Product Updates

Drive more collaboration, efficiency, and client satisfaction by managing shared emails in Karbon. This release also adds email reminders, Companies House integration enhancements and more.Collaborate on shared emails with Shared TriageStarting today, you can manage and collaborate with colleagues on shared email inboxes with Shared Triage in Karbon.With your personal and shared inboxes side-by-side, your email workflow will be even more efficient and your team will gain greater visibility to deliver exceptional client service. To see Shared Triage in action, register for a live demo webinar or take a video tour below. Set up a Shared TriageTo set up a Shared Triage, go to Settings > Shared Triage > Add Shared Triage and give it a name.Once a Shared Triage is created, you can connect any desired primary email inboxes to it and invite as many colleagues as needed to collaborate.There’s no limit to how many Shared Triages you create or the number of colleagues you want to invite to each Shared Triage. You will only be charged $10/£7 per month for each primary email account connected. For all current Karbon customers, you will start getting charged for every connected account starting May 1st, 2024.Please note that if you currently have a shared inbox associated with a Karbon user, you won’t be able to connect it to a Shared Triage. Reach out to support@karbonhq.com to request that inbox be archived and then you can connect it to Shared Triage again.Collaborate in Shared TriageWorking with your team in Shared Triage is easy and intuitive. If you have access to a Shared Triage, it will appear in your Triage menu.Once you’re in the Shared Triage, you can action emails in several ways:Reply or forward emails as yourself or as the shared email identity Add comments and @mention any colleagues Assign emails to colleagues Add emails to client or work timelines Apply custom email signatures Leverage Karbon AI to compose and summarize emailsTo learn more about how to use Shared Triage to collaborate with your colleagues on shared emails, visit the support center.Set reminders on emails to follow up laterEmail reminders are a great way to keep your Triage organized without missing a follow-up.To add a reminder, click on the bell icon next to your email subject line and set your desired date and time. Once a reminder is set, the email will move into Later. If another activity, like a new reply to the original email or the preset reminder date/time arrives, the email will return to your Triage for follow-up. Reminders can also be easily adjusted or removed.  Summarize client timeline conversations with Karbon AIUse Karbon AI to instantly get up-to-speed on your team’s latest interactions and activity with a client.The latest Karbon AI functionality lets you generate a summary of the last 10 emails and notes on the timeline of your People and Organization contacts. This feature is currently in beta. You can request access to the beta program here.This AI summarization capability enables client managers to access key client insights faster and have meaningful client meetings without spending hours sifting through emails and internal conversations.  Access Karbon Practice Intelligence in appAll Karbon Practice Intelligence (KPI) dashboards are now directly accessible in the Karbon app. This update strengthens KPI’s usability and functionality in several ways:A plug-and-play experience that’s quick and easy to set up Instant access to dashboards pre-populated with your firm’s real-time data No requirement of a Power BI license or familiarity with Power BIIf you’re interested in exploring how the new KPI experience can bring value to your firm, join a live webinar here to see it in action.Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

After a successful beta program, the deadline feature is now available to all Karbon customers.This feature gives your firm the ability to add external deadline dates to work items and manage work based on those.With the option to set up internal due dates and external deadlines on work items, you can now better plan, visualize, and prioritize deadline-driven work. Take a feature tour below. Difference between deadlines and due datesDeadlines are different from due dates. Deadlines are often driven by an external source like a statutory tax filing date whereas due dates are more internal. Ultimately, the two date fields provide you with more flexibility and you can use either or both to manage jobs in ways that make the most sense for your firm.Set up an external deadline on the work itemTo add a deadline on a work item is easy. If you’re creating a brand new work item, click Show Deadline and a new deadline field will appear for you to enter the desired date. You can also edit or add a deadline to an existing work item by going to Details > Key Dates.Set up an external deadline on recurring workExternal deadlines can also be added to repeating work. In a work item’s Repeat Settings, go to Key Dates > Edit > Deadline, and input the desired deadline schedule.Please note that you can’t pick a specific date when setting up deadlines on repeating work.If you have repeating work with specific statutory deadlines like annual tax filing due dates, you can set up deadlines like the video below to capture the fixed statutory due dates. View, sort, and filter work items by deadlineTo organize your Kanban view by deadlines, go to Work > Work View Settings > Columns > Deadline, and all work items will rearrange based on deadlines.Similarly, you can sort all work items in ascending or descending deadlines in the List view by clicking the Deadline column.Besides sorting by deadlines, you can also use deadline date to filter work by week, month, a given date range, or a given number of days of your choice.Access deadline as a data field through Karbon WorkItems APIThe WorkItems API now also includes deadline dates—enabling API users to view, set, and update a deadline date on any work item. You’ll find a guide to using deadline dates on the WorkItems API in the API release notes section of the Karbon Developers site.This feature is available today in your Karbon app. Reach out to support@karbonhq.com if you’re encountering any issues with deadlines

