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 […]
  

Here are just some of the things our programmers and graphic designer have been up to since the beginning of the New Year.

Countless adjustments to the new interface design based on your feedback and suggestions have been performed. We are almost done cleaning up AceProject 6.0 from a usability standpoint.

Marked Custom Task Reports

If your default Home tab page is the Dashboard, odds are you have already discovered one of our latest enhancements. A “Marked Custom Task Reports” section has been added so as to provide quicker access to your most often used custom task reports and to avoid having to locate them through the list of all account custom task reports, as you had to before.

Show/Hide Columns settings to multiple other users

Another great timesaver administrators will love is the ability to apply Show/Hide Columns settings to multiple other users simultaneously. Gone are the days where admins had to login as each user to configure their project and task list views.

AceProject 6.0 was officially released on November 26th, 2012. This new version represents a milestone in AceProject’s development history. Never before had so many changes been applied to the application simultaneously.

10 Most Important Enhancements in AceProject 6.0

Although all users  have noticed the most obvious usability improvements, there is a lot more to AceProject 6.0 than meets the eye. In fact, the entire list of modifications reads as a smorgasbord with plenty of goodies for any type of user’s taste.

1. Project tabs can be reordered in the top frame by drag-and-drop.
   
2. Pulldown menus added to the Home and Project tabs for quicker access to frequently viewed pages and common actions.
   
3. New “+” button in the top frame facilitates creation or location and opening of projects. This button also allows you to open multiple projects simultaneously.
   
4. Portfolio tab eliminated. Contents previously accessible through the Portfolio and My Office […]