Where has the time gone? No it hasn’t been tax return season for us but it may as well have been.  With February being such a short working month we manged to get a few bits done for you and some other behind the scenes stuff that you won’t see but needed to be done nonetheless.

We continue to work on our VAT functionality and Workpapers solution which is our main focus for the foreseeable future.  While we carry out that work we will be adding a few new features and enhancements whilst continuing to keep on top of any bugs you may incur.

New

Nothing new to report this month but we have made some things a little better so keep reading.

Improvements

Automatic alerts for new organisations

When you connect a new organisation to Hindsight we will generate the alerts for that organisation as soon as the data has finished syncing with Xero.  Originally we waited until the usual alert run in the morning to give you an opportunity to tweak alert settings before they were generated.  However you would prefer to have the alerts generated straight away.  After all you connected the organisation for a reason and you do not want to wait especially if it is a Friday – you don’t want to wait until Monday.  It also stands to reason that you do not always know what you want the alert settings to be until we start serving data for that client.  For these reasons you will see the alerts presented a lot quicker.

When a client finishes syncing with Xero you will receive an email from Hindsight so if you check back at that stage you will be able to see all the wonders that have been presented.

Free Account Signup

 

This seems like a little change.  Quick drop down option.  We wish.  We have split out the options when signing up to a new account.  Rather than going through the trial route if you just want to sign up to a free account you can now do that.  When signing up choose the free option.  You can add as many organisations as you like on the free plan.  You will not be able to add any client organisations on to the paid plan unless you contact us in advance and setup a Direct Debit mandate.

What this has allowed us to do is also tweak the trial signup process.  When you signup for a trial you can add unlimited organisations on the paid plan for up to 28 days.  By default new organisations go on the paid plan but you can switch between the free and paid plan as you like.  At the end of your trial i.e. after 28 days any new organisations you add will default to the free plan so you only get charged for those organisations which you have consciously put onto the paid plan.  If you have not setup a Direct Debit before the end of your 28 day trial period your account will automatically be downgraded to a free account and all client organisations downgraded to free.

To find out more about our free plan read more

Manual Sync

Want to show of your handy work?  If you have spent a chunk of time tidying the books for a client why not revel in it for a little while.  You can now force a manual sync with Xero so if you start the day feeling down because you are awash with alerts don’t fret get to it.  Once you have completed alerts sync with Xero again so we can show you the fruits of your labour.

This will help you demonstrate the quality of the records.  Re-run the Heart Rate report and distribute it to a client to show them how great a job you are doing.  Best of all if your manager takes a look in the afternoon he will be mightily impressed with how well you are doing.

Last sync date

Hindsight syncs with Xero in the early hours and then generates the alerts and Heart Rate score.  We know some of you have wanted to know when this happens so we have added the last sync time and date to the Client Overview Panel and  Data Sync tab in the Client Record.  If you think something doesn’t quite look right you can now rule out a timing issue.

Bugs

• Fixes: correct the narrative on the supplier bills alert description when the variable for days has been updated
• Fixes: corrected an issue where the % calculation was not displaying on the credit card alert
• Fixes: correct credit card alert setting where credit cards were not being displayed with bank accounts
• Fixes: corrected issue with the bank balance graph on the alert displaying continual balances if the bank feed has stopped

Happy New Year and welcome to the first product update of 2022.

We continue to work on our VAT functionality and Workpapers solution which is our main focus for the foreseeable future.  While we carry out that work we will be adding a few new features and enhancements whilst continuing to keep on top of any bugs you may incur.

New

Portfolio Dashboard

This one has been a little while in the making.  Since we introduced the free dashboard back in September 2021 we knew we had to rebuild the old Practice dashboard.

