What's new

Every release of Corva Desk, newest first. Corva Desk is in early access, so version numbers start with 0 until general release.

0.26.2 A scanned tag says which register it is in

Changed

  • Scanning a tag on the Our assets list that belongs to a Customer asset, or the other way round, now says where the item is and who owns it, with Open it, and Move to Our assets for those allowed, instead of jumping straight to it.

0.26.1 Loaned, not lent

Changed

  • In Our assets, an item lent to a customer is now Loaned, and the button is Loan.

0.26.0 Our assets

Added

  • Our assets: a register of the business's own things. Each item can record who has it, where it is kept, what it cost and from whom, when its cover or licence ends, and when it went. Every hand-over, loan, return and disposal is kept in its history.
  • A reminder before an item's cover or licence ends, 30 and 7 days ahead by default, to whoever has it and to the people who manage the register. The admin sets the lead times, locations and statuses in Settings.
  • Lend one of your items to a customer: it stays yours, marked Lent, until it comes back.
  • Move an item between Customer assets and Our assets when it is bought in or sold. It keeps its tag and its history.

Changed

  • Assets is now called Customer assets. New businesses start with Our assets, and can ask for Customer assets if they look after their customers' items.
  • A scanned tag opens the item in whichever register it belongs to, for anyone allowed to see it.
  • An asset whose customer was deleted shows Customer removed.

Fixed

  • Restoring a backup into an empty business brings back linked records in the right order, so items are no longer left out because their customer had not been restored yet.

0.25.0 A map of your customers

Added

  • Contacts has a Map: every customer placed by the postcode on their account, grouped where they are close together, each with a link to their account. It uses the same filters as the list. Customers with no postcode, or one that cannot be placed, are counted below the map.

0.24.5 Postcode lookup watches its limits

Added

  • The operator sees the postcode lookup key's balance and daily and monthly limits, read from Ideal Postcodes, or sets caps by hand. Warnings are emailed at 80% and 95%. At the limit, Find address stops with a clear message rather than failing.

0.24.4 Windows shown by name on the device security check

Fixed

  • A device's security check names the Windows edition, such as Windows 11 Pro 24H2, beside its internal version number. Windows 11 still numbers itself 10.0, which read as Windows 10.

0.24.3 Choose whose lookups the testing copy takes

Changed

  • The operator's system-testing copy can take the operator's own businesses, chosen businesses, or all.

0.24.2 A system-testing copy of postcode lookups

Added

  • The operator can switch on a copy of postcode lookup results for system testing only, with a strict warning and a confirmation. Switching it off deletes the copy. Businesses never see it.

0.24.1 Postcode lookup uses fewer credits

Changed

  • Find address first offers the addresses your business already has at that postcode, free. Looking up every address there uses one credit, only when you ask for it.
  • A postcode already looked up on the same page is not charged again.
  • Find address shows "Uses one credit". An administrator can turn that notice off in Settings, Integrations, Postcode lookup.

0.24.0 Request features and try them free

Added

  • The Features page lists the features a business does not have yet, with a Request button. Some can be tried free for 7 or 14 days; a trial switches itself off at the end, and nothing entered during it is lost. An administrator is reminded three days before a trial ends.
  • Postcode lookup is one of these features.

Changed

  • New businesses start with contacts, assets, calendar, helpdesk, invoicing, subscriptions, tasks, to-do and products. The rest can be requested or tried.

0.23.1 Postcode lookup for chosen businesses

Changed

  • The operator can offer postcode lookup to all businesses or only named ones, and set each business's free monthly allowance before it turns lookup on.
  • Postcode lookup is listed under Settings, Integrations.
  • The operator console's Fleet agent page is now called RMM agent.

0.23.0 Postcode address lookup

Added

  • Postcode lookup on customer addresses: type a postcode, press Find address and choose the address, and its lines, town and postcode fill in. Addresses come from Royal Mail's Postcode Address File through Ideal Postcodes.
  • It is off until a business's administrator turns it on in Settings, accepting Royal Mail's End User terms. Each business has a number of free lookups a month and can buy more in bundles, which are added at once and charged on its next invoice. A postcode that is not found is not counted.

