Product Update

January 27, 2007

1. Projects: Create a single daily "other rate" billing from multiple time entries; display booking snapshots in project baselines; other Projects module enhancements.

2. Resources: Booking list view customizations; booking custom fields; enter booking notes via booking grid; other Resources module enhancements.

3. Timesheets: Dynamic timesheet grid enhancements.

4. Other module enhancements: Account-wide, Reports.

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

6. Suggestions, problems or questions?


1. Projects : Create a single daily "other rate" billing from multiple time entries; display booking snapshots in project baselines; other Projects module enhancements.

There are several enhancements to the Projects module in this release. First, project billing rules can now create a single "other rate" billing, based on a daily rate, from multiple time entries. Once the feature is enabled for your account, the time billing rule edit form will have a dropdown next to the user override rate field, where users with the necessary role privileges can select either "Hr" or "Day". If "Day" is selected, all user time entries for each day will be added up and divided by the user's "Work hours per day" value (from the "Schedule" link accessible from the user form). This resulting value is then multiplied by the daily billing rate and an "other rate" timebill is created. This feature can be beneficial for handling rounding precision problems. For example, a consultant bills at $1045/day and has a work schedule of 8hrs/day. If users enter a traditional hourly billing rate of $130.62, the precision in the system will result in billings of $1044.96 for 8 hours. With this new feature, users can enter a daily rate override of $1045 and a single daily timebill of $1045 will be created for the same 8 hours of work. If the user only works 4 hours, a timebill of $522.50 will be created. To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Second, users can now create a snapshot of bookings. Snapshots of bookings will be shown on the project baseline report. Baselines allow users to record the status of a project at any time and set it as a baseline against which to compare at a later date. To create a project baseline, make sure baselines are enabled for the project stage the project is part of. Users with appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Baseline. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Baseline". To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Other Projects module enhancements in the current release include:

    • Individual revenue recognition transactions for each user can now be created under the "incurred vs. forecast" revenue recognition rule type. The amount of the user's transactions is based on their contribution to the incurred value. To create individual user transactions, users with appropriate role privileges check the "Create a recognition transaction for each user" box in the "Incurred vs. Forecast rule" edit form.

    • The "incurred vs forecast" revenue recognition rule type now supports filtering on user, expense item, time type, and/or task.

    • Administrators can now require a project's start date to be user-entered, rather than defaulting to the date of when the project was created. This feature is useful for projects that do not start until a future date. With this feature enabled, users creating new projects will be required to manually enter a project start date. To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

    • Phase name and project task custom fields are now available as options when creating advanced filters for the Task list in the Projects module.


Up

2. Resources: Booking list view customizations; booking custom fields; enter booking notes via booking grid; other Resources module enhancements.

There are a few important enhancements to the Resources module in this release. First, the bookings list can now display "Date and time modified" and "Date and time created". To display these two new values, users with appropriate role privileges navigate to Resources > Bookings > List. Click on the "customize" link at the bottom of the page and add "Date and time modified" and "Date and time created".

Second, booking custom fields can now be added to the multiple bookings form. Users with the role setting "Customize the form used to create multiple bookings" can click on the "customize" link at the bottom of the page and add the booking custom field. All types of custom fields are allowed except for "Multiple Selection Field".

Third, users can now add notes to a booking directly from the booking grid. A blue dot, similar to the blue dot on the timesheet grid, now appears on the booking grid, to the right of each time cell. To utilize this feature, users navigate to Resources > Bookings > Grid. Click on the blue dot and enter any necessary notes. The blue dot will change to green to indicate that notes have been entered for that booking. This feature is also available on the booking grid in the Projects module. For more information on the Projects booking grid, please contact OpenAir Support.

Other Resources module enhancements in the current release include:

    • Users can now specify the types of filters allowed for client experience when performing a custom search for resources. Currently, the default filters include Bookings, Projects, Timebills/Charges, and Timesheets. With this feature enabled, for example, users can choose to filter client experience solely based on bookings. To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.
Up

3. Timesheets: Dynamic timesheet grid enhancements.

Several enhancements have been made to the dynamic timesheet grid. The dynamic timesheet grid now remembers changes made to the column widths. If a column width on the main grid is adjusted, the same width will be displayed whenever the grid is loaded. Second, the "Save & Submit" button is now available as an option on the dynamic grid. Third, the "Add new rows" functionality is now available for the dynamic timesheet grid. For more information on the dynamic timesheet grid, please see November 2006 product update.
Up

4. Other module enhancements: Account-wide, Reports.

Account-wide enhancements in this release include:

    • Users now have the ability to position custom fields above any existing field on the form. The positioning of the custom field can be different for every form (e.g. project, booking). To reposition a custom field, users with the required role privileges select "Modify the form permissions" from the bottom of the page. In the "Form options" section, select the position from the "Display Custom Fields before form field" dropdown.

    • Daylight savings time (DST) for 2007 is starting three weeks earlier and will last one week longer than in previous years. OpenAir has made the necessary database changes to account for this change.

Reporting enhancements in this release include:

    • There are five new report values available in summary reports. Users can now choose "TimeSheets – All current user cost", "TimeSheets – Open current user cost", "TimeSheets – Rejected current user cost", "TimeSheets – Submitted current user cost", and "TimeSheets – Approved current user cost" as report values. These values are calculated as the current user loaded hourly cost multiplied by the respective timesheet hours.

    • Two new report date options have been added to detail reports. First, users now have the option to enter date filters for "Task fixed start date" and "Task FNLT date" in a project task detail report. Second, users now have the ability to select future dates in the "Task assignment date" filter, when running a project task assignment detail report.
Up

5. Would you like to see previous OpenAir updates?

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

6. Suggestions, problems, or questions?

As always, please contact us at support@openair.com or 888.367.1288 (outside the U.S. and Canada, call 617-351-0226). We pride ourselves on the outstanding care we give our customers. Please let us know how we improve your experience with OpenAir.