We've been busy enhancing our service, and are excited to announce that we have released the April release on April 4. This release brings several enhancements, improvements, and new features to our platform. 

New Features and Updates

Performance Enhancement to the Item Homepage Search

The Item Homepage search has been drastically improved to allow better performance and ease of use.

One of our biggest changes in this release is the performance and functionality of our Items Homepage search tool.

The Item Homepage search has been updated to use a "Starts With" search by default, instead of a "Contains" search, which was the default previously. However, users can still put an asterisk (*) in front of their search to do a "Contains" search when needed. This new search functionality substantially increases the speed of lookup items, including items such as matters and timekeepers that are contained in Timesheets. 

Example: To run the search as previously using a contains search, just prefix your search terms with an asterisk (*).   Example, to find Joe Smith, you can type *Smith.

Ability to Use Your Own Mail Server 

We've introduced a new way for users to utilize the Centerbase Mail Server with their own settings. 

In the past, Centerbase provided mail server authentication for all Clients. This would sometimes cause e-mails sent by a firm to be blocked by spam filters. With our new release, Centerbase provides the ability for users to specify their own mail server settings. 

Users may now set up server level settings with a default mail server and account to use when sending mail. Also, users can set up their own mail server settings (just like when they use Outlook) so that they can use their own credentials when they send e-mails.

In Users Settings, if the Enable Outgoing Mail Settings box is checked, the new user mail server settings will be displayed. Initially, since the user has no settings saved, it will load with the default server level mail settings. 

The Enable TLS checkbox allows the user to choose whether or not to use encryption when sending out emails.

The Test Email button allows the user to send out a test email to the same User Name entered to verify if the entered mail server settings are successfully authenticated or not.

Below is an example of the test email that will be sent to verify that the server settings were successfully authenticated. 

With this new update, we've also added a new tab in System Settings called Mail Server Settings. 

In this new tab, checking the Send Using Users Mail Server Settings checkbox will ensure that the emails are always sent out using the user mail server settings. If these settings don’t exist, the user will be prompted to save them first.

If sending an email using the Email Editor Dialog, and if the user does not have settings saved and has the Send Using Users Mail Server Settings box checked, a dialog will appear to save the user mail server settings first before sending out the email.

Office 365 Updates

Our new Office 365 Sync is now more efficient and easy to use. 

Our 365 Sync has been updated to handle meeting requests better. Previously, Outlook would send this to Centerbase as two separate activities, but this has been updated to ensure that only a single activity gets created within Centerbase. 

Outlook Add-in Updates

We've introduced new icons, functionality, and other interface changes to our Centerbase Outlook Add-in. 

• The Add-in icons have been updated. 
• There is now a "Centerbase" group on the Home tab on the Ribbon.
• Updated the add-in to use the new setting that prevents e-mails from being attached to other related items based on the e-mail address of the sender/recipients. (SPR #5260
• A "Time Entry" button has been added so users can record time without attaching an email. (Pictured below.) (SPR #5307)
  
  • The new "Time Entry button" opens a form to make a time entry. 
  • The "Attach Selected Emails" checkbox will still allow the user to attach emails if they change their mind, but by default, it will be unchecked. 
  • Please note: billing entries can only be linked to matters. 

• Centerbase controls have been added to the window when reading emails. Now, buttons used in this window will only affect the email being read. (SPR #5304)
• Users now have the ability to search for an email address linked to any item type that is in a users' linking settings. (SPR #5282)
• Like the Microsoft Word Add-In, log in now initiates when needed (for instance, when receiving an email or pressing a button) rather than when opening Outlook. This should prevent Outlook from disabling the add-in. (SPR #5264)

Download the most recent Outlook Add-in here. →

Reconciled Transactions

We've made changes to the functionality of our reconciled transactions. 