0.22.5 Blocking a registration keeps you where you are

Changed

  • On the operator Registrations page, Keep, Block and Restore act in place: a blocked registration fades out of the list with an Undo, a kept one says Kept, and the counts update, without leaving the page.

0.22.4 Moving through the calendar on a phone

Changed

  • On a phone, the calendar has a bar above and below with arrows that say where they go (such as September and November) and a Today button when you are elsewhere. Swiping left or right does the same.
  • On a phone, the month starts with a small grid of the whole month, a dot on each busy day; tapping one jumps to that day in the list below.

Fixed

  • The phone month list no longer writes dates its own way: each day reads as weekday and number under the month heading, and fuller dates follow the business's chosen date format.

0.22.3 Phone cards no longer overlap

Fixed

  • On a phone, list cards no longer print a field's label on top of its value, or draw a line between every field, on pages with their own table styles such as Devices.
  • A card's title is the row's main link, such as the device or contact name, rather than whatever column comes first.

0.22.2 Neater ticket tiles on a phone

Fixed

  • On a phone, the ticket list's Open, Closed and All tiles sit three across at equal widths, the needs-attention cards two by two, and the filter menus two abreast, instead of ragged rows. Search and New ticket take a full row each.

0.22.1 Lists and the calendar fit a phone

Fixed

  • On a phone, lists such as contacts, products, signatures and the Odoo sync history show each row as a card with every column labelled, instead of a table cut off at the edge of the screen.
  • On a phone, the calendar month shows a list of the days with entries, each with a button to add one, instead of a grid with only its first column visible.
  • On a phone, search and filter rows wrap onto a new line instead of running off the screen.

0.22.0 Registrations rated for spam and managed from the console

Added

  • The operator Registrations page rates each registration for how likely it is to be spam (low, medium or high) and lists the reasons, including whether it came through a VPN or hosting network.
  • Each registration can be kept, blocked or sent the customer invitation. A blocked address is quietly refused if it registers again, and can be restored from the Blocked list.

0.21.0 The operator console menu works like the app menu

Changed

  • The operator console's menu shows an icon with each page's name, like the app's own menu, and on a phone it becomes a menu button instead of disappearing.
  • The operator can set the console's menu as tenant administrators set theirs: the order of the pages and of the right-hand icons, where each starts a new line, which show their names, and a top bar or a side menu.

0.20.1 Device score counts only enabled administrators

Fixed

  • A device's security score counts only administrator accounts that are switched on. Windows keeps a built-in Administrator account that is usually switched off; it is still listed on the device page, marked as disabled, but no longer counted. This needs the device agent 0.8.1, which installs itself where automatic updates are on.
  • The browser tab shows the new Corva Desk icon on every page, including in a browser that had kept the old one.

0.20.0 A security score for every device

Added

  • Each monitored device has a security score out of 100, on a gauge, with its risk level and the checks behind it: antivirus, firewall, disk encryption, whether Windows is still supported, updates, user account control, auto-update, the Windows Security Center service and administrator accounts. Each check explains itself.
  • The device page shows its system, network (public and private address, gateway) and access details (last seen, logged-in user, last reboot, uptime) beside the score.
  • A device at high risk, or with antivirus or its firewall off, raises an alert like a full disk does.
  • The device list shows each device's score.

Changed

  • The device agent is now version 0.8, which reports the extra checks.

0.19.0 Visit statistics for the website

Added

  • The Corva Desk website counts its visits: the page, where the visitor came from, their browser and a rough location from their IP address. It uses no cookies. Each page says so, and offers a way to stop it counting your visits.

0.18.9 Your own server

Added

  • The website shows more of Corva Desk: the board, assets, device monitoring, signatures, subscriptions and the price list, and the calendar picture shows who each entry is for.
  • A dedicated version of Corva Desk on a private server of your own can be provided. The early-access form has a box to say you are interested.

