Prospects 1.2 and upcoming releases

Hello everyone… I’ve been getting a lot of questions concerning the status of version 1.2 and where things are headed.  This blog post will be concise and hopefully provide you with the information you are looking for.  If it does not, you can always email me directly or (michael at motimotion.com) or respond to this blog post.

There are two primary reasons for the delay of version 1.2.  The first is that Prospects is currently a part-time venture for me.  I really wanted to go full-time with it during the past few months, but the numbers are not yet where they need to be to make this a reality.  The second is that I tried to bite off more than I could chew for the 1.2 release.  I tried to put too much into the release to really make it something spectacular, which ended up backfiring because of the amount of time it has taken to put the new features in.  I readily admit this mistake – and I have learned from it and will ensure it does NOT happen again for upcoming releases.

So what does this mean?  This means 1.2 won’t contain everything I had hoped it would, but it will contain account reconciliation, learned rules, keyboard entry in the transaction table, scheduled transactions/reminders, editing / selecting multiple transactions simultaneously and filtering the list of transactions (e.g. only show me transactions for this account from within the past 3 months).  The keyboard entry requires a few more tweaks to cover all bases, scheduled transactions/reminders are about 75% complete, and the other features are done.  I am going to work very hard to finish these features up and get 1.2 out the door.  My goal is to have a beta ready to go by the end of this month and release two weeks after that.

Following version 1.2 will most likely be 1.2.x, 1.2.y and 1.2.z as people find problems.  I hope the number of releases are mitigated with the beta testing.

Once 1.2 goes out the door, I will focus on 1.3 – which will include the balance of what I had hoped to get into version 1.2.  Version 1.3 will incorporate exporting, more reports, an overhauled import interface and a “transaction matching system”.  In other words, when you transfer to an account or a scheduled transaction is posted, Prospects will determine if the transaction already exists and allow you match it.  I do not expect this release to take very long since a lot of these features are already started and are simply being pushed off so I can release 1.2.

Following 1.3 will come 1.4 and 1.5 – these will most likely complete the version 1 releases.  As part of these versions I plan on adding some more ViewPoints, simple portfolio tracking and better budget management.

The features listed above for future releases are not exhaustive or guaranteed.  I will do everything I can to get these releases out faster while ensuring their quality is high.

I am very appreciative of the support I have received from Prospects users.  I’ve gotten some great feedback and positive comments from folks all around the world.  I am going to make every effort to get these releases out the door and make this product better for everyone.

Again, if you have any questions, would like additional information or simply want to chat about Prospects, please don’t hesitate to email me.