iTookOff Paid Leave Tracker
The best way to track your paid leave on your iPhone or iPod Touch

1.5.7 has been sent to Apple. Preliminary reports from beta testers and some thorough unit testing seem to confirm the bi-weekly accrual is fixed. We’re hoping for a release date early next week, but that depends on Apple.

As you may have guessed, IA and UI design is not my forte. I like to experiment with things and they tend to get out of hand sometimes. As a result of subjecting everyone to a terrible UI for so long, I’ve started moving a lot of stuff around for 1.6. The immediate goal is to logically separate everything and get back in line with people’s expectations.

I may release 1.6 as just a UI update and then merge the next feature set into it for 1.6.1. The main reason is that 1.6 is going to require another CoreData lightweight migration to add the new notification storage system.

Any feedback on the direction? Icons may or may not be final (probably not).

This is non-final and subject to change before release.

Amongst some other bug fixes and performance enhancements, here is the major changes for 1.5.7:

• Bi-weekly accrual bug where time is doubled should be resolved.
• Adjustable Precision (8.0, 8.01, 8.014, etc.)
• Time in icon badge is now cumulative instead of exclusive.

I will be doing a short beta test period and then a release to Apple. I’ll update this post when I release it to Apple.

While the majority of my development time on the 1.5 branch has been isolating and fixing the accrual bug, the 1.5.8/1.6 branch has been receiving some large feature updates. More on that soon!

I’ve been receiving a  lot of email from customers recently and I am trying to answer everyone individually. I have to prioritize the email queue to support requests first, feature requests second, and all other inquiries last. If I don’t respond to comments and suggestions, please know that I appreciate your feedback and I do read everything. Due to the volume, I may not respond to emails requesting ETA’s on features or updates. Please refer to this website for any development news.

Thanks everyone!

Update 2/16: Added a few more features for 1.5.7. If all looks good on Friday, I will upload it to Apple and hope for late next week for approval.

New Features include:

• Report/Request time from a supervisor
• Share iTookOff by Email
• I added a delete button to the edit day screen. This is in addition to swiping on the day in the table, but it’s not always obvious.
• Next paycheck and yearly anniversary are now highlighted in green on the Calendar
• Maximum time added to the settings for a leave category.

I’ve resolved to do a major UI update really soon, not this version though.

I’m working on a few small things for 1.5.7. First is the fix for the email bug. The next is a way to import email backups and possibly import/export to this website. Finally, I’m going to try to get the site 100% localizable and possibly add a language or two. I’ve released it in the Netherlands app store by user request so hopefully Dutch will be available soon.

Also, today and tomorrow, iTookOff will be free! Tell your friends and family to scoop it up now!

It only took an hour and a bug has been found in iTookOff 1.5.6. Ignored items are showing up in the email backup. Thanks Joe.

Thanks again for waiting, this should address some of the highest requested features and fixes for iTookOff. I’m going to attach links to screenshots at the bottom. I plan on fixing the UI to make the eight categories fit better and also possibly review the color choices if anyone objects to them. Here is the meta for the update:

Please backup your data before updating! This was actually a pretty big update.

Fixes and Features:

• Adds FOUR more leave categories! (Colors may be reviewed in future versions. Thanks for your patience on this update everyone! Also, I’m going to update the home screen to better fit them all without scrolling soon.)
• Fixes rounding issue that could contribute to double the amount of time added when using bi-weekly accrual. Please let me know right away if this does not fix the double-time issue for you.
• New app icon and modified loading screen.
• Saturday and Sunday are now ignored when adding multiple days to the calendar. This will be adjustable in future versions.
• Display error when deleting time fixed to take into account individual leave category display type. This was just a display bug, correct time would be re-added if user requested.

Screenshot (more to come soon):

Home screen with eight categories open (needs some work now): http://i.imgur.com/lHfoQ.png

There is a bug where sometimes time accrued bi-weekly may appear to double up the amount of time it’s adding. I am currently testing a fix for it. If anyone would like to beta test a patch, please contact me ASAP!

I’ve also fixed a display bug when deleting items that are not the default display type.

Also, I’ve added 3 more leave categories which are disabled by default. This particular update has been asked for by many Fire and EMS workers.

I’m hoping to have some interface updates for 1.5.6 but it may have to wait for 1.6. Things don’t seem to fit right with 7 leave categories but it’s definitely something I will work on.

Thanks for your patience everyone. While iTookOff isn’t a very successful app, I do enjoy working on it and always appreciate the feedback I receive. It has unfortunately had to take a back seat while I pursued more profitable opportunities but, depending on future sales performance, I may have a few more updates in store for it.

Hopefully coming in 1.6, (but subject to change):

• Updates to the UI
• US Holidays
• Adjustable Weekends Ignored by the Calendar
• Weekly Accrual
• Local Notifications on Accrual Dates

1.5.5 has been uploaded to Apple for review. Below is the meta from the update and a sneak peek of the new settings screen. Always remember to back up your data and please report any bugs. There’s a ton of new code in this. Thanks and sorry this isn’t a major feature update.

BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING THIS! This is a major service update which changes of a lot of how iTookOff works on the back-end so there is a possibility for data loss.

- Fixes bug with anniversary-date and next-paycheck date crashing the app.
- Settings screen is redesigned and now has in-line instructions.
- Adds “set this leave amount as app badge”
- Display type (hours or days) is now independent for each leave category.
- You can now turn off leave categories you aren’t using.
- Internal revisions to code to allow for more leave categories and localization.
- “Added time” is no longer counted in the summation column.

Sneak peek of the new settings screen. With three quarters of a vacation day, now you know why these updates are taking so long:

It's a smidge more organized.

Due to a change in how date objects are serialized, there is a bug in loading the Anniversary and Next Paycheck date. I’ll hopefully get a service patch out soon.

A user sent me this fantastic example with the following email:

Great app! This is the way I used to keep track of vacation time before iTookOff app came along. :

A user wrote in showing the timesheet that iTookOff replaced.

Due to some unforeseen issues with iOS4 1.6 has been pushed back a bit. There may be a small service release coming soon and then several other small updates while the codebase is updated. Thanks again for your patience everyone!