Graeme Mathieson's dashboard

Graeme Mathieson replied on November 06, 2009 09:40 to the idea "Would be nice to be able to log time on a story card." in Pivotal Labs:

Just to add to the various voices... Sometimes, we do have to track time spent on projects (in some detail) due to external pressures. Occasionally it's clients (though I tend to avoid the kind of clients who want that granular a level of time keeping).

The big one for me is that, if we receive funding from a particular Scottish Government agency (say, an innovation grant) we're required to keep detailed time records in order to draw down on that money. Rather than the additional burden of having a separate time sheet application (we've tried, and failed miserably, with a couple) it would be awesome to keep it all in Pivotal.

Boris also makes a strong argument in that it provides an easy-to-grasp positive feedback loop for estimating.

Graeme Mathieson reported a problem in Pivotal Labs on October 29, 2009 10:58:

String interpolation in Javascript alert on deleting a story?

Hi,

I was just deleting a story called something along the lines of "Allow some email addresses to get a 100% discount" and I noticed that the text in the Javascript alert box wasn't quite right. See the attached image for details.

Not exactly a show stopper, but I thought I'd mention it (because I know I'd never think to find it during testing!). :)

A comment on the question "Recommended Bank Accounts?" in FreeAgent Central:

"But if you are a web designer, you'll end up laughing or crying every time you log in..."

Have you met an online banking system where this *isn't* the case? – Graeme Mathieson, on October 19, 2009 11:37

A comment on the question "Recommended Bank Accounts?" in FreeAgent Central:

Personal banking-wise, Nationwide has always been good to me. – Graeme Mathieson, on October 16, 2009 08:26

Graeme Mathieson replied on October 16, 2009 08:25 to the question "Recommended Bank Accounts?" in FreeAgent Central:

Looks like something from Santander is the way forward, then (he says, cheekily compressing the recommendations for Abbey, Cater & A&L into one!). (One of my business advisors made the same recommendation, but for totally different reasons, in that apparentl they were the most stable bank through the past year or two.)

Out of curiosity, is there a merchant bank account that works with FAC? I know that Lloyds TSB CardNet doesn't (because I've got a dormant account with them for a project that never went anywhere). Barring any other recommendations, I'm probably going to get a good deal from Streamline commercially, but working with FAC is always a bonus...

Graeme Mathieson replied on October 15, 2009 14:08 to the question "Recommended Bank Accounts?" in FreeAgent Central:

While Lloyds TSB's online banking does technically work with FAC, I'd be loathed to recommend them. The UI for the online banking is terrible and it doesn't let you do basic things -- like paying a bill -- without a 2 day turnaround.

And Lloyds TSB's commercial credit card offering has *no* online facility at all, never mind the ability to download statements and upload them to FAC.

That's as far as my FAC knowledge goes. Banking in general, I continually heard horror stories about Bank of Scotland, so deliberately avoided them. One of the other companies I'm involved in uses Abbey without any bother.

I'm being encouraged to try the Co-operative Bank with their FSB deal: http://www.fsb.org.uk/default.aspx?id... -- has anybody tried Co-operative Bank with FAC?

Graeme Mathieson shared an idea in Pivotal Labs on October 05, 2009 09:52:

Holistic view of stories and team velocity

I'd like to see a holistic view of stories and "team velocity" across several projects. We are a small consultancy and we often find ourselves working on several projects at a time (which, I know, isn't necessarily ideal, but that's the way the work turns up). It would be useful -- to me -- to have an overall "uberproject" where I can line up a balance of stories for all our customers in some order, and see the team's velocity across all projects.

Graeme Mathieson started following the idea "Would be nice to be able to log time on a story card." in Pivotal Labs.

Graeme Mathieson replied on September 23, 2009 10:13 to the question "invoice reminder and thank you emails" in FreeAgent Central:

I was thinking about this last night on the way home. Couple of feature requests because two of my clients are eejits and need this kind of encouragement:

* Automatic application of late fees (statutory regulations allow for £40 if < £1,000, £70 for £1,000 - < £10,000 and £100 for £10,000+, but that's discretionary so being able to customise would be essential).

* Automatic application of interest at x% above BoE base rate (up to 8%, again discretionary).

Chances are I'd like to set late fees and interest globally to match our standard terms of business, but I'd only like to enable automatic enforcement for particular clients.

Graeme Mathieson replied on September 16, 2009 09:06 to the question "Companies Act 2006 coming into force next month" in FreeAgent Central:

Thanks for the response, Ed. I assumed you'd have a tame accountant proactively keeping up with these forums. :-)

The reason I asked here was because I'd asked on Twitter, and @alancfrancis made a comment about that being the reason he had a real accountant rather than FAC, so I thought I'd prove him wrong. :)

Graeme Mathieson replied on September 15, 2009 11:42 to the idea "Entering bills in different currencies." in FreeAgent Central:

Awesome, good to know. And as you'll have seen in your email, automated (or even manual) invoice reminders is right up on my wishlist too. :)

Graeme Mathieson replied on September 15, 2009 11:40 to the question "Companies Act 2006 coming into force next month" in FreeAgent Central:

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? :-)

I had a wee chat with our accountant and the answer seems to be "no, nothing to worry about."

Graeme Mathieson shared an idea in FreeAgent Central on September 15, 2009 11:36:

Entering bills in different currencies.

We often receive bills in USD for various services. There's a gap between when I receive the bill and when I get the credit card statement to associate it with. My book keeper would like to enter bills when they arrive and match them up later.

That in itself is not a problem; we can estimate the conversion rate and stick the value directly in as GBP.

But what would be really neat is if we could enter the amount in the native currency and put in an estimated exchange rate. At the point where it's matched up with the line in the credit card statement, the exchange rate can be updated to match reality.

My book keeper feels that this would allow her to better match up the bits of paper with reality (FAC is reality, not the bits of paper, right?). Makes sense?

Graeme Mathieson replied on September 15, 2009 10:27 to the question "invoice reminder and thank you emails" in FreeAgent Central:

This would be awesome! I just went to look for a reminder feature today as some of my clients needed a gentle nudge and was mildly disappointed it wasn't there (particularly because I could have sworn it was!).

Graeme Mathieson started following the question "invoice reminder and thank you emails" in FreeAgent Central.

Graeme Mathieson asked a question in FreeAgent Central on September 10, 2009 10:30:

Companies Act 2006 coming into force next month

Are there any changes in the Companies Act 2006 (which comes fully into force on October 1st) that I need to do something about?

The leaflet this morning mumbled something about changes to Articles of Association and being fined if you submit changes to the AoA late, but I'm still not clear whether I actually need to do anything in particular.

Graeme Mathieson shared an idea in FreeAgent Central on September 04, 2009 10:23:

List recurring invoices on the contact's page.

Hi,

It would be awesome if a list of recurring invoices for a particular contact could appear on that contact's page, perhaps just above "Account History"?

Graeme Mathieson started following the idea "Support for bit.ly accounts (not just bit.ly shortening)" in atebits.

Graeme Mathieson started following the idea "See revenue generated by safehouse" in Spymaster.

Graeme Mathieson replied on May 27, 2009 09:35 to the problem "None of my recurring invoices were sent out this month!" in FreeAgent Central:

I've done that for this month's invoices which were in draft, but I mean for the next recurrence, one of which is next week?