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Audience
Team members and anyone that wants to update from the mobile phone
Description
Just because you are out of the office, does not mean you and your team can’t provide updates. Check out the latest mobile site and learn how to use all the functionality so your sponsors and project managers have the latest and greatest info.
Benefits
- Know how to provide updates from any smartphone or mobile device
- Learn how to enter time on the task, project or company level
Key Points
Transcript
The Project Insight application includes mobile functionality as a standard part of the software so that your team members may update tasks, issues and to-dos, enter time and expenses and more. They will have access to the information that is important to them, at any time and from anywhere right from their smart phone.
This reduces delays, phone calls and emails and improves accuracy and timeliness of information. It also encourages collaboration so you can keep up-to-date on what’s going on with your projects.
Set Up Your Mobile Interface
What you’re seeing now, is the mobile interface login. In this session, you’re seeing it on a web-browser window and not a real phone. So you may notice that some of the navigation and screens that you see in today’s session looks a little bit different than what you see on your phone, but all the Project Insight forms will be the same, just how you navigate through them, may be a little different depending on your phone.
To get to the mobile interface for Project Insight, all you need to do is enter the same URL or web address that you would enter on your computer.
For example, you can see the web address at the top.
That’s the same web address you would enter on your computer.
Once you enter that web address, Project Insight will detect automatically that you’re running it from a phone and it will switch to the mobile interface.
In some cases, however, there can be exceptions and Project Insight may not be able to detect that you’re running it from a phone.
In that circumstance, you can force the URL to go to the mobile interface by adding a backslash and ‘m’ (/m) to the web address.
You can see, if you click in the URL, there is a slash M that’s been automatically appended to the URL to switch you to the mobile interface. You can enter that slash M yourself, if for some reason it doesn’t automatically switch.
/M is an industry standard way to access mobile versions of an application.
You will also see in a few minutes how to switch back and forth very easily between the full software application and the mobile instance, without having to change the URL.
For now though, you are going to see how you can add an icon to your mobile phone for easy access.
Add an Icon
To add a Project Insight icon, most mobile devices will simply allow you to grab it the link from the URL by clicking on the Project Insight icon in the URL and drop it or paste it on the desktop on your phone.
If you do that, it will put the Project Insight logo right on the shortcut and then you can launch it, just by clicking on it.
That’s how you can access Project Insight from your phone, now go ahead and login.
Enter your username.
Enter your password.
Touch the Login.
View your Tasks, Issues, To-dos
The mobile interface has a few different things on it, including your work list, tasks, issues and to-dos.
The work list is a consolidated list of all the items in Project Insight that are assigned to you. This could include tasks, issues and to-dos as well as approval requests, custom items, project requests and workflows.
You can click on Work List, to see a consolidated list of everything assigned to you. Or you can click on tasks, to see only the tasks assigned to you. Click on issues to just see issues or click on to-dos to just see those.
The red number indicates how many of the items there are in that particular section based on your current filter settings. You’ll see how to configure and changes those filters later in this session.
You may also enter time and expenses, view your directory of Project Insight users and of course, log off.
The mobile interface is designed for team members and the activities that they need to do such as entering time, updating a task status and collaborating.
To do that, touch Tasks.
You’ll see the tasks assigned to you.
The interface was designed to make it easy to touch options and navigate on your smartphone.
Go ahead and touch the box for a task.
You’ll see the task details, including the task name, the project name, the dates, hours and status. You’ll also see standard functions that you can do for a task.
Provide Updated on Percentage Complete and Actual Start and End Dates
One of the most common functions you’ll do is mark a task as completed.
To do that, touch on Mark Complete.
The task will be set as completed and it will be removed from your list of Tasks.
Now you can see that the task has been removed from the list. That’s because it’s completed and you no longer have any work to do on that task.
Touch on the next Task on the list.
Now instead of just marking a task complete, you can update the in progress status. This lets the project manager and others know on how far along the task is.
