Accelo Glossary

Accelo offers a wide range of modules, tools and features, making it a powerful tool for your business. However, to make the most of what Accelo can do, it’s important to first familiarize yourself with the terminology used throughout the platform. Understanding these terms will help you unlock Accelo’s full potential and streamline your experience.

Below is a list of terms that we use within Accelo. Under each term, you'll be able to find out what it is, where you can find it in your Accelo deployment, and the value that it brings to your business. Look out for the V4 badge, this indicates when terminology is related to the new V4 pages within Accelo.

Use the links below to quickly navigate through the list! (Unlinked letters below indicate there are no terms that begin with that letter.)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Accordion

What: An accordion is a menu composed of vertically stacked headers that reveal more details when triggered (often by a mouse click).
Where: These appear commonly through-out our V4 viewscreens within panels such as Details, Locations and Connected Apps Panels
Value: The accordion component delivers large amounts of content in a small space through progressive disclosure. The header title give the user a high level overview of the content allowing the user to decide which sections to read. Accordions can make information processing and discovering more effective.

Activity

What: The core, fundamental tool you will use in Accelo to log any work you do. Activity is the umbrella term which we use to describe internal notes, external emails, phone calls, meetings, and postal, all of which include time tracking by default.
Where: Activities can be created from the + Create button at the top of any deployment.

When creating an Activity it is logged against a Company, Contact, Project, etc, in order to ensure that all the information is contained in the proper location.
Value: Keeps all of your communications - whether internal or external - inside of Accelo, and you can easily log time while creating an Activity. Also, you can add an Activity against an Object in Accelo right from the Activity creation modal.

Action

What: When creating an Activity, you can “action” the activity to indicate that you have addressed this item. Progression Actions (Premium) can be used to automate your business processes when progressing the Status of an object in Accelo.
Where: You can action Activities in your Request Inbox. Progression Actions can be found when editing a Project, Ticket, Retainer or Sale Type (under the Configuration settings for each module).
Value: Progression Actions take the manual work out of your business processes. Automatically update fields, upload files, create Activities, or enable Special Processes whenever a Project, Sale, Ticket or Retainer moves from one status to the next. That way, your team doesn’t have to remember specific processes; Accelo can have them done for you.

Action Panel

What: An industry term which refers to creating, reading, updating and deleting content.
Where: In Accelo’s use-case the entry points to these functions refer to a group of buttons found at the top right of all View-screens and some panels.
Value: Users are able to consistently find/navigate to core workflows.

Affiliation

What: The link between a contact and a company. An Affiliation holds the data specific to that contact’s relationship with a company, such as their email address or phone number. A contact can have many affiliations.
Where: Affiliations are found in the Companies/Contacts modules. Add an Affiliation to a specific Company by going to the specific Contact’s page, clicking the +Add button, then the Link to Company option.
Value: Utilize Affiliations to easily keep communications/records for a company under one Contact.

Allocate Work

What: Allocating work allows a user to track and report on the tasks underway and hours logged within your retainer period. If your retainer work is spread between multiple Tickets and/or projects, easily allocate this time to any of your ongoing contracts.
Where: A user can allocate work for Tickets, Projects and Activities. To learn more about how to allocate work for these Objects, click here.
Value: Streamline the process of your complex or multi-faceted campaigns by bringing together your various Projects managed by different parts of your business. Allocate your Project and/or Ticket work to track all Tasks, log hours & report work within your Retainer periods.

Approve Work

What:
- For Projects , it allows you to review all the time and activities logged against a job, make any important adjustments and then "approve" a portion of work for invoicing.
- For Tickets , approving work allows you to review all activities and time recorded against a Ticket and ensure that any billable time is handled properly.
- For Retainers , the approval tool allows you to edit and approve billable activities for invoicing.
Where: The approve tool is found in the Project, Tickets and Retainers modules.
Value: Instead of needing to go to each individual Project, Ticket or Retainer to approve work, the approve tool allows you to see all the Objects pending approval in one place, depending on which module you’re working in. This saves time and page clicks in the process.

Assets

What: An asset is a collection of records and details relevant to a Client. It is composed of defined Custom Fields which you can place against existing Clients.
Where: Assets can be found in the Sales, Projects, Tickets, Retainers and Assets modules. To find the linked Assets for a specific Object, navigate to that Object’s page (View Sale screen, for example), and click on the Assets tab.
Value: By creating templated Assets you can pre-populate your standard data fields and values, allowing you to save time and focus on your work without scrambling through spreadsheets or emails for that password on file.

Assign Work

What: The Assign Work tool is used to quickly update the status of a Project’s milestones and tasks. Allows a Project Manager to see all milestones and tasks in one list, including their statuses, start & due dates, duration and total time remaining in one screen.
Where: The Assign Work tool is available in the Projects module.
Value: A Project Manager already has enough to stress about. With Project plans that involve a plethora of tasks and assignees, having to individually assign work by going through each task/milestone would be a hassle. With all of the information needed to assign work on one screen, Project managers can get all of their milestones/tasks assigned with one page view.

Attachment

What: Any files that are “attached” to any Activity, Expense, Task or Request in Accelo. Attach images, documents, etc. to either enhance a message or Expense (such as a receipt).
Where: Can be found throughout Accelo, most notably when creating an Activity, Expense, Task or Request.
Value: Without the ability to add attachments to items in Accelo, files would have to be sent through other means (such as email). With attachments available right in the creation modals for Activities, Expenses, Tasks or Requests, you can easily add files without needing to jump through other hurdles.