We have replaced the old Practice Dashboard with a new version called Portfolio.  Why the change?  Because unlike the old dashboard this one is centred around those clients you have in your portfolio only.  No assignment to the client, no data.  This enables you to really filter out the noise.  Unlike the free dashboard which is generated from a sync with your Xero data this dashboard only displays data returned from your alerts.  This way we can keep the noise to a minimum.  Only the clients you work on and only the exceptions to your client rules.  Click on the hyperlinks in the dashboard to drill into the detail of what needs reviewing.

One simple, easy and effective place to get a thorough understanding of the client portfolio you are working on.

Don’t believe me? Read more

Example MOT Report

Gone is the blank screen of doom telling you that you have no clients on the free plan.  Instead you now get a nice clean example with demo data included so you can see what the MOT report looks like and compare it to the Heart Rate report to see which is the best fit for your client.  Perhaps you can build an additional service around the free tier and download the example report as a PDF to show a client what you could be doing for them to enhance your service offering.  Each fail item is a problem waiting to be solved.  Can you solve it?  Of course you can.

Want to know more about the MOT Report? Read more

Improvements

Screen display sizes

We have been through each and every view within the system to double check how it looks for you.  After some extensive research around screen resolution and sizes what we were looking at was not necessarily what you were seeing and for that we apologise.  We have made several changes to the system to ensure that you should now be seeing things as they were designed and not how your screen resolution has displayed them.  One of those changes was to change the width of the alert list vs the alert description.  This enables us to display more of the data you need to see.  On a smaller screen you should also notice that the dashboards display as such rather than a list.

If you find that something does not quite look right for you please let us know.  It’s not you, it’s us.

Update Tables Functionality

Gone are the old static tables inside the alert description replaced with a table that you can search, sort (by multiple columns just shift and click) and export.  Need something that you need to bring to the attention of a colleague or client no worries we have you covered.  You can enter multiple search criteria in the search box by leaving a space between each item.  Filter and sort to display what you need and copy it into Slack, download it into Excel for further analysis or simply email the PDF version.  What ever you need we have you covered.

This avoids the need to pop back into Xero to run a report and distribute to the client when you have already done the leg work.

Alert Filter Totals

We don’t know about you but clicking on an alert to see a blank screen was a little annoying so we fixed it.  We have added totals into each of the alert filters so you can see if and how many of each alert has been generated.  This will avoid you clicking into an alert for no reward.  While we were at it we also sorted the alerts by descending order so you can tackle those big ticket items first.

Styling Changes

 

Where there is no data to display we have added a visual element so it is clear there is nothing that requires your attention.

 

If a client has no bank or credit card accounts in Xero we will display a new comment telling you there are no active accounts.  This avoids us displaying an empty table which looks like something may have gone wrong.

Bugs

• Fixes: corrected an issue where the alert variables did not display full width when selecting the modal within the alert description
• Fixes: correct style of negative bank balance % being displayed on alert description
• Fixes: stopped the client page from refreshing each time you moved tabs or completed an action

This will be the last one of 2021 and what a year it has been for us and hopefully you.  Last time around the big update was adding the new client over view panels.  This time we’ve got some pretty special new additions for you.

We continue to work on our VAT functionality and Workpapers solution which is our main focus for the foreseeable future.  While we carry out that work we will be adding a few new features and enhancements whilst continuing to keep on top of any bugs you may incur.

New

New Grids On The Block

 

To say we are excited about this one is the understatement of 2021.

We have replaced the existing static Client table with a new grid solution.  This new way of providing data will underpin the new VAT and Workpaper solutions.  It could also provide fantastic benchmarking and reporting functionality. The only limitation is our imaginations and our capacity to build it.  Your data, your way.

All existing tables with be updated with the new grids but the they are much more than just grids.  They are sortable, draggable, filterable, groupable, chartable and even pivotable.  Any word you can think of and stick able on the end it can do it.

Don’t believe me? Read more

Open Sales Credits

This is a new alert.  An open credit note in isolation on accounts receivable does not present a particular problem but if there are lots of them could indicate a problem customer account, a potential cash flow problem if customers requested cash instead of offsetting against future invoices or it could uncover a deficiency in the sales invoicing process.

