{"id":110881,"date":"2025-02-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/?p=110881"},"modified":"2025-02-18T09:33:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T17:33:59","slug":"20250218-00","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20250218-00\/?p=110881","title":{"rendered":"Your statement is now available, just two hidden flyouts and five clicks away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, I received an email telling me that one of my account statements was ready. The email contained a link to view the statement.<\/p>\n

This was a lie.<\/p>\n

Actually viewing the statement was so complicated that I often simply gave up. Eventually, after succeeding one time, I wrote down the steps so I could do it again.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Click the link. This takes me to the Microsoft benefits site. Follow the sign-in instructions.<\/li>\n
  2. On the page you are sent to after signing in, there is a hidden link: Go to the flyout in the upper right corner, and open it. In the flyout, click Manage my account<\/i>. This takes you to an account page.<\/li>\n
  3. On the account page, there is another hidden link: Go to the flyout near the upper right corner (not in the extreme upper right corner), and open it. In the flyout, click Statements<\/i>. This takes you to another page.<\/li>\n
  4. On that page, scroll down until you see where it says “To view your statements, click here,” and click it. This takes you to another page.<\/li>\n
  5. The page you are sent to is completely empty except for a single button that says Statements<\/i>. Click it. This takes you to another page.<\/li>\n
  6. This page is an interstitial page. After a few seconds, you are automatically redirected.<\/li>\n
  7. Finally you are on a page that has your statements. Click the statement you want to view or download.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Thankfully, Microsoft changed providers a few years ago,\u00b9 and the new statement notification email just takes you straight to a page that (after you sign in) has your statement. Furthermore, if you go straight to the sign-in page rather than using the deep link in the notification email, the new site’s home page has a tab called Documents<\/i> that lists your statements.<\/p>\n

    Thank you, new provider, for actually doing usability testing for the scenario “See my most recent statement.”<\/p>\n

    \u00b9 That old site was terrible. I was never sure how to get the information I wanted, and when I tried to find it, I often found myself going in circles. “But look at our engagement numbers! People stay on the site for hours!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Beware of the leopard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-110881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-non-computer"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

    Beware of the leopard.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}