BlueFolder Blog

Product Update: User Profile Links & iCal Compatibility Improvements

New "Link" Fields on User Profiles

This feature allows you to add links to other web sites to a user's BlueService profile. For example, you could link a user's profile to their Twitter account, their shared Google Calendar, or their LinkedIn account. The links will be displayed in the pop-up bubble that appears when clicking the profile icon next to a user's name.

iCal Compatibility Improvements

Some users have experienced trouble getting individual iCal alerts to be properly recognized as meeting requests by Gmail and Google Calendar. If you're trying to use BlueService iCal alerts with Gmail and Google Calendar, you should modify your profile settings by selecting the "Google" iCal alert format (located in Settings > Personal > Calendar Integration).

Product Update: Enhancements to Mobile Edition

The following enhancements have been added to the mobile edition of BlueService. You can access BlueService Mobile at mobile.blueservice.com.

New Combined Search Feature

The mobile edition of BlueService now has a new search function on the top of the 'Home' page. The search function is a combined search, meaning that it will search both Customers and Service Requests at the same time. Search results are presented with customer matches first, followed by Service Request matches. Your technicians should find this new feature to be a great time-saver when trying to navigate directly to a specific Customer record or Service Request.

View "All Customers"

We've also added the ability to view your entire customer list from the mobile edition. Simply go to the 'Customers' page and select 'All Customers' from the view selector. Customer records are listed 10 at a time, and paging navigation links have been added to the bottom of the list.

Please note that this feature is only available to users who belong to roles that have been granted the permission to view the entire customer list.

Product Update: New Labor Report, Improved QuickBooks Compatibility, and API Improvements

New Report: Labor by User and Rate

This new report is very similar to the existing Labor by User report, but differs in that it groups labor activites by user, then by labor rate. Subtotals are included for each labor rate, making it easy to determine exactly how many hours of each type of labor was performed by each person on your team.

Also, the bottom of the report includes subtotals for each labor rate for all users in the report.

Modifications to Item List for Improved QuickBooks Compatibility

The BlueService item list now supports item numbers that are fully compatible with the hierarchical structure found in the QuickBooks Item List.

The QuickBooks Item List supports a hierarchical structure that makes it easy to organize a large number of items. For example, an item could be called "Installation", with a parent item of "Service Labor". Such an item's full name would be "Service Labor:Installation", with the parent item name appearing before the colon, and the child item's name appearing after the colon.

BlueService has supported colons as part of item names for a long time, but did not support item name lengths of more than 32 characters. This created a compatibility problem with QuickBooks, because an item that had several parent items could easily have a name that exceeded 32 characters. So while it was indeed possible to mimic your QuickBooks item list in BlueService, it was only possible if an item's complete name (e.g. "Service Labor:Installation") did not exceed 32 characters.

To correct this incompatibility, we've extended the item name limit to support longer item names when the item name contains a colon. This change makes it possible to have a BlueService Item List that exactly matches your QuickBooks Item List.

API Improvements

The BlueService API has been extended to support the following new functions:

1. Adding a contact to an existing customer record.
2. Adding a location to an existing customer record.

Product Update: Google Maps Integration, User Profile Popups, and Enhanced Search

Google Maps

We're very excited to announce that we're switching to Google Maps as our mapping provider for BlueService.

In addition to more accurate map data, all BlueService maps will now include zooming and panning functionality. We also plan to add more mapping functionality over the next 6-12 months, so keep an eye out for that.

We've also added Google Maps to BlueService Mobile. If you're using an iPhone, the map link in BlueService will take you right to the built-in Google Maps app where you can easily view driving directions from your current location to your customer's site.

User Profile Popups

Another new feature for this release is something we're calling 'User Profile Popups'. Wherever a user's name appears in a list, we're going to put a little 'business card' icon next to it. When you click the icon, a popup bubble will appear with details about the user (including things like name, job title, email, phone, etc).

Initially, you'll notice the user profile popups in the Calendar tab and on the Service Request List. We'll be adding this feature to more parts of BlueService in the future.

Search by Customer Location in the Service Request List

The Service Request List is being enhanced to allow searching for a particular customer location name. Just enter the customer location name in the search box on the upper right corner of the list, click 'GO', and the list will display all Service Requests associated with the specified location.

Tooltips for Service Request List

Another minor change we've made to the Service Request List is that a couple of the columns now have tooltips that appear when you hover your mouse pointer over them. Specifically, the 'Description' column will display a tooltip if the description has been truncated, and the 'Due Date' column now shows a tooltip with the full due date and time.

