Fanurio 1.9 Released

Today we released Fanurio 1.9, our 10th official release. It’s actually the 12th if you consider 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 but those were bug fix releases so I’m not counting them .

The release notes page documents all the changes while postings like this one will be explaining only the most relevant features. These postings are meant to give you the big picture on what’s going on. I’ll publish a new article here every time a new version is released.

So, why should you use version 1.9? First of all because it has much better project reports, second because it’s better integrated with the Mac and third because it has more billing features.

I know this doesn’t tell you much so let’s take a closer look at each one of them.

Better project reports

Version 1.8 had two reports, a time log report that displayed the recorded time and a project report that displayed all the items of a project and their time. Due to numerous requests for better time reporting, we’ve decided to merge these two reports into a single report.

With this new report, you can see how much time you’ve worked for a client or how much uninvoiced billable time you have for a certain project. Now, it’s easier to see time by date, week, month or year for one or more projects.

I should probably emphasize the fact that this report is about time and not about money. A money report is planned for the next release.

Better Mac integration

Ever since we launched Fanurio, we wanted to have a Mac version. But we don’t just want it to run on Mac, we want Fanurio to be a good Mac citizen. That’s why we’ve added two important new Mac features. Fanurio can now import contacts from Address Book and it can detect when the computer becomes idle.

Idle time detection was available on Windows only but now it works on any Mac that runs Tiger or Leopard. Previous versions of Mac don’t have a reliable method of detecting idle time. But what is idle time detection?

Let’s say you want to write something and before you begin to work, you start the timer to see how long it takes. After ten minutes, the phone rings and you leave the computer for half an hour forgetting about the timer. When you’ll get back, Fanurio will ask you to do something with that half an hour you’ve been away.

Idle time detection is what Fanurio does when you start the timer but you’re not using the computer.

Improved billing

Fanurio is about time tracking and billing. These are the core features which we are constantly improving based on direct feedback. This version makes no exception.

For instance, you can move time from one project item to another if you put it there accidentally. You can also add time to an item without specifying the start or the end time of the day.

One cool new billing feature is the possibility to distinguish domestic clients from foreign ones. Let’s say you are from Canada and one of your clients is from Germany. Whenever you will create an invoice for that client, Fanurio will know to display numbers, dates and currency according to German rules.

These are roughly the most relevant features and improvements of this version. The release notes page lists them all.

I hope you’ll enjoy this new version and that it will make you more productive.