Intelligent Fee and Distribution Agreement Management
Framesoft Fee Management (FFM) is an enterprise-grade solution for the end-to-end management of distribution agreements, commissions, and recurring and non-recurring fees.
FFM brings together agreement data, product information, positions, balances, fee rules, calculations, approvals, bookings, and reporting within a single controlled platform. It provides financial institutions with complete visibility across financial instruments, legal entities, distributors, custodians, and other trading partners.
By replacing fragmented spreadsheets and manual processes with configurable workflows and governed data, FFM helps organizations prevent excessive or duplicate payments, improve the accuracy of fee calculations, strengthen commercial negotiations, and increase operational efficiency. Comprehensive controls, approval mechanisms, and audit trails improve transparency, reduce operational risk, and support regulatory compliance.
1. End-to-End Distribution Agreement Management
FFM centrally manages Master and Supplement Distribution Agreements (MDA and SDA), including their request, creation, review, approval, and delivery. Agreement-specific conditions, fee arrangements, distributors, products, entities, and other relevant terms are captured as structured information. This creates a reliable contractual foundation for subsequent fee calculations and payment processes. FFM manages Master and Supplement Distribution Agreements (MDA and SDA) throughout their lifecycle—from the initial agreement request through creation, approval, and delivery.
Its flexible data model supports different distribution agreement types and enables organizations to centrally capture and maintain contractual terms, products, distributors, fee arrangements, and related business information.
Key capabilities include:
- Master and Supplement Distribution Agreement management
- Configurable agreement requests, generation, approvals, and delivery
- Structured capture of distribution agreement data
- Product setup and product data management
- Management of prices, positions, custody balances, reserves, and inventories
- Incoming-fee administration
- Distributor and custodian breakdown analysis
- Role-based access controls and four-eye approval principles
2. Product, Position, and Distribution Data
FFM combines agreement information with the operational data required for fee processing. This can include:
- Product and distributor information
- Prices and positions
- Custody balances and balance requests
- Reserves and inventories
- Investor and allocation information
- Applicable currencies and foreign-exchange rates
Configurable interfaces allow this information to be obtained from Framesoft Structured Products (FSP), custody platforms, core banking applications, and other enterprise systems.
3. Flexible and Dynamic Fee Calculation
The configurable FFM calculation engine processes recurring and non-recurring fees, including trailer fees, upfront fees, commissions, and incoming fees. Rule-based calculation models can be configured for individual agreements, products, distributors, clients, and business scenarios. Supported approaches include standard calculations, daily accruals, average-price calculations, interval rates, and institution-specific calculation methods.
Calculation results can be validated through delta checks, plausibility controls, and duplicate-payment detection before they are released for payment.
4. Configurable Workflows and Governance
Configurable workflows guide calculated fees through review, approval, and sign-off. FFM supports distributor- and product-specific approval processes, role-based access, four-eye controls, exception handling, and escalation procedures. This ensures that material decisions remain with authorized users and that fees are processed in accordance with internal governance requirements.
Workflows in FFM can be configured according to the organization’s responsibilities, products, distributors, and governance requirements.
FFM supports:
- Distributor- and product-based approval workflows
- Product-centric payment reviews
- Delta and plausibility checks
- Duplicate-payment controls
- Four-eye approvals
- Role-based task and data access
- Exception handling and escalation
- Complete workflow and decision histories
This ensures that every fee is processed consistently, transparently, and in accordance with internal policies.
5. Fee Bookings, Netting, and Delivery
FFM connects fee administration with downstream accounting and delivery processes. Booking instructions can be transferred to accounting systems, while booking dates and references can be returned to FFM for complete process tracking.
The integrated netting queue enables multiple fees and receivables to be consolidated before settlement. Distribution agreements, client statements, balance requests, and other documents can be delivered securely through configurable channels, including encrypted e-mail and system interfaces.
Foreign-exchange functionality supports calculations and fee provision in the required target currencies.
6. Reporting, Archiving, and Auditability
FFM provides comprehensive reporting and analytical capabilities for fee calculations, client statements, payment activity, distributor relationships, and operational controls.
Integration with Framesoft Data Insight (FDI) supports advanced analysis, dashboards, and management reporting. Data can also be exported from FFM overview screens for further analysis.
FFM integrates with enterprise document management and archiving solutions, including Framesoft Document Management (FDM), to securely retain agreements, statements, calculation records, and other generated documents.
Document histories, version control, workflow records, approvals, calculation details, and user activities are maintained in a complete audit trail, providing the transparency required for internal governance, external audits, and regulatory reviews.
7. Embedded Intelligence with FAI
Framesoft Artificial Intelligence (FAI) extends FFM with intelligent capabilities for processing, validating, and operationalizing fee-related information.
FAI can support the automated analysis of distribution agreements, fee schedules, statements, and other relevant documents. Contractual fee terms and extracted information can be compared with structured data and calculation rules maintained in FFM, helping users identify missing information, inconsistencies, unusual results, and potential discrepancies.
AI-assisted capabilities can include:
- Automated ingestion and classification of fee-related documents
- Extraction of distribution, product, and fee terms
- Reconciliation of document content with structured FFM data
- Identification and prioritization of inconsistencies and exceptions
- Semantic search and natural-language access to fee and agreement information - Talk to FFM
- AI-assisted summaries and operational insights
- Workflow recommendations and automated follow-up actions
FAI is embedded within governed FFM processes. AI-generated results can therefore be reviewed, approved, and documented by authorized users, combining intelligent automation with human control, transparency, and full auditability.
8. Seamless Integration with Framesoft Structured Products
FFM integrates seamlessly with Framesoft Structured Products (FSP), exchanging product, investor, position, subscription, allocation, distributor, and agreement information through configurable interfaces. Together, FSP and FFM provide a comprehensive front-to-back solution for structured product issuance, distribution, servicing, commission calculation, fee payment, and distributor reporting.
FFM can also be integrated with accounting systems, custody platforms, enterprise data sources, document management solutions, and reporting environments.
Key Business Benefits
- Centralized management of distribution agreements and fee data
- Automated and consistent fee calculations
- Reduced risk of excessive, incorrect, or duplicate payments
- Improved control over incoming and outgoing fees
- Faster review, approval, booking, and settlement processes
- Increased operational efficiency and Straight-Through Processing
- Greater transparency across products, entities, and distribution partners
- Stronger governance through configurable controls and workflows
- Complete traceability and auditability
- AI-assisted document processing, reconciliation, and exception management
- Scalable integration with existing enterprise systems
Manage Fees with Confidence
Framesoft Fee Management transforms complex fee administration into a controlled, transparent, and intelligent end-to-end process. By combining configurable fee management, workflow automation, enterprise integration, and Framesoft Artificial Intelligence, FFM enables financial institutions to improve accuracy, reduce operational effort, strengthen compliance, and make better-informed commercial decisions.
Interested in seeing FFM at work?
Contact us at