Posts Tagged ‘online money management’


christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

2 Comments

In the latest release deployed this morning, we’ve focused on improving the user interface – making  a few changes here and there that will make getting around heaps! a little easier.

Here’s what you’ll find:

Skip Set up wizard link

For new users (and for those who use the Restart set up wizard function), you can opt to skip the wizard by clicking the link at the bottom.  heaps! will remind you to set up your accounts at a later time if you haven’t already done so.

Subcategory Column

Instead of seeing just Home, Food, Fun, Travel, and Other in the ‘Category’ column on your Home and Spending pages, heaps! now displays the subcategory.  This makes your categorising a bit easier because you can decide at a glance if you need to do any re-categorising.

To the spending page…

As always, the blue pencil is there for you to click if you want to edit a category.  This is now separated from the subcategory name.  Clicking on the subcategory will now take you to the spending page so that you can see a breakdown of your expenditures from that subcategory.

“Only Change This Transactions” is the Default

Many of you wrote in wanting this, and here it is.  Instead of “Change all transactions like this” being the default for categorising, we’ve left the box unticked.  This way, if you accidentally forget to look at the box, all your hard work in sorting out which BP transactions were ‘Petrol’ and which were ‘Snacks’ won’t be lost.  Instead, just that one transaction will be affected and you can go back and tick the box if that’s what you had intended.


alicia@heaps.co.nz

By Alicia

4 Comments

How can you make it easier to understand your finances? By adding structure and getting organised! When it comes to understanding your spending, for some, a general overview is good, and for others, the more detail the better. You’ll notice the next time you log into heaps! that we have implemented a new look to the categories’ interface. We’ve added new style and effects so that when you categorise a transaction, you no will no longer have to scroll down and find your place again.

Also regarding transactions, there are new abilities for marking transactions as regular. When you categorise a transaction you will be able to mark an income transaction as being regular, and you when you mark any transaction as regular you will be able to enter a custom amount of how much you expect it to be each time. If you would like to allocate money towards your goal you can now do that on this page. Just click “I spent it on a goal” when you are categorising a transaction and heaps! will allocate this money for you. Too easy! Log in now to check out the new changes!


Bobby

By Bobby

Add a comment

The team here at heaps! has been working hard to improve things for everyone and our latest upgrade is going to be implemented Tuesday night, so unfortunately you won’t be able to access heaps! from 10pm. You can look forward to the following new features once the site is back up and running at around 8am on Wednesday morning:

New look interface during categorisation You’ll see new style and effects when you go to categorise a transaction, and it will appear under the transaction so that after you save, you won’t have to scroll down and find your place again.

New abilities for marking transactions as regular When you categorise a transaction you will be able to mark an income transaction as being regular, and you when you mark any transaction as regular you will be able to enter a custom amount of how much you expect it to be each time.

Goal templates With our new templates you’ll be able to choose a goal such as “Buy a car” or “Get out of debt” with the name, description and tasks already filled out for you.

Add a new goal from categorisation If you click on “I spent it on a goal” when you’re categorising a transaction you’ll be able to add a new goal without going on to the goals page first.

Goals progress display Your goals graphs will constantly update to show how much you’ve saved and spent on your goal.

Easier editing of goals You’ll be able to edit your goals easier and faster, mark a goal as spend or investment, and see your goal picture instantly after uploading.

We’re also releasing fixes for some bugs that we’ve found throughout the site, so heaps! will be running smoother than ever. These include mending the goal calculator, fixing up the way that categorisation remembers bill payments and income, stopping the budget start date from wandering for those of you who budget fortnightly, making the graph and figures on the homepage consistent, resetting sub categories when you go back to “All Spending” on the spending page and fixing a couple of bugs in our welcome wizard.

So bear with us on Tuesday night while heaps! is down during our upgrade, then log in on Wednesday and check out the new improvements!


christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

Add a comment

Was achieving your goal in heaps! but not being able to ‘complete’ it, a bit of an anti-climax?  Well, get your party hat on because now you can!  When you’ve reached your goal, heaps! will display a message on your home page to let you know it’s time to celebrate.

heaps! will also display your completed goals at the bottom of your goals page so you can feel a warm sense of pride every time you check it. Then if you find that you haven’t saved as much as you thought you had or that your goal actually costs more than originally planned, you can reactivate a completed goal by clicking on reactivate and decreasing the amount saved or increasing your goal target. You can also allocate or deduct money from an active goal anytime you like.

We’ve also done some background maintenance so that your heaps! runs more smoothly.  We know that you’re all quite eager to see some of the bigger, more exciting changes, and rest assured, they’re on their way.


christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

Add a comment

TUANZ Innovation Awards

Kiwibank has been announced as a finalist in, not one, but…three categories for the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) Innovation Awards!  AND every single one of these awards is for their part in bringing heaps! to their customers.

TUANZ is a not-for-profit membership association that has led the charge to improve competition for telecommunications services in NZ.  Their vision is for a New Zealand with a world-class communications system, with all Kiwis enjoying affordable, readily available connectivity.  This prestigious annual awards ceremony recognises outstanding innovation within the telecommunications arena in New Zealand.