Want to know more about Open Sales Credits? Read more

Xero Report Hotlinks

We introduced Xero Transaction Hotlinks a few months back and at the time we promised to take a deeper look and see what else we could do.  We found some time and have added Xero Hotlinks to Reports, Screens and Settings.  You’ll find these in the alerts panel header title.  Sometimes looking at a single error in  isolation does not tell the whole story so we have added links to other parts of Xero we feel will make your navigation and issue resolution that much cleaner.

Want to know more about Xero Report and Screen Hotlinks? Read more

Heart Rate and MOT Report PDFs

This has been in the pipeline for a while but we finally got there.  Thanks for bearing with us.  You can download the Heart Rate and MOT reports as a PDF so you can send them out to a client.  We also took this opportunity to update the Heart Rate report header and make it a bit more pleasing on the eye.  If it is going to be sent to clients we want it looking its best for you.

Example Heart Rate report

Example MOT report 

Want to know more about Heart Rate Report PDF? Read more

Improvements

Example Dashboards

It can be quite frustrating looking through the system to find a page you cannot access.  This has become more prevalent since the introduction of the free tier.  To provide a better experience we have added example dashboards for the free, user and manager dashboards.  The example dashboards will be displayed if you have no clients on either free or paid plans or you are not assigned to those clients with a client user role of user, manager or partner.

To learn more:

Free Dashboard

User Dashboard

Manager Dashboard

This was one of the first alerts we built.  In order to keep the number of alerts to a minimum we decided to group the unreconciled bank transactions into one alert.  This has the disadvantage that the variables set for the alert applied to all bank accounts.

Better Sales and Supplier Invoices Due Alerts

This was troubling me for a little while.  We gave you a pretty chart outlining what was overdue and becoming due but neglected to give you the key piece of information which was the data that made up those graphs.  Idiots!  As we were doing a bunch of work on the Xero hotlinks now felt like the time to put that right.  On both the Sales Invoices Due and Supplier Bills Due alerts we have now added in the table of transactions that need attention.  With added Xero Transaction Hotlinks and Xero Report Hotlinks.

To find out more:

Sales invoices due

Supplier bills due

Improved Portfolio View

The user and manager dashboards have always been driven by the idea of a portfolio hierarchy in that they only displayed clients you are assigned to.  We have now rolled that functionality out across all screens within Hindsight.  This means that you have complete lockdown on which users have access to which clients.  It was confusing to users that they could see clients that they did not act for and added to the noise which is what we are trying to reduce.

This does mean that unless you are assigned to a client using the client user roles you will not see that client in Hindsight.  Users with practice admin rights will need to make sure they assign the right clients to the right staff member.  We have added an additional page inside the practice admin tab called ‘clients’ so you can see which clients have no client user allocated and update accordingly.  Clicking on the client name will take you to that client to update.  You can also do this from users tab client access section.  However you choose to do it you MUST do it to ensure you maintain functionality for all users.

We highly recommend reading the following help guides.

Client user roles

Hindsight hierarchy

The practice dashboard has been renamed to Portfolio Dashboard as it now only shows the clients in your portfolio.  This dashboard will be replaced by a new version in the coming weeks.

Help Links and Information Hovers

As we expand what Hindsight does it can be difficult to remember what it does.  Even we are guilty of looking at something and wondering where on earth it came from.

Do you know how many things you juggle in a day?  Exactly a lot.  We don’t need to make it any harder so we have added in a few things to try and make life easier.  If you see an

 this will offer you a snippet of information.  Hover on it to find out more and if you see a  this is a link to a help guide on the knowledgebase.

There are no such thing as a stupid question so if you are struggling to understand where something has come from let us know.  You will not be the only person scratching their heads.

Read more

Update Practice Defaults & Alert Settings Format

As we continue to add more alerts to Hindsight we thought it would make sense to start grouping the alerts together to make it easier to find things.  To this end we have added a simple header to the practice defaults screen and the client alert settings page to segregate the different alerts and hopefully make it a bit easier on the eye.  That was the intention anyway.

