Release Update: November 2024

At BigTime, your success drives our innovation. This release brings smarter tools, enhanced features, and over 50 fixes and improvements to simplify your daily operations. Here’s what’s new:

Task-Based Resourcing

• Enhanced Task-Level Planning and Resource Allocation

• Real-Time Budget and Project Health Insights
  
  

BigTime Acquires WorkRails

• Configure Price Quote and Sales to Delivery Workflow Automation

• Early Access Sign Up

• Planned Seamless Integration and Workflow
  
  

BigTime AI Assistant

• BigTime Assistant in General Availability

• Get Answers at Any Time, Available 24/7

• A Conversational Chat Experience
  
  

Desktop Timer Experience

• New and Improved Functionality

• Modernized User Interface and Optimized Workflows
  
  

BigTime Mobile

• Quick time entry with predefined time values

• Ongoing feature enhancements
  
  

Build AI - Early Access

• Use an AI chat experience to accelerate your ability to generate custom reports.

• Based on your input, Build AI will identify all of the columns of data that you need to get the information you request.

What’s New -

Task-Based Resourcing with BigTime Foresight - Now Available!

Optimize Project Planning and Resource Allocation with Task-Based Resourcing

Task-Based Resourcing gives firms the opportunity to schedule and plan at a more granular level. This ensures that resources are distributed more effectively based on the specific needs of the scope of the project. By scheduling and allocating at a task level your project managers can feel confident projects will get completed on time and within budget.

• Enhanced Task-Level Planning and Resource Allocation: Task-Based Resourcing allows firms to schedule and allocate resources at a more granular level, ensuring effective resource distribution tailored to each project's specific needs. This enhancement provides project managers with clear visibility into task ownership, helping keep projects on track and within budget.
  

• Real-Time Budget and Project Health Insights: Gain immediate insights into hourly and financial budget progress, along with key project health metrics such as percent completed and projections. Task Based Resourcing empowers project managers to proactively adjust resources, making informed decisions to optimize project pacing, avoid overspending, and ensure efficient resource utilization.
  

• Enhanced Demand Assignments with Tasks: Foresight’s Task-Based Resourcing now includes the ability to connect specific tasks or subtasks to demand placeholders, allowing for automatic synchronization when tasks are assigned. This enhancement makes it easier to define required roles at the task level, optimizing resource usage and ensures the right resource is allocated properly.
  

To learn more, explore our Task-Based Resourcing in Foresight article.

BigTime Acquires WorkRails:
Transforming CPQ and Sales to Delivery Workflow Automation

BigTime Software is pleased to announce its acquisition of WorkRails, a leader in Configure Price Quote (CPQ) and workflow automation for professional services. This partnership enhances BigTime’s end-to-end solution, empowering firms to streamline operations and drive growth. Key benefits include:

• Streamlined Sales Processes: WorkRails’ CPQ functionality allows sales teams to configure, price, and quote services accurately and quickly, reducing the time from proposal to project initiation.

• Enhanced Workflow Automation: Automation tools streamline sales and delivery cycles, minimizing manual work and ensuring operational consistency across projects.

• Improved Resource and Financial Planning: By integrating CPQ with project management and financial forecasting, firms gain complete visibility into resources, timelines, and margins—helping them deliver projects on time and within budget.

• Increased Profitability: Seamless integration between sales and project execution prevents cost overruns and boosts operational efficiency, leading to a healthier bottom line.
  

Interested in CPQ Early Access?
Are you an admin eager to shape the future of this product? Complete the quick Early Access form below to join the list!

BigTime AI Assistant - Now Available!

BigTime is excited to release new AI-powered experiences to help your organizations work smarter. The BigTime AI assistant is available to help you get fast answers to your BigTime questions so you can focus on getting back to the work you love doing. 

• Expert Guidance at Your Fingertips: Quickly find answers to your BigTime questions with an easy to use chat experience.

• Powered by BigTime Knowledge Base and Training Materials: Access insights from our Knowledge Base, Documentation, and data dictionaries to get precise, reliable answers.

• Firm-Wide Activation that can be configured by admins in Active Features.
  

Try it out today!
Start a conversation by clicking on the BigTime AI Assistant logo in the lower-right corner of your screen.

Explore our BigTime AI Assistant article to learn more!

New Desktop Timer Experience - Now Available!

We're excited to announce BigTime’s new Desktop Timer Experience! Simple and intuitive, this new timer is aimed to enhance your workflow productivity and simplify your time tracking experience.

• New and Improved Functionality: Enjoy our latest timer features such as an active timer indicator, automatic midnight rollover, dynamic updates to time entries when updating timers, and more.

• Modernized User Interface:  Experience a refreshed, modernized user interface built to elevate your timer experience with intuitive designs and user-focused enhancements.

• Optimized Workflows: Easily manage multiple timers throughout the day, make quick edits as needed, and efficiently post them to your timesheet when you're ready to submit your time.

How to Activate:
The new timer experience is now available to all users. Navigate to the current timer window to receive an in-app announcement, where you can sign up for activation. For additional assistance, you can contact BigTime Support.

Important Note for Timers on Web Customers:
If you currently use the legacy timers experience on web, please save your active timers to your timesheet before activating the new timers experience.

Explore our Timers article to learn more!

BigTime Mobile Enhancements

Quick Time Entry
At BigTime, we’re committed to ongoing enhancements for Bigtime Mobile that meet the needs of your on-the-go workforce. In our latest release, we’re excited to introduce a new time entry feature on iOS where you can quickly enter time by selecting a preset time duration. (Android coming soon)

We’re always listening to customer feedback and are working on additional features, including:

• SSO for iOS and Android

• Copy Time Entry
  
  

Download the app today, and let us know what you'd like to see next!

