Where the figures come from
Every figure Opportunity Engine reads shows where it came from and the date it was true. A figure nobody has given stays blank, and a rule that needs it waits.
Screen from a test practice in Accountin. The clients and figures are made up.
What it reads today
The client's books in Accountin
Turnover, profit, margins, costs, cash, what customers owe, invoices more than 90 days past due, the director's loan, pension payments and the director's salary, for the twelve months to date.
Companies House
Directors and their ages, owners, charges, filing deadlines, and the turnover, profit, cash, net assets and staff in the latest filed accounts.
A spreadsheet of your clients
A client list, and a file of figures with one row per client. You match each column to a figure, check the rows and import. Clients not yet in Accountin are added.
Payroll and fees in Accountin
Staff and new starters from payroll, the work you have set up for each client, your fee and the time logged against it.
Coming next
When two sources give the same figure
- 1
The client's books in Accountin come first.
- 2
Then the client's own answers, once the questionnaire arrives.
- 3
Between an imported file and the filed accounts, the more recent one is used.
Screen from a test practice in Accountin. The clients and figures are made up. Company numbers are hidden.
How old a figure can be
- 3 days
Filing deadlines
A deadline is used only from a Companies House check made in the last three days, because it moves the day something is filed.
- 30 days
The register
Each company's directors, owners and charges are checked again once the last check is more than 30 days old.
- New filing
Filed accounts
The figures in a company's accounts are read again only when a newer set has been filed.
- 2 years
Too old to use
Filed accounts and imported money figures dated more than two years ago are left out and shown as too old.
Screen from a test practice in Accountin. The clients and figures are made up.
When a figure is missing
A missing figure is never read as nought. A blank cell in an imported file counts as not known. A rule that needs a figure nobody has given does not run for that client.
For each rule, the Sources screen counts the clients it is waiting on. It also lists the figures missing most often, with a link to import them.
How Companies House is read
Companies House lets each key make about 600 requests in five minutes. Opportunity Engine keeps to 500 of those across all firms and spaces its requests out. If Companies House asks it to slow down, it waits and tries once more. If asked again, it stops and the rest are fetched on the next run.
The register gives a director's month and year of birth, so ages are worked out from the last day of that month and are never overstated. Accounts filed on paper or as a PDF cannot be read. Small company accounts often show no cash figure, and nothing is guessed in its place.
Importing a spreadsheet
Choose whether the file holds a client list or figures. Each column is matched to a figure by its heading, and you confirm or change every match before anything is saved. Clients are matched to Accountin's by company number, then by name.
The rows are checked before they are imported and any with problems are left out. Every client is then checked again.
Screen from a test practice in Accountin. The clients and figures are made up.