As we’ve seen so far, we have different ways telling an user if there’s something wrong and/or an extra action from the user needs to be done through:
-
indicators, as seen here:
CASE: indicate template if reconciled or not -
info- and warningtags, as seen here:
CASE: use infotext and warningtext tags
and here:
and here:
This topic has as goal to show some practical use cases, but keep in mind the approach what to use and when to use, is mere personal and dependant from your own workflows you have on firm level.
Obviously, correct use of these functionalities can greatly improve the way we work in Silverfin, and the internal workflows can only benefit from these.
When to use a big info-tag header?
This could be used if you need to inform your user for certain things (purely informative), but that can impact actions within the template based on that information. Of course, the triggers can be coded automatically (and should be done too) but users perhaps want to know which triggers are used automatically.
A large info tag might do just that.
Code sample:
{% ic %}
{::infotext}
Number of shareholders: {{ period.shareholders.count }}
Number of directors: {{ period.directors.count }}
Date general meeting: {{ period.custom.av.datum }}
{:/infotext}
{% endic %}
Other examples:
- guidelines for users to explain how the template works
- visualise links to other templates (linkto-tags)
When to use a big warning-tag header?
A warningtag instead of a infotag jumps more in the eye, and it indicates something more important. For instance when Loss of registered capital below the threshold is activated; you can display the triggers in there that activa this procedure.
Code sample:
{% ic %}
{::warningtext}
Nett assets are = {{ netto_actief | currency }}
Capital value is = {{ maatschappelijk_kapitaal }}
Formula = Nett assets <= capital value / 2
{{ netto_actief | currency }} <= {{ maatschappelijk_kapitaal/2 | currency }}
{:/warningtext}
{% endic %}
Other examples:
- push for an action that cannot be automatically triggered in Silverfin
- show if another template or another value within the template is missing
When to use a warningtag as hover?
Of course, you could make the argument here a warningtag as a hover is more in its place:
This could be used if you want to avoid too many red or other information; the goal is to make the templates as user-friendly as possible, so it depends on the case and flow of your templates of course.
Code sample:
{% ic %}
{::warningtext as="hover"}
Nett assets are = {{ netto_actief | currency }}
Capital value is = {{ maatschappelijk_kapitaal }}
Formula = Nett assets <= capital value / 2
{{ netto_actief | currency }} <= {{ maatschappelijk_kapitaal/2 | currency }}
{:/warningtext}
{% endic %}
Other examples:
- warnings that should be read only once and are not important enough to be seen every time
When to use an infotag as hover?
The same goes for an infotag as hover, and this can be used quite a lot to inform an user on a specific action or any other additional info:
Code sample:
{% ic %}
{::infotext as="hover"}
Give more information about how the result can to be, and if there were any special situations that impacted this result
{:/infotext}
{% endic %}
{% input custom.extra.info as:text size:mini %}
Other examples:
- guidelines for one individual part of the template
When to use indicators?
This is discussed here:
We recommend using this always when an input object (database variable) has to be inputted, or if an input object (or local variable) has to have a certain value (input).
Example:
When some value is selected:
Code sample:
{% if custom.type.company != blank %}
{% assign ind = 0 %}
{% else %}
{% assign ind = 1 %}
{% endif %}
{% input custom.type.company as:select options:"Wood|Metal|Software|Services" %} {% unreconciled ind as:indicator %}
Other examples:
- if a calculated value doesn’t match with something else
- if a check needs to be marked (to push the template as fully reviewed f.i.)
A question I hear sometimes: shouldn’t a warning-tag also have an influence on the progress of the working papers? In other words, shouldn’t it act as an indicator?
This depends from case to case, but it can be easily made.
example: we have a set of templates, where each template can’t be fully reconciled without the other. In this situation we could forsee a warningtag that will be shown if another template is not present in the working papers. So our working papers cannot be fully reconciled if one template is missing.
When the other template is missing, we’ll forsee an indicator (in the background) for that big warning; obviously, we’ll not show an extra red triangle or green dot (as:indicator) because that would be too much.
Code sample:
{% assign general_settings = period.reconciliations.general_settings %}
{% if general_settings != blank %}
{% assign ind = 0 %}
{% else %}
{% assign ind = 1 %}
{% ic %}
{::warningtext}
{% t "General settings is missing from the working papers and is need for this template to be reconciled - please add the template" %}
{:/warningtext}
{% endic %}
{% endif %}
{% unreconciled ind %}
This is something that not can be taught really or that we can give straight guidelines, but we hope this topic gives enough examples on how we handle these great functionalities within the Silverfin core.
If you have any of your own, don’t hesitate to share in here 