Workbench Release Notes
General Release 4.5.
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39.2
Scheduled Release - 26 September 10 October 2022
Beta Release 4.5.
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39.1
Scheduled Release - 19 September 03 October 2022
New Features
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General
Tax Code Validations:
In an effort to continue to ensure the integrity of the data that is exported to our client’s financial systems and to ensure the correct use of Tax codes for non-zero GST and Zero-GST Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable transactions we have introduced validation rules and two new control parameters that will assist on this process.Control parameters:
GST Type for No GST Supplier
GST Type for No GST Client
On AP Invoices, AP Credits, and Subcontract Claims:
if the supplier is flagged to not Use GST, then the system will default the GST Code on every line to the 'GST Type for No GST Supplier' Control parameter value, otherwise, it will default to the GST Type on the Activity.
if a line has zero GST value, then the system will validate that the GST Type specified has a zero GST rate. An error message will be displayed if this is not correct.
if a line has non-zero GST value, then the system will validate that the GST Type specified has a non-zero GST rate. An error message will be displayed if this is not correct.
On AR Invoices, AR Credits, and Contract Claims:
if the client is flagged to not Use GST, then the system will default the GST Code on every line to the 'GST Type for No GST Client' Control parameter value, otherwise, it will default to the GST Type on the Sales Code
if a line has zero GST value, then the system will validate that the GST Type specified has a zero GST rate. An error message will be displayed if this is not correct.
if a line has non-zero GST value, then the system will validate that the GST Type specified has a non-zero GST rate. An error message will be displayed if this is not correct.
Feature Revisions
General
Inactive entities selection:
The selection of inactive entities has been reviewed across the entire Workbench platform and changes have been made to ensure only valid selections can be made.
In the example below Profit Centre “R&M: Repairs & Maintenance“ has been made inactive. It can still be used as a filter to display lists of Jobs that use it, however, when editing a Job’s Profit Centre the inactive Profit Centre cannot be selected. It also has an (inactive) tag appended to it for display purposes only:
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In a View context filters will include inactive records in the list with “(inactive)” auto appended to the inactive entity and it will allow the selection of this inactive entity.
In a Data Entry context, the system will display a record with an inactive entity in it with the '(inactive)' tag auto-appended and will allow saving the record if the field is not edited.
eg. Profit Centre [ R&M: Repairs & Maintenance (Inactive) ]In a Data Entry context, the system will exclude inactive entities from the list when the field is edited
eg. Profit Centre [ picker list will exclude “R&M: Repairs & Maintenance” ]
Lists
My Approvals:
Control parameter BETA FEATURE - Approvals Report Hidden has been deprecated and with it, the ability to open a document report from My Approvals, instead of opening the document itself (except for MDE vouchers where the approval is done from the document SSRS report). This behaviour has been the default behaviour for some time now, so should not cause any disruptions.
Jobs
Contracts Forecasting:
The value on control parameter 'BETA FEATURE - New Forecasting' was being cached by the application, which meant that a change to it was not taking effect immediately. This has been rectified.
Purchasing
Purchase Orders:
A validation has been added to the import of Purchase Order lines, to stop the import of lines using inactive Stock Locations (wbImportPurchaseOrderLines).AP Vouchers:
Total Excl value on an AP voucher header is now formatted with commas, like the rest of the other values on the screen.
Tax Code Validation:
If the supplier is set to Not Use GST, then all GST values on the voucher will default to zero.
There are also new Tax Code Validation rules explained in detail further below.AP Credits - link to applied AP Voucher:
On AP Credits there is a new link to open the AP Invoice the AP Credit is being applied to, for a user to validate the right one is being used. The AP Invoice will open in a new window on top of the current one.
Subcontracts
Inactive Subcontractors:
Work Orders cannot be created for Subcontracts with inactive Subcontractors anymore.
Subcontract Claims cannot be created for Subcontracts with inactive Subcontractors anymore.Comments on Subcontract claim lines:
Comments added to subcontract claim lines that did not have any other editing than the comment, were not being saved. This has been rectified.
Plant
Plant Assignments:
Plant Assignment screen now excludes Closed Assignments by default (only displays Entered and Approved).
qty = 1 on new lines:
When adding a new line on a Plant Assignment, the default quantity is now 1 (instead of 0).
Timesheets
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| Info |
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Sharperlight Data Model upgrade On-premise clients, please contact us if you require the new Data Model to do the upgrade. |
Sharperlight
A New Sharperlight Data Model is being released with lots of enhancements to allow for detailed financial reporting and some other exciting improvements. This is also in preparation for the upgrade to the latest Sharperlight version later on (date to be defined and advised) that will provide access to new features and bug fixes.
