6.18. Version 2.0 (February 26, 2009)

This version provides a more intuitive interface to enter services and expenses, can handle multiple payments for an invoice and can import time from other users.

New Features

  • Merged items with expenses: This is an important change in Fanurio. Please read the entire explanation to understand why we've done this and why it's useful.

    Up until this version, Fanurio used items to represent services and expenses to represent billable, reimbursable expenses. Services were billable by the hour or using a flat rate but one could also mark them as non-billable. The distinction between items and expenses was also made in the user interface where a project had two sections, one for items and the other for expenses. This design has worked quite well since version 1.0 but it has some limitations.

    Here's a list with the most important limitations of the old design:

    • Language: The term item was misleading because it actually meant a service item.

    • Project totals: There was no way to see the total value of a project because the project was split in two (items and expenses).

    • Non-billable expenses: There was no way to mark certain expenses as non-billable.

    • Item dialog: The dialog used to create or edit items required an extra mouse click to change the billing details. These details were not visible right away.

    • Taxes: Items were taxable but expenses were not. This is a real problem in certain countries (Australia, Sweden, UK, etc) where both services and expenses are taxable.

    To address these limitations, we've merged items with expenses and we've made a few other changes. Here's what's new and how it compares to the old design:

    • Type: Items have a new field called type that indicates whether an item is a service or an expense. Expenses recorded in previous versions of Fanurio are converted automatically to items of the type expense. Attachments from old expenses can now be found in the notes field of new expense items.

    • Billing: Any item can now be either billable or non-billable. Previously, only items had this property while expenses were always billable. Billable expenses add nothing to the profit of a project while non-billable expenses add a negative profit.

    • Measure: This notion didn't exist explicitly in previous versions. Hourly-rated items were measured in hours while flat rate items where measured in units. The current version makes measure an explicit property. Services can be measured in hours or in units while expenses are always measured in units.

    • Taxes: Expenses and services can now be marked as taxable or non-taxable (tax exempt). Until now, expenses were non-taxable and services were taxable.

    • Category: Categories help to create and classify services and expenses easier. You can control item categories from Business > My Business Details > Services and Rates.

    • User interface: Projects have a single section instead of two (Items and Expenses). The section contains a table that displays both services and expenses. Above the table there are a few filters that control which items are visible while below the table you can see totals for time, cost, profit and total.

    • New names: Rate was renamed to price and amount was renamed to total.

  • Item notes: Items have a notes field where you can enter anything that cannot be specified using the other fields, especially description. You can use the notes field to make notes for yourself and the description field to enter client notes.

  • Payments and statements: Invoices can now be paid in multiple rounds by using payments. Payments can be seen, managed and filtered in the Payments view (Command-Shift-A or Ctrl-Shift-A). An invoice is considered paid when its balance is zero.

    Invoice templates can also display a statement of all open invoices of a client. To support this, the following template placeholders have been added: client.invoices, client.balance, invoice.balance, invoice.paymentsTotal, invoice.payments, invoice.paid, invoice.paymentDate.

  • Timesheet view: Added a new Timesheet view to make it easier to access recorded time. In the Timesheet view you can filter time by client, project or service item, by status (invoiced or not invoiced) and by date. The Timesheet view is very useful if you want to review the time recorded for a service item or project or if you want to review what you've done at the end of a day.

    Ctrl-click the Time column of a service item from a project and you will see its time in the Timesheet view.

  • Import timesheet: Fanurio can help you manage time recorded on multiple computers. You can export time recorded in one instance of Fanurio running on a certain computer and then import it in another instance of Fanurio running on a different computer. Read this section for more details.

  • Invoice age: The invoices table has a new column that indicates the age of an invoice in days. For unpaid invoices, the age represents the time since it has been created. For paid invoices, the age represents the time between when it was created and when it was paid in full.

  • Invoice notes: Invoices now have a notes field where you can enter additional notes about the invoice. You can even display these notes on the invoice for the client to see them.

Improvements

  • Invoice Templates: The File » Create Template dialog has lots of options to configure the default invoice template. You can specify which columns and subtotals are visible, whether the template uses a logo or page numbering and many other options. This is useful for new users who want to create their first invoice template.

  • Locale: There's a new section called Locale in the Options/Preferences window for region and language. Future versions will support other languages than English.

  • Project reports: The projects report dialog has been updated to support the new item properties. Items can now be filtered by type (Service or Expense), billing (billable or not) and status (invoiced or not).

  • Exchange rates: If using multiple currencies, the invoice template can display the exchange rates. See the invoice.exchangeRates placeholder for more details.

  • Exporting data: Time, payments and invoices can be exported from File » Export.

  • Always on top: The mini timer view should be on top of all windows on any computer running Java 1.5 or later. Until now it worked only on Windows.

Migration

  • Project report configurations are lost and must be created again.

  • Existing invoice templates are changed automatically to work with the new version. A copy is saved in the same folder.

  • Old expenses are automatically converted to expense items.

  • A payment is added for each invoiced marked as paid.