🎤 Lecture Information

• Lecture Topic: Engager’s Upcoming Xenon Integration, Email Linking, Workflows, and Q&A on Jobs, Checklists, Time Logs, and Payroll Setup
• Lecturer: Johan (Engage/Engager host)
• Date & Time: 2025-08-28, 10:19 (Duration: 3816 seconds)
• Location: Engage Alive (online session)

📋 Overview of the Lecture

The lecturer introduced an upcoming product release focused on a new Xenon integration, targeting a rollout Monday night for Tuesday morning access. He emphasized interactive Q&A and demonstrated how the integration enhances pricing, prioritization, and job management within Engager.

The session’s purpose was to showcase the capabilities of the Xenon Connect integration (API-based live KPIs), improvements in client email linking, customizable job card metrics, and to address best practices for integrations, jobs, checklists, time logging, and payroll setup.

📚 Key Content

Topic One: Xenon Integration (Xenon Connect)

• Connection Setup:
  • Access via Settings > Integrations > Xenon Connect.
  • Enter Xenon API key (found in Xenon: Settings > API).
  • Map/link each Engager client to the correct Xenon record (manual linking).
  • Save to authorize and enable sync.
• Data Availability and Sync Cadence:
  • Engager pulls all metrics exposed by Xenon’s API (financial health score, turnover, number of transactions, issues, etc.).
  • Xenon refreshes every ~2–3 hours; Engager resyncs with Xenon every 4 hours.
  • Expect up to ~4 hours lag for newly posted data (e.g., a £100,000 invoice).
• Service-Level KPIs on Job Cards:
  • Settings > Services: choose which Xenon metrics appear per service (e.g., Financial Health Score for previous financial year for Year-End Accounts, “Total issues in previous month” for Bookkeeping).
  • Card Layout: add “Xenon data” to job cards and position specific metrics (e.g., Bookkeeping Health Score).
• Client-Level Overrides:
  • Client > Service Data: override the default metric/time period for a specific client (e.g., switch from “previous financial year” to “current month” or “previous quarter”).
• Custom Fields with Live Xenon Data:
  • Settings > Client Data > Custom Fields: enable Xenon data feed into fields (e.g., Annual Revenue = Turnover (rolling 12 months); Number of Transactions = last 12 months).
• Sorting and Prioritization:
  • Rank and filter jobs by Xenon Health Score (set priority vs deadline vs health score order).
• Launch Timing and Access:
  • Target release Monday night next week; visible Tuesday morning in Integrations.
  • Xenon is billed separately; integration adds functionality but doesn’t remove any existing Engager features if not used.

Examples:

• “Maybe we want to focus on the financial health score for the previous financial year.” — Demonstrating per-service KPI selection.
• “Now I’ve got 165 issues because I’m now looking at the quarter instead of the month.” — Client-specific metric override in action.

Summary: The Xenon integration centralizes live financial KPIs in Engager to inform pricing, prioritization, and service delivery. It supports granular control per service and per client and provides flexible job board sorting by health score.

Topic Two: Email Linking and Communications

• Auto-Linking:
  • If client email addresses are saved in Engager and auto-linking is enabled, incoming emails auto-link to the client record.
  • Emails list indicates link status:
    • Linked: shows client link badge (e.g., “1”).
    • Not linked: grey circle with “0”.
• Manual Linking:
  • From an email, choose Client links > Link to Client, select the client, and confirm.
  • Option to link older messages in the thread and auto-link future thread messages.
• Scope:
  • Linking is forward-looking: adding a new client email address will link emails from that point forward; prior emails must be linked manually.

Examples:

• “Do I want to link all the older messages in this chain and link newer messages? Yes.” — Manual linking flow.

Summary: Engager streamlines communications by auto-linking emails where possible, with clear visual indicators and an efficient manual linking flow for exceptions (advisors, HMRC, etc.).

Topic Three: Best Practices for Integrations (Xero, Adfin) and Invoicing

• Suggested Onboarding Order:
  1. Create the client.
  2. Link to Xero.
  3. Link to Adfin.
  4. Save.
  5. Send Letter of Engagement (client can sign DD mandate).
  6. Raise one-off invoices in Engager (no repeating invoices).
• Xero Sync Behavior:
  • Engager can create a new Xero client and raise invoices directly upon fee creation.

