BlueFolder Blog

Product Update: Service Request List Improvements, New Reports, and more

Service Request List Workflow Enhancements

To improve workflow, we're working to reduce the number of steps it takes to complete common actions. Towards that end, we're adding an "Update" button to every row in the Service Request list. The button can be found in the last column on the right side of the Service Request list.

When clicked, the "Update" button reveals a menu of actions that can be taken on the selected Service Request. Common actions, like "Change Status" or "Add Comment" will open in a popup box that overlays the list (without leaving the current page), making it easy to work through a list of Service Requests with minial steps.

NOTE: If you're accustomed to using the quick status change icon that used to appear in the Service Request list, you'll now simply click the "Update" button and select the first action, "Change Status". We've also eliminated the separate "Add Labor", "Edit", and "Print" icons (those actions can be found in the "Update" button menu) that used to appear in the Service Request list in an effort to clean-up the user interface and make more efficient use of space.

Other Improvements to the Service Request List

• Performance Improvements - performance when working with large lists has been improved dramatically.
• New Page Navigation - instead of simple "Next" and "Previous" navigation options, you can now jump to specific pages within your list. The page navigation has also been moved to the center of the list and appears at both the top and bottom of the list.
• Click-Anywhere Row Selection - instead of having to click on either the Service Request number or description, now you can click anywhere on a row within the list to view the Service Request.
• "Closed" (the date a Service Request was closed) has been added to the list of possible columns. To customize your list columns, simply click the "CUSTOMIZE" link on the upper-right corner of the list.

Improvements to Customer Service History

The new Service Request list has been added to the History tab within a customer record. This new list brings many improvements, including the ability to customize which columns you'd like to see in the list.

Improvements to Personal Dashboard

The new Service Request list has also been added to the Personal Dashboard. Unlike in previous releases, users can now navigate all of their assigned Service Requests without having to leave the Dashboard. The ability to take quick action on a Service Request via the "Update" button is also a welcome time-saving feature.

Unified Comment Entry Box

A new, streamlined comment box has been added that combines public and private comment entry boxes into a single box.

New Reports

Two new reports have been added to the list of standard reports:

• Open Service Requests (by Customer) - shows all open Service Requests, grouped by customer.
• Closed Service Requests (by Customer) - shows all closed Service Requests, grouped and subtotalled by customer.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Most of the major lists (e.g. Customer List, Equipment List, etc) within BlueFolder have been updated to support clicking anywhere on a row to view the selected record's details.
• When retrieving a Service Request via the API, log entries will no longer have an "entryTitle" field.
• The "Entry Title" field has also been removed any exports that contained it. The "Customer List" has also been enhanced to improve performance when working with large numbers of customers.
• New Service Requests created via the Advanced Customer Portal will now default the "Contact" to the person who is creating the Service Request, instead of the customer's primary contact.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Product Update: Improved Service History, Enhanced Mobile Edition

Improvements to Customer Service History

Now, when viewing the "Service History" tab within a customer record, you can filter the service history records by "All", "Open", or "Closed". We also added a "New Service Request" link on the upper-right corner of the list.

Mobile Edition Improvements

• Now you can see which equipment items are associated with a Service Request from the mobile edition.
• Refreshed user interface when viewing Service Requests and Customers is easier to read and navigate.

Added Mobile Phone Number to Printed Forms

Our standard Service Request printed forms now include your customer contact's mobile phone number in addition to their main number. If you're using a custom printed form and would like us to update it, please contact BlueFolder Support.

Product Update: New Timesheet Report, and Customer Portal Enhancements

"Weekly Timesheet" Report

The "Weekly Timesheet" report shows how many labor hours have been entered by your employees within a given week. Simply specify the start date for the week, and optionally specify which user(s) or group to filter by and click the "Run Report" button. Labor hours are totaled for each person by day and are clickable, so that you can easily drill-down into an individual person's labor entries. You can also click on the total hours in the last column to view an individual's total detailed labor entries for the entire week. This new report can be found in the "Labor & Expense Reports" section of the "Reports" tab.

