December 17, 2005

1. Data exchange and integration: Enhancements to salesforce.com integration; special role privilege for QuickBooks integration.

2. Administrative: Case-sensitive passwords; other Administrative features.

3. Reports: Filtering by hierarchy nodes; project baseline reporting enhancements; other Reporting features.

4. Invoices: Invoice layouts with different logos; show project name on invoice list view.

5. Expenses: Expense report layout options; tax enhancements; other Expenses enhancements.

6. Other module enhancements: Resources, Projects, Timesheets, and Opportunities.

7. Would you like to see previous OpenAir product updates?

8. Suggestions, problems or questions?




1. Data exchange and integration: Enhancements to salesforce.com integration; special role privilege for QuickBooks integration.

OpenAir continues to enhance our integration with salesforce.com. With this release, administrators can specify an automatic push of data back to your salesforce.com account on a daily basis. This allows you to run reports in salesforce with up-to-date data from OpenAir. In addition, the latest version of the integration allows projects imported into OpenAir from salesforce.com to include billing rules and other attributes (such as project stage, an associated workspace, auto-billing settings, recognition rules, project pricing, custom fields, and loaded cost) copied automatically from a template in your OpenAir account. Please contact OpenAir support for more information.

OpenAir Integration Manager (IM) is an application used to exchange data between your OpenAir account and external systems, including QuickBooks. We have recently enhanced the IM QuickBooks integration to require administrator role privileges in order to run updates. This ensures that the data exchange is not limited by a role restriction of the user running the update. With this release, we have also added a new role privilege allowing administrators to give a user rights to run the IM QuickBooks update, without giving them full administrative rights within OpenAir. To take advantage of this feature, administrators navigate to My Account > Account > Roles > [select a role]. At the bottom of the form, check the option "Elevate to full admin privileges for QuickBooks integration" and save. Users with this role will be able to run updates from IM to QuickBooks, even though their OpenAir role is otherwise limited.





2. Administrative: Case-sensitive passwords; other Administrative features.

OpenAir administrators can now configure passwords to be case-sensitive. To enable this feature, administrators navigate to My Account > Company > Settings > Password options. Check the option “Password is case sensitive” and save. Other password options include requirements that passwords have a minimum length, that they include both alpha and numeric characters, and that they be different from the User’s ID. We recommend that if an administrator wants to turn on the new case-sensitive password feature, passwords should be reset, or set to expire, using the “Password expiration” option in the same section of company settings, so that users can be forced to enter new passwords. This will help prevent possible confusion among users who had believed their passwords were already case-sensitive, when in fact passwords have been stored up until now as lower case.

Other Administrative enhancements in this release include:

Approval processes have been streamlined, in cases where a user’s [Manager] is an approver and the same manager is also explicitly named as an approver in the same process. If an approver approves as [Manager], the second approval under the approval process will be automatic. For more information on approval processes, please see the online help in My Account > Help > Account tab. Click the “Approval processes” link under Timesheets, or Expenses (or Opportunities or Purchases).

For multi-currency accounts, list view columns are subtotaled and totaled, if the currency is the same for all rows in the view. We have also enhanced the “Bulk user change wizard” to allow setting of users’ default currency in multi-currency accounts. Default currency for a single user can be set in My Account > Account > Users > [select user ID] > Demographic > Currency. The currency setting can now be copied from one user to multiple users, using the wizard, which is available from Dashboard > Wizards > Bulk user change wizard. For more information on the user change wizard, please see the online help in My Account > Help > Dashboard tab > Wizards.

The ability to modify permissions on a field-by-field basis has been extended to the customer and prospect forms. See the hints at the bottom of the “Edit customer” and “Edit prospect” forms for a link to “Modify the form permissions”. Form permissions allow administrators to more finely tune the access rights granted by roles in OpenAir; this feature can be particularly valuable, for example, in meeting regulatory standards for segregation of duties. For more information, please see the section on "Field-based permissions" in the product update for the September 10, 2005 release. Other areas supporting field-based permissions include user, project, project task, project billing transactions, invoices, timebill projections, and timesheets.

