethics.

Any time that an administrator makes a change to their code of ethics whether it is by editing the firm profiles, managing content or changing the display order, these changes are being applied to what is called the "Working Draft." This draft allows administrators to make extensive changes and review them prior to releasing the changes to their general users. Once an administrator is satisfied with the working draft, they must "Publish" in order for it to be available to general users.

To publish the Working Draft of your Code of Ethics and make it your current version, simply click the link that says "Make this version active"  to the right of the Working Draft. You will be prompted to give your new version a name.

Whenever you publish a new version of your Code of Ethics, the previous version is archived and the dates that it was active are recorded. Previous versions of the Code of Ethics are kept archived so that you may go back and view and/or print the Code of Ethics that was in effect at any point in time.

Code of Ethics Attachments

The "File Attachments" feature allows Administrators to upload any type of file (pdf, doc, rtf etc.) as an attachment to their code of ethics. Links to these uploaded attachments can then be displayed in the table of contents as addenda or embedded directly into customized content.

The Manage File Attachments screen allows administrators to upload new files as well as manage already uploaded files. From this screen Administrators are able to set a file's "Type" as well as choose whether a file should be displayed as an addendum and/or as a form.

The "File Type" is the title that will be displayed below the list of sections if the file is to be displayed as an addendum. It is also what will be displayed in the "Insert Attachment Link" dropdown list that appears when managing content. Firms can only have one active file of any given type at a time. When new files are uploaded (or activated) with the same "Type" as an already active file the new file will replace the existing file in the list of addenda and all links embedded in the working draft will be altered to point to the newly uploaded file.

To add an attachment, click on the Upload File button on the bottom of the screen. An "Insert File" box appears on your screen. Select/Add the files type, enter a description and choose "Browse" to choose the file to be uploaded. You will also have options for "Display as addendum" and "Display as Form." Once you have chosen all the options, you can click the "Upload" button to add the file to the system.

Attachments can be displayed in several different ways. The first is to display the file as an addendum to the code of ethics. If you choose this option, your attachment will be listed at the bottom of the list of sections that is displayed when viewing the code of ethics. To have your attachment display as an addendum, simply click the option "Display as Addendum" when uploading the file. You can select your attachment and click the edit button if you would like to choose this option later.

File attachments can also be displayed in the list of forms available to users when they click "Code of Ethics" and select "Forms" from the main menu. To have an attachment display as a form simply check the "Display as Form" check box when uploading the file. To change the 'Display as form attribute of an already uploaded attachment or one of the NRS provided forms simply highlight the file and click the edit button. The edit attachment dialog box will appear allowing you to select or deselect "Display as Form."

File attachments are archived just like normal content.

Code of Ethics Display Order

The "Manage Display Order" function for the code of ethics is available by clicking "Administration" and then selecting "My Manuals - Display Order" . This screen provides administrators the ability to set the order in which sections will appear in the code of ethics. By default, sections are ordered with all standard sections in alphabetical order followed by custom sections.

To change the order that sections are displayed, simply select a section from the table and then use the up and down buttons to change its place in the display order.


The new display order will not become effective until you publish a new version of your manual, but will be active in your working draft.

Code of Ethics Attestation

NRS ComplianceGuardian™ includes a customizable attestation tool that allows administrators to easily gather electronic attestations from employees that have viewed the code of ethics as well as maintain an archive of past attestations.

Code of Ethics Forms

This feature allows NRS ComplianceGuardian™ administrators to make different forms available to their end users. Users can view these forms when they click "Code of Ethics" and select "Forms" from the main menu. NRS provides the following model forms as well as the ability for administrators to upload their own forms using the file attachment feature.

NRS Annual Employee Questionnaire
NRS Pre-Clearance Review Form
NRS Quarterly Report of Personal Securities Trans
Annual Holdings Report

To upload new forms or to change which forms are available to users, see the Code of Ethics Attachments section.

Code of Ethics Restricted Securities List

This feature allows administrators to maintain and distribute a list of currently restricted securities to their employees. Administrators can manage the restricted securities list by clicking on "Administration" and selecting "My Manuals" from the "Code of Ethics" manual drop down.


