We’re underway with the next version update for Copper, and we’re working on something that we really want some feedback on, for the first time in about seven years we’re going to overhaul the permissions model. We think its really going to simplify things, and allow us to bring you a host of new resource management tools that will blow your socks off.

Why are we doing this? To make things simpler for everyone, easier to learn, easier to support. One of the consistent pieces of feedback we get is that the Copper permissions model is too confusing, and I agree with this entirely. So, we’re going to take the lead from operating system permissions models.

That said, one thing I’ve learnt over the past decade building this software (yes we’re coming up to 10 years!) is that its much harder to reduce complexity than it sounds.

In essence, a good project management software tool should allow you to manage two hemispheres:
1. A bunch of stuff that needs to get done
2. A bunch of people that can get it done.

It should be simple enough to create and maintain a series of projects/tasks, review the progress of same, and it should also be simple enough to create and maintain a series of people/organizations, and review the workload of same. In this way you know where a PROJECT is at, but also where a PERSON is at.

The current access model in Copper allows you to give a user or a group read/write/deny access to a Module (i.e. what a user sees), a Client (with this they see all projects), a Project (with this they see all tasks), and also allows you to allocate users to a Task (they see this task in To Do). If a user is in a group they adopt the groups permissions. For the most part this works, but then there are Client/Project/Task owners, an Admin user (who has access to everything) and things start to get confusing.

Another regular redundancy we find is that there are a whole bunch of ‘People’ or ‘Group’ objects in Copper. There is: User, Contact, Group, Client, Account manager, Project Owner, Project Participant, Task Owner, and Task Allocatee. Woah! There should just be People, and Organizations.

So, here are our thoughts on how to simplify this:

Firstly we’re going to remove a bunch of things and replace them with a single ‘People’ Module. We’re going to remove the Contacts module, remove the Clients module, remove Users and Groups from Admin, remove Project and Task owners. Along with this we’ll introduce a new permissions model.

The People Module
The ‘People’ module will contain People and Organizations. A Person is anyone you come into contact with when you undertake a project. So this includes contacts and users (A user is just a person with login access). An Organization is any grouping of People, for instance a client, a department, a vendor, or a special project team.

The Permissions Model
In the new permissions model, we still have an Admin user (access to everything), and we still allow you to set READ/WRITE access to Organizations, Projects, and Tasks. We also allow the Admin to show/hide module items for each user.

Here are the rules:
Anyone can create an Organization. You add People (that you have access to) to an Organization (They are given Read access, Admin can set Write access to an Org)
Anyone can create a Project. You add People (that you have access to) or Organizations to Project.

A user can read an Org if they have Read/Write on the Org, or if they have Write on any of the projects that Org is on
A user can edit/delete/addpeople to an Org if they have Write on the Org (you can only ever add People they can read, see People below)
A user can read/edit/delete/add people to a Project if they have Write on the Project or Write on any Org on that Project
A user can read/edit/delete/add people to a Task if they have Write on the Task, Project, or any Org on that Task
A user can create a Task if they have Write on the Project, or any Org on the Project
A user can read/edit a Person if they are that Person or they have Write on an Org that person is in
A user can create a Person (contact, i.e. no login) if they have Write to any Org
Admin can create a Person (user, i.e. login) or delete a Person.

We’re getting there no?? Feedback please.

Ben.

Hosted customers will already see this build as current, and self-hosted license customers will receive notification when this build is ready to download.

New this version:

- Fix to To Do iCal Sync Button
- Fix for Task Ordering issue
- Fix Project Report saving
- Fix for custom Quote/Invoice template uploads
- Fix for foreign characters in Timeline
- Improvements to Self-Hosted Upgrades
- Visual fix to New Project Footer

If you’re a customer and would like to be a beta tester for new features as they first become available, please let us know via info@copperproject.com

We’ve just dropped v4.4 which contains a number of key changes under the hood, and some handy new features and fixes. Hosted customers will already see this build as current, and self-hosted license customers will receive notification when this build is ready to download.

So, we’re almost at the point where we have Copper ready for some key changes to make everyone’s lives easier! On the slate is an overhaul of Resourcing, the Gantt Timeline, File uploads, Rates management, and integration with Xero and Freshbooks. Its a great time to get on board and help our bank balance achieve these things!

