In this update we have upgraded the menu collapse feature!

The main navigation menu on the left of your platform can already be collapsed, which gives you much more room to work from and can be especially helpful on pages like the Course Calendar!

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With this update, the collapsed menu no longer includes menu labels. This means it is more compact than before and gives you access to more menu options at once!

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However, when you hover over it, it will automatically expand to give you full visibility of each menu option’s label.

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Whether you use a small monitor, zooming options, or you just like to see as much content as possible on your screen, this update is a big help to give you more space in your platform to view and work from!

To tidy your main navigation menu further, the ‘Switching’ menu options have been relocated to the ‘Profile’ options at the top of your platform.

• To switch into the ‘Portal Mode’ to view the platform as an individual/Delegate, the ‘Switch to Portal Mode’ option will now be available from the ‘Profile’ option at the very top-right of your platform.

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• If you still have a ‘Switch to Legacy System’ option available in your platform, this will also now be available from the ‘Profile’ options.

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Relocating these options away from the Main Navigation Menu keeps them easily accessible but out of your way, so you can focus on what matters most!

Prior to this update, the time zone for your Courses was always defined per Training Provider. This meant that if you wanted to schedule Courses across multiple time zones, you would need to create a new Training Provider for each zone.

While you will still be able to set your ‘default’ time zone per Training Provider, you will now also be able to override this per Course!

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New ‘Time Zone’ option available when adding and editing Courses

This means that you can define your Training Provider as operating in ‘(UTC) Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London’ (for example), then apply an alternative time zone to any Course that is running in a different time zone, e.g. '(UTC+02:00) Athens, Bucharest'.

‘Time Zone’ is also available as a Bulk Edit option from your Courses DataGrid, meaning you can update the allocated Time Zone to Courses in bulk!

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Bulk Editing the Time Zone on multiple Courses in the Class Courses DataGrid

How does it work?

• If your Course has an allocated Time Zone, this will be used in your basket and in any communications where you have included Time Zone.

• If your Course does not have an allocated Time Zone, then it will be assumed that the Course is running in your default Time Zone, set against your Training Provider.

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Time Zone option available when editing a Training Provider Account

We have made Time Zones visible in more places across your platform! You can now include and view the Time Zone for each Course in the:

• Learner Portal

• Course Calendar

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• Columns in all DataGrids that include Course Start & End Dates; including the Courses DataGrids, Delegates DataGrids, and Resource Course DataGrids

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  There are four additional columns that you can include in your DataGrids to view Time Zone information for your Courses:

  • Time Zone: The ID of the Time Zone allocated to the Course (this will be blank if the Course has not had an override Time Zone allocated to it)

  • Time Zone Description: The label of the Time Zone allocated to the Course (this will be blank if the Course has not had an override Time Zone allocated to it)

  • Training Provider Time Zone: The ID of the Time Zone allocated to the Course’s Trainer Provider

  • Training Provider Time Zone Description: The label of the Time Zone allocated to the Course’s Trainer Provider

Please note, prior to this release there was already support for including Time Zone within the Shopping Basket and Checkout:

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This enhancement ensures that everyone is on the same page, no matter where they are. Whether you are scheduling a Course, managing Delegates, or processing bookings, you’ll have all the time zone information available!

You can now subscribe to a Trainer or Venue calendar within your Outlook or Google Calendar. This subscription automatically updates to reflect any changes or additions to the scheduled Courses for that Resource.

To make a Resource’s calendar available in your Outlook or Google Calendars, follow these steps:

1. Open the Resources Manage DataGrid from the main navigation menu

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2. Find the Resource you would like to generate an Internet Calendar for by applying filters and/or searching the DataGrid

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3. Click ‘Edit’ from the Resource’s Context Menu Options

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4. Open the ‘Internet Calendar’ tab from the Resource Management Menu

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5. Select the month range from this Resource’s calendar that you include in your Outlook/Google Calendar

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6. Click the ‘Copy the internet calendar url to clipboard’ option

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7. If you are adding this calendar into Outlook:

   1. Click to add a new Calendar ‘From Internet…’

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   2. Paste in the calendar URL into your calendar subscription pop-up window and click OK