To add a security to the list, simply enter the information into the different fields and then click the add button. To edit a security that is already in the list, choose the security from the list and click the "Select" button. The information for the selected item will be populated into the different fields where you can make your changes. When finished, click the update button to save the changes.

Once a restricted securities list has been created and enabled users can view it by clicking "Code of Ethics" and selecting "View Restricted List" from the menu. If administrators wish to remove this menu choice for their users they can simply uncheck the box at the bottom of the "Manage Restricted List" screen.

Code of Ethics Violation Reporting Tool

The violation reporting tool provides users with a mechanism for reporting violations to senior management. Users can access this page by clicking "Report a Violation" from the main menu. This provides an area where users can describe the violation they wish to report and a check box allowing them to remain anonymous if they wish. The firm's administrator is informed via email when violations are reported and can view past violation reports at any time from the "Administration," "Reports" screen.



Policies and Procedures

The Investment Adviser Policies and Procedures tool within NRS ComplianceGuardian™ is a comprehensive system that allows you to create, maintain and distribute a Policies and Procedures Manual for your investment advisory business. This tool makes it easy for compliance officers to customize NRS' model policies and procedures to suit the business practices of their firm and meet regulatory requirements.

In addition, NRS updates the policies and procedures on a quarterly basis or as regulatory changes warrant. These updates will keep your policies current with the most up-to-date requirements and best practices.

The Polices and Procedures tool provides the following functions to assist compliance professionals in the maintenance and distribution of their policies and procedures:

Policies and Procedures Profile

An administrator's first task in creating a set of policies and procedures within NRS ComplianceGuardian™ is to complete the policies and procedures profile. Completing this profile gives the system the information it needs to do the initial customization of providing the proper model language for each section based on the firm's business practices. This profile can be changed at any time if the firms business practices change. Also included are the topics relating to compliance tasks which are spelled out in the policies and procedures. Make sure the timing of these items are consistent with the firm's timing so that the policies and procedures are the same. Changing the timing in the profile automatically changes the timing in the manual.

To complete the  policies and procedures profile click on "Administration" and then select "My Manuals" from the sub menu. On the My Manuals page, choose the manual you want to work on and select "Profile" from the drop down. Answer each of the questions by clicking the appropriate answer. Clicking on the (Information) buttons will provide you with additional information to help you answer the questions. After answering each of the questions you are then able to identify (if applicable) persons responsible for the areas/functions indicated. Take note that if you leave any of the responsibility fields blank the system will assume that the chief compliance office is responsible for that area.

When you have finished entering all of the information, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Submit" to save your answers. These changes will effect the content that is included in your working draft.

Viewing the Policies and Procedures and Regulatory Reference

Users can view the policies and procedures by clicking on "Policies Manual" and selecting "Policies and Procedures" from the menu. Both the policies and procedures and regulatory reference are displayed with a table of contents on the left hand side. Users can navigate by clicking on any section within the table of contents or using the forward and back arrows.

When printing your policies and procedures manual or regulatory reference, you have the option to print one section at a time or to print the entire document. These options are available when viewing your current version or when previewing your working draft.

To print one section at a time. Navigate to the section you wish to print and click the small button at the top of the screen that looks like a printer . This will format the section in a more printer friendly way. You can print using your browsers functions.

To print the entire policies and procedures or regulatory reference. Click on the small button at the top of the screen that looks like a red book. This will gather all the sections into one document and you will then be able to print out the entire document or save it as a PDF.

You may notice when printing your manual that the web address is printed on the bottom of your page and there are headings at the top of each page. This is an Internet Explorer setting. To remove these, simply go to FILE and PAGE SETUP, remove the text under Header and Footer. Take note of these settings prior to removing them as you may wish to have these headers and footers print for other web pages. Alternatively you may save the document as a PDF using the "Save as PDF" link and print from the PDF.

Policies and Procedures Content

Each section of the NRS Investment Adviser Policies and Procedures Manual has the following structure.

Policy - This field is where the firms policy defined for each of the sections.

Firm-Specific Policy Comment - This field is where you can expand upon or emphasize a component of the Policy. Text entered in this field will appear (in red) directly below the policy.

