The Official Product End for V2 and beta release for V3

Hello everyone! 

We have a few very important updates for you.  This is a long read but PLEASE READ THIS. Our final feature update is on the way. All new feature additions will end for V2, unless they fix bugs. All new features will roll into V3 (which is available to all customers). Features in V3 will be scheduled and rolled out in order of priority.

First off, before we get into the details, I would personally like to thank you for choosing ZenCharts. We try to provide you with the best product and customer support we possibly can. In doing so, we have found there are some issues that come along with that;

1. We try to take every request as a statement of work (i.e. we try to never say no).

2. Some customers do not want that "shiny new button" that you requested*.

3. Bugs can arise in areas not accounted for when we added said shiny new button.

*Keep in mind this is not tied to custom forms, this is regarding new functionality outside of a form.

Well, we have some good news on that front. We are officially closing the release of ZenCharts V2 and starting to build out V3. No new features will be sent to any live server on the production branch (stable). Our engineers will only work to resolve any possible bugs, enhance the design elements and improve code speed.

For those of you who hate this news, don’t worry. We have a spot for you in our beta program. If you’re willing to put up with a bug here and there in exchange for a new functionality; you still can! Just fill out this form and you’ll be moved to the V3 (BETA) version. 

Why did we make this decision?

It comes to one simple thing; bugs! We hate them and so do you. Stability was the most requested product enhancement by our users and we listened. 

HUGE Updates to Form Logic

One of the most menacing issues was recently diagnosed and required us to completely rewrite the logic behind form templates. This update is major in every sense of the word:

• We rewrote every meta-field (shortcodes)

• We no longer accept HTML (code) in the saving of a form, we now only save the values and process HTML on our side of the server rather than in the browser (geeky translation - we save forms better now) 

• We improved the design (more on this later)

Why did we do all of this?

This fix eliminates the reported issues of forms breaking, the page looking like scrambled code, data not displaying in certain areas and that dreaded update HTML button (we hate that button too!). It’s now fixed, this will never happen. The core issue surrounded third party applications used in the browser that actually affected the data we need to save (i.e. plugins like Grammarly).

Improved Form Design

We have some great news that comes with us shipping the updates to form logic, we improved the design of the form templates AND the print style sheet (for downloading documents). You may notice an enhancement in speed as well. The new design is very simple and broken down into several major parts:

The Header Revisited
You now have the ability to customize your form header with some extra options, we also improved the layout and gave you more information. 

Document Style Guides Have Been Improved

All forms are now responsive to the browser size ( responsive design). Woo hoo! Try it from any device and you'll see it's optimized for your screen size.
We've also updated the document attachment to forms. They can now be added/removed inside of an open form.

Addendum's are here

During a recent compliance audit it was brought to our attention that ZenCharts allows too many user roles to edit closed documentation. While that functionality will not be removed from the system, it is now your responsibility and not recommended. If you do need to reopen a document you will be warned of the legality and have to accept the terms of editing.

The correct way to update a document is to add an addendum to the document. We have introduced this functionality and it will greatly enhance compliance efforts. 

We understand this is a major change, but this is a much needed enhancement of our product. This release will officially close V2 of ZenCharts.

Why did we do this?

In an effort to work towards ONC certification* (we are not currently certified) we need to take steps to ensure compliance all while making sure we will meet the modular requirements for a certified product. ONC Certification has not yet been valuable to our customer base as behavioral health isn't offered the same incentives at the time this is being written. We do, however believe this will change early next year. When and if this change does happen we want to be prepared for a successful certification.

*Again, we are NOT currently certified with The Office of National Coordinator

We really believe that the industry as a whole will be treated more like medical facilities and with that will come stronger requirements and incentive programs. This is another step towards staying ahead of the curve.

Conclusion

We are very excited to see what the future brings and how innovative we can be to help your facility. In that spirit, what can we do better? Do you have suggestions? Any feedback you give will go into making V3 the best software we can make. 

We sincerely appreciate you trusting us as your software provider.

Thank you,

Sean Callahan & the entire ZenCharts team

Feedback is always appreciated!

If you want to provide some feedback, please take our customer feedback survey: