In activeCollab there are two billable statuses while tracking time on task or project. One is Billable and Second is Non Billable.

You can set default billable status at the global level from Administrator > General Settings and project level settings from Project > Options > Change Settings.

According to the bug that was noticed, the Chronograph module was picking up global level default billable status even though project level billable status is set. It means, if you set billable status as “Non Billable” at global level and “Billable” at project level, Chronograph module sets billable status as “Non Billable”.

So, we fixed that issue. Now, Chronograph module picks up billable status from Project level settings.

The other bug fix was about Job Types

In activeCollab, Job types can be created through Administrator > Job Types & Hourly Rates panel. While creating a task in project, you can specify an estimate with Job type and by default time tracking on that task it will be consider in that job type. Again, Chronograph module was picking up default job type even though Job type is different for particular task.

We fixed that issue. Now, time tracked through Chronograph module picks job type of that task not the default one which sets at global level.

So, these are two important fixes which we have done in last release.

Credit: One of our customer Angela, reported this issue. Because of that this issue came to our notice and we fixed it. Thank you Angela for spotting that out

The first feature is the Highlighted Customer Comment feature.

(Note: This feature was added into Mizen a few days back and looking at the customer response we received….we thought of extending it to Comments Plus Module as well )

Previously, customer comments looked the same as any other comments in the system. One had to literally dig into the details of the comments so as to distinguish between a customer reply and a employee reply. This not only was a total time waste but also increased frustrations incase the project to be scanned was huge and had multiple participants involved.

Customer Comments – Previous Look

With this new feature, the customer comments get highlighted in a different color. This makes it standout and recognizing customer comments gets much quicker and easier.

Customer Comments- New Look

The second feature is the Predefined Templates.

It is seen that we often have to draft fixed replies to customers. It could be as simple as a Thank you mail for testimonial that the customer sent you or it could be a pre-sales question inquiring about some product and its details.

What we originally did was :

1) Create a master text document having such predefined replies and then copy paste the reply as and when we received a corresponding customer mail

or

2)The hardworking guys simply sat and drafted the whole reply every single time… Whereas now, stop spending those extra minutes drafting such mails each time a customer sends a testimonial or asks for product details…or hunting the master text document.

Simply use the Comments Plus Module. Create a template of ready made replies and use them as and when required.

Comments Plus Module now allows you to save ready made replies in the form of templates. You can simply create a template and then use it multiple times whenever required. Kindly check out the screen shots below for better visual understanding.

comment-template

add-edit-delete-template

What Next?

Download Comments Plus Module to test drive this feature now!!!

Previous Problem

Client Comments – Previous Look

The customer comments were not distinct. Mizen did not differentiate customer comments from the other comments. It had the same look and feel as any other comment in the system. This made it difficult for an employee to scan through the conversations. One had to literally read through comments and figure out if that was a reply sent by a customer or by just another employee belonging to that project. Now if the conversations were short this method was bearable. However, if we had a huge project with multiple employees and clients working simultaneously on it. It would be a big pain to address this issue.

Current Solution

Customer Comments- New Look

We came up with a simple solution. Just like we treat our customers differently. We thought of changing the look of the customer comments. Although nothing fancy just a change in the color of customer comments it serves its purpose the best.

You no longer have to dive into the comments to figure out which of them is a customer reply. Just a scan and you can easily distinguish a customer reply from the other comments. So no matter however long are the project discussions or however huge are the number of participants in the project, customer replies will standout thanks to this amazing feature.

 Check it out and let us know your feedback. Suggestions are welcome

Next, we thought of adding some color to the dashboard. So here we are introducing graphs (bar charts)

Time Reports Plus KPI

With this new release, 4 main KPI’s i.e. paid, unpaid, billable, non billable will be shown as a bar chart.

Also the current week is shown as a graph . This feature will give you a quick view about your current week progress.

Now, Time Reports Plus loads current month time records by default. So, most required KPI’s will be at your finger tips. You can always set filters according to your need and get required reports.

This month we thought of introducing a something clients have asked us before – the ability to add more than one subscriber to a support ticket.

Earlier, you could create a new support ticket in Tasks Plus (on behalf of the customer) – but with one email address only. Now, you can separate multiple email addresses (and names) with a comma; and Tasks Plus will subscribe all those people to the newly created support ticket.

Along with this, we also added some fixes.

The first bug we fixed was related to comment status. Consider a task containing Confidential / Private comments. If you merged it with another task, the confidential / private comments became “normal” – hence visible to others.

We’ve fixed this bug. So comments will retain their privacy status in the merged task.

The next fix was regarding ‘Localization of Email Template’. It was noticed that even when a non-English language was selected, email templates were still in English.

We’ve fixed this too – so that email templates are localized.

Hope this addition and fixes help you!

You can learn more about Tasks Plus here…

Monthly Reports

Apps Magnet had an eventful June. We worked on a couple of important things namely:

• Important bug fix release in the Communication Module.
• Certain UI enhancements in the Chronograph Module.
• Addition of Project Template in Zapier.

Photo Cred: Giphy

After a couple of discussions with team we got to a conclusion and decided to work on the security feature of the module.

The result….. is our latest edition to the Communication module  that will surely have you delighted!!!

Now, Admin is able to set permissions within  the Communication Module.

Basically there are two types of permissions i.e

1) Who can participate in communication – i.e deciding which member can view and participate in a particular communication.

2) Who can create communications – i.e which member can create communications.

You can set permissions through Administrator -> Communications

Interesting???

Well we feel this would make your communications more controlled, more flexible and more secure…

What do you feel??? Drop a comment we are listening….

On this Mother’s Day, Apps Magnet wishes all the mothers a very

                                  HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

And we thought you may like this infographic on this occasion! (courtesy: TechBargains.com)

Find out What Mothers want this Mother’s Day…

MothersDay

Social Media -Facebook,Twitter,Linkedin

As we grow, we want to be accessible to our customers easily. Not just helpdesk or email. We figured social media was the way to go.

So we hired Andrea Juliao to connect with and assist our customer community. She will be taking care of you via social media as well.

You will be glad to know that social media won’t just be an added means to reach out to our support; but also a gateway to future announcements and progress at Apps Magnet.

Click on the images below and connect with us.

Facebook Link -Apps Magnet

Twitter Link -Apps Magnet

Linkedin Link – Apps Magnet