Add deadlines to repeat workIn case you missed it, the deadline beta feature was released in January and has been steadily improving with new functionality since then. With this week’s release, you can now add a deadline to any repeating work schedules.Setting up deadlines on repeat work is similar to setting up due dates. Go to a work item, select Set Up Repeating Work > Key Dates > Deadline, and input the desired deadline schedule.Please note that you can’t pick a specific date when setting up deadlines on repeating work. The drop-down options are driven by the work item’s start date.If you have repeating work with specific statutory deadlines like annual tax filings, you can set it up using the instructions below.The work deadlines feature will be released to all customers soon. The beta program is closed for new signups while the team prepares it for release. Another release note will be published when it is available to all. Request client payment details up frontThis highly requested feature has been added to Karbon Billing to further save you time on payment collection.If you have billing access, you can request client payment details up front to ensure on-time, automatic payments on all future invoices.To request payment details up front, go to Receivables > Client > Auto-Pay > Request Payment Method, or Contact > Billing > Auto-Pay > Request Payment Method. Your client will then receive an email with a secure link to input their payment details. Once their payment details are saved, all approved invoices will be automatically paid on their due date. New billing tab on contactsTo enable a more cohesive billing experience and give you more convenience over where and how they interact with clients’ billing data, a new billing tab is added to People and Organization contacts.Colleagues with billing access can go to the billing tab of a client’s profile and see the same information available in the receivables dashboard: a 12-month billing overview, auto-pay details, invoices, and billing activity.You can also Request Payment Method in the billing tab to collect client payment details upfront for auto-payments of future invoices. A redesigned KPI Time WorkbookBased on your feedback, the KPI TIme Workbook is completely revamped to give you more control, visibility, and insights into your team’s billable hours, utilization, and time entries.The new Time Workbook is available in KPI today and you can get a quick overview of what’s new in this video. Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

This release introduces more ways to manage and bulk-edit work based on external deadlines. Improvements have also been made to how you filter and preview invoicesDeadline beta enhancementsThe ability to add external deadlines to a work item, such as a tax filing date, was recently released to beta. Several further enhancements have been made to make this functionality more useful.Edit work deadlines in the Kanban and List viewThe deadline field is now directly editable in the Work Kanban or List view to help you manage work more efficiently.To edit deadlines in the Kanban view, click on the three-dot setting icon and select Set deadline to open up the calendar. Once the desired deadline is set, it will instantly reflect on the work item Kanban card.Editing deadlines in the List view is even easier. Simply click on the deadline field and enter the desired date.Show deadlines on the work item overlay viewIf a work item has a designated deadline date, you’ll see it displayed when you click open the work item’s overlay view.Deadline field available in Karbon Practice Intelligence (KPI)A deadline field will be added to the WORK_ITEM_DETAILS and DIMN_WORK_ITEM table in KPI. Customers who are in the deadline beta program will be able to use this field for custom reporting.The deadline feature is still open to beta testers. If you’d like to join, sign up here. Better user experience for invoice managementTwo small but significant updates are introduced to improve how you filter and view invoices in Karbon.You’re now able to apply a filter in the Billing > Invoices and Billing > Unbilled section and have the filter persist as you navigate throughout the product. This user experience update ensures your invoice view remains consistent in a given session and saves you time from applying the same filters repeatedlyThis release also gives you the ability to easily open invoices in a new tab using ‘ctrl+click’ (for Windows) or ‘cmd+click’ (for Mac).When you want to quickly view invoices without navigating away from the main invoice list, this update will provide you with the much-needed convenience.Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

Automate payment chasing by quickly resending invoices in bulk. Filter and sort work items by external deadlines. A new design coming to Triage. And exciting enhancements to KPI.Resend invoicesThis latest Karbon billing functionality allows you to quickly resend one or multiple invoices to your clients.To resend invoices, navigate to Billing > Invoices > Awaiting Payment and select the invoices you’d like to resend. Once you hit the resend button, your client will receive a payment email with a secure link to pay for the invoice. You can do the same with paid invoices by going to Billing > Invoices > Paid and resend from there. Updates to external deadline (beta)The ability to add external deadlines to a work item, such as a tax filing date, was released to beta in the last Karbon update.In this release, deadline is added as a data field in your Work view to help you and your team better plan, visualize, and prioritize your work.Sort work by deadline in the Kanban and List viewGo to Work > Work View Settings > Columns > Deadline, and all work items will automatically rearrange.Similarly, you can sort all work items in ascending or descending deadlines in the List view by simply clicking the Deadline column. Filter work by deadlinesBesides sorting by deadlines, you can also use deadline date as a filter. The deadline filter provides several options, including the ability to filter by week, month, a given date range, or a given number of days of your choice.It’s a highly flexible and effective way for you to quickly visualize and manage projects by their external deadlines. Access deadline as a data field through Karbon WorkItems APIThe WorkItems API has been extended to include deadline dates—enabling API users to view, set, and update a deadline date on any work item. You’ll find a guide to using deadline dates on the WorkItems API in the API release notes section of the Karbon Developers site.The deadline field and all related functionality is still open to beta testers. If you’d like to join, sign up here.  New Triage layouts: split and list (beta)In case you missed it, Triage is getting a new design that provides two layouts: List and Split.The list layout will feel familiar to Gmail users, where all your emails and notifications are displayed in a compact list view. The split layout is more similar to Outlook, with a preview pane in the middle. You can easily toggle between the two layouts and use the one that’s most comfortable for you.The new Triage design doesn’t change any existing functionality. It’s strictly a user experience upgrade to make the Triage experience more intuitive and familiar to you.This feature is currently in beta. If you’re interested, sign up here. Record VAT numbers for UK and South African sole trader clientsIn case you missed it, a new VAT number field has been added for UK and South African people contacts. This allows you to use a single record for sole trader clients.When ‘Self Employed’ is chosen for the contact’s employment status, the VAT Number field will appear in Details > Accounting Details > Basics. View the role of other contacts linked to organizationsYou can now view the role of other contacts linked to an organization contact to quickly see the relationship each contact holds to the organization.This information is available in the Details section of organization contacts. Manage Karbon Practice Intelligence (KPI) users in-appIf you’re the KPI admin, you can now directly manage user access to KPI within the Intelligence tab. Simply go to Intelligence > Manage Access and choose to add or remove users.If you require additional users to be granted the KPI Admin role, please reach out to support@karbonhq.com. Save custom views in KPI (beta)KPI embed beta users are now able to save custom views in each dashboard, just like the saved views in the Work area.You can create, save, and manage your own views in each KPI dashboard and these custom views will persist in every dashboard. This functionality gives you more control, freedom, and speed to access the reporting you need. Access hidden and private contacts with the Karbon APIKarbon API access can now be configured to return hidden and/or private contacts and associated work.Given the sensitivity around hidden and private contacts, this feature is disabled by default, but can be enabled for your firm by our support team.Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

