Scheduled Downtime this Weekend!
This weekend we’ll be applying some server software updates to a particular server – ProWorkflow2.net. We’re upgrading the ColdFusion server software to the latest release. This will increase the speed of the ProWorkflow application in some areas up to 30%. Next weekend we’ll apply this to other servers. It will take approx 1 hour to apply the software update, however that may be additional downtime around this timeframe.
Only accounts on this server will be affected. To know if your account is on this server, look at the account URL: ie: https://proworkflow2.net/company/.
Planned Upgrade Timeframe: (Approx)
USA: Saturday – 2am-3am
AUS: Saturday – 7pm-8pm
UK: Saturday – 10am-11am
NZ: Saturday – 9pm-10pm
As of Friday night we pushed out Xero integration to all ProWorkflow subscription accounts, this was a silent update (we didn’t announce it) as we are still in beta testing.
Beta testing means while we have ironed out all bugs internally there may be bugs that crop up as a result of unique combinations people have used in Invoices that we haven’t accounted for (trust me, I tried to test for every concievable combination!).
If you want to turn it on in your account then go into Settings in the “INVOICE Manager” and scroll down to “Integration Settings” selecting “XERO” from the drop-down list.
You will find instructions on how to use tht integration in the Knowledgebase in a section appropriately called Integration, where we have an article on Xero including a PDF explaining the setup process as well as day-to-day use.
If you’re going to give it a try then please do get in touch with us and let us know so we can guide you through it and answer any questions you might have.
Latest Update! – Speed Enhancements!
We’ve just updated all accounts over the weekend with the new v6.3 update. This update and the next few releases are focused on speeding up ProWorkflow – You should notice it’s running faster already! Below is a quick list of the speed enhancements in this update. For more detailed descriptions, visit Julian’s (CEO) blog here…
- Optimized code on these pages
– Invoices Page (& Past Invoices)
- Quotes Page (& Past Quotes)
- Projects Page
- Tasks Page
- Invoices Page (& Past Invoices)
- Improved the Audit Log (Added more events)
- Improved Calendar Loading
- Added a ‘Live Alerts’ notifier
- Added a new ‘Tasks Archive’ page
- Added ‘Shared Images’ directory
- Added a ‘Speed Tips’ link in the header
- Introduced server caching for static data/images
- Server optimization for better performance
For further details and what’s coming next, read this post.
Time Tracking Widget Update!
The Time Tracking Widget (and Gadget) are complete and in final testing. They’re working well and will be available next week from this page: http://proworkflow.com/widgets/time-tracking/. Please contact us if you’d like to beta test the Widget.
QuickBooks Update!
The QuickBooks integration is also complete and in final testing. The final polish and documentation is happening now and we’ll announce the availability in the next 1-2 weeks.
Due to spam rules now in place we have recently had to change the settings on all accounts so when emailing invoices/quotes or receiving email alerts, they will come from alerts@the proworkflow server your account is on e.g. alerts@proworkflow2.net.
This is done to minimize the chances of emails getting rejected by the latest spam filtering software. The software finds the server that the email was sent from and checks if it has permission to send email for the address specified in the ‘FROM’ address. If the ‘FROM’ address is not associated with the sending email-server then 90% of the latest spam software will reject the email and it will not be delivered to the intended recipients.
This will not affect the vast majority of our user base, but where you had asked us to over-ride the server’s ‘FROM’ address to one of your choosing, you will find it has reverted back to the server.
We apologize for the inconvenience but this is outside of our control and the best measure for the entire user base. We are currently working on lots of new and exciting features, with a PDF download option on invoices/quote coming soon (so you can email the PDF to clients).
We’ve just put live a change to the sign-up process, where previously you signed up then we got in touch for payment details, you can now enter this information when signing up.
We’ve also put the terms before entering in your company information, because it makes more sense to agree to the terms before entering information, instead of the other way around.
Now when you get to the third step “Details” there is an option to enter billing information, there are three options (outlined below).
Credit Card (Preferred)
You can now enter your credit card information directly here, the system will check to ensure it is a valid card and then continue.
Invoice/Wire Transfer
This is pretty self explanatory…
Automatic Payment (New Zealand only!)
If you use automatic payment then we get in touch to give you the bank information and your payment date.
Why should you care?
Well you may not to be perfectly honest 
, but this makes the whole process significantly smoother for everyone involved (because we don’t have to hassle you for information), and it puts us one step closer to Automatic Signup (the holy grail!)
I have re-written the email alerts that are the default in each ProWorkflow account to be vastly simplified and easier to read.
Why did we re-write them?
We did it because the original email alerts, other than being terribly messy code, weren’t easy to read. Many alerts simply had the subject line as “project overdue” which wasn’t helpful if you received 10 “Project Overdue” alerts.
With the new alerts you can see the project name in the subject line of each alert, the content has been re-written to remove any images, links directly to the project or task they are talking, and includes a link to a page I have set up to explain what alerts are.
The page helps people who receive alerts, have never seen them before, and have no idea what they are about by explaining why they received them.
We have set up the email alerts as the default stored, so it won’t over-write any customization you have made to your existing alerts. If you want to use the new alerts then go into the Email Alerts Builder in the “ADMINISTRATION” section and click each “Reset” link (there are three in total).
Tracking time in ProWorkflow has never been easier thanks to a new feature we are announcing today for inclusion in the upcoming Version 6 (rolling out to customers starting this week).
Currently in ProWorkflow if you want to track time on an item you need to log in and navigate to that task, tell the system when you want to start, then repeat the process when you want to finish.
Here at ProActive Software we are committed to making your life easier, upgrading/adding any features that can aid this goal. That’s why we are proud to announce our brand new time tracking feature “Chronomancy”.
What is it?
Chronomancy is a system of foretelling the future (Greek chrono, “Time”; manteia, “divination”), whereby we can tell you your time records for the entire day upon logging into the system on that day.
How is it done?
Chronomancy is done by a series of complex algorithms that analyses all your time records for the past year, factoring in days where you didn’t track time (your weekends and holidays), the time of day those records were created, duration of records and other applicable information.
We then use a series of systems that “read” the names of all your tasks and projects and compares them to various dictionaries and your specific industry’s terms to figure out what each task is related to (whether it is an admin task, design task etc).
Through a combination of these records we can ascertain how much time you normally track on the specific day, how many records the time consists of, and what types of tasks are normally done.
We then go through all of your tasks and pre-track time on them for the day using this information, so when you first log in all you have to do is confirm the time records.
What are the benefits?
Through Chronomancy you never have to worry about time tracking again!
No longer do you have to go into each individual task and track time, because the system already knows what you would have done on the specific day.
This is going to revolutionize the time management portion of ProWorkflow, revolutionize time tracking in the Project Management space, and save you a significant amount of time!
When will this be out?
We are planning to include this in Version 6 of ProWorkflow, rolling out to customers starting this week. Let us know what you think in the comments below, we are really excited about this new functionality!
