Chrome Update affecting Abtrac

Abtrac Status Update: Wednesday May 4th, 9:15am NZST/ 7:15pm AEST.

Resolved:

Abtrac is once again operational across all browsers. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The issue was confirmed as a global event where current SSL logs stored within Google servers were retired as part of the latest Chrome update. Our SSL issuer GoDaddy.com was one of those affected, and issued a patch yesterday early afternoon around the same time that Google reactivated all retired logs.

GoDaddy has apologised for the disruption and are working on a longer term plan for robust validation logs. The technical response from Google for those interested is below:

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/ct-policy/c/P3_hj9QmsLc/m/S9xohdAHAQAJ?pli=1

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Glossary: Client People

This page briefly explains all the fields available on the Client People Page.

Every client can have many persons of interest. In Abtrac, these are managed in the Client People screen.

You can search people from Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search People.

Most of the fields here should be self-explanatory but below are some further explanations.

First Name: The First name of the person

Last Name: The Last name of the person       

Title: Such as Mr, Dr, Miss etc

Role: The person’s role in the organisation

Phone: The person’s phone number

Mobile: The person’s mobile number

Email: The person’s email address

Address: This is the address description for where the people belong to

Current: Indicates if this person is a person of interest. E.g. Do they still work at the organisation

Main Contact: The person who is the main contact for the client. The main contact will be the person shown in the Job template report.

Mail Merge:  Ticking the mail merge allows a user to be added to the list of people in the Contact Group Management screen. This screen is designed to get lists of people for emailing in groups. From Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Contact Group Management.

Accounts Contact: Is this the person who is the accounts contact for the client

Comments: Any comments associated with the person. I.e. “This person replaced Brian when Brian was on leave”.

Contact Groups: What contact groups does this person belong to? This can be used for exporting groups of people from different organisations. An example of use for this would be for Christmas Cards

Abtrac KB# 2177

Glossary: Client Address

This page briefly explains all the fields available on the Client Address Page.

Every client can potentially have many addresses for site addresses, deliveries, invoicing etc. In Abtrac, these are managed in the Client Addresses screen.

You can search addresses from Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search People.

Most of the fields here should be self-explanatory but below are some further explanations.

Address Description: The Address description is a way to differentiate between addresses. Abtrac users typically put in things like “Normal Billing Address” or “North End Branch Address” if a client has more than one branch in town. Another example is the difference between the “Site Address” and the “Office Address”.

This field is handy when selecting address quickly for the Client Invoice Defaults, Job Billing Details, and Invoicing.

Current: This indicates whether the address is a place of interest no longer used.

Main Address: This indicates the address most frequently used by the client when there are multiple addresses.

Copy Delivery To Postal: The Copy Delivery to Postal option lets you enter the delivery address, then clicking Copy Delivery to Postal, copies it to the Postal Address, saving double entry.

Address lines 1-5 and Post Code: Since Abtrac is used globally, there are different formats of address terms, such as the states, provinces, city, town etc., for different countries.

We have allowed you to use whatever fields you like in your invoice, account rendered, receipt and other templates.

Abtrac KB# 2178

Glossary: Client Invoice Defaults

This page briefly explains all the fields available on the Client Invoice Defaults Page.

For more complicated fields, there will be links provided to supporting articles.

What are Client Invoice Defaults:

Invoice Defaults are used to populate the Client Details of an invoice when generating an invoice for this client.

Should you use Client Invoice Defaults or Job/Project Billing Details?

When there is one set of criteria for invoices, regardless of how many Jobs/Projects there are created for this Client, you can use the Client Invoice Defaults.

However, in most cases, Job Billing Details are used for this information as there are more options available. For people using only basic invoicing features, then Client Invoice Defaults is a good alternative.

What if I have entered information into both?

The rule of thumb is that if conflicting Job Billing Details are entered, the Job Billing Details will take precedence over the invoice defaults.

If there are no Job Billing Details, then Invoice Defaults will be used.

Invoice Alternate Name: Used if the invoice name is different from the client name

Invoice Recipient: This selection box will automatically populate all the recipient details if you have entered information in the Client People Screen.

Invoice Recipient Role: The role of the person who receives the invoice.

Invoice Recipient Email: Email address used for who will be sent the invoice. You can add multiple people by separating them with a semicolon (the same as Outlook or Gmail).

Client GST/ABN: The client’s own GST/ABN number if they require you to show it on the invoice.

Invoice Default Address: This selection box will automatically populate all the address details if you have entered information in the Client Address Screen.

Postal Line 1: Postal Address to show on the invoice.

Postal Line 2: Postal Address to show on the invoice.

Postal Line 3: Postal Address to show on the invoice.

Postal Line 4: Postal Address to show on the invoice.

Postal Line 5: Postal Address to show on the invoice.

Post Code: Postal Code to show on the invoice.

Client Tax Number: Enter/edit the tax number for the client here. It is also editable from Invoice And Other Office Settings or when creating an invoice.

Purchase Order Required: Indicates whether a purchase order is required when creating a Job/Project.

Default Purchase Order: The default purchase order when creating a Job.

Never Add GST: If ticked, the invoice won’t add GST unless you specifically change the option on the invoice.

