General

Avatars

Avatar Pictures You may upload any JPEG, PNG or GIF file that is no larger than 1MB. Within the iOS app you may upload an image that is larger than 1MB because it will be compressed automatically. Avatar Initials If you do not upload a picture for your avatar, the initials of your first and last name will be displayed. You may edit those initials. If you’d like, you can also use special characters, like unicode characters.

Character Limits

Formatting Comments

Bold, Italic and Underlined Characters Use the Markdown standard. For instance, you can use **make sure you do this by Friday** to create make sure you do this by Friday. Please note that you cannot preview the markdowns. You can only see them once you post your comment. In other words, they take effect once you hit or tap Comment.

Notifications

Email Notifications Want to control when you get email notifications from Biztera? Click on your avatar at the top of the screen and select Preferences from the menu. You’ll find a detailed matrix of settings to control when you get emails depending on what your role is in a given project channel. Be sure to click the Save button to activate your changes.

Viewing Projects

Channels

Channels track different parts of the project workflow. On the project detail page, each channel is represented by a tab. You will always see the General channel tab, but depending on your permissions you may or may not see additional tabs.

There are three different types of channels in Spectrum—the general channel, approval channels, and task channels.

The General channel contains data of general interest to any user with access to the project. The General channel typically contains most or all of the intake form fields. Aside from adding attachments or comments, there is no action associated with the General channel.

Approval channels are used when one or more people must approve or deny a request. For example, a project may have a channel called Finance, in which a sequence of managers and finance executives must approve spending requests.

Task channels are used when some kind of work must be completed as part of a project. You can create a custom list of statuses for each task channel. For example, a channel called Legal might have the following possible statuses: Assigned, Waiting for Signatures, and Contract Complete. The assignee on the channel is responsible for keeping its status up to date.

User Roles

Account user roles define whether a user can adjust the settings of your Biztera organization.

• Owner can assign other users as admins, delete or transfer ownership of the organization, and make all configurations that admins can.
• Admin has permission to:
  • add and remove members
  • change other users’ roles (but not account ownership)
  • install, configure, and remove integrations
  • configure fields, rules, etc.
  • configure SAML authentication
• Normal views or works on projects only.

Project user roles define what a user can see and do in a given project channel tab.

• Project Owner submitted the project. This role will apply to all channels in the project.
• Moderator monitors, edits and assigns the channel.
• Approver approves or denies the request in an approval channel.
• Assignee updates the status of a task channel.
• Viewer views and comments on the channel.

Access to Projects

In general, projects are private between the owner, moderator(s) and approver/assignee(s). Usually a moderator or approver/assignee can only see the specific channel tab applicable to them (Finance, Legal, etc.). You can see exactly who has access to a tab by clicking on the N members link in the tab.

If you can see a project tab, you can invite others to it as viewers. When you do, all details, comments and activity in that tab and the General tab become visible to them.

There are two ways to add someone as a viewer on a channel tab:

• Tag someone in a comment inside the tab (type @ to bring up a list of members).
• Click the N members link in the tab. Then click Add Member and select someone from the menu.

Only moderators can remove viewers from channel tabs. Private Notes Only you can see your private note on a project. If you want someone else to see your note, put it in the comment field instead.

Project Statuses

Filters and Search

You can search projects using text in the title, description, details or activity in any channel. The project number is also searchable. Enter #10224 to search for the project with that number. Filters: Waiting on Me vs. My Projects

My Projects displays only projects you created.

Waiting on Me: A project is considered to be waiting on you if:

• You are a moderator and you need to assign people.
• You are an assignee in a task channel that is pending or in progress.
• You are an approver in an approval channel, and anyone before you in sequence has already approved.

Project Workflow

Drafts and Clones

You must click the Save Draft button if you want to save your changes. There is currently no auto-save feature. Assignment of Cloned Projects Assignees and viewers will be added based on any rules that apply when the project is submitted. If no rules apply, a moderator will still need to see the project first and make assignments.

Modifying Projects

As project owner, you can edit the title, description and most details of your project at any time. If you discover that you made a mistake that can’t be corrected, make a comment that you need to create a new project.

Approvers/assignees may change their minds and update their channel statuses any time.

Attachments

You can upload any file as long as it is not larger than 10MB. Only a moderator, owner, or the original uploader may remove an attachment.

Milestones

Use Milestones to track individual tasks within different parts of a project. After a project is submitted, a channel’s moderator or assignee may create milestones, set their due dates, and assign them to any member of your organization.

Slack Integration

Spectrum has deep integration with Slack, allowing you to track, update and even create projects right from your workspace. When a Spectrum project is created, we send a post to your Slack channel containing relevant project information.

Sequential vs. Parallel Workflow: Spectrum projects are always in parallel workflow, so all teams can access and update their tabs at any time if they use Spectrum.