iZepto Blog

Task requests prior to 2.3 were created ’silently’ as an option in task search.  These tasks were added to a special client and project and needed to be moved into the correct client and project by an administrator.  This didn’t give the requestor much credit, since most of the time they can probably make a good guess as to where the task should go.

In Version 2.3 released today, they entire task request process has been updated.  Requests are now obvious (there is a pop up screen that the requestor fills in) and the requests are allocated to an administrator (just like leave requests).

Work for the Admin should now be greatly reduced in most cases.  If the requestor has got it right, just clicking “Approve” should be all they need to do!

Again, we are aiming to make iZepto the easiest time sheet system possible!

Although the functionality has been there for a while now, we thought it was worth blogging about some new functionality in iZepto - Leave Management.

At Shine Technologies, we found that the process of leave requests and time management were pretty closely linked.  So, we updated iZepto to handle it.  Now, you can mark a task a ‘leave’ task.  For instance, you probably have a task for ‘Annual Leave’ or ‘Maternity Leave’.  You can now mark that as a leave task and your users can request to take ‘Annual Leave’.  They pick one of the Admins as an approver.

The system emails Admins daily if they have any requests that need approval.  You can easily see a Gantt chart of all leave requests, and even filter them by status or date range or group.

Once approved, the requesting user gets an email and their time for that period is automatically filled out.  Neat!

A final feature added today is Leave Reconciliation.  Now your accountant or book keeper can do a check between what was requested and what was actually taken.  At Shine we use this as the last step prior to updating our payroll system with leave actually taken.

As a nice extra, check out the iCal feed beneath the Gantt chart.  I have a subscription in iCal on my Mac (but any iCal conforming application will work) that shows all leave requests for people in my group.  They show up as an all-day event at the top of my calendar and is a nice reminder not to expect a certain team member in that day!

An updated version of the iPhone app is now in the App Store. You can now add notes to time entries and more easily navigate forward and back in time.

Thanks for all the feedback! We are working on more enhancements so let us know what you would like to see!

Version 1.1 of the iZepto iPhone application is now in the AppStore. You can now see your time entered for the day. Nice!

The next release will have the next most requested feature - adding a note to a time entry. Stay tuned!

The iZepto iPhone application is now in the AppStore.  Check it out!  Just go to the App Store in iTunes!

Yes, our iPhone application was submitted to Apple for review just then, so based on evidence on the interwebs it is likely to be available within 2 weeks.  Or rejected.  Who knows?!?!

We are already at work on additional features, the main one being the ability to see and edit time entries as well.  The main point of this release was to enable you to quickly and easily add time entries to iZepto.  Future releases will add functionality to review your time and maybe some other nice things as well Fingers crossed!

For those of you from the US, or who just love dates in the mm/dd/yyyy format, today is your day!  iZepto V1.7 now supports both date formats as a company preference.  This effects both the display of dates as well as the entry of dates for time entry creation.

Make sure you check out the Company Preference settings on the Admin page (only if you have Admin privileges of course).

Version 1.6 went out today with some updates to the reporting functionality.  The date section of reports is now split into “All” for reports on all dates, “Period” which is the “last 1 month” type of report and “Date Range” where you can specify a start and end date.

Why Period and Date Range?  Well, if you set up a Period report then the actual date range in your report changes depending on when you run it.  Set up a “current 1 month” type report and you can always see what you have done in the current month.  Set up a “previous 1 month” report ready to do your invoicing at the start of the month for the month just ended.

Don’t forget that you can add a saved report to your Dashboard, and then get the total emailed to you and others daily.  A great way to keep track of budgets and easily communicate with your clients.

Sometime soon the iTunes App Store is going to open and hopefully soon after that you are going to be able to see this on your home screen:

Yes, we have made a native iPhone application for iZepto.  Now you can quickly and easily enter time wherever you are using the intuitive touch interface that is the iPhone.

First, you will need to have your settings in place.  Of course, this is done the the standard way by clicking on the settings icon:

and then entering your login details:

Now, you are ready to use the application.  When you launch the application we communicate directly to the iZepto website to retrieve your information and confirm your login:

Then, we rotate nicely into entry mode.  The areas of the screen are all touch sensitive, ready for you to choose what you would like:

Selecting the date will bring up the native date picker, and selecting the duration will bring up a time picker:

The task picker shows a list of your favourites. In the next version, we will also allow task searching:

Once you have entered all your required information, just touch Add Entry and your entry will be immediately updated on www.izepto.com:

Fast, simple, intuitive.  Timesheets Made Human!