I would like to start this post off by first putting to rest the rumors that Pencil’em is opening a bar.   It’s just not true.  We did however add “The Pencil’em Bar” as a new feature to our application interface.  The Pencil’em Bar was built to give you direct access to some cool new site features.  The Pencil’em Bar gives you access to quick info like the number of appointments you have on the selected day, and how much money you are expected to make on the selected day. From the main scheduling page, simply click on a date and you will now see how many appointments, and how much money you are supposed to make that day.  Next to these details you will find a link to the most current blog post.  This should make it very easy for you to see when new company blogs are released.

We’ve got a lot of things planned for the Pencil’em Bar in the future so keep your eyes open (and on the blog!).  Client self booking will be released soon, and The Pencil’em Bar will play a part in this new feature.  Below is a screen shot outlining some of the features of The Pencil’em Bar:

The Pencil'em Bar

This has been a long requested feature, and we are proud to announce that we have added this feature to all Pencil’em accounts.  There is good reason for the delay in rolling this feature out, and it is largely due in part to the way Pencil’em users create their services.  In talking with our users, we discovered that many of you didn’t want the service listed in the reminder emails, or wanted to be able to control which services would appear in the emails and which wouldn’t.  So we have now built this into the system and with a quick set up, you can select which services you would like to appear in your reminders and confirmation emails.

Add Services to reminder / confirmation emails

1. First, navigate to the “Services” page in the main menu.
2. Click on the first Service in your service list that you would like to make appear in the confirmation / reminder email
3. Click on the “Edit this Service” button and the Edit Service dialog form will appear.
4. You will notice there is now a new drop down menu labeled “Display in Emails?”, by default this will be set to No, so change it to “Yes”.
5. Click “Save Changes” on the dialog box to save the changes.
6. Repeat the above steps for each service you want to be made public (show up in confirmation / reminder emails).

The above steps are for services that have already been created.  If you are creating a new service, the process is the same, however you would just specify wether or not it should appear in the emails at the time of creation.

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Hello All!  We’ve got great news that all Pencil’em “Mobile” users should know about.  We’ve added a “Settings” screen that will enable you to customize how “your” Pencil’em Mobile works.  On this new “Settings” screen (which you can find in the main navigation bar), look for the “Start Page” setting.  This new feature will enable you to select which page Pencil’em Mobile loads whenever you  login.  In the past, the “Schedule” screen was loaded by default when you logged in and if you wanted to then see your daily schedule or Week-at-a-glance you would have to click into those screens.  Now, you can set the “Start Page” to which ever screen you use most often, saving yourself many clicks a day!  This new feature simply lets you have immediate access to the information you use most!   See the image below for more details about how to access the settings page:

The new settings page.

Also of note, we’ve moved the “Logout” button into the main header, opposite the logo, to make room for the Settings button.  We think these new changes make Pencil’em Mobile even more flexible and efficient.  As always, we appreciate your comments!

Editing Client Appointments

Editing appointments is extremely simple in Pencil’em Mobile.  Simply click on the “View Schedule” screen, where you will see a list of appointments for the current day.  You will now see a pencil icon next to the red x to the right hand side of each appointment.  Click this pencil icon and the “Edit Appointment” screen will open.  The details of the current appointment will be filled out for you, allowing you to change the neccessary details.  As you edit the current appointment, Pencil’em will always check to make sure that no conflicts have resulted with the new date, time or service.  See below for screenshots:

Pencil'em Mobile - Editing Appointments

Mobile Personal Appointments

We’ve now added the ability to create your personal appointments from the Pencil’em Mobile.  From the “Schedule” screen, simply click on the “Personal Appt.” link found in the secondary navigation bar. Fill out the form for the personal appointment and click “Schedule”.  All booking conflict rules apply, so you will see a booking conflict screen if the personal appointment conflicts with any other appointment.  Also, your personal appointments will show up in a red font on your “View Schedule” screen, as well as the “Week-at-a-glance” screen.  More details below:

Create personal appointments in Pencil'em Mobile!

Today we added the “Week-at-a-glance” feature to our Mobile Platform, Pencil’em Mobile.  This lets you see one full week of appointments on one screen.  To access this feature, simply click “View Schedule” and you will notice there is now a secondary navigation bar with the “Week-at-a-glance” button.  Click this button and the week at a glance will load, starting on today, and show you seven days out.  You can change the start day by selecting a different date from the form at the top of the week-at-a-glance and clicking “Go”.  See image below for more details:

Mobile "Week-at-a-glance"