Thanks for the suggestions.
- I could see that being useful, Anno has features like that and I've found them handy.
- There is an economy button to the right of the leader portrait. That shows a breakdown of item production and usage by settlement.
- In the latest version, if you select a unit it should show items consumed in the lower-right, just as if you'd selected a farm.
- You're right. I've neglected the hep section in 3.0