We've rolled out an update to the layout of all customer portals in response to customer feedback, in order to improve the layout and information density. Functionality remains the same in most cases, with the exception of the Stripe integration on the invoice portal, where we now embed the payment form on the page, rather than redirecting to Stripe checkout (which was previously required as at the time of the first version, there was no support for embedding BACS payments on our site).

We've made some updates to how tables in our web interface work, in order to help improve load speed & performance as the amount of data in your account grows, and increase flexibility in options for tables to help you get the most out of your data.

Filters​

Previously, you only had the option to search across all text content in all columns of the table to filter rows. We've now added filters which allow you to filter by specific columns, and in addition for searching for rows matching a condition, you can specify conditions to exclude.

Filters work in conjunction with the search bar, although due to changes in how we now load data in order to improve performance, you may notice some small differences in the results returned by the search bar. Please let us know if you think you find an issue with this!

Note that status filters for jobs, forms, quotes, and invoices have now moved to be under the filters popup. When you have filters active, you'll see the number of filters active at the top right of this button.

Custom columns​

Previously, the columns shown in each table were fixed, and you had no control over what you saw. This may have caused issues if you needed additional data (eg. phone numbers in a list to quickly make calls), so we've now added the option to change the visible columns and ordering on tables so you can better customise tables to your needs.

You can find this option under the "more" dropdown at the top right of the table page.

New Tables​

We've added two new table pages to the software, accessible under the "more" dropdown in the navbar:

• Events, to view calendar events in a table format. You can filter by employee, date range and more. This may be a more useful way to search for historic events.
• Tasks, to view tasks across all locations (customers and jobs) within your account. Additionally, we've added a "My tasks" link, accessible in the user dropdown on the navbar, to see the list of incomplete tasks which are assigned to you.

We've made some changes to our quotes and invoices to support domestic reverse charge tax rates, and construction industry scheme deductions, via our app and web interface.

You're able to select tax rates per line item from a dropdown (eg. 0%, 20%, 20% DRC), and associate a nominal code to the item where required for CIS (eg. CIS higher 30%). These will link to any configured accounting integrations so the correct deductions and tax rates will sync through to your accounting software where possible (QuickBooks doesn't properly support CIS deductions being created through third party software at this time).

We've added a couple of new forms to the built-in library:

• Central Heating Powerflush Checklist (PAD28)
• Electrical Bonding Notice (WL9)
• Domestic Unvented Hot Water Commissioning/Inspection Record (CP8)
• Central Heating Commissioning Certificate (PAD26)
• Commercial Catering Inspection Record (PAD8)
• Landlord Oil Installation Check (CD/12)
• Oil Warning and Advice Notice (CD/14)

If we're still missing any industry standard forms which you'd like to be able to complete in the software, please let us know and we can look into adding these to the library.

We've extended the range of accounting integrations supported by JobStaq to include FreeAgent.

We've not delivered any new features in a while, so just wanted to leave a quick update here so you have an idea on what's been going on! We've taken a bit of time out of developing new features to focus on improving the reliability of JobStaq - from increasing the amount of automated tests we have to check things are working before releasing updates, to re-designing our infrasturucture to decrease the chances of downtime on our web interface and improve performance.

We believe these steps will be beneficial in the long term for our users, and will soon return to making changes to the product that you'll be able to use!

Over the past year we've been busy working on a revamped version of the JobStaq web interface, and work on this has finally completed to a stage where it's ready to take over from our original web interface as the primary interface for all users.

Why the change? We wanted to modernise the technical aspects of our web interface. Work commenced on the original version over 5 years ago, and in this time, the scope of the product has changed significantly, and we've gained more understanding in how best to structure our code and features to enable product development to proceed at a faster pace.

What's new? In addition to the technical changes, we've made sure to include some improvements which we hope will improve your experience while using JobStaq.

