Cost Tracking Archives

A workaround for recurring tasks

Recurring tasks is one of the most requested features on our wishlist. Since this feature is rather complex to implement, and we have a lot on our plate, we have decided at this time to invest our energy on other enhancements like cost tracking. Recurring tasks will be added to AceProject someday, but not in the near future.

That being said, there is actually a workaround for creating recurring tasks in AceProject, thanks to the "Move/copy a task" feature. If you're willing to repeat the process periodically, you'll get recurring tasks without too much trouble. Here's how to:

Step 1 – Open the task that reoccurs and click the "Move/Copy" link at the upper right.

Step 2 – Select the "Copy this task within the same project" option.

* You may also select items to copy (comments, task documents and/or user assignments.)

* When you're done, click the "Go to Step 2" button.

Step 3 – Set the new task's dates (i.e. the next occurrence)

Step 4 – […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-12-09T14:32:00-05:002009-12-09|

A sneak peak at AceProject 4.8

We’ve been working on AceProject 4.8’s new cost tracking features.

Cost tracking has been an often-requested feature set for AceProject, and we’re finally doing it!

While working on the cost tracking module, we realized that not everyone would want to track costs in AceProject. This is why we decided to give that flexibility to our users. While we were at it, we also added another requested feature: the ability to disable all time sheet features in AceProject. You will be able to do this via the Account Info page:

The nice thing about disabling time and cost tracking is that our clients will have the choice of either a very simple interface for project management, or a full-featured, iron-triangle project management system.

Keeping it simple is the challenge

We have worked for eight years to keep AceProject simple. Adding the cost-tracking features while keeping AceProject simple is a daunting challenge. While we need to have a complete feature set, we don’t want to confuse anyone.

Each person (within their access rights) will enter […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-09-18T14:33:00-04:002009-09-18|

Just in before the end of summer: Cost tracking coming to AceProject!

It’s been requested for a long time. After all, cost or part of the project management triangle, along with schedule and scope. While AceProject allows for management of the schedule and the scope of the project, no dollar signs could be found in the application.

That’s about to change

With version 4.8, scheduled for the end of the year, AceProject will include the following cost tracking features:

Entering an hourly cost rate for each user
Logging expenses for a task and/or a project
Entering estimates for expenses as well as hours
Entering a budget for the project
Reporting on expenses and labor costs
Comparison to budget and estimates
Disabling or enabling both cost tracking and time tracking features at the account level

As development progresses, we’ll share some screen captures with you here.

Our goal is to introduce a way to manage project costs that is simple and user-friendly. Our challenge is to keep AceProject balanced between its ease of use and a comprehensive feature set, and we expect that the cost tracking features will test us on that level.

What do you think? How should we […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-07-28T11:57:00-04:002009-07-28|

Trends VS needs: know the difference

We receive suggestions for new features every week. When I do live demos with future clients, they regularly request new features as well.

We really like receiving these suggestions. They give us a pulse of the market, of what people are looking for.

A year ago people were asking for Salesforce integration a lot. Six months ago it was baselines. These days, people are asking to automated resource leveling.

Now I’m not saying those are not great features to have in AceProject. Quite the contrary. However, these requests come and go. They’re trends.

Over the last 2 years, one feature that has been requested consistently is cost-tracking. It’s a big feature.

And we’ve decided to do it!

Cost tracking will be included in AceProject 4.8

We chose to develop the cost tracking feature because it’s been requested consistently for a long time. This tells us it’s a true need for AceProject, not just a trend. Seeing how implementing cost tracking will take a lot of time and effort, we wouldn’t have done if we had identified it as a trend.

Next time: I’ll […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-07-14T12:01:00-04:002009-07-14|