5.0.026 received for Testing

The latest build of our Profess for Windows software (Office Costing and Contract Manager) has just been received from the development team.

Denoted the release number of 5.0.026, this build sees work mainly in Contract Manager modules – including Contract Manager core (Payments and Cashflow) and the new Property Manager module (with additional work on Attributes).

There’s 44 items in this release, so testing will take a good week or two.

We will publish the complete list of changes as and when the software has completed tested and we issue notification of its readiness on our FTP site.

And after 5.0.0026?

The next scheduled version will be 5.0.026(2), although we have not finalised the content of that sprint as yet, although it is currently denoted as an interim build and currently contains small changes and fixes to minor, lower-priority defects.

It is expected that work on 026(2) will begin approximately 2nd week in February, depending on the time take to pass 026 through our test regime.

Q: Do I Need To Upgrade Every Release?
A: No.

While it is worthwhile (but not essential) maintaining major release numbers such as 024,025,026 etc., there’s no need to upgrade each minor increment (denoted by release numbers in parenthesis, e.g 026, 026(2), 026(3), 026(4) etc.) unless you are waiting for work contained therein.

Even then you could jump from 5.0.026 straight to 5.0.026(4) if necessary without having to load the interim builds (2 and 3 in this example).

What’s the upgrade process?

Each build will contain a ReadMe file with instructions for upgrading. In summary the process is:-

1. Take a backup of your SQL database(s)
2. Load the Windows software via the Setup program
3. Up-script your SQL database(s) to the new version
4. Perform your own acceptance test(s)
5. Review and distribute upgrade notes to end-users

And, of course, if you encounter any difficulties or have any questions, please do call our Helpdesk on 01531 821 199 or e-mail support@profess.co.uk

Using distribution lists

This is my third post in the series on Time Manager 2010 Quarter 3.  Today I’m going to keep it simple and show you how to set up distribution lists.  Even though this is a very easy process, it has powerful implications because it means you can now send reports to multiple email addresses simply, and can schedule reports on a regular basis and have them automatically distributed.

To view the video just click here.

To view the other two videos so far in this series you can click on the links below.

Simple report scheduling

Scheduling reports

Next time I am going to roll my sleeves up and show you some of the more powerful features available through the Alerts and Scheduling engine.

Scheduling reports in Time Manager Part 1

In my last post I told you how, in the 2010 Quarter 3 release of Time Manager reports could not be sent to a separate Scheduling and Alerts engine.  Today I am going to extend that concept and tell you a little about how reports can be scheduled.  You can view a five minute video of the process by clicking here.

Offloading reports to another process is only of limited use.  However, setting up a report once and then running it at regular intervals becomes much more interesting.  It allows you to pass a great deal of administrative work out to the alerts engine.

An example might be a productivity report you run once a month on the third of each month for the previous month.  Instead of having to remember to open Time Manager, select the report, select what data to appear on the report and run it, you can now set this up as a scheduled report and have it delivered to your inbox automatically.

The video will show you more about how scheduling of reports works.

Next time I will tell you about distribution lists and some of the other alert functions which do not rely on reporting.

Running reports offline

This is the first blog post about the 2010 Quarter 3 release of Time Manager.  This is going to be fairly brief, as I just want to tell you about how, with the introduction of the new Scheduler engine, you can now send reports for offline processing.  This means you free up the system for other work immediately instead of having to wait.  The report will be sent back to you as an email attachment.

All well and good, but you can also send the report and say “Run this next Monday at 5 a.m., and then every Monday from then on”.  That means, for example, you can have a Missing Timesheet report sitting on your desk when you get in Monday morning.  So instead of spending the first ten minutes of the day running reports (or forgetting until Tuesday), the work has been done for you.

The first video showing how to do this can be seen by clicking here.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about Alerts and scheduling other kinds of operations offline.

Time Manager 2010 Quarter 3 is (almost) here

I am pleased to announce that this quarter’s release of Time Manager is almost here.  Version 2010.3.1113 will be uploaded to the hosted server this coming Sunday, 14th November 2010, and will be available to download from our ftp site by Monday morning the 15th.

