August 11, 2007

1. Invoices: Expense item grouping; associate retainers with agreements; other Invoice enhancements.

2. Projects: Deactivate Fixed fee billing rule already run; new duplication options when creating a project from another project.

3. Reports: New Advanced report; enhancement to Pending billings report.

4. Other module enhancements: Account-wide.

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

6. Suggestions, problems or questions?


1. Invoices: Expense item grouping; associate retainers with agreements; other Invoice enhancements.

Several enhancements have been added to the Invoices module in this release. First, users can now create custom expense item groupings on a per invoice layout basis. Multiple expense items of various types can be grouped into one line on an invoice. For example, users can group all travel expenses excluding airfare/hotel so that the group would include meals, transportation, car rental, etc. To create a custom expense item group, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Invoices > Options > Invoice Layout > [select a layout]. Under the "Combine charges" section, click on the "Create" button under "Custom expense item groups". Name the expense item group, and select the expense items to be grouped together. Click OK. Configure the rest of the settings as desired and save. Please note that at least two expense items need to be selected. In addition, each expense item can only appear in one grouping. To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Second, retainers can now be associated with agreements. This is beneficial in instances where there are multiple agreements and retainers established for a customer. Users are now able to link a specific retainer to a specific agreement. To create an agreement, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to My Account > Account > Invoices > Agreements. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Agreement". To associate a retainer with an agreement, navigate to Invoices > Invoices. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Retainer". Select a "Customer" and associated agreement. Please note that the retainer amount cannot exceed the amount of the agreement. When creating or editing an invoice, the retainer balance will be for the customer/agreement combination, which matches the agreement associated with the invoice.

Two enhancements have been added to Advanced Retainer reports. Users now have the ability to subtotal by agreement in the Advanced Retainer balances report. Also, the Advanced Retainer activity report allows filtering by agreement. To run these reports, users navigate to Reports > Advanced > Invoices. To activate this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Other Invoice enhancements in the current release include:

    • Users now have the option to choose different font types for invoices on a per invoice layout basis. The selected font type will appear in the PDF format of invoices. To select a font type, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Invoices > Options > Invoice Layout > [select a layout]. Under the "Font" dropdown in the "Adobe Acrobat PDF settings" section, select the desired font type. Configure the rest of the settings as desired and save.

2. Projects: Deactivate Fixed fee billing rule already run; new duplication options when creating a project from another project.

There are two important enhancements to the Projects module in this release. First, users now have the ability to mark inactive a Fixed fee billing rule that has already been run. To deactivate the billing rule, users with the appropriate role settings navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Billing > Billing rules > [Select the Fixed fee billing rule]. Uncheck the "Active billing rule" box and save. Please note that the date and amount fields are read-only and cannot be changed, since the rule has already been run. With the addition of this feature, it’s now possible to filter the billing rules list for active rules, and to exclude Fixed fee billing rules that have already been run. Previously, when a Fixed fee billing rule had been run, there was no “Save” button on the billing rule edit form. There was therefore no opportunity to mark the rule inactive and exclude it from the list of active billing rules.

Second, there are four new options for users to duplicate when creating a project from another project. Users now have the ability to duplicate invoice layout, notification settings, dashboard settings, and project approvers. To duplicate these settings, users with appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Project from another project". Check the applicable duplication options, make other selections (including the project to be copied) as desired, and save. Other duplication options include billing rules, project billing auto-bill settings, recognition rules, recognition auto-run settings, project pricing, custom fields in phases and tasks, and issues.

3. Reports: New Advanced report; enhancement to Pending billings report.

Two significant enhancements have been added to OpenAir’s reporting functionality. First, a new Advanced report has been implemented. Users can now track timesheet approval alert history. Users will have the ability to view the approver, number of overdue approval alerts sent to the approver, and the number of timesheet submitters. To run the report, navigate to Reports > Advanced > Timesheets > Late timesheet approvals. Configure the report settings and click "Run the report". To configure an overdue approval alert, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Timesheets > Alerts. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Overdue approval alert". Configure the alert settings and save. To activate this new Advanced report feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Second, when running the Pending billings report, users now have the ability to click on a link that goes directly to the next project in the report rather than having to go back to the report results screen. To utilize this functionality, users navigate to Reports > Advanced > Projects > Pending billings. Configure the report settings and click "Run the report". From the report results screen, click on the project link to view pending transactions for that particular project. Once project billing transactions and timebills/charges have been created for that project, click on the "Go to the next project" link. Users can also choose to click on the "Return to the pending billings report" link. Please note that the link will not appear if there is no other project that has pending transactions. This functionality also applies to the Pending recognition report.

4. Other module enhancements: Account-wide.

Account-wide:

    • Hierarchy nodes can now be added as a column to customer, project, and user list views. Please note that there can only be one hierarchy column per list view. For example, if there are three user hierarchies, only one can be placed as a column in the user list view. To designate which hierarchy will be used, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to My Account > Account > Account data > Hierarchies > [select a hierarchy]. In the "Edit hierarchy" form, check the option "Enable this hierarchy as a column in customer/project/user lists" and save. From the customer, project, or user list view, users can click on the "customize" link at the bottom of the page and add the hierarchy as a column. Users can also choose to filter on a specific hierarchy node from these list views.

    • Filter set access control settings can now be duplicated from an existing filter set. To duplicate the settings, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to My Account > Account > Account data > Filter sets. From the "New entries > Create" dropdown, select "Filter set". From the "Duplicate access control settings from this filter set" dropdown, select the filter set from which to copy the settings. Name the filter set and save. Please note that only settings under the "Access Control" link will be duplicated. Users selected under the "User filter set" link will not be duplicated.

5. Would you like to see previous OpenAir updates?

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

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.