Summary: Link accounting tools first, then execute engagement and billing steps. Engager supports one-off invoices and seamless Xero client/invoice creation.

Topic Four: Jobs, Tasks, Checklists, and Audit Trail

• Jobs vs Tasks:
  • Services/Jobs: predictable, recurring work (VAT, Payroll, Year-End).
  • Tasks: ad hoc or to-dos (call-backs, permissions, one-off admin), can be recurring (e.g., daily reminders).
• Completed Items Visibility:
  • Jobs Board “Completed” shows completed tasks (ad hoc), not services/jobs.
  • Completed jobs are visible on the client’s page under the relevant service (with start/completed/statutory deadline).
• Reverting a Completed Job:
  • Client > Service Detail: change the due date (e.g., move “next due date” back) to reopen the job.
• Audit Trail:
  • Logs who changed dates, internal deadlines, and when a job was completed or updated (with timestamps).
• Checklists Versioning:
  • Changes to a checklist apply starting with the next job occurrence to preserve audit integrity.
  • Cannot retroactively apply new checklists to old jobs.
  • For jobs lacking checklists now, create new checklists and let them take effect next cycle.

Examples:

• “It shows that TB moved the next due date… and got rid of the internal deadline.” — Audit trail entry.
• “The new checklist that you create will occur on the next occurrence of the job.” — Checklist versioning policy.

Summary: Engager maintains strong audit controls: completed services appear per client, jobs can be reopened by date changes, and checklist changes are forward-looking to prevent data corruption.

Topic Five: Time Logs, Budgets, and Profitability Analysis

• Setting Budgets:
  • Global: Settings > Services > per phase set budgeted time.
  • Client-specific: Client > Service Detail > Show Details > switch to Custom budgets.
• Tracking and Reporting:
  • Time Logs view lists all logs.
  • Reports > Jobs completed in a given period:
    • Filter by date range, service, on-time status (internal/statutory), staff.
    • Analysis mode: compare Budgeted vs Actual time, with phase-level overrun details.
    • Export to CSV.
• Cost and Charge Rates:
  • Settings > System Users: set “cost to practice per hour” and “charge-out rate per hour.”
  • Profitability Report:
    • Shows service fee, cost of time, hypothetical charge-out, and profit by cost or charge-out.
• Capacity Planning:
  • Not currently supported; on ideas list, not planned for this year/early next year.
• Budget Changes Propagation:
  • If a client’s service is set to Default, global budget changes update it.
  • If set to Custom, global changes won’t overwrite client-specific budgets.

Examples:

• “We had one hour, we spent two hours on it… over by an hour.” — Variance example.
• “Profitability analysis… cost of the time spent… profit either by cost of time or charge out.” — Report outputs.

Summary: Engager enables detailed retrospective analysis of time and profitability to inform pricing and budget adjustments. Client-specific overrides offer precise control.

Topic Six: Payroll Setup (Variable and Mixed Frequencies)

• Pricing Structure:
  • Use dropdown brackets (e.g., 1, 2–5, 6–10 employees) to avoid constant fee changes with staff fluctuations.
  • Configure in Settings > Custom Fields (e.g., “Number of employees” as ranges).
• Frequency Configuration:
  • In Services, set payroll frequency via custom days (e.g., 7 = weekly, 28 = four-weekly, monthly default).
  • For clients with multiple payrolls (e.g., monthly management + weekly site staff), add a second service (e.g., “Payroll High Frequency”).

Summary: Bracketed pricing reduces friction with changing headcount, and custom day intervals handle weekly/four-weekly payrolls; multiple payroll services support mixed cadence scenarios.