• Unified search improvements: our search system now has the ability to search through knowledgebase articles, settings pages, notes, events and jobs in addition to customers and properties, to enable you to locate any required information more easily than in the previous version.
• **Notification improvements:**you're now able to see all notifications requiring action through the web interface, and track which ones have been seen, and which still require action to address.
• Popup improvements: popups are used in a lot of places, such as sending communications, editing invoices, and scheduling events. In the original web interface, any unsaved data from open popups was lost when you changed pages, which may be an issue if you're in the middle of writing something and need to respond to an incoming call from a customer. In the new web interface, technical design changes mean it's now possible for these to remain open as you move between pages, so you can go back to what you were working on after a call, or navigate to other pages to see details which you may want at hand to create a quote item, such as job notes.
• Calendar improvements**:** the sidebar event details view was incredibly narrow and hard to see details when long event descriptions were required, so we've made the switch over to a popup system so this information is easier to read. Street view support has also been added directly to the calendar, so you're able to assist engineers in locating a property from the office if required.
• **Design changes:**there were a large number of inconsistencies between how pages (especially settings) were layed out, which we've now attempted to settle on a standardised layout for.
• Employee & vehicle files & notes: you are now able to create notes or store files against employees and vehicles within the web interface, to track any MOT / insurance documents, employment contracts, or any other information you'd like stored in a central place.
• Developer settings: we've added a settings area for developers, so that you're able to make use of our API to integrate any custom systems into JobStaq. You'll be able to see API documentation and manage API keys.
• **Storage breakdown:**we've added a breakdown to the billing section to show how each file type is impacting your storage usage, to assist you in reducing the amount of data in your account if required.
• Re-generate forms: there are some cases where JobStaq isn't able to detect changes made to job or customer details and automatically update related forms, so we've introduced the option to manually force the PDF to be re-generated to accomodate for this.
• Relative dates: we've added relative dates (eg. 3 years ago) alongside actual dates (eg. 23/09/2020) in several places to assist you in quickly identifying how old certain pieces of data (such as quotes, communications, and events) are. We've also added this to event popups so you quickly can see the duration of the event, rather than just the start/end times.
• CSV list exports: all list views now have the option to export all data, or just selected rows, to a CSV file for analysis or importing to other software.
• Dark mode: choose between a light or dark interface, like you've been able to in our app, to match your preference!

Transition period We'll no longer be providing any future bug fixes or updates to the original web interface, so we'd encourage you to move over to the new interface as soon as possible to ensure you're having the best possible experience with JobStaq. However, we understand that there's a chance we've missed something or made some user experiences worse than the old version, so you'll still be able to make use of the original web interface for the next couple of months until we're sure that the new interface is working better for all users, at which stage we'll be shutting down access to the original interface. So, if you run into any problems, please let us know what's not working, and resort back to the original interface until we've been able to resolve these issues for you.

We've added a read-only integration for CardDAV clients, allowing you to view your JobStaq customer and employee database from within third party software, such as the iOS contacts app. More details on how to configure this can be found here.

Our customer booking portal allows customers to self-sechedule work to save administrative time for your business, when scheduling new or repeat work. We've made improvements to the confirmation screen of this portal, so that customers now get presented with an add to calendar dropdown, to save details of their booking to their preferred calendar software, so they don't forget when this work was scheduled for.

When used, an event will be created on their calendar with your company's contact details (incase work needs re-scheduling), time range, approximate duration, job type, and the property which the work takes place at.

We've been busy at work making a large number of changes to existing features over the past few weeks. A number of these relate to our internal tools to assist in supporting users when issues arise, however, there's a number of changes impacting our app and beta web interface which will be covered below.

Preview cover letter communication template PDF

For printed letter communications, there's always been the option to preview the cover letter which will be sent when creating a communication. However, up until now, this has not been possible for templates. We've added support to preview what a letter will look like with sample data from your account so you can quickly verify it's what you're after and make changes if there's any issues.

Creation date improvements for app

The creation date we stored on the server was previously set to the date at which the app synced to the server. In cases where you have no network connection when creating an item, this will mean the date isn't when it was actually created, so may cause confusion. We've made changes so that we can preserve the date & time at which an item was created in the app when synced to the server, no matter whether a network connection is available at the time of creation in the app.

Communication employee sender

Previously, all email and SMS communications sent through JobStaq have been sent from the company email or SMS sender. However, some users have requested the ability to change this so that emails can be sent from the user who created the communication, so replies go to their inbox. We've added configuration options to company settings to allow you to change whether emails and/or SMS messages are sent from the company contact details, or that of the employee creating the communication. We'll fall back to the company details in cases where the employee details are either missing, or when a communication was created automatically (eg. service reminders).

Search improvements

We've added links to the search page sidebar on our new web interface to allow you to quickly navigate to a section on the page, saving time scrolling through results when your query returned a large amount of data. We've also made some improvements to partial phone/mobile number searches on customers.

Resend communications from app

Previously this option was only available on the web interface, but now you're able to resend communications through the app if needed due to failed delivery or ammendments.

Quote & invoice status history

You are now able to view the history of quotes and invoices over time.

Event deletion close job suggestions

When deleting an event associated with a job, if this is the last event remaining on the job, we'll prompt you to check whether the job should remain open (if work is to be re-scheduled at a later stage), or whether the job should be closed (if the work is no longer going ahead). This should help your jobs requiring attention lists more accurate and informative.

Expire used booking portal links

When using our auto-booking system for form reminders, the link will now expire once the form associated has been marked as renewal complete to avoid accidental double-bookings for the same piece of work.

Automatic accounting integration sync

We'll automatically run a complete sync every Monday morning if you've configured an integration with Xero or QuickBooks to ensure data is in a consistent in JobStaq, and to minimise the chance of the connection deactivating due to lack of activity. Please contact support if you'd prefer this to be disabled for your account.

Forcefully update form PDFs

There are some cases where our system may not detect a form PDF needs updating, such as when customers associated with the job are changed. We've added buttons to the app and web interface to allow you to force the PDF to be regenerated in these cases.