Auto-Scheduled Time

What: Auto-scheduled time is the predicted amount of work that is upcoming for a Task over the course of a certain period of time.
Where: Auto-scheduled time is utilized on Tasks, and this time can be seen by either going to the individual Task modal or by using the My Schedule screen.
Value: With auto-scheduled time, you don’t have to spend your valuable working hours trying to calculate how much time a user needs to dedicate to a specific Task. As that user works on the Task, auto-scheduled time will appear on his/her schedule, ensuring the user always knows exactly how much time to dedicate to a specific Task every day.

Card Component

What: This is information grouped and related to a singular object or topic. Usually the appearance of a card on a View-screen indicates that the object is a child object.
Where: They appear across all View-screens most predominantly within the hub and on the Sales Overview tab.
Value: Cards give prominence to a topic or object.

Checklist

What: When creating a Task, you are able to add a Checklist of to-dos before that Task is completed. You can then mark and track these Checklist items to ensure the Task stays on track.
Where: The Checklist feature can be found on the Task creation modal, or on the Task Details modal for those that are pre-existing.
Value: Tasks for a Project, for example, may not be as simple as completing a process or job. Sometimes, a Task may be more complex, requiring multiple things to be done first before the Task can be officially “completed.” With the Checklist feature, you’ll be able to track those to-dos more easily, while also seeing who on your team is completing the Checklist items.

Chips

What: Chips are compact components that allow for input, attribute or action. They have the ability to show Sentiments and colour (refer to Status Chips for more)
Where: You will see these spread through-out the V4 Designs, i.e. some include the Info bar and within the Stream Tab.
Value: Chips have a clear, helpful relationship to the content or state they represent. Chips also make inputting or taking action easier to complete, or make content easier to scan.

a. Multi Chip
- What: Multi Chip is a term unique to Accelo, however they are just Chips combined. Triple(or more) Chips are exclusively attribute Chips and do not allow for input or action. Their purpose is to group related attributes and draw attention to content that needs attention/actioning.
- Where: You will see these spread through-out the V4 Designs, in the Info Bar as they generally contain information about Progress.
- Value: Multi Chips should have a clear, helpful relationship to the content or state they represent. They also make scanning content easier.
b. Status Chip
- What: Status Chip is a term unique to Accelo, however they are just another variation of Chips. These Chips allow for input, attribute or action. They use colour from the Status Color Ramps within Crayon.
- WhereYou will see these spread through-out the V4 Designs, in the Info bar as they generally contain information about Progressions
- Value: Status Chips have a clear, helpful relationship to the content or state they represent. Status Chips also make inputting or taking action easier, or make content easier to scan.

Class

What:
- For Activities, a Class is a custom field that allows a user to easily search for those Activities. The default values are Client Work, Sales and Internal.
- For Tickets, a Class is used to help a user classify the characteristics of a Ticket.
Where: These can be found on both Tickets and Activities. To configure Activity Classes, click the Activities & Emails tab on the Configuration screen. For Ticket Classes, click the Tickets tab on the Configuration screen, then select Classes.
Value: When using Accelo every day, your Activities and Tickets will begin to pile up. With Classes, you can easily filter these Activities and Tickets to quickly find them in your lists.

Classic

What: Classic is a term which refers to any part of Accelo that has not been apart of the V4 UI/UX improvements.
Where: You will see this button in the Action Panel at the top of the page of every View-screen. While we are in a Open Beta stage clicking this will take you back to the Classic View-screen.
Value: The ability to transition back to the Classic View-screen while in Beta is important as we continue to release features within V4. This button ensures the Beta does not get in the way of your required workflows. We will be tracking how often people are transitioning back to Classic and we ask that each time you do, that you help us prioritise the right work by filling in the form prompt about what functionality you need that V4 doesn’t support or makes harder.

Client Portal

What: Essentially a “members only” site, where your Clients in Accelo can access to keep track of any work you have with them, including Sales, Quotes, Projects, Tickets, Retainers, Billing/Invoices, Requests and Assets.
Where: Clients can receive access to the Client Portal through the View Company screen. When on this screen, click the Portal button in the toolbar, then the View & Invite Contacts option. The link for the portal is deployment.accelo.com/portal.
Value: Your Client Portal helps you deliver better, more responsive, more transparent and higher quality service to your clients - all while saving you time. Spend less time chasing your clients (and vice versa) via email or phone, and instead give your clients on-demand access to their project, issue, retainer, and account information, offering real-time updates on active work, allowing users to view and pay invoices, and more - while leaving you in full control.

Committed Time

What: Committed Time allows a user to allocate an exact amount of time to be worked on by that user at some point during the day.
Where: Committed Time is utilized when booking work, and the amount of Committed Time for a user’s schedule can be found on the My Schedule screen.
Value: Your team needs to have their time prioritized in order for them to get the proper work accomplished. By committing time on a user’s schedule, you can ensure your team has a specific amount of time blocked on their calendars so that they can get the work that needs to be done, done!

Common Folder

What: The Common folder is a folder under Attachments that exists across every page in Accelo. The Common folder is an ideal place to store universal and frequently used files that you would like your whole company to have access to.
Where: The Common Folder can be found on any Object that has an Attachments tab (EX: the View Company screen).
Value: When you have multiple teams utilizing multiple modules in Accelo, it can be difficult to share common files or attachments between all teams. Utilize the Common Folder as the universal folder for every one of your modules.

