Top 10 Reasons to Get Excited for CiviCRM 4.3

CiviCRM 4.3 is packed with hundreds of improvements to make your CRM more productive, easier to use, and (dare I say) more fun. And it's going to be released soon. How soon? Well that depends on you. In the upcoming alpha version there may still be lurking bugs and we need your help to find them. You don't need coding skills or copious free time, but it will take all of us pitching in to make this release the best it can be.  Find out how you can get involved.

10) CiviDiscount Extension

• Create custom discount codes (flat or percentage)
• Track and restrict discount usage
• Member discounts and special renewal discounts

9) Contact Edit Locking

• Prevents accidents when two people edit the same contact at the same time

8) Better notifications

• Attractive, helpful messages to let you know what's going on.
• Color-coded icons tell you what kind of message this is, and non-urgent messages will fade away on their own.

7) Advanced Search and QuickSearch Improvements

• The QuickSearch bar now lets you instantly find contacts based on your chosen search field.
• Advanced Search includes many new and improved search fields
• Manage complex searches more easily with the improved advanced search UI.

6) Multi-record custom data in profiles

• Previously, multi-record custom fields couldn't be added to profiles
• Now profiles allow you to create, update and delete one or more records in a custom field group

5) Enhanced in-place editing

• Working with contacts has never been easier
• Edit contact fields, tags, and custom data, and watch the changelog update in real-time

4) Friendly Front-End Forms

• Your contribution, membership and event pages have never looked better
• Large friendly inputs and clientside validation make for a pleasant user experience.

3) Smarter Search-Builder

• Pick groups, tags, and other select options from a list without having to type in the ids or use a special format
• Enjoy a date-popup widget when inputting date fields
• Add and remove search criteria quickly without waiting for the page to reload

2) New Profile Form Designer

• Build and preview your profiles in real-time without having to navigate away from your current task.
• Drag-n-drop interface makes creating a profile easy and fun.
• Currently implemented for Surveys, you'll see this time-saving tool appear in the rest of CiviCRM in the near future.

1) Accounting Integration

• It's here! The long-awaited new suite of features for Quickbooks and other accounting software.
• CiviCRM financial data is now stored in accountant-friendly ways.
• New batch workflows for exporting financial data to spreadsheet or Quickbooks format.

I'll bet you can't wait to participate in the pre-release testing of all these cool new features. Find out how you can get involved.

Got a favorite feature I forgot to mention? Please leave a comment.