Customer Portal Improvements

User accounts for the Advanced Customer Portal have been enhanced to support the ability to specify whether the user is allowed to view all Service Requests for their company, or only Service Requests for which they are the designated contact.

Also, customers using the Advanced Portal will now be able to see Service Requests for which they are only designated as the "Bill To" in addition to Service Requests for which they are the direct customer.

Product Update: Enhancement to User Permissions

The user permissions settings have been updated to support customization of the "Delete Service Requests" permission. Now you can specify whether your techs should be allowed to delete Service Requests. This permission was previously not customizable.

The possible settings for this permission are:

• "Delete Any"
• "Delete If Creator"
• "Not Allowed"

The "Delete If Creator" setting means that a user will be allowed to delete a Service Request only if they are the person who created it.

To access these (and all other) user permissions settings, go to Settings > Manage Users > Permissions while logged in to your account.

Product Update: Search Service Request Comments & Notes

We just launched an update to BlueService that includes the following new features.

Search Service Request Comments & Notes

Many of our customers have requested an enhanced search feature that allows for searching all of the comments and notes that are part of Service Requests. We have heard your requests and are happy to announce that we've added a new "Search Comments & Notes" feature to BlueService. Simply hover over the "Service Requests" tab menu, and select the "Search Comments & Notes" menu item.

This new search feature has a familiar Google-like interface and supports a few advanced options, such as filtering by a particular customer, by status, or by date range. Lengthy comments and notes are displayed in a "collapsed" view, but can be expanded by clicking the "expand notes" link below each note.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Product Update: New Sales Role, Enhancements for Account Managers

We just launched an update to BlueService that includes the following new features.

New Sales Role

A new user role called "Sales" has been added to BlueService. This new role is designed for the salespeople in your organization who need access to customers, service records, contracts, etc. The addition of the "Sales" role also sets the stage for additional CRM features that we'll be adding to BlueService in the near future.

Enhancements for Account Managers

Each customer record has an "Account Manager" field that allows you to designate which of your employees is responsible for managing the customer account. We've added a couple of new features to make the "Account Manager" field more useful.

1. The Customer List view can now be customized to include the "Account Manager" field as a column in the list.
2. We've also added 3 new alerts that allow customer "Account Managers" to be notified when Service Requests for their customers are created, have status changes, and have comments added.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Product Update: Faster, More Detailed Service Billing Saves Time and Speeds Up Customer Payment

Improved QuickBooks Integration

We've just released several improvements to our built-in QuickBooks integration enabling you to include more detail on your invoices and reduce the amount of time spent generating invoices. Getting your invoices out the door faster means you get paid sooner, and detailed invoices that are easy for your customers to understand eliminates costly confusion that often causes delays in getting paid.

The following billing enhancements have been added:

• Specify Invoice Dates - No more resetting invoice dates by hand! Now you can choose what invoice date should be used for the invoices in your export batch.
• Include Item Dates - BlueService already populates the QuickBooks 'Service Date' field for each invoice line item, but now you can also choose to include the item date (e.g. the date labor was performed or expenses were incurred) at the beginning of a line item's description.
• Include Item Comments - Now you can control whether you want item comments to be included in the invoice line item description or not.
• Specify 'To Be Emailed' and/or 'To Be Printed' - This is a big time saver! Now you can specify whether your QuickBooks invoices should be marked as 'To Be Emailed' and/or 'To Be Printed' without having to go back into QuickBooks and set this option for each invoice that was just imported.
• Better Navigation in the Billing Export List - Now it's easier to view previously exported Service Requests. You can view a list of Service Requests exported within the past 10 days, 30 days, 60 days, etc. The searching capability is also more consistent with the search functions found on the main Service Request List.

Additional Enhancements in this Update

We also added the following enhancements to last night's update.

• URLs contained in custom field values are now automatically converted to clickable hyperlinks.
• We've renamed the 'Notes' fields to 'Comments' for things like Service Request Labor, Materials, and Expense items in order to be more consistent throughout the application.

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.