It’s all about the workflow …

I’ve been spending the past few weeks focusing on the workflow for Prospects 1.2.  For example, the rules are obviously a very useful feature in Prospects, but the maintenance of the rules can be quite daunting.  Probably the most useful aspect of the rules is the ability to set them up to automatically rename payees and assign categories to imported transactions.  It’s a lot nicer to read “Starbucks” than it is to read “STARBUCKS #1918273 AA1100 STORE 1029” – especially when it appears multiple times per week in your transactions list…

Prospects 1.2 will introduce a great new feature called “Learned Rules”, where Prospects will learn this type of information real-time as you update your transactions.  Depending on your preferences, it will even update existing transactions for you as you work.  The learned transactions can be tweaked (slighty) at any time and applied just like the other rules (now known as “Custom Rules”).  It’s a great feature and INCREDIBLE timesaver.  This feature is about 90% complete, with a few finishing touches being put on it for providing feedback as it works in the background.  All-in-all, I think this will be one of the best features of Prospects 1.2.

In addition, other features are coming along.  Reconciling is essentially done with some “finishing touches” being put in place.  (I will post a screenshot to the blog in an entry later in the week).  Scheduled transactions are in-progress (screen designs are done – and yes, I do it old school with a pencil and paper!) with some key algorithms and supporting widgets complete.  And categories can now be entered using the keyboard when working with the transactions table (including pressing the colon (:) to complete a category name).

As I stated in my last blog entry, development is not happening as rapidly as I would like, but I do not want to rush the release.  Once I have a stable file format for version 1.2, I’ll be setting up the beta testing program.  I appreciate everyone’s continued support and feedback.  Even if I do not respond immediately, I am reading your emails and forum posts frequently and allocating all your ideas and suggestions to future versions.

Till next time … // Mike //