Important note for Legacy Mobile App Customers:
If you or anyone from your firm currently has the legacy app installed, please uninstall it and download the latest version using the links above. The legacy app is no longer supported, and updates will not be provided.

Explore more in our Getting Started with BigTime Mobile article.

Build AI - Now in Early Access!

BigTime’s Build AI is your intelligent chat assistant for admins designed to simplify custom report building. Through a conversational interface, Build AI identifies the best report columns and creates a preview report for you to modify or publish. This is just the beginning of our AI-powered capabilities, helping BigTime firms unlock the full potential of their data.

• Jumpstart your custom report creation: Use Build AI to quickly identify relevant columns of data based on a chat with Build AI to determine how best to get started on a custom report. 

• Further customize your report: Once Build AI helps you identify the best data for your report, use BigTime’s custom report features to further tailor your report experience.

Explore our Build AI Knowledge Base article to learn more!

Join the Build AI Early Access Program:
Are you a BigTime admin ready to explore Build AI? Sign up for early access by clicking below and completing the form. A BigTime representative will reach out in the coming weeks with activation details.

What’s Fixed -

Your partnership and feedback drives us forward at BigTime. This update introduces a wide range of enhancements and fixes, to ensure BigTime evolves alongside your needs.


Invoicing & Payments

FIXED: Auto payments made with Payments 2.0 post to QuickBooks.
FIXED: The TaskNm variable in XML Invoice PDFs only shows the subtask name. 
FIXED: New Payment Dates are retained, rather than dates the payments were entered.
FIXED: Long Invoice PDF Style names are visible throughout BigTime. 
FIXED: The Payments 2.0 Report now populates the Paid Date column for Wallet payments.
FIXED: Sent dates are retained on invoices once posted to QuickBooks.
FIXED: Invoice statuses will revert, and notifications will send when a payment is rejected.
FIXED: “Billed Hours/Qty” field pulls onto invoices when selected in PDF wizard.
FIXED: Isolated issue where Invoices zeroed out custom rates pulled from Common Rate Cards.
FIXED: Invoice Payment exports from Data Warehouse account for multiple payment types. 


Reporting & Analytics

IMPROVED: Refined Report Center search bar results.
IMPROVED: Build AI auto-generates names within 50 characters for new reports.
FIXED: Popular system reports are still available if their parent folder is deleted.
FIXED: Custom report folders appear at the top of the folder list in the new Report Center.
FIXED: Repaired an isolated issue where a custom field column prevented report publishing.
FIXED: Resolved an issue where Last Payment columns prevented report publishing.
FIXED: Allocation wizard and reporting handles $0.00 custom rates when allocating Fees. 
FIXED: AR Total column in reports accounts for tax information.


Projects & Tasks

FIXED: Client “Move” dropdown populates when moving jobs to a new client.
FIXED: Allocation Editor calculates Allocated Fees for both Standard and Custom rate projects.
FIXED: New Monthly Budget values now appear in the Allocation Wizard after saving and re-entering.


BigTime Foresight

IMPROVED: BigTime lexicon maps to Foresight.
IMPROVED: Team Members list is modified to read Staff List.
IMPROVED: “People Calendar” modified to read “Team Calendar”.
FIXED: Target Margin % field in Task Editor is disabled once Foresight is deactivated.


Integrations

IMPROVED: Import payroll items from QuickBooks Online into BigTime.
IMPROVED: Export payroll item selection on Time Entries to QuickBooks Online
FIXED: API accepts XML requests.
FIXED: Legacy Login Page error is dynamic based on Vibrant/Dark mode.


BigTime AI

IMPROVED: BigTime AI Assistant greets users with a personalized message.
IMPROVED: BigTime AI Assistant can be moved to any four corners of the web screen.
IMPROVED: BigTime AI Assistant error messages are more useful and robust.
FIXED: BigTime AI Assistant reflects Live Support Hours.
FIXED: BigTime AI Assistant button adjusts when window is resized.


Time & Expenses

IMPROVED: Save button added to new Timer on web experience.
IMPROVED: Interactivity and expansion of Timer List view in new Timer experience.
IMPROVED: Enhanced ‘Start’ and ‘Back’ navigation in new Timer experience.
IMPROVED: Enhanced deletion workflows within new Timer experience.
IMPROVED: Editing the decimal within a Timer alerts users of prohibited future actions. 
FIXED: Calendar appears when viewing Grace Period date in Timesheet settings.
FIXED: Non-admins can edit custom expense rates with the proper user rights.


Mobile

IMPROVED: [iOS] Users can quickly select from a preset time duration.
IMPROVED: [iOS] Address in the Project is now a link, to be used for navigation. 
IMPROVED: [iOS & Android] Unit of Measurement expenses apply project-level custom expense rates.
FIXED: [Android] Repaired isolated issue where Project selection was unavailable upon Time Entry. 
FIXED: [Android] Repaired isolated Project Name field issue to enhance app stability.
FIXED: [iOS] Admins can see Inactive staffers in the Staff List, denoted by an icon.
FIXED: [iOS] Admins can see Inactive projects in Project List, denoted by an icon.
FIXED: [iOS] Unit of Measurement expenses retain cost rates.


Other

IMPROVED: Platform improvements ensuring faster job processing for invoices, emails, and timesheets.
IMPROVED: Improved discoverability of the switch firm button.
FIXED: Repaired contact copying permissions functionality for non-admins.
FIXED: Finance email added to subscription expiration message.