One record page for the whole suite — PBJ CRM 7.35 and the four modules

Every work record in the PBJ CRM suite now opens in the same place, drawn the same way. This release covers PBJ CRM 7.35, PBJ Helpdesk 7.18, PBJ Dispatch & Appointments 7.08, PBJ Invoicing 7.17 and PBJ RingCentral 7.13. Update PBJ CRM first — the four modules need it.

Before you update: take a database backup

PBJ CRM 7.35 carries a database change. The CRM database goes from version 27 to 28 and adds one new table, pbj_crm_binned — the table that makes the new restorable bin possible. The step only creates the table, it runs once, and it does not alter or move any of your existing data. It has been proven on our own test site, but this release is the first time it runs on a live MySQL host. Take a database backup before you update. None of the four modules changes its own database.

One record page, for six kinds of record

A ticket, a task, a dispatch visit, a text conversation, an invoice and an estimate now all open in one layout instead of six. Three panes you can drag wider or narrower and that remember their widths; one Thread down the middle that puts texts, emails, calls, notes and system events in a single run rather than behind separate tabs; an Edit mode that turns the middle of the page into a proper form; and the reply box pinned at the foot where you left it. On a phone the whole thing folds into one column with the reply box always in reach.

Contact and business profiles are deliberately untouched — they render exactly as they did before.

Delete, and a bin you can get things back out of

Tickets, tasks, dispatch visits and text conversations can now be deleted properly. Deleting moves the record into a bin it can be restored from rather than destroying it, and a binned record leaves every list, count and badge immediately — including the client portal and the lists on a contact’s profile.

Two things people could do before, and now cannot

Deleting is owner or admin only, on all four kinds. That narrows two behaviours you may be relying on today, and we would rather you read it here than discover it:

• A manager can no longer delete a dispatch visit.
• An employee can no longer delete a task. Until now an employee could destroy a task outright.

Nothing else about what anyone can see or edit has changed.

Invoices are voided, not deleted

An invoice has no Delete, and it is not getting one. An invoice is voided: the invoice stays readable and countable, and it drops out of Money owed to you. Estimates are unchanged — a quote is declined or it expires.

One related change worth naming: an employee who owns an invoice now sees Void. The server had always accepted that void — the button was simply hiding it, so the screen and the server disagreed. The server permission is unchanged and has not been widened; the button now tells the truth about what the server will do.

RingCentral’s “Bin” is now “Move to Bin folder”

RingCentral’s existing Bin verb has been renamed Move to Bin folder and moved into the More menu. It never deleted anything and it still does not — it moves the conversation into your RingCentral Bin folder, where it is still there and can be moved back. It was renamed so it cannot be mistaken for the new Delete, which is a different action on a different store.

Smaller things you will notice

• Clicking an email address or a phone number on a record fills in that record’s reply box with the right channel and recipient, instead of opening a separate window. The inbox and profiles are unchanged.
• Checklists work again. Ticking a checklist item was silently broken across the whole suite: the tick bounced back and nothing saved. Ticking now works, a done item is struck through, and Enter adds the next one.
• Tasks attached to a record sit in their own column on the right, and Add task attaches to the record you are on.
• Texts and calls from a phone provider on a ticket now read as TEXT and CALL rather than EMAIL.
• Internal “To us” dispatch events had no owner, no hand-over, no tasks and no Convert or Edit, because they identified themselves by their mode rather than their record type. They do now.
• A text conversation finally shows a contact card for the person at the other end. Until now they appeared nowhere on the record but the title.

Per-plugin changelogs

• PBJ CRM — Changelog
• PBJ Helpdesk — Changelog
• PBJ Dispatch & Appointments — Changelog
• PBJ Invoicing — Changelog
• PBJ RingCentral — Changelog