Feature Update: Statistics

The point tracking system was a great idea, but we felt it wasn’t living up to its potential. Today, we’ve replaced the Point module with a Statistics interface that is easier to use and much more flexible. Take a peek below (click to enlarge):

The first thing you’ll notice is that we’re now including Attendance, Balance, and Work Hour tracking by default. Limitations in the Points system prevented it from being used for such a wide array of purposes, but now you can access everything from one standardized interface. We made several changes to make this possible.

Easier Updates
With the original system, entries could only be made by typing in values for each individual. If you needed to assign one work hour to each member in the chapter, the ‘1′ key on your keyboard was bound to wear out quickly. The new assignment page provides options to streamline this data entry process.

First, you can choose to either update (add/subtract) or replace (overwrite) values. Then, select which members are visible and enter a default value for each new record.

If your data is already in a spreadsheet, updates are even faster. You can now upload a CSV file, or even paste data from Microsoft® Excel® into the site. GoZuus will automatically identify which columns contain a name or e-mail address, and will prompt you to confirm the data before saving. Header and summary rows are automatically ignored, and you can even export from QuickBooks® and paste directly into GoZuus!

Currency and Decimal Support
One frequent request was to provide an interface for listing account balances. We’ve added support for currency symbols and decimal points to make this possible. All records are now stored with decimal information, so you can also assign 1.5 hours for tasks.

It is worth mentioning that each statistic now has detailed permissions as well. You can choose which groups of members can assign updates as well as who can see reports for other members. For example, work hour reports might be visible to everyone in the group, while each member can only see their own account balance.

Attendance and Tags
Several groups expressed interest in tracking attendance on the site, and we’re pleased to now support that as well. The default Attendance statistic has tags for “Present”, “Excused” and “Unexcused” absences, and “Tardy” records. We’re planning to integrate excuses into the calendar shortly, but for now it should be plenty easy to call roll right from the assignment page on your GoZuus site.

Better Reports
Lastly, what good is all this data if you can’t generate meaningful reports? Administrators (or all members if permission is granted) can view reports by user, or by update or event. You can use this to print a list of all current account balances, or see the attendance records from any given meeting. Reports can be reset at the beginning of each semester if desired, or can track a running lifetime total.

We’re thrilled to be offering this new functionality, and would like to thank our beta groups for providing great feedback to help drive this development. We hope you enjoy these new features, and can’t want to see what other great uses you come up with for them!