tag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:/discussions/questions/757-why-remove-import-itemsCashboard: Discussion 2016-08-12T01:58:24Ztag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-08-19T22:47:34Z2013-08-19T22:47:34ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Hi!<br>
One of the the new summer updates that was implemented was removing
'IMPORT ITEMS'. The 'DUPLICATE' feature is nice, but I think you
still need the 'IMPORT ITEMS' feature.</p>
<p>I used the 'IMPORT ITEMS' feature almost every time I created a
new estimate. I was able to pull items from many different
estimates into my new estimate. For example, I may pull website
development items from one estimate, graphic design elements from a
second estimate, and social media elements from a third estimate.
This is no longer possible... I am now spending double the time to
create an estimate that used to be VERY easy to create.</p>
<p>Is it possible to offer both 'IMPORT ITEMS' and 'DUPLICATE'?
This would make my life so much easier. This update was definitely
a step backwards for me.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>~Felicia</p></div>Felicia Montoyatag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-08-20T00:57:34Z2013-08-20T00:57:34ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Hi Felicia, I apologize this is causing you undue work. This has
been live for almost a month now, and you are only the second
person to bring it up as an issue.</p>
<p><strong>Why the feature was removed</strong></p>
<p>I made a decision to remove "import items" because the
differences between the two features were so small that most of our
customers would not miss it.</p>
<p>It's a personal design goal of mine to keep Cashboard as lean
and usable as possible for the majority of our customer base. Every
decision to add, remove, or abstain from adding a feature comes
from this mindset.</p>
<p>Keeping the design pure, and attempting to reduce the number of
options inside the program is not always an enviable task, but
someone has to police things from becoming bloated.</p>
<p><a href=
"http://cashboardapp.com/news/2013/07/20/minor-summer-updates/">I
outlined this change on our blog</a> when it happened, but perhaps
you missed it.</p>
<p><strong>Workarounds</strong></p>
<p>Instead of importing multiple items from other invoices, what
you can do is make use of our "auto-complete" feature. Simply start
typing in the title of an item, and Cashboard will present you with
a list of previously created items across <em>all</em> estimates in
the system with similar titles. You can select one, and it'll fill
out the details for you, using the last one created.</p>
<p>This should speed up your workflow tremendously.</p>
<p>Thanks for understanding,</p>
<ul>
<li>Seth</li>
</ul>
<p>PS: Do you mind if I make this discussion public so other's with
similar viewpoints can read and chime in?</p></div>Seth Btag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-08-20T03:46:01Z2013-08-20T03:46:01ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Hi Seth,<br>
Yes, I already use the Auto-complete feature. It is very handy. The
reason<br>
I liked the import items feature is because I could add estimates
with<br>
multiple task items all in one step. I understand and appreciate
you trying<br>
to make Cashboard more efficient. If I am really the minority on
this, then<br>
I understand your decision.</p>
<p>I don't mind if you make this discussion public, especially if
other people<br>
can chime in. I'm curious if any others care for this feature.</p>
<p>Thanks for the fast response.</p>
<p>Felicia</p>
<p>On Monday, August 19, 2013, Seth Banks wrote:</p></div>Felicia Montoyatag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-08-20T03:48:00Z2013-08-20T03:48:00ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Cool, thanks for understanding.</p>
<p>Just made it public so hopefully some other people will lend
their opinions to the matter over time.</p></div>Seth Btag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-08-28T16:39:43Z2013-08-28T16:39:43ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Any chance this will come back in the future? I'm in the same
boat as Felicia and was very disappointed to see that this
feature's been pruned.</p>
<p>For simple projects it's easy enough to enter the tasks by hand
with help from auto-complete. But for more substantial development
I import tasks from one or more of these predefined projects
depending on the client's needs:</p>
<p>TEMPLATE - [1] CONFIGURE WEB HOST<br>
TEMPLATE - [2] WEBSITE REMEDIATION<br>
TEMPLATE - [3] INSTALL & CONFIGURE WORDPRESS<br>
TEMPLATE - [4] INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE<br>
TEMPLATE - [5] VISUAL DESIGN<br>
TEMPLATE - [6] CREATE CUSTOM WORDPRESS THEME<br>
TEMPLATE - [7] WORDPRESS THEME OPTIONAL COMPONENTS<br>
TEMPLATE - [8] LAUNCH SITE<br>
TEMPLATE - [9] ONGOING SUPPORT</p>
<p>Unfortunately, losing this ability adds drudgery into what had
been a beautiful workflow.</p>
<p>After developing and managing lots of commercial software
projects in the past, I definitely appreciate the need to
streamline features, and "good of the many vs. good of the few".
But for me at least... ouch.</p></div>Andy Gieslertag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-09-08T02:00:23Z2013-09-08T02:00:23ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>I've reversed course on this, as I've had too much feedback
saying it negatively affects your workflow.</p>
<p>Sorry for the disruption, and hopefully you appreciate that we
actually listen to, and value your feedback.</p>
<p>Thanks again for your business everyone.</p></div>Seth Btag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-09-08T21:09:19Z2013-09-08T21:09:19ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Excellent! Thank you.</p>
<p>It's very deeply appreciated, especially since I know it means
more work for you over the long haul to maintain it.</p>
<p>I'm so glad to see this feature back again. Importing from
previous projects was actually one of the things that sold me on
CashBoard originally.</p></div>Andy Gieslertag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283382012013-09-09T02:33:25Z2013-09-09T02:33:25ZWhy Remove 'IMPORT ITEMS' ?<div><p>Yay! Thank you!</p>
<p>This will make my life a lot easier.</p></div>Felicia Montoya