Redesign update: Banking

Posted on 31 August 2011 by – Comments (24)

When we announced our interface redesign back in June, I promised that I'd follow it up with more details as the redesign came together. Today we'll take a look at how the new Banking section is shaping up.

Our initial remit was to translate the existing functionality into the shiny new template so we can get this out to everyone as quickly as possible. Predictably, we couldn't resist making a few improvements while we were in there, and it's those I'd like to share.

Smarter Charts

The main banking screen has a few new enhancements. As with all other charts in the app, the old Flash-driven balance chart has been replaced with a lighter weight Javascript one, which will work on more devices like the iPad.

Banking index screen

We've also added the option to view the sum of all your bank accounts as a single chart, something that has been oft-requested in the past.

Mo' money, mo' details

We've made some significant improvements to the display of individual bank accounts, by introducing a side column which contains useful information about the account itself. This will include obvious details like the current balance, sort code etc but also how many transactions still need to be explained, broken down by month.

Banking index screen

The addition of a progress bar shows how much of the last statement upload has been explained, which should give you that extra little bit of encouragement to stay on top of explaining those transactions. Not that you need it of course.

There are some more far reaching improvements regarding how transactions are explained that we want to make, but these aren't going to be part of the initial release. Nevertheless, hopefully people will benefit from these new additions.

Do let us know what you think.

Over to you...

Deryck, Wed August 31, 2011
Looks great. I've very pleased you are replacing the flash charts so I can get maximum use on my iPad. When do you think we will see these changes implemented?
Mike Wilson, Wed August 31, 2011
You may want to check with an accountant first.

That's a lot of money to be spending on paperclips and staples!

:)
James Deer, Wed August 31, 2011
Hey guys,

Loving the look of it.

Had a thought though, one of the most time consuming things is going through each individual transaction which then will load a new page where you assign categories etc.

Any chance of some sort sidebar transition, or lightbox which could improve on the existing work-flow?

Cheers,
J
roan, Wed August 31, 2011
@Deryck: We've still got a fair bit of work to do completing the other sections, but I will be posting more details as we go.

@Mike: Everyone's a comedian :)
roan, Wed August 31, 2011
@James: when I mentioned "far reaching improvements regarding how transactions are explained" that's what I was referring to. It's something we want to do, but it's a separate piece of work.

Otherwise this is going to take forever to get out!
Dogsbody, Wed August 31, 2011
Awesome!! :-)

As someone that actively uses their Directors Loan account it would be absolutely fantastic to see that added as a "virtual" account too. I keep having to remind myself that a portion of the money in my business bank account (varies each month) doesn't actually belong to the business :-p

Thanks for a great product. It's always nice when updates just happen without having to download and update software :-D
Andy Stewart, Wed August 31, 2011
You'll have to add a currency symbol to the transaction amounts...

(This is my periodic request for multi-currency banking :)
Robert Rawlins, Wed August 31, 2011
Nice work guys.

Redesigning the interface is always a challenge. I've got a couple of client projects here I'd love to rework, but whilst the feature enhancements still have velocity it's hard to handle both at the same time, and more often than not a change to the UX will mean a change to underlying implementations too.

I'd be interested on your approach to avoiding kick-back from users with new changes? I've found that even positive changes can often be met with skepticism from users at first, simple because human nature is to fear change, what's the secret? early sneak-peeks like this? extensive user testing during the redesign?

Robert
roan, Wed August 31, 2011
@Robert: You hit the nail on the head. Part of the reason we're talking about this now is so people have full visibility of what's coming.

I think a lot of the reasons for negative reactions to redesigns are due to the frustration at having to relearn an interface. Giving people insight into the changes can mitigate to some extent.

We've got more planned in this area though, with a dedicated microsite explaining the changes, and in-app tutorials on what's new.

We've also been conducting user testing on our early prototypes and we plan to open up beta testing for existing users soon. Lots to do!
Robert Rawlins, Wed August 31, 2011
@Roan, thanks.

