Announcing Daylite 4

Product Updates / May 29, 2012 / Alykhan Jetha

The day is finally here. After countless hours of work and what ended up being a nearly complete rewrite, we are pleased to announce the release of Daylite 4.

We were quick to adapt our products as the iOS platform grew rapidly due to massive sales for both iPhone and then iPad, and released Daylite Touch, Billings and Billings Pro Apps. With solid native apps already in place as part of our small business software lineup, we are glad to return our attention back to the Mac.

When we began work on Daylite 4 in full force, we had some important decisions to make about our approach to Daylite on OS X. We considered simply building on top of the Daylite 3 interface, by adding features and modernizing the visual look and feel. Or, we could truly redesign it by starting from scratch and really focus our efforts on making Daylite dramatically easier to use. And in doing so, would give us a solid foundation to build on in the future as we continue to evolve the product. Despite the substantial risk, we decided to go with our guts and build something that we could truly be excited about.

So, with our engineers already working on low level code to make Daylite more responsive so users would never have to wait for results to display, our designers met with many of our customers, both longtime users and those brand new to Daylite. We wanted to learn what they thought was most important to add, and also what caused them the most difficulty using the old version of Daylite. It was great to hear from so many different business perspectives during this process and the product is definitely stronger because of all of the input we received.

The result of this redesign process is drastically simplified interface and a much reduced learning curve, while still retaining the core of what Daylite does. We were also able to include many of the most requested features, such as the ability to view family or personal calendars inside Daylite, drag and drop re-ordering of tasks that can also now be assigned to specific stages in pipelines, external meeting invites, and so much more.

Using Daylite on mobile devices is now even better with built in CalDAV and CardDAV servers, which allow you to use the Contacts and Calendar apps on iOS to enable Caller ID and Siri integration on your iPhone.

A completely new Daylite Mail Assistant for Apple Mail, now works in both conversation view and in full screen mode and as well, offers quick access to task and appointment creation or tagging keywords.

During the development process, we decided to remove some less used or features that didn’t quite fit with our new direction. Based on your feedback, some of these features may come back, so please check out the before you upgrade page for more details. To ease the transition, we will be continuing to sell and support Daylite 3 until the end of 2012 for customers that depend on those features that have not yet made the jump to Daylite 4.

Previously we had licenses for each separate component, now every license of Daylite includes Apps for Mac and iPhone and iPad, Daylite Mail Assistant and Daylite Server. We’ve also simplified things further by making licenses based on active users, each with full access on as many devices as they need.

On behalf of everyone here at Marketcircle, we truly love this brand new Daylite App for Mac and are super excited to get it into your hands. Visit our tour page, find out what’s new, or go ahead and grab demo versions from the App Store. Or shoot us a note to @Marketcircle and we’ll be happy to chat with you about it.

Until next time…
AJ

P.S. We are working hard on Marketcircle Cloud for Daylite. Sign up to be notified of our progress.

101 Responses to “Announcing Daylite 4”

    Paul Freeman
  1. I think the direction of the product looks good in theory and the upgrade price is reasonable.

    I’m very concerned about the missing features though. One of the main reasons I bought the product was for the Moneyworks integration for doing estimates. If Cognito (the vendor) decides not to implement a change to the API (because it means work for them). I’ll be stuck with two non-integrated products. I had to pay for the connector as well, so effectively thats money thats down the drain.

    I’m also concerned about the implications of the changes to reports. I rely on the print layouts I’ve created in Daylite 3 for handling all my estimates, licensing etc. workflow. As the print formats seem to use the same underlying engine as the reports, I wonder what the implication of this is.

  2. Emily Rudow
  3. @ Paul Freeman We are exploring a new, REST/JSON based API for connectors in the future. We’ll maintain the API and we’ll guide 3rd parties on how to make and maintain connectors. This new mechanism will allow for much better integration opportunities.

    Many of the standard reports have been removed because we feel that the functionality is better served with the new smart list mechanism and improved column mode printing. Custom reports will have to be manually migrated or redone, especially those with scripts. Many of the low level API calls have changed with the new foundation. Scripting within the reports has been simplified, but still requires an expert. Adding and editing reports is now done from within the “Report Templates” preference pane. If there are reports that you would really like to see back, please let us know. If there is a specific report/print layout that you need, you can contact a Certified Marketcircle Partner who can build a template for you.

  4. Bert Shure
  5. @Emily Rudow
    Hi Emily:

    Thanks for the detailed reply. DL is the master repository for my contacts and calendar. I think that I can talk to CalDAV and CardDAV from my Android phone, and (of course) from my iPad.

    i’m thinking that i won’t need google calendar in a browser window to send meeting invites. i’ll use DL4. that’s a good thing.

    the only thing left is that i use google voice on my phone and in my browser. the phone should be fine, but how will google voice stay sync’d with my DL contacts? with DL3, i can make changes in either place and when it doesn’t crash, syncing works great. this will be going away.

    i hope there is an easier way to push contact changes from DL4 to my google contacts than exporting and importing.

    i would hate to have to go back to dialing my phone by hand when i’m at my desk.

    it does seem like the pieces are coming together.

    thanks,

    bert

  6. Dan
  7. How can I send a appointment or meeting to someone who is in my database but not an internal user ?

    Hope that makes sense, I want to invite them to join my meeting.

