We’ve released a small update we think will make your life a little easier.  In an effort to make Pencil’em function more like your written appointment book, we have removed the required email address when adding your clients.  This now will allow you to schedule appointments for clients that do not have an email address or that do not want to receive email reminders.

We’ve also added a client birthday field so you will never forget another client’s birthday again!  When you create an appointment on a client’s birthday the system will now display the birthday cake icon next to the client name (see image below).  We are working on some more features related to client birthdays that we will be releasing in the future so stay tuned for those.  Also of note, you will see the service price on the main scheduling screen so you know how much you are charging for a specific appointment.

Service Prices on scheduling screen, and Birthday Icons.

We also made a minor adjustment to the “Main Scheduling” page, where the “Select Date” field is now the first thing you select when creating an appointment.  Not a major change, but it makes it easier to see what appointments you have for any given day sooner in the booking process.

As always, lots more to come so keep an eye on the blog and let us know how we are doing in the comments!

This is a question we get frequently here at Pencil’em so we wanted to give you some information on which browser works the best with the Pencil’em web application.  Pencil’em is a web based application, so you access the software through your computers web browser.  You are probably familiar with Internet Explorer if you use a Windows based computer, or Safari if your a Mac user.  Many people do not know there are many other options when it comes to which browser you use to access Pencil’em.  There are four main browsers I want to address today, and I will list them relative to their performance on the Pencil’em application.

The following browsers are all compatible with Pencil’em:

1. Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome)
2. Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/)
3. Safari (Mac – http://www.apple.com/safari/download/)
4. Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx)

Google Chrome is listed at number 1 for a reason.  It is by far the fastest browser we have tested the software on, and it gives the best user experience.  It’s fast, free, and Google….three of my favorite things!  Coming in at number 2 is Firefox, also an incredible browser, known for it’s ability to be extended and modified based on user preferences.  It’s not quite as zippy as Google Chrome, but the difference is minimal.  Safari, the Mac browser, also does a good job.  The experience here is similar to that of Firefox and Chrome.  Coming in last on the list is Internet Explorer, versions 6, 7, and 8.  While Internet Explorer remains one of the most popular web browsers, it is by no means the fastest when it comes to our standards at Pencil’em.  Version 6 was released on August 27, 2001 making it almost 8 years old.  Web browser technology has come a long way in the last eight years, and we highly recommend using one of the other browsers listed above.

If you have any questions about which browser your currently using, you can typically find your browser version by clicking “Help” from the main menu, and then selecting “About”.  We welcome any questions you might have about browsers in the comments!

Client Filter

Based on the incredible feedback we’ve received from our users, we’ve rolled out some new features we wanted you to know about.  The first of these new features you will find on the Clients Page.  As your client list grows it can get difficult to find a client your looking for.  This is why we’ve added the “Client Filter”, a great new way of filtering for a specific client.  The new client list looks like this:

New client filtering options

To perform a client filter, simply select from the drop down what you would like to filter on.  The options available are First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, and All.  After selecting how you would like to filter, start typing what you’re looking for in the client filter box.  The search results will appear below the client filter.  We believe this feature will make it much easier to work with your client list as it grows.

Service Lengths

Another highly requested feature was the ability to set a length for each service.  We’ve now added this feature and you can find it on the Add Service and Edit Service screens.  When adding a new service the screen now looks like this:

New Service Length Field

Note, if you have already added services to the system, you can edit these services to add a service length by clicking on the service, then clicking the ‘Edit Service” button.  Select a service length from the drop down menu and click “Save Changes”.   The system will now take these service lengths into consideration when creating appointments via the scheduling screen.  Also, when viewing the daily schedule on the main scheduling screen you can see how long a particular service is, so you know when your next available appointment is.  The new screen looks like this:

New appointment length info

Notice under the appointment time, you can see the service length.  In the above case, we have an appointment at 5:00 pm that is 1 hour.  We know then we can’t schedule an appointment until 6 pm or the system will let you know there is a booking conflict.  You can still override these conflicts by clicking “Go ahead” on the conflict alert box.  Also, you should know that service lengths are not a required field.  If you do not input a service length the system will use your “Default Appointment Length” found on the settings page.

We have also pushed out a few new changes to the Pencil’em Mobile platform including improved booking conflicts notification based on service lengths.

We hope you enjoy these new features and they allow you to more easily work with your appointments and clients.  As always, your feedback is appreciated!

Once again we would like to thank our users for their input as these next new features are a direct result of their feedback.  Today we rolled out Client Quickview & Notes, a feature that allows you to take specific notes related to a client, and then utilize these notes from the main scheduling screen.  The idea here is that you can enter notes about a client, something you might want to know for their next appointment, or all upcoming appointment, and then easily see these notes from the main scheduling screen.

To get started using this feature, navigate yourself to the “Clients” page.  Click on a client from your client list.  You will now notice a new button called “notes”.

New client notes button.

Click this button and you will see a popup where you will be able to enter in your client notes.  These notes are just for yourself, so feel free to put anything here you need to keep track of your clients and their preferences.  Other ways to use this field could be to keep color formulas, preferences, etc..

Enter your client notes here.

Click “Save Notes” and you will get a “Saved” confirmation.  You have now saved your note and can click “Close” to close this window.  Now that you are taking notes about your clients, your going to need an easy way to view this information.  This is where “Client Quickview” can help you.  Navigate yourself back to the main Scheduling screen.  Select a day from the date picker that you know has a client that you have taken notes for.  Notice now on the right hand side of the screen, there are little contact book icons next to each booked appointment.

New Client Quickview icons let you see your client info.

Clicking this icon will launch the “Client Quickview” dialog box.  This is going to give you all phone numbers on file for the client, as well as any notes you may have taken about your client.  Check these before each appointment to give yourself a reminder about each client and their past appointments.

The new Client Quickview window give you info about your clients appointment.

We hope you enjoy these new features.

Enjoy!

We’ve recently received a lot of requests for storing more than one phone number for your clients.  We agreed and our techs have been hard at work to bring you this feature!  Once you’re logged into the Pencil’em application, click on the Clients Button, then select the Add New Client tab.  There are now three fields for phone numbers, the Main Phone, Cell Phone and Work Phone.

New Phone Number options for clients

Now that you’ve added those new phone numbers, let us show you where you can view them later.  From the clients screen, simply click the “Client List / Appt. Log” tab, then click on a client from your client list.  There information will appear on the right hand side of the screen.  Each field is not denoted with an icon, to make it easy to tell what your looking at.  Notice, next to the main phone number there is an option to “Show All”.  Clicking this button will reveal secondary phone numbers (cell and work) below the main phone number.  It looks something like this:

Showing multiple phone numbers for one client.

That’s all there is to it!  We’ve got a lot of exciting new features coming in the next week or so for helping you better manage your clients, so stay tuned!  As always, if you have any questions or comments please send them to support@pencilem.com.

Thanks!