We’ve moved

We’ve updated the Moneyscope website and, as part of this, have integrated the blog into the new site. So if you want to read the latest from Moneyscope come on over to the new site as we’ll no longer post updates to this blog. 

Here’s the new Step 2 screen. Regular Moneyscope users will notice that negative values are now displayed in orange but, when you print the client report, they appear in red.
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Here’s the new Step 2 screen. Regular Moneyscope users will notice that negative values are now displayed in orange but, when you print the client report, they appear in red.

We just thought we’d post a a couple of preview shots of the new Moneyscope Too design, before it goes live on Monday. Here’s the redesigned Step 1 screen.
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We just thought we’d post a a couple of preview shots of the new Moneyscope Too design, before it goes live on Monday. Here’s the redesigned Step 1 screen.

‘Moneyscope Too’ coming soon. Very soon, in fact.

Back in January we told you about some changes to Moneyscope we were working on. Well the time has come and we’ll be putting the first stage - which we’ve nicknamed Moneyscope Too - live on Monday 19 March. 

What’s changing?

Firstly, don’t worry. We’re not playing with Moneyscope just for the sake of it, and this isn’t the first in an inexhaustible list of ‘enhancements’.

For a while now, we’ve felt that Moneyscope would benefit from a bit of a tidy up as well as a few tweaks to smooth out its edges.

So the update to Moneyscope Too deals with some niggly little issues that both you and us wanted to address, including:

  1. In addition to making the total savings over time graph larger, it will also show negative values in a different colour: on screen a negative value will be in orange but, in your printed report, negative values will appear in red; 
  2. The ‘Income’ and ‘Expenses’ labels in ‘Step 1’ of the process will change to ‘Money coming in’ and ‘Money going out’ - we just think this labelling is clearer; 
  3. We’ve made the ability to re-sort content in a column - by clicking on the column heading - much clearer. We say clearer because, believe it or not, this ability has always been there; it just hasn’t been all that visible until now. 

Once Moneyscope Too is live, we will be delivering two more changes:

  1. The ability to apply individual inflation rates to each item of money coming in and money going out. This is something we’ve had lot of requests for so we’re adding it.  And those of you that don’t want to make use of it, and are happy with how it works now, don’t have to. 
  2. Hot on the heels of this, we’ll add the problem-solving feature which Rich spoke about in this blog post.  

What do Moneyscope users need to do?

Absolutely nothing.

We’ll update the site and - so long as it all goes well - when you log-in on Monday morning, you’ll be using Moneyscope Too. 

In order to switchover, Moneyscope may not be available from 4pm on Sunday afternoon but it will be back on Monday morning. We hope this doesn’t disrupt you too much and hope you’ll like Moneyscope Too.


OK so, first, we must confess that Moneyscope does sponsor Meaningful Money’s mission to help consumers make sense of money.

But, much as we’d like to, we’re afraid that we can’t claim the credit for insisting that Moneyscope co-starred with Pete Matthew in his latest episode on cash-flow planning.

Besides the fact that it is a big compliment for Moneyscope to feature - so ‘thank you’ Pete - what we really like is the way that Pete is able to use Moneyscope to easily demonstrate the benefits of cash-flow planning for consumers.

It illustrates exactly how we’d always hoped Moneyscope would work for financial advisers and planners: a refreshingly straightforward way to calculate your client’s lifetime cashflow, in a way which your clients can easily understand.

In the fourth of a series of six animated phone calls, John Gay of Frisco Financial Planning in Frisco, Texas, explains why he likes using Moneyscope. 

Just like last month’s call with Phil O’Connor, what you hear is what was said. It’s an unscripted, unedited and unprompted one-take ‘open mike’ phone call. 


Cashflow planning - bringing money to life

Richard presented at today’s IFP Financial Planning Day 2012 and we thought we’d share the slides for those who couldn’t make it or just want to take another look. 

At the IFP Conference last October, Richard focussed on the role of cashflow forecasts in assessing risk. Building on this, Richard’s talk today illustrated the ways in which cashflow planning can be used to help bring clients’ financial situations to life; whether this is as part of detailed financial planning, for clients who are saving for a specific goal or in order to address the wider issue of risk. 

With experience across a number of different cashflow forecasting tools, Richard also explored a number of different systems available to help advisers in this area. It goes without saying that Moneyscope was included but Richard also takes a look at the other tools available to meet varying adviser needs and preferences. 

Note: The slides may take a moment or two to render. During that time you may spot the odd rogue number in slide titles before they appear correctly. 

threesixty Paraplanning Forum

Richard was on stage for the London threesixty Paraplanning Forum today and will be presenting again at the second event on 29 February in Coventry. We’ll be publishing Richard’s slides here following the event on the 29th.

For those of you at a loose end next Thursday, Richard will also be speaking at the IFP Financial Planning Day; sharing his thoughts on the role of cashflow forecasting in the financial planning process.  We’ll be sure to share any useful snippets after the event. 

Meet Phil O’Connor of Whitewell Financial Planning based in Bolton, Lancashire. Phil features in the third of a series of six animated phone calls in which users of Moneyscope explain why they like using it. 

Just like last month’s call with Philippa Gee, what you hear is what Phil said. It’s an unscripted, unedited and unprompted one-take ‘open mike’ phone call.

We’ve got two projects on the go at the moment which are due to go live soon: one is the release of a new problem-solving feature that we’re building (which Richard described in a recent webcast); the second is a subtle evolution of the screen designs (pictured above). Regular users of Moneyscope will recognise the screen above and, if that’s the case, we think you’ll be pleased to see that the bar chart now has one colour when a plan is in the black and one when it’s in the red.  But how come the bars are orange when you’re in the red? Well, the screen designs might not seem like a radical shift but we’re seeking to improve the clarity of Moneyscope’s layout by improving the way we use type, forms and colours. By reducing the number of colours we’re using on a screen, our ambition is to make Moneyscope that bit easier to ‘read’ at a glance and, therefore, navigate. When you come to print out a report, however, Moneyscope will keep the green bars green, but the orange bars will become red so your clients get a report where their cash is either in the green or in the red. (At least, that’s what we’re working towards at the moment.) It’s the kind of thing that pixel-perfect people like us get very exercised about, but what do you think? Are you happy for negative values to be displayed in orange on screen, and then displayed in red in print? Just post a comment below to let us know what you think. But hurry because we’re cracking on with the work!
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We’ve got two projects on the go at the moment which are due to go live soon: one is the release of a new problem-solving feature that we’re building (which Richard described in a recent webcast); the second is a subtle evolution of the screen designs (pictured above).

Regular users of Moneyscope will recognise the screen above and, if that’s the case, we think you’ll be pleased to see that the bar chart now has one colour when a plan is in the black and one when it’s in the red. 

But how come the bars are orange when you’re in the red?

Well, the screen designs might not seem like a radical shift but we’re seeking to improve the clarity of Moneyscope’s layout by improving the way we use type, forms and colours.

By reducing the number of colours we’re using on a screen, our ambition is to make Moneyscope that bit easier to ‘read’ at a glance and, therefore, navigate.

When you come to print out a report, however, Moneyscope will keep the green bars green, but the orange bars will become red so your clients get a report where their cash is either in the green or in the red.

(At least, that’s what we’re working towards at the moment.)

It’s the kind of thing that pixel-perfect people like us get very exercised about, but what do you think? Are you happy for negative values to be displayed in orange on screen, and then displayed in red in print?

Just post a comment below to let us know what you think. But hurry because we’re cracking on with the work!