Component

What: The elements within a design system are called Components. Within the concept of Atomic Design created by Brad Frost an atom (icon), molecule (button), organism (card), template/layout (multi-column section) or even pages can be referred to as a component. Therefore a Component is a standardized UI element that will be repeated across multiple pages of a product. At Accelo our Design System is called Crayon and V4 uses components from this design system.
Where: It will not at first be evident what is or isn’t a component within V4, however as you become familiar with the new UI/ UX you will start to recognise repeated elements in the page such as Buttons, Chips, Avatars, Icons, Menus, Flood bars, Tabs, etc… These are our Crayon Components.
Value: Components ensure that our UI is a consistent user experience and thereby reduces the cognitive load the user faces when needing to learn different UI patterns across the product. Additionally using components reduces the design/engineering lift in releasing new features, this means that Accelo will be able to have faster feature turnaround.

Connected Apps Panel

What: Connected Apps is a new Panel which houses an Accordion of Integrations your deployment has connected to Accelo. Accelo has numerous Integrations, which provide automated functionality, moving data between Accelo and the integrated systems. In addition to that automated sync, many of our integrations provide static links between the Accelo records (Companies, Tasks, etc.) and their corresponding external record. These links provide you with a shortcut between the work you’re tracking in Accelo, and the remote system you’re using to actually do the work, further streamlining your workflow. For example:
- We display links between Accelo invoices and the corresponding invoices in Xero.
- We display links between Accelo Companies and the corresponding Companies in HubSpot.
- We display links between Accelo Companies and the Company’s various statistics in Google Analytics.

Where: This panel appears on the Details Tab of relevant View-screens such as Company, Sales, Projects, Tickets, Retainers and Assets View-screens. (Retainers and Assets will appear in later V4 releases)
Value: Streamlining workflows with external products.

Contributor

What: A Contributor is a third party contact that you specifically link to a Project, Ticket, or Sale as they have some association or connection to the work that is happening. You can configure the type of contribution they are intended to make, and will also be able to include them on communication against that record.
Where: Contributors can be added to Projects, Tickets, or Sales. This can be done on the left-hand side of the screen, under the Details section. To add a Contributor, click the + Add button on the Team section.
Value: If you have any contacts or third party companies that have some stake or involvement with a job or a company, you can easily keep them in the loop by including them as Contributors. Many of our clients require a professional be kept updated, such as the use of a consultant, industry professional, or an attorney.

Contractor

What: Contractors are users with temporary access to Accelo. This level of access allows users to view and log the work they are assigned and is meant for outside contractors or temporary employees who don’t need access to employees’ schedules or client records.
Where: A user can be added as a Contractor on the User Creation screen. Contractors can’t see anything in Accelo that they are not assigned to.
Value: Contractors can be valuable pieces of any Project, and when factoring in budgets, they're a group that you want to ensure you don't forget. By using Contractors in Accelo, you don't have to worry about these outside users seeing anything they're not supposed to in your deployment. That way, they can work on whatever Projects or Task are specifically assigned to them!

Crayon

What: Is our Internal Accelo Design System, our design system was created specifically for the V4 project and includes a range of React components
Where: The components appear everywhere within Accelo V4. Although not at first evident as to what is or isn’t a Crayon component and you experience the different View-screens you will note consistent design patterns and elements, which will be apart of the system.
Value: Having a design system ensures a consistent UI experience that helps our team release new features and functionality faster.

Custom Field / Custom Profile Field

What: Custom Fields / Custom Profile Fields are user-defined fields and are part of the custom object or standard object definition. Capture your unique business data by storing it in custom fields. When you create a custom field, you configure where you want it to appear and optionally control export and security options at the field level.

- Where:
  - Custom fields only apply to one specific type of Project, Ticket, Sale or Retainer. To create a custom field, navigate to the Custom Fields tab when editing an Object Type.
  - Custom Profile Fields can be made available across many Module types, ie - Sales Types, Project Types, Ticket/Issue Types, etc. Profile Fields allow you to configure customized fields which apply to all records within that module, not just one of them.
- Value: Instead of needing to manually create specific fields for every Project you create in Accelo, for example, you can utilize custom fields to save time and manual effort to ensure your information is consistent and accurate.

Daily Timesheet

What: With the Daily Timesheet, you can view all of your logged work and assigned Tasks in one location, making it easy to keep track of the work you have done and the work you need to do.
Where: To access the Daily Timesheet, hover over the Time button at the top of your deployment, then select the Daily Timesheet option.
Value: By utilizing the Daily Timesheet, you get an overall view of your own work in one timeline view. From here, you can easily convert time, log time, and relocate work in one convenient place.

Date Badge

What: The Date Badge is a term unique to Accelo, this component displays a date/time stamp in a range of formats. The badges sentiment will be dependant on whether the date is past, today or upcoming.
Where: Because the date badge appears as either a date or time stamp it is used in a range of places for a range of scenarios. i.e. Status History Panel, it indicates the time in status. In stream you can see the large and small used in different Activities.
Value: The badge allows for a simplified UI, that draws attention to something that needs action.

Dependencies

What: Dependencies are what make the sequence of a workflow run smoothly and effectively. There are four types of Dependencies:
- Finish to Start: Most common. A task can’t start until its predecessors have finished.
- Start to Start: A task can’t start until it’s predecessors have started.
- Finish to Finish: A task can’t finish until its predecessors have finished.
- Start to Finish: A task can’t finish until its predecessor tasks have started.
Where: Dependencies are used with Tasks and Milestones in a Project plan.
Value: Creating Project plans with dependencies in place provides visibility into team workload and scheduling. It allows you to see if there are any conflicts with time and availability.