• Previously, Journal Entries where a single line item was deposited or reconciled would be completely locked down. With our new release, only the lines that have been deposited or reconciled are locked, but changes/additions to other lines are still allowed.
• This same functionality also applies to checks. If the check has been reconciled, the line items can still be changed, as long as they don't affect the total of the check. If a line item has been reconciled, it will be locked down, but other parts of the check will still be editable. (SPR #5325)

Import Updates

Our Importing process has been enhanced and improved.

• Further speed improvements have been made to the import tool to prevent time-outs on very large data sets (for instance, when working with 2 million rows at a time.) (SPR #5283)
• Fixed an issue where Contacts that had Contact lookup fields on them would sometimes show duplicate field names in the import field mapping. (SPR #5241)

Other Tweaks and Improvements

*SPR = Software Performance Report

Miscellaneous 

• Updated the Save & New / Save & Duplicate options on Journal Entries to increment the reference number. (SPR #5184)
• Added additional protection when using the config file edit to prevent invalid values from being entered. (SPR #5213)
• Simplified "Bill-To" information settings where matters did not need to explicitly state that they are not using Client-level "Bill-To" information. Instead, any matter that has a bill to a company, a bill to contact, or bill to address will automatically use this when printing bills, making new implementations much easier. (SPR #5228)
• Improved the "Rebuild Indexes" utility to avoid time-out issues. Also limited this to not be run too often, as it can affect performance if run too many times. (SPR #5240)
• Updated "Bill-To" address to support three address lines and a country. (SPR #5300)
• Improved Formula system to be able to use calculated fields (such as Invoice.Fee Balance, Trust Transaction.Amount, or Payment Distribution.Interest Total.) (SPR #5306)
• Added support for various date formats when manually typing a date in a date control. Previously, if the manually entered date didn't EXACTLY match the display format it would not save the change. (SPR #5320)
• Updated the Calendar preview fields to support specifying date formats. (SPR #5321)

 Issues Resolved

*SPR = Software Performance Report

• Fixed an error message that sometimes occurred when editing multiple originators on a matter. (SPR #5194)
• Fixed an issue where deleting rows or adding exceptions on rate tables would sometimes create issues. (SPR #5204)
• Resolved the issue with the date format for the bills list on consolidated bills. (SPR #5211)
• Updated the Accounting Home Page to fix an issue with opening the Aged AR report. (SPR #5225)
• Fixed an issue where Billable Expenses could not be added to a Client bill after it was generated if the Vendor Bill they were on had already been paid. (SPR #5227)
• Fixed a display issue where matters would always show Client-Level rate exceptions, even if the matter wasn't using the client rate settings. (SPR #5243)
• Fixed various issues with Basic Reports that showed or filtered by true/false columns. (SPR #5244)
• Addressed a small issue where activities that were scheduled with matters that had exceptionally long names would give an error. (SPR #5250)
• Fixed a display-only issue on the "Bill Detail" page where Matter Overpayments that were partially applied during that billing cycle would not accurately show the final Matter Posted Balance. (SPR #5252)
• Fixed an issue where phone numbers were displaying in grids without formatting. (SPR #5254)
• Dealt with a display issue where hovering over all day events would show the wrong date in the tooltip. (SPR #5262)
•  Updated the time entry report to handle long timekeepers and description better to prevent an issue with printing the page headers/footers. (SPR #5269)
• Fixed an issue where adding to a Quick Note would cause previous quick notes to be removed. (SPR #5275)
• Updated payment allocation logic to fix an issue when allocating a VERY small payment/credit. (SPR # 5284)
• Fixed an issue when exporting Conflict Check results when the search criteria had an ampersand (&) and certain other special characters. (SPR #5298)
• Fixed an issue where the Copy function on the timesheet would sometimes clear out the entry instead of copy it. (SPR #5317)
• Fixed an issue where payments from trust could be changed even after they had been transferred with a Trust Bank Transfer. (5328)
• Updated the delete logic on reconciliations to allow the last reconciliation to be deleted, even if the next reconciliation was marked as "save for later." (SPR #5331)
• Fixed an issue where certain long reports would not always sort correctly (SPR #5339)