As always if you think there is an improvement to be made please let us know.

Bugs

• Fixes: Corrected an issue with future dated transactions alert where it did not always pick up on the fact that the transaction had been corrected resulting in the user having to dismiss the alert
• Fixes: Removed old alert settings for bank alerts that were moved to their own tab last month

This month sees us move our updates to a newsletter sent out to users.  We will continue to post an update once we have completed a release but it might be shorter than normal.

We continue to work on our VAT functionality and Workpapers solution which is our main focus for the foreseeable future.  While we carry out that work we will be adding a few new features and enhancements whilst continuing to keep on top of any bugs you may incur.

New

Client Overview Panel

We always felt a little underwhelmed by the client overview page when entering a client record.  It is far to say as we have built out other parts of Hindsight that feeling has grown stronger so we decided to give it a spruce up.  The above image outlines what you will now enjoy when looking at a client record (paid version).  This is part of a bigger plan where we bring everything that is available to you at Practice level into client level so you can do some deep work on individual clients.

Want to know what all of these metrics mean for you and your clients? Read more

 

Improvements

Unreconciled Bank Transactions Alerts

This was one of the first alerts we built.  In order to keep the number of alerts to a minimum we decided to group the unreconciled bank transactions into one alert.  This has the disadvantage that the variables set for the alert applied to all bank accounts.

We heard you loud and clear that this did not offer enough flexibility as sometimes you don’t reconcile certain accounts at all (petty cash perhaps) or the level of unreconciled transactions varies account from account as to when you will complete the work.  We have moved the alert settings to the Bank Account Settings page where you can now find all bank related alert settings. Read more

Last Bank Reconciled Alert

As with the unreconciled alert this was one of the first alerts we built.  We had one alert to cover all bank accounts looking at how many days it had been since the account was fully reconciled.  This has now been split out so you can do with each account as you please.

This did not offer enough flexibility as you needed the ability to turn the alert off for some accounts and others were reconciled at different intervals.  The current account weekly and savings quarter for example.  We have moved the alert settings to the Bank Account Settings page where you can now find all bank related alert settings. Read more

Add ‘Free’ to Alert Filters

Following on from adding the free tier a month ago we had some feedback that we needed to make it easier to split out the free and paid alerts so we have updated the filter options on the top of the practice alerts and client level alerts so you can now toggle between the different alert types with ease.  By default all free alerts will appear at the bottom of the alerts list underneath the medium priority alerts. Read more

Bugs

• Fixes: Make User Dashboard charts larger, correct issue with top of chart being cut off, improve responsive layout
• Fixes: Correct snooze date format on bank and credit card thresholds to be consistent with other alert settings
• Fixes: Amend the responsive layout of the panels on the Free dashboard so items do not appear outside and underneath panels
• Fixes: Ensure all panels are removed from the User and Manager Dashboards when all clients are set to ‘free’
• Fixes: Add in the % trigger threshold on the overdraft and credit card thresholds
• Fixes: Amend the calculation for the total client tiles on the clients page to show NA when all clients connected have no prior year data

Only a little one for you this month.  We’ve been squashing a few bugs and teeing up the next release for later in the month.

You’ll be glad to hear that the ‘Coming Soon’ panel on your User and Manager dashboards has come and gone and been replaced with some real data.

New

User Performance Metrics

In order to see something on the performance panel as a user you need to be assigned to a client with the role of User.  Over the last 30 days we will calculate and populate the performance metrics for you.  There are 6 performance metrics we are monitoring currently.  We would love to hear your thoughts on what you would like to see here.

Average number of alerts per client – this is a calculation of the total number of alerts generated over the last 30 days divided by the number of clients you are assigned as a User.  This should be a good indicator of the workload, issues and problems that are being generated for the clients you are looking after.  A low number would show that you are keeping on top of your clients.

