We always had big plans for 2020, but like most businesses, some priorities were changed and others were accelerated as we adapted to the perils of Covid-19.
As a company that focuses on helping support small businesses – both directly and via their accountants – we felt a responsibility to help in the best way we could. So we focused on what we felt was really important to achieve this year.
Below are some of the major new features and tools we launched, plus some smaller but much-requested improvements that we think have made a big impact!
Funding
Our most impactful change this year was the launch of funding, we can now help you or your clients find tailored finance offers at the right time.
Debtor management, planning and funding services all solve the same big, overarching problem of cashflow. So we now have a comprehensive solution that tackles every single one of cashflow’s moving parts.
Alongside our existing features, our funding platform enables businesses to get pre-qualified finance offers in just 30 seconds. It also makes it easier to find your clients a loan, by helping you identify who’s in need and which lending products they’re eligible for.
Fluidly now gives you everything you need to know in one place – whether it’s a forecast, biggest debtors or a range of tailored loan options.
Small business users can now see your dedicated funding offers directly from the homepage dashboard.
Scenario planning
At the beginning of the year we launched our scenario planning tool.
Sitting on top of our existing automated cashflow forecasts, it helps businesses plan for ‘what if’ scenarios, and allows accountants to assist their clients with different modelling options.
In times of crisis, being able to plan for a number of scenarios, including potentially reducing headcount or lower order numbers, is crucial to survival. Our pre-configured plans take this into account, with easy-to-adjust sliders around staffing and safeguarding – as well as opportunities for businesses that are pivoting.
We’ve had a facelift
Our new-look homepage makes it easy to track the money through a business, by giving you all the information you need in one place.
The improved dashboard-style makes it easier to spot any cashflow issues and compare performance with previous months.
We’ve focused on improving collaboration
You can now add comments for your clients or colleagues to read
Ever wanted to leave a note for a client or a colleague within Fluidly? With our new comments feature, you can now do just that – so clients or other users in your business are always in the loop.
Our partners have already been using comments to provide additional context, highlight problems or help clients take a specific action.
Find out more about how to use this feature here
You can also mark specific comments for review
Use this feature to focus your clients’ or colleagues’ attention on the most pressing issues and create solutions quickly.
You can mark a comment for further review on all types of transactions and in the new comments tab.
When the issue is fixed, users can mark the comment as reviewed.
The sync time is much, much faster
We’ve significantly reduced the time it takes for us to sync with your Xero or QuickBooks data. Generally we now run hourly syncs but your forecast reflects any changes to your numbers within just five seconds.
And for active users (or those active within the last hour) we sync every five minutes.
There’s also now clear information on the last sync time for users on cashflow.
We now give you full transparency about how we make Fluidly predictions
Towards the end of this year we launched Fluidly Compass™ to help explain exactly why we’ve predicted a transaction – and what the numbers mean – to give you full transparency.
When you see the Compass icon in the app, simply hover over it to get more detail about the ‘why’ behind the prediction.
For instance, if you’re looking at your invoices, you’ll see the compass icon next to each company name and you can find out more about the customer’s paying habits: eg. ‘X business normally pays X days late/early/on time’.
It’s the same with your regular transactions, you’ll see notes such as ‘Normally X amount around the 16th each month. This is an average over the last 12 months’.
We’ve got more support and guidance
We’ve launched an interactive in-app ‘get started’ guide for businesses.
All small business users are now able to complete our checklist of hands-on tours at your own pace within the forecast section of the app.
We’ve also created a range of collateral for our partners to help you make the most of all elements of Fluidly with your clients, from getting started to securing funding.
And a few final other honorable mentions…
- You can now delete plans (we’ve added a delete button to each saved plan on the landing page.)
- We released a multi-edit feature for the forecast – making it easier for you to get cashflow forecasts looking just right.
- We’ve introduced account line organising (so you can group and reorder account lines to suit the way you think about your forecast and numbers).