0.18.8 A new Corva Desk logo

Changed

  • Corva Desk has a new logo, the CD monogram, on the website, the help and history pages, the sign-in page, the app's menu (when you have not added your own logo), browser tabs and phone home screens.

0.18.7 Archived customers are not billed

Changed

  • Archiving a customer stops its subscriptions from billing. Periods that fall due while the customer is archived are not billed later; restoring the customer resumes billing from the next period.

0.18.6 Clear messages instead of errors

Fixed

  • Payments must be a believable amount and date, and references and descriptions must fit; an out-of-range value now gives a message instead of an error page.
  • Ticket subjects, status and queue names, contact addresses and device labels are checked for length before they are saved.
  • Ticket numbering cannot be set past its highest number.
  • A signature document cannot be given an expiry date that has already passed.
  • Device reports with unexpected values are saved, keeping what can be read, instead of being lost.
  • Reconnecting QuickBooks to a different company no longer reuses the first company's records, and a disconnect asked for during a sync says to try again rather than silently not happening.
  • Calendar entries must fall between 1900 and 2200, repeats cannot end before they start, and a calendar cannot be shared with its owner.
  • Switching a module off is refused while another module that needs it is on, and switching one on needs the modules it relies on.
  • Page sizes and margins for printing, new users' names, and the company's email and website are checked before they are saved.

Changed

  • The side menu is a little narrower, and its icons line up from the left.

0.18.5 Even rows of icons

Changed

  • The icons at the foot of the side menu sit in two even rows.

0.18.4 A simpler side menu

Changed

  • The side menu takes you straight to each module's page, as the top bar does; its sub-menus are gone. A module's own options stay on its page.

0.18.3 Folded menu pages within reach

Fixed

  • With the side menu folded, a module's pages no longer vanish as you move across to them, and the module's name no longer covers the first of them.

0.18.2 A side menu without a scroll bar

Changed

  • The side menu has no scroll bar. When the screen is too short for every item, the list still scrolls with the wheel or touchpad, and fades at the foot while there is more below.
  • On a shorter screen the side menu is more compact, so it usually fits without scrolling. Folded, its icons sit two side by side.

0.18.1 Side menu fixes

Fixed

  • The folded side menu no longer squeezes the logo; it shows just the fold button.
  • The side menu's list scrolls with a thin, dark bar instead of the browser's white one, and the icons at the bottom, Sign out included, always stay in view.
  • Only one module's pages are open at a time.

0.18.0 A side menu to try

Added

  • A side menu, as a trial: administrators can move the menu to the left in Settings, Menu order, Layout. Each module opens to show its own pages, new lines become dividers, the icons sit at the bottom, and the menu folds to icons. Phones keep their usual menu. Switch back at any time.

0.17.1 More checks before anything is saved

Fixed

  • Invoices, quotes, subscriptions, assets, devices, relationships and calendar links refuse a customer that has been archived or merged.
  • A VAT rate that is no longer in use cannot be chosen for something new. Items that already have one keep it.
  • Only a sent quote, or an issued or paid invoice, can be sent for signature.
  • A subscription's end date must be a real date and not before the first period, and the next period cannot be moved back over one already billed.
  • Tasks and ticket colleagues must be active users.
  • Status and queue colours must be colours.
  • Changing a ticket's status, queue or assignee either saves everything or nothing, with the reason. An unknown status no longer quietly becomes the default one.
  • A contact's payment terms must be whole days from 0 to 365, and over-long contact details are refused with a message.
  • An asset's status must agree with its owner.
  • A device folder needs the device's customer first.
  • Invitations go to one valid email address, and a role cannot be deleted while an invitation waits on it.

0.17.0 Your menu, your labels

Added

  • Settings, Menu order now also arranges the icons on the right of the menu, with New line.
  • Every menu item can show or hide its name beside the icon. Administrators set the default in Menu order; each person can choose for themselves in their own Settings.