Percentage of Critical alerts generated – the percentage of alerts that you are assigned to as a user that have a priority status of critical.  A high % could indicate that you have too many alerts with critical priority.  Not all alerts and clients are created equal.  Perhaps there are certain areas within your client base that require tightening or there is an unfair split in the client base and you have been allocated the majority of the poor quality clients.

Percentage of alerts completed – this shows you how many alerts you have hit the complete button on over the last 30 days as a percentage of all the alerts generated you were assigned.  Items that have been auto completed by Hindsight are not included so it is important that you mark the alert as complete to get the credit for your hard work.

Average completion time – how long it takes you to complete an alert on average over the last 30 days from generation to hitting the complete button.  You want this to be as low as possible to demonstrate how quickly you correct any problems that occur.

Average Heart Rate – the average Heart Rate for the clients you are assigned to over the last 30 days.  The higher the score the better.  If you want to know which clients are holding you back check the Heart Rate panel to see the clients with the lowest Heart Rates for further investigation.

Transaction volume per client – the average volume of transactions per client over the last 30 days.  A high level of transactions could indicate that you are looking after the clients with the largest workload.  This in itself might not be a problem but if your other metrics are suffering it might be time to look at how the clients are split.

Read more

 

Team Performance Metrics

As with the performance stats on the User dashboard if you are assigned to any clients as a Manager you will see the same 6 metrics displayed.  The big difference as a Manager is that your metrics are all built around the performance of you and your team.

In the example below you can see that our ranking is ‘out of 2’ which means there are 2 people assigned to clients as Manager in our practice.

Our team is built up of ‘Users’ assigned to the clients where you are the Manager.  As a guide if you check the Team Stats panel those same people are the ones included in the Performance stats where they are working on your clients.

The metrics calculated are the same as above so please take a moment to familiarise yourself with what they mean.

Read more

 

 

Improvements

Live Chat Support

We have added live chat to Hindsight so you can talk to us directly should you encounter an issue or have a general question.

This is manned so if it shows as being ‘offline’ we are on another chat or away from our desks.  Please do leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible but at the very latest the next working day.

 

Bugs

• Correct sync issue when a bank account name is amended
• Adjust the bank sync job so bank accounts sync before alerts are generated
• Correct an issue on the client view where the total tiles included organisations that had been disconnected
• Amend alert settings modal to include a scroller on smaller display for bank and credit card to be able to update all settings
• Amend the value displayed on the draft invoices and bills alerts to display the gross amount instead of net amount

I was going to start this update with an apology as we were hopeful of getting this out to you before our official launch at the Digital Accountancy Show being held on 1st September.  As you can tell we missed that by a few weeks.

That being said I think you’ll like what we have to offer so much that I’ll let you be the judge of whether an apology is due or not.  Enjoy!

New – Peace of Mind

It is part of our mission that all small business owners feel the love not just those that sit within that top tier paying for ‘advisory’.  We get that you can’t justify paying for a software subscription for all clients when they are not paying for that additional level of support.  We aim to fix that by providing you for free the tools to start meaningful conversations with clients.  We hope that those conversations become fruitful for the accountant and the business owner.

Free Basic Alerts Suite

We have created a suite of 9 alerts that cover the bank, sales and bills.  These alerts are generated when clients are set to ‘free’ on the new billing tab under Practice Admin.  They are a guide to highlight where things may be going wrong and a prompt for conversations with clients.

If you have a mixture of paid and free clients you will find the basic alerts at the bottom of your alerts list.  They are also shown in the alerts filter so you can choose to look at just the free alerts.

Enjoy peace of mind that anything falling outside of the basic parameters is captured for every client completely free of charge.

New Dashboard

To complement the free basic alerts suite we have added a new dashboard where you can keep an eye on the ‘free’ alerts.  These alerts are not included in the metrics present on the other dashboards available.

