October updates to TeamworkPM

New billed column in time reports

Recently we have been getting a lot of feedback asking us “How can I view the time that has already been billed?”. This month, listening as we always do, we decided to do something about it. We've added a 'Billed' column both in the Everything section under the All Time tab, as well as in the time tab of the project itself.

Now you can quickly view what time has been billed or not.

We have also added the option within the custom reports found in the Everything section and the Time tab. From here you can choose to show if the time has been billed or not.

Adding files by email

There are a number of ways to add a file to TeamworkPM. You can email a file as an attachment to a task, a message, a comment, or you can upload it straight into the file section using the Upload Interface.

We have now gone one step further and added the ability to email files directly to the files tab of your projects.

Each project has a unique (customizable) address that you can email your files to. You can add a single file or multiple files at once. To go one step further we even added the ability to make it private to users in the owner company by simply adding private+ to the title of the email.

You can email any type of file to your projects. The current limit is 100MB for emailed files and is perfect if you’re out and about with your mobile device and need to quickly get a file to your Teamwork project.

We hope you will find this to be a useful addition :-)

Update to Box.com file viewing

We all love being able to view things at a glance and this month it was time for Box.com files to get some attention. Using the new Box.com Embedded files feature, we've updated our Box integration so you can now preview your Box files using an embedded file viewer without leaving Teamwork.

Once you click on a Box.com file in your Teamwork account you'll see a new option to Preview Box.com File. This opens the cool Box.com file viewer which can preview a whole host of file types without the need to download the file first and open it using software on your computer.

Read more about the Box.com Embedded File Viewer on the Box.com Blog

New filter options for company calendar

This month we have added a much requested feature to the company calendar within TeamworkPM.

Have you ever looked at your calendar and thought “What is going on, I can’t make any sense of this?”

The company calendar is your hub for seeing what meetings people are attending, what events are on and what important milestones are coming down the line. With all these items on display the calendar can become overloaded with information making it difficult to pick out the content you are interested in.

We have now added a very handy update to help combat this issue. Now at the top of the calendar you will see you have the ability to filter the content by project and by person.

This allows you to quickly see all items that involve you, as well as being able to focus on a single project. This option is very useful if you operate with a lot of milestones.


Quickly change a tasks priority

Priorities can change quickly during your working day depending on what needs to be done and what your clients are screaming for the most.

This month we added a new way that allows you to quickly change the priority of a task to reflect these changes without having to go right into the task edit screen.

From today if you mouse over a task without a priority set you will see a greyed-out priority icon at the end of the task description. Tasks with priority set shows the High/Medium/Low priority icon. If you move your cursor over this icon a box will appear that will allow you to pick a new priority for the task.

This was another frequently requested feature via feedback and we’re delighted to finally release a quick intuitive interface for quickly changing the priority of tasks.

Quickly attach a file to a task

We’re always looking at ways to speed up your daily use of TeamworkPM and take some of the pain points out of common actions. This month we’ve added a very handy shortcut for attaching files to a task that has already been created.

Normally what would happen is that people would create a task and then as an afterthought think, “shoot I really should attach a file to this task to give it more meaning” Before you would have to edit the task, click the Files tab, attach your files and then hit save.

As of today we have a number of ways to make this faster. Mouse over the task and then hit ‘F’ on your keyboard. This will bring up a handy dialog which gives you the option of attaching a file to the task nice and fast.

How handy is that!

Now if you’re not a fan of keyboard shortcut or if you can never remember the key to press we have also added this quick add option to the Task Options menu on the left of each task. Mouse over the task, hit the arrow at the front of the task to toggle the menu and then select the option “Attach files...”. The same quick add menu will then appear. Now just upload or pick your file and you’re done.

Another pain point of attaching files to tasks was from the View Task page. Again, you’d have to edit the task, click the Files tab, select your file and save the task. We’ve added a link on this page to bring up the same quick add files dialog right from the View Task page.

As always we hope this small change makes a big impact on your work flow so let us know what you think in the comments!

