Here is up-to-date information about Uku’s updates. This way, you can comfortably keep up with all the possibilities and use them to your maximum advantage. If you have any questions or requests, please contact us at uku@getuku.com.

March 2024

New

• Clients – Link clients with parent-child relationships, making it easier to find related clients
• API – When using “Get members” they return to the groups each member belongs to.
• Language – Choose between British and American English language.
• Custom fields – Financial year end is a client field that can be defined.

Improvements

• Tasks – The tasks start and the due date can be typed manually

February 2024

New

• Xero integration – Uku can automatically check Xero for invoices’ paid status and update invoices in Uku accordingly.
• Report – View time entry gaps and overlaps of another team member.
• Clients – Birthdays are essential and are now back as a contact field.
• Emails – Task due date placeholder in emails now fully supports international date formats.
• Companies House – Updating UK clients’ data from Companies House as part of importing them from an integration fills and updates all possible fields.
• Client Portal – Preview client portal now also creates an example introduction task to convey the client portal experience.
• Custom fields – Client and contact fields related to specific apps become visible upon activating the app and become hidden when deactivated.
• Tasks – Set up one-time template tasks and create new tasks from these templates.
• Menu – Save your preferred default view under any menu item to customise what you want to see when opening up, e.g. Client or Billing.
• Projects – Save members in project fields as task assignees.
• Web App – Save Uku as an app with Google Chrome and use it without a browser.

Improvements

• Integrations – Importing from integration remembers which clients you ignored and offers to ignore them in the future.
• Integrations – Errors during background import of entries, documents or invoices from integrations now result in notifications sent to the client’s default member.
• Integrations – Updated client import from Merit to play along with the latest changes in Merit
• Integrations – Connecting a single client to Merit now correctly shows the integration as valid and active
• Notifications – Temporarily hide sticky notifications.
• Projects – When changing the project’s client, its tasks will also get moved under the new client
• Emails – Automated email no longer sends when you update tasks where the trigger condition is in the past.
• Calendar – Vacations/leaves of inactive team members no longer appear in the calendar.
• Clients – Mandatory client/contact fields are now highlighted with an asterisk when adding or editing a client.
• Clients – Uku now shows a warning when adding an existing client.
• Billing – Improved user experience of VAT code/rate selection for a product or service.
• Billing – Updating invoice status from integration can be used even for future invoices.
• Billing – Uku now generates all needed invoices of a client contract that has had its recurrence changed
• Billing – Customising a product for a client automatically opens it for price changes as well.
• Billing – Fixed an issue where importing products from e-conomic or Xero resulted in some duplicate product prices.

January 2024

New

• Client search – You can search clients by their contacts’ names or email.
• Emails – A recurring task with an email sent is now automatically considered to be in progress.
• Companies House – The app and its client fields are now available for UK companies and disabled for everybody else.
• Flextime and Calendar – Added national holidays for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
• Flextime – Members without an agreement in the selected period are not listed in the Flextime report and cannot take a Flextime vacation.
• Client Portal – Clients can now adjust how they see dates, times and numbers in the client portal.
• Client Portal – An app setting can now remove the file upload box in the client portal.
• Client Portal – Client tasks without a due date are now considered overdue on the next calendar day from their start date.
• Client Portal – Remaining logged into the client portal is now extended by 30 days after each successful login.
• Client Portal – Notification emails sent to clients are now logged under task communication and client communication for a more accessible overview
• Client Portal – Client portal preview is only possible by properly setting up the client portal first.

Improvements

• Magic Button – Members with user-level rights can create magic buttons.
• Companies House – Uku now looks up only active companies from Companies House.
• Payment – You can pay for Uku in US dollars.
• Clients – Updated adding and editing client contacts experience.
• Members – Inviter receives a notification when the invitee joins the company
• User-friendliness – more user-friendly on lower resolution screens.
• Tasks – Tasks whose parent recurring task has been deleted can now be opened again.
• Tasks and Client Portal – improved using and showing links in task checklists, descriptions and comments/messages, both in Uku and the Client Portal.
• Client Portal – Notification emails sent to client contacts by Uku are shown under task communication history as sent by the client’s responsible accountant.
• Client Portal – Checklists of client portal tasks are now shared between Uku and the client portal.
• Client Portal – Improved the look of emails under task communication and client communication and added a way to view them in near full detail as they were sent.
• Integration – Xero integration remains active as long as it is used and no longer requires re-authentication for every activity.
• Xero Integration – The customer’s email is now imported as the main contact.
• Xero Integration – The customer’s mobile phone and phone are now imported as the main contact’s phones.
• Emails – Placeholder contact_name in emails now uses the contact’s first name instead of the full name.

