Next stage reports

Thu 3 May 2012

We've received plenty of feedback about the reports that you produce with Moneyscope and, over the past few weeks, we've been working on a new format for reports. We thought you would like to see what we're working towards.

The visuals we've posted (the first page of the report is shown above; the second page is at the end of the post below) illustrate a proposed new design. You can download a PDF version of the proposed design here.

Just to be clear, this is what we're working towards. We're not saying the final reports will look exactly like this; only that this is the direction they're going in.

In other words, now is a good time to let us know what you think of the proposed changes by posting a comment here or emailing us. (We ought to point out that there is no 'live' content in this visual of the proposed design - just dummy text - and the logo, adviser and firm name are just for illustrative purposes.)

What happens now?

Because we know you want to see an improvement in the reports as soon as possible, we're going to release the new report format in two stages.

Stage 1 will look very similar to the reports in the images below but, it won't include the following functions:

  1. The ability to add your own logo; and
  2. A header at the top of the pages following the first page; and
  3. New improved charts

In Stage 2, we will add these three features.  If you want to add logos you'll be able to; if you don't want to, you don't have to.

So why are we splitting this into two stages?

Good question.

We want to deliver improvements as quickly as possible but some things can be built more quickly than others. Rather than expect you to wait for us to release all of the features all at once, we thought you'd like us to release the easier stuff earlier - hence two stages.

While we're at it...

As part of this project, we'll be adding some text to the reports to explain the following terms:

  1. Increased with inflation; and
  2. Adjusted for inflation.

These will be placed under the 'Money coming in' and 'Money going out' tables on the second page.  We're working on the wording and thought a good test would be to ask you whether you understand it. We've been staring at it for so long that we may be a little word blind. 

So for 'Adjusted for inflation' we're considering the following definition:

Where a figure is adjusted for inflation it means that amounts of money  -  that start in the future -  are adjusted to ensure that they keep their value in today's terms, despite the impact of inflation in the future.

And for 'Increased with inflation' we're thinking about:

Where a figure is increased with inflation it means that, for each income and outgoing item that will start in the future, the amount is adjusted each year to ensure it keeps pace with inflation. 

Let us know what you think. You can either comment below or email us

May 2012