OpenAir allows creation of a special role for guest users, which provides a means to give your clients limited access to your OpenAir account, allowing them to log in and view account information that is relevant to them. We have added a new option to the guest role, allowing the guest user to customize list views in OpenAir. This can be useful, for instance, if an administrator wants to give guests access to the project outline view, while hiding certain fields, such as “Approved hours”. When creating a guest role, there is a new option: "Guest can customize lists". To take advantage of this feature, we recommend that the administrator create two guest roles, one with rights to customize lists and the other without this right. The administrator would first associate the client/guest user with the role that includes the ability to customize lists. Then, the administrator would log in as the guest and configure the list as desired, removing “Approved hours”, or other fields you don’t want the client/guest to see. Finally, the administrator would modify the client/guest user demographic form to give the client/guest user the role that does not include the ability to customize lists. To create a guest role, please navigate to My Account > Account > Account data > Roles. Select a guest role to modify or use the “New entries > Create” dropdown to create a new guest role. For more information on the guest role, please see the online help, in My Account > Help > Account tab > Account data > Roles.





3. Reports: Filtering by hierarchy nodes; project baseline reporting enhancements; other Reporting features.

We are rolling out several reporting enhancements with this release. First, OpenAir summary reports now support filtering by hierarchy nodes. The hierarchy feature, which has long existed in OpenAir, allows you to create classification trees and assign users, clients and projects to various nodes of the tree, which can be used in reporting on these entities. With this release, filtering on specific hierarchy nodes is also supported. For example, time entries are associated with users, customers and projects, so every user, customer and project hierarchy's hierarchy nodes can be filtered for the available value "All hours" in a timesheet summary report. Filtering is possible even if no hierarchy is chosen for display. Simultaneous filtering of hierarchy nodes from multiple hierarchies is also supported.

In a summary report, the hierarchies available for filtering appear at the bottom of the "Group" column in the "Filters and detail fields" section of the report configuration screen.

This is a very powerful feature; some specific uses for it are:

    • It helps avoid the need to do tedious cherry picking maintenance of entities to include in a report filter. Simply add the entity to the proper node of the hierarchy and chose that hierarchy node to be filtered. There is no need to modify the saved report after updating the hierarchy.

    • It neatly implements the concept of filtering on all entities except this one and that one. For example, perhaps all users need to submit a timesheet except five specific users. Create a hierarchy with the users who need to submit a timesheet, and then pick the top hierarchy node as the filter. Only transactions for those users will be included in the report. It is interesting to note that the hierarchy need not have any depth, so in essence it is a "named list".

    • It enables you to create and report on a cross-section of entities from two or more hierarchies. Assume a geographical user hierarchy and a geographical project hierarchy; you can report on users in Japan working on projects in Australia. Neither hierarchy need be selected for display.

    • This feature also may eliminate the need to create entity custom fields and/or custom profile items that mirror the hierarchy node membership. For more information on hierarchies, please see the online help in My Account > Account > Account tab > Hierarchies.

We have also enhanced reporting options for project baselines. The baseline feature in OpenAir allows project managers to record the status of a project at a given point in time and to set this status as a baseline. Multiple baselines can be created, one of which is designated as the reporting baseline. The manager can later compare the current project status against the baseline and identify any changes in areas such as start and finish dates, planned hours, duration, percent complete, revenue, cost and budgets.

To enable advanced baseline reporting, please contact OpenAir support to have the functionality turned on for your account. Once the switch is turned on, users who have required role privileges can run summary reports on project baselines. Available values (which come from the baseline that has been designated as the reporting baseline) include:
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline all assigned hours
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline assigned FTE
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline assigned FTE (emphasized)
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline projected assignment billing [user rate] (for each currency)
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline projected assignment cost (for each currency)
      > Projects/Account-wide: Baseline projected assignment margin [user rate] (for each currency)
      > Account-wide: Assigned/baseline hours differential
      > Account-wide: Baseline booked/Assigned hours differential
      > Account-wide: Baseline available workschedule hours for assignment
      > Account-wide: Baseline available base workschedule hours for assignment
      > Account-wide: Baseline assigned utilization

For more information on baselines, please see the online help in the Projects module > Help > Projects tab > Baselines.

Other enhancements to OpenAir reports in the current release include:

    • We have added a feature allowing managers to determine whether approvers of timesheets or expenses have been deactivated. This information is available to users with required role privileges from Reports > Advanced > Timesheets > Timesheet status and Reports > Advanced > Expenses > Envelope status. Configure the report to include the approvers whose approvals are pending. “Exclude transactions associated with inactive users” can be checked or un-checked. If an item is awaiting approval by an approver who has been deactivated, the report will show (e.g.) “S [for Submitted] ([Tracking number of the item waiting approval]) [{User ID of the approver whose approval is pending} (Inactive)]”. This alerts the manager of the need to login or proxy in as the inactive approver, to push through items awaiting approval, as well as to check to make sure that active approvers are substituted for those who have been made inactive.

