I have updated to the latest version 16.1.24 with sub accounts feature added onto my laptop but I have kept my computer on the previous version to compare.
I just want to provide my feedback on the new design.
There are two different type of people who use accounting programs. One - accountants who use the program to do the tax returns and people who are business owners who need to monitor cash flow and track income and expenditure trends.
As such I would think about whether to call the top Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss or revert back to Financial Position and Financial Performance because most business owners are not thinking of balance sheets etc. What they are thinking of is their current financial position. However this a minor consideration to think about and it does not personally bother me as I understand accounting and am familiar with the concepts of profit and loss and balance sheets as I did this at school. The accountants are not really going to be using the summary page, but rather the reports.
I can see that you have combined Banks, Account Receivables and Other Assets to make Assets and that you have combined Account Payables and Other Liabilities into Liabilities.
There are a number of problems with this approach that I am seeing!
As a business owner when looking at my financial position, I am interested in the following: How much money I have in the bank, how much customers owe me and how much I owe suppliers and what credits I have in terms of customers/suppliers and tax requirements. By combining into the Assets and Liabilities it is not as clear to find and calculate the information. The old format separated that information far better.
I can see that you are trying to make the summary page look like a balance sheet and Profit and Loss Statement but this is something that an accountant only needs once a year whereas business owners need to review the summary page almost daily - so it doesn’t make sense to present the information in a format that is more useful to an accountant than to a business owner.
The format that you had before I think actually works very well as the information was categorised more for daily businesses. Thats just my feedback.
I stand in agreement with @dalacor on the new summary page. As a business owner, the new summary page doesn’t seem to be a summary at all. It is basically a display of all the accounts and its standing.
The previous summary page provides a better one eye glance of the current financial state of the business. One of my beloved features on the previous summary is the Aged Receivable. Without them on the summary, now it seems that I have to click multiple times from the Reports to get to the Ages Receivable. It is not practical anymore.
I don’t know what the reasons behind all the changes, but if it must be in this new summary page, then I would like to suggest for a customization of the summary page where business owner like me can decide what to view on the summary page.
I’m with @dalacor on this. See my post yesterday, with comparative screenshots. The new Summary screen is a huge step backwards for my particular needs, particularly the loss of a separate Cash on Hand section and the at-a-glance Aged Receivables.
Indeed, wanting the old Summary format back is the primary reason I downgraded back to v16.1.12.
Perhaps tinkering with the new Sub-accounts and Totals in the Chart of Accounts provides some way to change the Summary’s organization, but I still can’t figure it out.
I am also in agreement with @dalacor, The Summary page we have had up until recent change was an excellent “snapshot” of the business and should be re-instated asap.
From what @lubos has said about his plans, it is clear the current limitations of the Summary and Chart of Accounts are not the final situation. One thing that is not clear from what has been revealed so far is whether there will be any replacement for the aged receivables overview the earlier layout had. That was certainly helpful and would be nice to have.
If you want to see bank account balances, then that’s one click away - under Bank accounts tab. Another option will be to show individual bank accounts directly under Balance sheet once custom control accounts are implemented. This would basically show individual bank account balances under Summary screen like before.
If you want to see aging… well, I agree, this report is many clicks away but how about I make the figure clickable on Summary screen so when you click it, it will take you directly to Aged receivables report. That would be one click away.
I think the more relevant question is, why change the layout of the summary page as the old format worked better than the new layout. Yes, we could go to bank account balances for bank details and we could go to ageing by click on aged receivable reports. But I see no purpose to the new layout as its no longer a summary - one eyed glanced of your current business status.
The old design showed us everything we wanted to see on the summary page. Now we have to click to certain parts of the program to get that information. So how exactly is the new summary page an improvement on the old format. None of us see the reason for the new format - what problem are you trying to solve by implementing the new format?
I honestly would recommend returning to the old format as you have fixed something that did not need to be fixed and everyone that has responded to this topic agrees that the old format worked for them. Why change it for the sake of change - what problem are you trying to solve with the new format.
Please consider reversing the change because the new format is not as good as the old format. The old format was perfect in that it displayed the relevant information that we want to see in a clear categorised format.
The purpose of a summary is to provide us the “big picture.” Whereas, the purpose of the clickable links is to take us to the “detail picture.” Both are important and we cannot discount one for the other. Both must play a parallel role in every business. The previous summary page provides both needs, but the newest one literally relinquishes such purposes. May we rethink what is the purpose of having a summary page at the first place.
I have just installed the new version in a test environment. The new layout is great and offers a more refined breakdown of financial position. However it is more suited to a report rather than a user’s summary page to keep in touch with the company’s pulse, as a snap shot of what is happening now. The previous summary page showed clearly what is the state of the bank, what is coming in, receivables, what does the business owe and by when… accounts payable etc. The new layout does offer this but not as clearly for a summary page, it is more like a presentation of the Profit and Loss Statement, so I tend to agree with the thoughts already expressed.
In fact the original summary page could in my view show less … Maybe?
Really what this boils down to is that the old Summary page provided an operational snapshot of the business, which the new Summary page provides more of a financial snapshot.
For me, I hugely preferred having the operational view. When I needed a financial view, I could run the appropriate report. But what I want to have in my face whenever I open Manager is stuff like how much money customers owe me and how late they are with their payments, how much time I’ve accrued and not yet billed, and how much cash I have on hand – and the old hierarchy, with its actionable links, was very helpful to that end.
Yes I think that @lubos wanted to make the summary a balance sheet and Profit and Loss statement as he thought that would create consistency throughout the program - at least ways, that would be my guess!
I think that he needs to explain what he is trying to fix with the new layout as I very rarely complain about changes for any programs as most of the time it really doesn’t bother me. This change does. I think Jon put it nicely - I want an operational snaphot in my summary and I want to use the reports for a financial snapshot.
I have not upgraded on my computer as I prefer the old summary page view.
The previous summary screen was one of the deciding factors for us in choosing Manager over another accounting software company. Compared to the dashboard of the other software we considered, it was simpler but more user friendly for non-accountant small business owner types such as ourselves. At a glance we could see how much money we had in the bank and on hand, what is owed through aged receivables, what we owe and if anything was overdue. It was an excellent snapshot of the business, no clicking needed.
I also vote for the original summary page. Unlike any other accounting package, Manager’s summary page was a one up on all the others, simply because, as soon as you opened the programme you had an immediate picture of the current status.
Why not have under preferences a selectable option - Summary page or Balance Sheet
For myself, I am perfectly happy with the Balance Sheet, but then I don’t have Receivables, Time Billing, Inventory or Payables etc.
The latest version (16.1.32) will show list of bank accounts under Cash at bank heading and cash accounts under Cash on hand heading.
Potentially every control account will be expandable so it will be up to users to select what control accounts they consider important enough to expand on Summary screen.
And will we be able to get aged receivables back on the Summary screen?
I still think the old Summary was superior for the minute-to-minute snapshot and for direct access via hyperlinks to the most important buckets of money. As @compuit wrote above, the old Summary made for a great visual view, while the various Reports made for great printed views.
@lubos, downloaded the latest version today, really appreciate all your hard work on the summery tab/screen but the original summery was better (as others have noted) please could we have the old one back, it was perfect as you had it before.