Daylite Help

Billings 3.5: send client Invoice with Paid stamp

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:39:04 +0000

Show your client that they paid an invoice:

1. go to the client
2. click Account
3. click on the paid Invoice
4. go up to File>Print Invoice>click the PDF pulldown at the bottom left of the print window>choose Mail PDF

So simple!

Billings 3.5 released!

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:42:52 +0000

What’s new in Billings 3.5
1. Requirements: Billings now requires Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Support for Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) has ceased.
2. New features: Billings Touch additions

Billings is now able to sync over local Wi-Fi with Billings Touch - a new companion application for your iPhone and iPod touch.
New “unfiled slips” support slips created on the fly with Billings Touch.

3. Enhancements:

Improved performance for large databases.
Print invoices with the Paid stamp.
Send invoices/estimates/statements via MailPlane.
Help resolve issues by sending logs to Marketcircle support.
MobileMe Support: loosened the link between Billings and Address Book to better support MobileMe
Improved Address Book Integration
- You can now select which of your client’s email addresses or street addresses to send invoices to.
- Client links to Address Book are not lost when cards are replaced by MobileMe or iPhone.
- No longer using Billings group in Address Book to prevent problems with duplicating contacts from MobileMe.

4. Bug Fixes:

Fixed publishing to iCal.
Client links to Address Book are not lost when cards are replaced by MobileMe or iPhone.
Fixed separators in certain locales.

5. Upgrade: After upgrading your database to Billings 3.5, you cannot go back to an earlier version of Billings, unless you revert to a backup.

tips + tricks: Daylite Touch’s call log feature.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:58:02 +0000

Most people are still not in the habit of dialing out of Daylite Touch when they want to call someone. But here’s the compelling reason why you want to do it from Daylite Touch: the call log feature. Once you hang up, in Daylite Touch there will be a window giving you the option to record the time of the call you just made [you can record it as either a Task or an Appointment] or create a New Follow Up [ie an action that needs to be taken based on the results of your phone call].

Or you can do both! Click to log a record of the time, finish that process of logging it as a Task or Appointment, and then a new window appears asking if you want to make a New Follow Up.

This log feature is fantastic, as it mimics the procedure we use on our computer’s Daylite to track phone time and do follow ups based on the results of calls.

stuff we love: DateLine.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:02:26 +0000

Wanted to share with you a handy free app that puts a floating calendar on your desktop. And it’s been customized to work with Daylite: just double click on any of the days and you’ll be taken to that date in Daylite’s calendar.

Please see the image below. DateLine actually shows the entire month, but for my screenshot I only highlighted a small portion. I placed mine down near my Dock, but it can go anywhere. Also notice the orange diamond giving a fast visual indicator of Today.

download DateLine
to enable Daylite support, go to DateLine’s Preferences and set the ”Open in” pulldown to “Daylite 3″
in order to work properly with Daylite, you must be logged into your Daylite database
in DateLine preferences you can also set the font, color, width, and more

Daylite tips + tricks: Daylite’s floating history

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:47:20 +0000

See where you’ve been…and get back there fast!

The quest for improved efficiency is never-ending. I’d like to share a great hidden feature in Daylite that has helped me tremendously: a floating history of where you’ve been. Take a look at the screenshot:

You can activate this within Daylite by pressing and holding these keys simultaneously:

To navigate UP in the floating list, use this key combination: shift command [

To navigate DOWN in the floating list, use this key combination: shift command ]

As soon as you let go of the keys, the floating history magically disappears and you’re taken to the item that was highlighted in the history at the time that you let go. So it not only lets you know where you’ve been, but allows you to get back there fast.

I love this one, give it a whirl!

stuff we love: Herald.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:03:21 +0000

Preview and take action on your Mail messages without going to Mail! Snow Leopard compatible, Herald is a great plugin for your Mail app. Herald keeps me from being a slave to my Mail, having a knee-jerk reaction every time the Mail icon indicates a new message. With Herald, you get a semi-transparent pop up notification of the new message and you can take action right from the notification: delete the message, reply, mark as junk, and more. Or if the message isn’t important, you can simply ignore the popup and keep going with your current workflow, then go to the Mail app at your convenience.

Extra tip: since Herald is a part of Mail, it only works if you DON’T hide the Mail app using the Hide Mail menu item. If you simply let the Mail window go behind your other app windows, or minimize the Mail window, Herald is meant to work. I’m a big fan of doing command H to hide an app so this requirement took a bit of getting used to.

hours for Thanksgiving week.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:55:28 +0000

Blue Rock has limited availability Thanksgiving week Monday 11/23-Friday 11/27

Daylite tips + tricks: super fast date entry.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:55:49 +0000

Enter common phrases into Daylite date fields and they will automatically convert to the proper date! If you are like me, you can type words faster than you can type dates, what with all those slashes and hyphens slowing you down. Of course, you can always click the calendar icon next to the date fields and pick your date, but that can be slow too.

A better way: type words instead of dates. Try typing this into a Daylite date field: tomorrow
Tab into the next field and notice that the Daylite date field converts to show tomorrow’s date. Here are some others that I use constantly, especially the days of the week when entering due dates for Appointments and Tasks:

monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
today
tomorrow
yesterday
last week
next week
last month
next month
last year
next year

Daylite tips + tricks: share Daylite objects with a hyperlink.

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:13:07 +0000

Want to give other users in your database quick access to a Project, or let them know about a new Contact? You can chat or email them a link to the object! I love using the Contextual Menu [right click on the object] and choose Copy Hyperlink. Then I just chat or email the link to other users in my Daylite database and with a simple click on the link, they are taken directly to that item in the database. If you do not have your Contextual Menu preferences set up to include the Copy Hyperlink option, you can just single click on the object, go up to Edit and choose Copy Hyperlink.

EXTRA TIP: clicking the hyperlink opens the item in edit mode. To just Go To the item in the database , hold down the option key while you click the hyperlink.

Please keep in mind that this hyperlink function only works for users that are logged into your Daylite database.

stuff we love: TextExpander

Cynthia Robertson Shaffer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:46 +0000

This fantastic piece of software allows you to define custom abbreviations that expand to your frequently used phrases, long paragraphs, and more! Here is an example: a client asks me to email a description of how my custom Daylite report design process works. I have a few standard paragraphs that describe the design process, procedures, pricing, and turnaround time. I could type it all out every time, or keep a text document that I can copy and paste from, but wow that is a ton of unnecessary work since I get multiple requests for that info every day.

A better way: use TextExpander. I defined a snippet in TextExpander so that all I type is reportpricing and the many paragraphs that describe my design process fill right in.

TextExpander is also great for small snippets, especially in your Daylite database. Some of my other snippets include:
typing fu [no pun intended] expands to: follow up
typing rc expands to: return call
typing dt expands to: the current date and time