tag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:/discussions/suggestions/236-add-project-description-field-notesCashboard: Discussion 2014-04-24T03:10:43Ztag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283445172013-08-20T10:13:10Z2013-08-20T10:13:10ZAdd Project Description field + notes<div><p>I created a new project, and added a list and a task.</p>
<p>I'd like the ability to have a "Description" field for a project
as well as further notes I can make that discuss the PROJECT rather
than individual tasks and activities, which are often too
low-level.</p>
<p>Without the ability to describe project-level details, lots of
the lower-level things can appear out-of-context.</p></div>David Schwartztag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283445172013-08-20T18:05:40Z2013-08-20T18:05:40ZAdd Project Description field + notes<div><p>I've been thinking of adding something like this for awhile, but
I kind of feel like simply having a large textarea on the "project
options / edit" screen would not serve this purpose.</p>
<p>What specifically would you be using this box for? Discussion
with others? Would you expect it to carry over to any invoice
notes? PO numbers?</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback,</p>
<ul>
<li>Seth</li>
</ul></div>Seth Btag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283445172013-08-20T18:55:28Z2013-08-20T18:55:28ZAdd Project Description field + notes<div><p>I haven't used the site in quite a while. I've recently been
unburdened by the limitations of a J.O.B., so I find myself
returning to a role of generating my own business.</p>
<p>It looks like lots of nice features have been added.</p>
<p>I got a couple of projects this weekend that are somewhat
prospective in nature … I need to track my time for now as
things will hopefully evolve into something more.</p>
<p>There's lots of brainstorming going on, along with prototyping
and examining different options. I realize some people like to have
everythign nailed down really nicely in terms of tasks and
deliverables and whatnot, but in this case, I'm coming on more as
an advisor, partner, and developer all in one. So it's up to me to
evaluate things and propose some of the solutions that will
eventually turn into something more concrete. In the mean time, I'd
like to capture notes about what I'm dealing with.</p>
<p>What struck me about the present setup is that there's no way
for me to make notes on a PROJECT. (These are my own notes, not for
clients.)</p>
<p>You can sit down and brainstorm for a while, and decide to go in
a specific direction. So you define some tasks and head out. But
without project-level notes, there's no context for the tasks.</p>
<p>After a while, you hit some bumps or run into a brick wall with
something and you need to stop and reevaluate things.</p>
<p>A notion of "tasks" imples you're heading in some direction.
There's no record of why you may have stopped, what took place
after that, and what you decided to do afterwards.</p>
<p>You could define tasks like "planning-1", "planning-2", or
whatever. But it doesn't model things very well all the time.</p>
<p>Sometimes you'll hit a wall and the client will put things on
hold for a few months. Coming back to the notes here that are just
on "tasks" may not give you enough of a "big picture" to refresh
your memory.</p>
<p>So I'm thinking that having a way to post notes at the PROJECT
level and edit them, sort of like a discussion thread, would be
really helpful. Notes on meetings, phone discussions, copies of
emails, photos of things, sketches, etc.</p>
<p>The alternative is keeping notes on paper, or in a Word doc,
whatever … but somewhere else. I'd like to have them all in
one place.</p>
<p>As an aside, the ability to upload docs and files and stuff
would be really nice, too -- but how about putting them into
Dropbox or another cloud-based service, and simply point to them?
(Use the Dropbox API to integrate it.)</p>
<p>So … some kind of discussion thread mechanism at the
PROJECT level that's for private use that allows attachments to be
added that are stored on your own account in a cloud-based service
like Dropbox. Include a line with hashtags that can be added and
searched independently within a project: "meeting notes", "phone
discussion", "brainstorming", "prototype code", "demo
presentation", etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for listening.</p>
<p>-David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz</p></div>David Schwartztag:help.cashboardapp.com,2012-10-23:Comment/283445172013-08-20T20:39:51Z2013-08-20T20:43:13ZAdd Project Description field + notes<div><blockquote>
<p>A notion of "tasks" imples you're heading in some direction.
There's no record of why you may have stopped, what took place
after that, and what you decided to do afterwards.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You might have missed the original release of the "bulletin
board" feature, but originally I was calling them "items". You can
actually comment on them, and use the "complete / close" function
as archive.</p>
<p>What I'd do is set up a "list" called "project planning", and
just use the items in that list as discussions / messages. I myself
do this.</p>
<p>Maybe try to give that a shot and see how it goes? I understand
there is a mental barrier when we call them "tasks", but originally
they were set out to be discussion threads as well. I think that
adding file uploads / images inline would probably help support
this workflow.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As an aside, the ability to upload docs and files and stuff
would be really nice, too -- but how about putting them into
Dropbox or another cloud-based service, and simply point to them?
(Use the Dropbox API to integrate it.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but have held off until
I can properly set aside enough time to implement file uploads on
estimates and expenses as well. It's a "big picture" thing I'd like
to add, eventually.</p>
<p>All of this stuff is on my mind, as I too seem to use a combo of
Cashboard / Evernote / Dropbox for all of my work. I've got a full
workload of things I'm doing with the app at the moment, but all of
these are under consideration.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback as always & good luck with your new
projects!</p></div>Seth B