Details Tab

What: This Tab is a new page that we have appear in a number of our View-screens. The content within this tab varies, however it is the place to go when you are looking for the finer details surrounding an object. For example, Custom Fields, Team and Stakeholders
Where: If you don’t immediately see the Details tab as an option directly below the Info bar, it will appear within the 'more…' button as an option to turn on.
Value: We have introduced the Details Tab after hearing from our users that generally our Object View-screens are extremely dense with information, which is not always required. The general first impression of Accelo is an intimidating experience. Along with supporting data and we talked to users to better understand, which information could be lowered in prominence from the Overview.

Divisions

What: Divisions allow you to select groups of clients and then change how you work with them. Whether you have a group of clients who get a special rate, a group of clients who you want to show a different phone number to in your email signature, or a group of clients who you want to see a completely different brand and email address, you can use divisions to make it happen.
Where: To edit or add Divisions, navigate to the Configuration gear > Users & Groups > Divisions. Divisions are used in the Companies module.
Value: When dealing with a number of clients, you’ll want to be able to work with them in a number of different ways. With Divisions, you’re able to customize which Companies are grouped together, any Contacts that are within those Divisions, any special rates, and even a special email signature. Utilize these options to more easily communicate and work with certain industry types, for example.

Drawer Component

What: Drawers appear as a sliding panel that can be attached to the right edge of a window and contain a set of information or actions. Since the user can interact with the Drawer without leaving the current page, tasks and further context can be achieved more efficiently without navigating away from the current page.
Where: They’re commonly used in view-screens, which are layouts that use a Drawer to display information for child objects and create workflows, but can be used more widely. They span the height of the primary content area (in view-screens this includes the page anchor).
Value: Unlike Modals, Drawers allow users to interact with the content behind

Event

What: As mentioned in the update of the definition of Activities, Event is the new name for Meetings.
Where: Nothing has changed around what this Activity does, however you will find it labeled differently within the V4 designs. For example in the Action panel, the button triggering the creation of a Event will read ' + Event'. In Classic when clicked this appears within a modal. In V4 it will move to a Drawer separated from other activities. Events will also be labeled differently in the Stream.
Value: Schedule Events to invite multiple Clients or Colleagues to an event. This will automatically sync with your calendar when the invitation is accepted by each participant.

External Appointments

What: External Appointments refer to any external calendar entries (such as meetings scheduled through Outlook, Gmail, etc.)
Where: These External Appointments will be able to be seen in your schedule by going to the My Schedule screen. External Appointments will appear in purple.
Value: Your integrations are part of what makes Accelo so valuable. But when you’re scheduling meetings through Gmail, Outlook, etc., you shouldn’t have to ensure that those meetings also show up in Accelo manually. With External Appointments, you can ensure any meetings you schedule or appointments you make reflect on your Accelo schedule, allowing you to get an accurate look at what your workload looks like for the week!

Financial Visibility

What: The financial visibility permission will allow a user to see not only the rates which your users are charged at, but the monetary values of Projects, Issues and their budgets. Users without this permission will see an hour value in place of the dollar value when viewing budgets and budget usage.
Where: Financial Visibility can be set when either creating or new user, or by editing an existing user.
Value: If you’re using Accelo with contractors, or are in situations where your team members might not appreciate that there’s a lot of hidden costs involved in running the business, Accelo allows you to control the visibility of financial data on a per-user basis.

Filters

What: Filters are a customizable search criteria that can greatly reduce the number of clicks involved in displaying records.
Where: Filters can be found on every list screen in Accelo. For example, the Project List screen after clicking on the Projects Module button on the left toolbar.
Value: Your team shouldn’t be spending time trying to find their work. With customizable filters, search by specific criteria to allow for quicker, more efficient work from your team.

Favorite

What: These are pages that you have marked as "Favorite" in Accelo, allowing you to access them quickly. This is useful for monitoring important Sales or Projects in Accelo that you may be a manager for, or simply want to keep track of.
Where: Any page in Accelo can be Favorited. To Favorite a page, simply click the Favorite button at the top-right corner of the screen. Once a page is favorited, it can be found in the Saved dropdown in the top toolbar.
Value: If there are specific objects, such as a Project or Sale, that you or your team are frequently working on, be sure to Favorite it to navigate to it more quickly. Saving time is saving money, and Favoriting is one of the easiest ways to do so!

Flood Bar Component

What: This component is referring to the horizontal singular bar charts within the Product. There are two variations of Flood bars within Accelo V4. Thick flood bars, which are identifiable as being interactive and can appear alongside an Axis and Key. Compared to the Thin Flood Bars, which provide a simplified/scannable view of data. These are not interactive and usually if segmented are paired with a Popper that contains the Thick Flood Bar.
Where: You will see these appear on Projects Overview Tab, within Tables and on Insights Tabs.
Value: Flood bars supported with data allows users to scan data quickly. When Sentiments such as Danger, Warning and Success appear within Flood Bars they provide the user with a quick form of reassurance.

Groups

What: User Groups in Accelo to allow you to easily categorize staff, sort lists based on staff groups and bulk assign user permissions. This allows fast and powerful control over your staff's access to the modules in Accelo.
Where: Groups can be created by navigating to the Configuration gear, then to the Users & Groups tab, followed by the Groups option.
Value: Different groups of people on your team have different tasks, different assignments, and different priorities throughout the day. Instead of setting all of those individually, Groups allow you to combine similar users together to ensure you save time as a manager!

