Guide
When two people edit the same thing
Two people can have the same deliverable, client, project, or setting open at once. WorkWiser saves each person’s own changes, and when you both changed the same field it stops, shows you both values, and lets you choose.
Different fields: both of you win
Every editor on this page saves only the fields you actually changed. If a colleague moved the due date while you were fixing the description, both changes land and nobody is asked anything. The fields you left alone are never written back with the older values your screen was still holding.
The same field: nothing is saved until you choose
If somebody else changed a field after you started editing, and you changed that field too, WorkWiser refuses the save instead of quietly writing over their value. Nothing from that save goes in, not even the fields nobody else touched, and everything you typed stays on screen exactly as it was.
A notice appears next to the button you pressed and says so plainly, naming the field: “Due date changed after you started editing, so your changes were not saved.” When several fields clash it names all of them.
What the notice shows
Under that sentence the notice lays the values side by side, so you never have to guess what the other person wrote.
Both of you changed this
The fields that stopped the save. Each one shows “Saved now”, the value the record holds at this moment, and “Your edit”, the value you typed.
Also changed by someone else
Fields the other person changed that you did not touch. Each shows “Saved now” beside “On your screen”, the older value your form is still holding. These are the fields that update when you carry on.
A long list stays short
When a lot moved at once, each group shows the first few fields and counts the rest, for example “2 more”, so the notice stays short.
Nothing to load yet
Once in a while the latest version cannot be fetched to show you. The notice then says “Close this and open the item again to see the latest version.” and offers no buttons, because there is nothing to load.
Choose how to carry on
Keep my changes
Keeps everything you typed and brings every field you did not edit up to date with the saved version. The notice then reads “Your changes are still here, and everything else is now up to date. Check it over, then save.”
The fields you both changed stay listed after you press it. So if you want their value on one field and yours on another, keep your changes, then retype the saved value for the one you are giving up.
Use the saved version
This gives up your value on every field you both changed and takes the saved one instead. Your edits to fields nobody else touched are still in the form, waiting to be saved. The notice then reads “The saved values are now in place for the fields you both changed. Check it over, then save.”
Then save
Look the form over and save as you normally would. The save is now judged against the version you are looking at, so it goes through unless somebody changes the same field yet again. Most editors keep Save switched off until you have picked one of the two, because saving without choosing would only be refused again.
Where you see this notice
Each of these editors refuses a clashing save with the notice above.
Clients
Edit Client, and the editor for one of the client’s contacts.
Projects and deliverables
The project editor, a deliverable’s own page, and the editor for a custom field.
Invoices
Edit scope on a draft invoice, which sets its projects, dates, and line grouping. The button beside the notice there is Apply & refresh.
Organization settings
The Profile tab, Work targets, Billable target, When time gets flagged, and every setting on the page that saves the moment you change it.
Workflow and teams
Statuses, Tags, and Time categories under Settings, then Workflow, and the team editor under Teams.
Time entries
The form that edits a time entry, which works a little differently, as described below.
Settings that save as you change them
Much of the organization settings page has no Save button: a setting saves the moment you change it. So when one of those saves is refused, the notice appears once at the top of the page, above the tabs, and the page scrolls up to it, even when the setting was on another tab. Once you choose Keep my changes or Use the saved version, a Save again button in the notice sends your change.
Time entries work a little differently
A time entry is judged as a whole. If the entry changed in any way after you opened it, your save is refused with “This entry changed after you opened it, so your changes were not saved.” There is one way out, Keep my changes, which keeps what you changed and brings the rest of the entry up to date. It does not list the values, so look the entry over before you save it again.
Elsewhere, a short message
A few editors refuse in the same way but say it in a short pop-up message instead of a notice: message templates, email signatures, the settings on an email account, Teams notifications, title formats, project templates, the invoice template and the default invoice email, saved views, and domain tracking. It is the same sentence, naming what changed and saying your changes were not saved, and your edits stay where they are. To pick up the other person’s version, reload the page, then make your change again.
Good to know
Notes work their own way: two people in the same note see each other, and one person writes at a time. See Work together on a note.
Related
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