A tour of the Nexto interface

Software you use all day is either fast or exhausting, and the difference is rarely the accounting. It is whether you can find a customer without leaving the page you are on, whether a table filters the way you expect, and whether the program stops you before you do something you cannot undo.

This episode is not about an accounting task. It is about the parts of Nexto that repeat on every page - the menu, the search, the tables, the forms, the guide - looked at once, here, so that later episodes can talk about the work instead of the buttons.

It follows on from the four basics, where accounts, vouchers, debit and credit and currency were defined on paper. From here on they are on screen. Every Nexto page is built from three areas: the top bar, the side menu, and the body.

What you will learn

• How the side menu is organised, and how to collapse it when you need the room
• How to reach any page or any customer with two keys
• What the dashboard tells you at the start of the day
• How every table in Nexto filters, sorts and exports the same way
• The parts of a form that repeat everywhere: the account picker, the amount in words, the date, the field locks
• The two guards that protect you, and what personal settings each user controls

The menu and the top bar

The side menu is arranged by job

The menu groups pages by the job you are doing, not by the type of page: Trading and Rates, Receipts and Payments, Nexto Services, Customers and Accounts, Reports, WhatsApp, Management. Each group opens and closes with one click, and the page you are currently on stays highlighted so you never lose your place.

If you are short of screen space, collapse the menu and only the icons remain. The same button brings it back.

Ctrl+K: the one thing to take away

If only one thing from this episode stays with you, make it this. Wherever you are in Nexto, press Ctrl and K, then type a customer name or a page name.

Type "Persepolis" and the answer arrives as you type: the Persepolis Exchange account, one click away from its statement. Type the name of a page instead - "revaluation", for example - and that page comes up the same way.

The magnifier at the top of the screen, with Ctrl+K printed on it, does exactly the same job for anyone without a keyboard to hand. The largest slice of time this software gives back to you starts here.

The rest of the top bar

• The question mark opens the guide for the page you are standing on - not a general manual, precisely this page. The guide has its own search box.
• The bell is your notifications: tasks delegated to you, documents that were flagged, and warnings about incomplete settings.
• Report a problem sends the state of the current page over to support.
• Share the page link, for a colleague.
• Your own name opens your profile, My Currencies, the light and dark theme, and log out.

The dashboard

The dashboard is the first screen of every day, and it carries the things you want to know in the morning: today's profit and the month's, open commitments and deposit requests, receipts awaiting collection, cashier orders still pending, tasks delegated to you, and the latest vouchers.

Every card links through to its full page, so the dashboard is a starting point rather than a report. One thing to note: the profit figure appears only if you hold the permission for it, so the same dashboard looks different to a teller and to the owner.

Tables all behave the same way

Most Nexto pages are a table, and once you know one you know all of them. Take the trades page, from the Trading and Rates group.

• The filter bar runs along the top: a date range with shortcuts for today, seven days and this month; the customer group; the grouping.
• Column filters sit under the headers. Write "Persepolis" in the Counterparty column and only that customer's trades remain.
• Sorting: click a header to sort by it, by Amount for instance.
• Excel, PDF and print always sit above the table, and they export whatever the page is currently showing, filter and all.
• My default: the filters you set every single time, saved once so the page opens with them.

Forms all speak one language

The same is true of forms. Open New Trade above that table, or Currency Buy and Sell from the menu, and the parts you meet there are the parts you meet everywhere.

• The account picker. Type the name, the code or even the customer's phone number and pick from the list. Next to it sits a shortcut through to that customer's statement and stats.
• The amount box. As you type a figure, the words appear underneath it, so you do not get the zeros wrong.
• Currency, chosen the same way.
• The date, in the Solar or the Gregorian calendar, whichever you prefer.
• The lock beside a field. If you need the same customer or the same currency for several vouchers in a row, lock the field so it is not cleared each time you save.

My Currencies keeps the picker short

One small setting pays for itself immediately: My Currencies, from your own name at the top of the screen.

