As we close out the first quarter of 2024, this month we’ve introduced some exciting additions to the FYI platform, including new integrations, improvements to our Practice Sync apps and many more enhancements to our existing features.
We were excited to announce this month a new integration with StackGo IdentityCheck, a simple and secure way of verifying client identification using a Government-issued ID and photo. With this integration, practices can automatically trigger email notifications to clients requesting their identity verification, view the status of the request, and automatically create file notes for the client in FYI.
To find out how you can streamline the identification process, refer to Integration with StackGo IdentityCheck
For our clients who integrate with Practice Sync, such as MYOB or APS, there were several improvements made to Practice Sync this month:
- For practices integrated with MYOB, Milestone Names will now synchronise as Job States in FYI if the option “Use Milestone Status for Job State” is enabled. This improvement ensures the practice has more visibility over their job states directly in FYI. Refer to Synchronising Clients, Users and Jobs with MYOB AE (Australia & New Zealand Only)
- For Practices integrated with APS using Practice Sync, the APS Client Custom Field Types are now supported as part of the integration. Furthermore, APS Practice Sync will now synchronise Custom Fields from all Client Attribute Sets to match Custom Fields in FYI.
Before synchronising Client Custom Fields from APS, a matching Custom Field must be created in FYI with the same Name and Type. If this is not done, an error will be displayed in the Practice Activity. Refer to Synchronising Clients and Users with APS (Australia & New Zealand only) for a list of APS Custom Field types that are now supported with this update.
Note: this improvement will impact existing Custom Fields. It is recommended that a practice should rename their current Custom Fields before creating new ones, with the correct matching Name and Type. Refer to Managing Custom Fields
This month we also added new features and enhancements to our new Elite Plan.
When using the Time & Billing features:
- A new Timer function was introduced to allow users to easily create Draft Time in FYI, including the ability to use multiple timers at the same time. For example, a user can start a timer on a workpaper document, and pause it when a phone call comes through. A second timer can be then started on the phone call. Active timers will display the time status of “In Progress”, available to be filtered on a Time Lists. Time can then be stopped and submitted individually, or via Bulk Update for multiple active timers. Refer to Creating Time using the Timer
When creating an invoice:
- You can now select Completed or On hold Jobs where there is outstanding WIP on the job. This ensures practices are able to bill all WIP, irrespective of the job status.
- Furthermore, once an invoice has been created, the Invoice Number and associated Xero Ledger Account will display in the Invoice Details Section.
- If a practice is creating an invoice that includes Disbursements, you can now select a Disbursements Detailed Layout to itemise the Disbursements on individual rows. This will ensure that when invoicing the client, they can easily see the details of the disbursement being charged.
Refer to Creating an Invoice
To ensure data integrity across your platform, users can now delete time entries when using Bulk Update. This step can only be actioned if the time has not been invoiced, or if the time was before the practice Period Lock Date. Refer to Time and Disbursements Bulk Update
For practices switching to FYI for Practice Management, we have introduced further features to ensure that your Jobs are set up for success.
To make it easier to work with Job Templates in FYI:
- Job Templates that were originally created in Xero Practice Manager will be automatically archived. This ensures that there is no confusion when required to set up new Job Templates in FYI as part of the migration process.
- New Source and Status columns have been added to the Job Templates list column options. This allows practices to easily identify whether a template originated from Xero Practice Manager, and also to display the Status of either Active or Archived.
- Job Templates with a status of Archived can now be restored. To view Archived Job Templates, you will first need to enable “Unhide Archived Templates”. The “Status” column can be used to easily identify which templates have been archived.
For more detail on all of these features, refer to Apply FYI Job Templates to Jobs and Managing Job Templates.
For our practices that have enabled FYI as Primary Source for Client Maintenance, the following features have been introduced:
- We have introduced an Edit in PM button on the Edit Client screen for client data that is required to still be updated in Xero Practice Manager due to Xero API restrictions. This allows you to immediately open the current client in Xero Practice Manager, to make changes to data such as BSB Number, Account Number, Account Name. Refer to Editing Client Details and Synchronising with Xero Practice Manager where FYI is enabled for Primary Source of Client Maintenance
- To ensure accuracy of client tax data, a validation when adding TFN or ID numbers has been introduced. This ensures that no duplicate Tax numbers can be stored across client data. In the event that the number cannot be synchronised to Xero Practice Manager due to a duplicate, an alert will be added to Practice Activity. Refer to Error FYI-2168 "The Client Tax Number either has an invalid format or already exists in Xero Practice Manager".
We continued to introduce enhancements to our wider feature set this month, and made the following improvements:
- A New Relationships tab has been introduced in the Client Workspace. This replaces the Relationships section that was previously displayed on the Client – Summary Tab. The tab allows quick and easy access to display the relationships for this client in a single view. For practices integrated with Xero Practice Manager, this tab is display only, and updates to add, edit or remove a relationship these continue to be managed in Xero Practice Manager. For Elite practices, editing Relationships is currently in Beta. Refer to Client Relationships
- We’ve made creating a Job even easier, by automatically populating Manager or Partner from the client. This occurs when you create a Job using the + Create feature, and avoids risk of this data being missed when creating jobs directly in FYI. This enhancement does not apply to automations with “Create Job” steps. Refer to Create a Job.
For further details on the features mentioned above and more enhancements this month, refer to April 2024 Release Notes