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   3. The calendar will now be added into your list of calendars

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   4. To rename the calendar, right-click on it and select the ‘Rename Calendar’ option

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8. If you are adding this calendar into Google Calendar:

   1. Click to add a new Calendar via URL

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   2. Paste in the calendar URL into your calendar subscription pop-up window and click ‘Add calendar’

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   3. The calendar will now be added into your list of ‘Other calendars’

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Benefits:

• Automatic Updates
  Unlike downloaded iCals, the calendar link will stay synced with any changes to Course schedules, such as new Courses or updates.
  Please note: While accessplanit sends updates instantly, Outlook and Google may take up to 24 hours to reflect these changes.

• Multi-Calendar Subscription
  Easily subscribe to multiple calendars. For example, as an admin, you can consolidate all your trainers' individual calendars into one view for a comprehensive overview.

• Time Zone Accuracy
  The integration supports time zones, ensuring your calendar remains accurate no matter where you're based.

• Mobile Access
  The calendar syncs to your mobile device, so you can always access and manage your Resource schedule on the go.

We have enhanced the security of your Course information by removing all references to your Course costs from your Trainer's 'My Teaching' view of your platform.

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My Teaching menu options

This update keeps cost details private, ensuring that only administrators have access to this information (unless you have chosen to include it on your website).

From your Resources DataGrid, you can now directly access each Resource’s ‘Courses’ and ‘Communications’ via their context menu options.

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Right-click context menu options in the Resources DataGrid

The 'Courses' page for your Resources is an especially handy page, listing each scheduled Course that the Resource is allocated to!

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The ‘Courses’ page available for each Resource

You are now able to manage Tasks against many more areas of your platform!

Here are the new areas that you can generate Tasks against:

• Placeholders

• Products & Services

• Bookings

• Trainer Confirmations

• Notes

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Adding a Task to a Product & Service

Whether you need to set a to-do for your colleague to order more stock for a Product & Service, or you need a task to follow up with a customer about their outstanding places on a Placeholder, these new options mean you can link everything together and not lose sight of important jobs!

There are two settings in place for defining who a Task is ‘Assigned to'. Firstly, there is the ‘Account’, and then the 'Users’ who will complete the Task.

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'Assigned To' options when creating a Task

Our statistics show that the vast majority (nearly all!) of Tasks are assigned to the same Account that the Task creator is assigned to. For example, if Tom’s Account is ‘Training Team’ and he creates a task for Kerry, it is very likely that the ‘Account’ for the Task will be ‘Training Team’.

Therefore, to speed up the process of creating new Tasks, the 'Assigned To Account' will now automatically be populated with your Main Account.

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You can now attach Files to Tasks! This means that you can ensure all relevant documents relating to your to-dos and activities are easily available in one place, for yourself and your team members.

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A ‘Confirmation Email’ File assigned to an ‘Order more stock’ Task

Whether it's a report, a confirmation email, a contract, or any important file, attach it to your Task to give your team visibility of it via the new ‘Files’ option.

When editing Tasks, you’ll now use a full form instead of a pop-up window. This change provides easier access to essential supporting information for your Tasks via a new management menu on the left!

From this menu you can access a Task's:

• Notes

• Files

• Audit Logs

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Editing a Task in the new form

Having all of this information available all in one comprehensive view, makes Task management much more efficient and organised!

From your platform DataGrids, you can now create Tasks for multiple items at once, saving you the hassle of adding them individually!

For example, if you have several Courses that all have the same Task required, you can select these Courses and set the Task once for it to be applied to all of them.

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Bulk 'Add Tasks' option in the Class Courses DataGrid

This reduces admin work, saves time, and helps to keep your Task lists up to date!

This new option is available from the mass actions at the top left of your DataGrid. Make sure you have selected the right items first, click the new ‘Add Tasks’ option and complete the form as you would usually!

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Adding a Task to two Courses

You will see each of the items that this Task will be created for listed within the ‘Sources’ on the page!

Finally, to ensure nothing slips through the cracks, overdue Tasks will now be highlighted with a badge on the Tasks Notifications icon.

