New Brixx Trial, free features and more speed increases

Hi everyone! We’ve stepped up the pace this spring and have another release out already.

This one includes further speed optimisations, introduces a free trial period for new users, and changes around some of the features available in the free version of Brixx.

---

Report speed increase (part 1…)

In our update earlier this month we released a new version of the Brixx app which greatly increased the speed of plan building actions. Adding components, moving them, opening them to edit data, saving and making changes on the Timeline became noticeably faster.

Next, we are tackling report loading speed, which has long been a sore point with very large plans. The larger a Brixx plan was, the more slowly it calculated financial reports. This was particularly evident when loading a Monthly 5-year long report in a max-size plan. We are taking steps to dramatically reduce report load times – and the first of these steps was released last week. Based on our tests we estimate that there should be a 20-30% decrease in load times. The exact amount depends on the structure of the plan.

As you’ll have guessed from the “part 1….” above this is just the first stage in our report speed improvements. Our next update, planned for May, will include another speed boost, as well as improvements to the Asset, Loan, Investment and Employee components.

---

14 day free trial for new users

The other major part of this release is a new 14 day trial for new signups. We really want to get people to see the benefits of Brixx early on, and part of the strength of the software is handling financial plans over several years – something which is limited in the free version. We don’t want anybody to rule themselves out of using Brixx because it doesn’t deliver what they’re after – and so a free trial of the subscription version was a natural step in this direction. For a limited time (until 7th May!) existing free users have also been put onto the trial to get a taste of what you can do with longer plan timelines, more plans and more items per plan.

Related to this, we have also made some changes in the features available to free users…

---

Feature changes for free accounts

We’ve moved some features between the paid subscription version and the free version.

Now available for the free version:

•     Inventory component
•     Equity component
•     Investment component
•     Opening balance
•     Adjust financial year end

Now paid only:

•     Financial reports

We strongly want people to be able to test their business ideas – and to be able to do this for free. Previously several components were paid only features. This meant that if your business relied heavily on investing, or managed inventory, then the key components for building the ideal plan of your business in Brixx were not available to you. Likewise, there was no way to add funds to the business with the Equity component and Opening Balance tab. These features have now been added to the free version, where previously they were subscription only.

We’ve moved financial reports to be a subscription only feature. Now, this is not something we do lightly. The free version is a great tool for checking if a business idea is feasible, producing a dashboard with a highly interrogable cash flow chart and other performance charts showing the business’ cost and asset breakdowns, loan payments and breakeven point. We intend the Brixx subscription to be for anyone who is actually planning out a business, testing scenarios and making long-term plans in great detail, and so will require detailed financial reports (Financial Summary, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss).

That’s the last of the features we’re changing around for some time! But we still have lots more to add, to both the free and subscription versions of Brixx.

Stay tuned next month for our component update and further speed optimisations!