Product Update

August 23, 2001

1. Workspaces: new project collaboration and knowledge management module.

OpenAir has launched Workspaces to provide fully functional project collaboration and enterprise knowledge management. Workspaces are contained places to collaborate and manage documents that can be linked with all other OpenAir modules and integrated into your business process. Enterprises can improve customer satisfaction through better project productivity and better serve customers for less cost by reusing intellectual capital.

Major features include a workspace dashboard, threaded discussions, threaded discussion keyword search, document storage, document revision management, document search, association of workspaces with projects, client, users, etc., best practices collection and management, managed security and user permissions to documents, and integration with all existing OpenAir modules and dashboards.

For more information and/or a live demonstration of OpenAir Workspaces, please contact your personal OpenAir sales representative, email us at sales@openair.com, or call OpenAir sales at 888.367.1715.

2. Reports: custom reporting periods, custom utilization, and VAT.
Custom reporting periods. You can now customize the dates by which OpenAir displays report data. Account administrators can set up fiscal years, fiscal quarters, bi-weekly periods, or any other combination of time periods by which to display operational and financial information in OpenAir. Custom reporting periods work in Summary Reports, Utilization Reports and Income Received reports. Administrators navigate to My Account > Account > Custom time ranges > New Entries: select Custom time ranges from dropdown. Once the reporting periods are set, users of any of the reports mentioned above can choose to display data in these ranges.

Custom utilization reporting. You can now completely customize the Historical Utilization Report to match the way you track utilization. Choose which type of hours to show in the numerator and denominator. For example, some firms include non-chargeable hours in their utilization reports whereas other firms do not. The new custom reporting allows both scenarios. The Historical utilization report now also allows filtering and subtotaling by project, customer, timesheet status, category, and time type. Navigate to Reports > Advanced > Historical Utilization Report.

Filter realization report. Users can now filter, subtotal, and show details for the Realization Report. Navigate to Reports > Advanced > Realization Report.

VAT reporting. Users can now report on the amount of value added tax (VAT) associated with receipts and expense types. Navigate to Reports>Summary>Expenses>Expense Items Report and select "Tax" as the data to be displayed.

Department filter on financial analysis report. Now users can select which departments to view when running the financial analysis report. Navigate to Reports > Advanced > Financial Analysis Report > select Department filter.

3. Integration: new OpenAir Integration Manager launched.

The OpenAir Integration Manager is a piece of software installed by OpenAir professional services staff that customizes the link between existing front- and back-office systems and the OpenAir solution. Built to complement the OpenAir XML API, the Integration Manager takes data exported from OpenAir and reformats it into a file usable by existing systems. Likewise, the Integration Manager can read exports from existing systems and reformat them into usable data for OpenAir. Key features include data export, date export format, data field combinations, field mapping between legacy system data fields and OpenAir data field, renaming data fields, customized ordering of data fields, customized delimiters, one click export macros, and filtering by date and other business rules.

For more information on how the OpenAir Integration Manager can help integrate OpenAir into your existing business process and systems, please contact your personal OpenAir sales representative, email us at
sales@openair.com, or call OpenAir sales at 888.367.1715.

4. Timesheets: custom alerts, timesheet layout, and copying.

Custom alerts. Administrators can now specify which users receive late and overdue timesheet alerts. Just navigate to Timesheets > Alerts. Then select appropriate alert and select users to receive the alert by using the filter settings on the form.

Timesheet grid layout. Administrators can now reduce horizontal scrolling when filling out a timesheet. Users can view their timesheet rows on top of each other: view categories and descriptions on one row and input hours in a second row underneath. Administrators navigate to My Account > Company > Settings and select "Wrap the daily cells to another row."

Timesheet copying. Users can now select from more timesheet copying options. These include copying clients and projects as well as choosing whether time should be copied or reset to zero for each client:project pair. Navigate to Timesheets > Timesheets > Create dropdown: select Create timesheet from another timesheet.

5. Opportunities: Proposals merged, new role permissions.

Proposals folded into Opportunities. In order to better meet your company's business needs, we have more tightly integrated Proposals and Opportunities. Instead of accessing Proposals from the top link on your screen, you will now access Proposals from within the Opportunities module. Navigate to Opportunities > Proposals.

New role permissions. OpenAir has added additional role permissions that enable administrators to further fine-tune a user's access to functionality and data in the Opportunities module. Now, use role permissions to limit or grant view only or view/edit access to estimates, proposals, to dos, events, and deals.

Client address to contact address. Users can now avoid re-keying addresses when they create contact associated w/clients or prospects. If your contact at a company has the same address as the client or prospect, just check the "copy address" box and the field will auto-populate. Navigate to Opportunities > Prospects > New Entries dropdown, select Create contact > select "Copy client address" box.

6. Expenses: attach scanned receipts, customize alerts, smart dropdowns.

Attach receipts to expense reports. Now users can attach scanned receipts or any other relevant files to either individual receipts or entire envelopes in OpenAir. To attach files to envelopes, navigate to Expenses > Envelopes > [select an envelope] > Edit. To attach files to receipts, navigate to Expenses > Envelopes > [select an envelope] > [select receipt].

Custom alerts. Administrators can now specify which users receive late and overdue expense report alerts. Just navigate to Timesheets > Alerts. Then select appropriate alert and select users to receive the alert by using the filter settings on the form.

Pre-populated expense receipts. OpenAir has made logging receipts easier by pre-populating the receipt form when a user selects "Save and create another receipt" when using the Expenses module. To use the feature, just select "Save and create another receipt" and the next receipt form will contain the same date, customer:project, status, payment type, currency (if using foreign currency receipts), and exchange rate (if using foreign currency receipts).

7. Expenses: mileage display and accounting code on expense reports; expense item entry can be required on receipts.

Mileage display on expense reports. Administrators can now configure their company's expense reports to include a column to display mileage amounts. Navigate to Expenses>Options>[select mileage from the columns to display].

Require expense item selection on receipts. Administrators can now require users to select an expense item when creating receipts. Navigate to My Account > Company > Settings > Expenses options and check the "Require an expense item selection on receipts" box before clicking on "Save."

7. Would you like to see previous OpenAir product updates?

Click here to browse previous product updates including all new features, modules and functionality.

8. Suggestions, problems or questions?

As always, please contact us at support@openair.com or 888.367.1715 (outside the U.S. and Canada, call 617-351-0226). We want to ensure that OpenAir improves your company's bottom line.