Responsibility - This field is where you define who is responsible for monitoring and implementing the policy's procedure(s).

Background - This field provides a summary of the regulatory basis for the policy.

Procedure - This field is where you define the procedure(s) that will be followed to ensure adherence to the firm's policy.

To customize the text for any given section of the policies and procedures Click "Administration" and then select My Manuals and choose Edit Content from the drop down. Select the appropriate section from the 'Select a Section' dropdown list.

Once a section has been selected, the manage content screen allows users to fully customize the text of the section. When you click in the editable field it expands to allow for easier customizing, and displays a toolbar at the top providing users with a wide array of word processing functionality including Bold, Underline, Italics, Font Type, Font Size, Indents, Bulleted Lists, Numbered Lists, and many others.

When you are finished editing the section click the save button at the bottom of the page.

Please be aware that for security reasons, user sessions timeout if you remain on any page for more than 15 minutes (even if you are actively entering information on the page). The system will alert you prior to timing out allowing you to save. If, for some reason, a timeout does occur while you are entering information, you will be redirected to a login page where you must login in order for their data to be saved.

Policies and Procedures Versions

One aspect of SEC rules require investment advisors to maintain archives of what their policies and procedures are at any given time. To comply with this requirement NRS has incorporated the concept of versioning into the policies and procedures tool. The manage versions screen for the policies and procedures is available by clicking "Administration" and then selecting My Manuals and choosing Manage Versions from the drop down. On this screen administrators can preview their working draft, "Publish" their working draft, and view archived versions of their policies and procedures.

Any time that an administrator makes a change to their policies and procedures, whether it is by editing the firm profiles, managing content or changing the display order, these changes are being applied to what is called the "Working Draft". This draft allows administrators to make extensive changes and review them prior to releasing the changes to their general users. Once an administrator is satisfied with the working draft, they must "Publish" in order for it to be available to general users.

To publish the working draft of your policies and procedures and make it your new current version, simply click the "Make this version active"  link to the right of the working draft. You will be prompted to give your new version a name. Whenever you publish a new version of your policies and procedures, the previous version is archived and the dates that it was active are recorded. Previous versions of the policies and procedures are kept archived so that you may go back and view and/or print the policies and procedures that were in effect at any point in time.

Policies and Procedures Display Order

The "Manage Display Order" function for the Policies and Procedures is available by clicking "Administration" and then selecting My Manuals and choosing "Edit Display Order". This screen provides administrators the ability to enable and disable different sections as well as set the order in which they will appear in the Policies and Procedures. By default, sections are ordered with all of the NRS standard sections in alphabetical order followed by custom sections.

To enable/disable a section simply select it form the list of sections and click the "Enable/Disable" button to toggle this attribute.

To change the order that sections are displayed, simply select a section from the table and then use the up and down buttons to change its place in the display order.


As with any content changes the changes made on this screen will not appear in your current version until you publish your working draft.

Policies and Procedures Attestation

NRS ComplianceGuardian™ includes a customizable attestation tool that allows administrators to easily gather electronic attestations from employees that have viewed the policies and procedures as well as maintain an archive of past attestations. You can enable the attestation by going to Administration and selecting the IA Policies and Procedures Profile from the My Manuals option. Select Yes to the question "Do you wish to include an attestation in the system for supervised persons to acknowledge that they have read and complied with the firm's IA Policies and Procedures?" 

To customize the text for the user attestations click "Administration" and then select My Manuals and choose "Edit Attestation" from the drop down. The manage attestation text screen allows users to fully customize the text of the user attestation document. When you click in the section content field a floating toolbar will appear providing a wide array of word processing functionality.

When you are finished editing the attestation text click the save button at the bottom of the page. As with any content changes the new attestation text will not be released to your users until you publish your working draft.

Once there is a current version of the policies and procedures manual, users can electronically attest to having read and understood it by clicking "Policies Manual" and selecting "IA Policies and Procedures Attestation" from the menu. Administrators can view and save user attestations as PDF files by running the "IA - Policies Manual User Attestation" report from the Administration - Reports screen.

