projectfacts 6.4 – KPI, QM and UI

The new projectfacts version impresses with greater individuality for the user, many new functions, and a new module. In this article, discover which useful functions you will be able to use in projectfacts in future and how to use them. In this release you will find quite a few changes that support you even more in your processes and daily work.

New UI – More Individuality in projectfacts

With the new projectfacts version, your user interface becomes even more individual. Choose between four different layouts and eleven associated colour schemes the combination that suits you best. There is a colour for everyone here, from classic blue or anthracite to pastel tones such as mint green or a delicate pink.

Not only has the layout improved in this update, but also the overall user guidance — for example, scrolling is more intuitive after the update and the toolbar has also been tidied up and simplified — many functions that were previously directly accessible on the toolbar can now be found there under the three dots. In addition, the display of projectfacts on mobile devices has been improved. There has also been a small change in the ticket system, where you can now choose from different views for a ticket and thereby use, for example, the popular Outlook-style display, which shows the history and content side by side.

A real highlight is also the beaming of dialogs. In addition to full-screen and normal-screen modes, a single click can “beam” the integrated dialog out of the application as a standalone dialog. This allows you to, for example, continue editing your email reply while simultaneously continuing to work in projectfacts to look up necessary information.

Currency Worlds Become Reality

Until now, only the invoice module was currency-capable, and employee disbursements could also be made in a different currency. All other internal processes, however, were always mapped in the home currency. With projectfacts 6.4, projects also get their own currency – so the department in Berlin can plan in euros, while headquarters in Zurich continues to use Swiss francs as the home currency. So that employees do not have to do mental arithmetic, all relevant figures and reports can be displayed in a preferred currency. Each user can configure this in their personal settings.

With this real-time conversion comes exchange rate support: the history of exchange rates can now be stored so that invoices, projects, costs, etc. are converted into the currency the user wants to see using the rate corresponding to the date.

Link Your Projects to Other Projects

With a large number of main projects, project directories can help to maintain an overview. However, a main project can only ever be in one directory. If a project is now of interest to two departments — whether both departments are working on it, or the progress is of interest to another department — this can be mapped using the new project links. Similar to a shortcut as known from the operating system’s file system, main projects, but also sub-projects or even work packages, can be placed as links in any project directory and optionally given their own name. In display or when clicking, the linked project behaves like any other project. Permissions are of course also checked. The project link can be edited or deleted via the “All actions” button.

Discover the QM Reports

In projectfacts, the QM (quality management) module is now available on request. In this module, individual documents are provided for applications, reviews, or simply for presenting information. This allows you to, for example, map processes from the idea through the concept to the project application, or simply document work steps and process instructions.

Ongoing information can also be created and preserved via QM documents. A project status report can be created individually from a project, for example, where you decide which fields the report should contain. This document is created directly in the respective project overview and can then be passed on to a supervisor for review. The supervisor can review the document and pass it on to the client. There is also the additional option of collecting information from several QM documents in a new document.

Contact your projectfacts account manager if you would like to use the QM module.

Service Forecasts via the New Capacity Analysis

In many companies, it is necessary to know how much revenue will be generated in the next month or quarter at the current planning level based on effort. With the new capacity analysis, this is now possible at the touch of a button. After you have scheduled your employees via capacities, you can define any hourly rates per capacity and employee or project, with which individual forecasts for service revenues can be generated. If this is necessary for you, you will now save an enormous amount of time on this report creation by using the new capacity analysis under Reports.

Create Your Own KPIs

In many companies, it is common practice to agree on the achievement of certain KPIs (Key Performance Index) for employee management or individual commission calculations. The calculation of such KPIs is usually quite complex. With the new version, you can now create your own KPIs and have them calculated and displayed per employee and time period. For example, billing ratio = (time based on effort + acquisition time) / contract time.

projectfacts Version 6.4 will be released for customers on the base servers on 26.03.2020 and a few days later for customers with their own server.

Changelog projectfacts 6.4

Highlights

• Improvement of the interface (more intuitive scrolling, simplified toolbars, better display on mobile devices)
• Beaming of dialogs (pull dialog windows out of projectfacts)
• Project links can now be stored in project directories
• Tickets have received an Outlook view (sideview)
• Projects are now currency-capable
• New module with QM reports
• KPIs can be created by users themselves

New Features

• Currencies are now changeable in personal settings
• It is now possible to replace placeholders with images in Word documents
• Lists and dialogs can now be maximised
• Order status report with scopes (order/project/customer)
• Under Reports, the Capacity Analysis report is now available
• Extended email recipients for documents

Improvements

• Check-in when editing attendance time
• When creating an appointment from a ticket, it is automatically linked to the ticket
• Project templates have been made more user-friendly
• When sending tickets, you are now informed if the ticket ID no longer exists
• Status changes of sales opportunities work better
• Automatic addition of ticket ID when switching to an email
• It is now possible to split and filter in boards by creator
• When compensating overtime, the remaining overtime hours are displayed
• It is now possible to specify a reference number when booking time
• When a sales opportunity is created from a transaction, they are now linked to each other and automatically pre-filled
• Header rows in DATEV export made configurable

Bug Fixes

• No more duplicate time bookings when editing attendance times
• The “To” field in ticket overviews now shows the recipient
• Booking times from templates works correctly again
• Quotient of time account and overtime eligibility were not correctly reconciled
• The due date of open items can again be set via multi-selection
• Cancelled periods in an order are again calculated correctly
• The detail view of approved holiday requests no longer always shows the period as “0 days”
• Print and PDF export function in popup lists work correctly again
• Print view of a list no longer changes the original list
• Export of the “Invoice items” report now contains date and document number
• Sick days in the employee utilisation view are now again marked correctly
• Recurring appointments can now be moved correctly
• Titles of detail managers were in some cases displayed incorrectly when opened via a link
• The “Billable” column is now included in the project time export if active
• Chips can again be moved in the entity field, but can no longer be edited