Introducing Karbon Billing & PaymentsBilling & Payments, the most extensive new Karbon feature ever built, is now live. After a successful beta program, all customers can access flexible billing, faster payments and real-time reporting built into Karbon.To see it in action and learn how to get started, register for a live webinar.You can also read the help support articles to get started now.  Billing integrated into your workflowKarbon Billing provides you with a fully automated billing workflow that removes the manual steps of reconciling time, work, and billing. It consolidates multiple time-tracking, project management, and invoicing tools into a single platform.You can also collaborate with colleagues at every stage of the process and monitor updates with a full audit trail. Flexible billing optionsHowever your firm bills today, you’ll benefit from Karbon billing. And it can adapt to how you may bill in the future.If you bill based on time and materials, you will eliminate double handling of data or the need to export for billing and reporting. And every billable minute will be tracked thanks to suggested time entries.If you bill based on fixed fee and recurring work, you can link recurring billing plans to recurring work schedules. If you track your time, you can automate your realization reporting entirely.  Faster and automatic paymentsClients can pay securely online with credit or debit cards and ACH direct debit. Automated payments are also available when clients save payment details for future invoices. Real-time reportingFully integrated Billing & Payments in Karbon means you have better, real-time reporting that enables you to understand profitability, know the cost of delivery, and accurately price your services. You can track WIP, realization, and aged receivables with built-in reports, or build custom API solutions. No other solution available today is like Billing & Payments in Karbon. It’s available right now, and included as part of your existing Karbon subscription.Learn more in an upcoming webinar or explore the support content. New Billing & Payments functionality since the beta programThank you to all customers who participated in the Billing & Payments beta program. The testing, feedback, and insights provided have helped build a product that will take hours off your billing workflow.This release includes new features that were not part of the beta program. Recurring billingLink recurring billing plans to recurring work schedules covering a variety of fixed-fee services. Once set up, Karbon will automatically create a monthly invoice for completed or scoped work.Read the step-by-step guide to learn how to set up recurring billing. ACH direct debit for USACH direct debit payments are now available in the US to provide a cost-effective and automated payment collection method.When you issue invoices to your clients, they can securely connect their bank account and save their payment details for automatic future payments.ACH direct debit fees are 1% of the transaction plus $0.30 USD, with a cap of $5. Card payments now available for CanadaCard payments are now available in Canada. Canadian clients can pay using their credit or debit card for invoices sent through Karbon. Learn more about card payment fees. Other new features and functionalityExternal deadlines for work (beta)Deadlines can now be recorded for work items in addition to a work due date. This field is useful for tracking and planning for external deadlines such as tax filing dates or payroll due dates.This feature is currently in beta. Request access to the beta program here.To add a deadline on a new work item, click ‘Show Deadline’ when you are creating the work. You can also edit or add a deadline to an existing work item by going to Details > Key Dates. Record VAT numbers for UK and South African sole trader clientsA new VAT number field has been added for UK and South African people contacts. This allows you to use a single record for sole trader clients.When ‘Self Employed’ is chosen for the contact’s employment status, the VAT Number field will appear in Details > Accounting Details > Basics. View the role of other contacts linked to organizationsYou can now view the role of other contacts linked to an organization contact to quickly see the relationship each contact holds to the organization.This information is available in the Details section of organization contacts. Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

It’s the 22nd and final Karbon update of 2023. Now you can create bite-sized summaries of internal notes with Karbon AI, track the realization of your staff, download invoices, keep UK contact records automatically in sync with Companies House, and more. Summarize internal notes with Karbon AIThe  Karbon AI open beta has been updated to give you the ability to summarize internal notes.Click the ‘Summarize’ button at the bottom of any note to reveal bite-sized highlights of what’s important and actionable, before you choose to dig deeper.Billing & Payments beta program enhancementsDownload invoicesInvoices with a ‘Paid’ or ‘Awaiting Payment’ status can now be downloaded as a PDF file to resend or print. Find this option in the Invoices section menu, in the menu of your open invoice, or in the receivables area for each client.Realization reportThe new Realization report makes it simple to measure your team’s performance, ensure you’re remaining profitable, and stay across your profit margins. Under Billing in your main menu, navigate to Realization. There, you’ll see the realization of time broken down by client. The report can be downloaded as an export of raw time data, which is useful if you want to produce your own pivot tables and analyze further.Please note that fixed fee work items are not yet included in the realization report, but will be available very soon.Automatic contact updates from Companies HouseIn the most recent Karbon update, the Companies House integration was updated to allow UK customers to create or link organisation contacts from Companies House by searching for their company name or number.Now, any linked contacts will remain in sync with the corresponding details from Companies House, without the need to manually update any data. Connect to Slack from within KarbonIn the most recent Karbon update, an integration with Slack was released. A further enhancement has been made, which adds Slack to the connected apps options accessible from your settings in Karbon. This makes it quicker and easier to set up this integration for the first time. Changes for new colleagues invited to your accountImprovements have been made to what new colleagues see when they’re invited into a Karbon account for the first time. New users will be able to select their function and set up their handle, making their initial experience more intuitive and efficient.  Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center. 