I understand exactly what you're saying. We use the mico-site approach with clients here too to explain changes.

We used to post details post-launch but found that users didn't take well too it. We now follow a similar principle to yourselves releasing details early on so users are expecting the changes.

Staged roll-outs is a challenge in itself. We have some simple principles here with buckets of users that get early release features, the problem is that sometime the implementation has changed to an extent where we can't run both old/new side-by-side so we have no option but to deploy direct to the entire user base.... something I'm not comfortable with but unable to see a way round at the moment.

Robert
Nic Wise, Wed August 31, 2011
@roan, you might have explained it in the reply to @james. I'd love to be able to pick a bank statement line (as I do now), select "it's an invoice payment", then tick all the invoices it's for.

Rather than pick the line, edit the amount and pick an invoice, save. And do it again for 3-6 more invoices.

(I get paid for multiple invoices in one payment a LOT - ie, 99% of the time)
Harry, Wed August 31, 2011
Looks good. Will there there be graphs for the P&L sections? Gotta love graphs. At the mo I have to use excel for that. And also what's a useful figure is the 'last 12 months' figures (like turnover and profit etc) which takes the last 12 months from today. Not the last business year. But the last 12 months. That way you can see growth in turnover. Or lack of.
Harry, Wed August 31, 2011
Also, I can't wait for the live Bank Account integration. Then I'd actually use this everyday.
James W, Wed August 31, 2011
Looking good guys - have the same issue as @nicwise so this would be an absolute god send!
roan, Wed August 31, 2011
@James & Nic: yeah, it's that use case, and a couple of others, that we want to address. We know the issues and have plenty ideas about improvements but it won't be part of the redesign unfortunately.

We've got to be fairly ruthless about what's in scope for now.
Gordon McLachlan, Wed August 31, 2011
Looks great, can't wait to try it out! Glad you're replacing the Flash interface too :)
Andy, Wed August 31, 2011
Please can you make it possible to hide the chart too - I much preferred this page when there wasn't a chart - also on a small screen the chart prevented scrolling with the mouse scroll wheel, you needed to click on an area of the screen and then scroll - which was frustrating when all I wanted to do was get into my account.
Steve, Thu September 01, 2011
Please make the default "transactions per page" at 100, NOT the current 25. Extremely frustrating to continually have to change the 25 to 100.
Tim Cox, Fri September 02, 2011
Not sure I agree with Steve above. Less is more in my eyes, what about the ability of offering a default number of items per page in the settings per user?

I've gotta say though the new design/layout looks great - can't wait to try the beta!

Keep up the good work guys.
Chris Houston, Tue September 13, 2011
Looks great guys, really looking forward to using this improved UI. I like the sound of your new round of funding, does this mean we are likely to see more integration with HMRC web services, like PAYE for instance, the more I can do just using FreeAgent, the better :)
Toby Stokes, Tue September 13, 2011
I guess it's too late for feature requests, but here it is anyway - It would be great if you could search across all bank account entries, there have been many occasions when i have been hunting across numerous pages for a transaction of "£6.42", or, wanted to see all costs for a particular payee.
Francis Grogan - print broker, Mon September 26, 2011
Like James and Nic I think it would save a fair bit of time if we could explain multiple invoices form one transaction all at once.
And also with Harry who mentioned the live banking interface. If the link to the bank account was live and permanent it would make another great time saving tool.
Elliot Mackenzie, Mon September 26, 2011
Hi guys,
Any chance you are going to make FreeAgent accounts talk to each other? Eg for multiple interrelated companies and/or subsidiaries?
M.
roan, Mon September 26, 2011
@Elliot: It's something we've been thinking about a lot recently and we've got some big plans, but there more of the long term variety. So, nothing in the near future unfortunately,
Last Edit: September 26, 2011, 21:45:55 by roan  
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