Topic Seven: Roadmap and Upcoming Enhancements

• Xenon Integration:
  • In testing; release targeted for Monday night (ready Tuesday morning).
• Data Model Updates:
  • Companies House: pull all up to four SIC codes (vs current first-only).
    • Expect an influx of review prompts on first sync; confirm in Companies House updates screen.
  • Middle name field and handling multiple addresses.
• Proposals:
  • New proposal document (designed like Letters of Engagement).
  • Log of all Letters of Engagement per client with:
    • Generated date, sent date, opened (if privacy permits), last opened, signed date.
  • Tracking applies from go-live onward (no retrospective telemetry).
• UI/UX:
  • New client linking layout (Companies House, bookkeeping, payment processing, AML, insights).
  • Exit warnings to save/confirm before leaving pages (already live).

Summary: Near-term updates include richer Companies House data, name/address flexibility, and robust proposal and engagement tracking, plus UX refinements.

📒 Key Takeaway

• Xenon integration brings live, API-driven financial and operational KPIs into Engager, enabling smarter pricing, prioritization, and service oversight with per-service and per-client flexibility.
• Email linking enhances client record completeness with auto-linking and streamlined manual linking.
• Engager enforces audit integrity through forward-looking checklist updates and comprehensive audit trails.
• Time budgeting and profitability analysis provide clear insights to adjust fees and resource allocation.
• Practical payroll setups leverage bracketed pricing and custom frequencies to handle variable headcounts and mixed cadences.

🔄 Q&A/Discussion

Question 1: Will Xenon auto-link existing clients and import data immediately? Answer 1: You must manually link each Engager client to the correct Xenon record. Once linked, data pulls in immediately, subject to Xenon’s 2–3 hour refresh and Engager’s 4-hour resync.

Question 2: Are all Xenon metrics available, and does it differ by Xero/QuickBooks? Answer 2: Engager exposes all metrics that Xenon’s API provides. Availability by accounting platform depends on Xenon; Engager consumes whatever Xenon offers.

Question 3: Can I sort jobs by health score and customize displayed metrics? Answer 3: Yes. Sort job boards by Xenon Health Score and choose per-service metrics on job cards. You can also override metric/time periods per client.

Question 4: How do email auto-linking and manual linking work? Answer 4: If client emails exist in Engager, incoming emails auto-link and show a link badge. Otherwise, manually link emails to clients and optionally bind entire threads (past and future).

Question 5: Best practice for linking Xero/Adfin and sending invoices? Answer 5: Create client, link to Xero then Adfin, save, send LOE (with DD mandate), and raise one-off invoices. Engager can create the Xero client and invoice.

Question 6: Where can I see completed jobs? Answer 6: Completed tasks appear in Jobs > Completed. Completed services/jobs are listed per client under the relevant service section.

Question 7: Can I revert a mistakenly completed job and see who did it? Answer 7: Yes. Adjust the next due date under Service Detail to reopen. The audit trail logs who changed dates and when completion occurred.

Question 8: Why don’t checklist changes affect current jobs, and can I update old jobs? Answer 8: To protect audit integrity, checklist changes apply from the next occurrence. You cannot retroactively apply a new checklist to old or in-progress jobs.

Question 9: Can I forecast capacity with time logs? Answer 9: Time logs are retrospective; capacity planning isn’t available yet. Use budget vs actual and profitability analysis to inform adjustments.

Question 10: How do I set up variable payroll and mixed frequencies? Answer 10: Use dropdown brackets for employee counts to stabilize pricing. Set custom-frequency days (e.g., 7 or 28). For multiple payrolls, add a second service (e.g., high frequency).

Question 11: How do I know if team members completed client data reviews (Xero/Zama)? Answer 11: Use notifications for data edits; clicking a notification and seeing no approval popup indicates someone already actioned it. No audit log for that specific review flow.

Question 12: Will proposals tracking be retrospective? Answer 12: No. Opened/last opened/sent/signed tracking starts from go-live, as prior events weren’t captured.

💡 Suggestions

• Define per-service Xenon KPIs and use client-level overrides for differing cadences (weekly vs monthly vs quarterly).
• Enable auto-linking for emails and routinely verify client email details to maximize auto linkage.
• Maintain bracketed payroll pricing to avoid frequent fee renegotiations with headcount changes.
• Regularly review time log variance and profitability reports; adjust budgets or fees for persistent overruns.
• Prepare for additional Companies House SIC code confirmations when that feature launches.