Add a Slack conversation to a Karbon timeline and assign it as a task to colleagues with the Karbon-Slack integration. This release also includes enhancements to the Companies House integration, a change to the default resource planning week for recurring work items, and the ability to accept New Zealand card payments. Slack integrationSlack can be great for quick, fleeting conversations. But these often turn into conversations that should be organized in a more permanent location with greater accountability. Karbon’s integration with Slack solves this.You can now take any post from Slack and add it as a note on a Karbon timeline. You also have the option to assign the note to a colleague and add a due date. Learn more and bridge the gap between your instant chat tool, and your team collaboration and workflow.  Companies House integration enhancementsThe Companies House integration, which allows United Kingdom customers to connect their organisation contacts, has been given several improvements that will save time and keep client records accurate:Add Organisations in Karbon from Companies House by searching for the Company Number or Company Name. Company details will be automatically brought into Karbon from the Companies House record.  Existing Organisation Contacts can be linked to their corresponding Companies House record.  Companies House details can be surfaced in Karbon on the Details tab of an organisation contact, making it easier to find and review information about a client. Default resource planning week changeWhen you’re scheduling a work item to repeat, the Resource Planning option lets you choose when future work items will appear in My Week for the assignee and anyone else on the work team. This option now defaults to the ‘Week of start date’ so that no manual planning is required. If you’d prefer not to have a planned week set, you can still choose this as an option. New Zealand card paymentsCard payments are now available in New Zealand as part of the Billing & Payments beta program. New Zealand clients can pay using their credit or debit card for invoices sent through Karbon. Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

After successful beta programs, contact merging and Client Team custom fields are available to all customers. This release also adds the ability to delete manual payments, void sent invoices, and accept card payments from UK clients. Merge contactsApril 2, 2024 Update: Please note that the ability merge contacts has temporarily been removed. The functionality will be added back later in April.After a successful beta release, the ability to merge contacts is now being rolled out to all customers over the coming weeksWhen available in your account, you will be able to identify duplicate contacts and combine their contact details, work, and timelines into one record. This is a crucial step in maintaining a clean and organized client database.To merge contacts with similar names and email addresses, navigate to any contact, click the three dots icon, and choose ‘Merge Duplicates’. From there, follow the steps to complete the merging process. To maintain the security of your sensitive data, private contacts cannot be merged. For step-by-step instructions, read the guide. Client Team custom fieldsA Client Team allows you to outline which colleagues work with specific clients. By default, a Client Team includes a Client Owner and a Client Manager. After a successful beta release, all customers can now create additional custom fields for specific positions, such as Partner, Tax Manager, Director, or Financial Controller. If you are an Admin, choose your default fields in Settings > Contact Settings > Client Team. Then, go to Contact > Details > Client Team to assign the Client Team for that specific contact.Once this is done, you can easily filter work items on the Work List and Kanban view to allow you to focus on work items that are directly relevant to each position. To learn more, read the step-by-step guide. Billing & payments beta program enhancementsDelete manual paymentsIf a mistake is made when recording a payment from a client, or their check is returned with insufficient funds, these manual payments can now be deleted from the payments report. Only colleagues with Billing Access permission will be able to make this manual change.Void sent invoicesInvoices awaiting payment can now be voided. Voiding an invoice will cancel it and return any work, time, and expenses to Unbilled.You can only void an invoice if it has not been paid. If you’d like to void an invoice with a payment recorded, that payment must first be deleted.United Kingdom card paymentsCard payments are now available in the United Kingdom as part of the Billing & Payments beta program. United Kingdom clients can pay using their credit or debit card for invoices sent through Karbon. KPI field: Primary Address ContactA field for Primary Address Contact has been added to Karbon Practice Intelligence. The new field will be available in the Dimn_Client table and will store the address of the primary contact card for a contact.To see all of the fields available through KPI, please see this support article. Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

This release makes it easy to import invoices into QuickBooks Online or Xero, adds the ability to accept card payments from Australian clients, and gives KPI customers one-click credential access.Improvements to invoice exportsIf you use Quickbooks Online or Xero for your invoicing, you can export your invoices produced through the Billing & Payments beta program and import them into your general ledger. The presentation of these invoice exports has been improved so that you can import them cleanly, reducing the need to make any further adjustments.Australian card payments added to Billing & Payments betaCard payments are now available in Australia as part of the Billing & Payments beta program. Australian clients can pay using their credit or debit card for invoices sent through Karbon.View your KPI credentialsYou can now access your Karbon Practice Intelligence credentials within Karbon, which saves you time when setting up a new workbook. From the Intelligence tab in Karbon, you’ll see a new option to view Intelligence Credentials. Open that to view and copy your Locator, Region, Username and Password.If you don’t have Karbon Practice Intelligence enabled for your firm, learn more here. 