Policies and Procedures Attachments

The "File Attachments" feature of the policies and procedures tool allows Administrators to upload any type of file (pdf, doc, rtf etc.) as an attachment to their policies and procedures manual. Links to these uploaded attachments can then be displayed as addenda to the manual or embedded directly into customized content.

The Manage File Attachments screen allows administrators to upload new files as well as manage already uploaded files. From this screen Administrators are able to set a file's "Type" as well as choose whether a file should be displayed as an addendum.

The "File Type" is the title that will be displayed below the list of sections if the file is to be displayed as an addendum. It is also what will be displayed in the "Insert Attachment Link" dropdown list that will appear while managing content. Firms can only have one active file of any given type at a time. When new files are uploaded (or activated) with the same "Type" as an already active file the new file will replace the existing file in the list of addenda and all links embedded in the working draft will be altered to point to the newly uploaded file.

To add an attachment, click on the Upload File button on the bottom of the screen. An "Insert File" box appears on your screen. You need to then add a type, enter a description and choose "Browse" to choose the file to be uploaded. You will also see an option for "Display as addendum". Once you have chosen all the options, you can click the "Upload" button.

Attachments can be displayed in a couple of  different ways. The first is to display as the file as an addendum to the manual. If you choose this option, your attachment will be listed at the bottom of the list of sections that is displayed when viewing the manual. To have your attachment display as an addendum, simply click the option "Display as Addendum" when uploading the file. You can select your attachment and click the edit button if you would like to choose this option later.

The other way to display attachments is through a hyperlink within your policies and procedures. When you choose this option, users can view the manual and click on a word or phrase in the content of the manual that will open the attachment.

To create a link to an attached file within your policies and procedures content, select the word or phrase that you wish to convert to a hyperlink and click the "Insert Attachment Link" button . A drop down list will be displayed containing a list of all active file attachments, simply select the attachment you wish to link and the selected word or phrase will now be an active link.

Any file attachments that you use will be archived just like the normal content.

Form ADV and Schedules

The form filling component of NRS ComplianceGuardian™ is available by clicking "Tools" and then "Brochure Architect" on the menu bar. Then choose ADV Part 1. Follow the steps below to complete and print forms from within NRS ComplianceGuardian™:

Document Management System

NRS has added a document management system to ComplianceGuardian. This new system allows administrators to customize the various model documents within ComplianceGuardian and then specify which users have access to them. The new system provides version management of customized documents as well as the ability for administrators to organize documents into user defined folders.

Administration

As part of the implementation process for this new Document Management System all of the NRS document templates that were previously available from the "Documents" sub menus have been moved and are now available from the Document Management administration page. This page is available by clicking "Administration" then "Content" and finally "Model Documents".

From the Document Management administration page administrators can customize the various NRS document templates as well as create there own firm specific documents. Customized documents can then be saved and organized into user defined folders. Administrators can specify which user groups have permission to access any given folder or document. With this change, users will not have access to documents until the Administrator publishes the documents.

Along with the ability to customize/edit documents the system provides version management. Version management allows you to keep a historical archive of all past versions of a document. Much like the other tools within ComplianceGuardian, when editing documents your changes are being applied to a "working draft". When your changes are complete, you can then release the working draft as a new version by clicking the "Publish" link. The publishing process first archives the current version of the document takes a copy of your working draft and makes it your new current version. Each archived version is time stamped to indicate when it was the active user.

Viewing Documents

Users can view the current version of documents that they have been given permission to by clicking on "Documents" from the upper menu bar. Clicking on a document name from the tree will cause it to appear in the preview pane on the right. Users can click "View/Print" in the preview pane to open a printer friendly view of the document which will also allow them to save to PDF format.

Administration

The "Administration" menu is where administrators can access the different functions for managing the various components of NRS ComplianceGuardian™(e.g. Code of Ethics, Policies and Procedures). It also provides access through the "Manage" submenu to tools for managing users, setting user permissions, managing emails and reporting. The "Administration" menu is only accessible to users that have been designated as administrators.

Managing Users

The manage users screen is accessible by clicking "Administration" and selecting "Users" from the "Manage" submenu. This screen allows administrators to create new users or modify information such as passwords and email addresses for existing users. Administrators can add as many additional users as they wish to the system giving them their own unique usernames and passwords. Users can be designated as normal (read-only) users or given administrative rights.