December 2023

New

• Billing – A tool to change VAT rates of products, contract templates, client contracts and open invoices in bulk. Learn more
• Billing – Adding a contract template to a client contract sets the contract up as related to a template if no other changes have been made to that client contract
• Billing – Uku now supports Canadian dollars for client billing
• API – Time entry comments (description) are now available for time entries
• Flextime – Export unused vacation days and unused flextime bonuses of all team members
• Internationalisation – Members can use Uku in their country’s default regional formatting. Dates, times, numbers, and money are now formatted according to member’s regional formatting. Learn more
• Dependent tasks – Tasks that depend on other tasks now have a dependency icon to reflect that.

Improvements 

• Billing – Improved regional formatting of VAT rates for specific regions
• Calendar – Sweden, Hungary, and Bulgaria holidays and events in the calendar.
• Tasks – Creating tasks from checklist items
• Client Portal – Changing contact information in the client portal now updates the client’s contact in Uku and vice versa.
• Tasks – When creating a new task with a due date, that due date immediately becomes visible
• Team – Type to find a member you are looking for when using client fields with team members

November 2023

New

• Calendar – Display 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks. Choose your desired calendar.
• Calendar – Members can now configure their calendar to show tasks, vacations, holidays or news to make working with the calendar easier.
• Billing – Set up cumulative prices where the price for a product on an invoice will sum all matching price rows together
• Member profile – Members with multiple companies can now select which company is their primary one

Improvements

• Billing – Client contract products now have their prices activated from the contract start date by default
• Tasks – Fixes related to the recurring task’s start and end date regarding the month’s variable end date.
• Client Portal – Marking a task or request as done in Uku also marks it as complete in the client portal
• Client Portal – Uku indicates under which message client portal attachments were uploaded
• Client Portal – Define a default language for your client portal

October 2023

New

• Uku’s Client Portal for accountants is out! Set up your company’s client portal with your branding,  activate it for your clients in bulk or one-by-one, assign tasks and ask them to upload documents, set a due date, and share and receive documents. These are just some of the possibilities. Read more about the client portal and see how to set up the client portal.
• Digitise client documents. Every member with access to a client can send some or all attachments of a task to that digitisation service whenever needed

Improvements

• Flextime now works with different shortened workday rules in different countries
• Import from Xero is now restricted to owners and administrators

September 2023

New

• Client-based products – Create products or services with a standard price at the office level. You can make an individual offer for each client for a product or service.

• Time entry logs available anywhere – Administrators and client managers can now view and manage team’s time entries from anywhere
• Shortcut to reports – Client sidebar now has shortcut links to client’s reports
• Create contracts from multiple templates – A client’s contract can now be made up from multiple templates

Improvements

• Inactive client contracts – Client contracts now become inactive when they end also for inactive clients
• Fixed magic button

August 2023

New

• Flextime vacation by minute – Taking out your vacation in the Flextime app is more precise. Take you vacation out by minute instead of rounding it to hours.
• Flextime in your company timezone – Handle flextime and vacations in your company’s timezone.
• Failing emails announcement – Uku informs you if an email has failed to send
• Attachments for recurring tasks – You can now add attachments to the task plan and they always come with the created task.

Improvements

• Resetting your email accounts password – Reset to reconnect Microsoft/Gmail integration after password renewal.

July 2023

New

• Disallowing personal clients – Company owners can disallow adding clients under the personal account. This way, a situation does not arise where a client seems to have disappeared and is only visible under a specific member’s account.​​
• Notification of locking time entries– Uku sends a reminder to all company members if the locking of time records is enabled.

Improvements

• Checklist – Reorder your checklist before saving the task.
• Set up temporary workers – Add an agreement with 0 hours to Flextime for temporary or external workers.
• Notification – Task’s assignees get a notification when a task is created with multiple assignees.