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Options available at the top-right of the platform

This visual indicator makes it easy to spot and address Tasks that have a due date in the past.

Clicking this option will provide you with a list of your overdue Tasks, where you can then open them to view more information and update their progress and status.

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Viewing an overdue Task

The badge will automatically refresh when you reload your platform, keeping you up-to-date with your Task management and helping you stay on top of your actions!

Notes are an excellent way to keep your team informed and track updates.

For each Note you and your team create, you can now add in an optional Subject line to summarise the Note!

Note Subjects should give you a quick preview of the Note's content, and you can include it within your Notes DataGrid to make searching, navigating your notes, and viewing an overview of updates even easier!

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Adding a Subject to a Note

You are now able to manage Notes against more areas of your platform!

Here are the new areas that you can record Notes against:

• Products & Services

• Bookings

• Tasks

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Adding a Note to a Booking

Whether you need to take note of a Booking update, or a reference number for a Product & Service, these new options mean you can link everything together and not lose sight of important information!

When editing Notes, you’ll now use a full form instead of a pop-up window. This change provides easier access to any related Tasks assigned to this Note.

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From your platform DataGrids you can now create Notes for multiple items at once, saving you the hassle of adding them individually!

For example, if you need to add a Note to several Users, you can select them all from your Users DataGrid and add your Note in one go. Each user will have their own individual note created automatically.

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Bulk 'Add Notes' option in the Users DataGrid

This reduces admin work, saves time, and helps to keep your Notes and information in order!

This new option is available from the mass actions at the top left of your DataGrids. Make sure you have selected the right items first, click the new ‘Add Notes’ option and complete the form as you would usually.

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Adding a Note to three Users

You will see each of the items that this Note will be created for listed within the ‘Sources’ on the page!

You can now limit the number of Discounts that your customers can apply within your Checkout Basket!

To apply a maximum, Super Administrators can now access new option called ‘Maximum Discounts per Booking’ in the Checkout Options page.

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The ‘Maximum Discounts’ option available in the Checkout Options page

How does it work?

When your customers are making a Booking, they will not be able to stack discounts above the maximum number you have set. For example, if you have set the maximum discounts per booking to '1', then each booking that is processed through your Checkout basket will only allow one Discount to be applied.

It is possible for your customers to swap the Discounts that are allocated to their Checkout basket. For example, if you have a limit of 1 Discount and a customer already has a £30 discount in place but they provide a new Discount Code which would provide them with a £40 discount, then the new Discount would be applied to their booking and their previous discount would be removed.

Discounts that provide the best price for your customer will always be prioritised.

As another example, if you have a limit of 2 Discounts per booking, and a customer meets the criteria for 3 automatic discounts:

• Early Bird Discount: £10 off

• Previous Booking Discount: £7.50 off

• Winter Sale: £10 off

This customer would have the 2 highest value Discounts applied to their booking (Early Bird & Winter Sale) giving them a discount of £20.

You now have the option to hide references to costs in your Checkout Basket!

With this option, there will be no reference to making payments or item costs in any Checkout Basket where all the items have a value of zero/0.00.

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A Checkout Basket with references to cost and payment removed

This means no confusion or clutter for bookings where there is no requirement for payment.

To remove references to costs and payments for your free Checkout Baskets, Super Administrators can now access new option called ‘Hide Costs and Payment Options for free Courses’ in the Checkout Options page.

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The ‘Hide Costs’ option available in the Checkout Options page

When you create a booking through an Opportunity, the assigned quantity of places from the Opportunity’s Items will automatically be applied to the Qty/Places of these items in the Basket!

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Checkout Basket with a quantity of 5 for an item

Once your customer has passed the login step of the Basket, if the customer is a manager, they can adjust the quantity to completing the booking. For individual customers, the quantity will be automatically set to ‘1’.

This update to Opportunity Item Booking Links speeds up the booking process, and reduces the chance of human error!

We’ve improved the Checkout basket to make Placeholder bookings clearer and more user-friendly!

If you or your customers haven’t selected Delegates while booking, new instructional text will appear: “Leave blank to book unassigned places and provide Delegate names later”. This text not only highlights what will happen if Delegates are not selected, it also provide customers with the knowledge that they can book unassigned places if they prefer!