Kiwibank is a finalist in 3 categories:

TUANZ Awards - Initiative

TUANZ Initiative of the Year Award Finalists (Pictured: Richard Westlake on behalf of Kiwibank, Michael Foley - Voco (sponsor) and Maxine Elliott - Vector Communications)

TUANZ Education Award (sponsored by Aurecon): For the most innovative education or training product, service or initiative developed in New Zealand, and delivered electronically to New Zealanders, which contributes to general education (applicable to whole life learning, e.g business, community, primary, secondary, tertiary, etc).

TUANZ Initiative of the Year (sponsored by Voco): For a product, service or application facilitated or enabled by the innovative use of technology in New Zealand, or by a New Zealand company overseas.

TUANZ Commerce Award (TUANZ’s own): For the most innovative financial product, service or initiative developed in New Zealand, and delivered electronically to New Zealanders, which enhances the customer’s experience.

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday, 2 September at the Langham Hotel in Auckland.  Congratulations to Kiwibank, and thank you for being such a supportive partner!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

2 Comments

heaps! categorises a percentage of your transactions automatically, which saves you time. We’re giving you, the heaps! community, the power to decide which category a business belongs in.

The Categorisation Engine

Previously the heaps! team sat in front of long lists of business names and decided which category each of your transactions should be assigned to.  But now, if a business is not currently in our system, it will automatically be assigned the category that a majority of the first customers to categorise it have selected for that business.

For this example, lets say that ‘McDonalds’, as a business, is new to heaps!.  If the first few heaps! customers choose to categorise their McDonalds transactions, as ‘Takeaways’ and the next few select ‘Snacks’ instead, then no automatic categorisation would be applied. It needs a certain number of customers to select the same categorisation for the automation to take place.

How This Helps You

With this new categorisation system, it means that more of your transactional spending will be automatically categorised and categorised to how the majority of heaps! customers would want it. As always, though, you can manually change your transaction category, if it isn’t right for you.

Tags: , , , ,

Arthur

By Arthur

Add a comment

Lights, camera, action!

Just last weekend we met up with three of our heaps! users who wanted to share their heaps! experience with us, they enlightened us with their stories and their tips on budgeting and saving – stay tuned for their video.

This meeting came as a result of how here at the heaps! HQ, we love getting out there and meeting our users face to face, chatting about real financial issues and seeking answers to these problems. We have started a series of video which collects your opinions and stories of your heaps! experience so far and we would like to see more and hear about how you’re using heaps! to get more out of life!

But how does this work?

The process is simple…

We work around your timeWe work around you
We understand the time constraints of daily life so we work around you. You decide where and when, and we will work around your hours and cater to your needs.

Friendly shooting environmentFriendly shooting environment
There is no pressure to perform, we just want to have a chat and let you share your story. We operate a very small video production crew with no compromise to quality, and most importantly our crew are really friendly and will guide you through the production process.

Push online
Off to the cutting room. Our editors will cut up a video which shares your story. Once complete, we will review it with you so you can make changes you are not happy with. Once you are happy and have signed off, we will share your story to other heaps! users to inspire them to get more out of life.

Check below to see other users who have shared their story…

Fraser Kennedy

If you are interested to share your story, please contact us on yourstory@heaps.co.nz with the subject line “Your Story”

We look forward to hearing from you!

Tags: , , , , ,

christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

2 Comments

We’ve made it easier for you to manage all your finances in one place! Not everyone banks exclusively with Kiwibank, and with the new heaps!, you can now import data files from other banks. heaps! will support files from ANZ, BNZ, ASB, Westpac, and National Bank.

When you upload your data, heaps! recognises your transactions and allows you to categorise and budget for them as you would your Kiwibank transactions. You can include these external accounts in any of your existing account groups or even create a new group just for them.

With all your finances in one place, budgeting has never been easier!

Have a look at the new Accounts page:

Tags: , , , ,

christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

Add a comment

The Budget Page has undergone a facelift, and you will find that it will be easier to keep on top of your finances.

heaps! users can now change the name and frequency of a budget item or delete it altogether. As many of you have requested, you can also control whether an expense is necessary or optional – You do this by clicking on the icons, necessary is the number ‘1’ icon and optional is the number ‘2’ icon.

The last 5 transactions can be viewed on the budget page, by clicking the down arrow on the budget line, making it easy to see which spends are being included.

Take a look:

Tags: , , , ,

christina@heaps.co.nz

By Christina

Add a comment

We’re excited to announce the launch of an upgraded heaps!.  This new version builds on the tracking abilities of the heaps! you’re used to and incorporates suggestions and improvements proposed by customers like you.  It’s never been easier to get heaps! more out of life!

Here are a few things you can look forward to the next time you log into heaps!:

Importing Data from Other Banks

We realise that not everyone banks exclusively with Kiwibank, so we have incorporated a feature that allows customers to upload data files from other banks.

heaps budgetImproved Budgeting

Thanks to many of your suggestions, we’ve redesigned the Budget page and incorporated some features that make it easier for you to keep track of your money.

facebook fan icon heapsSpread the Word

We now have over 15,000 people using heaps!.  We’re always keen to hear your comments, so keep those ideas coming! Become a fan on our Facebook page and tell us what you think.

Tags: , , , ,