Now that CreativePro Office is officially out of beta, we feel good about finally releasing the self hosted version of CPO 2 on Monday, September 13th.

This download will be available as a beta to existing customers only until it is moved into general release.  It will then be available for purchase by everyone.

To request a download link for the beta, please Contact Us.  You'll need to provide at least your company name, your name, or better yet, your order number for the version 1 download.

This beta version will be fully functionaly except that it will not include a data import from a CPO 2 hosted account.  You will, however be able to import data from a self hosted CPO 1 installation or a CPO 1 hosted account. Import from a hosted CPO 2 account will come later in September.

This new version also has a simpler, 1 click update feature.  Initially, updates will probably be released on a weekly basis as bug fixes and patches are released.  After that, a monthly update schedule will probably be more appropriate.

Thanks for reading and please let us know if you have any questions.

We passed an important milestone last week.  After 20 months of part-time but continuous work, CreativePro Office 2 finally came out of public beta!

Is it perfect? Nah, it's got a few bugs, some quirks, and some features need more polish - but it's a solid foundation for the CPO product moving forward.  We're proud of what the product is and excited about it's potential in the coming months.

So what happens now?  Well, the immediate priorities in order are, bug fixes, bug fixes, and bug fixes.  We plan on spending the month of September (and maybe longer) just addressing bugs that users continue to find. And also polishing some features and making them a little simpler and easier to understand.

Another super high priority item is the self hosted product, formerly known as the source code download. We will be releasing a beta version of the self hosted product to existing customers on Monday, September 13th. There is more information on that in this post over here.

After the bug fixes and self hosted product release, should financial support allow, here is a list of features we are really excited to implement:

• Custom sub domains for accounts so you can have myCompany.mycpohq.com.
• A mobile device accessible version of the dashboard.
• Project and task templates so you can set up 1 project with all its tasks, save a template, and create duplicate projects easily from that template.
• Tying expenses and timesheets together with invoices a lot better.
• Estimates that can easily be turned into invoices with 1 click.
• Google docs integration with the file manager.
• A much more refined file manager that shows thumbnails for images, allows commenting for files, versioning, and drag and drop file upload (for HTML 5 browsers).
• Desktop application that allows you to manage your CPO account outside of the browser.
• Better Google calendar integration so that your Google calendar and CPO calendar are always in sync.

There are many other ideas we have but they're a little further on the back burner right now.  Let us know if there's something you'd like to see bumped up the priority list a little bit and we'll take it under consideration.

Thanks for reading!

A few users have wondered what happened to project notes in CreativePro Office 2.  Version 1 users will remember the rather minimal notes feature that allowed you to attach random notes to a project - simple, almost too simple.  Here's the version 1 note entry form...

Just a plain ol' textbox with a Save button.  And once you saved a note...

...you really didn't have any way to edit the darn thing.  If you made a mistake well, delete and start over.

With CPO 2 we decided to amp up this feature a bit starting with a slimmed down WYSIWYG editor so you can add bullets, indentation, and simple font changes.  Links are activated automatically if the link text begins with http:// or https://.

We also thought it would be nice to let your clients see some of your project notes so we added a checkbox that allows you to do just that. 

Finally, the finished note complete with creator avatar, date and time stamp, visible to client indicator, and an Edit button!  The Edit | Delete button group appears as you hover over a note.

Moving ahead we plan to allow file attachments to notes as well.  We hope you like the new project note feature in CPO 2.

Thanks for reading.

Our beta testers have found a multitude of bugs over the past few weeks and we've been trying our best to squash them.  Our date for bringing CreativePro Office of public beta will be September 1st.

Those of you with premium plans more than 30 days old will be asked to supply credit card information to pay for your accounts on Sept. 1 when you login. The Solo, Shop, and Team plans are premium plans.

You will be given the option of downgrading your account to the Free plan if you wish during the payment process.

Thanks to all the users that have worked with us to identify and troubleshoot problems.  Although little quirks will no doubt persist for some time, we feel that CreativePro Office 2 is becoming a very solid and reliable product.

Thanks for reading.

It is with much excitement that we finally announce the public beta for CreativePro Office 2.  After almost 18 months of development,we're letting this new version out into the wild.  We want to give a big thanks to our private beta testers for helping us get to this point. We also thank our loyal customers for their tremendous patience as we slowly move this product through development.

Some of the great new features you'll notice in this new version:

• Familiar but improved user interface and experience.
• Much improved task management area.
• Application wide messaging - attach messages to projects, invoices, expenses, etc. Messaging among your team and clients too!
• Much improved file management, central file upload area, attach files to anything - projects, invoices, messages, expenses, etc.
• Footer toolbar with the most used dashboard widgets on every page.  Now you can view project list, messages, calendar, invoices, tasks, timeclock from anywhere within the application.

How do I sign up?

Head on over to http://www.MyCPOhq.com .  Click on the Pricing menu option and sign up for a plan. You will not be charged anything for your plan unless you decide to continue using it after the private beta period is over.

What should I do as a beta user?

Just use CreativePro Office and let us know about any quirks, bugs, or wierdness going on.  You can alert us easily to problems but clicking the bug alert icon in the upper-right toolbar. 

