This webinar unveils the new AccountsIQ navigation and dashboards – the result of extensive design work, internal collaboration, and direct feedback from customers and beta users.

Hosted by Sinead from AccountsIQ, and joined by Robert Vila and James Hunter from PwC, the session gives you both:

• An inside look at what’s changed and why, and
• Real user perspectives from a team who live in AccountsIQ all day, both as processors and as consumers of finance data.

1. Opening & context

Sinead opens by:

• Thanking customers and beta participants (including James and Robert) for their input
• Explaining that this release is more than a cosmetic update – it’s a response to years of customer feedback around:
  • Too many clicks
  • Cluttered screens
  • Difficulty finding key actions and data quickly

She reinforces that:

• This is the start, not the end – continuous improvement will continue after launch
• Feedback is still very welcome after go-live

2. What’s changed in the new navigation?

Sinead walks through the key design principles:

a) Visual refresh & cleaner layout

• Introduction of a left-hand sidebar navigation instead of duplicated top bars
• More screen real estate for data (wider grids, less header clutter)
• Consistent button styling and colour usage for primary vs secondary actions

b) Fewer clicks, faster actions

• Hover over a sidebar item (Bank, Sales, Purchases, GL, etc.) to see all sub-actions immediately
• Click once to render the relevant screen, without losing your place elsewhere
• A new “Actions” icon on each row replaces large “Actions” buttons, freeing space but keeping the same options

c) Favourites

• Any frequently used screen or action can be “favourited”
• Favourites appear in a dedicated menu at the top, so users can jump straight to:
  • Common transaction screens
  • Reports
  • Dashboards

3. Entity management & grids

On the entity/account layer:

• Login buttons have been replaced by hyperlinks (consistent with other drilldowns like customers, suppliers, balances, etc.)
• User management now:
  • Uses the same grid controls as the rest of the product
  • Supports filtering (e.g. active vs locked users)
  • Allows export to Excel (e.g. for a user list)

Inside the entity:

• Grids are more powerful and readable:
  • Horizontal scroll with frozen key columns (like Excel “freeze panes”)
  • Sticky headers as you scroll down large lists
  • Cleaner spacing so heavy data views don’t feel cramped
  • Consistent options to add/remove columns, refresh, and download to Excel

4. Bank screen redesign

Sinead calls out the bank import / reconciliation screen as one of the most heavily used in the product, and it’s had a significant redesign:

• Same core logic (traffic light status: green/amber/red) preserved
• Cleaner layout with:
  • Less visual “noise”
  • Slimmer header bars
  • Clearer action buttons (“Match”, “Create new posting”)
• Designed for users who are in bank rec screens daily, especially with live bank feeds

5. PwC perspective – operational user (Robert)

Robert Vila, from PwC’s Finance Managed Services team in Belfast, shares his experience as a heavy, day-to-day user:

• Has used AccountsIQ for around six years across many clients
• Likes that the new version is:
  • Cleaner and more modern
  • Intuitive, especially for newer staff learning the system
  • Still contains the same functionality – just easier to find and use

Key points from Robert:

• Sidebar navigation
  • Icons are intuitive; easy to hover and choose actions without extra clicks
  • No need to hunt across menus – “everything is right in front of my face”
• Entity switcher
  • Now searchable – a big win for clients with many entities (e.g. 30+)
• Full-page grids
  • Better for large supplier lists or item invoices
  • Sticky headers and scrollable content mimic Excel and reduce confusion
• Core screens (e.g. item invoices, journal entry)
  • Look familiar, just sharper and more consistent with the overall design
  • Reassuring for existing users: no need to “relearn” everything

6. PwC perspective – dashboards & reporting (James)

James Hunter, Senior Manager at PwC in Finance Managed Services, focuses on outputs and reporting:

About his role

• Oversees onboarding of managed finance engagements
• Reviews outputs: management accounts, statutory accounts, tax compliance
• Works across multiple systems and helps feed back “what good looks like” into the AccountsIQ roadmap

Dashboard categories

He shows the three main dashboard groups:

• Sales
• Purchases
• General Ledger

Each dashboard includes:

• Left-hand filters (period, comparison – last year, last month, budget, revised budget; BI dimensions, etc.)
• Visual charts, tables, and KPIs
• Right-click export options to:
  • PDF (for flash reports or board packs)
  • Excel (for deeper analysis or combining with other data)

a) Accounts Receivable (Sales)

• Key metrics like Debtor Days
• “Top customers by balance” for quick credit control focus
• Exported regularly for:
  • Weekly flash reports
  • Credit control packs

b) Income dashboards

• Show income by GL subcategory out of the box
• Can be re-sliced by BI dimensions:
  • Region / location
  • Office
  • Department, etc.
• Very useful for clients who budget by dimension as well as GL

c) Accounts Payable & Purchase Commitments

• AP dashboard showing top suppliers, ageing, and key totals
• Purchase commitments:
  • Critical for clients using purchase orders and budgetary control
  • Lets procurement/senior budget holders see:
    • Commitments vs budget
    • GL category and subcategory
    • Dimensional splits (e.g. by cost centre, project, office)

d) Balance Sheet & P&L dashboards

• Traditional table-style balance sheet and P&L still available inside dashboards
• New trend and KPI visualisations:
  • Help non-finance stakeholders understand balance sheet movements over time
  • Present P&L with comparisons to prior year and/or budget in a visual way
• Net profit can be split by a chosen BI dimension to show performance by:
  • Region
  • Department
  • Office, etc.

e) Working Capital & Financial Overview

• Working capital dashboard:
  • Shows key ratios (current ratio, quick ratio, debtor/creditor days, etc.)
  • Trends over time, with intuitive green/red arrows for movement
• Financial overview dashboard:
  • High-level “CFO view” of:
    • Profitability
    • Cash
    • AR/AP
    • Key KPIs
  • Ideal as a starting point for a CFO/FD: quickly see where to ask follow-up questions or drill deeper

Refresh frequency

• Dashboards refresh every 5 minutes
• Each shows the “last updated” timestamp, so users know how fresh the data is

7. Q&A highlights

Some of the key audience questions addressed:

• Will my current saved grid preferences be retained?
  Yes – existing grid layouts and saved settings will carry over.
• Have the approval/bank traffic lights been removed?
  No – the colour badge system (approved, rejected, awaiting approval) is still in place, though visually refreshed.
• Can I attach documents to bank transactions?
  This and other detailed questions will be followed up directly; the team commits to responding to all.
• When will we get the new look?
  The rollout is planned for mid-next week.
  A toggle (“Try our new look”) will appear at the top of the screen, allowing users to switch between old and new navigation initially.
• Will training videos and Academy content be updated?
  Core navigation content is being updated first; additional videos and courses will be refreshed over time.
• Can we switch back to the old navigation? For how long?
  Yes – for a period, the toggle will allow you to use both. Eventually, once customer sentiment is positive and stable, the old nav will be retired.
• Will saved reports still work?
  Yes – saved reports and favourites will continue to work.
• Will dashboards be available for report-only users?
  Dashboard access is controlled by permissions; not all report-only users will necessarily see dashboards by default.
• Will the new UI work for the iFinance version?
  Yes – it will.

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