CORE Mobile on iPhone

Updated May 24, 2023 20:12

Overview

CORE has a smart mobile app for Apple iPhone that you can use to manage your business on the go. Using this iPhone app, you can enter time and expenses into your company database remotely, submit and approve entries, create invoices and bills, and even run reports. CORE Mobile is built on highly optimized APIs that can track visits undertaken by you without undermining the battery life or Internet usage of your phone. It even allows you to easily convert your visits into time entries and track your mileage. Click to watch this video overview of the CORE Mobile app.

Your iOS mobile settings are applied globally on the remote server, thus reflecting in the web application also. In addition, the web app settings such as Manage Access, Project Assignments, Custom Labels, Security Permissions and Global Settings are applied on the mobile app.

The CORE iPhone app provides offline support for few actions such as viewing records that have already been downloaded. It does not provide offline support for the add, edit and delete actions in any of its screens. A working Internet connection is required to do so. The search applies against both the records that have been downloaded by the app and records that are on the server not yet downloaded.

The CORE Mobile app is available for free and can be downloaded on your iPhone with the below iOS operating systems.

CORE iPhone app (iOS 9.0 or later)

Common Gestures

ICONS/GESTURES	DESCRIPTIONS
	Search data and items
	Alerts and notifications
	Add or create an item
Quick tap list item	Display detail view
Long tap list item	Batch selection of rows
Slide row right to left	Single delete action
	Call contact
	Email contact
	Contact BQE
	Display side menu
	Run a timer
	Pause or stop a timer
	Convert timer into a time entry
	Quickly reply a message
	Download items
	Display share options for a report

CORE iPhone Features

Basic Tasks

Enter Time in Time Card

Advanced Tasks

Use Visit Tracking for Time Entries

Record Expenses from Receipts

Track Mileage for Expense Entries

Convert Mileage to Expense Entries

CORE iPhone Features

The CORE iPhone app includes the following features:

