Expense Management Archives

Latest development news on expenses management

As you already know, we are currently working on adding expenses management to AceProject. Basically, users will allowed to record expenses against projects or tasks. Each expense can be sent for approval and tracked in reports. As a teaser, here are a few screenshots:

This page will be available in the "My Office" section. This is where you'll see all your expenses. There will be filters and a text-to-search field. New expenses can be added using the "Quick Action" drop-down at the top of the list.

Now, here's the "Add an Expense" window:

An expense can be recorded against a project or a specific task. You can enter a summary, an expense type and date, the amount, a supporting document (e.g. a PDF invoice) and enter comments (usually, to justify the expense).

Finally, here's the "Expense Report":

Basically, this report shows every expense's detail and provides the sum at the bottom. Just like most reports in AceProject, the "Expense Report" will be available as a "Printer Version" and […]

By Daniel Raymond|2010-03-22T15:18:00-04:002010-03-22|

Technology happens

Software bugs by FlapJack

Last week we held our Q&A webinars. The idea was simple: we wanted to answer everyone's questions about AceProject. Also, we had put together a little surprise for our attendees: screen shots of the upcoming cost tracking features.

The first webinar went well and people we really happy with it! We were delighted at were looking forward to the second one.

And that's when technology happened.

As people were logging in the second webinar, we lost audio. Not just some attendees. Audio was down for everyone. It was bad enough that after 15 minutes, I gave up an rescheduled the webinar for this week (December 16, 2pm EST). I felt awful about having to strand everyone who showed up to get their questions answered. After all 60+ people showed up for the webinar, and I couldn't get it to work!

I was pleasantly surprised to see how supportive the messages were during my failed troubleshooting. People told me not to worry about, that technology happens, and […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-12-14T14:08:00-05:002009-12-14|

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|

Summer reposts: Project metrics: earned value management with a 6-function calculator

Background on the posts

I wrote these two posts because I got tired of reading how complicated it was to compute project metrics. Project metrics are NOT complicated, it’s simple math! So I thought if I wrote my understanding of those metrics, it might help some people.

It turns out these two posts are the most popular ones on the blog!

I hope you enjoy them 🙂

Project metrics: earned value management with a 6-function calculator

Project metrics have a bad reputation. Things like Earned Value and Schedule Performance Index are presented as complex calculations that only experts can master.

Nothing could be further from the truth

Actually, most project metric calculations can be done by anyone with grade-school math skills. The challenge in project metrics calculations is not in the formulas themselves, but in mixing project management concepts with mathematical operators.

Still, these concepts are basic to project management. Every good project manager should understand them.

Start with the basics: Earned Value, Planned Value, Actual Cost

These three are not really formulas. They are the three figures project metrics use to create all the other ones, like the Cost Performance Index […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-08-05T12:51:00-04:002009-08-05|

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|