Boost productivity with Karbon AI in open beta—available to all Karbon customers. Manage email addresses in user profiles, redesigned Assignment and Cleared Triage icons, Utilization report enhancements, bill by Colleague rate and control budget by amount. Karbon AI open betaAutomate tasks and work faster, all while improving the client experience that you provide. Karbon AI is now available to all customers and trialists. These powerful features are designed to make your workflow more productive:Summarize: Instantly generate summaries from email conversation by clicking Summarize on an email in Triage. Save time and effort while staying informed. Compose email drafts: Create the first draft or reply by clicking Compose From Draft, using prompts and keywords. Focus on what truly matters, as Karbon AI handles the rest. Improve writing tone: Elevate your client communication with a single click. In the email toolbar click Change Tone to adjust your email's tone, making it more neutral, conversational or direct to suit the situation. AI prompt in email task: Karbon AI goes the extra mile by allowing you to provide personalized client updates. Set up automated email tasks within your work items based on prompts you provide, or let Karbon AI draft the content for you. Deliver exceptional client service with ease.Admins can disable Karbon AI for the entire firm in Settings > Karbon AI > Enable Karbon AI. Learn more about Karbon AI, including FAQs and Terms of Use. If you need help, this guide will come in handy.  Bill by Colleague RateThis feature is out of beta and live for all Karbon Customers. Admins with permission to view Dollar Amounts, can add a colleague’s billable rate in Settings > Colleagues by clicking on the colleague name. On the profile page, you can then specify a dollar amount under Billing Rates. To learn more, read the step-by-step guide. Control Budget by AmountThis feature is out of beta and live for all Karbon Customers. You can decide whether to manage your budget by time or amount. Admins can select this option in Settings > Time & Budgets > Budgets > Budget Estimates. When you choose to control the budget by amount, even if the billable rate changes on a task, the total budget for the project will remain the same because the budgeted time will automatically adjust. To learn more, read the step-by-step guide.Triage icons The Assignments and Cleared icons have been redesigned—they’re now more intuitive.When you see the Assignment icon with an arrow, it's guiding you to a specific action. The Cleared icon has a box with a check mark, making it clear that a task is completed or achieved. Utilization reportThe Utilization report now calculates capacity based on a standard five-day workweek, with zero capacity allocated for weekends. Learn more about tracking colleagues’ utilization in this guide. My Week: Work card task automator assignmentIf you currently have no assigned tasks, but there are future task assignments through automators, the card for the work item in My Week will display a Task Awaiting Automator Assignment message. If you move the card to Done, the task will return to This Week when the automator activates. For more details, read this guide.  Email visible in Profile  If you need to change your email address, go to your name in the main menu. Under Profile, click  Edit Profile > Email Address > Change. You’ll be guided to contact our support team who will review and process your request. This precaution is to maintain the integrity of your Karbon setup and ensure there is no impact on a colleague's ability to log in.Admins can reach out to our support team to do this bulk. Learn more about user profiles in this guide.  

Thanks to all who joined me and our Product Managers for the end-of-quarter product review webinar. It was great to see so many familiar names on the call. For those who weren’t able to join us live, catch up on the recording to see:Karbon AI Merge Contacts User Permissions Later in Triage, optional 2FA in Client Portal Billing and Payments Please feel free to join the Billing Beta program showcased in the presentation.  We’d love to hear what you think, and any questions or feedback you have. You can add your thoughts in the comments below.