New GLAccounts table
BaseGLCode has been added to vwJobFinancialDataView and linked to GLAccounts table
Activities and SalesCodes links to GLAccounts table
New Audit table
New StockTransactions view
Hyperlinks to Workbench have been added to the following document tables. This will allow the display of a hyperlink on Sharperlight to open a new browser tab with the document in Workbench:
Budgets
Companies
Contracts
Job Invoices
Jobs
Logs
Plant Items
Subcontracts
Work Orders
Links to PeriodEnds table
In the period ends table, a new field has been added that displays the month and year of the period end date (MMM YY format)
Added the description field on the following tables so that when that field is being used in a drop-down box on a report, the description field is displayed too:
Job Code / Description
Company Name
Person
Plant code / description
Stock item / description
Stock Locations
Our data model now uses a default database name, called Default, which allows to save queries that will run on whatever database the current user has access to. This also enables us to have dashboards that can switch databases like a filter, without having to duplicate the reports for each database name.
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Jobs
Contract Claim Schedule sequence:
A new Sequence Number option has been added to Claim Schedules to allow users to determine the order in which they are presented, especially in billing and on claim schedules, and any custom reports in Sharperlight.
Our standard Contract Claim reports will incorporate this change from next release 4.5.40. Custom Contract Claim reports will require to be updated by one of our developers.
Feature Revisions
Jobs
Job Maintenance -Docket Schedule picker:
When having multiple Docket Schedules to select on the Docket Schedule picker, the user could not navigate out of the first page to select a Schedule. This has been rectified.Job Enquiry - Expense Claim transactions:
On the Job Transactions tab when a Supplier is the same for more than one person’s Expense Claims Company, the lines were duplicating. This has been rectified.
Purchasing
Payment Due Date validation:
On AP Vouchers and AP Invoices, the Payment Due Date is automatically populated based on the Supplier's Payment Terms. This information is imported from the Financial system. However, some Suppliers do not have this info populated leaving the Payment Due date blank. This date is a required value when exporting a batch to the financial system. To handle the scenarios where a Supplier does not have this populated, Workbench now warns users that the Payment Due date is empty and it does not allow an AP Invoice or Voucher to be approved without this date.
To streamline your AP process, we recommend all Suppliers have their Payment details populated on the Financial System, so they can be automatically imported/updated in Workbench. This will ensure that the Payment Due date is populated automatically as well.Partial Inwards Goods receipting from AP Vouchers:
When processing an AP Voucher for part of a PO Line, the system was completing the whole PO line when creating the Inwards Goods Receipt for it, however the receipting should have been only partial. This has been rectified.
Stock
Making a Stock Item inactive:
When lagging a Stock Item as inactive, the system will now automatically flag the line corresponding to this Stock Item on Workbench System Stock Catalogue, as inactive, so it cannot be used when creating POs.Month End - Stock Close Out:
A new validation is introduced to ensure that there is not a case where there is a zero quantity on hand with a non-zero value on hand. Should an error message display for this situation then perform a Stock Adjustment on the respective item / location to rectify this issue.
Subcontracts
Work Order List - Status:
To cater for both types of WO approvals in Workbench, Standard and Workflow, we have updated the Work Order List to display the correct Status and the person the document is assigned to (if it is).
Deprecated columns: Approved By and Assigned Approver
New columns: Status and AssignedRefer to control parameter ‘WO Approval Process’ for the approval method being used.
Timesheets
Job Manager Approval allows editing of Timesheets:
A new permission has been created that allows Job Managers to modify or delete lines on the Job Manager Approval screen (Start, End, Break, Log No, Delete), without having to navigate back and forth to the Timesheet Administrator screen or having to request each employee to modify their timesheets before being able to approve.
Permission ‘Job Manager Approval Allow Edit and Delete’. Use this new permission with caution and advise your employees that you might be updating their original timesheets.
Removing features related to the deprecated Daily Diary module:
From next release, the The Schedule field will be has been removed from Timesheet Groups, as this was only used by Daily DIary Diary functionality and is not required anymore. Daily Diary has been replaced by Daysheets and Upvise Daily Diary.
Service Logs
Billing
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Emailing an AR Credit to the client:
When emailing the AR Credit document, the system now populates the To field with the client’s email address by default.Workflow approval emails for an AR Credit:
The emails triggered by a workflow approval on an AR Credit were not being sent. This has been rectified.