- Sign Up/Sign In
  - Create new company file
  - Support for Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
  - Forgot Password option
  - Login via different sample companies
  - Switch company
  - User settings and visits retained on logout
- Dashboard
  - Add dashboard widgets
  - Create and edit dashboards
  - Manage multiple dashboards: private or public
  - To-Dos (create and edit)
  - Time Entries Workflow (submit/approve/reject)
  - Details of workflow items
- Clients
  The Clients screen provides these options:
  - List view (with info bars) and detail view
  - Create and edit clients
  - Create clients from phone's contacts or address book
  - Delete (slide right to left) and batch delete clients (long press the list items)
  - Add and edit multiple contacts, addresses, and communications
  - Performance widgets
  - Client transactions
  - Add and edit documents
  - Add and edit notes
  - Add and edit to-dos
  - Add custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Employees
  The Employees screen provides these options:
  - List view (with info bars) and detail view
  - Add and edit employees
  - Create employees from phone's contacts or address book
  - Add multiple contacts
  - Delete and batch delete employees (long press the list items)
  - Performance widgets
  - Attach documents
  - Add notes and to-dos
  - Convert to vendors
  - Custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Vendors
  The Vendors screen provides these options:
  - List view (with info bars) and detail view
  - Add and edit vendors
  - Create vendors from phone's contacts or address book
  - Add multiple contacts
  - Vendor transactions
  - Currency and terms
  - Delete and batch delete vendors (long press the list items)
  - Performance widgets
  - Attach documents
  - Add notes and to-dos
  - Convert to employees
  - Custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Projects
  The Projects screen provides these options:
  - List view (with info bars) and detail view
  - Create and edit projects
  - Add and edit phases
  - Delete and batch delete projects (long press the list items)
  - Performance widgets
  - Project transactions
  - Project assignments including rules and contacts
  - Add and edit documents
  - Add and edit notes
  - Add and edit to-dos
  - Add custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Activity Items
  The Activity Items screen provides these options:
  - List view and detail view
  - Create and edit activity items
  - Delete and batch delete activity items (long press the list items)
  - Add and edit documents
  - Custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Expense Items
  The Expense Items screen provides these options:
  - List view and detail view
  - Add and edit expense items
  - Delete and batch delete expense items (long press the list items)
  - Add and edit documents
  - Custom fields
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- Time Entries
  - Sheet view with info bars and detail view
  - Time Card view for daily/weekly/biweekly time entry
  - Create and edit time entries
  - Copy and paste time entries
  - Delete and batch delete time entries (long press the list items)
  - Add and edit documents
  - Submit (with disclaimer alert) and approve time
  - Timers with auto-fill option for recently-used projects and activities
  - Visit tracking with map views, auto project match, start/stop time, and local notifications. The mobile app tries to find a match between your GPS location and project location in CORE, and suggests a possible time entry.
  - Time entries from to-dos of employees, projects and vendors
  - Time entry rates by classification
  - Timer widget in iOS home screen: You can keep track of your CORE timers directly from your iPhone's home screen. From the Timer widget, you can watch a timer run without opening the CORE app. Just tap on the widget to be taken directly to the Timers screen in the CORE mobile app where you can start, pause, continue, or stop your timer.
  - Custom fields
  - Offline support
  - Smart push notification/alert feature for Time Card monitoring
- Expense Entries
  - List view with info bars and detail view
  - Create and edit expense entries
  - Copy and paste expense entries
  - Delete and batch delete expense entries (long press the list items)
  - Add and edit documents
  - Submit (with disclaimer alert) and approve expenses
  - Custom fields
  - OCR scanning of receipts: allows you to pre-fill your expense sheet with the details directly from the receipt. You can then select the relevant project and expense item along with markup, etc. CORE iPhone remembers your selection next time.
  - Mileage tracking: Records all your drives and allows you to classify them as personal or business expenses.
  - Expense entry rates by classification
  - Expense Summary (with start/end dates of entries, number of entries submitted and total cost amount)
  - Offline support
- Reviewer
  - List view and detail view
  - Review time and expense entries
  - View existing documents with entries
  - Submit (with disclaimer alert) and approve entries
  - Filter data
- Invoices
  - List view and detail view
  - Create, edit and delete invoices
  - Add and edit documents and notes
  - Preview invoices
  - Submit and approve invoices
  - Apply payments to invoices
  - Editable invoice memos
  - ePayments
  - Custom fields
  - Search and filter data
- Payments
  - - List view and detail view
    - Enter invoice and retainer payments
    - Trust Fund Accounting
- Vendor Bills
  - List view and detail view
  - Create, edit and delete vendor bills
  - Memos
  - Add and edit documents
  - Submit and approve bills
  - Preview and email vendor bills
  - Search and filter data
  - Manage purchase orders
- Checks
  - List view and detail view
  - Documents
  - Filters
  - Custom fields
- Bill Payments
  - Create vendor bill payments
  - Edit bill payments
  - List view and detail view
- Personal Time Off
  - List view and detail view
  - Create, edit and delete PTO requests
  - Submit and approve PTO requests
  - Add and edit documents
  - Create time entry from approved PTO
  - Memos
  - Search and filter data
  - Offline support
- HR
  - Benefits List
  - Benefit Assignment and Usage
  - Salary History
  - Employee Reviews
  - Employee Journals
  - Employee Incidents
  - Review Templates
  - Employee review templates allow reviewee edits
  - Dashboard widgets
- CRM
  - Leads and Prospects
  - Opportunities
  - Follow-Ups, Notes, To-Dos, Documents
  - Proposals and Quotes
  - Campaigns
  - CRM dashboard widgets
  - Resource Library
- Messages
  - List view and detail view
  - Receive, send and delete messages
  - Add attachments
  - Search data
  - Offline support
- Reports
  1. List view and preview
  2. Standard, memorized, custom and favorite reports
  3. Customize reports
  4. Search data
  5. Share and email reports
  6. Offline support
- Settings
  - Time Entries
  - Expense Entries
  - Projects
  - Accounts
  - Visit tracking: It allows CORE Mobile to track your visits and let you convert them into time entries. Using the visit coordinates, when an address match is found, the mobile app suggests that as a probable project location to you.
  - Default CORE view: You can set or change the default CORE view from the Settings area of your CORE mobile app. This allows you to open a specific view when logging in. CORE gives you 3 different views to choose from: Dashboard, Last Screen Visited and Specific Screen.
- Other
  - To-Dos
  - Workflows: submittal and approval
  - Grouped notifications and reminders
  - Localization
  - Custom Labels (for contacts and addresses)
  - Communication types
  - Add attachments to notes
  - Integrated cloud storage like Box, Microsoft OneDrive, etc.
  - Attachments save as PDFs
  - Push notifications for workflow items, etc.
  - Create attachments from the iOS 'Files' app
  - Custom field filters in list views
  - Task allocations
  - Calendar events: You can view CORE Calendar as well as integrating calendar events in a list view and be able add and edit existing entries. You also get the option to automatically sync the CORE Calendar events to your phone's native Calendar app so that those events are accessible directly from within the app.
  - Auto Log Out: You can set CORE to automatically log out inactive users after a specified time. After the auto logout time is set and there is no activity in CORE, your session is terminated and you are taken to the login page. The inactive timer resets after you log in back to CORE. Do note that these settings are applied to all users.
  - iOS Home Screen: You can view CORE Mobile Timers, Time Card and To-Dos on your mobile phone's home screen as other widgets. This lets you get a quick snapshot of your weekly or monthly time card summary and current to-dos.
  - Manage notes and documents

