Register your hours spent really simple and fast in SaaS solution Exact Online.

In the past I blogged about 8 reasons why I uses a Saas accounting solution for my financial administration. Up till today, I still uses Exact Online with a lot of pleasure for my financial administration. With the introduction of Exact Online Time & Billing in november 2011, we started to use this module in my company for the hour registration of different development teams. As you can see in the title of my blog, I like solutions which are Simple And Fast. The Time and Billing iPhone app is one one of these solutions I like because it is Simple and Fast. Registering my hours is a matter of seconds. Start the app and press the hours symbol.

Now I got a list of all days. The days for which I need to register my hours can be recognized by the plus symbol. Press on the plus symbol.

For the selected day, I can specify the Project, Relation, hour classification and the hours I have spent.

Press on the green submit (Indienen) button and you are done.

Within 1 minute I have entered the hours I spent for the whole week on my iPhone. Hour registration is now fun instead of a boring activity. This app is also available for Android.

The iPhone app can be download via this link or scan this QR tag. Of course this app will also work on the iPad.

More information about the Time and Billing solution can be found here (unfortunatly Dutch only).
Have fun with the registration of the hours you have spent.

Exact System Information improvement report extended with filtered index suggestions.

As of today the Exact System Information improvement report is extended with the possibility to implement filtered indexes for Globe databases on a server with SQL Server 2008 or SQL 2008 R2. See next screen shot from an improvement report.

As of SQL Server 2008 filtered indexes are introduced. A filtered index allows us to create an index with a filter on a subset of rows within a table. A filtered index will:

1. Improve query performance. Statistics are more accurate which can result in better query plans.
2. Reduce index maintenance costs. An index is only maintained when the data in the index is changed.
3. Reduce index storage costs.

Filtered indexes can be very useful on columns which contains mostly NULL values and where the queries retreive only the rows where the data is NOT NULL. In Exact Globe we have a lot of indexes on columns which contains mostly NULL values. See Microsoft website link for more information about filtered indexes.

After implementing filtered indexes on some customer databases, we have seen reduction of the index size between 25% to 30%. This will results in an overall database size reduction of around 10 %. The actual reduction of the index size in your database depends on the number of NULL values in your database. Please DO NOT shrink your database after implementing the filtered indexes. Shrinking databases and explanding database can result in defragmentation of the database files on NTFS level. SQL Server will first use the free space in the database before it will growth.

Performance tests indicated no noticeable performance increase or decrease with read actions, however write performance is gained due to the fact less index information needs to be written. After implementing filtered indexes, the fragmentation of your indexes will be lower. This is good for the overall performance of your Exact solution.

To begin you need to start the Exact System Information tool and request an improvement report. The user who start the Exact System Information tool should have a SQL System Administrator role (SA). If you can implement filtered indexes, it will be mentioned in the improvement report. In the improvement report you will find a link to the script to implement filtered indexes.

We strongly advise you to run the Exact System Information on a regular basis. For instance once per 3 months. We are adding on a regular basis new suggestions to the improvement report to improve your Exact solution. If you have any feedback, please let us know. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to Andre@exact.com

This blog is also published on the Exact Product Blog.

Did you already request an improvement report for your Exact solution?

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Exact started developing the Exact System Information (ESI) tool. With this tool you can receive an improvement report via e-mail. What can you expect in the report?


1. Server improvements.

The server improvement section is related to your SQL server configurations and answers questions like: Have you installed the latest Service packs? Can you make changes in your SQL Server configuration to make use of all available memory? Etcetera.

Screenshot of Server Improvements:

2. Database improvements.

The database improvements section is related to the database itself and gives advice about new available product updates, clean up of historical journal records, clean up of voided entry record, background jobs, clean up of temporary tables etcetera.

Screenshot of database improvements:

The number of requested improvement reports are growing every month. The Exact System Information tool can be downloaded and used for free by all organizations that uses Exact Globe and/or Exact Synergy (Enterprise). Did you already request an improvement report? Do not forget to specify your email address when running the tool.

If you have feedback please comment on this blog or send an email to Andre.van.de.Graaf@exact.com
The ESI tool can be downloaded here. This blogpost is also published on the Exact Product Blog.

Exact moves to new Corporate Headquarters.

This weekend my company is moving to a really nice new building. The new building is located in Delft’s Technopolis Innovation Park, an area that aims to attract companies with a high R&D component. “Technopolis”, as the park is referred to, is one of Europe’s leading knowledge centers, and hopes to become the IT center of the Netherlands. The new building’s proximity to the TU Delft, with which we have a strategic partnership, will enhance collaboration with the university.


The new Exact Headquarters inspires leadership and innovation; it will be a place where knowledge exchange and teamwork thrive, and where collaboration between business and education flourish.

For the nearly 500 employees based in Delft, the new building means a flexible, open work environment, in terms of both time and space. Flexible working hours, private meeting areas, open working spaces, and at the same time, a welcoming, informal gathering place to meet with colleagues, business partners, customers and visitors.

I'm really looking forward to the first working day on Monday 26 april 2010 in this new inspiring building.

Receive an improvement report of your SQL configuration and Exact databases.

In 2009, we start building the Exact System Informtion (ESI) Tool. This tool serves both Exact and the customers: Exact gets clear insight in how customers use our software and customers get targetted and personal advice on their use of our software. I'm happy to see that a lot of our customers have used the ESI tool. As of today the Exact System Information tool is extended with an option to receive an improvement report per e-mail.

If you specified your e-mail address and press on the Start Analysis button, the Exact System Information will analyze your SQL Server and Exact databases. When the analysis is completed you will receive within 10 minutes the improvement report. The report is divided in 2 sections:

1. Server improvements. Server improvements are related to your SQL server configurations like:
   Have you installed the latest Service packs?
   Possible changes in your SQL Server configuration to make use of all available memory.
   Etc....
    
2. Database improvements. Database improvements are related to the database itself like: 
   Available product updates.
   Clean up of historical journal records.
   Clean up voided entry records.
   Determine not configured  background jobs.
   Clean up of temporary tables.
   Big SQL log file in comparison to the SQL data file.
   Etc.....

If you're already using the Exact System Information tool, it will update itself when you start it again.
Enjoy using the Exact System Information tool. If you have suggestions for improvements please let me know.


Additional information about the Exact System Information tool:

• Download the Exact System Information tool 
• Information about the Exact System Information tool itself 
• What information is retrieved by the Exact System Information tool