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August 2020 Release Notes

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello!
Welcome to this month’s feature release notes. We’ve been listening to customer feedback and are pleased to announce the following new features and enhancements:
New Features

1) Capture Loan Signatures

When checking out items, you can have userssign for items on mobile or the desktop app.  Loan signatures are ideal in scenarios where you want to add an extra layer of accountability for asset loaning

The signature is then saved on the loan record. When checking out items in bulk, (using the desktop site) users can sign once for all items being checked out.

Signatures can be enforced for specific categories that you choose and can include custom loan agreement text. 

Click “Settings” > “Loan Options” > “Configure Loan Signatures“

2) Custom Fields for Loans, Loanees, Users, Licenses and Accessories

Custom fields are ideal in scenarios where you need to capture additional information on asset loans in addition to the notes. Custom fields for sub users and loanees can be added to hold more information on your user base as well.

Custom fields can be utilized in workflow automation. For example, if you stored a field on loanees called, “Class Level” and during check out, if a loanee is a class level of “beginner” you can reject assets that should be for advanced users only.

Custom loan fields are under “Settings” > “Loan Options” > “Manage Custom Loan Fields“

(Reftab’s public API supports updating custom field data on your loanees and users too)

Enhancements 

1) When checking out or reserving items in bulk, items are now combined into one email. 

Turn this on from “Settings” > “Email Settings / Logs” > “Bulk Loan Checked Out” and “Bulk Reservation Submission“. (if this is not set to ‘on’ the bulk emails will not send)

2) Workflows can now run on a schedule – this is a major update to workflows as it allows you to even further automate your environment.

For example, a workflow can run every day and check for assets that have expired warranty dates. If any are found, you can change the status label of the asset to a custom label such as, “Expired Warranty”.

View video demo on scheduling workflows: https://youtu.be/p5chUUakDkI

3) We’ve added support for Gmail oAuth SMTP – you can now easily configure your gmail accounts to send Reftab emails.

4) Cloning an asset now clones the asset image.

5) Workflows can move assets between locations. (this is a new workflow ‘action’ called ‘change asset location’)

We build features with direct input from customers and we always welcome feedback. We’re certain these improvements will help you stay organized and save time. If you have any questions, please reach out to info@reftab.com, we’re always happy to help.

Thank you!

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Our API is now public

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello!

We’re happy to announce Reftab’s API is now public. Our documentation can be viewed here: https://www.reftab.com/api-docs/

A public API allows you to expand the use-case of Reftab by providing a great deal of flexibility.

For example, you can create scripts (Python, Javascript etc..) to generate or update assets. No matter what language you use, you can interface with Reftab to better meet your business needs by making Reftab fit to how you run your business today.

Simply log into your Reftab account and click “Settings“. You’ll see a new setting for “API Keys”. Click, “Create API Key” and a public / private key pair will generate.

Coming soon, we’ll be exposing more endpoints such as loans and reservations. Thank you! Please reach out to info@reftab.com for any questions.

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Updates To SSO – Just-in-Time Provisioning

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz
Departments Image


Reftab recently issued an update that effects the way users log in via Single Sign-On. 
Just-In-Time (JIT) Provisioning rules are now more strictly adhered to. 


What’s New
Every time a sub user logs into Reftab via SSO, whether their account exists or not, the Just-In-Time roles are checked to ensure that the user matches to a defined policy at all times. 


What Does This Affect?If a sub-account attempts to login and no JIT rules are found to match for the requesting user, the sub account will be disassociated and access will be removed.

Can I Prevent this From Happening?
To avoid this from happening, Reftab admins will need to set the “Role Lock” feature “On”. This will avoid the role check from occurring at each login.

What happened Previously?
If someone logged in and no matching JIT rules were found, (and the user’s accounts already existed in Reftab) they would login to whatever access role they had previously.


Why the Change?
The reason for this is to more strictly adhere to established security measures. 
For example, if a person works in a department that should have access to Reftab, then moves to another department that should not access Reftab, their account should no longer have access to Reftab automatically without a Reftab admin having to update anything on their end.

Finally, users who do not use Just-In-Time Provisioning should not see any changes. If you see any unanticipated changes, reach out and we will assist.
If you have any questions, please contact Reftab support, info@reftab.com
Thank you,

Updates!

April 2020 Release Notes

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

First and foremost, we hope that everyone is safe and keeping busy during these times. We know a lot of companies are going fully remote; the Reftab team is here to make sure your asset management remains capable and robust. Read on below about our newest improvements.

