Syncd News

Improved Mobile Support and Longer Notes

2013-06-30T00:00:00.000Z

Although we’ve been working hard on a major upgrade of Syncd, we don’t want to neglect the current version. We’ve just pushed an update that adds some frequently requested features.

Improved Mobile Browser Support

Syncd’s mobile interface now features improved support for a number of mobile browsers, including Chrome Mobile and the built-in Android browser. You can access your account from any browser, mobile or desktop, at the same address: https://syncd.com

We’ve also adjusted the layout of our mobile interface by including your organization’s name and the logout link in the top banner. We hope this makes it easier to click logout when you want, and only when you want.

Support for Longer Notes

We’ve increased the allowed length of time entry notes from 255 to 1000 characters. In order to facilitate entry of such long notes, our text fields now auto-expand as you type. This enables you to always see the full content of notes, regardless of how long they are.

We hope these updates will keep Syncd working well for you. We’re looking forward to sharing details about the new release coming later this year!

Maintenance Release

2013-02-21T00:00:00.000Z

We just pushed out a maintenance release to take care of a few minor issues and to add a long overdue reporting feature.

User group filters for reports

Until now, User Groups have been useful for grouping users together when assigning jobs and activities. Due to popular demand, we’ve just made groups even more useful by allowing them to be used as filters for time and expense reports. For instance, you can now run a time report for your “Accounting” group instead of adding filters for each individual in that group.

Developers’ API: Include billing rates along with time entries

Developers using Syncd’s API can now optionally include billing information along with time entries. Please see our Time Entry API docs for more details.

Bug fix

When updating Syncd with some security patches earlier in the month, we inadvertently introduced an annoying bug which resulted in the incorrect display of apostrophes in the job selectors. Our release resolves this issue. We’re sorry for any trouble this may have caused.

Upcoming news

We’ve been putting a lot of effort into developing a brand new version of Syncd over the past couple years. We appreciate your patience as development of the current version has slowed as a result. We plan to make regular announcements as the upcoming release of the new Syncd gets closer. Please stay tuned…

Simple Templating with "Duplicate"

2011-12-08T00:00:00.000Z

Entering new clients, projects and tasks can be tedious if you need to enter a number of sub-projects or tasks every time. We’ve been considering how to approach this problem for quite a while before finally settling on a solution that is simple and flexible.

The duplicate feature can be used to create a copy of a client, project or task, including its properties, user assignments, billing rates, and all of its children. You can use the duplicate feature in conjunction with a set of data you keep around as a template, or you can use it ad-hoc to duplicate any of your active assignments.

Look for the Duplicate link in the Manage pages next to any of your clients, projects or tasks:

Duplicating works just like a copy / paste operation:

We developed this feature as part of our major upcoming update but decided that we could easily extract it into an earlier release. We hope it takes some of the tedium out of entering new data.

2012 will Bring Major Changes and New Browser Requirements

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000Z

In preparation for some major updates coming to Syncd in 2012, we’re changing our browser support policy. Beginning January 1, 2012, we’re going to officially support only the most recent two versions of the major desktop and mobile browsers.

As of the time of this post, these browsers include:

Firefox 7+
Chrome 16+ (auto-updates)
Safari 5+
Internet Explorer 8+
Mobile Safari in iOS 4+
Android 2.3+

Although Syncd may work well in other browsers, these are the only ones we will test and officially support. We may display warning messages for specific browsers which are known to cause problems (e.g. Internet Explorer 6 & 7).

Modern browsers are not only more secure and responsive than their predecessors, they also provide a number of capabilities, loosely defined as HTML5, that enable real advances on the web. Capabilities such as offline data storage, drag and drop file uploads, geolocation, and push communication will allow Syncd to behave more like a native application while still enjoying the advantages inherent in a web application.

Because of the scope of the changes coming soon to Syncd, we’ll be explaining many of them in detail before they are released. We know some features have been a long time coming in development, and we sincerely appreciate everyone’s patience as we try to get them “right”.

Major Infrastructure Upgrade Sunday, Sept. 18th

2011-09-14T00:00:00.000Z

We’re making a big move this Sunday. We’ll be changing our hosting facility and bringing online a whole new fleet of servers to better serve Syncd to you.

Our new servers and hosting facility should provide better performance. In testing, we’re seeing improvements of over 50% in the time to complete processing-intensive requests, such as reports. In addition, our new host’s infrastructure has significantly improved response times.

Our new server architecture is fully redundant so that downtime can be minimized. Although we’ve had better than 99.98% uptime since 2008, we hope to improve upon this.