Fixed

  • Saving the menu order no longer loses the place of a module that is switched off.

0.16.0 Pencilled in, private entries, and 12-hour times

Added

  • Pencilled in: mark a calendar entry as provisional. It shows with a pencil.
  • A calendar entry for particular people can be seen by everyone who uses the calendar, or only by those people and whoever made it.
  • Administrators choose whether times show as 24-hour (17:00) or 12-hour (5pm), in Settings, Dates and time.

0.15.0 Who is on the calendar

Added

  • Calendar entries say who they are for: one or more colleagues, or Everyone for a note to the whole team. The names show on the calendar, and Everyone notes are outlined.
  • Showing, on the calendar: everyone's entries, just yours, or one colleague's.
  • Administrators choose whether the calendar shows first names, full names or initials.

Changed

  • An entry's staff link is now its Who.

0.14.3 Stricter checks on money and links

Fixed

  • Payments can be recorded only against invoices, not quotes or credit notes.
  • An invoice with payments recorded can no longer be voided. Raise a credit note instead.
  • Credit notes against an invoice can no longer add up to more than the invoice.
  • An invoice can be linked only to a ticket for the same customer.
  • A new ticket refuses an inactive colleague as assignee, and an archived or merged customer.
  • Assigning a new ticket to someone else needs the assign permission. Anyone can assign it to themselves.
  • A note or sub-task can be changed only through its own ticket or task.
  • The same person can no longer be added twice as a signer, and a signer's email must be valid.
  • An administrator cannot set an IP rule that would block them from where they are signed in.
  • Test-mode mail goes to one valid address only.
  • Restoring a backup never changes the mail settings.

0.14.2 Contact people stay with their customer

Fixed

  • Invoices, quotes, subscriptions and assets can no longer be saved with a contact person who belongs to a different customer.
  • When an asset moves to a new owner, the previous owner's contact person is cleared from it.
  • An invoice raised from a ticket leaves out a contact person who is not at the ticket's customer.

0.14.1 Tickets keep to one customer

Fixed

  • On a new ticket, changing the customer clears the contact person and asset chosen for the previous customer, until you load the new customer's.
  • A ticket can no longer be saved with a contact person or an asset that belongs to a different customer. An asset with no owner on record can still go on any ticket.

0.14.0 Choose where the menu breaks

Added

  • Settings → Menu order has New line: start the top menu on a new line at any module, so you choose where it breaks. With no new lines set, the menu wraps by itself as before.

0.13.0 A ticket from a scanned tag

Added

  • The card shown when a tag is laid on the desk reader now has New ticket. The ticket form opens with the customer, and the asset, already chosen.

Changed

  • The desk reader's ready message now reads "USB NFC reader ready — scan sticker".

0.12.0 Read tags on every page

Added

  • An optional setting for administrators, Settings → Scanning: with the USB desk reader, a tag laid on it on any page shows a card naming the asset or customer, with buttons to open it. It never leaves your page by itself, and waits while you are typing. Off unless an administrator turns it on.

0.11.0 Scan to identify an asset

Added

  • On the Assets list, Scan tag identifies an item from its NFC tag and opens its page, from an Android phone or the USB desk reader.

0.10.2 Invoices from Odoo

Fixed

  • A £0 invoice that was changed in Odoo is now replaced correctly. Before, the update failed.

0.10.1 Tickets on a phone

Fixed

  • On a phone, a ticket's buttons no longer cover its number and title. The title uses the full width and the buttons sit in a row below it.

0.10.0 Arrange your dashboard your way

Added

  • Dashboard tiles can be one to six columns wide.
  • Place tiles anywhere on a wide screen. They stay where you put them, gaps included. Only the tiles in the way move, and they move down.
  • While you drag a tile, a dashed outline shows where it will land, and the other tiles slide out of the way.
  • Text cut short in a dashboard list shows in full when you point at it.
  • Corva Desk now has a version number and this public history of changes.

