Topic: Random / Split up Project / assign tasks to employees

Hi,

In order for an employee to see tasks on a project they must be assigned to that project. Click the “Edit” button while viewing the project, then assign your employee to it using the controls at the bottom of the page.

There is no current way to assign specific tasks to individuals within Cashboard at this time, but feel free to suggest it at our official feature request forum

Topic: Random / Split up Project / assign tasks to employees

Is there a way to split up a project and assign tasks to employees? I was looking for a way to assign a task to an employee but the employee cannot see any of the other tasks of the project. This would allow them to log time to only their own tasks. I have not figured this one out yet.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Repetitive Tasks ..

Hey Tom,

More than likely you’ll want to use a task on your project with a flat fee. Cashboard handles tasks with flat fees in a special way with billing, so you’ll need to put some thought into the setup of your projects.

• You will first need a project for each client you’re working for, billed by task rate.
• Next, create a task with an hourly rate of $0, and a flat fee of however much you’d like to bill.
• Then, track time as you normally would against those tasks.
• When it comes time to invoice, your client will be billed at the flat fee specified for the task.

Here’s where the thought comes into play. Cashboard automatically marks invoiced tasks with a flat fee completed, so they’re not double billed.

At this point you can either

• Go back into your project and mark the task incomplete – or
• Create a new task with a similar setup, but a different name. Example “My Repetitive Task – Week 2”

Then you can continue on logging time, and rebill.

Make sense?

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Repetitive Tasks ..

A good part of my business is things I do repeatedly, for a flat rate. These tasks are not necessarily regular – one week I might do 1, the next week 10.

I would like to be able to indicate it on the time sheet, track the hours I spend on the task, but bill the client a fixed amount. I would like to be able to set the rate for the task, and have it automatically billed at that rate when I create the invoice.

Can this be done in Cashboard?

Topic: Liquid Templates / Multiple Templates

Just in case someone finds this, drak0’s comment came to pass as it looks like the formatting for the flat fee changed from 0.00 to 0.0. I’ve implemented his idea with maths instead of comparing strings, so use this one instead of my previous.

{% assign flatfee = 0 %}
{% assign hourly = 0 %}
{% for item in invoice.line_items %}
  {% assign flatfee = flatfee + item.flat_fee %}
  {% assign hourly = hourly + item.quantity %}
{% endfor %}

{% if flatfee == 0 && hourly > 0 %}
 {{ # THIS IS HOURLY }}
 {% include 'html_invoice_hourly' %}
{% else if flatfee > 0 %% hourly == 0 %}
 {{ # THIS IS FLAT FEE }}
 {% include 'html_invoice_flatfee' %}
{% else %}
 {{ # THIS IS MIXED }}
 {% include 'html_invoice_mixed' %}
{% endif %}

Topic: API / Cashboard-js Javascript Library

Cashboard-js is taking shape.

Listing resource is supported, and there’s a demo file you can open in Webkit based browsers (Safari, Chrome) that will let you interact with the API.

Watch github for more updates. I’ll probably not be posting more on it here unless anyone has questions or decides to use it.

Topic: API / Cashboard-js Javascript Library

As of right now the API is speaking JSON.

Topic: API / Cashboard-js Javascript Library

I’m about 1/2 way done with allowing the API to consume and produce JSON. This is going to be the first step towards providing a Javascript library, as I was unhappy with the XML parsing solutions I found out there.

Should have JSON done this week, with a framework-agnostic (no prototype/jquery/mootools required) library to follow. Not requiring a framework will make producing widgets and mobile apps that much easier for you.

Cashboard-js will be available on github when it’s ready.

Topic: Random / dumb question of the day!

Because they’re links…like links you see all over the web…the purple ones are the ones you’ve visited.

It’s a fairly standard usability practice, and has been for some time.

Topic: Random / dumb question of the day!

Been wondering why on my project list some titles are in blue and some are in purple? Why is that…..

Thanks

Topic: Liquid Templates / No Hourly Costs

Pat,

I don’t make it a habit to edit customer’s templates but I was grabbing a coffee this morning and this was a really quick thing to do.

I’ve pasted the results here. You can grab the raw text file here, which is good for copy / pasting.

You’ll need to create 2 new templates under the Settings > Templates screen – one called ‘html_invoice_no_hourly’ which you’ll paste the top section into. Then, create another called ‘invoice_row_no_hourly’ and paste the second section.

Finally, go to whatever invoice you’d like to use this template on and click edit. Select the new template ‘html_invoice_no_hourly’ from the drop-down menu and save.