We’ve also got room to grow with our new host, where we’ll be able to bring more servers online quickly to serve growing demand. We will also be able to bring new capabilities to Syncd, such as file storage.

We think that the only downside to our move is that we expect some downtime on Sunday. We’re starting the move at 8am EST and expect it to take between 2-4 hours.

Therefore, please plan for Syncd to be inaccessible from 8am - 12pm EST (GMT-4) this Sunday, September 18th.

We’ll be tweeting our progress on Sunday to keep you informed. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, either through Twitter or using the contact form in the Help section of Syncd. Thanks!

Update: Thanks to everyone for your patience. The upgrade was completed successfully and slightly ahead of schedule. We’ve already heard from some users who are happy with the improved performance. Please let us know how everything is working for you. Thanks!

Keeping Your Data Organized

2010-05-07T00:00:00.000Z

It’s a fairly common problem: after tracking your time against a couple different projects, you realize that you’d like to consolidate those projects into a single one. Until now, Syncd has not provided an easy solution for this problem, which used to require reassigning all your time entries from one project to the other before deleting one.

We’ve just added a more straightforward solution: the ability to merge data in a single step. Merging is available for the following data types:

Clients, projects and tasks
Activities
Billing rates
Expense categories
Payment methods
User groups

Look for Merge links in your account’s Manage pages. For instance, the Merge link for a project is highlighted below:

Merging works a little differently for each data type, so we spell out exactly what will happen beforehand:

We hope that the new merge feature helps you keep your data organized and clutter-free.

Account Backups and Restores

2010-04-07T00:00:00.000Z

We appreciate being entrusted with your valuable data and take every reasonable precaution to keep that data secure. For instance, we make full backups of every account’s data and copy those backups offsite several times every day. However, we recognize that your data is your own, which is why we’ve just re-released a feature from LiveTimer: the ability to backup and download your account’s data.

You may now backup your account once every 24 hours. Backup files are in XML format, which is plain text and easily readable, and include almost all of your account’s data. Notably missing are user passwords and memorized reports, which will be preserved if possible during a restore.

You may download your latest backup file at any time. Backup files are zipped along with a signature file that verifies the authenticity of the backup.

Disaster recovery on your terms

While it’s nice to be able to extract your account’s data in a backup file, it really is only one half of the safety net for your data. We’ve decided to also provide the other half: the ability to restore your full account from one of your backups.

We always keep your latest backup file on our servers, which makes it especially easy to restore your account from this file. However, we also allow you to restore your account from a backup file that you’ve downloaded in the past.

Peace of mind

In order to access these new features, account administrators should click on the Account tab, and then Backup / Restore.

We hope that you enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having more control over your account and direct access to your data.

The New Syncd API

2010-04-07T00:00:00.000Z

We’re pleased to announce the new Syncd API (Application Programming Interface). The API can be used by developers to extend any application to include time and expense tracking.

The Syncd API adheres to the REST principles as closely as possible. Resources such as jobs, users and time entries each have a unique URI. These resources are controlled using the primary HTTP verbs: GET, POST, PUT AND DELETE. Data is returned in XML format.

If you’d like to learn more, please read our extensive documentation of the Syncd API.

Adding Classifications in iPhone / Mini Mode

2010-03-18T00:00:00.000Z

It is once again possible to add classifications, such as clients, projects, and tasks, to your account using your iPhone, iPod Touch or desktop browser in Mini Mode. We regret that this capability, which was available in LiveTimer, has been unavailable since the Syncd launch. Although it’s taken longer than expected to wrap this up, we hope you like the result.

As you can see above, there’s a new add button just to the right of the search field in selector windows. Click this button to open a new dialog, which provides the same capabilities as Syncd’s standard, full-sized interface. You’ll be able to add clients, projects and tasks, assign users and define billing rates, all within Mini Mode.

Thanks for everyone’s patience as we’ve redesigned this feature. Please give it a try and let us know what you think!

Tool Windows

2010-03-10T00:00:00.000Z

We’ve just added a little feature to Syncd that we hope will have a big impact on your productivity. We call them tool windows because they’re a cross between a tooltip and a dialog window. These compact windows provide extra information and options without leaving the current page.

In order to open a tool window, just click on the gear symbol that now appears next to most selectors. A small window should appear hovering over the page with information and options related to the currently selected item. For instance, the image above shows a tool window for a project. It includes links to the project and its client, the description for the project, its billing rate, as well as links to create a new client, project or task.

In order to close tool windows, just click anywhere on the page (even on the tool window itself) or press the Escape key.

We hope that these little windows save you a lot of clicks!

