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You need to know whether what you are seeing is a problem before this plan goes in front of a client.

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Troubleshooting

Nothing is broken. Step two of three, badged STEP 2 / 3, is where Hazel asks the handful of things that would change the plan, one at a time and numbered. Answer them and the build carries on.Rather not decide? Make reasonable assumption settles the one in front of you, and a second option covers the rest. On the household’s Financial Planning tab an untouched question takes that assumption itself after about half a minute; hovering or typing pauses the timer. In a chat it waits as long as you need.
The household’s Financial Planning tab says this when a build stops short. Nothing you uploaded is lost: Try again picks up from the documents Hazel already read and the answers you gave. Start over clears the attempt and returns you to the readiness view, for when the data was the real problem. If a build fails twice, contact support and name the household.
The card that starts a build estimates 5-15 min, and the reading step says 5-12 minutes; a household with a lot of paperwork runs longer. Hazel keeps working whether or not you watch, and chimes when the draft is ready; the speaker button beside the progress badge mutes the chime.On the household’s Financial Planning tab the badge estimates the time left, counts the pages read, and past its usual time reads Taking longer than usual. Do not start a second build; wait for the plan, then ask for changes.
Hazel states what it cannot evidence instead of guessing, so check in order:
  1. Could Hazel read the file? During a build, the file list on the household’s Financial Planning tab marks each document waiting, reading or read, and flags any Hazel could not read. Ask the client for a clean copy, or attach another in the plan’s chat.
  2. Can the plan see it? A document has to be attached to the plan’s own chat or held on the household; Prepare data on that tab does both, uploading to the household’s Documents tab.
  3. Is the fact unconfirmed? Hazel uses unconfirmed facts and labels them Unverified in a figure’s sources. On the household’s Data tab, choose Review and use Verify. See Reviewing and verifying.
  4. Waiting on an account sync? A sync never delivers planning figures: those come from documents, meetings, emails and notes, so upload the statement.
Then use Regenerate, in the top bar of the household’s Financial Planning tab. See Documents and CRM data.
A figure with something recorded behind it carries a faint dotted underline. Select it to open a detail panel:
  • Sources. Which document, meeting, email or note it came from, each row carrying the value that source gave and a confidence chip: Verified where a document or a correction of your own settled it, Unverified where nobody has confirmed what was said, Modeled where nobody stated the figure and the plan worked it out. No dates here, so open the document itself if you suspect an old statement.
  • Methodology. The calculation, step by step, each input tied to its source.
  • Assumptions. Where one is yours to change you get Edit, then Queue change; the figure updates when you press Recalculate in the bar at the bottom of the plan.
A figure with nothing recorded renders as plain text and will not open. Try the plan’s Appendix, the last entry in its left navigation, which gathers all three for the whole plan, or ask in the plan’s chat, which produces no new version. See Where numbers come from.
A new version landed while your edits were staged, so Discard my changes is the only button in the bar at the bottom of the plan. Discarding keeps no copy, so copy anything you want out of the plan first, then read the new version and redo the edit. See Editing a plan directly.
A grayed-out Export PDF means changes are staged: save or discard them in the bar at the bottom of the plan. Moving a lever stages nothing, so where you only moved dials, look for a goal card you dragged into a new order, which does. The PDF renders the last saved version. If you got a message instead:
The reply names the reason.
  • A guardrail forbids it. Nothing overrides your firm’s absolute rules, Hazel included, and only a firm owner can change one, in Settings → Planning. See Guardrails.
  • A number your firm set says otherwise. These bend: say why you want the change and ask again. For this plan, use Plan settings in the plan’s own conversation; for every plan, a firm owner changes it in Planning settings.
  • Nothing in the household’s data supports the figure. Add the document that carries it, or let the plan name the labeled assumption it used instead.
Ask in the plan’s chat, naming the section: “Why is there no estate section in this plan?” Hazel answers from the plan itself, with no new version.Under Guided strictness Hazel may leave a block out when the household’s facts do not support it. Under Flexible, where an unconfigured firm starts, Hazel composes each plan freely from your design. The durable fix belongs to a firm owner, in Settings → Planning:
  • In the Plan design card, use Design layout and select the block. When it shows up decides between Always and When it applies, and a Leave out when condition may be broader than you meant.
  • For a section that has to appear every time, set strictness to Exact. Hazel then holds each finished plan against your design and sends one that misses a block back to be fixed, though now and then a plan still publishes with something not matching, so read the next one or two. A household whose facts do not support a section still gets one, so it can read thin.
See Strictness.
Open the plan’s Appendix: the first row of Applied settings names the persona this version was built from, or reads None.For this plan, open its chat and name the one you want: “Rebuild this against our Pre-Retiree persona.” A rebuild writes fresh content, so hand-edited wording does not come along.For every plan after this one, rewrite the persona’s description, the strongest matching signal; the age band is only a hint, so a vague description keeps matching households you did not mean. See Client personas.
Planning settings apply to the next plan, or to the next change to an existing one; a published plan stays as it was built, and its Appendix records the settings behind it.Bring a household onto the new settings with Regenerate in the top bar of the household’s Financial Planning tab. Grayed out and reading that a plan update is in progress means Hazel is still working in that plan’s chat, so give it a minute. After a persona change, check the Appendix for the persona this household matched.
If it is one of the three Hazel installs, nobody edited anything: HENRY, Pre-Retiree and Retiree / Decumulator each arrive carrying their own plan design, so all three read Customized from the first time you open Planning settings, and base-template changes have never reached them.A persona your firm created follows the base template live until someone edits that persona’s own design, then keeps its copy; the Plan design card says which state it is in.Re-sync from base moves a persona onto the base layout and discards the design it has now, so copy anything you want to keep first. Hazel asks you to confirm. See Inheritance and re-syncing.
A lever recalculates the figures wired to it, in your browser, and leaves the narrative alone. Moving one saves nothing.If the numbers move far enough that the prose is now wrong, ask Hazel to update that section and it comes back as a new version. See Levers and scenarios.
Today a plan belongs to the advisor who built it, so a colleague with full access to the household can open its Financial Planning tab and still see no plan. Export the PDF and send it, or have them build their own; sharing financial-plan chats is a fast follow. Check household access too, without which they cannot open the household at all. See Roles and permissions.
The thumbs live on the plan in its own conversation; from the household’s Financial Planning tab, use Open chat in the plan’s top bar. Press the thumbs down, labeled Not helpful plan, and a short form opens: pick the kind of issue (UI bug, Not factually correct, Incomplete response, Didn’t follow request, or Other) and say what you expected. Your note travels with the version you were reading.Feedback is one way, so contact support as well if you need an answer.