Changed

  • The dashboard buttons save in the background, so the page no longer reloads or jumps to the top.
  • Resolved tickets and Paid now follow the period you pick on the dashboard.
  • Tickets now record when they were closed, so "resolved this week" counts the tickets actually closed this week.
  • An invoice counts as paid on the date of its last payment, not the day the payment was entered.

0.9.0 A personal dashboard, and a faithful Odoo mirror

Added

  • A personal dashboard of tiles, in place of the separate Home and Status pages. Choose your tiles, their order and the period. Nobody else sees your arrangement.
  • While you are still moving from Odoo, Corva Desk keeps an exact copy of your Odoo tickets, contacts and invoices. You can apply changes at once or review them first.
  • A final sync and switch-off for when you are ready to make Corva Desk your main system.
  • A countdown while a sync runs, based on how long recent syncs took.

Changed

  • Messages synced from Odoo keep their author, their line breaks and their links, and name the person who wrote them.
  • "Engineer notes" are now "Internal notes".

Fixed

  • A ticket now says "Customer replied" only when the customer replied last.

0.8.0 Sign in from anywhere

Added

  • Sign-in is open from anywhere. Every sign-in attempt is recorded, and the service can block addresses that misuse it.
  • Support for a USB NFC card reader, for looking up a customer from their card.

0.7.0 One kind of contact

Added

  • Contacts are now one list of businesses and individuals, each with related contacts, several addresses and tags.
  • Each business chooses its own time zone. Dates, times and periods follow it.
  • Each business chooses how dates are written.

0.6.0 Email in, email out, and finer control

Added

  • Your own inbound mailboxes: email to them becomes a ticket, and replies join their ticket.
  • Ticket email updates for your team and for the people on a ticket, with personal settings.
  • Number series for invoices, quotes and credit notes, with your own prefixes.
  • Fine-grained permissions for roles, down to individual actions.
  • A shared calendar module with named calendars, sharing and repeating entries.
  • Editable print templates for tickets and invoices.
  • A quick-switch PIN for changing user on a shared computer.
  • User management for administrators: password rules, away status and sign-in address rules.
  • A page-width switch on every page, remembered for you.

0.5.0 Assets, to-do lists and accounts

Added

  • An assets register, linked to customers and tickets.
  • Personal to-do lists that you can share with colleagues.
  • A connection to QuickBooks Online, available on request.
  • Every contact and invoice coming in from Odoo can be reviewed before it is added.

0.4.0 Devices, files and notifications

Added

  • Optional device monitoring: a small agent reports each computer's health and hardware, raises alerts, and offers remote actions and remote control.
  • Your logo on your workspace and documents.
  • File attachments on tickets.
  • In-app notifications.
  • Back up your own data, and restore it, from Settings.
  • Sign in once at corvadesk.com and land on your own workspace address.

0.3.0 Getting paid, and keeping track

Added

  • Payments recorded against invoices. An invoice is paid when its payments cover it.
  • Tasks, on their own or attached to a ticket.
  • Customer email replies land on the ticket they belong to.
  • Editing of ticket details and comments, with the history kept.
  • Invoices linked to the ticket they came from.
  • Email sent from your workspace's own address.
  • Recurring invoices for subscriptions.
  • Electronic signatures.
  • Historical invoices brought in from Odoo, keeping their original numbers.
  • Administrators can preview the app as any role.

0.2.0 Moving in from Odoo

Added

  • Bring your tickets and their full conversations in from Odoo, reviewed before they are added.
  • Queues (teams) for tickets, defined by you.
  • Ticket numbering in your own format.
  • Each business connects its own Odoo.
  • Self-service sign-up by invitation, and an operator console for running the service.
  • Suspend, close, or permanently erase a workspace and its data.

0.1.0 The foundations

Added

  • A workspace for each business, with its data kept apart from every other at the database level.
  • Contacts, and tickets with statuses you define.
  • Quotes and invoices. An issued invoice can no longer be changed.
  • Your own words for things: a ticket can be a job, a case or a matter.
  • The public website and early-access sign-up.