  8. Dan
  9. I found that it is possible in the Manuel but it doesn’t say how to invite

  10. Dan
  11. it worked , so does this happen automatically ? when I add some one ?

  12. Derek
  13. As soon as Billings integration is available I will upgrade instantly!

  14. Task timers are a big deal for our company as we use them a lot. We do a lot of tech support and need the ability to track time spent giving support to each client. One feature I had hoped would be added would be the ability to view total time spent on a given task type for each project.

    I’m really hoping the Daylite team adds to this feature, not rolls it back.

    Looks good so far though guys! I’m looking forward to being able to upgrade soon, once I am sure it is safe for our company.

  15. Emily Rudow
  16. @ Tim Adams Thanks for your feedback. Billings Pro integration is high up on the priority list and will be added soon!

  17. It all looks great! But, without Account Edge Connector, we will be unable to move forward with Daylite. So lets see some 3rd party developers create a fantastic new connector:)

  18. Emily Rudow
  19. @Fred B We’re currently gathering connector requests. Thanks for you input, we will notify though our blog/twitter once new connectors have been released for Daylite 4.

  20. Jack
  21. @Emily will the integration be for just Billings Pro or Billings as well and is there a timeline for this update.
    Much appreciated.

  22. Emily Rudow
  23. @Jack We are currently collecting requests regarding the integration. We will keep users informed about the status of the integration through this blog. Feel free to send additional feedback to info [at] marketcircle [dot] com.

  24. Hi Guys. Your iCloud version is just what I need. Your site says ‘by end of year’ and also ‘coming very soon’ – is there an ETA on this? I’m itching to get going with Daylite.

  25. Emily Rudow
  26. @Glenn If you add your email we will notify you when status updates are released. Thanks 🙂
    http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/pricing/

  27. cadratin
  28. Sounds great!
    But sorry, won’t upgrade until Billings integration.
    Can’t imagine not using both products together…

  29. Emily Rudow
  30. @cadratin we’re working hard on the Billings Pro integration with Daylite 4 so stay tuned!

  31. Zack
  32. Will upgrade when billings integration is complete!

  33. Emily Rudow
  34. @Zack Thanks for the feedback. Billings integration in Daylite 4 is a high priority for us as well- We’re working on it.

  35. Tobi
  36. Hm. I’m new to the Daylite world. I installed it on my machines and set it up (half a day for a newbie) and NOW I found out that DL4 doesn’t support Billings.
    Do you already have a date, when Billings4 will come?? That was my purpose… 🙁

  37. Emily Rudow
  38. @Tobi We don’t have a specific date right now as to when Daylite 4 will support Billings Pro, but it is a highly requested feature so we are working hard on the integration to release as soon as possible.

  39. Juian Wong
  40. Guys- why did you drop the ‘formatting styles’ from the notes section?
    Also, when creating an object (notes, task, person), the highlighted object (project, person, group) is no longer automatically linked.
    These are not very friendly changes. I really want to give some feedback. How do I contact you?

  41. Emily Rudow
  42. @Juian Wong You can contact support by opening a ticket bit.ly/g9WvzH. Thanks for your feedback we will log it in our feature requests.

  43. Gabby
  44. Waiting for AccountEdge connector.

  45. Emily Rudow
  46. @Gabby Thanks for your feedback. We’ve logged it in our feature requests.

  47. I received an email after entering my info on your link: http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/trydaylite/, but the email I received had no links.

    Now that v4 has Daylite Server does that mean I no longer need BusySync to sync my data?

    I have two Google accounts, can Daylite sync data to the two different calendars?

  48. Emily Rudow
  49. @ Diane we recent the email could you email erudow@marketcircle [dot] com if you are still having issues in receiving links?

    BusySync gives users with Google Calendar and Daylite 3 the ability to ‘talk’ to each other via Sync Services. Daylite 4 works differently and does not use the Sync Services technology, it uses CalDAV for sharing calendars. So for viewing Google Calendars in Daylite 4, BusySync is not needed. For users with Google Calendars, they have the ability to subscribe to their primary calendar within Daylite. This means they will see their Google Calendar in their ‘My Calendar’ view, but it will be ‘read only’. If the user has two separate Google accounts, then they can subscribe to the primary calendar from both accounts.

  50. Hello,

    I have daylite 4 now but having problems with sync. contacts
    with daylite 3 this looks more easy to set up
    Can somebody tell me how I can sync between daylie 4 and my addressbook
    I’m using

    Mac OSX10.8.2

    Thanks

  51. Emily Rudow
  52. @Marcel Have you opened a support ticket yet? If not, please initiate one so we can resolve your issue quicker: http://bit.ly/ZivhAw
    Thanks 🙂

  53. Matt
  54. For the love of God, will you please develop the AccountEdge connector?

  55. Emily Rudow
  56. @Matt we’ve made the API’s available to third party developers so it is up to them to develop the addons.

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