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You have read the plan and something needs to change before a client sees it. Ask in plain English and the plan comes back changed, as a new version with the earlier one still readable.

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Where to ask

  • From the plan in chat. Press Edit in the plan’s top bar and the conversation opens over the plan.
  • From the household. On the household’s Financial Planning tab, press Open chat in the plan’s top bar for the same conversation.
Edit is absent while you read an older version, because past versions cannot be changed. Look for the top bar reading “Viewing v2 of 4”, marked read-only, and press Back to latest.
Save your own edits before you ask. If Hazel publishes a new version while you have hand edits staged in the bar at the bottom of the plan, your only way out is Discard my changes. Press Save first.

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The five kinds of request

Naming the argument you want to make works better than naming the chart. See How Hazel visualizes data.
Name the range, the step and the starting value. See Levers and scenarios.

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How specific to be

Specific enough that there is one obvious reading. “Fix the summary” leaves it open. “Cut the summary to three paragraphs and lead with whether they can retire at 62” comes back the way you pictured it.

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What Hazel pushes back on

Some requests come back with a reason instead of a change. Read it before rephrasing: it usually names the alternative worth asking for.
  • A visual that cannot carry the claim. Ask for a donut chart of income over twenty years and Hazel explains that a donut shows shares at one moment, then offers stacked columns.
  • A number Hazel cannot evidence. With no business valuation on file, a request for that figure comes back as a request for the document. Hazel shows it as not provided rather than picking one.
  • Something a firm guardrail forbids. Hazel names the never-do rule your request ran into. See Guardrails.
  • Structure your firm has locked. With the plan design set to Exact, a request to drop a section is declined and pointed back at the design. See Strictness.

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What comes back

An accepted request republishes the plan, so the change arrives as a new version. Your own unsaved pencil edits count separately and do not move the version number until you save. Rewording, reordering and most presentation changes come back fast; one that moves the numbers runs the projections again and takes longer. You do not have to watch: a banner on the household page says Hazel is recalculating and that the plan updates when it finishes. Hazel works on one plan at a time, so Regenerate on the household’s Financial Planning tab is unavailable while a change is running.
Several small requests in one message are fine, and Hazel usually composes them into a single version.

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Which tool for which change

Plan settings is the sliders icon in the top bar of a plan you opened from its chat, and there is no such control on the household’s Financial Planning tab. See Solver assumptions. You can also change an assumption from the figure it affects: select it, press Edit, then Queue change, and it waits for Recalculate. See Where numbers come from.

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Where to go next