Add Time Spent on Tasks and Tickets

Posted January 23, 2012

Next to each task in Projecturf, there's a timer icon that is used to input the time spent on a task. After clicking the icon, you can quickly input the hours, date, hourly rate, and mark it billable. Once you record your time, the icon will turn blue and you can view the hours and fees associated with that task by clicking on it. Time can also be recorded in the Global Tasks section which displays tasks across all of your projects. This functionality is available for both the Tasks and Tickets sections. All time recorded will be displayed in the Timecard section of the project as well. You can use the Timecard section or the Hours and Fees report to filter and view the data. Remember, access to Timecard data is based on permissions and therefore only project managers can view someone else's time entries on tasks or tickets. Watch this short video tutorial to learn more:

Getting Approvals and Ratings on Designs

Posted January 11, 2012

Each project in Projecturf has a Designs section for sharing, collaborating, obtaining approvals, and rating designs. The designs can be grouped into categories and are displayed as thumbnails. By clicking on a thumbnail, you can view the design inline and also scroll through them using the arrows. When uploading a design, simply check off the users that you want to view the design. Anyone given permission on a design will be able to approve and rate it on a five star scale. Watch the short video tutorial below to learn more.

Also, if you don't need to use the Designs section on a project, it can be turned off in the project settings.

Quick Tip: Export Timecard Fees and Expenses

Posted December 29, 2011

The Timecard section lists all hours, fees, and expenses for a project. You can view the timecard entries when in a project or across all of your projects by navigating to the Global Timecard section. As a quick and useful tool, you can export this data at any time to a CSV file by clicking on the export icon on the far right of the gray filter bar (as shown here).

Before exporting the data, you can set filters to specify your desired output. You can filter the entries by author, billable or non-billable, the time period, and paid or unpaid items. Once filtered, simply click the export icon and it will begin downloading to your computer as a CSV file based on the filters you set. The exported data will show all information including the notes and name of the project associated with each entry. Exporting timecards is available at the project and global level.

This is very handy if you need the data in excel or wish to import it into another software program such as Quickbooks.

New Report Enhancement: View Hours and Fees by Project, Contact, or Both

Posted December 22, 2011

The Global Hours and Fees report was used to display the hours and fees by user. However, based on your feedback, we have just released an updated version of this report that now includes the following options:

• View by contact
• View by project
• View by project, expanded
• View by contact, expanded

These views were added as an additional filter and therefore you can still filter by a specific contact first. The first two options above display a summary by contact or project, whereas the ones which say "expanded" show the summary followed by the break out of the hours and fees for each project by user (as shown below) or the break out of the hours and fees for each user by project.

With these new enhancements, you can quickly see which projects and contacts have the most hours and fees logged and which projects need updating or are not as involved yet. This update was a direct result of feedback received by you. You can submit ideas or vote on existing requests from the suggestion forum.

Timecard Reporting: Easily View all Hours and Fees

Posted December 15, 2011

The Timecard section lists all hours, fees, and expenses entered on a project. This includes unpaid and paid items as well as billable and non-billable fees. In addition, Projecturf offers simple reporting on the unpaid hours and fees that are entered into the Timecard sections. This report displays the billable and total hours and fees for each user and it is nicely formatted to print. The report is available for each project, but is also available as a global report in order for you to see the hours and fees across all your projects. You can easily filter by user and select the time period you want displayed. This is a quick way to see the amounts that need to be paid to each person and how much time your users are logging.

When viewing the report, only project managers can see everyone's timecard entries on a project. Basic users can only see their own entries.

Use Version Control with Your Project Documents

Posted December 9, 2011

Each project in Projecturf includes a Documents section to centralize all your files. When uploading a document, you can set permissions by checking off the names. Anyone given permission can upload a new version of the file. This is a simple way to keep track of all revisions and always have the latest file available. This also eliminates the need to email files back and forth or spend your time searching for the latest one. To use this feature, click on the action panel to the right of the file name and select "new version" from the drop down list. Once you've uploaded a new version, it will display the most recent document with the prior versions indented below it. You will have access to all previous versions and see who uploaded them. Visit the support center to learn more about file versioning.

Also, If you need to have a discussion about the file or have someone update it, you can collaborate on it by starting a discussion when adding the document. This can also be done from the Discussions section and users can reply quickly via email.

Drag and Drop Tasks on the Calendar

Posted December 1, 2011

The calendar allows you to easily modify your tasks in Projecturf. Your calendars will only display tasks that have start and end dates. To view your tasks in the calendar, simply go to the calendar and filter to tasks on the gray filter bar. You can quickly change the time period on the calendar using the arrows and also set the calendar view to show the month, week, or day. From any view, use drag and drop to move and resize tasks. You will only be able to drag and drop them if you have permission to edit the task. You can also make changes to tasks across all your projects in one place using the drag and drop functionality on the Global Calendar. In this short video tutorial, you will see how to use the calendar to change your project schedules with drag and drop.

Easily Manage Projects using the Project Completion Report

Posted November 23, 2011

Projecturf makes managing your projects simple. Each of your projects has a Project Completion Report which allows you to quickly view the progress being made at any time. This report pulls all of your task data together in a presentable format to give you an overview of your project. It includes all of your tasks and subtasks, responsible persons, the status, duration, due dates, and percent complete for each task (as shown in the screenshot below). It can also be customized to show a specific time period and to only display tasks for a specific person.

This report has various sorting options for easily getting your desired output and also includes basic project statistics such as percent complete of the entire project and the overall status of your tasks. By having this information at your fingertips, you can monitor your projects, provide clients or co-workers with a status report, follow up on incomplete or late tasks, and shift responsibilities based on workloads. The Project Completion Report is a very useful tool which helps you stay focused on getting things done.

How to Manage Your Email Notifications

Posted November 18, 2011

There are several ways to track updates and changes on your projects in Projecturf. Some of the ways to track these updates include the project and global dashboards which show the latest activities on your projects, the Daily Progress Reports, RSS feeds, and email notifications. If you want to cut back on the number of emails you receive or find using methods other than email more useful, then you can easily turn them off for any or all sections. In this short video tutorial, you will see how to quickly turn email notifications on and off for each project section. If the My Alerts option is not available for a project, then notifications were turned off at the project level for all users by a project manager.

Using Multiple Project Calendars

Posted November 11, 2011

Every project in Projecturf has it's own calendar and set of contacts. You will typically have the same contact assigned to multiple projects, and therefore you'll want a quick way to check each users availability when adding a new event. By using the check attendee availability button in the add new panel on the calendar, you will be able to immediately see if there are any conflicts. As shown in the video below, clicking the check attendee availability button will show who is busy during the selected time. By navigating to the Global Calendar, you can see what has already been scheduled and the project the event is associated with. This will help you easily schedule meetings and events and make changes on the fly.