Action emails on your terms, more control over user permissions, track time based on profile roles. Client team custom fields to oversee work items, and beta test new features—duplicate contacts, bill by colleague rate, and control budgets by amounts.Save Triage items for ‘Later’Action emails and notifications when you’re ready, without cluttering your My Week. Move them to a new section of your Triage called 'Later’, so you can reach Triage Zero faster. Work on what matters, when it matters to you.You can move emails and any Triage item into Later, including:Notes Work assignment notifications Task notifications Client Request notifications Invoice, timesheet and billing run notificationsUnlike your Low Priority folder, adding items to Later is done on a case-by-case basis, specifically because you need to action them some time in the future.Moving items into Later is also available in the Karbon mobile app. Make sure your mobile app is running on the latest version (5.6) to access this feature. Remember to log out and then log back in to activate the update.  Enhanced user permissionsStrengthen your data security with enhanced user permissions, giving you more control over who can create, edit and delete work. This helps avoid unauthorized use, accidental changes, and data inconsistencies across different systems.To customize Work permissions, Admins can set them up for individual users in Settings > Colleagues > choose a colleague > Permissions > Edit. From there, you can control who can change the status of any task or work regardless of whether it's assigned to them, edit work details including due dates, tasks and assignments, and who can create or delete work items.   Restrict roles for time entriesTo prevent billing errors and reduce the need for later corrections, an additional setting has been added to Time and Budgets. Firms can now limit users to only record time against roles allocated to their profiles. For instance, junior staff with lower rates won't accidentally choose roles with higher rates. Admins can set this for the entire firm in Settings > Time and Budgets > Time Tracking > Roles for Time Entry.  Merge Contacts (beta)Take charge of duplicate contacts to ensure information stays organized and accurate. Identify duplicate contacts and combine contact details, work, and timelines into one record. To merge contacts with similar names and email addresses, navigate to a contact, click on the three dots, and choose merge duplicates. From there follow the steps to complete the merging process. For the security of sensitive data, private contacts cannot be merged. For step-by-step instructions, read the guide.  Bill by Colleague Rate (beta)Billing efficiently is a vital part of your workflow. Having the flexibility to bill by a staff member eliminates the need for workarounds, allowing you to work the way you need to.Admins with permission to view all amounts, can add a colleague’s billable rate in Settings > Colleagues by clicking on the colleague name. On the profile page, you can then specify a dollar amount under Billing Rates. To learn more, read the step-by-step guide.  Control Budget by Amount (beta)Stay in control of your budget and decide whether the budgeted time or the budgeted amount is a priority for your firm. This level of flexibility enables you to stay firmly on track, even when rates undergo changes.Previously, budget control was based on time. If your billable rate on a task changed, your budgeted hours would remain fixed, and the total cost of the task would change accordingly.  Now, you can choose whether you’d like to control your budget by time or amount. Admins can select this option in Settings > Time & Budgets > Budgets > Budget Estimates. When you choose to control the budget by amount, even if the billable rate changes on a task, the total budget for  the project will remain the same because the budgeted time will automatically adjust.  To learn more, read the step-by-step guide.  Client Team custom fields (beta)Accurately represent the various client team responsibilities within your firm’s organizational structure to efficiently filter and oversee work related to specific clients.With the addition of two new custom fields, alongside Client Owner and Client Manager in Settings > Contact Settings > Client Team, admins have the ability to assign these to specific positions to suit your firm’s needs, such as Tax Managers, Directors, and/or Financial Controllers. This way, they can have a view of work items, even if they’re not directly responsible for that work.To update individual contacts and include these new custom positions, go to Contact > Details > Client Team. Once this is done, you can easily filter work items on the Work List and Kanban view to allow you to focus on work items that are directly relevant to each position. To learn more, read the step-by-step guide.  

Optional two-factor authentication (2FA) on loginAn extra layer of security is available for the client portal login with optional 2FA*. You can manage your clients' security settings in one place, at Settings > Client Portal > Security and Two-Factor.  There are three options to choose from: Magic link + Login (Default): Clients can access the client portal using the magic link and their login credentials. Magic link only: Deactivates the portal login for your clients—they can only access their requests through the magic link. Magic link + Login 2FA: The highest level of security, requiring clients to enable 2FA. For the third option, clients will need to download an authenticator app to be able to access the client portal securely.Whichever option you select will be applied to all clients across your firm, and can be modified whenever necessary. Read more about two-factor authentication and supported authenticator apps. *Optional 2FA is only available for Business and Enterprise subscriptions. Check who has a client portal accountNow you can easily keep track of your clients and their access to the client portal. In the Contacts > Details tab, there's a new section that shows whether a client has created a client portal account. If they do, you'll see their email address, which also helps if they forget their login. If this is blank it means the client hasn’t created an account and it’s a good reminder to do so. In the same section, you can also click 'Edit Login Details' to reset a client's 2FA access if they can't get into the portal for any reason. This makes it simple to manage access and make sure everything runs smoothly for your clients. 

Send Client Requests to multiple clientsYou can now send Client Requests to multiple clients at the same time. After creating a Client Request in a new or existing work item, simply click Send Client Request, and choose your contact/s. You can choose up to 10 contacts, and the email will display who has received the Client Request. After the request has been sent, you still have the option to manage the client list by adding or removing contacts. Click on the Client Request header or use the options menu (...) to select Manage Client Request and make any necessary changes.If you remove contacts, they will no longer have access to the Client Request. If you add additional contacts, the Client Request will be resent to everyone, providing visibility to those newly-included contacts.  Karbon AI updateKarbon AI is currently being beta tested. If you would like to be part of the beta testing group, please sign up now. Email summaries have been improved to handle longer conversations. This means you can quickly and easily condense more emails from the same conversation into concise summaries—improving the efficiency of your inbox and helping you stay organized and on top of your communications.  Bulk work creationWork items can now be created for multiple contacts from a single work template.This new functionality, available to Admins, combines creating work combines creating work, adjusting repeat settings, and managing multiple contacts, simplifying the process for you.In contacts, multi-select the required contacts and click Add Work. You can edit information to suit the different needs of your workflow, such as assignees, roles, and automatic Client Request recipients on individual contacts, or use the section's bulk selection feature, to edit multiple contacts at the same time. For more details, read the guide to bulk work creation.Bulk work creation is being released to Karbon accounts in phases, and will be available to all customers within one-two weeks. 

In a work template or work item, you can now create a new task type—an email.  This removes the need to navigate away from your workflow to compose and send emails separately.To use this feature, simply go to a work template or work item and select Add Task > Add Email. Choose an email template from the drop down menu or create one. If you are in the Karbon AI beta program, you will have a choice of using an email template or opting for the AI prompt. By using the AI prompt, you can effortlessly draft concise and impactful content, saving you time and mental effort. If you would like to be part of the Karbon AI beta testing group, please sign up now. Once you've created the email task within the work template, you can send the email directly from your workflow without having to navigate away. The sent email will automatically be saved to the timeline, giving everyone in the firm visibility and preventing duplication of work.This enhancement simplifies email management, and improves overall efficiency in your workflow.  