Hub

What: This is a new pattern for Accelo and it came about in the design process for V4. It’s purpose is to reduce the cognitive load of the Overview, but ensure the information such as Company details, Client contact etc… are within reach and easily accessible.
Where: Within the Page Anchor and then hidden by the Info Bar, the hub is a cached container that usually has two columns of information within it.
Value: Having a space, that can be accessible from every tab and visible or hidden depending on user preferences ensures that information is shown only when you need it.

Inbox

What: The Accelo Inbox always aggregates all your client-facing emails into one location. The Inbox module of Accelo functions much like the inbox of your current email program, allowing you to keep yourself appraised of all your correspondence. However, where your standard inbox focuses on read and unread messages to inform you of what needs to be done, Accelo's Inbox uses Actioning to determine when work stemming from an Activity is truly complete.
Where: Your Accelo Inbox can be accessed via the Inbox button at the top-right corner of your Accelo deployment (next to your User Profile Icon).
Value: Simply put, the Accelo Inbox keeps you and your team from needing to have multiple email services open to get your work done. Have all of your emails come in to one centralized inbox, and immediately action, claim or convert those emails based on your specific needs.

Icon Button Component

What: An Icon Button is a concept taken from Mobile Design Systems, but slightly varied for Accelo. It generally behaves similar to a button with interactions such as Default, Hover and Active states.
Where: One prominent instance of Icon Buttons is as a visual indication of the object when paired with the title and clicking it will take the user directly to the View-screen. As we introduce Drawers to Accelo the title of the object that once took the user to the View-screen will now open the Drawer.
Value: There are numerous instance within Accelo that you will have multiple and different types of objects appearing on the page at once. Being able to scan the page quickly, the icon button provides both visual prominence and user feedback when interacted with.

Item

What: Items are a list of Materials and/or Services. Services are used to define the ledger and tax codes of the work you do for your clients, while Materials are used to list and price any items you may sell to clients.
Where: To find/edit your Item list, click on the Configuration gear > Invoices & Pricing tab > Material & Service Items. These Items will be used when creating Quotes and Invoices, as well as when creating Project Plans.
Value: Organize and segment your work into different Services for better management, planning, and invoicing, letting you shape Accelo to match just what your business needs. Also organize the products you sell into different Materials for your quotes and invoices.

Info Bar Component

What: An Info Bar is a container, which holds information that you will need to check regularly. Each View-screen has a combination of content that could appear and is usually inline editable.
Where: It appears at the top of the page within the Page Anchor.
Value: When you are working across any tab you are able to easily update and view important information relating to the object.

Lookup

What: A special custom field type which allows you to search and “lookup” an associated record, such as an affiliation or company record. For instance, you can create a “lookup” field called “Referred By”, and connect one company record to the existing company that referred you their business.

- Where: To create a Lookup, create a Custom Profile field for an Object, then select the Lookup type.
- Value: Lookup Fields are typically used as a great way of creating relationships between client records. For more details about Lookup Fields, click here.

Locations Panel

What: This is a Panel which houses all the addresses that might be tied to a Company. They are combined within an Accordion, which groups the addresses, by State.
Where: It appears exclusively on the Company View-screen within the Details Tab.
Value: This is a single place on the Company page where users can see all addresses and add addresses against the company.

Log Call

What: In Classic Accelo, logging a Call is a separate Activity. After research into our nomenclature and understanding how people use Log Call, we identified that users associate the action with being something that they do after the fact and are concerned about what will happen when assigning clients to the call as the UI pattern is the same as sending an email.
Where: So moving into V4 the action is now tied to the Log Work workflow, within this Drawer you are able to mark the Log as a Call and add the attending clients.
Value: Logging calls as you make them allows you to both track the time you spend on a call, as well as to take notes on the call for later reference. Ideally, open up the Log Work Drawer before you make a call, and record the details.

Log Work

What: Log Work is where you track the hours you spend working on your projects, sales, tickets, tasks, etc. Stop guessing how much time you spent on your work, and let Accelo help you see all the time you spend in a day (and make sure you bill for it!).
Where: In Classic this appears within a Log Time Modal. In V4 it will move to a Drawer where you will now be able to also Log a Call
Value: Moving the Log work to a Drawer will mean that you are able to interact with the page behind the Drawer and access any details that you need in order to Log your work.

Material

What: Materials are items you may be invoicing the Client for.
Where: Materials will primarily be used with Quotes, Projects, Tickets and Retainers. To add or edit Materials, navigate to your Configuration gear > Invoices & Pricing tab > Material & Service Items.
Value: By having a defined set of Materials for your staff, your team members can freely plug those Materials into their billable work. That way, they minimize their time on overhead, allowing them to get their work done more quickly.

Message

What: As mentioned in the update of the definition of Activities, Message is the new name for both Emails and Notes.
Where: Nothing has changed around what these Activities do, however there is no longer a separation of these terms within V4. For example in the Action Panel, the button triggering the creation of a Message will read ' + Message'. In Classic when clicked this appears within a modal. In V4 it will move to a Drawer separated from other activities. Messages will also be labeled differently in the Stream.
Value: Sending a message is one of the most commonly used activities in Accelo. By sending messages from within Accelo, your whole conversation is tracked against the correct object (such as a Client, Sale, Ticket, or Project record). Client replies are automatically captured as message activities if you have email integration enabled.
Messages aren't a replacement to your email program, but a complement to it. Track your time, capture your billable hours, and easily record the conversation history against something more specific that just the company record.

