Updated Project Managment Module - Important Removed Features - Please fix

[nineplanetsllc]

I updated the PM module last week to find that several items weren't working (already emailed support) and that several features were now gone!

 

Two things that changed that now take much longer on the new system, but could be easily fixed are:

 

1) Time Tracking: The new process for starting a timer takes many more clicks and in some cases can leave you with "unassigned" time that will be lost if you don't remember to go back and assign it immediately after you stop your timer.

 

Old Process: Look over list of tasks on Project, click the timer icon to start. Click "Stop Timer" to stop.

 

New Process:

Option 1 - Click the start timer button at the top-right of the project. When you're done, click stop. You now have "unassigned time" so go to the Time Tracking tab, find the unassigned time, click edit, change the task, save. This takes MUCH longer and leaves you at risk of forgetting to assign your time and not knowing where it goes.

Option 2 - To to the Time Tracking Tab, Click on button to Add Time. Module pops up, choose task from drop down menu, choose due date (date picker doesn't actually work), add time. Stop timer. Again, much longer.

New unnecessary steps: going to a new tab, filling out a form to start your time. It was sooooooooo much faster before.

 

Please put the start/stop timers back where they were. You can leave your new fancy options but just add the old options back.

 

2) Bill for Task Time Entries: This has been replaced with the Invoice tab. When you click to invoice items from the Project you now have to individually check the boxes for each task you want to invoice. The old button automatically listed them all and if there were a few you wanted to remove you hit the delete button. With the new version you have to go through and check the box for each one you want to invoice. Now picture that you're invoicing 50 or 60 clients and there are 30+ boxes to check on each one. This is WAY slower than the old way. A simple "select all" option at the top would fix this.

 

Thanks!

[jclarke]

I had to switch back to the old version because of the exact same issues! Hopefully they will fix this in the next release.

[sol2010]

Agree with your comments. It would seem version 2 is not an improvement -

 

- We need to be able to easily add start/stop to each task

- We need a "send email notification" button when a task is complete or updated.

- Also there is nowhere to add "private staff notes" as there was in the old system

- How does the customer get notified when messages have been added?

- Also - why is there still no "Project Management" tab added to the Client Profile tabs?

 

The email notification function is disappointing in version 2.

 

I thought they were introducing a way to easily communicate with the client. If there is a way to easily do this - I am missing it. The documentation is poor.

Edited August 6, 2017 by sol2010

[sol2010]

In addition to the above comments, it's also difficult to find all projects related to a client.

 

For example, if I click on Client summary page, and on the right, Client projects - this used to list all projects for that customer. However, now, it takes you to any active project. There does not appear to be an easy way to show all projects for a client, like there used to be.

 

Searching in the Project Management filter page does not appear to use any smart search - In Client Name for example, I was not able to find my client at all.

 

I think the best thing to do will be to raise this as a bug and hope some action is taken.

 

Edit: I have submitted a bug report and will update the thread accordingly.

Edited August 8, 2017 by sol2010

[sol2010]

How do you switch back to version 1 without upsetting your DB ?

 

The Project Management module version 2 is really bad and much harder to use. There are several key features missing that were in version 1.

 

I emailed support, but they palmed me off with canned answers - no surprise there.

[sol2010]

I have emailed support and if you want to get downgrade, you risk a database explosion... or something!

 

Secondly, support says "if you do not agree with the changes, submit a feature request"

 

The usual guff then. Basically, Project Management version 2 is broken and doesn't work properly, but so few people use it - obviously there's no pressure on WHMCS to get it sorted.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Furthermore, here are two other problems;

 

1) No "Select All" to be able to easily generate an invoice from timed tasks.

 

2) TAX does not seem to get added to the invoice.

[sol2010]

Hello

 

Here are a list of issues with project management version 2. These are new issues and were not present in Project Management version 1.

 

I opened a support ticket and it appears WHMCS staff think these issues are actually new features - and if you "don't agree" with these new features, open a new feature request.

 

However, assuming the whole point of an upgrade is to improve the software, I feel the removal of important features is classed as bugs - so I am listing them here.

 

 

1) No way to "select all" when wanting to generate an invoice from completed timed tasks. So, if you have 30 tasks, you have to add each one = time consuming.

 

2) TAX does not get added to the generated invoice - no way to add it (even after invoice generation)

 

3) There is no way to "start timer" per individual task - now you have to do this retrospectively = time consuming and cumbersome

 

4) There is nowhere to add "private staff notes" as there was in the old system

 

Please can whoever developed this fix the issues - if you want to discuss with someone who actually uses it, feel free to reach me.

 

 

Meanwhile, here is the other forum post with other comments.

 

https://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?131773-Updated-Project-Managment-Module-Important-Removed-Features-Please-fix

[sol2010]

Am I the only one who uses this software?

 

Also - I found a way to fix the tax issue - you have to publish the invoice - but don't send it yet. Then, go to the invoice - click options and add back in the tax rate > save. Then go back to the invoice line items and ensure "taxed" is ticked.

[brian!]

Am I the only one who uses this software?

you rarely get questions asked about the official WHMCS addons in these forums... of the 3 main addons (licensing, configurable and project), I doubt i've seen more than 20 in the last four years.

[ZoXx]

Is it possible to change the vied of duration time?

 

It shows: hours, minutes, seconds.

We want to hide seconds?

 

Any idea

[brian!]

depends if it's hardcoded or using a template... if a template, you should be able to use Smarty or a hook to change it.

 

from the output, can you tell if it's using a template? and if so, which one.

 

I don't use it, so it's not something I can test locally.