Can I import data from my existing CreativePro Office account?

Yes, you certainly can.  Once you're logged in, click on the Settings icon in the upper-right toolbar, then click on the Data tab.  You'll be asked to enter the user name and password of your CreativePro Office 1.0 account, then all of your data will be imported.

(NOTE: This only works for hosted accounts - you cannot import data from a copy of CreativePro Office that is installed on your own server.)

Will I be charged for my time as a beta user?

No! You can sign up for any plan and will not be billed for the duration of the public beta period. When the beta period is over, you will be asked to enter your billing information to continue using a premium plan.  You can always opt out or downgrade to a free account at this point if you wish.

Can I still use my existing CPO account?

Yes you can.  All existing CreativePro Office 1.0 accounts will remain active for 6 months after the public beta is completed.

So what happens now?

Well, we let you beat up our new app and tell us what breaks. In addition to bugs, we're looking for feedback on how various features might be improved.  We're hoping this process can be completed within 2 to 3 weeks.  Then we'll be ready to release the final versions for the web and for download.

Hi faithful CreativePro Office users.  This is a quick note to let you all know that CPO has entered private beta testing. Bug testing is important and necessary and we appreciate your help with the process.

We appreciate your tracking with us as we make another step in development progress.  The move from freeware to paid subscription based software is something that we are happy to make progress on.  CPO hasn't yet "earned its keep", even though it is so popular with our users.

It is nice to reach this point after so long, I think we are taking a bit of an exhale as we reach this point, happily.

We will keep you posted!

We have been fielding a lot of questions about CPO’s next version that is due out very soon.  The work is still fast and furious here with a private beta release date of March 31 looming large.  There are a few things that current CreativePro Office users should know as we finally enter the release phase of this long project.

When are you releasing version 2.0?

We have decided to do a private beta release of CreativePro Office 2.0 on March 31 with a public release shortly thereafter.

Why did you guys miss so many release dates?

This is an honest question and the answers are many.  Mainly, the scope of work was much larger than anticipated.  In retrospect, we may have tried to cram too many features into the initial 2.0 release. But, since version 1.0 has a pretty complete feature set, we knew we had to match and exceed that benchmark which I believe we have done. 

So what great new features finally made it into the new version?

Too many to list here but the ones we’re most excited about are:

• Much improved shared calendaring including export to Google calendar. Tasks and project dates automatically list on the central calendar.
• The task manager has been entirely redone.  It’s very robust and includes neat features like file attachments, message threads, email notifications, export to Excel file or PDF.
• Team roles and permissions are now user defined so you can give your team as much or as little control over your account as you wish.
• Much better integration between timesheets, expenses, and invoicing.  You can now create an invoice from a timesheet or time clock entry with 1 click.  Very cool!

Will the 2.0 version remain free?

Yes and no.  CreativePro Office 2.0 will have a free option among several premium, paid options.  We will release the official pricing structure very soon.

I’m an existing CPO user.  Will I be immediately forced to upgrade to a paid plan?

No.  We are allowing a 6 month grace period after launch for existing users to migrate to a free or paid plan on version 2.0.  If you decide that you do not wish to continue using CPO we will provide a data extract feature so that you can get your data out of the system and migrate it to another service.

Will version 1.0 still be available for free?

No. Version 1.0 will not accept any new subscriptions after April 15.  Existing users of version 1.0 will have 6 months from the public release date to migrate over to a CreativePro Office 2.0 subscription.

Will there be an open source version of CPO 2.0 that I can host on my own server?

Yes, but it will be available after the public hosted release.  The reason is that we have to do some tweaking to the self-hosted version to insure a smooth installation experience for the widest variety of users.

Will the price of the open source code stay $150.00?

No, the price point of version 2.0 will be higher.  We will release official prices within a week.

Are there help files or tutorials with this version?

CPO has been developed to be as intuitive as possible to use.  However, we realize that support in many forms is necessary for a satisfied user base. The forum and priority email (for subscribers) will be the primary means of helping our users find their way around CreativePro Office 2.0.  Tutorials and help files will be built out as we see a need.  For example, if we see that many users are having trouble with file uploads; we’ll create some help content around that specific issue. We are definitely going to create some comprehensive help content for the self-hosted, downloadable version though.

What plans are there for foreign language versions?

We have long fielded the request for different language versions of CPO.  Our plans are to include over 10 translations in version 2.0.  We already have the translations more or less sketched out but we will be working as much as we can with native speakers to fine tune the translations. 

Can I add my own currency?

No but we have added over 45 currencies to version 2.0 and will add more at your request.

Our plan for CreativePro Office is to continue to integrate more and more features over time as this application becomes profitable.  While we might not be able to give you a specific date for a specific feature roll out, be confident that we have many improvements in store for the future.

Thanks for reading.  Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Dear trusty, faithful users and new users alike,

Despite periodic silence, work still ticks on here in development of 2.0.  The silence here can be easily explained:  development is to be a process that is, in our case, more often just done and less often talked about.  To put it succinctly, we are working.

