In this work we address three questions: can we successfully describe (observed) deviations from the standard model in the SMEFT language? Can we learn something about the underlying, beyond the standard model, physics using the SMEFT language? If no deviation is observed, how to proceed? Given the myriad of viable BSM options with extended scalar sectors, we suggest a widespread use of SMEFT not just as a global fitting tool (that could miss out on deviations from extended scalar sectors) but also as a bookkeeping framework in which the results from SMEFT fits to individual observables are provided, reported, and archived in a consistent way. The compatibility of such individual results can then be assessed in the light of BSM models with extended scalar sectors.