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June 2023

New

• Default dashboard – group your dashboard as you wish and save it as your default view
• Lock company settings – Company owners can lock company settings for all other members once the company has been set up as intended‍

Improvements

• Spanish as a client or contact language
• Available in German and Latvian
• Locked time entries – Regular members are no longer allowed to delete tasks that include locked time entries
• Reassigning tasks – Removing a client’s default user will reassign the client to company owner
• Flextime notifications – Uku will now notify administrators when a member requests vacation & when your vacation has been accepted/declined

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May 2023

New

Uku got a new appearance. See more ›

Improvements

• Pagination – Uku shows clients on multiple pages if you have over 50 clients.
• Business Register – Uku automatically updates information on Estonian companies from Estonian Business Register when importing clients from Excel or any integration.
• Companies House – Uku automatically updates information on United Kingdom companies from Companies House when importing clients from Excel or any integration.
• Billing rights – permission to manage client contracts & invoices is given to client managers instead of company administrators.

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April 2023

New features

• Xero integration (beta) –  import clients, contacts, and products from Xero to Uku. Export invoices to Xero.
• Client contacts export – you can export client contacts separately from clients.
• A company account is no longer locked immediately after failed payment. Instead, Uku sends three warnings, and the account gets locked on the 5th calendar day if no payment is received.

Other improvements & fixes

• Only admin members are allowed to edit and delete company-wide bookmarks.

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March 2023

New features

• Task topics – you can now replace task topics.
• Mandatory custom fields – you can set the task custom field as required if the task has a specific topic.
• Contact custom fields – client contacts now have custom fields.
• Client contacts import – you can add and update client contacts with Excel import.
• In the clients’ list, the custom field filter now includes custom fields of user type.

Other improvements & fixes

• Unsent email – members are informed if the system can’t deliver an email.
• Invoice currency – if the currency hasn’t been selected for a client in billing settings, then by default currency of the client country is used when creating an invoice.
• Users can add attachments to the client overview without adding any text.

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February 2023

New features

• Possibility to register and log in to Uku with a Microsoft account.

Reorganisation of Settings and App store

• The new name of the App Store is Settings & Apps.
• Companies are displayed in a horizontal menu under Settings instead of a drop-down menu.
• Under the settings, there is a new company app where you can see primary company data, plan information, invoices, and settings. Settings related to clients and tasks are also grouped under the company application. On the Security tab, administrators can specify how users can sign in: via email, Google, or Microsoft account.
• Personal settings are now under the Profile menu item.

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January 2023

New features

• Duplicated tasks – in the task view, under the three dots menu, you can make a copy of the task.
• Future time entries – a new setting is available “Allow time entries in future”. If this setting is enabled, members can enter time entries in the future.

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December 2022

New features

• Emails app – send emails directly from Uku and automate recurring emails. Read more about the app.
• Choose a replacement while deactivating a member.

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November 2022

New features

• Archiving client groups – When you delete a client group in use, the client group is archived. You can restore archived client groups.
• Deactivated client’s and member’s report – to open the report navigate to the deactivated client’s or member’s list, click on the three-dot menu, and choose “View report”.
• New filters – “Delegated to ” and “Delegated by” filters allow you to sort out tasks delegated to or by you.

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October 2022

New features

• More detailed time tracking – track time on a checklist item or comment time entries.
• Recurrence quick action – in the task view, you can click on a quick action button that will direct you to the recurrence window.
• New filter – sort tasks by whether they have time tracked or not.
• Mark current task as done – a task for which time is running can be conveniently marked as done in the header. When moving the cursor to the timer, the option “Mark as done” will appear.
• Invoice prefix – a variable can be set as the invoice prefix (year, month, or day of the invoice).
• Mandatory custom fields – custom fields can be set as mandatory. Filling such a custom field on a task is compulsory.
• Client language – we added Norwegian and German language options.

Other improvements & fixes

• XLSX report export – you can download a report with or without additional fields.