Product Update: New Header & Navigation Bar, New Equipment List, Auto-Reset Equipment Service Dates, and more...

New Header & Navigation Bar

We've redesigned the page header and navigation bar to improve usability and reduce the amount of clicks required to navigate.

Most of the main tabs now include a "dropdown" menu that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over the tab.

The features provided by the 'NEW', 'RECENT', and 'SHORTCUTS' menus at the very top left of the page have been integrated into the new dropdown menus.

Recently viewed items have been integrated into their respective tabs. For example, the dropdown menu for the 'Customers' tab automatically includes a list of recently viewed customer accounts.

The previously mentioned 'SHORTCUTS' menu has been renamed to 'Favorites' and is now found on the left side of the tab bar. The favorites menu is labeled with an asterisk icon instead of a text label.

Schedule Tab Merged Into Calendar Tab

The 'Schedule' tab has been eliminated and merged into the 'Calendar' tab. In the past, the 'Calendar' tab was reserved for single-user calendar views, while the 'Schedule' tab was used for multi-user (or team) calendar views. The new 'Calendar' tab will now serve both purposes. The 'Filter by Group' options have been relocated to the upper-right corner of the schedule view. A new 'View Mode' toggle has also been added, making it easy to switch between Individual and Team viewing modes. For users who have scheduling permissions, the 'Calendar' tab will provide access to both multi-user (called 'Team') calendar views and individual calendar views. If you click the 'Calendar' tab, you'll still get one-click access to the default team-scheduling view of your choice. For Technicians, and others who don't have team scheduling permissions, the 'Calendar' tab will provide access only to individual calendar views. These users will also continue to have one-click access to their personal calendar just as they always have.

New Equipment List

Managing your customer equipment records just got a lot easier. We've added a new 'Equipment List' view that allows you to view things like 'Equipment Past Due for Service', 'Equipment Due for Service in the Next 30 Days', etc. You can display customize which fields are displayed (including custom fields) and search the equipment list by any field. If your company tracks equipment with BlueService, this is a huge improvement. You can find the 'Equipment List' as a new option in the 'Customers' menu.

Enhancement to Equipment Service Dates

The BlueService Company Dashboard notifies you when there are equipment items that are due for service. It uses the equipment items 'Next Service Date' to determine which items are due for service. However, once you performed the service for the equipment item, there was no quick and easy way to reset the 'Next Service Date' for that item.

Now, when you create a new Service Request for an equipment item, you will be prompted to set a new 'Next Service Date' for that equipment item. BlueService will automatically suggest a date based on the equipment item's specified service interval, or you can choose a date manually. As soon as the new Service Request is saved, the equipment items 'Next Service Date' will be set to the date specified.

Please note that this feature only works when launching a new Service Request from the 'Customers With Equipment Service Due' (or similar) report(s), or by using the 'New Service Request' button on the Equipment Item page. If you create a new Service Request and manually choose the equipment item to be serviced, BlueService will not prompt you to set a new 'Next Service Date'.

Enhancements to Customer List

Now you can display and search custom fields in the Customer List! Just click the 'CUSTOMIZE' link on the upper right corner of the customer list and then choose the custom fields that you would like displayed. Custom fields are also searchable.

We've also added 2 new columns to the Customer List: 'Primary Contact' and 'Primary Location'. We've had columns like 'Contact Email', and 'Address' for awhile, but displaying all contact and location columns quickly became messy, with too many columns. These columns provide a consolidated way to view all contact or location fields within a single column, making the customer list much cleaner and easier to use.

We've also added a new column on the right side of the Customer List. This column contains an icon that provides one-click access for creating a new Service Request for a customer. This 'New Service Request' icon can also be found on the 'Contact List' and the new 'Equipment List' views.

New 'Contact' Column for Service Request List

We've added a 'Contact' column to the Service Request List. This column contains the Service Request's specified customer contact name, along with a link to the contact record.

No More Support for Internet Explorer 6

We are officially dropping support for the Internet Explorer 6 browser. The current version of Internet Explorer is version 8. If you haven't upgraded yet, you can do so by visiting Microsoft.com and downloading the latest version.

Product Update: Recycle Bin for Service Requests, and Enhanced Schedule Availability View

Recycle Bin for Service Requests

Have you ever accidentally deleted a Service Request? Based on feedback we've heard from our customers, there's a good chance that you have. We're very excited to release this often-requested feature called the 'Recycle Bin'.