This is a major release of Time Manager, containing a whole host of new and improved features, as well as a couple of fixes.  You can view a full list of the changes by clicking here.

Below is a brief summary of what we consider the most exciting new features.

Report Scheduling and Alerts

This completely new addition allows you to run and schedule reports offline, create distribution lists and schedule any report to run at regular intervals.
Alerts can be selected to email individual staff if they have not completed their timesheet for the previous week.
Other functionality will be built into the next quarter’s release, but we want it to be functionality useful to you, so we are waiting for your suggestions on what you would like to see added to the Alerts list.  Maybe offline recosting of time, maybe offline flexitime calculation.  It’s down to you, so start thinking and let us know.

Billing and Billing auditing

Calculation of time billing sneaked in during the previous release, but we have now extended it to create automatic audit entries if you change a timesheet that has already been billed for.  All of this can be controlled by you, turning these features on and off to meet your particular requirements.

Additional control over Reports

We have added some additional flags to control what appears or does not appear on reports.  You can now choose to include archived Projects and Staff, as well as only report on Approved time entries.

Leave requests in hours

Leave can now be requested in hours as well as days, and this can be set on individual leave entries as well.

Project Targeting

A lot of new work has been done on Project targeting, making it both faster and more robust

I am enthusiastic about the list of new features and improvements in this release, but I don’t want to go on too long here.   Keep checking back on the blog pages as over the next few weeks more details of this new release will be posted here first.

Release videos

As in previous releases, a series of videos are currently in production to walk you through the great new features available.  The first of these, on Scheduling and Alerts will be posted this week, and I will post a Blog entry here when it is available.  So check back regularly to see when this is released, and find out what this new version of Time Manager can offer you.

Time Manager Alerts

I am just putting the finishing touches to the initial release of the Time Manager Alerts functionality.  This is a major enhancement both for Time Manager and to a smaller extent Profess.

The feature will be available in the 2010 Quarter 3 release of Time Manager which is still pencilled in for the end of September.  Hosted users will find this installed and available automatically.  Installed users of Time Manager will need to install and configure the Alerts service.  Full documentation will be available on release.

At present the following functionality is available:

• Run any report on a schedule and send back to yourself or a distribution list.  You can enter flexible selection criteria that are evaluated at the time the report is run.  This means you could run a report for This Month, or Last Month, This Week, or Last Week and it would use the dates that apply when it is run.
• Calculate and distribute Missing Timesheets.
• Calculate and distribute Missing Timesheets by Team Manager.  This is nice and simple, just set it up once and leave it run.  The calculation takes care of who to send the report to for all members of a managers Team.
• Look for and inform individual staff if they have not Submitted or Completed a Timesheet on time.

Other alerts can be added in, but these are the ones users have requested so far.

If you have any ideas for alerts that would be useful both to you and others, please get in touch with me so we can decide how achievable they are, as we are actively looking to add new alert functionality.

Assigning Security functions to a User in Time Manager

Part of the new security module in Profess Time Manager allows you greater flexibility in what the users see and what they have access to.

You are now able to set up Security groups that can only have access to the projects menu under setup and no other option.

Two security groups are defined automatically:

Administrator – this has access to all menu options (with a quirk)

Default – this has access only to core functionality required to enter time, expenses etc.

You can add additional user groups, and define alternative menu options by using the Setup, Staff, Security Groups menu.  Then check on or off the options you want that security group to have.  Finally, assign the new security group to those staff you would like to make use of it.

On occasions new menu options are added to Time Manager to provide additional functionality.  By default these new menu options are not available to existing security groups.  When we do add menu options, you will always be informed of this.  To make these options available you just follow a simple process:

Open each security group inn turn.  As the page is displayed, all new options will be automatically ticked on so just scroll down, click on Save and the new features are made available to the group.

Of course, you might also want to consider whether you wish to make any new feature available.  If you do not open and save a Security group the new feature are not available.

Using Security groups means you can configure the entire access structure of Time Manager, simplify menu options just to those required by groups of staff, disable entire menu trees such as Administration or Setup, and make the user experience more tailorered to individual groups of users.

