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:
- you are only ever working on what genuinely needs attention – no noise just action
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.