Here you will be able to find information on the top 5 issues for each type of alert.  Once you have tackled those 5 issues they will be replaced by the next 5.  As you can see from the below unreconciled bank transactions are ordered by the largest monetary amount unreconciled as well as telling you the number of bank statement lines.  We believe this gives a better reflection of those clients records that are most likely to be inaccurate.  The data relating to invoices and bills is shown in the same way.

MOT Report

The MOT report highlights at client level those alerts that have triggered with commentary on why they have triggered.  This can be used as a guide for internal purposes but can also be saved as a PDF report (CTRL + P in your browser) and issued to a client should you wish to send them something to strike up a meaningful conversation.  This report will highlight to clients that you are going above and beyond the basics for them.

This will give clients peace of mind – you have their backs.

Example PDF Report

Improvements

Client View Table

We have added the number of days until quarter end and year end into the client view table.  This enables you to sort your clients by how many days there are to the nearest quarters or years upcoming.

Whilst the columns in this table are draggable so you can change them to suit your requirements we have changed the default order of the columns so it runs in a more logical order and will avoid you having to drag so many columns around.  They can get heavy.

Bugs

• Correct issue with colour of average Heart Rate graph on User Dashboard, colour dependent on the average score achieved
• Adjust Practice dashboard panels to improve sizing on smaller display
• Remove current dashboard from dashboard dropdown selection options
• Amend alert settings modal to include a scroller on smaller display to be able to update all settings
• Amend formatting of bank and credit card alert if displaying negative balance

Really excited as we build towards our official launch at the Digital Accountancy Show being held on 1st September.  Why not book a free ticket and come and see us there?

This is going to be the first of two-parter this month as we aim to have some more goodies ready before our official launch.

If you require any further information on the changes below then please checkout the updated Knowledgebase articles.

New

Manager Dashboard

To complement the new user dashboard we have now completed work on the manager dashboard.  This one is aimed at the seniors and middle management in your practice to help them focus their mind and attention on the key critical things.  What deadlines are upcoming, what is the quality of the records and what needs to be done and more importantly by whom.  Keep an eye on your clients and team without micro managing their every move.  Easily understand what needs attention and take corrective action.  Identify who your star performers are and congratulate them on doing a great job.

Read more.

 

Onboarding

With greater functionality comes more complexity.  Listening to feedback from our early adopters we have implemented a more rigorous onboarding process to help you get up to speed as quickly as possible and start filtering out that noise sooner.

Watch the video below for a quick tutorial on how to get step up in a few simple steps.

 

Improvements

Alerts and Transactions at Client level

Whilst we see great value in having everything at a practice level we appreciate there are times when you wish to work on a client in isolation.  As such we have added the alerts and transactions data into the client screen.  This will enable you to spend time focusing on one client at a time.  Unlike the practice wide transaction view you now have the ability to sort the client level data by each column header.  We hope that by bringing everything together in this way it will make your life simpler as you could record a video to share with clients of their current position without worrying about inadvertently displaying information on another client.

You will now see a couple of additional tabs in the client screen and we have re-ordered the tabs so they appear in a more logical workflow.

 

Client Key Data colours

A small upgrade to make it easier to distinguish those upcoming client deadlines.  We have colour coded the Client Key Data panel to show you how close you are to an upcoming deadline.

Financial Year End – Less than 45 days pink, 46 – 120 orange, 121+ green

Next Quarter End – Less than 21 days pink, 22 – 45 orange, 45+ green

• Renamed the misposted bills  alert to variance analysis to make it clearer
• Added nominal account code name next the account code on the variance analysis for easy identification
• Amended the Heart Rate score icons to show a switch if an alert is currently turned off.  This acts as a reminder when running the report which items are not currently active for that client.  Clicking on the switch will open a new window at the alert settings so you can update if required.
• Amended the Heart Rate colour to reflect of a section has a 0 score available because all alerts in that section are turned off.

