Ask your business anything.
Get a report back.

One place for questions, reports and dashboards.

Until now, HiveSuite had a question box (HiveIntel) and a separate Report Builder. An answer was a table you looked at once, and building a report you could keep was a different job. The new HiveIntel brings them together into one area with three tabs:

Ask

Type a question in plain English, or tap a starter question. The answer opens as a full report.

Reports

Your reports, reports shared with you, saved answers, starter reports and everything set up to be emailed, all in one place.

Dashboards

Your most important reports side by side, for you or the whole office.

The short version: ask a question, get a report, keep it. Everything else in this article is about making that report right, making it obvious, and getting it in front of the right people.

Every answer is a report.

Type a question the way you would ask a colleague, such as "who owes us money?" or "jobs completed last month by crew member". HiveIntel works out which records you mean, which dates "last month" or "this financial year" cover, and what to total or group by.

The answer opens as a report with four parts:

• A one-line summary with the key figure first, such as "4 customers owe you £2,220 in total".
• A chart, picked to suit the answer, which you can switch.
• The figures in a table you can sort.
• One thing worth knowing and a suggested next step, such as which customer to chase first.

If you already have a saved report that shows the same thing, HiveIntel tells you, so you don't end up with five copies of the same overdue list.

Never take an answer on trust.

AI reporting is only useful if you can see what it did. Every answer shows How HiveIntel read this: the records it looked at, the dates, whether it counted everyone's work or just yours, the filters, and what it totalled.

Each part can be changed with a tap. If you asked about "last month" but meant the last 30 days, change the date. If you wanted only your own jobs, switch from Everyone's to Just mine. The report updates straight away, and the written summary is marked out of date until you ask again, so it never describes figures it didn't see.

Questions outside HiveIntel's report areas get a read-only quick answer instead. Quick answers can be saved, but can't be highlighted or changed in the Report Builder.

Follow-ups, not rebuilds.

The first answer is rarely the last one. Ask a follow-up and HiveIntel changes the same report rather than starting again:

• "Only unpaid ones."
• "Split by customer."
• "Who's assigned to these?" adds the crew column.

Prefer to do it yourself? Open Change this report on a computer or tablet to pick fields, filters, grouping and chart type in the HiveIntel Report Builder, with the result updating beside you.

See what needs attention at a glance.

A list of 40 invoices is only useful if the problems stand out. Highlights colour a cell or a whole row when a value meets a rule you choose: overdue invoices in red, jobs over £1,000 in bold, low stock in amber.

Add up to five rules per report in the report settings, or simply ask: "highlight overdue ones in red".

Highlights show everywhere the report goes: on screen, on phones, in PDF and Excel downloads, and in emailed reports. So the overdue list that lands every Monday arrives with the problems already marked.

CSV files have no colours, so Highlights don't appear in CSV downloads.

Your key figures, side by side.

Dashboards have been rebuilt. Pin any saved report as a tile and choose how it shows: a chart, a big number with the change on the last period, or a table. Add headings and notes to explain what each part is for.

Arrange

Drag and resize tiles in Edit mode on a computer or tablet.

Period

Pick a period for the whole dashboard, or a different one for each tile.

Refresh

Refresh whenever you like, or automatically every 15 minutes for an office screen.

Share

Share a dashboard with everyone or with chosen people. Each person only sees the figures they are allowed to see.

A simple starting point for most businesses: money owed, finished jobs not invoiced, quotes waiting for a reply and jobs booked this week. Four tiles, and you know where you stand every morning.

Build it once, use it every week.

Any answer can be kept. From the report you can:

• Save it to your Reports list, and open it again any time with today's figures.
• Share it with your team.
• Download it as CSV, Excel or PDF, named after the report and the day, ready for your accountant or a director.
• Pin it to a dashboard.
• Have it emailed daily, weekly or monthly.

Emailed reports work out periods like "last month" or "last quarter" on the day they are sent, so a report set up in October is still right in March. The Emailed list under Reports shows everything going out, and lets you pause, restart or stop each one.

Opening, refreshing and emailing saved reports never uses your daily question allowance.

Answers from the van.

HiveIntel has its own phone layout. Ask a question, open your reports and dashboards, switch the period or "Just mine" with a tap, and ask follow-ups, all on a phone screen. You can also save, share and download from your phone.

Picking individual fields and arranging dashboard tiles needs more room, so those are done on a computer or tablet.

Nothing to import, nothing to set up.

HiveIntel uses the data already in HiveSuite, so your reports are always current. These are the areas it builds full reports from:

Jobs deleted in HivePlanner never appear in any answer, report, dashboard or emailed report. Credit notes and job invoices from the 16 October release are included.

Questions to try on day one.

HiveIntel comes with ready-made starter questions, so you get a useful answer the first time you open it. You only see the ones that fit your business and the areas you have access to. Starter questions don't use your daily allowance.

If cash flow is the worry, start with the money questions. Our guide to mastering cash flow explains what to do with the answers.

Give the office the figures, not the keys.

The owner shouldn't be the only person who knows how the business is doing. HiveIntel is built so you can share it safely:

• Read only. HiveIntel can only read. It cannot change, add or delete anything.
• Your business only. Every report and dashboard is kept to the business it belongs to.
• Right people, right figures. Administrators choose which Staff get HiveIntel and whether they can download or email reports. Staff only see figures from the areas they have been given. Crew never see HiveIntel.

To write the summary, HiveIntel's AI reads a sample of the rows in your result. See our privacy policy for how AI features handle your data.

Clear about the limits.

• It isn't accounting software. HiveIntel reports on the work and money in HiveSuite, such as what you have invoiced, what is overdue and how much VAT you have charged. Your bookkeeping and tax returns still belong in your accounts software or with your accountant.
• It doesn't forecast. HiveIntel reports on what has happened and what is booked. It won't predict next quarter's turnover.
• Vehicle and fleet data isn't included yet. HiveFleet data is not in HiveIntel.
• There is a daily question allowance per user. Saved reports never use it.

Common questions about the new HiveIntel.

Does the new HiveIntel cost extra?

No. HiveIntel is included on every HiveSuite plan, from Solo at £34.99/month inc. VAT. Ask, Reports, Dashboards, Highlights, downloads and emailed reports are all part of it, with no premium reporting tier.

Can HiveIntel change my data?

No. HiveIntel is read only. It can never add, change or delete anything in your business, and each business only ever sees its own data.

Can my staff see all the figures?

Only if you let them. Administrators choose which Staff get HiveIntel and whether they can download or email reports, and Staff only see figures from the areas they have been given. Crew never see HiveIntel.

What if HiveIntel misunderstands my question?

Every answer shows "How HiveIntel read this": the records, dates, filters and totals it used. Tap any part to change it, or ask a follow-up to put it right. Undo takes you straight back.

Is there a limit on how many questions I can ask?

Each user has a generous daily question allowance. Opening, refreshing and emailing reports you have already saved never uses it, and neither does a reply where HiveIntel asks you to clarify.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. Ask a question, open reports and dashboards, switch the period or "Just mine", ask follow-ups, save, share and download, all on a phone. Picking individual fields and arranging dashboard tiles is done on a computer or tablet.

Can reports be emailed to me automatically?

Yes. Have any saved report emailed daily, weekly or monthly as a PDF, Excel or CSV file. Periods like "last quarter" are worked out on the day it is sent, and you can pause, restart or stop it at any time.

What happened to my old reports and the Report Builder?

The Report Builder is now part of HiveIntel: open any report and choose Change this report. Reports made in the older builder are still listed under Reports as Older reports, and your earlier questions are still available from the old HiveIntel page.