On our part there has been a little bit of dismay over watching the date we intended to release come and go.  In reflection on what is causing the delay, Jeff realized a few things:

1.  The scope of work for version 2.0 has increased significantly since it was originally conceived.  Originally, 2.0 was to be a rewrite of the code so that future added features would have a stable code-base.  But what happened was that while in the code, tinkering, it seemed more logical (and more interesting) to start the process of making some of the more major improvements that were slated for the future.

2.  The amount of anticipated collaboration for the task of version 2.0 decreased by about 66%.   A smaller team made more work to be done.

3.  The hosting situation caused a bit of a slowdown for awhile but has since been rectified.

As we saw the date of anticipated release approaching, there were signs that things weren't going to work out as planned.  The release date was too ambitious, based on a "best case scenario" when excitement was high, and the scope of work was smaller. 

Now, a year after beginning, Jeff is just pushing for that next release date.   There had been considerations of releasing with what we had completed, but that would have fallen short on what we had told users to anticipate.  We are setting the date to end of February 2010, which seems entirely reasonable since version 2.0 is 80% complete.

The February release is planned to be beta tested and ready for use.

Thank you for your patience and hope that you will continue to looking forward to this as much as we are!

Hi Everyone

Here are some of the features that are going to be included in the new release of CreativePro.  If we haven't said so before, CreativePro Office is working on a new version that will remedy the bugs of the existing version AND include these killer new features:

In the Client area:

• A new client widget on the dashboard that shows the client list and projects by client. User will be able to click a client name and the view will switch to show projects for that client.
• Clients will be able to have multiple contacts instead of the 1 contact currently allowed. This will be accomplished by a site-wide contact management module which will provide the contact functionality for clients, projects, and expenses (vendors).
• Users will be able to import client list in CSV format or a single client vCard.
• Client dashboard will have total hours displayed for a project (optionally set by account owner) and project status indicator.
• Client dashboard will have messaging capability for projects, invoices and files that are posted by the account owner (similar to Facebook).
• Client timezone will be a setting that can be permanently set by the account owner.

In the Tasks area:

• Tasks can be shared among multiple team members. Team members will receive email notifications of task assignments.
• Files can be attached to task entries.  Tasks can be reordered within milestones by drag and drop.
• Version 2.0 will have a much improved Gantt charting system with ability to print Gantt charts.
• Recurring tasks.
• Email integration: tasks can be created by sending an email to a CPO email address much like Remember the Milk.
• Sorting tasks by title, date, assigned to, status will be included.
• Users will be able to create quick To-Do lists using the task manager - instead of creating a client, then a project, then tasks.
• The task management system will, over the next year, become more SCRUM focussed so that teams can monitor their time estimates and deliverable dates across many project and come up with more acurate predictions.
• Tasks will have customizable categories that are color coded for quicker viewing.

In the Calendars area:

• Shared calendars between project owners, team members and clients.
• Synch calendar with Google Calendar, allow synch to Outlook through iCal format.
• Allow multiple calendars with color coding. Allow other customization features like changing the first day of the week and date formats.
• Upload/Download of calendar entries in iCal format.
• Show events spanning multiple days.
• RSS calendar feed specific to each calendar and team member.

In the Projects area:

• Project auto-archive feature - allow user to set a time span for auto-archive of projects e.g. 3 weeks after project create, or project start.
• Allow per-project, per-client hourly rates to be set.
• Show time spent on a project in project detail view.
• Make project file uploads simpler by using an app-wide file upload system that interfaces with Amazon S3.  Allow for multiple files uploads also.
• Provide project/task view in a Gantt chart. 

In the Expenses area:

• Expense and vendor reports.
• Tie expense items and invoicing together better.  For example, if I guy stock photos for a client it would be nice to list these under expenses but also be available to me when it's time to invoice the client.
• Hours logged from time sheets can be defined with an hourly rate then automatically set up as an expense and charged to the defined project.  I'm imagining contractor expenses here.  I pay a contractor (vendor) for 12 hours of graphic design - that's technically an expense that then needs to be invoiced. 
• A recurring option for expenses like web hosting, rent or anything with a fixed and repeating cost.
• A vendor list that would allow the same contact information and notes seen in clients, but then be tied to a specific project. 

In the Timesheets area:

• Better time-sheet reports: view by project, client, team member, date range or combination of all variables.
• Integrated job timer, timesheets and invoices together so you could select a project, start the clock, stop the clock and click a button to have an invoice generated.
• Export timesheets as PDF, Excel, CSV.
• Allow embedding the job timer in user websites so that you can have employees log time without giving them CPO user accounts.
• Allow for multiple timers to be running at once.

In the Invoices area:

• Individual invoice items can be taxable/non-taxable.
• Partial payments can be entered for an invoice and CPO will keep track of amount remaining.
• Invoice payments can be made through PayPal.
• Recurring invoices for things like hosting accounts that need to be invoiced monthly,weekly,yearly.

This is a limited list of changes that will be going into version 2.0.  These features are in direct response to what users have asked for over the past 2 years that CPO has been active.  It isn't an exhaustive list, but it is definitely an exhausting list.  For those who wonder what the silence is about, this would explain it.

We look forward to our new release and hope you all are enjoying your summer!