Enter Time in Time Card

Time Card is the simplest and easiest way to enter your time in CORE Mobile on a weekly basis. It requires a minimal amount of data entry and allows you to reuse the commonly performed activities on various projects. You can add, edit, and submit time entries from here.

To enter time:

Log into your CORE iPhone app and go to the side menu > Time & Expense > Time Card.
The week view shows entries for the currently selected week. You can tap the < left and > right arrows to navigate to the relevant week.
Each row in the Time Card displays the project, activity, and description in the header and includes a cell for each day of the week. CORE uses the project and activity that is currently in the Time Entries screen. Tap on a cell to open a pop-up.
Enter or edit Hours and then tap Done to save the entry. It displays an Updated Successfully message when the data is saved.
Close the modal or tap x on the top or click anywhere outside the grid. You can tap > (Next) to save the entry automatically and move to another cell on the right.
You can press More Options > to view and edit more fields of a time entry.
If you want to add another row for a new project/activity/description, tap + Add New at the top. Please note that the Description field can save up to 200 characters. CORE supports both numeric and alphanumeric IDs.
On the Add New pop-up, enter Project, Activity, and Hours.

In progress, preview
Press Done. The Total Hours at the bottom displays the total hours entered in the current week.
The overflow menu at the top provides various options to filter the displayed entries, show/hide weekends, show/hide submit status, submit all entries in current week, select a resource or multi-select rows.
The multi-select rows action is also possible by tapping-and-holding on one of the rows. When rows are selected, all the included entries can either be submitted or deleted in batch by pressing the Submit or Delete button, respectively. Alternatively, you can submit the entire time card by clicking Submit Time Card in the Options menu on the top-right of the screen. This automatically submits all time entries within the current period. You can also select time entries on the grid and click Submit Time Card. You can view a summary for the selected period before you submit your time card from Actions > Workflow > Submit.
As a manager, you can choose to select a resource to change your time card to reflect that of another employee or vendor (as per your security permissions).

Use Visit Tracking for Time Entries

The CORE iPhone app uses the GPS-backed technology called Visits Location Services and motion sensors to track your stops such as visit to a job site or your office. CORE also supports automatic iCloud sync to maintain the visit tracking. If you stop for more than 5 minutes, it then collects the coordinates and allows you to record time entries from the visits. The benefit is that you can track your locations on the job sites and also the time spent on the job. The result is better accountability, productivity and efficiency. Visits are not editable, but when you create time entries out of them, you can edit that information. You can also merge multiple trips to a single entry.

To use visit tracking for time entry, watch this video or follow these steps:

Log into your CORE iPhone app and go to the side menu > Settings.
Under Visits, turn on Visit Tracking.
You can enforce start and stop time for visit tracking by turning on that option and setting the Start/Stop time, say 8 am to 6 pm.
You can set a break period during which your visit tracking is halted within the established work hours. You can do so by turning on that option and setting the Start/End break, say 1 pm to 2 pm.
Weekend tracking can be kept on if you want to record your visits during the weekends. This setting is kept off by default.
Next, set the Default Project and Default Activity for the time entry. These are used only when you create time entries out of visits that do not have any matched project. You can change it later, if needed.
After turning it on, all your visits are tracked by it within the tracking start/stop time set by you. Go to the side menu > Visits to see a list of all the tracked visits.
Tap the visit that you want to record. It displays the Visit Detail such as address, date, duration, etc.
Tap Convert to Time Entry. It takes you to the New Time Entry screen where you can add more information or edit it.
- Project: If the address of the visited site matches a CORE project address, CORE Mobile automatically assigns the correct project. If there is no match found, then it uses the default project from the settings.
- Activity
- Description: filled based on the selected activity item
- Hours
- Billable/ Overtime status
- Memo: optional
Tap Save on the top-right. You can just save, or save and submit the time entry for approval.