September 2022

New features

• Uku identifies overlapping time logs and gaps in the report’s “Time” view. Overlapping time entries are marked with a red and gaps with a green line. Quick options allow you to cut time entries or add new ones conveniently. NB! The feature is available in the “Time” view of the report when one member is selected from the filter and the time logs are in chronological order.
• Task dependency – When you mark a task as done, the next dependent task will appear on the dashboard.
• Navigating between client profiles – you can now move from one customer profile to another with the arrows at the top of the page. The functionality also takes pre-selected filters into account.
• You can display billable (h) and non-billable (h) times in the report.
• Uku API 1.0 – you can retrieve tasks and related information, as well as time logs, entered into Uku
• Payment in Polish zlotys

Other improvements & fixes

• Magic button addition – your previous task appears under the magic button, and you can comfortably continue with it. Read more about the magic button.
• Warning regarding duplicate invoice numbers – if you enter an invoice with an already existing number, a notice will appear
• Products in the contracts and invoices are according to the client’s language – you must enter the products in the corresponding language. Read more about creating products.
• You can export paid invoices.
• Client notes are included when exporting data.
• Updated client import – more convenient and faster client import

June 2022

New features

• Uku public API – this allows to receive information about clients, invoices and invoice templates from Uku.
• Archiving products – When you delete a product in use, the product is archived. You can restore archived products.
• Archiving custom fields – When you delete a custom field in use, the custom field is archived. You can restore archived custom fields.
• Archiving topics – When you delete a topic in use, the topic is archived. You can restore archived topics.
• New billing setting – hide zero-sum invoice rows.
• Enter the minus quantity or price on the invoice.
• Show fixed-price products’ volume of work on the invoice with the following placeholders: {{quantity_as_number}} {{quantity_as_time}}. Add placeholders to the product description.
• When manually adding a product to the client’s invoice/contract, you can specify the invoiced topics.
• You can select a billable and non-billing time filter on a product or manually add a contract line.

Other improvements & fixes

• Users can add hyperlinks to client notes again.
• Under task communication and activity are displayed on different tabs.
• When the filter dropdown is opened, selected values will be displayed at the top of the list.
• Users will no longer be able to create several accounts with the same email address.
• More product-based minimum time options were added to the client contract: 2-8 hours.
• Full display of product and VAT codes in the drop-down menu.
• Search bar added to product, resource, and VAT code drop-down menus.
• The client’s primary user can create their client’s invoices in bulk.
• The client’s primary user can change all product lines on their clients’ invoices and contracts.

May 2022

New features

• New filter – users can filter clients in the client list by client custom fields. The filter supports the following custom fields types: number, text, choice, multi choice and yes/no.
• Users can create and assign roles to client contacts.

Other improvements & fixes

• Users can search and add new task custom fields under Merit Aktiva and SmartAccounts apps.
• Uku is available in the Polish language.
• We added two new regions to Uku – Poland (PL) and Europe (EU). Under the Demo account, new users see region-based work plans.
• The visual change in the Billing app – Contract templates and Invoice templates are moved on separate pages.
• The company logo is visible on the invoice and downloaded pdf.
• Users can again delete company contract templates.
• Invoice translations – client invoices can be correctly translated into other languages.
• Long task custom fields are visible with a tooltip. To see the full name move the cursor on the task custom field.
• Users can add an attachment to a note that another user has previously added.
• All filters are now in alphabetical order.

April 2022

New features

• Add new products to multiple customer contracts. To add a new product, first, you must enter a new contract template in the Uku billing app that contains the service(s) you want to add to the contract. After creating the template, proceed to the customer list, tick the customers you want to add to the new service and select the “Contract actions” from the horizontal menu. Next, choose “Append only” and specify which contracts you want to change. Then select the template you want to add to them.

