Free, Web Based Project Management with CreativePro Office

24775 users, 26719 projects, $117,496,991.57 invoiced

What is going on?

By heather Nov 15, 2009

 

Dear trusty, faithful users and new users alike,

Despite periodic silence, work still ticks on here in development of 2.0.  The silence here can be easily explained:  development is to be a process that is, in our case, more often just done and less often talked about.  To put it succinctly, we are working.

On our part there has been a little bit of dismay over watching the date we intended to release come and go.  In reflection on what is causing the delay, Jeff realized a few things:

1.  The scope of work for version 2.0 has increased significantly since it was originally conceived.  Originally, 2.0 was to be a rewrite of the code so that future added features would have a stable code-base.  But what happened was that while in the code, tinkering, it seemed more logical (and more interesting) to start the process of making some of the more major improvements that were slated for the future.

2.  The amount of anticipated collaboration for the task of version 2.0 decreased by about 66%.   A smaller team made more work to be done.

3.  The hosting situation caused a bit of a slowdown for awhile but has since been rectified.

 

As we saw the date of anticipated release approaching, there were signs that things weren't going to work out as planned.  The release date was too ambitious, based on a "best case scenario" when excitement was high, and the scope of work was smaller. 

 

Now, a year after beginning, Jeff is just pushing for that next release date.   There had been considerations of releasing with what we had completed, but that would have fallen short on what we had told users to anticipate.  We are setting the date to end of February 2010, which seems entirely reasonable since version 2.0 is 80% complete.

 

The February release is planned to be beta tested and ready for use.

 

Thank you for your patience and hope that you will continue to looking forward to this as much as we are!

 

 

 

Feature List for CreativePro Office 2.0

By heather Aug 10, 2009

Hi Everyone

Here are some of the features that are going to be included in the new release of CreativePro.  If we haven't said so before, CreativePro Office is working on a new version that will remedy the bugs of the existing version AND include these killer new features:

In the Client area:

  • A new client widget on the dashboard that shows the client list and projects by client. User will be able to click a client name and the view will switch to show projects for that client.
  • Clients will be able to have multiple contacts instead of the 1 contact currently allowed. This will be accomplished by a site-wide contact management module which will provide the contact functionality for clients, projects, and expenses (vendors).
  • Users will be able to import client list in CSV format or a single client vCard.
  • Client dashboard will have total hours displayed for a project (optionally set by account owner) and project status indicator.
  • Client dashboard will have messaging capability for projects, invoices and files that are posted by the account owner (similar to Facebook).
  • Client timezone will be a setting that can be permanently set by the account owner.

In the Tasks area:

  • Tasks can be shared among multiple team members. Team members will receive email notifications of task assignments.
  • Files can be attached to task entries.  Tasks can be reordered within milestones by drag and drop.
  • Version 2.0 will have a much improved Gantt charting system with ability to print Gantt charts.
  • Recurring tasks.
  • Email integration: tasks can be created by sending an email to a CPO email address much like Remember the Milk.
  • Sorting tasks by title, date, assigned to, status will be included.
  • Users will be able to create quick To-Do lists using the task manager - instead of creating a client, then a project, then tasks.
  • The task management system will, over the next year, become more SCRUM focussed so that teams can monitor their time estimates and deliverable dates across many project and come up with more acurate predictions.
  • Tasks will have customizable categories that are color coded for quicker viewing.

In the Calendars area:

  • Shared calendars between project owners, team members and clients.
  • Synch calendar with Google Calendar, allow synch to Outlook through iCal format.
  • Allow multiple calendars with color coding. Allow other customization features like changing the first day of the week and date formats.
  • Upload/Download of calendar entries in iCal format.
  • Show events spanning multiple days.
  • RSS calendar feed specific to each calendar and team member.

In the Projects area:

  • Project auto-archive feature - allow user to set a time span for auto-archive of projects e.g. 3 weeks after project create, or project start.
  • Allow per-project, per-client hourly rates to be set.
  • Show time spent on a project in project detail view.
  • Make project file uploads simpler by using an app-wide file upload system that interfaces with Amazon S3.  Allow for multiple files uploads also.
  • Provide project/task view in a Gantt chart. 

In the Expenses area:

  • Expense and vendor reports.
  • Tie expense items and invoicing together better.  For example, if I guy stock photos for a client it would be nice to list these under expenses but also be available to me when it's time to invoice the client.
  • Hours logged from time sheets can be defined with an hourly rate then automatically set up as an expense and charged to the defined project.  I'm imagining contractor expenses here.  I pay a contractor (vendor) for 12 hours of graphic design - that's technically an expense that then needs to be invoiced. 
  • A recurring option for expenses like web hosting, rent or anything with a fixed and repeating cost.
  • A vendor list that would allow the same contact information and notes seen in clients, but then be tied to a specific project. 