Please keep your comments and kind words coming via the Community and we’ll keep bringing the goodness! New this version:

- New Alerts system, allowing use to keep you informed of new features and upcoming events.
- New Auto db update system, now we can roll db updates that Copper recognizes and executes automatically.
- New Recent Items in Clients, Reports, ToDos, makes it easier to go back to something you were working on in that area.
- Improvements to MS Project Import, now imports dependencies!
- Improvements to Reports layout and saving.
- Improvements to Budgets tab, to allow for addition of Purchase Items you can add to your invoices/quotes
- Centralized uploaded logo, header, home, invoice, quote assets.
- Improvements to Work Analysis (Timesheets) and Project Analysis reports
- Improvements to file/folder drag and drop (beta, keep us posted on this one)
- Improvements to MYOB export in Reports
- Bug fixes for reports, IE users, Mini Calendar Selector

If you’re a customer and would like to be a beta tester for new features as they first become available, please let us know via info@copperproject.com

“I considered using 5pm and Basecamp when I started looking into project management software because I had already been using both on various projects. Damn, am i glad I chose Copper – having used the alternatives, I can say I absolutely LOVE Copper and it keeps getting better and better. To top things off, the Copper team is always quick to respond and always helpful when I have questions or issues with anything.
The user interface rocks, unlimited clients and projects makes me sing, and the functionality is solid. Great work, guys!”

Enough said!

The Team at Copper Project

“I just went through the new tour and it’s a job very well done. We’ve been using Copper for about 4 months now and although I’ve had some issues getting people to actually using, it’s personally my favorite so far. The help section is going to be very useful indeed.

Thanks a lot for making our projects manageable!”

Fouad Sadler – Fuji Communications.

Thanks to Fouad and the team over at Fuji Communications, we welcome all feedback!

The Team at Copper Project.

We’ve just dropped v4.3.3, which includes a of new tweaks and a new features. In fact, since our last email, here are the things which have been added to Copper in a few short months, and more is on the way!

- Great new Budgets tab in Projects, with handy chart showing project budget progress, and timeline of invoicing. Plus! CSV export for import into Quickbooks/MYOB
- Billing is now ready for integration with Xero and Freshbooks.
- Great new task drag and drop in project breakdown view makes it super easy to reorder, and create subtasks.
- Refinements to Time and Comment Entries (via 3 ways, in stopwatch timer, in task view, and in the To Do view)
- Improved embedded URLs across Copper allowing easy linking to external assets and other web apps.
- Improvements to special character rendering for multiple languages (Copper is now available in 5 languages, and is ready for easy translation).
- Added ability to turn off Relative Dates,
- Fixed bugs that annoyed Ben and the rest of the Copper Family.
- Added our fantastic new Copper Logo and Favourite Icon.
- Added Help Links to the menu, and debug code for better diagnosis and Support

Want to see more? Great! Provide your feedback here in the community.

If you’re a customer and would like to be a beta tester for new features, please let us know via info@copperproject.com

So whats’s new? Well firstly we’ve finally created a series of tour videos that give a great rundown of what Copper can do for you, so make sure you watch all of those. We’ve also separated out the more detailed tutorials into a new Help section that will definitely be refined and shaped as we find out how people are using it and what they’re missing. We’ve tweaked our Free Trial and Buy pages, and everything else has had a clean up.

Noticed the new logo? As simple as it looks weagonizedfor weeks, and I’m sure the very talented Lee Wong could give you her detailed notes on how the new Copper logo represents the very best web-based Project Management Tool if you asked her.

Wow it doesn’t really feel like we did that much at all, but behind the scenes theres quite a bit happening to ensure that our customer information is tracked and managed more efficiently, so whether you’re just wanting to kick a few tyres, or you’re a died-in-the-wool Copper champion, we’re ready to help you as best we can.

But please, go forth, use the site, break it, romanticize about little changes, tell us about said changes, explore, grow, regale your friends with merriment. Because if we’re not growing, we’re dying.Deep, exponential ponderings, yes. But true all the same.

Love, Team Copper.

This is from W. Ross Wells, from ZenFilm in Texas.

We started our company in September of 2005 in the living room of our house… after years of operating much larger production facilities… the paradigm for production was changing and we saw that smaller, lower overhead, aggressive little shops might have the staying power in the changing media climate.

4 years later… we have 9 employees and we have experienced exponential client and revenue growth.. Copper has been with us ever since we added our first employee… it has grown with us and honestly it is part of the family.

You made an extremely high end management system available to us when we had no cash to spend… and now that things are better… we have a really high performance platform to run our company with.
It means a lot that you are doing well… sometimes we dont stop to think how far we’ve come… we have come a long way and you have helped us do it.

Sincere thanks and best wishes for many more years of partnership.

Thanks Ross, as discussed we’ll beer it up next time I’m State-side.

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