We have rolled out 2 new widgets this morning which allow you to see a real-time graph on your revenue and costs in the current calendar month and also your Private Hire quotes and jobs accepted year to date.
We have also built the outstanding defects sheets widget.
Hope you find these useful. If you have any suggestions as to other widgets that you would like to see developed – let us know.
Regards
Mike
We have launched a number of customer focus items this morning.
We have now rolled out 11 of the 47 ideas that customers have requested in the first 21 days of January.
We will now be working our way through the remainder of the customer ideas – so keep them coming as we would hate to run out of ideas and have nothing to do 
Regards
Mike
After improvements to our main site (www.travel-manager.co.uk) last month, we have started to look at improving the design and navigation of the application itself. We are currently prototyping the menu bar and dashboard section of TravelManager and here is a sneak preview of what it will look like in the next version.
This new design is a stepping stone to a more featured and customisable interface where you can move items around the dashboard and / or remove / add new widgets as and when you wish. This design is due to be implemented in January and the customisable version sometime in February.
Regards
Mike
The financial module as described yesterday has now been rolled out to live, so you should start to see your graphs take shape 
Keep an eye out for more graphical reports over the coming weeks.
Regards
Mike
We have been working on the financial module, which will enable you to monitor your revenue and costs and keep an eye on cashflow etc.. You will also be able to see which at a glance where you money is going and how much you are spending on specific areas of the business.
Here is a sneak preview of the types of reports we are building (click on the image to zoom in).
You will be able to see revenue from private hire, tours, garage work and costs associated with wages and vehicle maintenance.
You will be able to see a running profit / loss number as well as cashflow analysis with 2 clicks of the mouse (we couldn’t get it to 1 click as you need to choose the financial period that you are interested in but we couldn’t have made it easier to use)
Regards
Mike
The 3rd item on the “Customer Ideas” list – Quick Entry of a private hire job without having to raise a quote has now been implemented. It can be found under the “Customer -> Quick Entry (Private Hire)” section on the menu bar.
To use this functionality you only need to enter in the customers name, the job details and enter the price. If you want the system to suggest a price based on your usual private hire quotation variables then you need to click on the “Suggested” button next to the price which will then use your variables and create the suggested price which you can then enter in.
Once the job has been entered, you get access to all of the usual documentation (quote, invoice and confirmation letters) and it auto enters into the calendar for you. So same functionality just a lot quicker to use
Regards
Mike
We have now implemented the first graphical report on the Private Hire quoting module. Yu can choose the date range and it will show you in pie chart format how many quotes you actually created, how many were accepted and how many were declined.
This is the first of many reports which we will be implementing with full graphing properties. If you have any preference with regard to which order we implement these reports then do let us know and we will get them delivered as fast as possible.
Regards
Mike
We have now rolled a number of new pieces of functionality as requested by you the subscribers and voted on by the community.
The top two items from the customer ideas list have now been implemented. These are:
We will be making a few cosmetic changes to the email tool over the next couple of days to make the interface on notes cleanter – but we thought you should get access to the tool now rather than wait 
Remember, when you send an email via this interface it will be logged into “notes” on the customers account and you will be able to search on those notes from the main menu search bar at anytime in the future. So if you send a number of emails to different customers about a specific piece of information then you will be able to see who you sent it to and when.
eg. Send John, David & Emily and email about your new Private Hire pricing structure in January and you forget who you sent it to in August, then do a simple search for Private Hire on the notes section and you will get those 3 accounts listed. Simple.
On the employee holidays section – you can choose the start date for when holidays are counted “from / to” from within the Account Details section. So if you choose your businesses holiday accounting period to start from the 1st April each year – then employees will automatically be given their holiday entitlement on this date each year. ie. Enter the information in once and it will do it forever thereafter.
We will now be working our way through the remainder of the customer ideas – so keep them coming we would hate to run out of ideas and have nothing to do
Regards
Mike
We have recently had a number of smaller operators think that TravelManager is for the larger operators. We have operators of all sizes using the solution, but thought we ought to do something for the smaller businesses who are just starting out or are in the initial stages of the growth cycle.
So effective immediately, TravelManager is available for FREE to all private hire / chauffeur businesses wishing to only have 1 user account and up to 3 vehicles / 3 drivers within the system. You can still have unlimited number of customers, quotes and invoices generated within TravelManager for FREE and we belive this will be a useful service for you guys.
Remember, you can still take advantage of the FREE online training – so what have you got to loose
Why are we doing this? How can we afford to give it away for FREE?
I remember, when I was first starting out in the Private Hire minibus business in the 80′s and wish I had a solution like this to help me manage my time and resource. Its just our way of giving something back – plus its good for business. If we help you grow your business and you continue to grow them hopefully you will be in a position where you purchase a subscription to TravelManager in a year or two’s time.
Its as simple as – “We think whats good for you is good for us!”
A full list of our service can be found at:-
http://www.travel-manager.co.uk/services.html
Regards
Mike
We would like to thank all of our subscribers for the help and assistance that they have played in making TravelManager the success that it has been in 2007. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
We relish your feedback (both good and bad) and look forward to implementing your ideas and suggestions. Its what makes us get out of bed in the morning
2007 has been a truly great year for us. Not only did over 400 of you vote with your feet and signup to the service during the year but you provided us with over 45 ideas and suggestions and over 340 votes for your favourite ideas to be implemented. Its this collaborative approach to building better software that really gets us excited about the possibilities for all of this.
So, what does 2008 promise to bring?
We believe 2008 will be even more important for us because its when we will start to implement your latest ideas and also bring additional partners and suppliers into the platform to enhance the experience for you and your business.
The ideas from you so far include:-
We will also be working with a GPS tracking vendor to integrate their capability into TravelManager, so you can track your vehicles in real time and use the information collected with that already inTravelManager to get a greater level of understanding on how your business is operating.
We will also be working with other innovative vendors to bring together functionality that has so far been prohibitively expensive for most operators to afford – such as integration with some of the most advanced ticket machines available on the market today.
We will also be increasing our support coverage and will be offering more free online training sessions on how to get the most out of the software and the Internet in general. So if you want to know more about how to successfully compete online talk to us.
We will also be working on additional functionality to assist in the new drivers CPC rules coming into affect in 2008.
We truly believe that the Internet is the future for private hire, bus and coach software – and we guarantee to be at the forefront of this development – bringing you the best possible solutions at the best posible prices.
As I said – 2008 looks to be an very exciting year
Thanks for your continued support and have a great new Year!
Regards
Mike