Now when you or someone from your team deletes a Service Request, it will be copied into the Recycle Bin for safekeeping. If you found that you deleted it by mistake, simply go to the Recycle Bin (the link is located on the sub-menu just below the 'Service Requests' tab) and restore it. Also, if you have a Service Request that you really want to delete permanently, you can delete it from the Recycle Bin and it will be gone for good.

Only users belonging to the 'Administrator' role can view, delete and/or restore Service Requests from the Recycle Bin.

Enhanced Schedule Availability Grid

The Schedule tab's "Availability" view has been updated to include labels above the columns indicating what hour the column represents. Also, when hovering your mouse pointer over the blocks on the grid, tooltips instantly appear (eliminating the delay that used to be there) so you know what time that block represents.

New Date Picker for Reports

We've updated the date picker for BlueService reports. The new date picker is faster and allows you to quickly jump to a specific year without having to do it one month at a time.

Product Update: New "Export to Excel" Feature for Reports

Now you can export your BlueService reports to Excel with the click of a button! Each BlueService report now has an "Export to Excel" button on the upper-right corner that provides you with a downloadable, Excel-compatible version of your report. This feature has been tested to be compatible with Excel 2003 & 2007 for Windows, and Excel 2008 for Mac.

Product Update: Improvements for Handling Taxes, QuickBooks Canada, and Enhancements to Labor Entry

New 'Default Taxable' Setting for Item List

Now you can specify which items in your Item List should default to 'Taxable' when added to a Service Request. This new setting will be especially helpful in regions where labor is taxable, since BlueService previously did not mark labor as taxable by default.

Modifications to Permissions for Editing Tax

The existing 'Change Tax Code' user permission only controlled access to modifying the Tax Code for a Service Request, but did not limit access to the 'Taxable' checkbox for individual billable items added to a Service Request. This permission is being modified to control all setting pertaining to taxes for Service Requests. The new permission name will be 'Edit Tax Code, and Taxable Status for Items'. Users who do not have this permission will no longer see the 'Taxable' checkbox on individual billable items and will not be able to edit the Service Request's tax code.

Along with the new 'Default Taxable' setting mentioned above, this modification will allow more control over which items are marked as taxable without the possibility of technicians mistakenly marking items an non-taxable.

New 'Save & Clone' Button for Labor Items

When adding labor to a Service Request, the 'Save & New' button was a little confusing to some people. The truth is that the 'Save & New' feature was more like a 'Save & Clone', so we decided to remove the confusion and give you both options. 'Save & New' simply saves the current item and launches another BLANK labor entry, while 'Save & Clone' saves the current item and launches another new labor entry that is a clone of the one you just saved.

QuickBooks Canada Compatibility

We're working on making BlueService work with QuickBooks Canada Edition. This is a work in progress, so if you're in Canada and have tried our QuickBooks integration in the past without success, please try it again and let us know of any issues you run into so we can get them taken care of.

Product Update: Improvements to Equipment Tracking Features

Single-Click to create a new Service Request for an Equipment Item

If you need to create a new Service Request for a customer equipment item, now you can do it in a single click! Just locate the equipment item from within the customer record and click it's name to view the item. Then click the "New Service Request" button on the Equipment Item detail page. A "New Service Request" form will appear, pre- populated with the specified equipment item and all the relevant customer information for that item. Just complete the description, notes, etc. and you're done.

Quickly Creating New Equipment Items

When creating a new Service Request, you can now quickly add a new customer equipment item by clicking the "New Equipment Item" link that is located next to the equipment list selector. This will save you many extra steps when you need to add a new piece of equipment "on the fly".

Announcing the BlueFolder API

We are excited to announce that we have just released the BlueFolder API 1.0 Beta!

The BlueFolder API is an interface that allows you to build applications that interact with your BlueFolder account. We're excited to see what kind of applications and integrations our user community will build with the API.

As described, this is a Beta release of the API, so we're still adding features to it. The initial release allows you to access customer records, service requests, add comments & labor, and interact with the master item list. Some of the enhancements we're planning for the next release include appointments and more filtering options. We'll be adding new features to the API on an ongoing basis, so be sure to check the documentation for new changes as we add them. The API documentation can be found at: http://app.bluefolder.com/api/1.0/docs/.

If you are a Premium Edition subscriber, you can enable the API by visiting the new "API" tab within the "Settings" tab.