Overview
Business Advisor helps you understand your business numbers using the records already stored in Handoff.
Ask Handy questions about overdue invoices, job profitability, budgets, expenses, billing opportunities, proposals, and project schedules. Handy gives you a plain-language answer and, when useful, supporting records, charts, and suggested next steps.
Before You Start
Business Advisor is available on the Pro plan and above.
Business Advisor is currently available on desktop web. It is not yet available in the Handoff phone app.
Answers depend on your Handoff records. Missing or incomplete records can result in incomplete answers.
Handy respects your Handoff permissions. You will only see projects and financial information you already have access to.
What You Can Ask Handy
You can ask questions in your own words, including:
What needs my attention today?
Which invoices are overdue?
How profitable are my jobs?
Are any jobs over budget?
Which expenses need review?
Which milestones can I bill?
Which proposals need follow-up?
What’s at risk on my schedule?
Handy uses the information available in your Handoff account to answer your question.
Get Your First Answer
1. Open Home
Sign in to Handoff from your computer and open Home.
Use Handy’s prompt, How can I help you today?, to enter a question.
You can also use available shortcuts such as Daily brief and Insights to get started.
2. Check Your Daily Brief
Select Daily brief to see the most important items that may need your attention.
Your Daily brief can include:
Failed customer payments
Overdue invoices
Delayed or at-risk projects
Payment milestones that are ready to bill
Approved work that has not been invoiced
Expenses that need review
Proposals that are still awaiting a response
Each item explains what needs attention and identifies the related project or record.
If only a few items need attention, your brief may contain fewer results.
3. Browse Insights
Select Insights if you are not sure what to ask.
You can choose from common business questions about:
Overdue invoices
Job profitability
Project budgets
Expenses
Billing milestones
Proposal follow-up
Select an Insight to run the question against your Handoff data.
4. Review the Answer
Handy starts with the main conclusion and provides the numbers or records behind it.
When a visual comparison is useful, Handy may also include a chart or dashboard.
Simpler questions may only require a written answer.
5. Ask a Follow-Up Question
Continue the conversation by asking another question or selecting one of Handy’s suggested follow-ups.
Handy keeps the context of your conversation, including the project, record, or date range you were reviewing.
You can also open a related project, invoice, proposal, budget, or expense to review the source record.
6. Review the Suggested Next Step
Depending on your question, Handy can help you prepare for actions such as:
Reviewing a budget
Drafting a payment reminder
Preparing an invoice
Following up on a proposal
Actions that affect customers, accounting records, or other important business data require your review and approval.
How Handy Calculates Your Financials
Business Advisor uses the following definitions:
Approved budget = approved proposals + approved change orders
Billed = invoices that are sent, processing, or paid. Draft invoices are excluded.
Collected = paid invoice value + applied manual payments
Outstanding = billed amount that has not yet been collected
Approved unbilled = approved budget − billed amount. This value is never shown below zero.
Additional Notes
Ready to bill includes payment milestones triggered by a specific date or proposal approval.
Milestones triggered on completion are not included in Ready to bill.
Proposal follow-up identifies proposals that have gone at least three days without a response.
Schedule risk uses your current project schedule and your organization’s working days.
Business Advisor uses information stored in Handoff. It does not use your bank feed or QuickBooks as the source of financial truth.
Handy does not make up missing values. If information is unavailable, the answer may indicate that additional records are needed.
Get More Accurate Answers
For more complete Business Advisor results:
Confirm your project expenses and map them to the appropriate budget.
Send proposals through Handoff so their status can be tracked.
Use payment schedules on estimates to keep billing milestones accurate.
Keep project schedules up to date.
Link invoices to the appropriate projects.
Troubleshooting
A Project Is Missing From an Answer
Make sure you have access to the project and that its relevant records are available in Handoff.
If your question covers many projects or records, try asking a more specific question about the project you want to review.
Financial Information Looks Incomplete
Check that the relevant proposals, invoices, expenses, payments, and project records are entered and linked correctly in Handoff.
Handy can only use information that is available in your account.
A Billing Milestone Is Missing
Check how the milestone is triggered.
Ready-to-bill results include milestones triggered by a specific date or proposal approval. Milestones triggered on completion are not included.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to set anything up?
No. Business Advisor uses the records already in your Handoff account. There is no separate import or configuration step.
Is Business Advisor available on my phone?
Not yet. Business Advisor is currently available on desktop web.
Which plan do I need?
Business Advisor is available on the Pro plan and above.
Where do the numbers come from?
Business Advisor uses your Handoff records, including projects, expenses, proposals, invoices, payments, payment schedules, and project schedules.
It does not use your bank feed or QuickBooks as the source of financial truth.
Can Handy send an invoice or email my client?
Handy can help prepare the work, but actions that affect customers or accounting records require your review and approval.
Why does my Daily brief only show a few items?
Daily brief only shows items that currently need your attention. If there are fewer relevant items, Handy will show a shorter brief.
Why is a project missing from an answer?
You can only see records you have permission to access, and Handy can only use information recorded in Handoff.
Try asking a more specific question about the project if you need additional detail.
Can I save a dashboard or create custom cards?
Saved dashboards, custom cards, alerts, and forecasting are not currently available.
Will Handy remember what I was looking at?
Yes. Within your current conversation, you can ask follow-up questions without repeating the project, record, or date range you were reviewing.
Contact Support
If you need additional help with Business Advisor, contact [email protected].