Timeline - Updated 11/06/08
December GPS integration in Aurora Next Update - 12/02 January WinTOTAL Update - Jan 15th
February WinTOTAL Update - Feb 28th Further Out More GP forms Share files via XSites Desktop in your WinTOTAL File Cabinet
Windows Vista & Aurora Learn more about compatibility.
Redesigned Contacts PowerView
This Billing alpha contains an entirely redesigned Contacts PowerView:
We added a new 'All' view which lets you see all your contacts and companies on one screen.
We added a Group By option which lets you select how your contacts are displayed. In the All view, the default is to group by Company. You'll see all your stand alone contacts under the (none) grouping. The Group By button is the thing I'm most excited about because it's going to give you a lot of flexibility in managing your contacts and is a precursor to some other changes coming.
We brought back thea bility to filter your view by contact type. In the View menu, you can now choose to see only the type of contacts you specifically want to see (for example, you can choose to only show contacts/companies that are clients and lenders).
Down the road, we'll release another update that includes a Merge option. It will let you multi-select contacts or companies and merge them into one record. This is where the power of the Group By will become the most useful.
More Bug Fixes
It's been a while since we've released an alpha, and the bug fixes have piled up. You'll notice that most of them address issues with displaying invoices and reporting. We also added an edit link in the Form PowerView so you could easily see that your invoice is Read Only in your report. Check here for a complete list of items included in this update.
What's New in Desktop Billing Alpha 6 Current as of 11/17/2006
Bug Fixes and More Bug Fixes
This alpha is primarily bug fixes. There are over 20 fixes specific to Desktop Billing. Plus, you're getting the new Aurora beta install which has other bug fixes. Check here for a complete list of the issues this alpha update resolves.
Invoices Repaired Again
One big item to note for those of you that have invoices that should be visible but aren't, when you download and install the alpha another Repair Utility will run again like it did in our last alpha release. It will fix those invoices that aren't showing up. Please let us know if you still have invoices that aren't visible after the repair runs.
No More XSite Integration on Orders Started in WinTOTAL To further our efforts to separate Desktop Billing from XSite billing, we've removed the option to mark an order as XSite integrated when it's started in WinTOTAL. If you can't live without this feature, don't install this alpha. Don't worry about orders that were started on your XSite. Those will still work.
What's New in Desktop Billing Alpha 5
Current as of 11/8/2006
Invoice Repair Utility
After this alpha is downloaded and installed, an Invoice Repair Utility will automatically run. This utility goes through all your invioces and makes sure the Invoice Date on the form matches the Invoice Date in Desktop Billing. Via the last alpha, we introduced a bug that would assign the Invoice Date as the current date rather than the date on the form. This utility will only run once.
Ad Hoc Contacts and the Order PowerView
With this update, if a contact is typed into the order form this contact will be created as an ad hoc contact when the report is saved. Before the ad hoc contact is created, you will be warned via a pop-up as to which contacts will be added as ad hoc. To learn more about Ad Hoc Contacts, see our Alpha 4 update below as well as our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Other Bug Fixes
This alpha contains other miscellaneous bug fixes. You'll now be able to see the XSite column again in your Files PowerView. The invoiced date should now be correct for all your invoices. You can now save your management reports in pdf format. We changed the way the Bill To options work in the Billing Data Import Wizard to make more sense (that's always a good goal!). Look for more bug fixes soon along with the much anticipated changes to the Contacts PowerView.
What's New in Desktop Billing Alpha 4
Current as of 10/30/2006
Online Help We've created and posted the first version of help for Desktop Billing. Right now since we're changing it so frequently, we only have it online. We'll be adding a link to it soon. In the mean time, check it out after installing the alpha and let me know what you think.
PowerView Renamed (Again!) We've changed the name of the PowerView again. In the last update, it went from Business Management to Account. In this update, we've named it Billing. I think we're going to stick with the Billing name so hopefully this is the last time I'll have to mention the PowerView name.
Desktop Billing Data Import Wizard
This is the big step. With this new tool, you can add all your invoices into Desktop Billing. This is the biggest step we've taken with Desktop Billing to-date. Once this wizard has run, you can run management reports that reflect your office activity.
The first thing the wizard does is present a list of files that exist. From there, you can decide if you want to import invoice data from all your reports or if you want to limit it to invoices falling into a specific time range or folder. You can modify each of these settings from the wizard. For instance, if you only want to import invoices from reports that were started in 2006 and you wanted to exclude reports in your Templates folder, you would set it from this options screen. Another important item to point out is the option to define how the wizard deals with the Bill To contact. To add an invoice to Desktop Billing, a Bill To contact has to be assigned to the report. Via the options in the wizard, you can choose how you want it handled if we run into a report that doesn't have a Bill To contact. To see what what I mean, check out the options screen.