Invoice Terms: This allows the terms to be specific to the client rather than the system default invoice terms.

Due Date Calculation: This allows the due date to be specific to the client rather than the invoice system settings’ default due date.

Day/s: This allows the day’s calculation to be specific to the client rather than the invoice system settings’ default invoice days calculation.

Abtrac KB# 2179

Glossary: Client Details

This page briefly explains all the fields available on the Client Details Page.

For more complicated fields, there will be links provided to supporting articles.

Name: This is the Client name, Contact name, or Sub-Consultant name you want to manage through Abtrac.

Abbreviation: A short form of text for the Client Name used in the timesheet screen for faster entry for the user. The abbreviation is also used in some reports where space is at a premium.

System Code: The System Code is an alphanumeric field that is mandatory.

The default number is set from the Administration >> Settings >> Invoice and other office settings section in Abtrac.

In this screen, you can set an initial client number for one office under the option you have marked as the “Default Invoice Setting” or set specific numbers for each “invoice and other office setting”. The place to set the default is controlled under the “Next Client Number”.

If you prefer an alphanumeric code, you will need to make them up and manage them yourself each time you enter a client.

The system code is there because many Abtrac businesses link their Abtrac data and invoices with their accounting system. The system code is one way of providing a unique link, so the two systems always match up. It also enables Abtrac to manage the differences between two clients who have the same name.

If you aren’t sure what to enter as a system code, leave it alone, and Abtrac will automatically give it a number. Later on, you can change this data if needed.

Creation Date: The date the client was created, defaulting to the date the entry was added.

Current: This represents if the client is someone you are currently working with. It is recommended to mark all clients you no longer work with as non-current to minimise the amount of data Abtrac and your staff need to go through when searching, entering time, and generating reports.

Billable: States whether this is a billable client or a non-billable contact.

You are recommended to set yourself us as a non-billable contact so you can record time against yourself.

This client is used for admin time, sick leave, annual leave, training, etc. These are all set up as individual jobs/projects for yourself.

Synchronised: Indicates if the client has been synchronised with your accounting package during an invoice upload process or by clicking the synchronise button.

Learn more about your accounting packages here

Is a sub-consultant: You can use sub-consultants in Abtrac if you outsource work to third parties and need to manage them over the duration of one or more projects.

Read more about sub-consultants here.

Work This Sub-Consultant Does: Work This Subconsultant records the sub-consultants type of work. Bu classifying this here, you can subsequently query all sub-consultants who do the same type of work.

Client Owner: Is an employee that takes responsibility for this client. Client Owner is a displayed name that you can set to something that means something to you. An example of a reason to change this is to change it to ‘Principal’ or ‘Director.’

The screen to set who can be a client owner is found in Administration >> Employees Owners.

The area to set the displayed client owner name is under Administration >> Settings >> System Settings. Make sure you are in the Clients and Jobs/Projects tab on the left, then down the page in the section For Display on Forms and Reports.

Client Owner 2: This is the same as Client Owner 1 but a second option.

Client Type: Client type allows you to create a list of client types so they can be allocated to each client. This will allow you to see what clientele you are attracting to your business.

To maintain your list of client types, go to Administration >> Maintenance >> Client Rating.

Client Rating: Client Rating will allow you to set up a rating scale for your clients.

To maintain your client ratings, go to Administration >> Maintenance >> Client Type

Office: Shows what office this client belongs to. This can be left blank, so you can leave this unless you manage multiple offices and want to know differences during reporting or restrict employees by their office.

Is Master Client: If you tick a client as a master client, this tells Abtrac that this client can become a parent company for other clients. You then use the selection box to associate other clients with them by selecting their names from the drop-down list.

Is Master Client: Indicates if this client is a master client with ‘child client’ associated with it.

Master Client: This shows the client associated with this master client.

Comments: Whatever comments you want to associate with a client. E.g. “formerly called XZY Limited but changed their name in 20XX”, or “These guys are really bad payers, so contact Jo if you have any queries from them or requests for more work”.

Abtrac KB# 2180

Pre-Payments

A pre-payment amount for a job can be entered in the ‘Job Billing Details’ page in Abtrac.

This could be an initial deposit or an advance paid for a job.

This feature could also be useful in the event of an overpayment by a regular client for a job – the overpaid amount could be transferred to their next job as paid pre-payment amount.

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Abtrac Roadmap from September 2021 onwards

The roadmap for Abtrac is here. We would like to say a big thank you to all our clients who have helped us formulate this plan with your good ideas and suggestions on improvements and new features you want to see in Abtrac.

Without dragging this out, here are our plans for the future development of the software.

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Threshold Warnings

In Abtrac, you can enable timesheet threshold warnings at the job and/or task levels.

If you have assigned a fee estimate to your job or task, then you can enable Timesheet Threshold Warnings.

Timesheet threshold warnings are budget notifications that pop up within the timesheet entries screen when the threshold value specified is reached or exceeded.

These warnings can be applied to the entire fee budget for the job, or at the task level.

Default threshold warnings can be set up from system settings.

At any stage, a user can still enter time against the task and job.

Because of this, when you enable timesheet warnings, it is a good idea to let the staff know about them, and ask them to contact you if they receive a warning when entering time.

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