Poll: what app feature to discuss next?

[robert]

September! It is “back to school” time and, if we’re lucky, we’re getting ourselves all organised and back into a routine … and I don’t mean just the kids or parents.

It may be one of the strangest, and possibly most stressful, returns of recent memory, but I still get something of the “fresh binders, sharp pencils and new shoes” feeling from my youth when September rolls around.

So, I thought it was also time to start sharing some new Dozens tips and guidance here, so I thought I’d ask what you were most interested in hearing?

• Selecting an ETF
• Completing the Investment Suitability test
• The My Money summary
• Creating a personal IFTTT savings rule
• Updating your Budget in Track
• Printing a Statement
• Something else (share your suggestion below)

Do select your favourites and I will do what I can to put something together for the favourites, and if you feel you already know some of these, I look forward to hearing your own thoughts and experiences with each.

[gt94sss2]

I have always wanted to know how to use IFTTT (not just with Dozens) and I think the My Money summary screen is currently “hidden” in the app - I have found two ways to get there and one is certainly not user friendly/obvious

You may also want to concentrate on app features which are not going to be affected by the pending/planned app changes.

[robert]

Seems like IFTTT is popular - I’ll have a think

@gt94sss2 maybe you could suggest what kind of events you’d consider marking with a savings rule so I can see how to make it relevant to your situation

@gt94sss2

You may also want to concentrate on app features which are not going to be affected by the pending/planned app changes.

true - but then so much can change. I’m happy to see what we can do to explain the current app and we can always tweak the content if the screens change

The My Money screen will be brought more to prominence for example, but it is worth finding if only for the thoughts and discussion it might bring to light

If in doubt, click on your profile button (round person icon top left), and you can see the summary tab. Now click on ‘View details’ and you’re there!

[gt94sss2]

I have never used IFTTT so would need a dummies guide on how to use it but also what the benefits are in a financial context to get my head around why such savings rules are beneficial

[ColinR]

Looks like there already something set up for Dozens in IFTTT:

[Peter]

There are a whole bunch of rules already in the app:

I did have a quick check in IFTTT yesterday, but I don’t think that you can use Dozens to create your own applets (it’s not showing as a trigger or an action).

[ColinR]

Ah, I just looked in the IFTTT app on my iPhone. Forgot about those in the Dozens app.

[Peter]

I think this is actually a symptom of the complexity of the Dozens app.

I love the feature richness, but I imagine the take up of features like IFTTT is relatively low because the app could be more straightforward.

I’ve said it before, but I think the next iteration of the app would really benefit from streamlining. Keep the functions, but make them more discoverable and the app clearer and more accessible.

(I do wonder, though, whether we should expect app v2 alongside the move to ClearBank and Visa. Or would that be too neat? I wonder if @robert can manage our expectations?)

[daedal]

@Peter

I think this is actually a symptom of the complexity of the Dozens app.

I have to agree, it’s probably one of the hardest app’s I’ve come across to use. It’s just not logical to someone new. For example the main screen, how much you have, mine says £0, I don’t really use the account, but click on the arrow it says £1.25 saved, click on view more it says £601.25 so there is no simple way to see how much you have in Dozens, without having to break things down.

However it will be interesting to see if the new design makes it any easier.

I do like IFTTT so would use that when they bring in functions like direct debits and so on, I would use the account more.

[robert]

How exciting! I’ll definitely put something together for IFTTT now

@Peter

I did have a quick check in IFTTT yesterday, but I don’t think that you can use Dozens to create your own applets (it’s not showing as a trigger or an action).

just a quick note that it is available as an Action - but you need to make sure you’ve connected it via the IFTTT app itself for that to happen.

You don’t now need to have IFTTT to use the applets in the Dozens itself, but if you want to create your own, then you do.

More on this soon!

[Peter]

Not sure how I missed that. Thanks Robert!

Implementation feels a bit bare bones though:

You can only move money to savings, and then you can’t specify an amount, only pick from a limited drop down.

Nice to have, I suppose, but I can’t really see what I’d do with it.

