This release brings several exciting new features to BlueFolder. The biggest new feature is "Views", which is simply a customizable way to view the work order list. There are also some changes to the work order list as a result of the introduction of views. We're also announcing customizable dashboards in this release, along with new dashboard widgets to help you better manage your team/business. A few other minor changes and a number of bug fixes are also included.
Whats New
Work Order Views
Our team is so excited about this feature! As we've been testing it internally, we've been surprised at how much power and flexibility it provides and we're excited to see how it helps our customers. This feature is included in our Enterprise plan, and can be included in the Business plan if you have the "Business Plus" add-on. View current pricing here.
What are views? Simply put, views are customizable work order lists. You can create a view with a name of your choosing and then define who can access it, what filters should be included, and what columns should in the list and in what order. You can even set a "Threshold" that can cause the view to change color when the threshold value is exceeded.
It's important to note that a list of views is also displayed on the new dashboards (see below for more about dashboards). This is significant because the combination of views and the new dashboards makes it possible to get very specific about the information that is presented to your team every time they login.
Where do views appear?
- Views are displayed in the "View" menu on the Work Order List in the main web app and the mobile web app.
- Views can also be seen in the "Work Order Views" dashboard widget that can be added to the Personal and Service dashboards.
- Views are displayed on the dashboard in the mobile web app.
- You can edit your views by going to Settings > General > Work Order Views.
Can I still filter the work order list without views?
- Yes. If your price plan doesn't include views, you can filter the work order list as you have always done. Nothing has been taken away with this release. In fact, there is even more granularity in the modified filters with this release (see below).
- Even if your account includes views, you can still select "[Browse]" from the View menu on the work order list and filter the list as you've always done.
Examples of views:
- You could create a view called "New work orders older than 4 hours". The filters for the view could be something like "Status = New", "Time_Open > 4 hours". You could then set a threshold of 0, with a color of red. If there are 1 or more work orders that are "New" and have been open for more than 4 hours, the view would show in red on your dashboard and in the views list in the work orders tab and in the mobile web app.
- You could create a view called "Escalated work orders". The filters for the view could be something like "Status = Open", "Assigned To = UserGroup:Level 2 Techs". So any work order that is assigned to a user belonging to the user group "Level 2 Techs" would be displayed in this view.
Read more about views and learn how to create them.
Work Order List Changes
- For accounts that don't include the new "Views" feature mentioned above, the "View" menu has been replaced with two new filters: "Assigned To" and "Source".
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The previous "View" menu included things like "Assigned to Me", "Not Assigned", etc. In fact, most of the views were really filters based on the assignment status of work orders. The new "Assigned To" filter gives you more granularity than before and only requires a minor adjustment to how you use the work order list. 
- The new "Source" filter provides filtering based on where a work order was created. This filter provides access to the other items that were in the old "View" menu.
- The "Scheduled For" filter now supports "Today or Tomorrow".
- You may also notice a new filter value in each filter list, the "--" value. If you don't want to apply a filter, just select the "--" item from that filter's list (see screenshot above where all filters except Status are set to "--") and that filter will not be applied to the list.
Customizable Dashboards
This release includes the ability to customize both the Personal and Service dashboards. This feature is included in the Business and Enterprise price plans.
Dashboard widgets can now be rearranged to your liking. Just click the gear button on the upper right corner of the dashboard, just below the dashboard selector. This brings up a dialog box where you can drag and drop the widgets into whatever column and whatever order you like. Click Save and the dashboard will reload with your customizations in effect.
You can also now choose to have your dashboard auto-refresh on a specified interval. This is useful if you like to display BlueFolder on a large-screen TV in your office. Combined with custom views with thresholds, you can create an incredibly useful dashboard that auto-refreshes, changing colors to bring attention to important information as your account data changes throughout the day.
New Dashboard Widgets:
- "Work Order Views" is a new widget that can appear on both dashboards and displays all of the views the current logged-in user has permission to see. Each view is displayed by name, along with a number representing how many work orders currently match the view's filter conditions. If a threshold has been defined and is exceeded for a view, the shaded circle around the number can change color to draw attention to the view.
- "Hours This Week" is a new widget that can appear on both dashboards. When on the Service dashboard, this widget will display Assigned hours vs Reported hours for all of the standard users in your account. When on the Personal dashboard, it displays the current logged-in user's Assigned and Reported hours for the week, by day.
- "Assigned Hours" are hours that have been assigned to a user via calendar appointment, or scheduled assignment.
- "Reported Hours" are the labor hours that have been entered for that user.
- “Contracts Summary" is a new widget for the Service dashboard that displays useful stats about the contracts in your account. Each item listed is a link to the contracts list to show the details behind that number.
- “Equipment Summary" is a new widget for the Service dashboard that displays useful stats about the equipment in your account. Each item listed is a link to the equipment list to show the details behind that number.
- The Personal dashboard now has a "My Recent Activity" widget. This is the same as the "Recent Activity" widget that has been on the Service dashboard for a while. When used on the Personal dashboard, the widget will only show activity for the currently logged-in user.
- The "Work Orders Summary" widget is a new widget for the Service dashboard, but the information contained in it has been on the Service dashboard for a while, just in a different arrangement.
Other Dashboard Changes:
- The "Service Billing" widget has been updated to include last month's billing total, providing quick access to compare this month and last. We are also now showing the percent for this month and last month, as compared to the previous month. If your business is growing, you'll see a satisfying green arrow pointing up!
- The search widget looks a little different and now supports searching contracts & equipment as well.
Navbar Changes
- There is a new user profile menu on the upper-right corner of the screen. Links to the User Profile, Settings, Help, and Log Out have all been consolidated in this menu.
- A new settings icon on right side of navbar provides quick access to your account settings.
- The dropdown menus for each tab in the navbar now appear hovering your mouse pointer over the down arrow instead of requiring a click. These menus will continue to display on click/tap with touchscreen devices.
Other Changes
- A new report "Weekly Timesheet (Assigned vs Reported)" report has been added. This report compares assigned hours to reported hours for each user for a specified week. The new dashboard widget "Hours This Week" also links to this report.
- Work Order Items (Labor, Materials, Expenses) can now be cloned directly from the "Items" tab within a work order, and when viewing a specific item.
- You can now hide the report parameters panel when printing a report.
- The mobile web app has been relocated and is now located at youraccount.bluefolder.com/mobi. You can still access it via youraccount.bluefolder.mobi for the time being.
- The information that is included in some SMS notifications has been updated to be more consistent, and include more information.
Bug Fixes
- [BUG] Report parameters on a few built-in reports need UI clean-up.
- [BUG] Inactive Equipment items are in the list when creating a new SR
- [BUG] Unable to remove inactive users from an assignment
- [BUG] A comment containing a single or double quote shows an HTML encoded value instead of the single/double quote character.
- [BUG] Issue with scheduling some recurring jobs.
- [BUG] New materials and expense items added to a work order are not defaulting to bill to the work order's contract.
- [BUG] It's possible to resend a new-user activation email to an inactive user.
- [BUG] Deleted contracts still show up as recently viewed contracts which you can attempt to open.
- [BUG] Creating/editing a recurring job with a custom "yes/no" field - the custom field value is saved as "on" or "" instead of "True" or "False".
- [BUG] Missing "Edit" button on the listing for "Completed Recurring Jobs" within the Customer tab.
- [BUG] Editing a work order from the list doesn't add it to the user's recently viewed work orders list.
- [BUG] Creating a new work order from the calendar tab does not automatically check the "Assign this Work Order" checkbox and doesn't pre-fill the assignment details on the new work order form.
- [BUG] Navbar issues at small screen sizes.