To edit an existing user, click on the drop down menu and choose the user you wish to edit. Change the information as needed and click the save button on the bottom of the form.

To add users to the system, click on the drop down menu box prompting you to "Select a User". Scroll up and you will have the option to "Add a User". You can then assign the new user a username, password. You can designate the user as an "Administrator" by selecting the "This user is a Firm Administrator" option. If you do not check this box, the user will have read-only rights and will not have access to the "Administration" menu. It is important to enter an email address for each user so the system can send the welcome message which provides the user with their username, password and a link to access the system.

Managing Emails

The NRS ComplianceGuardian™ system includes an email tool with several email templates that administrators can user to communicate with their users. One such email template, the Compliance Alert, can be used by the Administrator to notify employees of changes to the system. Along with the default set of templates firms can create their own custom templates.

The two templates provided by NRS are the "Welcome" and the "Compliance Alert" templates. These can be used as provided, or can be modified as needed by Administrators. The welcome email, once enabled is automatically sent to all new users, providing them with their username and password, as well as a link to the NRS ComplianceGuardian™ system. You can edit the welcome email and customize it as necessary before sending.

The Compliance Alert email can be used to notify users that there have been updates to the system.

Before enabling an email template it is important to review the text of the email, and to enter the "Sender E-mail Address". The sender email address is where replies will go to and it will also make the email sender more recognizable to recipients.

To add a new template, click in the "Select a Template" box then scroll up and select the "Create a New Template" option. Enter the text for the message as well as the subject and senders email address. When you are ready to send the message select the user(s) and or group(s) you wish to receive the email form the list of users and save the template as enabled. The email messages will be sent within 15 minutes of a template being saved as enabled.

Groups

To access the "Manage Groups" screen click "Administration" and then select "Groups" from the "Manage" submenu. This screen allows administrators to create different user groups as well as manage their memberships. Once groups have been created permissions can set to define which areas of NRS ComplianceGuardian™ the group members have access to.

Click the "Add" button to create a new group or simply highlight an existing group and click the "Edit" button to edit it.

When adding or Editing groups the "Manage Group" screen allows you to name the group as well as manage its membership.

  • Users can be added or removed from the group by using the arrow buttons.

  • Users that are added to the group will be removed from their current group.

  • Users that are removed from the group will be placed into the default "Users" group.


 

Permissions

To access the "Manage Permissions" screen click "Administration" and then select "Permissions" from the "Manage" submenu. This screen allows administrators to customize which menu options appear to their different user groups.

To make changes to a user group's menu options first select the group from the "Select a Group" dropdown list. Once you have selected the group you can use the plus and minus signs to expand and contract the menu tree. Simply check those items that you wish the group members to have access to. When you are satisfied with your changes click the save button at the bottom of the page.


 

Reports

NRS ComplianceGuardian™ provides administrators with a variety of reporting options to help monitor user activity and to access user attestations as well as violation reports. The following is a list of the reports that an administrator can run.

  • IA - Policies Manual User Activity Report

  • IA - Policies Manual User Activity by Section Report

  • IA - Policies Manual Firm Activity by Section Report

  • IA - Policies Manual User No-activity Report

  • IA - Policies Manual User Attestation Report
     

  • Code of Ethics User Attestation Report

  • Code of Ethics User Activity Report

  • Code of Ethics User Activity by Section Report

  • Code of Ethics Firm Activity by Section Report

  • Code of Ethics Reported Violations Report

  • Code of Ethics User No-activity Report
     

  • Email Report By Template

  • Email Report By User
     

  • User Access Group Report

  • Group Permissions Report

To run a report simply select it form the "Select a Report" dropdown list, enter the desired date range if applicable and click the "Submit" button. Note: Start and End dates are inclusive and do not apply to "No-Activity" reports.

The Code of Ethics User Attestation report will display a list of the users and when they submitted their attestations as well as a link allowing you to save the individual attestations as a PDF files.

The Code of Ethics Reported Violations Report will display a list of the users and when they submitted their reports as well as a link allowing you to view the individual violation reports.