In the Timesheets area:

  • Better time-sheet reports: view by project, client, team member, date range or combination of all variables.
  • Integrated job timer, timesheets and invoices together so you could select a project, start the clock, stop the clock and click a button to have an invoice generated.
  • Export timesheets as PDF, Excel, CSV.
  • Allow embedding the job timer in user websites so that you can have employees log time without giving them CPO user accounts.
  • Allow for multiple timers to be running at once.
In the Invoices area:
  • Individual invoice items can be taxable/non-taxable.
  • Partial payments can be entered for an invoice and CPO will keep track of amount remaining.
  • Invoice payments can be made through PayPal.
  • Recurring invoices for things like hosting accounts that need to be invoiced monthly,weekly,yearly.

This is a limited list of changes that will be going into version 2.0.  These features are in direct response to what users have asked for over the past 2 years that CPO has been active.  It isn't an exhaustive list, but it is definitely an exhausting list.  For those who wonder what the silence is about, this would explain it.

We look forward to our new release and hope you all are enjoying your summer!

 

 

 

 

Progress and Press

By heather Jun 25, 2009

Well, the sun has come out, but I am still standing over Jeff cracking the whip, yelling "Code faster, you!"

Okay, well not really.

Folks have been asking about the next version which will remedy remaining bugs and have some often requested features.  It is in steady development and at this stage it is looking like fall for release. 

Jeff has been coding on timesheets and doing some of the last things that he needs to be doing as he prepares for the release of 2.0.  Pricing structures are in development and are in the final stages of soon being released, as well as features lists.  Screencasts are easy and are still underway. 

Jeff has said that pricing structures, features lists and screencasts are ready to come out. Look for that in our next blog post.

CreativePro Office has come a long way from when Jeff was hammering out icons that he was making from scratch.  Talk about time-consuming, CreativePro has been an education, a hobby, a tool and now there is a chance it might start pulling its own weight.  We are on the precipice of Creative Pro actually being able to hold its own, and we are quite excited about it.

If we haven't mentioned it previously, the existing free, hosted version of CreativePro Office is not going to be as well technically supported as it was in the days of development and bug testing.  We are letting it off into the wild.  The forum as well will be transitioned to being a place where users help other users to resolve problems.

We have received some good press here , being cited as the number 11 top small business project management tool.

We look forward to communicating with you as version 2.0 takes shape and prepares to emerge this year!

 

What is going on behind the scenes here at CreativePro Office?

By heather Apr 10, 2009

Work on CPO is still busily humming along here at a frantic clip.  Jeff is continuing to rebuild the code base so that new features can be added easily and reliably.  This work is the foundation for CPO 2.0 that will include features that are being requested most frequently.  As he recodes, he is working out bugs that need to be dealt with, as well.

A word or two about support: many of you have noticed that support for the free hosted version of CPO has been somewhat reduced.  Our staff here at UpStart Productions is very small and we simply don't have the revenue yet to hire more support personnel.  As such, we are devoting most of our time to those who support our efforts through purchase of the source code.  The launch of CPO 2.0 will include some greatly enhanced help and self-support features for those who wish to use the free version of CPO.  We appreciate your patience and understanding while we make these improvements.

For those wondering about the hosting situation, rest assured we are still working on that as well.  Setting up a reliable hosting environment is proving more complex and challenging than anticipated.  We are trying to move on two fronts simultaneously, rebuilding the code base and moving the site to a faster hosting environment.  All this takes time so please bear with us.  We do realize that the existing host is terribly slow but we don't want to move until we know that the new host can fully support CPO without major downtime.

In closing, look for some exciting pre-launch screen casts of CPO 2.0 features here in the near future.  I'm hoping that by mid-April we can begin introducing you to the cool stuff we're doing in the next version!  Stay tuned and thank you all for your continued support!

Patches for Open Source customers

By heather Jan 7, 2009

If we haven't said so before, a big THANK YOU to all the buyers of the CPO Source Code.  Your purchases are lighting the fire under our pants to keep improving CreativePro Office daily.

There are source code patches available to amend some of the bugs that our much appreciated bug testers have found.

The link is here:

http://creativeprooffice.com/site/patches

We are currently working on CreativePro Office 2.0 that we hope will be available by the end of March and possibly earlier.  We are excited about this release as it will be the "new improved" version with more features that users have been requesting and numerous bug fixes.