March 2022

New features

• Invoice templates – Create invoice templates to simplify the process of creating client contracts. Invoice templates can be managed under the Billing app in the App Store. Read more about how to set up and use contract templates.
• Changes in the contract template will be applied to the client contracts. When the contract template is updated, then all client contracts that are created based on the template will also be updated. (NOTE – if any changes have been made to the template-based client contract the connection between the template and client contract is lost, and updating the template won’t change the client contract).
• Multiple client contracts – Add many contracts to one client. You can see the contacts list under client billing contracts.
• Clients’ billing view is updated and divided into 3 parts: (1) invoices – list of client’s invoices, (2) contracts – list of contracts, and (3) settings – client’s billing settings.
• Add invoices manually (without contracts) – Create one-time invoices. You can manually add invoices in the client billing view by clicking “Add invoice”.
• Discount – Uku supports discounts. You can add a discount rate to each client service row (contract and one-time invoice). Discount rates are also sent to the accounting system when using an integration.
• Show invoice rows where the price is 0 but quantity is over 0. This allows you to show free services on the invoice.
• Show the name of the accountant /primary user on the invoice. The primary user name can be displayed on the PDF invoice sent to the client. You need to use a placeholder {{client_primary_user}}. You can enter the placeholder either into the client contract settings description or in the templates in the billing app.
• Invoice reply email – Client billing settings allow selecting a reply email. Then when the client receives an invoice and replies to the email, it is sent to the person responsible for the client.
• Change the order of products in the invoice. You can arrange the order of the products in the company contract template, contract, and invoice edit view.
• New billing filters – There are two new filters available in the Client view: (1) contract status (active, pending, finished), and (2) contract template (selection of company contract templates).
• Billing bulk actions – You can add or replace billing templates for multiple clients at once. You can do billing bulk-actions in the Clients view.
• New billing settings options in the App Store:
• Allow managers to view and create their client contracts and invoices – With this setting enabled managers (client admins) see the billing view on the left menu and do all actions with invoices, contracts, and settings as the company admin. The only difference is that users can manage only their own clients’ invoices.
• Allow members to view and create their client invoices – Users will see invoices on the clients’ profiles in the Billing tab. In the same view, members can also add new invoices and adjust them. This setting does not allow members to export and sends out invoices.
• Allow members to view their client invoices – This setting allows users to see client invoices under the client view. Users can view the invoices, but they can’t do any actions with them.

New billing settings options in the App Store:

• Enable users to see client invoices’ – Enables users to see client invoices under the client’s view. Users can view the invoices they can’t do any actions with them.
• Enable users to confirm billable rows – This allows the users to confirm the invoice rows. The contract product row dimension has to match the user. Admin and Owner of the company can confirm all invoice rows. Rights to confirm products can be given to users under Product dimensions in the Billing app.
• Enable client admin to manage client contracts – If the setting is enabled and the user who is an admin under client can see the Billing view and do all actions with invoices, contracts, and settings as company admin can. The users can manage only clients for who they are primary users.
• Enable invoice management for users. This setting gives users the same access to billing as admin users have.

Other improvements & fixes

• Headers in the apps are fixed, and windows are extended for better usage.
• Navigate quickly to client invoices from the invoice view. To do that, click on the client’s name on the header in the invoice view.
• You can remove the “Date until” value for the client contract.

February 2022

New features

• Quick action – navigate fast from task to client profile by clicking on the client icon.
• Task setting in the App Store – we gathered all task settings in the App Store for more convenient access. Previously task settings were scattered between Uku settings and the App Store.
• “User” filter – the filter now shows also tasks where the user has added via groups.
• “I follow” filter – the filter is now also available in the calendar view.
• Task autosuggest – If a user adds a new task from the task autosuggest, the task custom field would be added (if the previous task had it). The custom field value would be left empty.

Other improvements & fixes

• Payment fix – after upgrading the subscription, the user can add a new user straight away.

Jaanuar 2022

New features

• Following tasks – follow your colleagues’ tasks to keep up with their progress. We also added an “I follow” filter to the dashboard search so you can quickly look up all the tasks you follow from different users.
• User groups – create user groups under “Users” view and assign recurring or one-time tasks to those groups. Assigned tasks appear on the dashboards of all the group members. Make your teamwork truly flow with this function.
• Marking invoices paid – manually mark invoices paid or unpaid, in bulk or one by one.
• Menu display options – you can leave the main menu sidebar opened.

Other improvements & fixes

• Mini Uku is even more good-looking and user-friendly. Install Mini Uku here.
• In the report Task/Time view the longer task names are shown with a tooltip.
• You can now add client custom fields and client groups in the import flow – first create the needed and then match with the columns.
• In the client card we show only these client custom fields where information has been added.
• We have added a search option to the saved bookmarks. The search is displayed if more than 7 bookmarks have been saved.
• We have now ‘Select/Unselect’ all option available in the members dropdown.
• We have added search and autosuggest to product fields (VAT, article, topics etc)
• There are quarterly shortcuts (last quarter, this quarter) in the Billing view period filter.
• Magic button setting – add all time entries under one task (per month).
• Uku purchase invoice email is attached with a pdf invoice.
• Bulk action options are also available in the client list and billing.
• Notification is marked read when the user clicks on it. User can mark all notifications read by ‘Mark all as read’.