For customers that don’t know the names of the people they will be sending on the Course yet, this change reduces the chance of them dropping out of the basket process.

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New message in Checkout to explain how to book unassigned places

Additionally, if your customers attempt to proceed through the basket without assigning Delegates, a helpful warning message will appear, now with the option to stay on the page, allowing them to correct their booking before moving forward.

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Information Prompt in Checkout for customers who haven’t selected Delegates.

There have been several changes made within the Checkout basket in this update to better support all Users making Course bookings!

• When using a screen reader, values such as ‘Unit Price’, ‘Quantity’, and ‘Total’ will now be read with descriptive labels (e.g., “Quantity 3” instead of “3”) to provide more context.

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• We’ve improved the reading order in the basket for screen reader users. As they navigate through each basket item, they will now follow this sequence:

  • Details of the basket item (include the name of the item)

  • “Qty/ Places” and the selected quantity

  • “Unit Price” and basket items unit price

  • “Total” and the basket items total value

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• When Discount button is focused on, it now features a bold, dark outline, offering better visibility and contrast for keyboard-only users, even when customised with branded buttons.

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• To reduce confusion for screen reader users, empty dropdown options have been updated to say “Please select an option,” which is now visible in the “Bill to” and “Country” dropdowns.

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• And finally, we’ve programmatically linked the ‘Select Delegate’ and ‘Select Booker’ options to their corresponding headers, making it easier for screen reader users to understand the page structure.

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Notes are an excellent way to keep your team informed and track updates to items throughout your platform.

Here are examples of the type of information you can store about Notes within Custom Fields:

• Escalation Flag
  Used to highlight that a Note must be reviewed by a senior member of the team

• Department / Team
  Used to categorise which team is responsible for the Note

• Status
  Used to identify if any more activity is needed (e.g. 'Open', 'Closed')

• External Reference
  Used to store links or IDs from other systems or websites relating to the Note content

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Custom Field examples on a Note

Tasks can be used to manage your personal and team to-dos. Tasks are mapped directly to your Courses, Delegates, Users, & Accounts so that you can manage them in one central platform, and see at a glance what you and your team still have left to complete before a Course begins or an Invoice is processed, for example.

Here are examples of the type of information you can store within Custom Fields about Task:

• Estimated Duration (hrs)
  Used to provide an idea for how long the Task would take to complete

• Completion Date
  Used to record the date the Task was completed on (vs the due date)

• Dependencies / Waiting For
  Used to outline what activity or tasks need to be completed before this Task

• Task Cost
  Used to record budget or cost elements for the Task’s completion

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‘Completion Date’ date Custom Field

Meetings are where you can keep a log of past and future, internal and external meetings.

Here are examples of the type of information you can store within Custom Fields about Meetings within your platform:

• Meeting Location
  Used to provide the virtual or physical location/address of the meeting

• Meeting Type
  Used to categorise meetings (e.g. ‘Formal’, ‘Catch-up’, ‘Internal’)

• Meeting Status
  Used to record the current status of the meeting (e.g. ‘Scheduled’, ‘Cancelled’, ‘Held’)

• Follow-up Date
  Used to record when tasks/actions from the meeting should be followed up

• Next Meeting Date
  Used to record when the next meeting will be held

• Meeting Rating
  Used to record satisfaction levels of the meeting

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Example Meeting Custom Fields

Files are any documents that you would like to upload for use and reference throughout your platform. Files are commonly used for Course information including Course documentation, maps, and terms and conditions. They can also be used to upload emails, letters, and confirmation details.

Here are examples of the type of information you can store within Custom Fields about Files within your platform:

• Expiry Date
  Used to record the date that the File must be updated by

• Approval Status
  Used to record whether the File has been signed off (e.g. ‘Pending’, ‘Approved’, ‘Rejected’)

• Confidentiality Level
  Used to record whether the file must be kept as an internal File only (e.g. ‘Internal Only', 'Public’)

• Department / Team
  Used to categorise which team is responsible for the File

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'Department Owner' drop-down Custom Field