Two-way contact sync with Xero Practice Manager (XPM) Karbon and Xero Practice Manager are connected, allowing users to sync their contacts in both systems. With this two-way sync, it's easier than ever to keep your contact and client information up-to-date. Any changes you make in Karbon will automatically be updated in XPM, and vice versa. This means you can keep your contact and client information centralized and easily accessible.Setting up the integration is simple. For instructions on how to do so, visit this support article.  Global Search All view The new ’All' tab in search, another highly requested feature by our community, will help you find what you need quickly.With a single search, instantly get a snapshot of the top three results from work, contacts, notes, and email all in one place. The results are neatly organized into the respective sections, so you know exactly where to look. Click ’See more results’ to uncover the complete search result list for that section.  Exclude search words using a minus sign (-) Refine search results even further by adding a minus sign (-) in front of any words you want to exclude. For example, to search for ‘tax’ and exclude any results with the word ‘income’, you would type: ‘tax -income’.The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded by a space. You can exclude as many words as you like by using a minus sign before each one. Search for a contact by phone or registration numberSearch for clients or organizations using their phone number in search. The search is flexible and works regardless of whether the phone number includes the country code, area code, or additional symbols like + signs or dashes between numbers. Even if you only have partial phone number information, the search results will display contacts or organizations that match the country and area codes. As you add more digits to the phone number, the search results will become more refined and accurate.In addition to searching for clients or organizations by phone number, you can also search using registration numbers such as VAT, BAS, TFN. For a comprehensive list of supported registration numbers, refer to the support article. As a reminder, you have always been able to find a contact by client ID and/or email address, using the same method. Karbon Practice Intelligence - Contact informationAdditional contact information has been added to KPI. The Client table has been expanded to include extra fields and a new table called Dimn_Client_Accounting_Details has been introduced to store accounting details.To add this to one of your existing reports, visit this support article for more information. Karbon Practice Intelligence - Resource Planning Workbook (coming soon)This workbook is designed to help you understand your team’s capacity and the ability to manage additional work. It provides a clear view of the work your team needs to complete on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis using My Week and Budget Estimates.  See planned and assigned but unallocated work to gain a holistic understanding of pending tasks and your team's available capacity. Begin with an overview of the firm-level capacity and delve into individual team members' weeks to see their assignments and expected effort. The workbook also highlights team members who may be overloaded, helping you identify constraints and bottlenecks. If needed, you can easily reassign work by accessing the work items directly from the workbook and adjusting budgets in Karbon.For team members with scheduled time off, you can specify task types that reduce capacity. This enables accurate planning by reflecting the reduced availability in future time entries for the designated week. To get access to the newest workbook, navigate to the Intelligence tab in Karbon. 

One of the most highly requested features by our community—email templates—are now available. These templates play a crucial role in ensuring consistency across all communications, including message content, tone, and brand identity, regardless of who is sending the email. Admins can create custom email templates for the entire firm to use. To access this feature, simply navigate to the Settings > Email Templates. From there, Admins can easily create and manage templates that reflect your firm's unique communication style and branding.When composing, replying or forwarding an email, you'll find a dedicated icon in the messaging editor to easily apply an email template. If no templates are available, the icon will be inactive.If you’ve selected a template but have changed your mind, click the icon again to select a different template. 

Synchronize your Karbon contacts with the VXT integrationSynchronize your Karbon contacts with your phone using VXT—a cloud-based VoIP phone system. Automatically generating work items and contact notes from your calls—making it effortless to review specific parts of your conversation at a later date.  Save time and effort, but most importantly, minimize risk by keeping accurate and detailed records against the relevant timeline (work, contact, or, an organization) in Karbon.With just one click, you can initiate calls directly from Karbon. Launch the VXT app and instantly match your Karbon contacts with caller IDs, which provides real-time caller identification when answering the phone. Now that contacts are available in VXT, you can search by name in the app when you need to make a call.The integration lets you stay connected, handle calls, and manage your communication from anywhere, whether you're using a mobile device or desktop.Unlock the power of VXT and Karbon integration to consolidate your communication, improve productivity, and maintain accurate records. Setting up the integration is simple. Visit this support article, for step-by-step instructions. Karbon Practice Intelligence TabKarbon Practice Intelligence Workbooks can now be accessed from the Intelligence tab to give you greater convenience. Whether it's a new addition or an updated version, you'll have the most up-to-date workbooks right at your fingertips. If you need your locator/region to set up the workbooks, refer to the following support article for step-by-step instructions.  My WeekPreviously, it was difficult to find a note that wasn't linked to a specific work item or contact. Now when you add a note and assign it to yourself, it will automatically appear in My Week, removing the need for manual searching. And if you assign a note to a colleague, it will continue to be visible in Triage, enabling them to action it.Mobile fixes for AndroidPerformance enhancements have been made to the Android app. This update specifically focuses on resolving crashing issues that some users experienced. Update your app to benefit from these improvements and enjoy a smoother and more reliable mobile experience.Karbon AI beta updateKarbon AI is currently being beta tested and will be released to all customers later this year.If you would like to be part of the beta testing group, please sign up now. Gives you the revolutionary power of generative artificial intelligence and GPT technology right in Karbon. By embedding the technology into your Karbon workflow, it provides you with new ways to automate your tasks and work faster.There is no switching back and forth between apps, and you maintain security and privacy over your data.Summarize email conversations and internal discussions: Instead of sifting through a lengthy email chain, get a concise summary that highlights the important and actionable points. Simply click on an email and press "summarize" to obtain a bulleted list of its contents.Compose emails: Easily create a first draft of a new email or reply by using prompts or keywords. Within any email, click "compose email from draft," and Karbon AI will automatically generate the email or reply for you. You can review and make adjustments before sending.Provide personalized client updates: Keep your clients informed about job progress by setting a task within your Karbon work item. This task will draft an email reflecting the progress and other prompts you provide. To add an email task, go to the work item, click Add task > Add emailImprove writing tone: Enhance your outgoing client emails by making them more conversational, direct, apologetic, or neutral. With a single click, you can adjust the tone to suit the situation. In an email, click on the "change tone" option in the email toolbar.

