UCM Blog

Hello everyone,

There has been a big update to UCM, we have started down the path of re-writing the code in a better and more extendable way.

This is paving the way for much better (and quicker) updates and features in the future. Here is a quick summary of what is included in the latest update

• Show staff first + last name in drop downs ( advanced config: staff_first_last )
• Core plugin: new OOP classes to share between Invoice, quote and jobs (class.base-document.php, class.base-multi.php, class.base-single.php). This will allow us to bring the features between invoices, quotes and jobs up to date with each other, and add new features once instead of 3 separate times. It will also eventually let developers copy the invoice/job/quote code into their own modules easier as well.
• Customers: they can now have auto incrementing ID numbers. Change the advanced setting “customer_have_id_numbers”  to 1. By default the Customer ID numbers will look like: C-001, C-002, etc.. you can change this format in advanced settings, look for “customer_mask_0”. The advanced field “customer_next_0” will store the next ID number if you need to change it. The ID number will increment every time you click “create new customer”.
• Customers: external link. There is a new external link that the customer can click to view a summary of all their jobs, invoices and payments. This is a great summary that can be quickly sent to the customer when they want an update on a project.
• Customer billing type: Normal and Supplier/Vendor. This is paving the way for a much better “Supplier/Vendor” feature, where you can record vendor expenses insite UCM and have them reported correctly. While this doesn’t work at the moment you can still set your customer type from Settings > Customers > Customer Types.
• Email: advanced setting ’email_ignore_certificate’ will let you bypass SSL issues when using SMTP on hosts that have invalid or self signed certificates.
• Form: better support for modal popups and ajax form submissions
• Invoice: renamed template from ‘external_invoice’ to ‘invoice_external’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template. The ‘user_id’ database field has been changed to ‘contact_user_id’ to make room for a future planned feature. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing.
• Job: renamed template from ‘external_job’ to ‘job_external’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template.. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing.  We have also started work on a new way to edit job tasks via a popup window, this will allow us to offer more options on each job task. Once this feature is working we will roll it out to invoices and quotes as well.
• Quote: renamed template from ‘quote_pdf’ to ‘quote_print’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template.. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing.
• Products: You can now assign a product to a vendor/supplier. There is also a low stock warning email. Set the stock quantity and you will get an email when the quantity drops below that value.
• Tickets: some more debugging information in the “Save & Test” message
• Timer: a bunch of fixes and paving the way for better timer support on individual job tasks.

If you run into any issues please submit a support ticket: https://ultimateclientmanager.com/support/support-ticket/