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FAQ

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Building a plan

Three ways: the household’s Financial Planning tab, the Financial Planning page, or Ask Hazel with the chat set to Financial Planning mode. A plain Ask chat will not start a plan. See Getting started.
The household’s Financial Planning tab checks eight things: Accounts & Holdings, Calendar, Tax documents, Uploaded documents, Meetings & transcripts, CRM, Email and Business valuation. Business valuation only matters where a business does, so it can read Missing while the tab still says Ready to build.If something is short, the tab offers Prepare data, which uploads files and drafts a request email. Build anyway and the plan will say what it could not evidence.
Yes. Neither CRM data nor custodian balances become planning figures. Statements, tax returns, policies and estate documents give a plan this household’s specifics, and scans and photographs are fine. See Documents and CRM data.
Yes. The Financial Planning page offers See financial plan example, a complete plan on a made-up household, with Take the tour to walk you through the surface. It is read only, and carries no Edit and no PDF export.

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Working with a plan

Yes. A plan lives with the chat that built it, so a fresh build gives you a second plan rather than a new version of the first. Usually you want the new version: ask on the plan you have, or use Regenerate on the household’s Financial Planning tab. For two different futures, ask for a scenario comparison inside one plan. See Versions and regenerating.
The Financial Planning page lists your plans, most recently worked on first, with the household, the Status and the persona applied. Selecting a row opens that household’s Financial Planning tab; Open chat there reaches the plan’s own conversation. Draft in progress means no version published yet.
The prose, yes. Hover a passage, click the small pencil at its top right, make your change, then click away to stage it or press Escape to drop it. Staged changes collect in the bar at the bottom of the plan, and Save commits them as one new version.A number inside a sentence is a chip kept in sync with the plan. Rewrite the sentence around it if the wording is wrong; to move the number, change the assumption behind it or the data underneath.Edit, in the top bar of a plan in its own conversation, opens the conversation with Hazel about the plan rather than an editing mode. The household’s Financial Planning tab carries no Edit button; Open chat there reaches the same conversation. See Editing a plan directly.
Usually. Hazel is asked to preserve still-valid analysis and the content you wrote, so a passage you rewrote normally comes through. Wording the new information has made untrue can still change. If a preference should hold on every plan, put it in your firm’s instructions.
Both are requests in the plan’s chat. For a lever, name the range, the step and the starting value: “Add a retirement-age lever from 60 to 70 in one-year steps, starting at 62.” For a chart, name the point you want the client to take away rather than a chart type. See Levers and scenarios and How Hazel visualizes data.
No. Hazel never sends a plan to a client: you export the PDF and hand it over, or present the plan on screen. Your firm’s disclaimer travels with both. See Sharing and delivering.

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Firm setup

Firm owners only, and not firm admins; for everyone else the Planning tab does not appear. Every advisor still inherits what is set there, and can see it in the plan’s Appendix. See Access and availability.
Structure goes in Plan design, voice and emphasis in instructions, numbers in Solver or Market assumptions, and absolute rules in Guardrails.
A module is in your plans exactly while your layout carries it, so there is no on and off switch: add or remove one with Design layout from the Plan design card. Taking one out removes the dedicated treatment of that topic; broader sections still fold it in. See Modules.
Your firm starts with three that Hazel installs: HENRY, Pre-Retiree, and Retiree / Decumulator. Review, rename or edit them, and delete the ones that do not describe your book. Past that, enough for the client types you plan differently for.When no persona matches a household, Hazel builds on the base template alone and records None in Applied settings.
Not the firm defaults. In the plan’s own conversation, the sliders button in the top bar opens Plan settings, which holds the fields meant to vary. The household’s Financial Planning tab has no such button, so use Open chat there first.A value you set belongs to that plan, not the household, so a second plan for the same family keeps what it inherited. Each field prints the range Hazel accepts, a value outside it comes back with a message, and a reset control restores the inherited one. Apply and replan commits and recalculates.The advisory fee, the terminal heir tax rate and the number of simulations never vary, so the panel does not list them.
Almost always because the matched persona overrides it on purpose. In the plan’s Appendix, every value under Applied settings is labeled Firm, Persona or This plan, so you can see which layer set it.
Settings → Planning, in the Client disclaimer card. It opens holding wording Hazel suggests, and nothing prints under a plan until your firm saves its own text. It saves as you type, and renders under every plan and in the PDF exactly as written. Restore Hazel default brings the suggested wording back.

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Where to go next