Nexto carries dozens of currencies, but each user picks out only the ones they actually work with - the US Dollar first, then the Iranian Toman, then the UAE Dirham, then the Turkish Lira. From then on the currency pickers show only those four. The day a Euro deal turns up, add the Euro, do the job, and take it off again afterwards if you like.

A short list means fewer wrong picks. And it is personal: your colleague keeps a list of their own.

Two guards

Nothing irreversible happens without a confirmation

A reversal, a deletion, closing a period or reopening one - each of them brings up a confirmation window first. Reopening a closed period from Fiscal periods in the Management group asks before it does anything, and cancelling leaves everything exactly as it was.

An unfinished form is not lost

If the page closes halfway through a form, or the power goes out, the next time you open that same form Nexto asks whether to bring back what you had written. Restore, and the amount you had typed is back where it was.

And if you save a form that is incomplete, the error appears in red at the top of the screen with a sentence saying exactly what is wrong. When something goes through instead, a small green message appears at the bottom of the screen and fades away. Green at the bottom means it worked; red at the top means here is why it did not.

Shortcuts, personal settings and the phone

For someone booking vouchers all day there are keyboard shortcuts - Alt+T opens a trade, and the rest are listed in your profile, where you can change any of them.

The same place holds your own display language, your calendar, and your thousands and decimal separators, kept apart from the exchange's own settings. Your Turkish-speaking colleague sees a Turkish interface while you see English, on exactly the same data.

Nexto also works fully on a phone: the same pages, the menu sliding in from the edge, tables scrolling sideways. The design is desk-first, but the work can be done from the road in the morning, from the middle of the market, or from home in the evening. You can install it on the phone's home screen like an app.

Tips and warnings

• Ctrl+K is faster than the menu for almost everything. Reach for it before you go hunting through groups.
• Exports take the filter that is on screen. Check the filter bar before you send an Excel or a PDF to anyone.
• Use My default on the pages you open every day, rather than resetting the same filters each morning.
• The field locks are for a run of similar vouchers. Unlock them when you move on, or the next voucher inherits the wrong customer.
• The dashboard's profit card follows the profit permission, so do not assume a colleague is seeing the same figures you are.
• Personal settings are per user. Changing your calendar or separators does not change anything for the rest of the team.

Where to go next

The previous episode, the four basics, defines account, voucher, debit and credit, and currency. Next comes settings, currencies and your first users, the first episode of the day-one chapter, where you set up the exchange itself. The forms in this tour are used in earnest in buying and selling currency, the tables and exports return in the map of reports and exports, and the report-a-problem button is covered in backup, restore and support.

FAQ

How do I find a customer or a page quickly in Nexto?

Press Ctrl and K anywhere in the software and start typing a customer name or a page name. Matching accounts and pages appear as you type, and one click opens them. The magnifier in the top bar does the same thing without a keyboard.

How is the Nexto menu organised?

By the job you are doing rather than the type of page: Trading and Rates, Receipts and Payments, Nexto Services, Customers and Accounts, Reports, WhatsApp and Management. Groups open and close with a click, and the menu can be collapsed to icons.

Do Excel and PDF exports include my filters?

Yes. The Excel, PDF and print buttons above a table export exactly what the page is showing, including the filter bar and any column filters. Check the active filter before you send the file to anyone.

What happens if I close a form before saving it?

The next time you open that same form Nexto asks whether to restore what you had written, and restoring puts your entries back. It works after a closed page or a power cut.

Can two colleagues use different languages and calendars?

Yes. Language, calendar, thousands and decimal separators and keyboard shortcuts are personal settings in each user's profile, separate from the exchange's own settings, and they apply to the same shared data.

Does Nexto work on a phone?

Fully. The same pages are available, the menu slides in from the edge and tables scroll sideways, and you can install Nexto on the phone's home screen like an app. The design is desk-first, but nothing is missing on mobile.