How to create and publish an operation in Debt Tracking ?

In this article, you'll find all our advice on how to easily create your financing operations in the Kls Desk.

1. Create an operation

a. Access Debt Tracking

To initiate a new operation in Debt Tracking, start by connecting to the platform via this link: https://app.kls-platform.com/login

Once connected, you'll be on the Desk Kls home page.
Click on “Debt Tracking” and then on “My operations > Operations follow-up” in your left-hand side navigation bar.

This tracking table lists all the operations you have created or to which you have access as an agent:

• Operations in “Operations to prepare” status: you'll find all unpublished operations created in this tab. These operations are visible only to you, the operation manager team and your team manager. Until the operation is published, no lender or borrower contact has access to it. In addition, certain functionalities are not yet activated and will be activated automatically when the operation or covenants are published: this is the case for the covenant control tab, the overview page and automatic notifications.
• Operations in “Operations in progress” status: this tab contains all operations created and published. When your operation is published, your lender and borrower contacts receive an automatic account initialization e-mail. If they already have a Kls account, they receive an invitation e-mail containing a link to your operation. In addition, the functionalities mentioned above are automatically activated. 
  See how to publish an operation
• Operations in “Closed operations” status: this tab contains all closed operations. As a reminder, information is kept for 5 years after the date on which the operation is closed - in accordance with the law, these operations are destroyed after this date.

b. Creating the operation base

Click on “create a new operation” to create a new folder: 

You can choose between two courses:

• Corporate financing operation
• Commercial real estate operation

You will then be asked to fill in the information required to create the basis of the operation, marked with a *. 

Once you have filled in the information, click on “Create operation”. You are now on your operation, with 5 tabs:

• Operation details: here you can enter your financing tranches, your stakeholders and the contacts who will have access to the operation.
• The dataroom: enter, collect and organize all documents relating to the operation.
• Covenant control: use this dashboard to monitor all covenants currently being controlled, those to come and those that have been archived.
• Covenant list: dematerialize contractual covenants and set monitoring dates, values to be checked and any associated margin impacts.
• Activity feed: consult the trace of all events impacting the operation  (more information here)

This interface is mirrored with the stakeholders entered, i.e. your borrowers and/or lenders have the same operation structure as you.

Your operation will be visible in the operation tracker, in the “Operation to prepare” tab.

c. Complete the operation summary

Completing the operation summary allows you to give context to your stakeholders.
These elements are optional; only the information required to create the operation is mandatory.
In the operation details tab, click on “edit” to access the fields to be filled in: 

d. Fill in your entity's administrative form

Fill in your administrative operation to communicate information to your stakeholders by clicking on “Administrative form and access” : 

The page is divided into 2 tabs:

• Agent administrative form:
  
  • Identification of the establishment: this information is pre-filled; it was provided during your onboarding to save you typing time.
  • Bank details for payment management: enter as many technical accounts as you wish and tick the lenders and/or borrowers to whom you wish to share them. Only the contacts of the selected entities will see the account in question.
• File Agent access management: add here all the contacts in your entity who will manage the operation. They have the same view and can perform the same actions on the folder as you. Once added to the folder, they have direct access to it, even if it has not been published. At any time, you can :
  
  • Revoke access
  • Resend an invitation e-mail to a contact
  To do this, click on the three dots at the end of the line corresponding to the desired contact.

e. Add your client/issuer

Add one or more borrowers/issuers to each of your operations:

You will then be able to attach the entity to a tranche and add contacts to it (see continuation of article below).

f. Enter financing tranches

Add one or more financing tranches:

This information enables you to indicate to your stakeholders the structure of the operation selected for contractualization. 

Certain information is required to validate the tranche: tranche name, amount and client.

Please note: enter the maturity and/or due date of the tranche.

Others information are optional.

If the structure of the operation evolves, you can add one or more tranches once your operation has been published. You can then specify the amount of lender participation for each tranche (see following article).

f. Add your lenders

Click on “Add a primary lender” to add a new lender: 

You can then :

• Select the desired lender from the directory if it is a local bank, or add a lender not listed in the directory if it is an investment fund or vehicle (please check the directory first to see if the entity you are looking for is listed there). 
• Indicate the roles and responsibilities of the lender (arranger, ESG Agent, etc.). This information will be visible to your stakeholders : 
  
• Indicate associated fees. This information is confidential and will only be visible to the operation management team.
• Allocations to each tranche. The lender's share will be visible to all participants.

Does your operation include an opaque sub-pool/sub-lenders not mentioned in the contract? 

A sub-pool feature is available. To add a sub-lender, click on “add a sub-lender”:  

You can share documentation and covenant controls, just as you do with your main lenders: 

• A specific directory in the dataroom is dedicated to the sub-pool.
• Covenant checks will be shared with sub-lender contacts at the same time as with senior lenders.
• You'll be able to send customized sub-pool-specific emails.

g. Invite your stakeholders to access the operation

Adding borrower/issuer or lender contacts works in the same way.
Click on the desired entity, either in the client section of the risk group or in the pool section: 

You will have access to a page divided into two tabs: 

• Your stakeholder's administrative form. This will be filled in by the entity itself when it first connects to the operation (it will have the option of skipping this step to access the operation directly).
• File access management. Here, add users and revoke access as required: when the folder is published, the contacts indicated will receive an automatic e-mail from Kls containing a link to the folder. 

Our final tips before publication: 

2. Publish an operation 

o give access to your stakeholders, you need to publish your operation. This is also the first step before publishing the covenants: this second action is not possible if the operation is not published (see our article on the contractual framework).

To publish your operation, click on the “Publish the operation” button:

You'll get a double check to confirm your action.

Invitation e-mails will automatically be sent to the contacts you have entered, giving them access to your operation and the information you have entered.

Once published, your operation will be visible in the “Operation in progress” section of your Operations follow-up page.

Before publishing your operation, you can consult our latest pre-publication tips.