What's New in Syncd?

2010-03-01T00:00:00.000Z

For the transition from LiveTimer to Syncd, we’ve rewritten much of the architecture and interface of our application. We’ve tried to make these changes appear incremental in nature to help you feel immediately comfortable with Syncd. Now that the transition period is over, we’d like to dig deeper into Syncd’s new features to help you make the most of your account.

Improved Work Structure

In LiveTimer, accounts were limited to a maximum of three levels of work, typically named clients, projects and tasks. In Syncd, you can now define up to five levels, such as:

Five levels of projects
A top level of clients, followed by several levels of projects
A top level of clients, followed by projects, followed by several levels of tasks

Multiple levels allow you to break up your work into more manageable “chunks”, which in turn can be broken down further. Note that, even if you’ve set up your account to allow multiple levels of work, you only need to use the levels that are appropriate for any given job.

Furthermore, each work level can be named and customized. For instance, you may want to track ID fields for clients, but not for projects. You may want to allow time tracking only for tasks, and expense tracking only for projects. Check out the available options in Settings / Work Structure.

User groups

User groups have been added to simplify the assignment of users to work. For instance, let’s say you have a group of developers who all work on the same projects. Instead of assigning every individual to every project, you’ll be able to assign them to the Developers group, which can then be assigned to the appropriate projects. When a new developer joins your team, just add her to the Developers group to make her a member of all of your Developer projects.

User groups can be created and managed via the Manage tab. Note that user assignments must be enabled first (see Settings / Users and groups).

Flexible User Assignments

In LiveTimer, users could only be assigned at the middle level of work, typically called projects. In Syncd, users and groups can be assigned at any level. Assignments are inherited at lower levels by default, but can be overridden.

If you have a multi-level, multi-user account, please take a moment to review your assignments from the Manage tab. You may wish to move some assignments to the top level, and then inherit those assignments at lower levels.

Flexible Billing Rates

Instead of assigning billing rates for users OR clients, projects and tasks, you can now do both. Default billing rates can be set for each user and can optionally be overridden for specific clients, projects and tasks.

New Selectors and Dialogs

We’ve completely rewritten our selectors and dialogs, making it faster and easier than ever to search, select, and create clients, projects, etc.

The new selectors load data dynamically when your page loads, keep it cached in your browser, and refresh it as needed (if say, a new item has been added). Therefore, there shouldn’t be a lag as you reopen selectors while starting and stopping your timer throughout the day.

The selectors are now completely keyboard accessible. You can tab into them from forms (or use Shift + Tab to reverse tab into them from the Note field in the Timer). You can navigate among the items in the selectors with Up / Down / Page Up / Page Down. You can even expand (Ctrl + Down) and collapse (Ctrl + Up) nodes without clicking on the arrow toggles.

Searching is also faster and easier. You can search for a word or word fragment, or an exact match. As you’re browsing through items, type “/” to select and expand the current entry to view its descendents.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for, and want to create it, just type its name! If you have permission to create items, you’ll see the new item’s name appear with a “+” next to it. Select that item with Return or Tab or using the mouse.

You’ll then be able to create it in a dialog without leaving your current page. Your selectors should dynamically refresh to include the new data.

Questions?

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions, suggestions or comments using the feedback form in the Help section of your account.

Thanks again for your patience with our name change and the scope of this release. We’re looking forward to rolling out some more features, but in more manageable “chunks”, very soon.

Hello World!

2010-02-01T00:00:00.000Z

On February 14th, the time and expense tracking service LiveTimer will be re-launched here as Syncd.

LiveTimer started in 2006 as a side project for tracking the time of our own consulting business. A year later, we decided to share our project with the world. Since then LiveTimer has grown and improved quite a bit. Our side project now helps thousands of organizations manage their time and expenses.

So what’s next?

First of all, we want Syncd to be the best time and expense tracking service possible. With the help of our customers, we’ve re-examined and improved almost every aspect of our service. We’ll be previewing these changes here in the week before Syncd’s launch.

But why change your name?

Because our service has grown beyond just time tracking, we feel that it has also outgrown the name LiveTimer. Looking forward, we’d like to help your business stay sync’d - you, your team and your clients working together. Syncd will be able to be with your business from your initial contact with clients, to collaborating with your team on projects, all the way through invoicing. We’ve laid the foundation for these features and will be rolling them out in the coming months.

Sincerely,

Dan & Larry Gebhardt
Developers, LiveTimer & Syncd
Co-Founders, Cerebris Corp.

UPDATE: The launch of Syncd was delayed until February 21st.