Milestone

What: A milestone is a task in a Project plan that indicates an important point in the plan. Typically, a milestone will include a series of tasks that need to be completed in order for the milestone to be reached. In an Accelo Project plan, milestones are marked in bold.
Where: Milestones are used in the Projects module when utilizing Project plans.
Value: Project plans can be extensive. In order for your team to get them accomplished efficiently, you want to ensure they have goals within the plan that they should look to complete. With milestones, you give your team clear-cut points in the plan that they can look to achieve, and you can set clearer expectations for the plan as a whole.

Module

What: Accelo's Modules are specific segments within each of the 5 core products, or are standalone components that support the entire Accelo platfor.
Where: To access your Modules, utilize the left-hand menu. From there, you can access any Modules that are available for your deployment (A Serv-Ops account, for example, will have access to all Modules.).
Value: Your Modules are where a solid portion of your work in Accelo will be done. These Modules allow you to keep all your related work together, making it easy to find your Expenses, Purchases and more with one click of a button!

Object

What: A singular piece of work, such as one Project, Sale, or Ticket.
Where: Objects are found all throughout Accelo. Any Project, Sale, Ticket, Retainer, etc. all fall under the Object umbrella.
Value: Your Objects are what make your Accelo deployment valuable. As you create Objects, you’ll be able to work on them, keep track of them, and ensure that you’re able to quickly get back to the work you love!

Page Anchor

What: An Accelo term for the area at the top of the Page. Page Anchors provide you with a consistent page header where you can consistently find, action of edit information relating to the object.
Where: The Page Anchor is the top section of each View-screen and provides a bearing for users that they are on the right page.
Value: Pattern recognition is important when creating new and efficient design solutions. So when the Product Design team came to redesigning the View-screens, the team explored a range of solutions to improve the above the fold experience of the View-screens. This area needed to balance a range of key information, not overwhelm the user and be a pattern which most importantly was repeatable, providing a consistent and recognisable UI pattern for each page.

Period

What: A specific time frame - whether that be a week, month, quarter or year - on your Retainer where you have agreed to provide a service to your clients.
Where: Periods are utilized in the Retainers module. They can be found/added on the View Retainer screen, under the Overview tab.
Value: Your Retainer Periods are crucial to tracking the work performed within these specific time frames. Think of them like buckets into which Tickets, tasks, Projects or general work are allocated.

Popper Component

What: A Popper is a form of modal dialog that can be used to display content on top of another. It can be triggered by hover or click and can be closed by simply hovering away or clicking the Close (‘X’) button. They have the ability to show Sentiments and when you are trying to resolve an issue Poppers can be the first place to go to understand the cause of the issue.
Where: You will find these spread throughout the Product, V4 utilities these to provide more information around important dates as well as data segments.
Value: The big advantage of Poppers are that they provide you with further/slightly more detailed data that is tied to an element in the page, therefore reducing the cognitive load of the page. Additionally where previously you may of had to navigate off the page to get further details, the inclusion of Poppers give you a quick glance at this information, allowing you to absorb and then dismiss without losing context of the page you are on.

Progression

What: A progression is the transition between statuses where users can build in automation (actions) such as sending templated emails or creating pre-populated tasks.
Where: Progressions are found on the Edit Object Type screens. For example, on the Edit Project Type screen, which is found by clicking on the Configuration gear > Projects tab, then Types, Progressions & Fields.
Value: Progressions allow for automation when creating Objects in Accelo.If you're familiar with the concept of a flow chart, each status is like a box in a flow chart, and the progressions are the lines that join the boxes together. By nominating a starting and ending status, you're able to provide your users with a clear business process to follow, improving consistency and coordination across your team.

Properties Panel

What: These panels provide you with a scannable list of settings that a Retainer or Retainer Period have set up. They can include information about the Duration, Price, Allowance, Rollover, Excess, Auto Renew and Rates settings.
Where: These panels appear exclusively on the Overview of their respective Objects.
Value: Although not something that you need to check every time you come into a Retainer or Retainer Period, when you are working out of these View-screen having this content in a prominent position provides reassurance to both IC’s and Managers that the work done is going to be invoiced.

Project

What: A Project is a specific section of the Accelo platform that serves a specific function. Accelo has many modules, including Sales, Projects, Tickets and Retainers.
Where: Projects can be found via the left hand side navigation menu, or via global search. Projects can be created from the top navigation +Create button or as related object to a Company, or converted from a Quote.
Value: Optimize your project lifecycles with robust tools for tracking time, tasks, expenses, and materials. Foster dynamic collaboration and deliver projects on time and on budget with precision and clarity.

Project Expense

What: A Project Expense is, simply put, any Expense against a Project in Accelo. For example, any travel expenses, training materials, etc. that would be logged against a specific Project.
Where: Project Expenses can be found on the View Project screen by navigating to the Expenses tab.
Value: Projects aren’t completed without some sort of cost. Whether it’s travel that’s required for your team, materials needed to complete tasks, or other miscellaneous expenses, you’ll be needing to track all the Expenses against your Projects in Accelo. With Project Expenses, you can keep all your Expenses for a Project in one place, allowing for better organization and a better understanding of what Expenses your team is logging.

