OPTA recommends a data assisted approach to financial coaching that involves collection, analysis, and tracking of household-level data. The client data is used to design effective coaching plans. OPTAMetrics is OPTA’s data assisted financial coaching solution to revolutionize the practice of financial case management across nonprofit and community-based organizations. OPTA offers special training for financial coaches and provides access to OPTAMetrics to help financial coaches take their practice to the next level.
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OPTAMetrics is a comprehensive financial case management system. It is designed to capture and store financial and behavioral information of financial coaching clients. The system analyzes the resulting data and creates quantitative measures (including financial ratios) for the household. Using the information provided by the household in the form of income, expenses, assets and liabilities, OPTAMetrics provides specific recommendations to the client on how to manage their financial situation. Data and the resulting indicators are stored chronologically and the system allows users to compare them, in a before and after fashion, to measure the degree of effectiveness or the impact of the program.
OPTAMetrics can also be used as a general program management system. Organizations can define and track referrals or the delivery of programs, workshops, or other services using OPTAMetrics. A number of administrative reports embedded in the system, makes it a unique tool for managing programs across different departments.
Yes, OPTA provides a series of workshops to help train users on different aspect of OPTAMetrics and Data Assisted Financial Coaching. Following is a list of workshops along with a brief description of their contents.
Coaches or case managers enter client information into the system during counseling sessions. Information obtained during each session is stored in the system as a unique record. Counselors can analyze each record, print reports or even combine different records to measure changes in specific indicators for different cross sections of time.
OPTAMetrics can be used to track programs and services offered by different departments in the organization. It allows the user to define what these programs and services are and track individuals who benefit from these services. Organizations can also use OPTAMetrics to keep track of their training workshops and assign pre- and post-test scores for each workshop.
OPTAMetrics provides reports by combining different financial ratios and behavioral scores. Financial scores are compared against recommended ranges. Behavioral scores are presented in the form of letter grades ranging from A (highest) to F (lowest), making it very easy to interpret results.
The system also generates reports that are easy to understand for clients. The counselor can print a budget report that shows existing amounts next to target levels for each client. Other reports explain different financial ratios in an easy to understand language for the client.
The reporting feature in OPTAMetrics provides several additional administrative tools, including demographic information of clients that could be customized among other things based on several attributes, such as age, gender, marital status, or language spoken. The system is also capable of storing client documents and case notes and can even track the amount of time counselors spend providing support to each client.
This path breaking approach allows community based organizations to improve the quality of their financial coaching and case management services and brings a level of sophistication to the practice of financial case management that remains unparalleled in the industry.