The Karbon Practice Intelligence Budget workbook has been improved based on customer feedback. It has been designed to consolidate your budget tracking, enhance data quality, and simplify clean-up procedures, all of which contribute to optimizing your bottom line.With this new version, you can track your budgets in real-time or retrospectively once they have been completed. Client level and employee level roll-ups have been introduced, which enable you to easily identify areas and individuals that are exceeding the budget. Ultimately, this workbook helps you focus on what truly matters for your financial success.What’s more, data quality and clean-up features are now integrated directly into the workbook. The new Data Quality tab allows you to quickly identify any potential discrepancies in your Karbon data that might affect your reporting. This empowers you to swiftly and conveniently perform a clean-up process. The ability to filter work items without budgets has also been added, ensuring you can still make the most of the report before conducting a clean-up. 

An external name field has been added in the details tab for work items including repeat schedules. It also appears on work templates so you can set it up once. If populated, this external name field will replace the work item name wherever it is mentioned on client request emails and in the client portal. This gives you the flexibility to have an internal name that your firm recognizes and an external name that is more appropriate for your client.  Set up is simple. For instructions on how to do so, visit this support article.  

Karbon AI, a GPT-powered artificial intelligence tool embedded within Karbon, is now in beta. Karbon AI is designed to make you more efficient with email and how you communicate with clients. Karbon is already saving each individual user an average of 16.5 hours every week, but this is just the beginning. Karbon AI will provide new ways for you to be more productive across client management, reporting and insights, work management, capacity planning, team collaboration, email, and more.  Here are some examples of what you’ll be able to do: Summarize long email conversations and internal discussions. Rather than spending time getting up to speed through a long email chain, a bite-sized summary can show you what’s important and actionable before you choose to dig deeper. Compose an email draft. Karbon AI can create the first draft of an email based on some short prompts or keywords. You can then review and adjust before sending. Provide personalized updates to your clients as their job progresses. Set a task within your Karbon work item to automatically draft an email reflecting your progress and any other prompts you provide. Prioritize your inbox. Karbon AI assesses urgency, sentiment, and tone to show you which emails need your attention first. Improve your writing. Improve outgoing client emails by making them more conversational, direct, apologetic or neutral. With one click you can adjust the tone to suit the situation. Because Karbon AI is embedded into the Karbon practice management platform, there is no switching back and forth between apps. You also maintain security and privacy over your data, because Karbon AI is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. Based heavily on feedback and input from customers, Karbon AI will continue to be developed with capabilities that expand across your collaborative workflow in Karbon.Currently, Karbon AI is in a beta release, but will soon be available to all customers. Karbon customers can register their interest for early access to the beta program here.

The XPM and Karbon integration will allow you to quickly and easily keep your contact information centralized and up-to-date—changes in Karbon are sent to XPM and vice versa.  You can run the data sync manually or automatically and set it to create new contacts, update existing ones, or link contacts to existing or new companies. Setting up the integration is simple. For instructions on how to do so, visit this support article.If you would like to be part of our beta testing group, please sign up now.   Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.

It’s a big day for Karbon and Xero customers!Karbon is now a Xero Certified App. And in just a few weeks you’ll be able to integrate Xero Practice Manager and Karbon to automatically synchronise contact data between both systems.Joint Xero and Karbon customers will be able to maintain accuracy across their new and existing client and contact records, without the need for manual updates. Read the full Press ReleaseWe’re so excited, hope you are too!    

Two-way contact sync with QuickBooks Online AccountantsWith a two-way contacts sync, you can quickly and easily keep your Karbon and QuickBooks Online Accountant data centralized and up-to-date. Once connected, when a change is made in Karbon or QuickBooks Online Accountant, it’s automatically sent to the other.   You can run the data sync manually or automatically, and set it to create new contacts, update existing ones, or link contacts to existing or new companies. This feature is available now in your account and takes less than a minute to set up. After logging into Karbon, click on Settings in the left panel, navigate to ‘Connected Apps’, look for the QuickBooks Online Accountant option and select ‘Connect’. Read our support article to learn more.It’s that simple. You’ll spend less time managing CSV files full of contact data, and more time on what really matters. Access Karbon contacts and organization data in SuiteFilesBring your Karbon contact and organization data directly into SuiteFiles and auto-populate templates, documents, emails (and more) to use in a variety of ways. For example, the next time you onboard a new client, you can create that organization and the contacts in Karbon. Then, via the integration, you can use that data to auto-populate an engagement letter, send it to your new client for signing, and have a secure spot for the new client to share files and collaborate. To take advantage of the integration, read the support article.Previous releasesIf you missed an update, you can still see a list of what we released in Karbon. For API releases, see the Karbon Developer Center.