New in the Projects Area: Enhanced Visibility and Usability
December 10, 2020
As a project manager or business principal, whether you’re defining or updating a project, you want it to be easy to add, view, and edit important information. Streamlined access to project details enables you to get into and out of the system quickly so you can spend less time on managing projects and more on completing them or finding new ones!
In the most recent release of Factor, we’ve made maintaining project information even faster and more intuitive.
New Tabs for Locating Information More Easily
Finding the information you need in an application should not take a process of elimination.
New tabs in the Projects section make it clear what details you will find in each. With one click, you can drill down into any of these areas:
● Overview: General information and settings for the project.
● Team. Assigned staff and project role setup.
● Budget. Project health indicators, including financials, timelines, phases and subphases, and progress.
● Transactions. Itemized expense transactions.
Immediate Insight on Project Health
More often than not, PMs and owners open a project in Factor to review its health. To make getting to that information even faster, the system now navigates to the new Budget tab by default when a project is selected from anywhere else in the app.
The tiles at the top of the page have been slightly modified to ensure the most helpful information is being displayed. “Time Written-Off” is now located next to “Value of Time Logged” and a new “Earned Value” tile has been placed under “Fees Billed”. Earned Value is calculated as shown in the equation below and a graph comparing planned value, earned value, and budget expended will be shown when the tile is clicked.
Earned Value = $(sum of phase earned value for billable phases) + (sum of expense value not included in project fee)
Phase Earned Value for Fixed Fee Projects = phase budget X percent complete
Phase Earned Value for Hourly Projects = # of hours logged X hourly project rate
Expenses = Dollar amount of expenses that match a budget NOT included in the project fee
We’ve also enhanced the way project phase and expense information is presented and edited. You can view your timeline, progress, and budget details all on the main screen, rather than having to open each module individually.
And, we made buttons for things like adding phases or budget items more prominent and easier to find at the top of each section.
Improved Mobile Experience
All of the enhancements to the desktop application mentioned above have been made for mobile devices as well. Users can now find, view, and edit project details faster and more easily than before.
That includes adding phases, editing the timeline, editing the percent completed, and other project-related functions. You can also navigate to other areas like Teams or Transactions from the dropdown at the top of the screen.
Our Ongoing Collaboration With Factor Users
At Factor, we understand that your project and financial management needs are constantly changing. It is our goal to continuously evolve so that we can provide the functionality you need to be efficient and productive in your work.
This Factor update addresses helpful input from users like you. We appreciate the feedback and encourage you to keep it coming!
Experience Better Visibility Into Your Projects With Factor
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