Bugs

• Corrected issue where alerts switched off impacted the Heart Rate scores
• User dashboard now only shows alert graph for alerts where you are assigned to the alert not because you are assigned as a user at client level
• User dashboard critical alerts only show the critical alerts where you are assigned to the alert not because you are assigned as a user at client level
• Standard dashboard reverted back to showing top 3 items alone which has corrected the data displaying outside of the card
• Temporarily removed the bank balance tile from the client overview screen to avoid the display issues with bank balances in multi currencies.  This will be returned once we find a better way to display this information.

It’s a whopper.  Some big changes this month but more importantly key structural changes that will enable us to go further and provide more granular performance metrics in future releases.  As usual a big thanks to everyone for their feedback during this latest release.

If you require any further information on the changes below then please checkout the updated Knowledgebase articles.

New

User Dashboard

The old dashboard didn’t quite cut the mustard so we are pleased to launch the first of three new dashboards.  This one is aimed at the bookkeeper and junior members in your practice to help them focus their mind and attention on the key critical things.  What deadlines are upcoming, what is the quality of the records and what needs to be done and more importantly by whom.  Check out your alerts and heart rate monitors to maintain control over whether trends are moving in the right direction and if not take action.

Read more.

 

Practice Defaults

Now you can set your own practice wide defaults for alert settings.  This drives a consistent approach to how you look after clients.  Start with the defaults and then tweak them to suit every client.  This is a much quicker approach than going through each one individually.  Coupled with the new Client User Roles (more on that later) you don’t even have to spend time assigning alerts to people.  If someone leaves so what we’ve got it covered.  Magic.

If you have batches of clients to add in the same industry why not set defaults for that industry and then add the clients in batches.  They are your defaults you do with them as you see fit.

Read more.

 

Client User Roles

With this release the new dashboards became a reality.  We can filter out so much more noise by only ever showing client data at the right time to the right person.  You can easily determine who can see what and the actions they can take.  More importantly this change enables us to drive better reporting and metrics around individual and team performance and accountability.  We are so excited about this one as we see opportunities everywhere we look.

You must assign client roles to existing users in Hindsight for the new user dashboard functionality.

Read more.

Bookkeeping Status

Wouldn’t you like to know whether your team is genuinely better than your clients in relation to data processing?  (Maybe you’d rather not know but that defeats the object)  What if you could back that up with facts.  Hard evidence of how you could help your clients improve their life and business while taking away pain.  It might be small but it is mighty.

Read more.

 

Improvements

Transactions

We grew tired of staring at a table of numbers.  It didn’t talk to us.  We may as well have been looking at an Excel document so we changed it.  Behold the all new interactive transactions page where your Xero clients transactional data talks to you.  Select a period range and see the changes in volumes.  Someone not processing documents, someone growing quickly or perhaps an unusual seasonal fluctuation.  You’ve got this.

Read more.

 

Support Centre

A small upgrade to make it easier for you to find the stuff you need to get value from Hindsight.  No more hunting around.

Read more.

 

In our biggest release to date we run through some of the key changes made to Hindsight.  This has been shaped by the feedback from our team of testers so a big thank you to them all.

If you require any further information on the changes below then please checkout the updated Knowledgebase articles.

New

Heart Rate Monitor

We have added a graphical representation to the Heart Rate report which shows the overall Heart Rate score for the previous 90 days.  We are logging the Heart Rate everyday so you can monitor clients progress towards a better overall score and highlight the positive impact of your work.  It can be used to identify a negative trend which would imply corrective action needs to be taken.  This offers valuable insight and genuine conversation starter with a client.

Client Key Data

Sometimes the small things in life bring the greatest pleasure.

How many times and how many clicks does it take to see that key client data? Enough for you to break your workflow and get side tracked because you forgot what you were looking for.

Not anymore. It’s just a simple hover away.

As well as some of the key client data we have calculated the next quarter end date and a countdown to the next key deadlines.

