5 essential features of Diligent Entities that you need to know
Diligent Entities offers a range of functionalities tailored to meet the diverse needs of organizations, ensuring clarity, compliance and efficiency in corporate governance. From creating organizational charts with ease to managing complex entity data and ensuring regulatory compliance, Diligent Entities equips users with the necessary tools to maintain accurate and up-to-date corporate records.
Below, we explore specific features of Diligent Entities — including pro tips from our product experts — that will transform your organization's approach to entity management, making your operations smoother and more compliant.
*Please note that some features are exclusive to specific packages. If you are a current Diligent customer and have questions about feature availability, we encourage you to reach out to your account manager for further assistance.
1. Storing documents with the centralized Data Library
How does it help? Establishes a centralized repository for all critical data and documents that form the corporate record. This single source of truth allows for the tracking of various data points and metadata associated with documents, enabling the setting of reminders for key dates such as expirations and renewals.
Key documents maintained in the Data Library range from formation documents and meeting minutes to powers of attorney, banking details and signing authorities. Additionally, you can track important metadata like expiration dates, upcoming annual filings and license renewals to ensure timely compliance and record-keeping.
Key functionality of Data Library:
- The Data Library is a repository where users can add documents and record additional information about entities such as bank details, the company’s articles of association or powers of attorney. It is equivalent to a filing cabinet where users can add information about entities that they can't store elsewhere in the system. Users can also attach digital or scanned documents to these records.
- The Data Library consists of categories, types and fields. The categories group together related data library types.
- Data Library records hold various fields enabling the user to enter the required information. Some fields such as Status and Date are available for any type of Data Library record, whereas other fields depend on the type selected.
Pro tips and tricks for users:
- Data Library Developer: Allows users to create their own data libraries. For example, a data library that stores information about real property.
- Data Library Rollover: Certain information contained in a Data Library is considered valid for a specific time. For example, an employee contract may only be valid for one year, after which the contract may be renewed for a further year. Data Library Rollover removes the manual process of updating records that have expiration dates by taking a selected current data library and creating a copy with new dates populating the required fields.
- Recurring reminders: Data Library tasks can be set up with recurring reminders. The Recurring Reminders option is used to set frequent reminders for a data library record. One or more task Data Libraries will be created for the reminders.
2. Org charting using the Group Structure Visualization Tool
How does it help? The Group Structure Visualization (GSV) tool within Diligent Entities automates the creation of organizational charts by directly integrating ownership data into the visuals. This feature enables clients to quickly construct and administer complex corporate ownership structures through a customizable and interactive organizational chart.
Enhanced editing capabilities allow for data filtering, conditional formatting and various other customization options, making the tool adaptable to the specific requirements of different teams and users, including those in tax and legal departments. This dynamic approach ensures that the organizational charts are not only informative but also tailored to meet the diverse needs of the organization.
Key functionality of the Group Structure Visualization Tool:
- Smart GSV chart formatting using AI: Allows you to generate customized org charts for stakeholders across your organization with basic prompts, which can apply proper formatting and ensure accuracy and optimized readability.
Pro tips and tricks for users:
- Sub-charting: Divide group charts into sub-charts to visualize large group structures in smaller chunks. You can create a sub-chart from the main chart or from any existing sub-chart.
- Scenario mode: Allows users to easily assess the impact of the organization's future decisions directly within the tool, eliminating the need to export charts for external manipulation. You can model different scenarios to evaluate strategies, tactics and decisions by simulating various scenarios to understand how different relationships influence outcomes.
- Scenario mode: Allows users to easily assess the impact of the organization's future decisions directly within the tool, eliminating the need to export charts for external manipulation. You can model different scenarios to evaluate strategies, tactics and decisions by simulating various scenarios to understand how different relationships influence outcomes.
- Export charts to PowerPoint or Visio: In Group Structure Visualization, you can export group structure charts and sub-charts into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Visio that you can download to your local drive.
3. Company Health Check
How does it help? The Company Health Check feature connects to the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud to verify internal details against publicly registered information, alerting teams to data discrepancies and facilitating better controls.
Key functionality of the Company Health Check:
Company Health Check is created in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business data, to make public records about companies available to users in the system.
Company Health Check allows Diligent Entities users to monitor and compare company details and appointment data held in the system with the information available in the Dun & Bradstreet database, including company registry data, in order to view and act on any inconsistencies in the information.
Pro tips and tricks for users:
- Administrators of Diligent Entities can select the companies to be included in the Company Health Check Report in the Admin Hub.
- The companies that are linked to the public record can be selected by the administrator. If a company shouldn’t be part of the company health check report, it can be excluded from being linked to the public record.
- The Company Health Check Report enables users of Diligent Entities to compare company details and appointment data available in the system with the information in the Dun & Bradstreet database, that is, the data that is publicly available about the company.
4. Managing compliance filings
How does it help? Managing compliance filings in an entity's solution aids users by streamlining and simplifying the process of meeting regulatory requirements. This feature is crucial for ensuring that businesses adhere to legal standards and deadlines, thereby avoiding penalties and maintaining good standing with regulatory bodies.
Key functionality of managing compliance filings in Entities:
- Compliance calendar data library: Track deadlines for various compliance events and have a wholistic view of what activities need to be completed.
- E-filing capabilities: Reduce manual processes by filing forms electronically from Diligent Entities in certain jurisdictions.
- Diligent Entities currently provides the capability to e-file forms to the following government bodies:
- Companies House in the United Kingdom
- Companies Registration Office (CRO) in Ireland
- Australian Securities and Investments Commissions (ASIC) in Australia
- ICIS XML Filing Service in Delaware, United States
Pro tips and tricks for users:
- Reminders can be used to see when accounts, annual returns, confirmation statements and annual meetings for certain jurisdictions are due and overdue. They can also be used to see pending events, when directors are due to retire and when data library records, such as contracts, are due for renewal.
- The Compliance section of a company record provides access to:
- Reminders specific to the record the user is in
- Pending events
- Validation errors relevant to the record the user is in
- Data Library
- Accounting dates
- Annual return dates
- Annual meeting dates
- Confirmation statement dates
5. Entity lifecycle management
How does it help? Entity Life Cycle Management (ELCM) is a configurable workflow solution that can help with automating management change requests, approving requests and reporting.
Key functionality of entity lifecycle management:
- When an entity change is significant, a request for input from different users or departments may be required for completion. ELCM automates these requests, including approvals, rejections and reporting, for the entire approval process.
- Entity updates can be tracked, reviewed and managed rapidly to enable proper control over the change process. Examples of these changes may include creating a new entity, changing a company name or updating entity details.
Pro tips and tricks for users:
- The process can be customized to incorporate all steps of an organization’s workflow, including adding documentation.
- Designated Approvers can provide feedback on the requests in a workflow process. Feedback can include making appropriate decisions regarding the outcome.
- Approvals are logged, proving an audit trail and timely reporting.
Not yet a Diligent Entities customer?
To see these features in action — and get more information on how Diligent Entities can improve your organization's entity management — request to speak with one of our advisors.