Topic: Liquid Templates / No Hourly Costs

OK, I took a look…. and I have no idea how and what your talking about… So would it be possible for you to create this new template and send it to me. I just dont know enough about that type of thing and would hate to screw something up. Creative attempt wouldnt scare me, but being it for accounting purposes, scares the hell out of me…

I have no problem paying you for your time, I could send it to you paypal? just let me know what you think and we will go from there.

Thanks Seth,

Pat Bradley

Topic: Liquid Templates / No Hourly Costs

Thanks Seth, Ill give it a try and hope I dont screw anything up while attempting.

Topic: API / What are you making with the API?

I’ve heard lots of people supposedly working on an iPhone app.

Anyone working on one for Android? Palm? Blackberry? Desktop app?

I’m taking a hard look at things like http://www.appcelerator.com/ for cross platform mobile dev.

Topic: Troubleshooting & Bug Reports / Bug Report - Incorrect Amount Shown when creating invoice

Thanks for the report Ross. I’ll add it to my list and look into it first chance I get.

Topic: Troubleshooting & Bug Reports / Bug Report - Incorrect Amount Shown when creating invoice

This is a very minor bug, but something that should be fixed. I have been able to repeat it a couple times following these steps:
1. You must have a client with 2 or more projects with uninvoiced time
2. Create an invoice from the front dashboard by clicking on the Create invoice link on the right hand side of the project.
3. Note the original invoice amount, then click edit and add the time from an additional project by clicking the checkmark next to the project and clicking save.
4. The new amount is updated in the invoice. Click on edit and the amount in the upper right corner changes to the original amount. The amount at the bottom of the invoice remains correct.

Topic: API / Making money with the API

I’m sure a lot of you are in the concept phase developing applications that work with our new API.

One thing I want you all to keep in mind is the possibility of making money by writing apps that interface with Cashboard. One of my next big projects is going to be implementing an affiliate program that pays out similar to the 37 Signals model.

Strongly consider adding account sign up to any mobile or desktop application you develop and promote. We will be adding a “referrer” or “affiliate” property during sign up that you will be able to fill out and track account sign ups from your apps.

This way, you could possibly offer your applications for free, but have a recurring stream of income by gaining a percentage of customers that you sign up and become paying customers with Cashboard.

Topic: Liquid Templates / No Hourly Costs

That’s kind of a weird request from a client.

Nevertheless, what you’ll need to do is probably create an alternate template for invoices that hides those fields.

Here’s an overview of that process.

• Copy html_invoice into a text editor
• Remove the HTML for hourly rate / hours spent
• Create a new template called “html_invoice_no_hours” (or something like that)
• Paste in your edited template and save
• Edit the invoice for your client and select your new template from the display template select menu
• Save and view your new template in use

Topic: Liquid Templates / No Hourly Costs

Working well with my client on tracking hourly costs. But she doesn’t want my hourly rate or hours spent on the invoice? So needing some help pretty quick due to I have quite a bit of invoices that I need to get there way. So any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance,

Pat

Topic: API / XML test fixtures

This is the best place to grab the latest test fixtures > http://github.com/subimage/cashboard-rb/tree/master/test/fixtures/

Topic: API / Cashboard-rb Ruby Library

The project is up here > http://github.com/subimage/cashboard-rb

If you’re a Ruby developer you can easily install it by typing

gem install cashboard

Feel free to discuss it here.

Topic: API / XML test fixtures

PS: I keep updating the zip file as I nail down the data in them. If you’ve grabbed em might want to get latest copies at different intervals.

The final set will be included in Cashboard-rb

Topic: API / XML test fixtures

I’m just wrapping up the work on this initial Ruby API wrapper, but figured if anyone else out there was working on a wrapper of their own they might find these XML test fixtures useful.

They are XML files generated from test data that you can use to predict the “list” method on each resource type.

Topic: API / API BETA information

Another way to get a key

You can also create a Cashboard account via the API which automatically generates an API key for the account owner.

I’d suggest doing this for testing purposes!

I’ve done everything possible to ensure data integrity will be kept when interacting with the API, but we are still in beta mode. There is the possibility of operations on the API doing strange things to a Cashboard account.

Just a heads up.

Topic: API / Cashboard-rb Ruby Library

Now that the API beta is up I’m getting started on an example client in Ruby.
I’ll be sharing the project on GitHub as soon as I have something workable.

Expect to see more here soon.