Update tomorrow!
September 29, 2008 – 9:40 pmI will be posting an update tomorrow on version 1.2, as well as what to expect in the coming months from Prospects... Mike
I will be posting an update tomorrow on version 1.2, as well as what to expect in the coming months from Prospects... Mike
Prospects 1.1.4 is out!
September 2, 2008 – 8:39 pmProspects 1.1.4 has been released and resolves some major bugs in the software that caused the application to crash or not display account information when clicked. Please let me know if you find any problems with this release! Thanks Mike
Prospects 1.1.4 due out within a few days…
September 1, 2008 – 6:02 pmWith the help of a new Prospects user this evening, I was able to find and resolve one of the more troublesome bugs in Prospects 1.1.3. The bug involved a crash that took place while importing a file. I knew this bug existed, but had been unsuccessful in reproducing it -- until now! I would like to thank this user for working with me and providing me with some great information that lead to solving the problem. There are three major bug fixes that will be in Prospects 1.1.4 that should make the application much more stable for many users. In addition, there will be two under the hood changes in preparation for version 1.2. These are currently being put in place. Once they are finished version 1.1.4 will be out the door! Thanks to all the users who take time to report bugs and work through them with me!
Keyboard or mouse – it doesn’t matter!
August 21, 2008 – 8:08 pmI've spent a considerable amount of time making transaction entry in Prospects 1.2 user-friendly to both mouse users and keyboard users.  I am finally nearing the completion of that piece of code. It took quite a while to nail down the workflow and get it just right where clicking, tabbing, typing - it all just feels natural and intuitive. I went through many iterations of making the transfer and category entry in a single table column "make sense"...  I feel that the current version of Prospects isn't clear as to how it works and how you can have both occur simultaneously. (And yes, you can now unlink a transaction!) So after quite a bit of work toiling with Apple's built-in text completions, I eventually ended up rolling my own because, quite frankly, I just couldn't make it behave exactly as I wanted. The result is a very fast entry system that ...
An Overdue Entry…
August 18, 2008 – 7:56 pmThis entry is way overdue (no pun intended).  I've been receiving numerous questions and concerns about what is going on with Prospects, when the 1.2 release is coming out and the future of the application in general. As in the past, I am not quite ready to commit to a release date for Prospects 1.2. I am nearing a point where I will feel comfortable posting a time frame, but I am not quite there yet. Once the underlying file format for the 1.2 version is complete, I will be setting up a private beta program. The format must be stable to allow the beta testers to work with the software without constantly losing their data. While a private beta may not get beaten up as much as a public beta, I feel it will be allow me to better control the feedback and quickly resolve problems. The private beta period ...
Reconcile Screenshot…
June 30, 2008 – 9:46 pmAs promised, here is a reconcile screenshot with some test data... this shot is not final and I am still making tweaks, but it should help indicate the type of functionality available.
It’s all about the workflow …
June 17, 2008 – 8:58 pmI've been spending the past few weeks focusing on the workflow for Prospects 1.2. Â For example, the rules are obviously a very useful feature in Prospects, but the maintenance of the rules can be quite daunting. Â 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. Â 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. Â Depending on your preferences, it will even update existing transactions for you as you work. Â The learned transactions can be tweaked (slighty) at any time and applied just like the other rules (now known as ...
Prospects 1.2 Update
May 4, 2008 – 2:02 pmHello everyone... I hope you all like the new blog format!  Although things are quite busy, I would like to take a minute and provide an update on Prospects 1.2.  In general, the update is taking longer than expected (this is, after all, software!), but it is coming along. Many people have been asking about a release date, but at this time I will simply say that it is TBD.  I do not want to promise a date and then miss it horribly due to some unforeseen circumstances! I have received a lot of feedback on the product and thank everyone for providing their thoughts and insight - it will help make version 1.2 a fantastic release. Some things you can expect to see include: More keyboard shortcuts in the transactions table, as well as the ability to tab into columns with a popup list (such as the category column). Reconciling ...
Prospects is alive and well!
April 1, 2008 – 7:08 pmThings have been quite busy - but rest assured, work on Prospects 1.2 is underway. Â I will be posting an update on Prospects in the next few days. Â Also, I will do my best to blog regularly regarding progress being made on Prospects in the future - stay tuned!
Two releases too many
February 26, 2008 – 10:28 amProspects 1.0.2 is about to go out the door and while we knew all along our first release would expose some bugs, we weren't expecting quite so many with the import feature!  We'd like to apologize to all the people who were having import issues for the first two releases.  Having said that, we believe we've resolved a lot of these problems in 1.0.2.  We've run through an extremely large number of tests and feel confident this resolves a lot of problems people have been experiencing.  We'd like to thank our users for their understanding and willingness to help us track down some of the more difficult bugs.  This is what makes the Mac community GREAT!  Stay tuned - 1.0.2 is around the corner... ** Update: 1.0.2 has been released! **Â