This blog post will cover a lot of new features, mobile app updates and bug fixes that we've been working on recently.

Introducing Account Groups
We just added the ability to create groups to help you organize your accounts. Each group will be separated within your Account Overviews with their own 'group total' balances. You also have the option to exclude a group from being added to your overall balances.

To start using the account group feature, click on Settings at the top right side of the page, then click on Accounts. Below your list of accounts you'll see a new form to add a new group. Once you've added a group you can assign new or existing accounts to them. Note: Account Groups requires an active Premium Membership.

iOS App Update
The developer we contracted to rebuild the app has finished all functions of the app itself. We're now going through and testing all the sections of the app for bugs and any issues. Once that is done we simply need to update the UI and we'll be ready to launch. I hope to have some screenshots of the app with the new UI available soon.

Android App Update
Several months ago one of our users reached out to us asking if they could have a shot at rebuilding the Android app and we said 'of course!' Since they're doing it as a side project of their own we aren't making any promises about a delivery timeframe but so far the app is looking really good. Here are some screenshots from the Alpha version of the new app:


Recent bug fixes / minor updates
Most of the recent bug fixes revolved around input validation to make sure that when you're adding, editing or deleting transactions, reminders, budgets, etc you won't run into unexpected results based on the data you enter. There were also some tweaks to the Import Transactions tool to better recognize data fields and automatically match them on the field verification page. Running balances also got an update that fixed some issues with the balances not showing up correctly if you started paging through your transactions.

Happy Birthday to us!
In addition to all of the above, ClearCheckbook just turned 10 years old today! I launched the site back in May 2006 as a way for myself and some friends to manage our personal finances. The site has grown and improved tremendously over the years due in large part to the suggestions of you, our users.

We'll have more news about the mobile apps soon.

Thanks!

Brandon
Founder, ClearCheckbook

We've been getting a lot of questions lately regarding the iOS app so this update is meant to address all of those. The app is still being worked on but doesn't have any real UI applied to it yet (the developer is getting all the functionality nailed down and then we'll get it looking pretty). Once we start adding the UI we'll post some screenshots and updates.

May 4, 2016 Update - The developer is wrapping up the last section, reminders, now. After that's done we need to go through and do some final testing and complete the UI. We'll have more information soon.

May 18, 2016 Update - All functions of the app have been coded and implemented. We are now updating the UI and in the process of running through the app to catch any bugs.

We're happy to announce an update to ClearCheckbook that allows all premium members to attach files to their transactions. This is great for attaching purchase orders, receipts, contracts, statement of works, etc to your transactions for archival purposes and to easily correlate transactions with any necessary documents.

If you're already a premium member, you can enable the Attach a File feature by clicking on Settings at the top right side of the page and then click on Manage Custom Transaction Fields and then change the drop down list next to the Attach a File option.

Once you've enabled the Attach a File option you'll see a new option on the Add and Edit transaction fields that allow you to select a file. When you add or edit a transaction after selecting a file, the file will be given a unique codename and uploaded via secure connection to our file hosting server.



Once you've attached a file to a transaction, you can view it by clicking the paperclip icon. This will download the file to your computer so you can refer to it as needed. You can also use the Search tool to find all transactions that have an attachment associated with them. This will make it extremely easy to hunt down the necessary transactions if you're searching for the file later.



This has been a highly requested feature and we're happy to have it out and available for use now. There aren't immediate plans to integrate this ability into the iOS or Android apps that are currently being rebuilt but it's something we'll look into for a further update.

The biggest change for ClearCheckbook in 2015 was the switch from our old hosting environment on our dedicated server to a new hosting solution that allows for much easier data backups, scalable resource handling and much more in depth development tools we use for error debugging.

The old server we had the site running on was set up and started hosting ClearCheckbook back in 2008. After almost 8 years of service, the server was starting to show its age and the limitations of its hardware were becoming ever more apparent. This all came to a head on July 4, 2015 when the massive size of our transactions tables was causing major problems for the server. The site wasn't able to stay up for more than a few minutes before being overloaded and crashing. After hiring some great outside help, we got those issues under control and started work on the migration to our current hosting solution (that migration took place at the end of October and has been running extremely well ever since).

What we're currently working on in-house:
* File attachments for transactions. This will give you the ability to attach a receipt or document to any transaction you add to the site.
* Updates to the Jive feature that will show you when a transaction was jived and give you the ability to 'revert' back to the jive status on a certain date
* Saving import configurations so you don't have to select the same fields every time you import a file from the same source. This will be helpful if you import files regularly from the same financial institution.
* In addition to the above, we've got our normal backlog of suggestions and requests that we'll be working on.

What we've outsourced and is currently in progress:
* iOS app rebuild. The iOS app is currently being rebuilt into a native app that will work much more efficiently on the current and future versions of iOS.
* Android app rebuild. The Android app is also being rebuilt and will have an updated UI as well as some additional syncing features.

We'll keep you updated when we have more updates in regards to the mobile apps and when we launch some of the new updates we're working on.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or feature suggestions please pass them our way!

We've fully migrated from our old host to the new hosting solution. We'll be monitoring traffic and bandwidth over the next few days and scaling the various systems to match our demand. This transition ensures that we can easily scale to match demand as the site continues to grow.

We'll keep you all posted over the next few days about updates to the mobile apps and more.

If you're getting an SSL issue, make sure you're visiting https://www.clearcheckbook.com and not https://clearcheckbook.com. For some reason our redirecting isn't working properly but we're trying to figure that out.