OpenAir Overview
Welcome to OpenAir.
This guide includes information about the OpenAir user interface and describes how to use its features.
With effect from June 2022, all OpenAir accounts will be using the new generation user interface, previously introduced as the Redesigned OpenAir User Experience optional feature. The new responsive design optimizes screen real estate and adapts well to tablets and smaller screen resolutions.
See Feature Changes in the Redesigned User Experience for a summary of features released to date.
The User Guide includes the following chapters:
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OpenAir Overview — This overview includes a brief introduction to OpenAir Modules (see OpenAir Modules). If you were using the previous UI until recently, you can refer to the list of feature changes introduce with the upgrade to the redesigned user experience and other optional features available with upgrade (see Feature Changes in the Redesigned User Experience and Optional Features).
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Signing In to OpenAir — Describes how to access OpenAir, change your password, or reset your password.
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Navigating OpenAir — Describes how to navigate OpenAir, including the Create, Tips, User Center, and other navigation options available from all pages in OpenAir.
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Working with Lists and Records — Describes how to navigate and use the functionality of:
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Redesigned list views — See List Views.
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List views using the previous UI layout and functionality — See List Views — Previous UI Version Layout.
Note:Not all list views use the redesigned list view layout and functionality. For information about list views using the redesigned list view layout and functionality, see Feature Changes in the Redesigned User Experience.
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Records — See Records.
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Working with the Project Center View — Describes how to work with the Project Center view. The Project Center optional feature aims to provide you with the tools to manage key project activities from a single screen.
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Working with Dashboards and Calendars — Gives a general introduction to the Home module, including dashboards and calendars..
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Working with Reports — Gives a general introduction to the Reports module, including the Report Management and Editor optional feature and user interface.
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References — Provides reference material, including descriptions for most icons used on the OpenAir user interface.
OpenAir Modules
The OpenAir system contains various applications, also referred to as modules. These applications are designed around specific functional areas, as described in the table below.
The way these applications operate in your environment is dependent on the business needs of your company. You may not have access to all these applications or all the functionality within these applications. Access is controlled by role permissions and other settings managed by your account administrator.
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Description |
Home Application — A home base application providing you critical information such as messages and reminders of pending approvals. It can also contain wizards, which help you quickly update data throughout the system, quick access to saved reports, which can be displayed in graphical forms such as pie charts and line graphs. |
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Opportunities Application — This application enables you to manage prospective new business for your company with existing customers as well as with new customers and prospects. You are able to create Deals, Estimates, Proposals, To dos, and Events within the application. |
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Projects Application — This is one of the primary components within OpenAir. This is where management of your projects takes place. The application is flexible and provides several features to address your business needs. |
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Resources Application — This application enables you to schedule resources to projects. It also provides a vehicle to store the skill sets, education, industry experience, job roles and location of employees in the OpenAir database. You can then search the database to find the right resource. |
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Invoices Application — This application handles financial transactions such as customer charges and invoices in OpenAir. Primarily focused on invoicing your customers, the Invoices application manages the results of running the billing rules you can set up for projects in the Projects application. |
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Timesheets Application — This application is where employees record their time against customer or internal projects. |
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Expenses Application — This application is where employees enter expense reports against projects for a specific date or period of time. It can also handle authorizations for employee spending on company expenses. |
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Purchases Application — This application provides the ability to create a process flow from a purchase request to fulfillment and receipt, and lets you track purchases made within your company. |
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Reports Application — This application lets you create and run a wide variety of reports based on your business configuration. OpenAir provides a robust and flexible reporting environment. |
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Workspaces Application — This application provides an area where you can store documents and share them with others. It acts as an administrative library within OpenAir. |
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Administration Application — This is where account administrators manage the many configuration options within OpenAir. |
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User Center — This is where you set up your user preferences. You can also view your profile and access OpenAir Help and Support features from the User Center. |
Feature Changes in the Redesigned User Experience
The following table summarizes the feature changes introduced with the UI upgrade to the redesigned user experience, as well as the list views that benefit from the redesigned list view layout and functionality, and the records and pages that benefit from the redesigned header layout and functionality. Other features retain the design and functionality of the previous user interface.
Other optional features work particularly well with the new user interface and let you take full advantage of its capabilities — see Optional Features.
Features |
Redesigned List Views |
Redesigned Screen and Record Headers |
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Optional Features
The following optional features work particularly well with the redesigned OpenAir user experience and let you take full advantages of its capabilities. Contact your account administrators to check whether these features are enabled in your OpenAir configuration.
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Inline-editing in list views — This feature lets you edit items data directly from the list view, without having to open the item form. This is currently available only in the project tasks list view and in the project center (if the Project Center feature is enabled). See Inline-Editing in List Views.
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Project Center (Requires the Inline-Editing in List Views feature) — This feature lets you create and modify your project plan, create new phases and tasks directly from the new list view and drag-and-drop tasks and phases to reorder them, and create and manage resource bookings to your project and tasks from within the same outline view. See Working with the Project Center View.
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Redesigned Administration module (enabled by default) — This feature lets account administrators and users with the relevant access rights use the main navigation to go to administration global settings sections and use tabs in the global settings screen header to navigate between screens. See Administration Settings Screen Navigation.
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Redesigned Advanced Filters — This feature changes the user interface for advanced filters on redesigned list views. The redesigned advanced filters panel is compact and lists filter conditions horizontally instead of vertically. It lets you select and apply saved filters directly from the list view toolbar instead of the flyout panel. The new design brings better usability and takes less of your canvas space. See Redesigned Advanced Filters (Optional Feature).
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Consolidated user profile — This feature lets you review information about you and other resources at a glance, including skills and experience. You can access your resource profile from the user center when this feature is enabled.
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Customized user avatars — This feature lets you or your account administrator upload a profile picture. In the new UI, this picture displays in the User Center, when this feature is enabled.
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Save list view configuration — This feature lets you save list view configurations for future use. You can use the enhanced list view controls and options the new UI offers to create custom configurations to suit your every need and switch between these configurations at any time. See Saving and Using Custom List View Configurations.
The following usability enhancements are also available as optional features for the redesigned OpenAir redesigned experience list views:
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Wrap text in list view cells — This feature wraps long text over multiple lines in list view cells instead of showing truncated text on a single line. See Display Options for Long Text Cells in List Views.