Once you've come up with a list of the invoices you want to add to Desktop Billing, the hard part is done. Just click Next and watch as the wizard goes through each report and adds it to billing. You'll be able to see the status as it goes along. If for some reason a report fails import, it will be listed in red with a reason why the import failed.
If you missed importing a report, it's okay. From the Files PowerView, with one click you can add a report to Desktop Billing.
Ad Hoc Contacts
Stick with me for a minute - this is long but really important. If you don't have the time to wade through this explanation, it's important to note that I don't recommend installing this alpha unless you already routinely use contacts when creating orders.
Some of you that have been reading my posts realize that contacts are closely related to Desktop Billing. So much so that we're going to be releasing a new Contacts PowerView in the coming weeks. The first step in our contacts over haul is the addition of a new type of contact - the ad hoc contact.
It's a simple fact that many management reports, like the Statement of Accounts report, are based off companies or individuals. For instance, at the end of the month you want to see how much City Bank owes you and you may want to see how much each loan officer at City Bank owes you. Well, in order to give you accurate results in a report, we have to make sure that all of City Bank's invoices are assigned to the right loan officer and that all of these loan officers are assigned to City Bank. The way to do this is contacts.
Now, that's all great except we still have a problem. What about those of you that always just type directly into the order form? You know you always type it the same but since a contact was never created, the reports can't know that for sure. Also, what if for some reason one time you added an extra space (by accident) between City and Bank. This would throw all your reports off completely. For this very reason, we're going to be making some changes that enforce a bit of structure and require contacts from this point forward.
Okay. That problem solved. However, we've got yet another problem. What about the reports you created last week or last month that had an invoice added but you didn't use a contact? What are we going to do about those. Well, that's where the ad hoc contact comes in. When the Desktop Billing Import Wizard runs, if we come across a report that just has text and no contact, we're going to create an ad hoc contact. This is as its name implies - a contact that's created on the fly and for a specific purpose. I like to think of them as unverified contacts - we added them to your contacts database but we're not really sure if you already have a contact that matches that particular individual or company. When you run a management report, all the information based on an ad hoc contact will show at the bottom - this is to show you that, again, the data below could not be verified and may need to be investigated.
So, now we've solved all our problems but have probably created a new problem for some of you. What are you going to do with all those ad hoc contacts? Well, we have a solution for that too, but we don't have it ready yet. In the coming weeks, we'll be releasing new tools inside Contacts PowerView that let you easily find and consolidate contacts that are probably duplicates. For now, what's in this update is the ability to view contacts that are ad hoc and the ability to switch a contact from being ad hoc to being a regular, verified contact. It is for this reason that I recommend, if you don't already use contacts routinely when entering an order, don't install and use this alpha. Wait for the alpha that has the new contact management tools. I don't want you to get into a state where you have to manually clean up a ton of contacts if we're going to give you a tool that dramatically decreases the time it takes. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please feel free to drop me a note at billingsupport@alamode.com.
Whew. I told you that was long but it was extremely important. For those of you that are comfortable with installing and running the Import wizard, I'm really excited to see how it goes. We've come a long way and honestly are in the home stretch. The two biggest things yet to come are the Contacts PowerView changes I mentioned and the ability to download billing data from your XSite.
What's New in Desktop Billing Alpha 3 Current as of 10/13/2006
PowerView Renamed With this release, we renamed the PowerView in the Appraisal Desktop from Business Management to Account.
We're not sure we're going to stick with this name, but it fits better in the space provided. Let us know if you have any suggestions.
Report Invoice view in Order PowerView. Inside a report, you will now add and modify an invoice from the Order PowerView.
Click on Report Invoice to view the invoice. Click on Edit Invoice to make changes to the invoice.
Invoice is Read Only in the Forms PowerView. Since the invoice is your billing record, we have limited the number of places where you can edit it.
It can still be a page in your report. However, if you want to make changes to it, you will need to go to the Invoice View in
the Order PowerView or to the Invoices section of the Account PowerView inside your Appraisal Desktop. In future updates,
we’ll add a way to edit the invoice directly from the Forms PowerView.
Contacts Are Required. Since your management reports will be keyed off the information entered in the Order PowerView,
you will now be required to assign contacts to parties like Client, Lender, Appraiser, Supervisor,
Bill To, and Ship To. In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing enhancements to the Contacts PowerView and
the Order PowerView which will make this process easier. For now, however, you’ll have to make sure and add the
contacts before you create the form or add the contacts directly from the Order Form. If you don’t, an error dialog will
tell you which parties need to be contacts.
Invoices as a Page in the Report. In the new Report Invoice view of the Order PowerView, you can now choose to
remove the invoice as a page in your report. Simply remove the checkbox labeled ‘Show in Report’.