New Feature: Sub-categories Everywhere!

By popular request, we have just added sub-categories (sub-folders) to all areas of TeamworkPM.

A bit of background

When we built TeamworkPM, we wanted to keep the entire system really easy-to-use, so we made the decision to not support sub-categories. We thought they weren't really needed and that one level of categories was just dandy.

A popular request

However over the last 5 years we have received masses of feedback requesting that we introduce sub-categories to help keep everything nicely organized and easy to find. We pride ourselves in listening to our users and we have finally invested the time to add this great feature to TeamworkPM.

How it works

When you view the category manager for messages, files, notebooks, links or projects, you now have the option to create new categories nested under another category. It's really intuitive and easy-to-use and doesn't get in your way if you don't want this option.

Once you have your sub-categories set-up you can easily choose them from the drop down menu when adding new messages, notebooks, files, links or projects.

Easily add new sub-categories

While we were at it we decided to give you the ability to easily add a nested category from the drop-down category picker – so you don't have to create all your sub-categories in advance.

Forcing you to choose a category is gone out the window

Remember how we used to force you to choose a category when adding items to TeamworkPM? Well, after a long debate (at 2am in a Dublin nightclub), we decided that we should remove this requirement – We decided that TeamworkPM shouldn't get in your way with the busy-work of choosing categories and instead we compromised with the idea of having a "No category" view. On the files tab we allow drag-drop of files to the correct folders to help you quickly keep things organized.

 

We hope you are going to love these improvements. Let us know your thought in the comments here or on our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/TeamworkPM

The iPhone App gets an Update

Hi Five

You just might have heard some whispers that Apple has released a new iPhone.  The big new feature ( apart from those gorgeous maps! :) was the larger screen.  Now, whether your managing a complex project or a weekend trip, every extra pixel is worth it's weight in gold. We downloaded the SDK straight away and went through every screen in the app to make sure that it could take advantage in every way possible.  That means extra room to read your messages, more space to edit your tasks and less scrolling to find out what has to be done.  It works wonderfully in the simulator and we're literally sitting in a cafe waiting to collect some iPhone 5's to give it a good test on the actual hardware.   For me it was the extra row of bookmarked Task Lists that I found most useful. 

Here in Ireland the iPhone 5 only came out today - a week behind the US, but we wanted to make sure everything's perfect before we hit submit.  Happily I have an iPhone 5 in my hand as I write this and it's all working well!  So check the App Store in little over a week ( it's takes Apple a few days to get through the 15,000 or so apps submitted every week! )

That's all very nice for those lucky few with new phones, but what about the rest of us older iPhone owners?  Don't fret, we took the opportunity to add in a few of the most requested features so that all iPhone owners can benefit from this update.

Where to start?

Top of those requested features has to be Start Dates.

With the addition of start dates to the web app you can now manage the tasks in your project with more control than ever before.  Dan has written a blog post covering it's genesis and extolling it's virtues.  Obviously, we now support start dates throughout the iPhone app.  On tasks list you'll see both start dates and due dates and if the room permits we expand them out to include day and month names.  The task editor, too, allows you to easily specify both the start date and the end date of a task.

On the subject of tasks and dates here's a couple of quick Power User Tips:

  • Swipe right or left on a date in an editor for a quick way to move up or down through consecutive dates.  So when one of your tasks is moved by a couple of days - swipe, swipe, tap and the task is updated.  Fast.
  • Dan also covered this one very well, but it's so useful I have to repeat it here : ever had the problem of optimistically marking a bunch of tasks as due today, then when they run late you have to keep changing each one so that it appears in your Due Today list?  Well, now just set a start date, then as long as the task has started and not finished it will appear on the My Tasks : Today screen.  Sorted.

New Links Section added

 Another big ticket item added in this update is support for the recently renamed and revamped Links section.  Links gives you an area to keep all of those handy links that you've found and that you think will be useful for your project as some stage.  Whether it's the link to a contract winning Architect for an upcoming build, some background research for a new project, or even an embedded survey for the office night out, Links is the place to store it.  