Project Rate Card

What: Project Rate Cards are a list of override billable rates that can be utilized in the Projects module.
Where: Project Rate Cards are used when creating or editing Project plans. To edit or create a Project Rate Card, navigate to the View Project screen, then to the Rates tab.
Value: There are a number of benefits of Project Rate Cards, including:
- Control which billable rates are applicable to a Project.
- Make bulk changes to rates, which will cut down on administrative work.
- Easily customize the amount charged for existing rates.
- Work alongside the Divisions feature to auto-populate the default charge rates for that specific Division.

Project Schedule

What: The Project Schedule offers a Gantt-style overview of your Project's Milestones and Tasks, allowing you to quickly and visually track your Project's progress.
Where: The Project Schedule can be viewed on the Schedule tab on the specific View Project screen. Note that the Schedule tab is only visible once the Project is active.
Value: Projects need to be completed on time and on budget. While looking at your Project Overview, you can quickly tab over to your Project Schedule to see the full scope of work, your own specific work, as well as work for the day/week.

Rates

What: Rates are included on your billable work in Accelo to help you budget for work and track the billable value of work. Note that all rates are hourly.
Where: Rates are used when editing a staff member (staff rate), with Retainers and with Tickets. To add a Rate, navigate to your Configuration gear > Invoices & Pricing tab > Rates.
Value: In Accelo, you can define your cost rates and billable rates to help provide real-time reporting on profit margins!

Request

What: Requests are emails your team receives from clients needing support of some kind within your shared inboxes such as support@, info@, or sales@yourcompany.com.
Where: Requests can be viewed in the Request Inbox and quickly converted into Sales Tickets, Support Tickets and more.
Value: Your Request Inbox can be an invaluable piece of your Accelo deployment. It not only can serve as a shared, central inbox for all of your company addresses - such as support@, sales@, etc. It can also serve as a triage center for your support team and sales team, allowing your support team to quickly convert client requests into Tickets or your sales team to quickly convert leads to opportunities.

Resolution Notes

What: Resolution Notes are utilized on Tickets as a progression action. When a Ticket is resolved or closed, you can choose to update the Resolution Type to better inform your team how or why a specific Ticket was closed.
Where: The Resolution Notes can be seen on the individual View Ticket screen (on the right-hand side of the Ticket). To update Resolution Types, click on the Configuration gear > Tickets tab > Resolution Types.
Value: Not only do Ticket Resolutions allow you to better automate the process of closing a Ticket, but it can help keep your support team informed on why certain issues were resolved.

Sale

What: A Sale is a specific section of the Accelo platform that serves a specific function. Accelo has many modules, including Sales, Projects, Tickets and Retainers.
Where: Sales can be found via the left hand side navigation menu, or via global search. Sales can be created from the top navigation +Create button or as related object to a Company.
Value: Track all client information and interaction to help close more deals, accelerate sales productivity by automating your business processes, and make insightful decisions with sales reporting all within your Accelo Sales Module.

Sentiments (Sentiment Colors)

What: This is a term commonly referred to within Design Systems, which draws the eye and prompts a response from the user. Sentiments are used within Crayon to give you a health check on the progress of your work. You will see throughout V4 the use of Green to imply Success, Orange to imply Warning and Red to imply Danger/Error. Ensuring these sentiments are accessible to all, icons are tied to these colors with tied to Success, tied to Warning and (in circle) tied to Danger/Error.
Where: Sentiment Colors appear throughout V4, most commonly in Flood Bars, but also within Chips and Date Badges etc…
Value: When colour is used systematically it can provide a behavioural response from users. Therefore colour used within V4, delves deeper than mere aesthetics. Color prompts a physical response with the expectation of an outcome through emotional processing. Even if the response is negative or positive, action is evoked.

Snackbar Component

What: A snackbar provides users with a brief, temporary message about an action or process within the users workflow, without interrupting the experience. They use Sentiments to denote Success, Warning and Danger/Error.
Where: These appear usually in the bottom left or bottom right of the page.
Value: These messages provide you with validation of a workflow being successful, or if a problem has occurred. They sometimes allow you to undo the action or can provide you with a quick way to visit something that has just been created.

Signoff

What: Signoffs allow a user to send one or more files to a client for review. Note that in order to use Signoffs, the Client Portal must be enabled.
Where: Signoffs are available in the Projects and Tickets modules.
Value: With the Signoffs feature, you can get approval on a file from a Contact directly through the Accelo Client Portal. Your clients can also view the files, comment on them prior to approval and give their approval. Once a file has been approved, any changes to it are locked, ensuring integrity.

Skills

What: Skills allow you to group together similar sub-sets of users who have a specific skillset. Once grouped, you can then filter your users based on this skillset to allow for easier and quicker scheduling and assigning of work.
Where: Skills are used on filtering for your User List as well as your Team Scheduling. To add a Skill to a user, simply edit that specific user and add to the Skills field.
Value: You likely have diverse skillsets on your team, all of which can be applied to different Projects, Sales, etc. Instead of constantly wading through your user list to find the right candidates for a Project, for example, utilize Skills to easily find the right team members for the job!

Stakeholder/Stakeholdings

What: Team and Contributors are terms which are currently tied in Accelo. Technically, the ability to link one work object to multiple users or contacts is much the same, which is why originally these were built with a single term called “Contributors”.