To do that, touch on the Update Status.
If this task was completed, you could still touch on the Mark Complete option from here as well, but if you’re still working on it, you want to update the Work Status.
Touch on the Work Status box. Select the status that most closely represents how far along the work is.
Now you may enter a Comment. Touch on the Comment box and record the details about the task.
For example, type in Work ‘progressing on schedule.’
This lets the project managers and others know more details about what’s going on.
If that’s all the detail you needed to enter, you could touch on Save now.
However, there is other data you can enter.
Touch on the Advanced box to expand out that section.
You can then enter in details such as the Actual Start Date and the Actual End Date.
If you’re a project manager on this project, you will see other options such as 100% Complete Status Approved and Re-calculate Based on Actual. Touch on those boxes to turn those options on. If you’re a resource on a project and not a project manager then you won’t see some of the options.
Go ahead and touch Save.
The task detail is shown again.
Enter Time
Now the next thing you want to do is add a time entry.
To do that, touch on Add Time Entry.
The date of the time entry defaults to the current date.
Type in a different date or click on the calendar icon to choose a date from the calendar.
For now, just leave the default date so click anywhere on the white space to close the calendar.
Touch on the Time Code box to change the time code from the default.
For example, change it to Programming by touching on that.
Now touch on the Actual Hours and enter in the number of hours you worked on this task.
Touch on Description, to enter more details about the time entry.
The Description is different than the Comments that you entered on the Update Status form. Comments get recorded against a task, while the description gets recorded against the time entry.
Enter a description such as Updated documentation.
You may also see an Is Billable option, this setting will show depending on the settings for this project. This will depend on your permission settings. Touch on the Is Billable option to toggle it on or off depending on the situation.
Now touch on Save.
That information is saved. Now you can see on the task detail, the number of actual hours entered.
On the mobile interface, you don’t see the full details for the task, for example you don’t see all of the individual time entries, you just see the total.
If you need to see all the details, you could switch to the full site and see it from there. You could do that from your computer, but you could also do it directly from your phone, iPad or tablet.
Toggle back to the classic application
Scroll down to the bottom right hand corner of the form.
Touch on Full Site.
You can see the full site for the corresponding page, the Task Detail displays.
Now, because it’s displayed on a smaller screen on your smart phone, you may have to scroll around a bit to see all the detail, but you can see it and update it, if you needed to.
Scroll back down to the bottom right hand corner of the form.
Touch on Mobile.
This switches you back to the mobile application form.
You can see that this is an easy way to toggle from the mobile to the main site or from the main site to the mobile interface.
You may also use the scalable vector graphics and zoom with your fingers to see items in more detail on your phone or tablet.
Home Icon
To get back to the home screen on the mobile application after you’ve finished entering time or from any other form, touch on the home screen icon.
Issues
Now you can look at some of the other things you should be working on such as Issues.
Touch on Issues.
You’ll see the list of all Issues assigned to you.
Touch on an Issue to see the details.
There are different sections you can expand and collapse as you need to.
The General section is expanded by default. This is where the State, assignment and any resolution project details are shown.
You can touch on the boxes for any of the other sections to expand that section out.
Touch on Details.
You can see found by information.
Touch on Details to collapse it again.
Touch on Resolutions.
This is where you can add a resolution when it’s fixed.
Touch on Resolutions to collapse it again.
Touch on Related Items.
This is where you can view any additional items such as pictures or documents that were attached to the Issue.
You can see that there is a file attached to this Issue.
You can touch on the file to actually download, view it or edit the metadata.
You may also Add a File, right from your phone and upload it to Project Insight.
Touch on the Related items to collapse it again.
You can also view any comments about an Issue and add comments to an issue.
Touch on Comments.
You’ll see any previously entered comments.
Touch Add Comment to add a new one.
Type in the comment, such as ‘tested and problem still happening.’
Touch Save.
You’ll now see the comment history.
Touch on Comments to collapse it again.
