The BETA version of the admin interface is out

A few days later than we had hoped, but it is finally out.

This new version is available as a public test to iron out the bugs and gather as much feedback as possible, to find out what we did right and what we did wrong. There are many enhancements but there are also many more features we are looking to add.

One of the exciting improvements is full compatibility (and design friendliness) with iOS devices. You can now see and manage your appointments from your desktop computer, your tablet (iPad) or phone (iPhone). All features are available on all platforms.

You will notice many subtle changes and big improvements over the [not so] old list.

• automatic appointment count for each day
• easier to read durations
• calculation of gaps between appointments
• inclusion of time off records in the list
• direct actions for one appointment (no need to open the old appointment window)
• multi appointment actions
• one day or multi day printing (the printing has been vastly improved as well)
• and all the small things and refinements that won't change your life but make designers feel good

This beta version has stringent browser requirements so make sure to read the instructions carefully. Thanks for trying it out and giving us as much feedback as possible (there's a built in feedback tool under the "help" link).

Redesigned appointment list view

On the heels of last week's update, we have now released a major redesign of the appointment list view. This not only makes it faster to look things up but constitutes a foundation that will allow us to quickly add new features to it.

The new view looks like this:

In addition to previous search capabilities, you can now easily filter on service or status, as well as specify the client name or email you want to see the appointments for. And it's faster too.
Want to pull up a list of all no shows for a particular client? You can.
Want to see all appointments still pending confirmation? You can.
As a matter of fact, if you wanted to see all paid service C appointments booked with employee B by client X since Jan 1st 2005, you could do that too.

The new design is not only easier to read, but also packs much more information in the same space. Essential information is available for all appointments at a glance and everything else is available right away simply by clicking the grey area to expand it (everything from private notes to all custom fields are shown there).

This is only the beginning, many more features can and will be added in the weeks to come. Feedback welcome.

New email feature, important changes and additions

Today we are releasing a medium update that is moving us closer to our goal of getting rid of client passwords altogether.

The first thing you will notice is a new action bar on all schedulers. This is only shown in the client view (when you are not logged in, and therefore not using the scheduler as staff).

This action bar allows clients to check upcoming appointments they might have with you if they used your scheduler in the past and if they are still listed in your client list. Clients are invited to enter their email address and the appointment list is immediately emailed to them.

The email looks like this (as seen on an iPad):

This is a significantly reworked version of our usual emails and includes only the relevant information, in a clear and concise manner, with language (or lack thereof) to suit all kinds of businesses.
In the future, we except to move all of our emails in this direction (feedback welcomed).

The "Info & Actions" link allows clients to cancel/reschedule quickly if still within your cancelation policy.

This is a specially coded link and we no longer require clients to enter an email/pwd for this. Authentication is only required to reveal personal details.
Note: if you use the same link and log in as staff, you will see more options as appropriate (clients would simply see their own information under "Personal details").

Lastly, in the email itself, at the very bottom, we now include a link to allow clients to easily change their email preferences.

We hope these changes will address some of the top usability issues we are aware of, namely, issues with client passwords, non obvious way to check upcoming appointments and difficulty of canceling/rescheduling. More changes will come. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

As always, happy scheduling!

Improved error messages

As part of our rapid update cycle we have changed several error messages to make them less ambiguous and more informative.

Case in point, the login error message now looks like this:

Instead of a "user not found" in the title, the actual cause of the error is displayed (not the result) to help identify what needs to be corrected at a glance.

Instead of repeating the same thing in the body of the error message, some probably causes and a helpful tip are now being shown.

This should basically address 99.9% of login issues right there in the error message.

Better payment flow and multi account disambiguation

As part of our rapid update cycle we made several changes to make the payment flow smoother and handle cases with multiple accounts.

Our payment email reminder is now both more informative and shorter, explaining what additional reminders will be sent if any, presenting a better view of your account status and including an email address that can be used for any questions you may have.
But more importantly, instead of directions, it now includes a direct payment link which will take you directly to the recently improved payment page.

And should you have more than one account linked to your email address, clicking the link in the email would automatically display a new page summarizing them all so you can quickly decide which one(s) to extend.

Improved payment page

Based on past feedback, we have made a few changes to our payment page to reduce potential confusion and make it more straightforward and informative.

Among the changes, we have made the price and purchased duration more visible, changed the language of our e-check warning to make it more explicit, and included a recap of your expiry date and what it would become if you made a payment with the currently selected options. We have also added an explanation (also on our billing page) of our expiry date calculation rules.

New billing history page

As part of our rapid update cycle we have added a billing history section where you can see all past payments we have received for your account.

Only payments already cleared (not e-checks still pending) will show there. It also means the corresponding amount of time has been added to your account. We have also added a short explanation of the payment rules.

The date is the date the payment was processed and accepted, which may be different from the date you initiated the payment (credit card payments typically get accepted within minutes).

It can be found on the billing page under "my account" > "billing".

New deletion warnings

As part of our rapid update cycle, we have added additional warnings when deleting appointment types and schedules, both of which could result in the loss of appointment history without users necessarily realizing it. Now this is made explicit and should prevent unwanted mistakes.

Note: you can keep your own backups under "my settings" > "links" by downloading the extended CSV file there.

New "email this client" link

As part of our rapid update cycle, a new "email this client" link has been added to client profiles with an email address.

New HTML keyword for payment buttons

As part of our rapid update cycle, a new [#AUTOPAYURL#] has been added to the list of keywords you can use in the "embedded HTML" field. This will be useful if you are not using our built-in PayPal payment button but are instead relying on your own from a different vendor. If the button has a URL callback feature, you can supply this keyword as the URL value and it will be replaced with the dynamically generated URL for this appointment. Calling this URL (presumably as an automatic callback when your payment processor has successfully completed the payment process) will tag the appointment as paid for.

A typical callback line in your payment button would look like this (vendor specific so this is only a generic example):

<input type="hidden" name="vendor_callbackVariable_name" value="[#AUTOPAYURL#]" />