Happy (belated) New Year everyone!  We here at AceProject wish you all the best for 2014! Hopefully, a few of the latest enhancements that were released on January 15th and today, January 29th, will start the year off on the right foot. Much effort is being placed on streamlining functionality and simplifying the interface.

New Document Sub-menu

You may have noticed that fewer page changes/loads are occurring? More pop-up dialogues and other mechanisms have been added through the interface. For example, check out what happens when you click on the document indicator in the task list. A new menu appears.  From this list you can preview (an image) or download. No more need to go to Edit Task -> Documents (however, this page is still there).

Modification of User Rights

Another change that may be of interest to you is User Rights. The Rights have been simplified.  B1, C1, D1 have been merged with B2, C2, D2, and now there are only 4 User Right options: Read Only, Limited, Extended, […]

Although the year is beginning to wind down and the holidays are fast approaching, our hard work continues. Our latest efforts continue to allow for a more simplified user experience. You may have noticed that you are no longer directed to pages for edits, instead we have placed pop-up dialogues throughout much of the application. You no longer have to leave and come back to your page to change a Status Group item for example, or to export a report. For those fans of bulk updates, we have something special for you too!

Bulk task updates

Are those cheers I hear? Yes, one of the most requested features of AceProject has been the ability to update multiple tasks at once. Now from the task list you are able to check multiple tasks and apply a specified update to all of them. Remember the days of opening every single task, one after another?!? I am sure that no one will miss those!  Even better, bulk assign users to tasks as well!

Our development team has spent much of the last couple of months making code adjustments on the heels of the massive September 10th update.  However, we have managed to include many new great features during this time as well.

Create tasks by email

One enhancement that users may greatly appreciate is the ability to create a task directly from an email. There are many situations when this could be very useful. For example, a form from a webpage could collect information and send this information directly into AceProject as a Task. Tasks created within this project can be auto-assigned with email notifications sent to inform users of work that is to be done. The email address is unique for each project and can be found under Edit Project by clicking on the email icon at the top right. Simply copy this address and paste it into the To: section of an email and voilà, the subject becomes the Task Summary, the body becomes the Description, and any attached document gets added to the task as well. We […]

The summer did not stop the evolution of AceProject. Don’t worry, we had time to squeeze in a little vacation, enjoy family and friends, take in lots of sun, etc.

There is a balance to be struck between the powerful features that we implemented and the ease of use that come along with them. We think we succeeded with these latest enhancements. Tell us what you think!

Custom Task Report Enhancements

Custom Task Reports are one of the most frequently used features within AceProject. They allow the extraction and presentation of all tasks filtered to your precise needs.  Many useful features have been added to allow more control over the editing and listing within the generated reports.

• Sometimes you only want the report for yourself, at other times to allow others to view and modify the report, and other reports that must remain locked.  This has now been implemented through the use of a Private/Public/Administrator concept to apply to the custom task report. Now the interface is not filled with every users’ reports, but visibility […]
  

After the sweeping changes to the timesheets, our latest development work might well have gone unnoticed. However, these have significant ramifications in terms of the ability to simplify the interface for users who do not need to record time or run time reports in AceProject. In the process, actual hours can now be veiled throughout from specific users (for instance, your clients). All this power in a single checkbox!

Here are the latest enhancements:

• Time Module now can be disabled at the account and user levels. When the Time Module is disabled, the left menu and top frame pulldowns no longer display items related to the time module. Additionally, all Actual Hours in the interface and e-mail notifications are hidden.
• Expense Module now can be disabled at the user level, having the same impact as the above point.
• Filters have been improved on task lists. You can now better filter your tasks by creator/assigned/reviewers with the And/Or operators.
• Under the project tab, bulk updates for the task list have been improved. You can now modify several fields and enter a […]
  

Have you noticed that you can now edit existing time items directly in your weekly timesheet screen (now called the “My Time” page) and navigate through the time boxes using your keyboard (Tab, Shift-Tab and arrow keys)?

Additionally, AceProject now anticipates the projects and tasks you might want to record time on in your current week based on the projects and tasks you entered time on in the previous “nonzero time” weekly timesheet. Behold the “Proposed Time Items” section! Items therein are only virtual but they turn into “real” time items as soon as you start adding time on them (directly in the “My Time” page, of course!).

The result of all this is a sharp drop in the number of page views for the “Edit Time Item” page. We can only rejoice to see our clients taking to recording time “the new way”.

There have been several other improvements over the last month, many of them regarding time entry and approval. Here is a rundown…

• “Add time to this […]
  

Time Sheets have been the story in the last month! The way users will record their hours has been rethought. Our development team’s focus has been on making time entry quicker. Amongst other changes, having to create one’s weekly timesheet is a thing of the past.

Time Entry Improvements

• Selecting Home > Time > My Time automatically opens the user’s current weekly timesheet.
• “My Time” added in Home tab default pages options.
• Weekly timesheets now created transparently. “Add a New Week” button and “Auto create weeks” option removed.
• Timeline navigation tools added in “My Time”.
• “Add Time…” drop-down now lists recent projects 1st followed by other assigned projects, grouped by Project Type.
  
• When viewing a weekly timesheet, one or several items can be selected and copied onto another week.
  
• Multi-time item deletion added.
  

Time Approval Improvements

• “In Progress or Submitted” status filter option added in time approval areas.
• When approving time items in “By Item” view, a “+ Back […]
  

Here are just some of the improvements we’ve made to AceProject in the last month.

Time Reports and Time Approval Improvements

Time management is a key part of AceProject and it was our priority for 2013 to address issues our clients are facing from time entry to time reporting and approval. Here is a summary of some of the enhancements we have delivered:

• Administrators and project managers can now create time items for other users in time approval areas of the interface.
• Time reports now support a 2-level breakdown and allows users to select fields to display.
• A daily view has been added in time report options.

Read the full post here + watch the video

Task Auto-Assignment

Does your organization have projects in which the same users need to be assigned on every new task? Never again will you have tasks falling through the cracks. Introducing the “Task Auto-Assignment” option! Here are the highlights for this new feature:

• This option is available under Project Tab > Assignments and User Profile > Assigned […]
  

We have made big improvements in our Time Tracking module. Hope you’ll enjoy!

Time Reports

1. We added the daily view. When generating a time report, you can now select “View by Day”.
   
2. A 2-level breakdown is now supported. For example, you can generate a weekly time report grouped by users, or a monthly time report grouped by project. Eight (8) fields are available for groupings.
   
3. Users may now select the fields they wish to see displayed in time reports and specify their sorting criteria.
   
4. Summarize your time reports using our new “Show only totals and subtotals” option.

Time Entry and Approval

1. Some members of your staff may not have access to AceProject or to its timesheets. In such circumstances, AceProject now allows administrators and project managers to record timesheet entries for other users through the time approval areas of the interface.
   
   

What we’ve been up to

Here are just some of the improvements we’ve made to AceProject in the last month.

Time Report

As part of a multi-phase time report overhaul, it is now possible to select the fields you wish to see displayed in time reports, their order from left to right as well as the sorting criteria of time items in the report results.

Time Clock

Time Clock users will now enjoy the convenience of having the project and task selection drop downs list items based on recency. That will certainly reduce scrolling and facilitate the location of projects and tasks that time is to be recorded against.

New Theme

A “Windows 8” theme has been added to our branding options.

Also

• Date range filters have been added in the right pane of project list pages.
• Links in the task Details and Comment fields are […]