Interface Improvements and more
Over the last few weeks we’ve been quite busy making some vital improvements to CurdBee. These range from enhancements to the user interface to more complex workflows. A short while ago we updated the live codebase, and these improvements are now a part of your CurdBee experience. Here is a quick run through of the changes we have done with the latest update:
CurdBee Plus becomes Expansion Pack
Starting from now, we are going to rename ‘CurdBee Plus’ as ‘Expansion Pack’. Some of you were a bit confused with CurdBee PRO and Plus. As you may know, this add-on brings some essential enhancements such as the option to remove CurdBee branding, use your own domain and add taxes, discounts etc. to your account. We think the name ‘Expansion Pack’ sums up this important add-on very well.
Add-ons are now just a click away
CurdBee is one of the very few solutions with a truly on-demand pricing model: our free account comes with all the essential features to make your invoicing workflow perfect, which can then be extended with several add-ons to meet your exact needs. The new ‘Upgrade’ section is where that customization takes place, and we have improved it to make this process much easier.
This was necessary because we kept growing our list of add-ons (a lot more in the pipeline too) and also introduced CurdBee BIG which brought more complications to the original workflow. After weeks of careful planning, implementation and thorough testing we finally nailed it down to what you see under the new ‘Upgrade’ link. So go ahead and start customising your CurdBee experience now!
Introducing user profiles
With this update we are introducing a new user profile in addition to the business profile we had before. Why? We are working on several more ideas such as multi-user access, client accounts, etc. which will make CurdBee a comprehensive platform for SMEs, and we think this is just the right stepping stone in that direction. Stay tuned for more information about these developments in the coming weeks.
Messages
This new addition will work as a message archive featuring all the updates from feature releases to system alerts related to your account. If you are a user who visits CurdBee less often, you will find this handy as you can quickly run through the recent changes which may have taken place since your last visit.
Tweaking Settings and CSS3 Awesomeness
While making the above changes, we also made some improvements to the ‘Settings’ section by making it even simpler. The web geeks among you will notice that we now have our buttons done with CSS3. Although the look and feel remains the same as before, this has made the code leaner and load times faster.
We hope you will enjoy these changes. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions with us.
Stripe for non-developers
The much anticipated payment service Stripe was opened to public last week. Compared to other payment services, accepting credit card payments with Stripe is unbelievably easy.
You don’t have to worry about setting up Metchant Accounts, unexpected charges (they only charge you 2.9% + 30 cents per successful charge) or data portability. Stripe will take care of everything for you and transfer money to your bank account at the end of the day.
Until now, Stripe was mainly popular among developers; since it required some programming skills to get up and running. But starting today, anyone using CurdBee can start accepting credit card payments for their invoices via Stripe. All you need is to enable the Stripe module and provide the Stripe’s publishable and secret keys. Now who says running an online business is difficult?
Stripe module for CurdBee is available free for BIG users. Others can enable it for just $2 per month. For a step-by-step guide on enabling the Stripe module, read this support article.
Please note Stripe is currently available only in US; but they are promising to expand to other regions soon.
CurdBee Alerts – Be in the know!
A while back, we introduced CurdBee Push Notifications, a way for you stay on top of your CurdBee account no matter where you were. However, with Notifo shutting down, we had to find an alternative messaging system for you guys. While we were at it, we made some big changes!
Today, we’re revamping our entire alerts system, allowing you to get your account updates via Email or SMS and even have it sent straight to your iPhone, iPad or Desktop via Boxcar. Under this new alerts system, you will receive notifications both when an invoice is viewed or paid, and when an estimate is viewed or accepted.
Here’s a quick rundown of the services we now offer.
Email Alerts are now enabled by default. You can turn them off, of course, but we think they’re useful to receive.
SMS Alerts is a $2/month module that gives you unlimited notifications to your mobile number. This service is currently only available to users from the United States and Canada.
Push Notifications for iPhone/iPad/Desktop via Boxcar is available as a free module for all users. Use it to receive quick CurdBee Alerts on your mobile device or computer desktop.
So, what are you waiting for? Have a look at the support article and take these new features for a spin!
You can help Amit to defeat Leukemia
Amit is one of those special people who came forward to help us when we were getting ready to launch CurdBee few years back. We just dropped him a mail inviting him to check CurdBee and share his thoughts, possible improvements we can do, etc. But we never thought he would even have time left in his schedule to pay attention to us, we being total strangers. But he did and replied back within matter of hours.
Today we think its our turn to help this wonderful entrepreneur, who’s fighting against Leukemia and is looking for a bone marrow doner from South Asian descent. If you are one of them who’s living in US, you can surely help Amit. Not a South Asian descent living in US? Still you can spread the word and we salute all those efforts.
Tony Bacigalupo wrote a detailed post about Amit and here’s an excerpt,
” Amit is the founder of the endlessly wonderful DIY photography site Photojojo. He’s the cofounder of Jelly, a casual coworking community which started in New York in 2006 and spread to over 60 cities worldwide, acting as the starting point for countless coworking communities. The original Jelly in New York was my first coworking experience, and my firsthand inspiration to dedicate myself to what would become New Work City.
Amit has leukemia. He was diagnosed only two weeks ago, but already so much has happened. He’s undergoing chemotherapy now at Connecticut’s Smilow Cancer Center in Yale-New Haven Hospital, near his family.”
Read the post and see how to contribute: http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/11098100728/lets-help-amit-defeat-leukemia
Hello, B Labs!