Auto Complete Alerts

The underlying rule of Hindsight was to reduce noise for accountants and bookkeepers.  This in turn would allow them to work efficiently in a logical and prioritised way.  We failed and did the opposite by flooding your software with alerts.  We did this as we wanted each and every instance of an issue to be recorded.  What we didn’t appreciate is the sheer volume of alerts that would generate and the noise you would have to fight through.

To correct this we have completely reconfigured the alerts engine so you will only ever be surfaced with the latest alert that has triggered.  This has two major benefits:

1. you are only ever working on what genuinely needs attention – no noise just action
2. we can now auto complete alerts for you.  If we see an alert that has previously triggered is no longer an issue we can auto complete it and remove it for you.  You will not be bothered by any issues that either you or the client have already corrected.

Alert Actions

It is not always as black and white that an alert can be corrected or not.  From feedback received we have looked at when and how the variations occur and have accommodated some changes in this area.  What action is available depends on the alert that is being cleared.  These will be expanded over time.  For now we have added the following:

1. Dismiss – I know there is an issue but I have carried out some form of remedial action which means I am not going to correct the underlying transaction.  I do not however want to be reminded about it daily as I will not be correcting it.  An example might be where a duplicate transaction has been detected but overall the supplier account is correct as a later bill was not entered to correct the overall position.  Several months have passed and to correct the issue would involve a lot of unnecessary unpicking and reposting.
2. Exclude – similar to dismiss but not transactional in nature.  You can exclude items such as nominal account codes or suppliers from an alert.  You are making a conscious decision for these records to be excluded when running checks.  An example would include excluding Amazon from the inconsistent postings check as you know the supplier could be posted to multiple different nominal account codes.
3. Complete – I’ve taken corrective action and this can be removed from my list.  Complete is different to dismissing in that you are telling the system the item has been corrected.  We will look for the same issue tomorrow and if it has not been corrected it will create a fresh alert.  With a dismissed alert you are telling us to ignore it going forward.

Multi Item Alerts

To keep the noise to a minimum if there are multiple instances of the same alert type we will present just one alert notification but it will contain a note that the alert has multiple instances as shown below.

You can work through the alert in much the same way as you do with a single alert.  As you complete an action against each item it will be removed from the list.  When you action the final instance the whole alert will be marked as complete.  As you work through the list the badge icon number will be updated to reflect just the instances now outstanding.

If you try to complete the whole alert without completing each instance you will be prompted to confirm this is correct.  This could be perfectly legitimate such as Dormant Accounts that contain 14 items.  Rather than actioning each item you could hit the complete button and mark all as complete in one go.

 

Improvements

Client Overview

We have made several improvements to the client overview this release which includes the following:

• adding the overall Heart Rate score so you can easily see the quality of clients records from one screen
• columns are now draggable so you can sort the columns into the order that works for you
• columns can be sorted by multiple selections allowing for you to create a view that aids interrogation of data and provides an easy visual for workflows

Alerts

Several enhancements have been added to the alerts section of Hindsight.  This provides for a much better overall experience when clearing down the alerts the system has generated.

• Alerts page has been redesigned to remove the left hand panel containing filters.  This allows for more room on the page for the key information and avoids the alert display dropping off the right hand side of the page on smaller resolution screens.
• Filters have been updated to show the number of filters that have been added so you can easily see what filters have been applied to your alerts.
• You can clear any filters applied to your alerts in a single click avoiding the need to deselect the filters.
• Default assignee filter has been applied.  When logging in the assignee will only see the alerts that are assigned to them.
• With the addition of auto completing alerts there is no longer a need to see the date attached to an alert as they will always be up for the current day.  The priority filters replace the date filters.  We have also removed the date from the alert notification and split out the alert name and client name to make it easier to see.

Fixes

Alert filters

When you set filters on the alerts and navigate to a new page your filters are retained.  Likewise on completing an alert you will no longer be redirected back to page one of your filter but will stay on the same page.  This allows for a much quicker workflow and stops the annoying action of resetting filters.