Nov 11

Written by: Matt Abar
11/11/2009 10:55 AM

At Techfi we were overwhelmed with feature requests. It seemed like every client who bought the software wanted to do something different. Eventually we found the common thread running through the requests--90% of them centered around client reporting. We took a step back and realized that instead of approaching requests one-by-one, we need to make a bigger change that would accommodate them all at once. We needed a much more flexible custom report capability.

We spent the better part of a year rewriting the report engine. Unfortunately this was when Techfi was growing crazy-fast and we were focusing on several other major tasks at the same time. The report rewrite was only partially successful and is one Techfi episode where Mike and I often groan over the missed opportunity.

The experience made a lasting impression on me. For many advisors, client reports are the only reason they use portfolio management systems and most successful PMS software packages have a powerful reporting capability. Almost every feature request can be answered with "you can write a custom report that does it." I'm convinced that a flexible, modular reporting system is the key to success and this time I think we got it right.

This is the first of several posts I'll be doing about FinFolio client reports. We've had reporting in the software since the first alphas, but I've been waiting until we were closer to our final release until putting it on the blog. I'm glad I waited because we've gone through several internal rewrites since the first version, and with each rewrite, the engine has become more and more flexible. I'm extremely happy with the end result.

 

Beta Update - We're a few weeks away from Beta 2, which will be almost feature-complete. This will be our last big beta before a formal release candidate. We're still shooting for a year-end release but it's feeling more like January right now.

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