As you'd expect, the iPhone app can now list, view and create Links.  It also makes it easy to copy a URL from any app into TeamworkPM.  Now when you're out and about and you find a gem, keep track of it with Links.

There are a few other subtle changes as well as a bug fix for an Authentication problem which was affecting a small number of users ( where the app wouldn't save the password ).  In the meantime, let us know what you think.  As always, we love feedback, both the good kind and the harsh kind, so get in touch.  If there's something you'd like to see added, or if there's a tip or topic that you'd like us to write about then drop us a line or leave a comment.

Enjoy your updated iPhones, whether it's a 5 or earlier!

 

 

New Feature: Quickly find out who and when a task was completed or created

We’ve always displayed the full task details on the task View Page but most people work from their “Tasks” tab, Dashboard or Everything page.

When looking at a bunch of tasks it was hard to quickly find out who and when a person created a task or who and when a task was completed.

This month we’ve fixed this nuance.

If you put your mouse over an active task for 1 second a new tool-tip is displayed showing who created the task and when they created it.

Similarly if you click the Show Completed Tasks link under a task list in a project, hovering your mouse over the title of the completed task will display a tool-tip detailing who completed a task and when they completed it.

This saves a lot of navigating to get some important data.

Update: Changes to task date input shortcuts

The new Start Date field has also brought a slight adjustment to the quick date picker under a Due/Start Date when Adding or Editing a task.

When we added the Start Date to the task form we wanted the form to remain clean and tight.

The quick links underneath the date input were quite long. We had a one-click option to set the date to Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, Next Month or No Date. On a Friday, Saturday or Sunday we also gave a quick set function for Next Monday. With 2 date inputs side by side the form started to look complicated and messy.

Initially we simply cut the available options down to 3. Today, Tomorrow and No Date but as we used the new implementation it was apparent that the reduction in options was going to be a problem. It may seem like a small thing but usually small changes have the biggest impact!

We took another look at it and decided that Next Week was definitely an option we’d like to keep. To try and reduce the space that these took up we renamed it to “+1 Week” and added it back in. We had plans to add a drop-down in the coming days to give access to more options.

We thought we had it nailed but feedback started to come in that people assumed “+1 Week” meant that the date would keep accumulating with each click. This makes sense as the language we used implied that a week would keep being added.

As I mentioned we had planned to add a drop down so we could still give the option of Next Month, 2 Months time, 6 Months time etc but we actually had a perfect solution staring us in the face! Why not change the “+1 Week” to accumulate the date with each press! Now with one option a person can postpone a task by as many weeks as they like without having to go through drop-down menus!

So far this has been working really well and we’re considering changing “Tomorrow” to “+1 day” so with a couple of clicks a person can postpone a task date by any number of days. We’d love to know if this is something you think we should add so let us know in the comments!

New Feature: Start dates on tasks

Top of our Roadmap was a feature that we've had many many requests for - Start Dates on tasks.  

For an absolute age we've held off tackling this feature but in the last few months we've been inundated with requests. It was one of the main reasons people cancelled their trial accounts. I made it my mission to get this added in time for this months Newsletter.

To give a bit of background on why we didn't add Start Dates from day one and why we took so long to add them let me step down memory lane for a bit...

5 years ago our consulting business was on the up. We had more work than we could handle and new projects landing on our doors every day. We hadn't anything in place to help manage and co-ordinate these projects and customers were getting annoyed.

Tasks were being forgotten, emails were not getting answered, projects were taking longer to finish as we jumped between "the next most important thing" depending on how loud each customer was shouting.

We looked at various products and signed up for Basecamp. We used Basecamp for a while but we found it lacking in features that we needed. We thought we could do better so we started our own internal app to help manage the load. Like Basecamp we started with basic to-dos that could be assigned to a person. We didn't have dates and you had to associate the task list to a Milestone to get a rough date. It worked for a while but it wasn't ideal.