We recently had the privilege of working with the fine folks at B Labs, an embedded software technology startup that aims to change how the embedded systems industry works. Have a look at what we did for them, and then read on for an interview with Bahadir Balban, their CEO.
Where did B Labs come from? What is your vision for the company?
We want to change the way mobile platforms are designed by making the virtualization layer as standard in all mobile devices. In servers, virtualization is well recognized, but in mobile devices, there is either an operating system, baremetal software, or real-time software. A hypervisor is a layer that brings all of them into one runtime.
In a competitive and yet highly technical field, how does B Labs differentiate itself from its competition?
There are several hypervisors out there for mobile platforms. All of them are focused on a proprietary niche. Today there is no wide acceptance of any solution. We want to use a strategy that starts small, but eventually influences the industry to adopt the technology.
What is the biggest hurdle facing the virtualization industry of today?
The biggest hurdle is that a hypervisor is seen as an additional layer among the aforementioned hardware and the OS, and current vendors could not make a sufficiently compelling value proposition to ignite the change.
What is the best part about working in the field?
Best part is that we might have a modest chance to make a change in a deep technology area that affects the mobile industry.
Why did you come to Vesess for your website revamp? What did you like about the experience, and what can we do better next time?
I think Vesess design talent is top notch. I believe with the budget we had you did the best, but if we had a greater budget, one step up would be also collecting information from us that would make our side less of a blocking factor in progress.
CurdBee Reporting Adds Year-to-date
Just under two months ago, we released Dashboard Reports as a feature for all CurdBee Plus users. Today we’re, modifying it slightly, removing the less useful Last 30 Days information feed (many users found it confusing!) and replacing it with a Year-to-date summary.
Of course, before you begin using this feature, you’ll need to head to Settings > System Preferences and set when your Fiscal year begins. This is a new setting that we’ve introduced and will default to January when you first login.
You should now see a Year-to-date summary on your CurdBee dashboard. We hope this will give you a quick and easy run down of the year in progress and motivate you to keep at it, even when the going is tough!
Authorize.net Emulation and Recurring Profile Updates
We’ve got two new features for you this week!
Third party gateways and Authorize.net emulation
Many third party gateways also allow you to use the Authorize.net architecture to process payments, and as of today, you can begin using them with CurdBee. To enable the emulation of third party gateways, visit your Authorize.net Module settings page, click the tick box next to Use a gateway with a Authorize.net emulator, paste your emulator URL in the Emulator URL field and click Save Changes. All transactions will now be forwarded to it. To test emulation, you can try a gateway like BluePay.
Create Recurring Profile from Invoices and Estimates
A requested feature, this update allows any invoice or estimate to be converted into a recurring profile quickly and easily. It’s just one of those things that we hope will make your workflow better, allowing you to spend less time invoicing and more time living!
Oh, we’ve also fixed a few minor issues.
Finished Recurring Profiles now show up as Completed
A bug in Recurring Profiles caused them to do something unfortunate in that they used to send invoices out for the number of occurrences specified and then just stop, leaving a future date specified as the Next Billing Date. This was confusing indeed, and more than a few users had problems with it. With this CurdBee update, this issue is now fixed, and completed Recurring Profiles should show up clearly as Completed.
Swiss German Number/Date Formats Added
As requested by our Swiss German users, we’ve added a new number format (100’000.00) and a new date format (25.08.2011) as well. Enjoy!
CurdBee Unbranded
For a while now, you’ve been able to use your own domain with CurdBee. This means that you could essentially make CurdBee yours, from logging in, to sending clients invoices and estimates. Of course, the CurdBee logo still appeared on the login page.
Today, we’ve rolled out changes that remove even that. Starting now, it’s possible to make it completely yours. From account name to domain and login page, a fully unbranded online invoicing solution is something every CurdBee Plus user can now enjoy for just $5/month.
This feature is also a precursor to some new templating features we hope to roll out in the months ahead. Await more customisability from your favourite online billing solution!
CurdBee Module Settings Update
When CurdBee was smaller, we had all our settings on a single page. As we grew however, our module settings gradually spread out over many different screens. This worked, but we knew it wouldn’t do well in the long run. Whereas modules were enabled from the Upgrade & Extend page, their settings were often found on different pages, depending on the functionality they controlled. New users would have to click through many of our settings pages, sometimes going from System Preferences right down to Localization before finding the option they wanted to change. Too many views, too many buttons, too many clicks.
We’re all about being simple, and the module settings pages we had were moving quickly away from that goal. With the features we have now, and the plans we have for the future, we realised that bringing all these settings under one roof was the next logical step.
CurdBee evolved.
Now, whether you’re updating your payment gateway information or changing your push notification settings, you can do everything from just one screen. As new third party modules are added, their settings will be accessible from this page as well. The extra settings pages we maintained up till now will be removed, and System Preferences will contain only your core CurdBee settings.
In the long run, it’ll allow us to grow, and let you stay in control while we do. Enjoy!
Purchase Order Number Field for CurdBee
We’re happy to announce a minor but important feature release from CurdBee this week. What are we adding? The ability to add a Purchase Order number (PO No.) to your out going invoices and estimates. The PO number can also now be included in your outgoing email templates. Many of you requested this functionality, and we hope it enhances your CurdBee experience.
Read our Purchase Order No. support article for more information on enabling the Purchase Order No. field for your account.
