Springboard Creations's Blog

Automated Invoicing – the Machine

Martin Taylor — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:11:05 +0000

We’ve started using an on-line tool, Invoice Machine, to supply automated emails with details of their orders and invoices. This allows us to send our customers timely notification about there service and/or products that are due for renewal.

This simple process sends the customer an email containing the invoice details, a link to view this on-line as well as attaching the invoice as a PDF. If you have a PayPal account, you can pay direct from the link provided in the email.

Why not get in touch if you would prefer to get your invoice this way.

You can now chat to us when we’re online

Martin Taylor — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:51:20 +0000

We’ve plugged-in Olark into our site to provide live chat withy when we’re online. Simply go to our website homepage and click on the chat image or open the chat window in the bottom right of your browser to talk to us. We will be available to discuss existing or new support queries and also if you simply want to find out more about Springboard.

Website Update – New Login Area

Martin Taylor — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:12:21 +0000

We’ve been working hard to get even more useful content on our website for our current and future customers. To allow you keep track of all things Springboard, we’ve created a new login area that allows you to login and view personalised pages.

Here are some highlights of features now available within our new login area:

View and update your contact details we have about you and your company, so we can keep in touch
Extended details for your Springboard software, see licence details and the available upgrade options
Your support level and renewal date, to allow you to renew this when the time comes
Knowledge Base Articles, to help you get to grips with our software

We’ll be adding new features shortly, including:

Create and progress support calls with us
View all quotes provided by us to you

If you have any ideas of what you would like on our website, please drop us a line and we will be happy to talk to you about it.

Martin

What’s new – Learner Tracker Two

Martin Taylor — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:28:23 +0000

We thought you’d like to see what Learner Tracker 2 currently looks like in development. It is still a while away from being something that we will make available through springboardcreations.co.uk, but we feel it’s always nice to share. There are a few new coll features that allow you to get access to information that wasn’t easy to get to in the current version. You will be able to, for the first time, be able to search across all modules from anywhere in the system.

We’ve added a few screen shots of what the current design looks like so you can get a feel for how the application is changing. We believe change is good, within reason, and that’s why we are giving you the first look of Learner Tracker 2.

We want you to get involve by telling us what you think about the current version and also what features and suggestions you would like included in the next major release. You can do this by adding comments at the end of this article.

New Updated Look

Learner Tracker now uses a fresher style to display the information to the users. Gone are the bland and uninspiring gray colours used in the current version and has now adopted the new Springboard Creations colours – blues, oranges and golden tones are now used.

We’re also using a new simple font for the headers and information display areas, Levenim MT. This is also used on our website and we feel it helps simplify the design.

Edit in place

It is possible to updated most records in place, meaning that you don’ need to leave what you are doing if you want to view or edit a record. This will be possible for the following record types:

Learner
Course
Centre
Tutor

Subject Banner

The subject Banner will be visible in all areas of Learner Tracker. This will show you the record that you have selected and information about it too. This visually shows you the class of the record as well as brief information about the record.

Subject Banner

Learners

To highlight details about a Learner, there will be several icons displayed to the user. These visual aids allows quick reference to a Learners’ record informing the user there is some pertinent data they need to be aware of. These include:

Good attendance (averaging over 90%) in the current term
Any medical notes that a Tutor needs to be aware of
If they allowed to leave site for lunch
Any missing attendance returns in the current or previous week

Icon Descriptors

Sessions

The details of a sessions is presented which includes the Learners’ attendance summaries for the course that the session is part of.

Search

Within the Subject Banner, the search control will also be visible throughout Learner Tracker 2. Here, you will be able to quickly search the database and return matching records across all modules of Learner Tracker 2. Each match will be uniquely displayed dependent on the type of record it is using highlighting colours and a handy icon. Simply select the record you wish to view and instantly the record is displayed for you.

Error Handling

If, for what ever reason, you come across an error whilst using Learner Tracker, the full error details are submitted to Springboard Creations support. This is full automatic and you don’t need to do anything. We will then use this information to investigate the fault to improve future releases. The information that is submitted to us includes the detailed error message, details of the PC the error occurred on and also a screen shot of the action that happened immediately before the error happened.

So, if you happen to come across an error, all you need to do is inform us when this happened and we can do the rest. Occasionally, we may need more information but it should reduce the time to get you back up and working again.

Error Catcher

Notice: the above is not a complete list of features, alterations or improvements in Learner Tracker 2 and any features may change without notice. To request further details about any of the features that are detailed here, please contact us through our contact pages.

Learner Tracker… version 2.0, the future

Martin Taylor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:20:16 +0000

As any software product out there, it needs to move with the times. That’s why we’re planning Learner Tracker version 2.0. This version will include the same functionality that is available in the current version, but we’re going to be adding some new customisation, data reporting and a new visual style.

We’re still a few months away from getting this out to you all to see, but we thought that letting you know what’s coming gives you the opportunity to give us your two penneth.

We’re going to re-design the Courses module to allow maintaining them even easier. The Learner module will also be getting a shakeup making all information stored about an individual accessible using a central menu and quick links.

We hope to make Learner Tracker a strong contender in the Course scheduling market but also, making it available to the smaller organisation that don’t have the budget to purchase the all singing all dancing versions that cost the earth.

This is the time to have your say, so add a comment and don’t miss your opportunity to get what you want in the next major release of Learner Tracker.

As normal, we’ll keep you updated on the developments.

Bug fixes in Learner Tracker

Martin Taylor — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:41:50 +0000

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be fixing a few of those little bugs that you have reported and also ones that we have found during testing.

Here’s a list of what we’ll be doing:

Course Schedules

Making the “Term” drop down list stretch to the full control width.
Make the Days text box read only as this doesn’t update.
Changing the word “Main Location” to be “Centre”.

Session

Making the “Att Code” drop down list stretch to the full control width.
Fixing the updating of the Comments field which causes an error.

Travel Fare

Fixing the “violates Max Length” while adding a long Centre name
Allow sorting the columns

Term Times

Allow sorting the columns

Attendance

Fix the data grid appears over the group box

Schools & Providers

Clear the Statistics controls when “Add New” is selected
Allow deleting an entry from the main data grid
Allow exporting of Statistics and other data grid features
Allow double-clicking a Learner to open their record

Non-Working Days

Allow adding, updating and deleting the entries, this will be in the Admin section

As usual, there maybe more that we have missed, so add a comment at the bottom if you find one.

Our new site is LIVE… whoop whoop!

Martin Taylor — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:27:03 +0000

We’ve spent some time over this and today, I’m please to say our site is now live.

It includes more information for our current customers and more details about the services we supply. New downloads section, loads more support resources and a new blog. We’ve packed as much information as we can on the new site to keep you informed of what’s going on now and in the future.

Take a look, http://www.springboardcreations.co.uk

View This Poll

Hello world!

Martin Taylor — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:02:21 +0000

We’re trying out a blog to let you know what we’re thinking, planning and doing.

We want to keep you in the loop, so look back here for updates. If you have any comments on what blog about then why not contact us with your thoughts.

info@springboardcreations.co.uk