If anyone has trouble paying their Reftab subscription, please reach out to us, we’re more than happy to work with you.

New Updates

Over at Reftab, we’ve been keeping pretty busy. Here’s a list of what’s new since our last release notes were sent in January:

  • Options for asset number increment.
    • Click “Settings” > “General” > “Asset Increment“.
    • There are two options:
      • Standard – Asset ID’s will increment up based on all assets in your account.
      • Location – Asset ID’s will increment up based on all assets within the selected location.
  • Bulk attach accessories to assets.
    • When checking out accessories, you can use checkboxes to select multiple assets at once to attach accessories.
  • Increased picture quality of images taken from Reftab mobile app.
  • Images taken from mobile app now save the asset ID in the filename.
  • Kit loan history now visible within kits.
    • Click on any standard kit and you will see a button “View Kit Loan History”
    • A table will display that you can download to Excel of all loan history of the kit.
  • Clicking on the charts on the loans page will auto filter the loans list.
  • Bulk import of loans can now accept licenses and accessory loans.
  • New Access Role setting to limit category editor.
    • Click “Settings” > “Access Roles” > “New Access Role” > “Portal Access / Other Settings“. Look for the select menu labeled, “Category Editor Access“.
    • Change this to Hide to restrict the category editor for the users in your group.
    • Edit will allow users in the group to edit categories.
  • Two new options for custom text in the user portal. Click “Settings” > “Portal“. Look for the two below inputs:
    • Custom loan notes label – Provide custom text for loan notes area in the portal. By default, the text displays “Reason for Reservation“.
    • Custom portal information / notice display – Display a notice at the top of the portal page.
  • Search on partial asset ID’s.
  • Bulk extend loan return times by a date range.
    • On the loans page, master accounts will see the button, “Bulk Change Due“.
    • You can specify a date range such as May 1st, 9:00am – May 2nd, 9:00am.
    • You select a new due date, and click “Change Due Dates“
    • The system will identify any current loans that fall within the chosen date range and change all due dates to the newly chose due date.
  • Accept ACH payments via invoice.
    • Only available to yearly billing.
  • Other site optimizations

Additionally, two new updates: Workflows and Sub Locations are explained below.

Workflows

Showing the workflow builder
Reftab’s workflow builder

Reftab is proud to announce a major new feature called, “Workflows”. This very powerful feature allows you define certain conditions that when met, trigger an action.

For example, when an asset is checked out to a certain user (or type of user) display a custom message on screen. Or, when an asset is edited and changed from one location to another, update the status label of the asset.

There’s a lot of configurations that you can come up with. We suggest giving it a try and seeing how it can fit your business needs. This feature is only available for Enterprise accounts. We will be making additional updates to this feature as we progress. Please don’t hesitate to send feedback if you’d like something specific.

Sub Locations

Sub Locations

Sub Locations allow you to further organize your assets into more meaningful groupings within larger locations. For example, a building can be a location and each department within the building can be a sub location.

Assets can be easily transferred between locations and sub locations. You can run reports on locations and sub locations as well.

You can set a custom name to use instead of “Sub Locations”. For example, if you’d rather use a term such as, “Departments” you can. Click “Settings” > “General” > “Sub Locations Custom Label Name“. Change this to anything you’d like.

Thank you! Please reach out to info@reftab.com for any questions.

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Jan 2020 Release Notes

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello,

We are excited to share with you new Reftab features released this past weekend. These updates come from customer suggestions and we thank you for your continued feedback to help improve Reftab. 

Desktop Updates:

  1. Kit Templates: Available to Enterprise plans, you can now build templates which describe specific components kits should be made of before being loaned to anyone. You can use the mobile app, (and desktop site) to scan barcodes allowing you fill the kit.
    1. This helps ensure kits are built with all necessary components before going on loan.
    2. You are also given a “Potential Kits Count” which tells you how many kits can be made based upon the requirements in the template and the available items in your account. 
    3. For example, you can have a template, “Employee Workstations” which requires one laptop with 16GB RAM, a laptop charger and two monitors. Based upon items available in your account, Reftab will show you how many “Employee Workstation” kits can be assembled.
  2. Edit Reservation Dates of Assets: From the reservations page, a new button will allow you to edit the reservation dates of a submitted reservation.
    1. Portal users can edit their reservation time. However, the access role they are in must have the option, “Allow Edit of Asset Loan Due Date” set to “on” and “Allow Override Loan Rules” set to “on“.
    2. Note: Only reserved assets can be edited. We’re working to add kits / accessories / license reservation edits in a supplemental update.
  3. Edit Loan Return Time: From the loans page, a new button will allow you to edit the loan return time.
    1. Portal users can edit their loan return time. However the role they are in must have the option, “Allow Edit of Asset Loan Due Date” set to “on“.
    2. Note: Only loaned assets can have their loan return time edited. We’re working to add kits / accessories / license loan return edits in a supplemental update.
  4. Keyword Search:  Search assets based upon keyword is now available to portal users and admins. To use the keyword search as an admin, select ‘keyword’ from the search dropdown list. Portal users will use the search input above the list of categories. 
    1. For example, if you type “123-ABC”, Reftab searches all assets across all fields and asset titles that match that value and returns those assets.
    2. Note: Only searches assets currently.
  5. Scan Out Page Defaults:  From within “Settings” > “Loan Options” there is a new setting called “Scan Default”. The value set here will automatically be selected on the scan out page.
    1. This makes using the scan out page easier for users. The loan return time will auto select the option you choose instead of an end-user having re-select an option if the page refreshes or another user uses a different setting.
  6. Hide Indefinite Loans: From within “Settings” > “Loan Options” there is a new setting called “Hide Indefinite”. This allows you to hide (or show) indefinite loans on the loans page
    1. This helps clean up the loans page by hiding items that are indefinitely loaned. Feedback we’ve received was that most of the indefinite loans are more or less permanently assigned items. The loans page can now filter out indefinite loans by default to avoid accidental return of an assigned item and make the list easier to work with.
  7. Show Asset Images by Default: From within “Settings” > “General Settings” there is a new setting called “Display Images”.  Setting this to “on” will show asset images by default when viewing the asset table.

Mobile App Updates:

  1. Clone Assets: Assets can be cloned from within the mobile app
  2. Fulfill a Reservation: When an asset is scanned, if the asset is reserved for the user, they can now tap a button to ‘fulfill’ their reservation. The item will move form being reserved to being checked out to the user.
    1. This allows users to fulfill their own reservation as opposed to having the need for an admin to check out a reserved item.
  3. Specify Loan Times: When loaning items within the app, you can now choose a specific time as opposed to a date only.
  4. Scan Kit Template Items: App can be used to scan items into kit templates.

General: 

  1. Fixed a bug on the login page when using the ‘Remember Me’ option would not remember the login. This is now resolved. 

Please remember to update your iOS and Android apps for proper functionality. If you have issues, please perform a force close and then reopen the app. 

Thank you for reviewing our release notes. For any questions, please reach out and we’ll be happy to help.

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NEW: Asset Depreciation / Additional Reminder Emails

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello!

Reftab has been working hard to deploy some new and useful features to the platform. A lot of what we do is based upon user requests and feedback. We’re happy to announce the below are now live in Reftab:

  1. Asset Depreciation is now live. Depreciation is calculated using US GAAP rules for depreciation.
  2. Email subject lines are now customizable
  3. Reservation reminder emails can be customized as a scheduled jobs, allowing you to alert users before, during and after a scheduled reservation. You can create as many of these notices as you need.
  4. The iOS and Android mobile apps have been updated with a new “Scan to Field” setting. This allows you to scan serial number barcodes to add to your asset instead of typing the serial number manually.
  5. Reports have been updated to report on loan check out and return dates. For example, you can now run automated reports on every asset returned or checked out in a relative time (next week, last week, next month etc..)
  6. New Avery Label size: 6576
  7. Bulk edit asset images. You can now select multiple assets at once and apply an image to all of them.

Thank you very much! We are always working on new features to make the platform more efficient and useful for our users. If you have any suggestions feel free to email us at: info@reftab.com and we’ll do our best to work with you to improve the platform.

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NEW: Relative Reports and Currency Field

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello,

Reftab is pleased to announce the release of two new features from the past few weeks:

1) A new field type to hold currency.
2) Relative Reporting.

First, from the categories page, you can now use ‘currency’ as a field type. This will properly store currency values formatted in your regions currency. Setting your currency can be done from the settings menu. Reftab has added this to eventually work alongside our upcoming feature of depreciation tracking.