Record Expenses from Receipts

The OCR-based scanning of receipts allows you to pre-fill your expense sheet with the details directly from the receipt of, say, a restaurant, an air ticket, a gas station, etc. You can then select the relevant project and expense item along with the markup, etc. CORE Mobile remembers your selection next time. You can choose to disregard purchase taxes, tips, etc. when creating expenses from receipts. The idea is to make the entire process of entering expenses easier and faster for CORE Mobile users.

To make an expense entry from a receipt:

Log into your CORE iPhone app and go to the Expense Entry screen from the side menu.
On the New Expense Entry screen, tap 'Create from Receipt' on the top.
Tap 'Open Camera' to capture a photo of the receipt or 'Select From Gallery' to choose an existing receipt image from your photo library.
In both cases, CORE Mobile uploads the image to the AWS server and scans the receipt using the OCR technology. It pre-fills the expense entry with the data read from the receipt:
- Employee: logged-in user
- Quantity: 1
- Charge Amount
- Total Cost
- Date
You must enter or select the rest of the data for the first time:
- Project
- Expense
- Description: filled based on the selected expense item
- Markup %: filled based on the selected expense item
- Billable/Reimbursable status
- Memo: optional
Tap Save on the top-right. The receipt gets attached to the expense entry.

In future, the app gets smarter and guesses the project, expense item and description with matching attributes based on the merchant address.

Track Mileage for Expense Entries

Mileage tracking is a highly powerful and useful feature in CORE Mobile. It is used for automatic mileage tracking for reimbursement of expenses and tax purposes. CORE Mobile (iOS) already uses the GPS-based location services API to automatically track user visits and the same can be converted to time entries later. Mileage tracking works similarly in the background, without user intervention and records your drives using the Drive Detection Technology. The CORE Location technology determines your device's geographic location and uses your Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and cellular hardware to gather data. The CORE Motion technology reports motion and environment-related data.

CORE also supports automatic iCloud sync to maintain the mileage tracking. After providing the required permissions and setting up options, you are ready to go! You can also merge multiple mileage records to a single entry.

To use mileage tracking for expense entry, watch this video or follow these steps:

Log into your CORE iPhone app and go to the side menu > Settings.
Under Mileage Tracking, press Trip Options.
Turn on Mileage Tracking and set the Per Mile Rate, say $0.58.
You can enforce tracking for Work Hours only by choosing that option and entering Start of Work Day (say 8:00 am) and End of Work Day (6:00 pm). CORE Mobile will record your drives during those work hours and ignore drives outside this range.
You can set a break period during which your tracking is halted within the established work hours. You can do so by turning on that option and setting the Start/End break, say 1 pm to 2 pm.
Weekend tracking can be kept on if you want to record your drives during the weekends. This setting is kept off by default.
Under Other Options, select a Default Project and Default Expense. These defaults are then used for all mileage-based expenses.

You are ready to track your mileage!

Convert Trips to Expense Entries

The primary and most important goal of tracking your drives is to allow you to convert them to expenses. In CORE Mobile, you can easily create expense entries from previous drives. It memorizes the project associated with a particular drive so that it is automatically applied to the next drive. You can also categorize drives as business or personal.

To convert trips to an expense entry:

Log into your CORE iPhone app and go to the side menu > Trips. You must have already turned on Always Allow Location under phone settings.
In the list view, you can see all the trips made along with the approximate mileage and potential value. Press All Trips In... to select your filters such as Trip Dates (This Week, Last Week, This Month, etc.) and Trip Types (Business, Personal, etc.).
Press the relevant trip to see its details.
You can edit some details if needed.
Press Create Expense to convert the trip to an expense entry.
On the New Expense Entry screen, enter or change the expense details.
- Employee
- Project: The default project is set in the Settings area and is pre-filled in that case. For future drives to the same destination or the same to-from addresses, CORE automatically uses the memorized project.
- Expense: The default expense item is set in the Settings area and remains the same for all drives.
- Quantity
- Unit Cost: This cost rate comes from the expense item used in the entry, but can be changed.
- Markup %
- Charge Amount
- Status: Billable and Reimbursable
- Memo
Press Save at the top-right. You are prompted to Save the expense entry or Save and Submit the entry.