One of the other most common things you’ll do is update an issue.
Touch on Update.
You can change the type of Issue.
You can assign it to someone else.
You can enter information such as the estimated resolution date or estimated work to resolve.
Again, if you want to go to the full site and view information about that Issue navigate to the bottom right of the screen and touch on Full Site.
You will see the full issue details from the main site.
Navigate to the bottom right hand corner and touch mobile to switch it back.
You’re not going to change any of this information right now so click on the home screen icon.
If you want to look up a user, touch on the Directory icon.
A directory of project managers, team members and any other resources setup in Project Insight will show, listed in alphabetical order by first name.
Touch on a name to see more details.
You’ll see their email, their phone numbers and other details.
That is beneficial because you don’t need to duplicate contact information on your phone. You can access it directly from Project Insight so it will always be up-to-date.
Touch the home screen icon to go back.
Track Expenses
Last, you may want to enter expenses.
To do that, touch the Expense Entries icon.
To set the Company that you’re entering the Expense for, touch on the Company. You could just enter the expense for the company and leave the project and task blank, if that’s how your system is set up.
Or you can select the project. Touch on the project to select one.
You can also specify the task. Touch on the Task and select the task.
Now, enter the Date of the Expense. Type it in or click on the Calendar icon and choose it.
Set the Expense Code.
If it is necessary to enter the quantity and a unit price enter those in.
Touch on Quantity and enter 10.
Touch on Unit Price and enter 15.
Touch on Actual Cost. You’ll see that the Actual Cost is automatically calculated based on the quantity and unit price.
Alternatively, erase the quantity and unit price, and just type in the full actual cost.
Touch on the Description and enter a description of the expense entry if you need to.
Now you could save it and go to the next expense, or you can save it and add a receipt right from your phone.
Touch on Save & Add Receipt.
Because this is being displayed on a web-browser and not an actual phone, the only option you have is to Browse to a file and select it and upload it.
However, if you are on a phone with a camera, right from this form, you will have the option to take a picture of the receipt and upload the receipt.
That comes in very handy. Your team members can easily enter and attach receipts from where ever they are. They can even do it right away when they get the receipt, such as when they get the bill from a meal.
Now click the home screen icon, to return to the home screen.
Toggle Back to the Classic Application
Earlier, it was discussed that you can change the filtering settings for the information that is displayed on the mobile application.
To do this, you must be on the full site and not the mobile site.
Touch on the Full site again.
You can see the full site dashboard is showing.
This is important. You must have the dashboard showing in order to change the options for the mobile site.
Because this is displayed in a browser and not a phone, expand out the window you can correctly see all the details.
If the dashboard is not showing, touch on My Insight to show it.
Now expand the left navigation so you can see it.
You change the settings for the mobile application in the My Work section.
Touch on the My Work Settings icon.
Note that this icon only shows if you have your dashboard showing, so if you don’t see it, click on My Insight to show the dashboard.
In the My Work Settings, touch on My Work Mobile Settings to expand out that section.
You can see all the mobile settings that are available.
You can turn off items that you don’t want to display on your phone.
For example, if you didn’t want to see Issues, click on that to turn it off.
The associated issue filtering options disappears too.
Let’s click on Issues to turn it back on again.
You can see that the mobile is set to only Include Tasks and To-Dos that start within 7 days or earlier. You could change that to something like 5 days instead or even fewer, such as 3 days, or expand the number of days out as well.
There are some other options as well such as restrict to items you’ve indicated you’re working on and whether or not to show hidden items. Those are topics are covered in detail in other sessions, but you can see how they can be set for the mobile application.
Now, click Save.
To see those changes take effect, scroll to the bottom right of the main site and click Mobile.
It does take a few minutes for these mobile settings to take effect, so if you switched back to the mobile option right away, you may not yet see the changes, but they will occur.
Now you know how to access your work list, update status, and enter time and expenses from your phone and be mobile. No matter where your team members are, there is no excuse not to provide updates!