Release Notes: 2019

Month of December 2019

• Ever needed to have different projects open in different tabs?
  Now you have the opportunity. With the newly released functionality to the Schedule page, you can, with the three-dot menu, view the project in a new tab, duplicate it and even change the status. Try it out now.
• A new holistic view of your entire business with the Financial Portfolio report
  Introducing a new and optimized view of your financials. Together with the newly released budget, we are now offering premium users access to a massive Financial Portfolio Report, which enables every number-driven project manager and CFO to measure profitability across multiple projects and responsible departments. Everything is real-time, so you never have to spend time collecting data; now, you only need to act on it!
• Fast-track your team’s work with Azure Active Directory
  Improve the efficiency and utilization of your teams in one go, reducing the number of steps to sign in. Integrate Forecast and Azure Active Directory to have user maintenance located in one department. 

• Christmas gifts for you

  Forcast is all about automating manual tasks to make your life easier and estimations more precise. All in one, this means more freedom to work on the fun tasks. Our Art Director has spent some of his time producing amazing small illustrations that you can meet all over the platform. Spoiler alert: Try creating a new project without any tasks, then you'll see them. 

• Better overview at the Project Page

  Loading all your projects at once? To optimize the experience and provide you with a better overview of the projects, you are now able to see one stage at a time.

• No more battling in who can Bulk Edit the most

  From today you'll be able to Bulk Edit no more than 100 tasks at a time. Get those keyboard skills up and running and see how fast you can edit them.

• Estimations in Forecast

  Everyday project managers are being helped by the Forecast AI when forecasting projects, tasks, and appointing the right roles and persons to work on the tasks. We've made small adjustments to the terminology. Part of this has been to change forecast to estimate. 

Month of November 2019

• Picking the dates
  Scope the project with the details in mind, or paint with the big brush. No matter how you prefer to work, it's now even easier to pick and make changes to the dates you set for the project, phase, and task. We've adjusted the modal, so you can see what date you are about to change, and ensuring that even though you hit Esc or just click outside the box, the chosen dates are saved. We already love the ease it provides, we hope you will too.
• Driving more profitable projects 
  Project management is about managing expectations and making sure you focus on the right things. The newly released budget page provides you with a holistic and visual overview, while you, of course, get the benefit from the ability to drill down and dissect the numbers! 

Month of October 2019

• Sprint releasing
  At Forecast, you've been able to structure your sprints for quite some time. Today we are releasing a new and updated version of the page. You can now tailor the view, easily filter, and see the team members – even the ones that don't have any tasks yet. 
• Public tasks
  Tired of having customers calling with new Tasks? Today we are introducing a new great way to have people from outside your project create Tasks. Just set up the link in the settings for the specif project, and have them upload Tasks you can approve and start working on directly in your workflow.
• Change budget types in Forecast
  To us, it's essential to create a platform that caters to the way you prefer to work. To provide this, we are now offering you the possibility of changing a project's budget type - Choose between Fixed price, Time & Material, or Non-Billable.
• Price and profit
  Be able to see project allocations when looking at Price and Profit. See how many hours you've allocated to each project in a specific project. In the Price & Profit Report, you can now filter on deactivated people.
• New profile pictures
  Forgot to upload an image to your account? No worries, you'll see your initials in a lovely purple view. Go get the Forecast feeling by seeing your initials in a tremendous electric purple color - also known from our fantastic logo.

Month of September 2019

• Inviting new team members? With the updated modal for inviting team members, you can easily invite one, two, three or more team members by just typing their info and hit enter. Everything happens in one single modal, so you save clicks and time.

• Global Search 

  Gone are the days when you couldn't find a specific task or project. With the new Global Search, you can search across all projects, tasks, people, and labels. Easily search for a task name or refine your search, so you can spend time on things that matter the most.

• Increasing communication & transparency throughout teams

  This week we are introducing a new and updated Sprint page. Her you'll have the beautiful simple view as you know from the rest of the platform, but moreover, you'll have more possibilities of shaping what you see. Benefit from the Eye Icon, change where the Backlog can be placed, discover the new Filter, and group by persons & empty persons. 

  If you have any feedback on the Sprint page, please share them with us  

• Group By Person & Show Empty Persons

  See who's available to take in more work, to efficiently ensure your team is fully utilized, no one is overworked, and you reach your deadline. You'll also have access to the feature at the Scoping page so that you can see the workload of your team.

• Using the Backlog actively

  The new design enables you to place your Backlog where you prefer. As a default setting its positioned at the left side of the screen, but if you prefer, you can now move it, so it's located at the button of the screen. Freeing up space for each Sprint, the needed information and ready set for you to start working.

• Moving tasks to anther sprint?

  Sometimes, you imagine things progress faster, or you discover difficulties while working, and thereby have to move some tasks from one Sprint to another. With the new modal you, be notified when there are Unfinished tasks in your Sprint, and asked what you want to do. Easily choose and hit enter, and see them move.