Quotes
Quote number to Job Reference:
When creating a new Job from a Quote, the Job Reference field will be populated with the Quote Number.At Revenue & Cost Element Cost sheets enhancements:
Selling Rate on Costsheet Revenue lines:
When manually entering a Selling Rate value on a Revenue line ('At Revenue & Cost Element') the value was only saved after the second attempt at saving it. It now saves after the first save action as expected.Cost Lines’Detail field is back:
The Details field on Cost lines has been added back as per customers' feedback. It is hidden by default on Grid management.When using Quote Cost Sheet Revenue Lines import on a Cost sheet, the Line Code field was not populated correctly. This has been rectified.
Month End
Processes - Month End Wizard:
Validation on Stock Close-out:
On the Stock Close Out, when checking that zero Quantity On Hand also has a zero Stock Value, the system will now allow for small rounding differences of less than 0.10.
Integrations
Business Central
On Hold AP Invoice flag:
Workbench now supports the sync of AP invoices' On Hold flag. An invoice can initially be exported as On Hold, and later on, released in Workbench by un-selecting the On Hold flag, and this new status will be synced to Business Central.
‘On Hold’ checkbox can now be updated even if the AP Invoice/AP Voucher has been exported. Is not editable if a payment has already been received.
To enable this sync, the Released Invoice check box must be ticked on the Business Central Integration page in Workbench and custom extension v1.20.1.1 must be installed in the client’s Business Central instance‘Small Jobs' Logs:
When billing Service Logs (using the Invoice button on the Log screen), the invoice will be created for the Client on the Service Log, rather than the Client on the Job on the Service Log.
These two can be different, and a common scenario would be in those cases where there are very small jobs done that do not have a specific Job setup in Workbench for it, but rather a generic/cath-all Job for Small Jobs, where the Client could be the Internal company. This Job can be used on the Logs, and typically once the work is done is billed right away, selecting the correct Client that work has been done for.
For now, the integration with Upvise Jobs will still be using the Project’s Company/Client, and the correct client will have to be selected/updated in the Workbench Log. An enhancement to the Client’s selection on Upvise Jobs will be done soon to support this type of scenario with different Project Client vs Upvise Job Client.
Warning: Bulk Invoice Creation functionality cannot be used to bill these Logs, because the Invoice created will for the Job’s Client which is the internal company, and it will have a mix of Transactions done for different clients on different Logs.Mobile Logs - Arrived on Site mandatory:
When using Mobile Logs, the On-Site Date and Time can be made mandatory based on Asset Task settings. This can only be done from Scaffold and can only work when using Assets on Service Logs.
Integrations
Upvise
Daily Scan:
A new function has been developed to record Daily Attendance for factory/yard workers. The suggested set-up is to run an android tablet device in your factory, where employees scan in and out of the factory as they come and go throughout the day. This "attendance" time can be used in conjunction with timesheet data to cross-check timesheet data. Engage your Workbench consultant or Workbench support to discuss this solution.Bulk Equipment Returns:
New functionality has been introduced to Upvise to allow Equipment Returns to be processed in bulk against a project, where multiple pieces of equipment can be recorded in one return form. The return end date will update the respective plant assignment in Workbench. Clients interested in this function please engage our Workbench Support Team.Leave Request Form:
Leave can now be recorded in days and hours. Leave time will appear in the Jobs calendar where an employee has submitted a leave request. Also, a display issue for the Leave request on the Jobs calendar has been solved. Clients wanting to receive this update, please request so from our Workbench Support Team.Upvise Job/ Workbench Log number auto-sequencing:
An enhancement was introduced to immediately generate a log number on the log no field in Upvise with the click of a button. The log number will also auto-populate as the Upvise Job name. The integration caters for log sequencing to be split by finco. Clients wanting to utilise this feature please engage with our Workbench Support Team or your Consultant.
MYOB Advanced
A new integration with financials has been added to the extended list of Workbench integrations with financial systems.
In addition to the existing API integration with MYOB Advanced, we have now developed the option for File-based exports to MYOB Advanced.The 'Tenant' field has been added on the MYOB Advanced integration screen.
Due to changes made by MYOB Advanced on their API, Fixed FC on AP Vouchers and POs were not reflected when AP Invoices were exported. We have made changes to handle the new changes.
Xero
Reversed Payment import:
Those AP Payments that are ‘deleted' or ‘unbatched’ in Xero are now imported to Workbench as reversed payments.Note: in Xero, if a payment is unbatched, it gets flagged as ‘deleted’ and a new payment is created. These ‘deleted’ payments need to be imported into Workbench to cancel out the authorized payment.