Kelley Rating (one asterisk = lowest, five asterisks = highest):
- Ease of navigation, design of interface and learning curve ******
- Instructional documentation and help system ****
- Carries out the goal of the product as advertised *****
- Overall usefulness *****
CBData (Personal) from Carebinders, LLC provides a software solution to gathering, storing and organizing your client’s personal, medical and financial information all in one place, where it can be tracked, updated and used in preparing status reports. The program can store and track medical information, including claims, such as with Medicare. It provides a report of the data entered, wallet contents list, medications list, emergency card, medical intake form, reminders list, passwords list, pet profile, assets inventory and a data locator with valuations, report. You can track collections, manage family data, list and track assets and store documents.
This product is designed for families, advisors, nonprofit groups and family offices.
You may designate persons, such as advisors and family members, to receive your information as you enter it. The publisher refers to this process of consolidating family and business information as “generational organizing.”
The publisher also offers CBData Pro (Business) designed as a small business product. It’s the same as Personal, but also provides functionality for the input and management of business information, with full details for a home office. It allows small business owners to aggregate all of the critical information about their business, contacts and service providers and store their business plan, incorporation documents, business continuity and disaster recovery plan and information on their employees or consultants. It facilitates customer relationship management, tracks inventory and maintains passwords used for business. It includes a billing function, for creation of invoices and statements, as well as reminders, trackers and event logs.
Data from the program can be exported for viewing on Apple’s iOS operating system (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) through the Mobile Device App at no additional charge. Data from CBData is displayed on a read-only basis on mobile devices.
What’s It All About?
Recognizing the user inertia to detailed data entry, the publisher supplies a concierge who jump- starts the process by assisting with the initial data entry. Data may be also imported from other sources. Most data entry areas allow for attaching pictures and documents, which you can scan and upload.
In CBData there’s no open connection to the Internet. Data is protected by 256 bit encryption, multi-layering passwords and utilization of a unique ID for each computer and data file.You log in to the program with a password and ID, and internal passwords are required to access sensitive data entry areas.The Administrator can manage user security, enter members and create permissions for advisors or members to view specified data areas and sections of each family member’s profile, which can be on a read-only basis, if desired. Only the administrator will be able to Manage Drop Down Fields, Delete Member Data, Import Utility and Manage Data; other users will have access to the Tools area only to the extent they have been granted permission. You can store the closed file on DropBox, but the file can’t be used on any other computer.
Documents that you attach will be encrypted.
CBData and CBData Pro accept imports from Outlook, Quicken, QuickBooks and Excel. You can pull data from the personal version to the business version.
Reminders can be entered at each data entry area and pushed to Outlook. A calendar report is provided, and the program has an alert feature that reminds you of important dates, tasks or appointments.
In the Personal area you may enter information as to your residences, residential service providers, education, employment and volunteer work, military service, groups and affiliations and last wishes. In the Financial area, you can keep track of chattel property, hobbies, collections, photos, real estate, financial accounts, credit cards, subscriptions, insurance policies and contracts, documents and investments, as well as music. The Medical area provides data entry for all medical, physician and pharmacy details.
How it Works
The program opens with a simple, graphics intensive, screen that allows you to select from personal, medical or financial data input areas. This screen also gives you access to a “Tracker,” reports and management tools.
The Tracker area allows you initiate and keep track of any of categories you want to record for a family or individual that aren’t already captured in their Member Profile, including personal information, vital statistics, finances, medical claims and miscellaneous claims.
Each of the data entry areas has a categorical breakdown to assist you in analyzing your input. The Help file includes Appendices with Startup Checklists, arranged by the CBData information entry areas, for both the Personal and Business versions, designed to assist you in gathering and organizing family and business data.
The program provides a Quick Start Wizard that enables you to start your data input on a form that lists each input area. You then click “Go,” located at the top right of the screen. The information is automatically placed into all the proper tables and you are brought to the Personal Introductory Screen to continue inputting data.
CBData produces a report of each item entered. Sample reports are available from the CBData website. The Reports area provides a variety of information based on the data you entered for personal, medical and financial purposes. It also creates reports from the Tracker area. Additionally, there’s an area called Grab’n Go, where you can request quick, pre-prepared reports on the personal, medical and financial information, as well as any attachments entered in these areas.
Data can be searched for by business entity, contacts, address or other contact data. It will display the associated data linked to that entry, as well as whether that data is being used by any business that the current user has permission to view.
What About Help and Support?
Context help is available at every page of the program in the form of a help system, which presents extremely detailed information on data entry and other aspects of the program. Support is available by chat, telephone and email at http://www.cbdatasystems.com/support/, which also provides extensive troubleshooting information. The publisher maintains a Knowledgebase, with information on various aspects of the operation of CBData.
Where Do You Get This Software?
The CBData software is available through the publisher, Carebinders, LLC at:
Email [email protected]
Phone 201-447-1577
Fax 201-447-1578
The CBData Personal License is priced at $150 and the CBData Pro Business License is priced at $250. An upgrade from the Personal License to the Business License is $100. These products are available by CDRom or download. For every CBData and CBData Pro license purchased, the buyer will receive a coupon for the purchase of three additional Personal copies of CBData™ at $79 each.
Bottom Line
CBData is a remarkably analytical and detailed repository of an individual’s personal and small business data. It allows the user to conveniently enter, track and categorize data and produce well- organized reports of the information stored in the program.
Trusts & Estates magazine is pleased to present the monthly Technology Reviewby Donald H. Kelley—a respected connoisseur of the software and Internet resources wealth management advisors use to further their practices.
Kelley is a lawyer living in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and is of counsel to the law firm of Kelley, Scritsmier & Byrne, P.C. of North Platte, Neb. He is the co-author of the Intuitive Estate Planner Software, (Thomson – West 2004). He has served on the governing boards of the American Bar Association Real Property Probate and Trust Section and the American College of Tax Counsel. He is a past regent and past chair of the Committee on Technology in the Practice of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
Trusts & Estates has asked Kelley to provide his unvarnished opinions on the tech resources available in the practice today. His columns are edited for readability only. Send feedback and suggestions for articles directly to him at [email protected].