• Introducing the new Filter possibilities

  At Forecast, we've always believed one truth is the best. To cater for this, we are introducing better filtering that makes it easier to navigate. You are now able to save your personal Filters and with single clicks sort on the things you use the most. The Filter is, for now, only available at the Sprint page so that you can start to experience the benefits of it. We will soon roll it out to the entire platform. If you have any inputs on the Filter, please feel free to share it with us.  

• Last but not least, you can now add logos to your clients. The logo is fetched and shown right off when you add your client.

• Nested Lists - a small but yet convenient update
  Easily organize your Task descriptions with the newly updated Nested List, enabling you to glance at the text and still get an overview quickly.
• Reporting with an updated filter to your Project List
  We've updated the filter options on the Project List, so you can filter on what you want to see when you want to view it.
• Quickly register time on Subtasks
  Working with subtasks, you now got a more natural way to log time on the Subtasks you've completed. When setting a subtask to Done, you can, by hitting Enter, register time on the task.
• Moving a task from one sprint to another
  Have to move one task from one sprint to another, or add it to a sprint? Starting from today, you can change the sprint a task belongs to from the scoping page, making it more accessible for you to manage tasks & sprints.

Month of August 2019

• Malaysian Holiday Calendar
  Part of ensuring a perfect utilization of your team is to make sure everything is taken to account. We are glad to tell that the Public Holiday calendar now includes the Malaysian Holiday Calendar. Quickly add the calendar at the ‘Holidays’ tap in the Admin panel and have it reflected in the Heatmap.
• Tailor your Schedule workspace
  Get a faster overview of your people by determining how you want the Heatmap presented. By clicking on the three-dot menu, you can swiftly see project grouping and choose whether or not you wish to see it based on Tasks or Allocations. Al in one, enabling you with a quicker break down of what your team is allocated to and working on.
• Internal Time & Time off
  Moving from Non-project Time to a more set way of showcasing what your team members are working on. Non-project Time will be divided into two: Internal Time & Time Off.
  
  Internal Time: Works mostly like the previous Non-project Time, i.e., training, meetings, etc., and is reflected based on the hours you've allocated your team member.
  Time Off: Could be Vacation, Sick leave, parental leave, etc.. No matter what you choose to call it, it will be subtracted from the time your team member is available and shown as a greyed out area in Schedule.
  Both Internal Time & Time Off will be reflected at the platform and easily monitored, e.g., in Schedule, so you are sure never to over-allocate your team members.
  
  We recommend Admins to look at the pre-defined settings and define what Internal Time & Time Off is at your company.
  
  If you want to read more about the different way the allocations are calculated in Schedule, you can read it here. 

Month of June 2019

• In-app Notification Center: Part of making your day more efficient is to always be up-to-date with the latest updates on projects and tasks. Previously you’ve been receiving emails, but with the new Notification center, you can choose how you want to be notified. From your profile enable if you want to receive in-app notifications and/or emails.
• Task Followers: Not too long ago we introduced Task Owners, so you can have someone always on top of the progression of a task. Now we introduce Task Followers, as opposed to a Task Owner, followers are behind the scene and is an ideal option for those that want to stay notified of the progression of the task, but are not responsible for developing work on it. 
• Internal Cost Period: Do you need to update the salary of an employee? With the new Internal Cost Period, you are able to change the cost of the employee without affecting existing or past time registrations, reports or projects.
• People Page: The new People page will allow Admins to get a better overview of active, virtual or deactivated people. Not only will this page look better, but you also be more efficiently able to create/edit Roles, Permissions, Internal Costs & Working Hours of each team member. 
• Team page: Now located in a separate page you’ll get a quick overview of the teams you've created, easily edit them or create more teams.
• My Task Activities: The feature many of you have been asking for is here!

  From this new section, you will be able to track your activity on every single task. Not only is it an improved way to keep track of your day-to-day, but it will also help you remember what to Log Time for!

  The feature many of you have been wanting. Now it is here. At My Task Activity page, you will be able to see your activity in every single task. It will provide you with a better overview, but it will also help register time easier. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we do. 

• Are you ever just clicking random buttons just to see what happens? Hmm well, If you are ever unclear what Forecast buttons mean in the platform, don't fret. We've added more hover tooltips to the app.

• Looking forward to upcoming holidays can fill your mind with well, not work stuff. Well if you forgot to track time on holidays, now you are warned if you didn’t register enough time.

The Month of May 2019 

May 31st

• We love getting feedback from our users, so we’re excited to announce a few new functionalities that are coming straight from you!

• Sometimes you’re working on a task and exit out of it before checking all the details. Thinking to yourself, “what was the exact title, or was it moved to In Progress, or even what was task ID.” Well, you won’t have to wonder anymore. We have added a new Filter called Recent Activity on Workflow and Scoping pages. Now you can filter by Today, Within a week, or Within a month, so you don’t have to go hunting for tasks anymore.