However, from an Accelo user’s perspective, we found that they really do see the internal (user) and external (contact) parties who are connected to some client work as quite different. Additionally, the information you want to see about a Contact you hardly know (such as the full name, company they work at, email address, link to view the contact) is different to the information you need to see about a colleague.
Where: You will see Stakeholder appear in separate panels and sections across V4. For example, Company and Contact display panels for Stakeholdings. Sales, Projects, Ticket and Retainers have Stakeholder panels, which slightly vary the hierarchy of information.
Value: A key objective of this initiative is to make this a better user experience by untangling the two terms.

Status

What: A Status is each phase or stage of your current business process. By customizing and configuring a starting and ending status, you're able to provide your users with a clear business process to follow, improving consistency and coordination across your team.
Where: Statuses can be found and configured when editing a specific Object Type (For example, a Project Type).
Value: Statuses and Progressions are critical for ensuring proper automation in your modules. By setting up proper Statuses in Accelo, you can clearly define your business processes from start to end, ensuring your team fully understands where an Object is in its lifecycle in Accelo.

Status History Panel

What: Anyone that experiences the V4 View-screens will identify a big change in the area that Progressions are displayed. We have found that although currently a great infographic to illustrate the object’s progression type, something that is highly valued to Admin Users. IC's however felt it took over a lot of high value space, for a workflow trigger that they only updated sporadically. We found through our research that users only needed to see the Current and the next available progressions. Therefore without the restriction of the Page Anchor there was an opportunity to provide more value in this space. The Status History Panel allows users at a glance to see how long a status was in use and who made the change to the next progression and when.
Where: This panel appears on either the Overview or the Details Tab depending on the need of the View-screen.
Value: An important infographic for Managers trying to look back at the history of an object.

Sticky Header

What: A sticky header, which is also referred to as a fixed header, is a header element that remains visible and fixed in place as the user scrolls down inside a Drawer.
Where: Within the Drawer Component on Drawers, where the content extends longer than the browser.
Value: The Sticky header in this instance contains the Title and Action Panel of the Drawer, so its purpose is to ensure the user has context and buttons are easily accessible.

Stream

What: The Stream is an all-encompassing view of client communication and logged work between your clients and your team.
Where: An overall Stream of your deployment can be found by clicking on the Stream button in the top toolbar. Individual Streams for each object can also be found by navigating to the specific Object’s page, then to the Stream tab (Example, a specific Project page).
Value: The Stream is crucial for staying in the loop on everything going on in Accelo, allowing you to stay informed in real-time, see what your team is working on, and get instant updates on what's been going on in your business.

Task

What: Tasks in Accelo are units of work for users that have deadlines and an estimated amount of work attached to them.
Where: Tasks are used in multiple areas of Accelo, including on Tickets, Sales, Projects or Companies. Get an overall look at your Tasks via the Task Board in the top toolbar.

When creating a Task it is logged against a Company, Contact, Project, etc, in order to ensure that all the information is contained in the proper location.
Value: Tasks are the heart of the Accelo scheduling system. They’re useful for managing small pieces of work related to a specific item, then tracking that work in either the Schedule or Task Board. Tasks are also important for prioritizing and scheduling, as a task that has time and a due date will appear on the assignee’s schedule.

Ticket

What: A Ticket is a specific section of the Accelo platform that serves a specific function. Accelo has many modules, including Sales, Projects, Tickets and Retainers.
Where: Tickets can be found via the left hand side navigation menu, or via global search. Retainer can be created from the top navigation +Create button or as related object to a Company.
Value: Any small ad-hoc work that needs to be done for an active client, such as a bug that needs to be quickly fixed, or an image that may need to be quickly updated.

Timer

What: Timers are a way to instantly track time in Accelo. You can also run Timers in the background while doing other work in your deployment.
Where: To start a new Timer, you can either hover over the Time button in the top toolbar, then select the New Timer option, or you can click the Start Timer option on a specific Object’s main toolbar.

When saving a Timer it is logged against a Company, Contact, Project, etc, in order to ensure that all the information is contained in the proper location.
Value: Logging time can not only be a hassle, but it can be easy to forget. By utilizing the Timer feature in Accelo, you can easily track the amount of time you’re spending on your work or creating Activities. That way, you have a more accurate understanding of how much time you’re spending.

Trigger

What: Triggers are available when creating Types, and they allow you to configure rules in order to spark key business processes automatically.
Where: Triggers can be found and configured when editing an Object Type (such as a Project Type).
Value: Automation in Accelo doesn’t work to its fullest potential without the use of Triggers. Triggers will run automatically in the background, monitoring your ongoing work and taking action when its specific rules are met. This takes the manual business processes out of your team’s hands, allowing them to get their work done quicker and more efficiently.

Types

What: A Type defines and automates key steps in a specific business process. Those processes are built into Accelo to include each phase (status), a defined path (progression) and actions that need to be taken when you progress from one phase to another. Every Type in Accelo is built of Status & Progressions.
Where: Types are created or adjusted through the Configuration menu. For example, to create a Project Type, click the Configuration gear > Projects > Types, Progressions & Fields.
Value: Types are your business processes in Accelo. Creating well-formed Types not only saves your team time, but effort when progressing an Object through its lifecycle. Craft intricate Types to streamline your business processes and get back to the work you love.

Weekly Timesheet

What: The Weekly Timesheet is an overall look at a specific user’s Tasks for the week. From here, users can filter their work and log time.
Where: To get to the Weekly Timesheet, hover over the Time button, then select the Weekly Timesheet option in the dropdown menu.
Value: The Weekly Timesheet not only allows your users to see their full week of work in one view, but it also allows them to log suggested time for certain Tasks. That way, your users don’t have to spend more time than they need to logging their hours for the week!