Secondly, Reftab now supports relative reporting. This means you can run a report using relative language such as, “Next Week“, “Last Week“, “Next Month“, “Next Year” and so forth…

This is an extremely valuable report mechanism that can help keep you informed of your assets before certain dates occur. It is highly suggested to build these reports and use them with the job scheduler.

Check out this video on relative reporting for more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqpiVyteQ0o

How-To/Updates!

Business Hours and Maximum Loan Times

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

In order to prevent users from reserving items or returning items outside of your business hours, you can now configure settings to limit loan times. This may help to ensure that users don’t reserve an item for say, 1:00am – 3:00am, even accidentally.

Furthermore, in order to set a limit on how long a user can borrow equipment, we now have a feature to set maximum loan hours per category and role. This will ensure that users are limited from borrowing equipment for too long a period.

To Configure Business Hours:

Log into your Reftab account  and click ‘settings’. Then, click the option for ‘date and time’. Then, click ‘configure business hours’. 

You will then be able to set hours that you will allow users to reserve items and set return dates on check outs. Anytime someone tries to set a  reservation, (or a return date) outside of your business hours, an error will appear on the screen and the action will be prevented. 

Business hours will display as a gray area on the reservation calendars. Users will not be able to drag their mouse on these times.

For example, if you set business hours from 9:00AM – 5:00PM Monday through Friday, a user can only drag their mouse on the calendar between the hours of 9AM and 5PM. If they reserve the item overnight, users can drag their mouse across business hours as long as the return time is between 9AM – 5PM next day.

To Configure Maximum Loan Times:

Log into your Reftab account  and click ‘settings’. Then, click the option for ‘loan options’. Then, click ‘configure maximum loan times’. For each category and role, provide a value in hours to set limits.

For example, if you have a maximum limit of 24 hours set on your category of “cameras”, anytime a user tries to select longer than 24 hours on the calendar, the system will throw an error saying that the item can only be reserved for a max of 24 hours.

UPDATE: Reftab has a “loan override” option available. To give a user the rights to override set business hours or max loan time, edit their access role and find the option for “allow loan override” and set to ‘yes’.

FAQ/How-To/Jira Integration

Reftab Jira Integration – How To

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing the Reftab Jira Plugin. With this plugin, you can seamlessly link assets in Reftab to Jira, enhancing your workflow and asset management capabilities.

In this how-to, we will go over the following:

How to connect Jira to Reftab

To start off, you will need a valid public and secret api key from Reftab. To obtain these keys:

1) Log into your Reftab account as an administrator and click “Settings” > “API Keys” > “Create“.

2) On the screen that appears, copy these values onto a note pad before you click close.

Next, you will want to log into Jira as an admin, navigate to “Manage Apps” > “Explore more apps“.

Then search for “Reftab” and install the application.

Once installed you should see a popup modal in the bottom left, select the “Configure” option.

On the next screen you will be presented with a connection configuration screen, here you will input the public and secret API keys we generated and copied earlier.

Additionally, if you previously used our old Jira integration, you will want to utilize the migrate data button to bring over existing links to assets.

With the Reftab Jira connection fully set up, you can now link assets to Jira issues with ease. Here’s an example:

If you need to link a users asset to an issue, simply:

  1. Navigate to the Reftab Assets section of the Jira issue.
    • In previous versions of our Jira Integration, you may be used to seeing “Assets” field for this functionality, this has since changed and you will need look for “Reftab Assets“
  2. Enter the user’s email address in the search bar.
  3. Jira will display a list of assets associated with that email.
  4. Select the relevant asset to link it to the issue.

Notes on the Integration

  • In the previous version of the integration, the asset list would prepopulate automatically when clicking on the dropdown field. Due to Jira’s deprecation of the external assets API, you are now required to input the user’s email address to display their associated assets.
  • In the previous version of the integration, data from Jira synced to Reftab once daily or could be updated manually using the sync button. This has changed in the current version. Now, data is pulled live whenever an asset’s details page is opened in Reftab, ensuring real-time updates and accuracy.

That’s it, the Jira integration is now fully setup!

For any questions or assistance, please email help@reftab.com

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New: Import Your Asset Loans

Posted on by Michael Caslowitz

Hello everyone,

We’ve been adding some new features to the platform such as a bulk asset loan import tool.

This feature allows you to import a list of assets and loanees to create an indefinite loan for each. This allows you to avoid manually creating a loan for each user in your system one-by-one.

Here’s a quick video on the import functionality Importing Data into Reftab

Thanks! As always, reach out to info@reftab.com for any questions.