Sneak Peek At Updates For Version 2.5

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I’m getting close to finalizing the feature list for version 2.5 of InBizness SOHO. I thought I’d go ahead and sneak peek of what I have so far.

Thanks,
Dwayne

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NEW BANK DEPOSIT MODULE
Added a new module for quickly creating deposit slips for customer check payments.

NEW SUPPORT CALL MODULE
Added a new module for documenting the customer support experience for a company.

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Added a sub tab to the Version History tab to document the changes in version 2.5
Removed The Emails And Events buttons to make room for new modules.
These two buttons are still in the Take Me To screen and the navigation custom menu.
Added a sub tab panel to the Preferences tab in the Main module including General, Invoice and Purchase Orders
Added a global field to help tailor the message on email invoices about how to make balance due payment

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Campaigns To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added a button called "List These" that does a GTRR to related records and show them in a list view. This button can be used to show related invoices, sales orders, quotes, proposals, campaigns, credit memos, returns, emails and events.
Tightened up the bottom tab order to show more data and be organized into logical group tabs.
Combined Emails And Events into the same tab and added this data as a subtab.
Added a relationship from Clients To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
Added A Support Call portal in the Customer Satisfaction Primary Tab
Added button and custom menu to create a new linked support call record from the clients module.
Added a pull down list of countries for the billing country and shipping country fields
Added a country code field for shipping and billing that uses a custom function to auto entry the code to correspond to the country
Added another subtab within the Emails/Events/Time tab called Timecard billing, which can be used to calculate and communicate consulting billing timecard entry.

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Contacts To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.

EVENTS MODULE CHANGES
In many modules, you can see a related event in the Events Dialog box (a smaller layout linked to the Events module). I added a button on that dialog layout to go to full screen view of the event record.

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added a button in the payments tab to automatically add a payment that is equal to the balance due for the invoice.
Turned off the validate always selection for the invoice number field because it was interfering with importing legacy data
Added a customization options area in the text invoice tab to allow for customization options for each invoice that might be emailed.
The first text invoice customization allows for including balance due information on outgoing invoices.
Tweaked the text invoice information to include a message about how payments can be made for invoices with a balance due.

LEADS MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Leads To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
To be consistent, the lead contact field has been broken up into a first and last name fields.
Added the ability to create a proposal from a lead and added a tab with portal to see related proposals for a lead

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Added a button and custom menu option within the Proposal module that will convert the proposal record to a new campaign record. The proposal milestones become campaign events and everything is attached to the related client.
Shortened the tab name Terms Agreement to Terms and added a Products tab
Added a tab for products and now you can add products from inventory to a proposal
Made Background a master tab with the sub tabs of Background, Research and Objectives
Removed the main tabs of Research and Objectives and made them sub tabs within the Background tab

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a new sub tab in the Events tab titled "Range / Working / Date Sort". It allows a staff member to set a start and end date range to see all their events in "Working" status. Added a large number of buttons to help set the range including Today, This Week, Last Week, Next Week, This Month, Last Month, Next Month and YTD. I also added a button to set all the events that have working status before the current date for a staff member to the current date. Also added the Set Previous Working feature as a custom menu for the Staff menu.
Added summary fields to the Timecard tab for overall timecard time (by range), overall billable time and billable amount.
Added New Timecard light gray button in the top button row, not sure how I missed that until now

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
Updated the client id field to auto enter via a lookup to an associated campaign record
Added a button next to the timecard email field to send timecard information to the linked client

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (insert_commas)
Added the custom function of insert_commas, which inserts commas before every third digit before a decimal point. Uses recursion to handle any number, including negative values and decimals. This allows me to have a calculated number in a text calculation field and still show the commas. So a calculated value of 2,000 will look that way instead of 2000. The name of the function is insert_commas and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Matthew Stetson, Antidote Solutions (http://www.antidotesolutions.com)

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (_cf_Country_Letter_Code)
This is a list of countries (sorted partially by their first letter) and their equivalent letter code. The name of the function is _cf_Country_Letter_Code and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Edward Souza, Duana A. S. Designs.

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
In the Staff module, added the custom menu of Set Previously Working Events To Today.
In the Proposal module, add a custom menu to covert a Proposal (with milestones) to a Campaign (with events).
Removed all aspects that allowed general FileMaker users to install standard FileMaker menus vs custom menus

UNDER THE HOOD - LAYOUT CHANGES
Went through and renamed all layouts to a new centralized naming convention
Went through and reorganized all layouts by module name and purpose

UNDER THE HOOD - SCRIPTING
Added a new naming convention for all scripts so they can uniquely identify what module they focus upon

UNDER THE HOOD - RELATIONSHIP GRAPH CHANGES
I had my Relationship Graph in very good shape for my InBizness SOHO product. However, I have never made sure that it printed perfectly. This is a large task because InBizness SOHO 2.5 has over 200 table occurrences for the 45 tables it currently has. So now, all those table occurrences are in synch with the Page Guide grid. I know that many of my competitors in the FileMaker framework business market could never print all the relationships for their solution from one place and it all fits into the printable grid. All TOGs are sorted alphabetically, fully anchor / buoy, full consistent naming convention and now totally printer friendly.

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LISTS
Went through and renamed all value lists to a new centralized naming convention
Added a value list for countries called OVERALL_country and have started assigning it to related country fields in the solution
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Printable Relationship Graph

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I had my Relationship Graph in very good shape for my InBizness SOHO product. However, I have never made sure that it printed perfectly. This is a large task because InBizness SOHO 2.5 has over 200 table occurrences for the 45 tables it currently has. So now, all those table occurrences are in synch with the Page Guide grid. I know that many of my competitors in the FileMaker framework business market could never print all the relationships for their solution from one place and it all fits into the printable grid.


Here you can see a 50% print preview look at part of InBizness SOHO 2.5 Relationship Graph. All TOGs are sorted alphabetically, fully anchor / buoy, full consistent naming convention and now totally printer friendly.
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More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.