• Customize your workflow even more! In the detail eye picker (the eye icon), you can choose to show dates and labels on each task. Plus, now if you hover over the label, it will show you the name of the label #prettycool. Yet again, another piece of brilliant feedback.

• Client users can only see tasks which are either assigned to. But now they can be an Owner of a task too. Hurrah! Now your Workflow and client collaboration will benefit more from this addition.

May 23rd

• 100 unopened emails in your inbox? Sound familiar? If so, you will like the new update to our email notifications. Now the subject line contains the information needed to know what actions to take. Basically, you don't even have to open them to know what it's about.

May 14th

• The new Task modal is out! It is new, improved, and looks super sleek and shiny. The new Task modal gives you a better overview of the task. If you want more information on how to use the modal, check out this help article.
• Critical path, you say? For those of you who like planning from a high to a low level, i.e., every project manager, we've got a tasty treat for you. Now you can see Dependencies on the Schedule and visualize the full dependency chain.
• Creating a new project just got faster, especially if you're filling out your client name, if not, then this is cool but doesn't really make the process that much faster. Now you can create a client if you don't see someone on the list by just clicking Add New Client directly in the modal.
• We've updated pricing, so now we have a new subscription page, paired with the new UI. You can more easily add or remove seats from your subscription. Admins can check it out under "Subscription."

May 9th

• Everything is connected, especially in a connected project! Now team members can have the option to be set as a contact person on an individual project or the whole connected project.
• We have a super user function coming your way. Workflow is fixed for multi-selecting tasks. Just right click and then you can bulk edit the tasks. It's the easy access to bulk updating.

The Month of April 2019

April 25th

• Our insights are giving you more information than before. Now the Time Report insight can be grouped by Phase.
• You’ve been assigned to a task? Did you know? Now you will be notified if you’re assigned to a task. Enable them in your notification page.
• Hint hint: Scheduling updates with new amazing UI and functionalities, like dependencies, are coming your way soon!

April 4th

• We have a big launch this week! Time page is updated, and we cannot wait to tell you about it. We have a slick new User Interface (UI), which comes with a few new bells and whistles. We are introducing “Suggestions” which is our fancy AI making your work more straightforward to do. You can now log time on the Month view and holidays are grey, so you know when not to work. Now you can copy and paste to your heart’s desire! On a Week view, you can right-click on a day and add the same time entries to the next day. Pretty nifty if you ask us.
  On Workflow you can “Encourage time entries,” which means you will be prompted to log time on tasks moved to another column, for example, from In progress → Done.
  Also, did we mention the UI looks slicker? Oh, yea we did!
  
  
• When you duplicate a project, you can now duplicate expenses too. When you duplicate a project, you can now duplicate expenses too. When you duplicate a project…
• Labels are more selective! After many requests, we’ve now made it possible for Admins to have full control of labeling. That means that new labels are created in the Admin portal under “Labels.” All users still have access to the great functionalities of using Labels, but now it’s more concise.

The Month of March 2019

March 21st

• Project Overview has a UI-facelift! For project allocation projects it basically looks like before, but just better. 

The Month of February 2019

February 27th

• Money Money Money Money! Now you can select multiple currencies for your projects and Rate cards. Check it out in your admin settings.

February 21st

• We love accounting systems here at Forecast, so we’re launching our QuickBooks Online integration and are updating our e-conomics integration. Invoicing is made easier, (something you didn’t see coming). Be audit you can be! 

February 7th

• Who is working on what? Now our motto is being improved! If you assign a person to a task with no role, the task's role will be set to the role of an assigned person. Example: A designer in a project is just added to a task, so it means that the task will inherit the role. If a client creates a task, all project contacts will be automatically assigned to the task.
  
  

The Month of January 2019

January 31st

• Parlez-vous français? Oui! Or we do!! Our platform is now translated in French.
• Insight update on the Portfolio Task List you can filter by status column, on all projects. If for example, you make a status column called “ready for release” then you can always see what is ready for release, naturally.

January 24th

• Price and Profit Insight is the talk of the town, or around the office at Forecast. Price and Profit Insight now includes Connected Projects. If you  want to view this insight, just group by "Projects." 

January 9th

• A new year means new Forecast, well not entirely. We’re at a steady pace with rolling out the new UI, and this week we’ve launched the new Overview page. The main changes are for projects that use Task Allocations. The Overview page shows you: Project Details, a Task Allocation Graph, your current Sprint, your Task Overview (i.e., the Estimates vs. Time registered on a graph), as well as the Task Status Columns. Now you’ll have a better Overview, literally. Note: If you use Project Allocations the Overview page remains the same.
• Time is on our minds, and we’re saving you some with an update to the calendar integration. Integrate with your Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar, and now book meetings directly from a task, or book team meetings with everyone on the project. If you’re on the calendar view, you can now quickly add time registrations.