The next iteration of tasks brought Due Dates. At this time we had launched Teamwork as a product of it's own. We split our time between consultancy work (4 days) and Teamwork (1 day and weekends) Friday was "fun" day. This was the day where we could improve Teamwork and add the features suggested by people who started to use Teamwork.

People loved the due dates. We got a tonne of people moving to Teamwork from Basecamp because we had due dates on tasks!

As Teamwork got more popular and more people started using it the feedback kept pouring in.

What about recurring tasks? What about multiple people on a single task? What about dependencies...nobody was asking for start dates!

What happened next? We added all the features I just listed and put Start Dates on the long finger...

Lets jump back to the present day and look at the next top requested feature. Gantt Charts. Absolutely impossible to do 100% without start dates. With start dates added Gantt Charts are finally a possibility!

The hardest part of adding Start Dates on tasks was the cascading effect it had on existing areas of the app. Take for example the Dashboard/Project Overview. We have 3 handy tabs on these relating to Late, Today and Upcoming tasks.

The Today and Upcoming tabs needed to change to take start dates in to account. Because a start date is optional and a due date it optional we need to allow for the following:

  • Tasks with a due date only
  • Tasks with a start date only
  • Tasks with both a due date and a start date

 


The Today tab will now list any task that has a due date of “Today” or any task that was due to start on or before today.

The Upcoming tab will now list any task that is due with-in 14 days (if it doesn’t have a start date) or due to start with-in 14 days.

If you don’t add Start Dates to your tasks these tabs will function as they always have.

My personal favourite benefit of start dates is that I no longer have to re-schedule my late tasks every morning. The way I work is I queue up a load of tasks for myself every morning and I set the Due Date to Today so I can work off my Today tab on the Dashboard. The problem is I’m always over optimistic and the next day I may have a few late tasks from the day before.

It’s a pain having to go in the next day and set the due date to Today. Now with Start Dates on tasks, I just set the new start date field on the tasks I hope to get done and leave the Due Date blank. They all show on my Today tab and if I don’t get them done, they’ll still be on my Today tab when I get in to work the next day!

There are other areas where Start Dates greatly enhance Teamwork. We added the export to MS Project and GanttProject a while back so people could visualize their tasks on a printable Gantt Chart. The problem was that the Gantt was generated using a Due Date only so it didn’t represent a true Gantt chart.

We’ve updated both these exports to include the Start Date so the Gantt chart export is now much more useful.

We also got to update the iCal feeds for the Calendar. Tasks with a Start and Due date set will now show as spanned events in your favourite external calendar such as iCalendar or Google Calendar.

We’re excited about the new features we can add to Teamwork over the next few months so stay tuned!

Move or copy a project to another TeamworkPM account

As more and more people use TeamworkPM the ability to copy or move projects to other TeamworkPM accounts became a highly requested feature. This month we are really happy to announce that this is now available.

One of the reasons this was being requested so much, was as people added clients to their installation their clients realized the value that TeamworkPM brought to their company and they saw the benifit of using a project management app to help run their projects smoothly.

Naturally the client would love to have the current project in their new account and up until now this wasn't possible.

There are a few steps that you must do to successfully transfer a project to a new account.

First of all you must link the accounts. Don’t worry this is only a link to the individual user, it doesn’t mean that your accounts will be joined in any other way.

For those of you who don’t already know, a while back we released a feature called Sites. What this enables you to do is to quickly jump between TeamworkPM accounts without have to log out and in each time.

What you do is login to one account, navigate to your name in the top right, click on My details. Go to Account tab and look for the Advanced Options link.

Once you select this you will see the options to link your accounts. If you used the same email address for your other accounts it will display there. If you have used another email account you can enter this here to display your other TeamwoKPM accounts.

Now follow the instructions on screen and link your accounts.

Once you have the accounts linked you are ready to go.

Click into the correct project, click on project options from the overview page, then pick copy/move this project.
At the top of the lightbox pick your action and then pick the account to which you wish to move/copy the project to.

You can see you also have the options to pick what elements of the project you wish to move.

As with all our features, we really hope you enjoy as well as find this new feature useful.