July 15 2011
Our stack just got loads bigger
It’s finally here, the biggest and most awesome version of Pancake to be released to date: v3.0! Unlike the last few updates which have been mainly bug fixes and small new features, we’ve really gone to town with your suggestions and added in a huge array of new features which not only make Pancake more useful but put it ahead of a few big players feature-wise.
So what is so great about v3.0?
Proposals
You can now create a proposal, attach one or more estimates to it, e-mail the proposal to the client and see when they have viewed it. If they do not agree you can create new estimates and revise it until you and the client agree, then export it as an invoice when you are ready. This is great for jobs where you simply bid a price instead of working on an hourly rate.
Time Tracking
If you do work on an hourly rate then you will love what we’ve done with time tracking. We used to have some piddly + and - icons for modifying time spent on tasks, but now you have two much better options. You can now use a start/stop button to add time as you go or a data entry form to add specific times to a task or project after the fact. This means you can totally abandon your third-party time tracking applications and just use the built in time tracking, which again will help you generate invoices.
Reporting
We all need to keep an eye on our stacks and until now you needed to run your own metrics to see exactly where you are at. Now you can generate custom reports that show you all aspect of your business from paid/unpaid invoices to number of invoices based on clients.
RESTful API
We’ve been working on a really, REALLY simple API that is very similar to the one in use by Twitter. While REST fanatics may get their undergarments in a twist about it not being fully RESTful: we couldn’t care less. This API is so easy to use a child could integrate it into their application and we hope plenty of people will. It’s currently only working with invoices, clients, users, projects and tasks, but we’ll get the rest of it caught up later on based on your feedback of how the basics work.
What else?
Loads! As well as a myriad of bugs and boring little tweaks there are still a whole bunch of changes worth a mention:
[Feature] Partial payments can be set up with different amounts, percentages and due dates.
[Feature] Improved design for installer
[Feature] “Client Health” shows how well the client keeps up with invoices
[Feature] Admins can upload custom logos
[Feature] Admins can edit CSS for both the admin panel and frontend from the CP
[Feature] All actions logged in a central log for compliance
[Feature] Reporting shows lots of useful graphs and pie charts
[Feature] Switched to “auto-upgrades” for the database, just replace files to update
[Feature] Themes can now have mobile versions by making just a few small changes
[Feature] Timesheets show your time spent, multiple users will show with their usernames
[Feature] “Copy to Clipboard” added to Invoice confirmation page
You may have noticed that the price has gone up a little from $30 to $49 but we believe that with all the new features added to Pancake it completely justifies the price. Already using Pancake 2.x? Well have no fear, we’re doing something we said we wouldn’t do and… offering a free upgrade from 2.x!
We wouldn’t normally do this for a major version but we figured if we do something good for you guys you’ll do something in return. Do us a favor, if you have an existing 2.x license and upgrade why not give us a shout-out on Twitter, Facebook, Forrst, Google+ - or wherever the cool kids hang out these days - and try to get us a few referrals in return.
This new pace of development for Pancake is a pace we plan to maintain. If you have any suggestions please throw them our way (here) as the comments aren’t a great place for feature requests. If they are a good idea we’ll be happy to include them as we work our way towards v3.1.
In the mean time the v3.0.x branch will march on containing any bug fixes and small tweaks, but the v3.1.x branch is where you should expect to see the big stuff happen. We’re not quite sure what will be in there just yet, but one thing we know is we’ll be making the API even better for the Pancake iPhone App that is in production.
So if you already have a Pancake License, you can download the latest version from your account section otherwise you should totally pick one up now!