E-mail notification

Are you using Time Manager?

If you are then you should also be receiving our newsletters and release notes as and when they become available.

The last one sent out was to inform users of the latest build details but newsletters also include special offers (some not found elsewhere on our website or blog) as well as news of any events we’re planning.

If you haven’t received this yet then let us know and we will add you to our list of contacts – or you can sign-up for yourself by clicking here.

Help us help you to keep up to date.

Time Manager 2010.2.713

The latest update to Time Manager, release 2010 Quarter 2, is now available.  This release contains a number of enhancements and updated features.  Just a few of the main highlights are:  

• Additional enhancements and fixes to Project targeting.
• New Activity Targeting option makes single level targeting easy
• Simple clear function on event pick lists
• Better error trapping if you try to run a report twice
• Recosting of time now allows filtering, plus significant performance improvements 

If you operate Time Manager on our hosted server the system will be updated this coming Sunday July 18th.

Where you are using an Installed version of Time Manager you can download the 2010.2 release from our ftp site from Monday 19th July, or call us to request a CD.

You can download the full list of enhancements and fixes by clicking on the following link:

 Time Manager 2010.2.713

You can also view a video demonstrating the latest features by clicking on the link below:

Time Manager 2010.2 Video

Profess & Contract Manager 5.0.024(4) available NOW!

The latest build of the Profess Office Costing and Profess Contract Manager applications are now available for download for all existing Users having taken out an Annual Maintenance & Support Agreement.

If you do not have access to our FTP downloads area, call our Helpdesk on 01531 821 199 and they will pass on the appropriate credentials.

Any customer having raised a log for work in this build will be automatically notified that their request has been actioned.

Most of the development in this new build is focused on Contract Manager which has seen continued enhancement and revision in some key areas to improve, in particular, the ease-of-use of the Cashflow arena.

We’re very pleased that a number of customers are pushing the module hard, ensuring its place as a best-practice approach to the effective financial management of Contracts.

Here’s the definitive list of items included (see the Release Notes for a description of each item).

ENHANCEMENTS & NEW FEATURES

• CERTIFICATE PAYMENTS: New User-Defined Gross Valuation vs Contract Sum checks
• PROFESS TARGETING & CASHFLOW: Next & Future Year now profiles on the related Cashflow Model
• SECURITY: Increased USER GROUP security option for permitting/restricting access to Profess Office Costing
• SECURITY: Send To button added to Users and User Group
• WORKS ORDER: new fields/data columns
• WORKS ORDER: ‘Standard Text’ facility
• WORKS REQUEST: Link with Finance Codes

FIXES

• CERTIFICATE PAYMENTS: Retention changes being overridden by Percentage – now rectified
• DOCUMENT MANAGER: Issue with Contract Data Tags rectified
• EVENT PLANNING: Event Start and Finish Dates not Consistent with Duration – rectified
• PAYMENTS: The View Order button now enabled in ‘View Only’ mode
• TARGETING: Staff Charge column, where displayed in Targeting plan layout is not bringing Charge value through – corrected

CHANGES

• CASHFLOW: Cashflow Finance Code could not be removed – now rectified
• CASHFLOW: Modelling – ‘Change’ button was active even when ‘forecast manually updated’ box was OFF
• CASHFLOW: Model Cashflow lines now protected
• CASHFLOW: Zero Cashflow lines were being removed on OK of Contract record
• CERT. PAYMENT: Edit or Delete of Cert Payments once Approved/Sent to Finance no longer permitted. Un-Approve required instead.
• CONTRACT MANAGER BROWSE: What do the various colours mean? Legend Button added
• CONTRACT/PROJECT BROWSE: Six additional columns now available (see Release Notes)
• PAYMENTS: Invoice & Certificate Cashflow Category drop-down content expanded
• WORKS ORDER: Field title change or visibility now available for Inspector, Inspector Type, Contract Type etc.
• WORKS REQUEST: Permit selection of Contractor + apply defaults

If you were unaware that we provide a comprehensive Contract Management solution and are potentially interested then e-mail me on carl@profess.co.uk