[ZoXx]

it is original addon project management from whmcs.

there a two templates. But you cant change something there, because its only a class with endtime

[brian!]

it is original addon project management from whmcs.

there a two templates. But you cant change something there, because its only a class with endtime

if you can access the variable, then you can change it... if it's a string, you could remove the last 3 characters using Smarty or a hook, e.g change 12:00:00 to 12:00

[ZoXx]

Hey brian!,

thanks for fast answer.

I wrote you a message.

 

In admin view you are able to describe a task.

But the client cant see it in frontend.

Should it be so or is it a error by our template?

 

Other question for new project management.

Is it possible to create tasks that only staff member can see?

Or is it possbile to create tasks and hide them from client?

Should be for brainstorming or something like that.

Edited August 23, 2017 by ZoXx

[brian!]

to be honest, i'm the wrong person to ask about the module - i've never used it (either version)... with it costing $100, and not being updated for years, it was never an addon that interested me.

 

if WHMCS want to tweak my developer license and let me use the module non-commercially, then i'd be happy to answer questions about it...

 

until then, you may need to keep contacting support... especially now as the v7.3 preview beta is coming soon, they might be slightly more receptive to fixes and improvements.

[valeriec]

That's a horrible solution. More steps to do something simple. The problem is the ajax refresh isn't working and you have to do a full page load -- on everything!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

And the odd thing... even though it's showing seconds, it's rounding to minutes

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I had to switch back to the old version because of the exact same issues! Hopefully they will fix this in the next release.

 

What did you do to switch back?

 

Support had me convinced they were actually going to fix the problems, but the reality is that it shouldn't have been released. Most of the changes look to be cosmetic and the changes in functionality are awful.

[jclarke]

I just deleted the new version and uploaded the old version and it worked fine. The new version was terrible, it lost track of which items had been billed for and hours for each task. When I switched back, all of the previous data was available.

[sol2010]

There is another bug -

 

- no way to modify created date (as there was in the old version).

 

 

Really, I am so disappointed with this software. If there was an easy alternative, I would switch yesterday.

 

You pay your money and you get virtually zero support. No answer to the issues above.

 

Having contacted support, their only answer is "create a feature request" - but why should you need to create a feature request to fix bugs? And the Feature requests don't get answered for 10 years anyway.

 

The software is almost unusable and the fix for these issues would probably take their developer 24hrs or less.

 

If I treated my customers with such contempt, I would not have a business!

[brian!]

Support had me convinced they were actually going to fix the problems, but the reality is that it shouldn't have been released. Most of the changes look to be cosmetic and the changes in functionality are awful.

they probably will fix it at some point and support probably said that in good faith... but now the issue is likely in the hands of the development team *shudders* ... and these "improvements" were probably 2 years in the making - so at the very best, you're looking at the fixes being in the full v7.3 release (which I guess will go live in September)... if not included in v7.3, then it may be any time this year or...

 

There is another bug -

- no way to modify created date (as there was in the old version).

you may have to resort to direct editing of the database table.

 

Having contacted support, their only answer is "create a feature request" - but why should you need to create a feature request to fix bugs? And the Feature requests don't get answered for 10 years anyway.

every time I hear of them saying that, it annoys me... it REALLY annoys me.

 

The software is almost unusable and the fix for these issues would probably take their developer 24hrs or less.

lots of silly bugs could be quickly fixed... why they don't bother and waste time adding new unrequested features is beyond me... sometimes I think they just live in their own deluded world where they think it's acceptable to take months/years to fix things.

[ptmzr]

sometimes I think they just live in their own deluded world where they think it's acceptable to take months/years to fix things.

How many developers, support staff, and others do WHMCS have?

[brian!]

How many developers, support staff, and others do WHMCS have?

i'm tempted to say not enough... or they're just badly managed... or their quality control isn't up to the job... or a combination of all of the above.

[ptmzr]

i'm tempted to say not enough... or they're just badly managed... or their quality control isn't up to the job... or a combination of all of the above.

 

If it is not enough, it might not be a function of cost, since outsourcing should work.

If it is management of people, tasks, bugs, etc... it might already help to have a good project, bug, and test management system.

I wish we could help!

[sol2010]

To all - please don't hijack this thread - which is about bugs - start your own please... Thanks

 

 

Another bug:

 

No way to delete an entered time on the Time Tracking page of the module.

[sol2010]

After all the emails to support - they finally acknowledge there are problems with PM addon - although not in any email reply - not in any forum thread (this one) - but simply by adding the changes to the changelog.

 

The fixes appear to be coming in 7.3: https://docs.whmcs.com/Changelog:WHMCS_V7.3#Project_Manager_Addon

 

----

 

So why annoy your customers with stupid email replies like "there is nothing broken - please add a feature request"

 

Really, really, really very poor WHMCS. Your customer service needs a big kick in the butt (always has done). If you need some consultancy, please contact me.

 

 

- Meanwhile, at least it didn't take you ten years to get the fix, so I will at least say thank you for that.

 

I look forward to trying out the fixes and will report back on my findings.

 

Feel free to post a response WHMCS !!!

[Brainchild Labs Pty Ltd]

Hi i am also revisiting this module..... Here are my gripes and i wanted to know if anything can be done about them.... 

I create a project then i create tasks for those projects, i want to now rearrange those tasks eg click and drag to rearrange but i dont seem to be able to sort this task list at all, which is very confusing as sometimes you add tasks on an adhoc bases and they are suppose to be done in some form of chronological order. Can i do this?

When i create a task why cant i add notes for this task straight away, i need to save the task then go back and edit the task and add notes. Very annoying

Can i control notifications better, i noticed that every single change sends a notification email ?

Why cant i categorise tasks better, eg... DEVELOPMENT as a main task heading then under that is the sets of tasks for this task group, right now it just looks like a long list of tasks that i cant categorise nor can i sort.