[gt94sss2]

@robert

The My Money screen will be brought more to prominence for example, but it is worth finding if only for the thoughts and discussion it might bring to light

If in doubt, click on your profile button (round person icon top left), and you can see the summary tab. Now click on ‘View details’ and you’re there!

Yes, though the other and much less obvious place to find the My Money screen is to select the down arrow under your balance on the main screen and choose “View More”

As @Peter and @daedal attest the app could do with being simplified somewhat to make navigation and usability a bit easier

[Peter]

@robert

The My Money screen will be brought more to prominence for example, but it is worth finding if only for the thoughts and discussion it might bring to light

I really like the My Money screen, although it is a bit hidden.

That said, it doesn’t really work for me at the moment. Even with the best will in the world, I’ll never put everything through Dozens, so for the spend/save/invest journey to work for me, I’d really need to see investments I have elsewhere. I’m open to whether that’s manually added or (and?) through APIs, but I’m really keen to have a more wealth-focused fintech. But it needs to be one that helps me manage my finances outside of its ecosystem.

More generally, is ‘My Money’ (my emphasis) the right phrase? It feels right for spending and saving, but when your cash is tied up in illiquid investments (like crowdfunding!) it feels wrong. Especially if you find a neat way to also show debt (the missing part of my financial life). But this is very much future-facing musing…

[robert]

thanks Peter - we certainly are considering just those things for the longer term.

Our customers’ Financial Wellness goes beyond just spending, saving, and investing, so we will be looking to help bring this together in some way that is useful. It won’t all happen immediately, but there are definitely some things on the cards and the My Money summary will hopefully be playing a more prominent role

As for pulling in your crowdfunding investment data, that’s an interesting thought as well

[Gaoler]

@Peter

I’m open to whether that’s manually added or (and?) through APIs, but I’m really keen to have a more wealth-focused fintech

The lack of an API is the single reason I don’t use dozens very frequently.

Emma has slowly become my financial hub and it’s just easier to use providers who are connected…

[Peter]

Agreed (although I was talking about Dozens connecting to external APIs, not creating its own one in that example).

Fortunately, I think it’s being thought about:

Open Banking integrations - your thoughts

We’ve had a few comments on social media and via questions to customer service on this topic, so I thought it might be good to have a conversation about what your priorities might be for Open Banking developments with your account. Two kinds of Integrations Adding information to Dozens At this stage, Dozens itself is still developing and launching our own new app features, so we are not focused on bringing IN data from other accounts using Open Banking integrations. If we were to start doing t…

Actually, reading that, it seems that the API was ready and good to go in April. Hopefully we’ll get an update soon!

[gt94sss2]

@robert

You don’t now need to have IFTTT to use the applets in the Dozens itself, but if you want to create your own, then you do.

I still don’t know how to use IFTTT but given they will be charging users a $9.99 fee/month to use their own applets (after a low threshold), I can’t see many average customers justifying this.

[robert]

Sorry @gt94sss2 I have been trying to get more details on this since the poll.

We started out with IFTTT being very flexible, and I have written 90% of the post to answer this question, BUT …

IFTTT have now changed their business model, so everything will change!

In the past, you could create as many weird and wacky connections as you wanted for yourself, and share these with others. Businesses and individuals would just get creative - so Dozens could create our own and put them in the app, but you as a customer could then do something more personalised for yourself.

Now IFTTT have decided to bring more order to the chaos.

You now have to pay a monthly fee to have more than 3 ‘applets’. However, the options for the logic for these applets are much more powerful. If you are keen enough, then I guess it makes sense.

For most people, however, it will be too much to pay. SO … it is up to businesses like us to create a broader range of possible applets, and maybe create a way to ask for other ones to be set up.

Because of this, Dozens is going to have to completely rework and reprogramme our IFTTT integration - which we are looking forward to, BUT will have to wait until after the upcoming migration to our Visa cards and new system. This means that IFTTT rules may be unavailable from the end of the month for a few weeks or even a couple of months.

In the interim, I will see if we can work on a list of ideas of rules you’d like to have access to, and we will then see what we can build from them.