December 2021

New features

• Magic buttons – With one click, add a new task and start the timer. Magic buttons allow you to insert urgent work (phone call, email) conveniently. That ensures tasks are inserted into Uku properly. Read more.
• Task notes – Add active links and new rows with the enter.
• Client list export is now exporting the clients you have filtered out.
• If you navigate away from the company template or client plan creation view, we give a warning. Just to be sure changes are not lost.
• We have added new quick period filters in the dashboard – ‘This month’ and ‘Last month’.

Other improvements & fixes

• Enable or disable the task custom field from monitoring.

November 2021

New features

• Invoice payment status from Merit Aktiva – Uku updates the payment status of invoices exported to Merit Aktiva. It gives you an overview of paid and unpaid invoices.
• New setting ‘Keep the task opened when starting the timer’ – choose if you want to close or leave a task open after starting the timer. This setting is available under your personal account settings in the App Store.

Other improvements & fixes

• Attachments in recurring tasks  – there was an option displayed in recurring tasks to add attachments even though this feature isn’t available. We removed the misleading button.
• Client notes – there have been some problems with adding attachments and updating existing notes. We resolved these issues.
• Client billing – in the billing view on the customer card, the selection of products and VAT codes are visible, and the drop-down menu is not obscuring information.

October 2021

New features

• Integration with Merit Aktiva – with the integration, you can import clients from Merit Aktiva, automate monthly summaries and invoices.
• Update client data with import – update existing clients’ data through .xlsx import.
• Import clients’ custom fields – import additional clients’ data to Uku using clients’ custom fields.
• New setting ‘Hide Uku’s templates’ – this setting allows you to hide all Uku’s pre-made templates.
• API keys – import client API keys in bulk.

Other improvements & fixes

• ‘Billing’ App in the App Store – access all billing settings in one place under the Billing app in the App Store.
• The Uku customer code is transferred to Merit Aktiva as a project code.
• When adding a new product for billing, the start date of the product is the first day of this year.
• All countries in the world have been added to the region selection.
• Default user – when you deactivate or remove a client’s default user, the business owner is always set as the default user.
• Referring links to the Help Center – ‘How to configure’ guides are linked to Help Center articles.
• The client’s billing supports an annual billing cycle.

September 2021

New features

• Bulk actions – make changes to multiple tasks at once.
• ‘Clients’ and ‘Tasks’ apps in the App Store – all company settings are now available in one place at the App Store
• Duplicate templates – create new task templates by changing existing ones.

Other improvements & fixes

• Longer time period for the ‘User/Date’ group date display – if the selected time period is up to 90 days, you’ll see an overview of the days. A longer period gives a monthly overview.
• You can now successfully download the customer list, even if a deactivated user is attached.
• Billing no longer takes into account the time spent on tasks that have been deleted.
• The ‘Date/User’ group download in the ‘Summary’ view has been fixed.
• The sun is back on Uku’s desktop when all tasks for the day are completed.

July 2021

New features

• Export invoices to Merit Aktiva – invoices prepared by Uku can be exported to Merit Aktiva.
• New column ‘Updated’ in the client list – this column will give you an overview of when the client data was last modified.
• New options in the billing view – new column options such as ‘Invoice Date’, ‘Exported’ and ‘Sent’ have been added to the billing view along with customer search bar and customer group filter. Also you can save filters to conveniently open desired invoices.
• Assign the next invoice number in the billing view – in order for the invoice numbers to match the accounting program, set the number of the next invoice.

Other improvements & fixes

• If you select grouping on the dashboard, it will remain there after visiting other Uku’s pages.
• When adding a new template or topic to your Company account, it will appear automatically without having to refresh the page.
• A new user to a customer will be added as an ‘Admin User’ by default.
• Option to delete a template – delete any old templates that you no longer use.
• Open the client card in a new window by pressing Command (MacOS) / Ctrl (Windows) and the client name.
• In the client profile date field you can now select all dates.