PRS Version 8

in version 8.0.5

A Retired field has been added to the Sites form (bottom right), this allows you to hide inactive sites without having to delete them and lose historical information (similar to the Personnel Retired field). More information can be found in the PRS online help.

in version 8.0.5

Markdown is a simple set of rules for formatting text to generate nicely formatted HTML. Although the PRS has always had a Markdown option for composing HTML formatted emails, it has not been very accessible because you needed a different HTML mail signature to use it. We’ve lifted this restriction and added a Use Markdown option to the mail composition form.

Hover the mouse cursor over the Use Markdown checkbox to bring up the Markdown Help tooltip (see above screenshot).

in version 8.0.4

You can now go directly to related linked document records from the Document Search Tool results.

in version 8.0.4

The Message Merge Tool now includes an EMail addresses option that allows you to select any combination of the recipients' EMail and Fax/EMail addresses.

In the following example the email will be sent to the address in the Fax/Email field. If the Fax/Email field is blank it will send the email to the address in the Email field.

in version 8.0.4

The creator of a new note can be altered providing the user has the administrator password. This is handy for organisations where the administration staff enter records on behalf of the consultant.

in version 8.0.4

You can set the PRS colour when in Offline Access mode using the Tools→Setup→Offline Access… menu command. This serves as a visual cue to remind you that you are viewing a read-only copy of the database (the PRS now displays a different colour by default).

in version 8.0.3

The Vacancies form is now divided into Tabbed pages instead of a single scrolled form.

The Candidate Activity section has been moved to Page 1 because it is the recruitment process’s most viewed and used section.

Page 2 contains vacancy skills, activity, notes, invoicing and billing, and linked documents. The Vacancy type tabs have been moved to a separate sidebar on the right-hand side of the form where they are always visible.

in version 8.0.3

Use the new PRS Tools→Import Outlook Contacts… menu command to create new PRS Personnel and Site records from your Outlook Contacts. It checks for duplicate Personnel names and Email addresses and you can edit and select the contacts you want to import.

in version 8.0.3

You can now set the time that PRS Reminders to the Outlook Calendar are scheduled:

in version 8.0.3

You can now customise the color of Top Note text using the new Top Note Color command button to the Appearance tab of the Tools→Options dialog.

in version 8.0.3

When sending multiple SMS text messages using Message Merge you now have the option of also sending the message in an EMail.

in version 8.0.3

You can now set the contract timesheet units of work on a per timesheet basis:

The default vacancy Billing Units are set in the Contract tab on the Vacancies form.

The selected units are automatically displayed on related invoices:

in version 8.0.3

Incoming Email messages containing PRS Mail Data are recognised by the InBox Tool — the data is extracted automatically and can be used to create and update personnel records and process job applications. When a message containing Mail Data is detected the body of the InBox Mail Message is displayed in blue text:

This feature could be used to process job applications sent from your website. The PRS Mail Data formatting conventions are detailed in the PRS Administration Guide.

in version 8.0.2

Tick the Write PRS reminders to Microsoft Outlook Calendar option (Tools→Options menu command):

From now on all new reminders that you create in the PRS:

Will also appear as appointments in your Microsoft Outlook Calendar:

in version 8.0.2

This feature provides a way to add new items of information to Vacancies and Personnel that are not already catered for by an existing field.

Here is an example scenario: on all our contract vacancies we need to record the name of the supervisor to report to (not necessarily the client) plus a client order number. First we need to create a template for the Unpublished Job Details Vacancies field which is where we will record the additional vacancy details.

From here on in the template text will be automatically copied into the Unpublished Job Details whenever a new vacancy is created:

This will remind the user to enter the additional information:

Exactly the same technique can be used to add additional Personnel information into the Synopsis field on the Personnel Summary form (click the Personnel Summary button on the Personnel form to open the Personnel Summary form).

in version 8.0.2

In addition to the standard vacancy statuses you can define up to two additional custom Vacancy statuses. Custom status values are entered on Appearance page of the PRS Tools→Options dialog:

Once set they appear in the Status drop-down list on the Vacancies form:

You can also use the Find command on the Vacancies form to search for vacancies with a user defined status:

in version 8.0.2

You can view the original message when replying to an email by clicking the View sender’s message link at the bottom of the email form:

in version 8.0.1

The Message Merge tool is used to send Email or SMS message en masse to selected candidates and clients. It is fully integrated with the PRS Mail Templates. See our February 2010 newsletter for usage examples.

in version 8.0.1

The following floating windows can now be resized and maximised to full-screen: Roster Tool, InBox Tool, Messages Tool, Reminders, Unpaid Invoices.

Very handy when working with long lists.

Just click the window maximise button or double-click the window title bar.

Clicking the Goto buttons next to street addresses on the Personnel and Site forms will display the location in a Google street map.

Ever been handed a phone number and wanted to know who it was that called? You can now search for phone numbers using the Find command on the Personnel and Sites forms. Just enter the number or just the last few digits of the phone number and the PRS will search all the phone number fields, automatically ignoring non-numeric characters such as spaces and dashes.

A Job Title wildcard search has been added to the Vacancies Find command.

The Tools→Settings→Notes Types command now supports renaming and deleting Note Types.

This feature requires the PRS8 Shared Data upgrade.

When consultant commissions don’t add up to 100% (on Page 2 of the Vacancies form the PRS generates a red warning message rather than complaining noisily every step of the way.

Old mail and notes can be moved from the database to separate archive files, this will both reduce the size of your database and improve Notes and Mail tool performance. Pressing the Options button on the Mail Archive and Notes tools opens a dialog containing commands to Create, View and Restore note and mail archives.

This feature requires the PRS8 Shared Data upgrade.

See the PRS Changelog for the full list of the changes and bug fixes since the previous release.

The evolution of the PRS’s integrated Email and SMS messaging capabilities has resulted in dramatically increased usage — nowadays it’s not unusual for archived messages to occupy 90% or more of the database. For example 100,000 mail messages typically occupy around 500MB, 250,000 notes occupy around 100MB with all the remaining data typically occupying less than 60MB.

In late 2008 it became clear that large PRS databases (1000MB or more) needed some way to archive and manage both mail and notes (in order to improve their performance and scalability). PRS version 8 achieves these objectives by splitting mail and notes into separate database files and introducing integrated mail and notes archiving features. These changes are transparent to the user.

The upgrade procedure is documented on the PRS website.