    • Summary reports on invoices can be filtered or subtotaled by invoice status. Users with the required role permissions navigate to Reports > Summary > Invoices. Reports can be configured to subtotal or filter according to invoice status (such as Sent, Not Sent, Viewed). Account-wide summary reports also support this feature, if invoice values are selected for reporting.

    • The user detail report now has an option to show whether the user demographic form has “Do not auto-create new timesheet” enabled. Users with the required role privilege navigate to Reports > Detail > Account-wide > Users. Configure the report layout to include “Do not auto-create new timesheet” and other values as desired.





4. Invoices: Invoice layouts with different logos; show project name on invoice list view; other Invoice features.

Invoice layouts can now have their own specific logo, different from the company logo. The invoice layout logo is used for HTML and PDF views, and for the statement. To insert a layout-specific logo, please navigate to Invoices > Options > Invoice layout. Create a new layout, or select an existing layout to modify it. In the “Logo settings” section, click the “Browse” button, to insert a logo file to be used on invoices with this layout.

In the Invoices list view (Invoices > Invoices), it’s now possible to show the project associated with a particular invoice. Click the “customize” link at the bottom of the form and add “Project” to the list of selected items. The project name is also an available value in the report layout for invoice detail reports (Reports > Detail > Invoices > Invoices). In both cases, this option is limited to those accounts that have “One project per invoice” selected in My Account > Company > Settings > Invoices options.





5. Expenses: Expense report layout options; tax enhancements; other Expenses enhancements.

In the Expenses module, we have added an option so that when users create a new receipt in OpenAir, the date field is blank, instead of defaulting to the current date. Users will be required to enter a date before saving the receipt; the feature is intended to help prevent users from entering receipts with the incorrect date. To turn this setting on for your account, please navigate to My Account > Company > Settings > Expenses options. Check the box "Do not default receipts to the current date" and save.

OpenAir has enhanced tax treatment for expenses in two ways with this release. First, it’s possible to change the terminology (the default is “HST”) that shows on expense reports for the tax item. Secondly, there is an option to show the tax location breakout on the expense report. Please contact OpenAir support to have either of these features enabled for your account.

Other Expenses enhancements in the current release include:

For accounts that use fixed duration for expense envelopes or expense reports, you can now specify a different start day of the week for expenses, compared to the start day for timesheets. Please contact OpenAir support to enable expense report durations, or to change the default start day of the week for expenses.

The expense report layout can be configured with two new options: “show billable/non-billable totals in daily summary” and “show all days in daily summary”. To enable these options, users with required role privileges navigate to Expenses > Options > Expense report layout.

For accounts that use expense authorizations, we now permit authorizations to be associated with existing expense envelopes. Attachments can also be added to authorizations. For information on expense authorizations, please see the online help in Expenses > Help > Authorizations tab > Authorizations.

6. Other module enhancements: Resources, Projects, Timesheets, and Opportunities.

In the Resources module, there are two new features in the current release. Both may be of interest to accounts using booking requests:

    • An option to seed information from the prior booking request when user clicks the button to “Save and create another booking request”. The information that is carried over to the new booking request includes all values except custom field values and repeats.

    • An option for the booking request submitter to edit a submitted booking request. Please contact OpenAir support if you would like this option enabled for your account.

In the Projects module, the Outline view has an option to display a “Type” column, to distinguish between tasks and milestones. Click the “customize” link at the bottom of the page, and add “Type” to the list of values to be displayed.

In the Timesheets module, there are two new features:

    • You can download the timesheets list view; at the bottom of the list, click the “download” link to download the list as a comma separated value file to Microsoft Excel, or as an HTML formatted file to Microsoft Word.

    • For accounts using Schedule requests, users can create a single request even if there are already schedule exceptions existing within the period. For more information on schedule requests, please see the online help in Timesheets > Help > Schedule requests tab >Schedule requests.

In the Opportunities module, we now provide an option to create a project from a deal. If this feature is enabled, there will be a link at the top of the deal view form, which will allow users (provided they have role permissions to view/modify projects) to create a project directly from a deal. The deal amount is entered as the budget amount in the new project. To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir support.





7. Would you like to see previous OpenAir product updates?

Click here to browse previous product updates including all new features, modules and functionality.



8. Suggestions, problems or questions?

As always, please contact us at support@openair.com or 888.367.1288 (outside the U.S. and Canada, call +1.617.351.0226). We pride ourselves on the outstanding care we give our customers. Please let us know how we can improve your experience with OpenAir.