Workbench Release Notes
General Release 4.6.19.2
Scheduled Release - 30 October 2023
Hotfix Release 4.6.19.2
Scheduled Release - 23 October 2023
Job Sales Invoice creation
Fixed an error when creating a new Job Invoice.
Beta Release 4.6.19.1
Scheduled Release - 25 October 2023
Sharperlight - Workbench Data Model Release
New Features
Lists
My Approvals - Due Date
On My Approvals list we have added a Due Date column displaying the Due Date of each document to assist the approver in knowing what to action first. This is especially relevant for AP Vouchers and AP Invoices for which Due Dates are very important and need to be strictly followed so as not to breach Payment Terms.
...
AP Invoice: Payment Due Date on the Invoice.
AP Voucher: Payment Due Date -1 or Assigned Date + 1 whichever is earliest.
AP Credit: Payment Due Date - 1 day on the Invoice.
Job Budget: Assigned Date + 1.
Expense Claim: AssignedDate + 1 or Blank for Standard approvals
Job Sales Credit: Assigned Date + 1 or Created Date + 1 for Standard approval.
Job Sales Invoice: Assigned Date + 1 or Created Date + 1 for Standard approval.
Leave Request: Leave Requested on Date + 1
Purchase Order: PO Required Date -1 or Assigned Date + 1 whichever is earliest. Or PO Required Date - 1 for Standard approvals.
Revenue Journal (as JobInvoice): Assigned Date + 1 or Created Date + 1 for Standard approval.
Subcontract Claim: Assigned Date + 1 or Subcontract Claim Payment Date.
Work Order: WO Required Date -1 or Assigned Date + 1 whichever is earliest. Or WO Required Date - 1 for Standard approvals.
Plant
Plant Maintenance Logs:
Service Logs linked to Jobs and Service Logs linked to Plant items have been separated into different screens, as they each have different relevant information to be displayed. We created a new specialised screen for all the Plant Maintenance Logs, and you can now find these under the Plant module together with all the other Plant screens.
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Service Logs
Service Log creation from emails:
We have introduced a new feature that helps clients who use Service Logs in Workbench to manage their reactive work or calls. One of the challenges that our customers face is the manual and tedious process of creating tickets from email requests. To address this pain point, users will be able to:Drag & Drop emails from Outlook into Workbench to automatically create and pre-populate a Log. This only works with the old version of Outlook.
Or, if you are using the new Outlook version, select email files (.msg), and import them from the Service Log screen to automatically create a Service Log based on the email content with some of the data prepopulated.
How it works:
New Outlook:
Emails need to be dragged and dropped to a folder in the file system (for example Downloads folder) and then imported using the ‘Create from email .msg file' button on the Logs screen.
Old Outlook:
Drag & drop one email at a time from Outlook to the new white box on the top of the Logs screen called ‘Create from email .msg file’. It will open a new Log screen and prepoluate some of the details from the email information.
The feature provides the following benefits:
It will reduce the time and effort required to create tickets from email requests, especially for customers who receive hundreds of emails per day.
It will improve the accuracy and completeness of the ticket information, as it will extract relevant data from the email message, such as Contact, Client (based on email address), subject, attachments, and job details.
It has a set of validation rules to automatically find the Client using the From address and assign priority.
Feature Revisions
Jobs
Budgets:
Improved performance when loading a budget to make it faster.
Purchasing
Purchase Orders
PO Email Template - Supplier name token has been added to be used in customised email templates.
Filters in PO Lines:
For ease of use on those large POs with 100+ lines we have added filters to find the specific lines that need to be updated/edited/checked.
Vouchers
Vouchers now support Log numbers on each Voucher line, to cater for lines coming from different POs each one with its own Log Number.
Subcontracts
Enhancements to wbSubcontractClaim005 - Subcontractor All In One Report:
Revised rules for the displaying of Retention text and Trust Accounts details:
A. Rules for Construction Contracts Act Text for New Zealand: “This is a report on retention money withheld from you as party B under subpart 2A of the Construction Contracts Act 2002. You may inspect the accounts and records that section 18FC of that Act requires us to keep in relation to retention money withheld from you.”
NZD currency & Subcontract Retention value= $0 → text will not display
NZD currency & Subcontract Retention value<> $0 → text will display
NZD currency & Subcontract has Trust Account (regardless of Subcontract Retention value) → text will display
B. Rules for the Trust Account Details section:
Subcontract has no Trust account → section will not be displayed
Subcontract has Trust account → section will be displayed
C. The text below that references the Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015 has been removed, as it is not required anymore:
“Retentions in Trust: The Retention value held in Trust for this Subcontract in accordance with the Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015 is NZD based on the Subcontract Awarded Date being 13 Sep 2023”D. The below warning message that appeared when no Awarded Date was set on the Subcontract has been removed.
“The Awarded Date for this Subcontract has not been set. This is required for the management of Retentions under the Construction Contracts Amendment Act 2015.”For those wanting to warn users about the missing Awarded Date, there is a control parameter “BETA FEATURE - Subcontract Contract Awarded date required before subclaim” that can be turned on, and it will warn users and stop them from creating a new Subcontract Claim until the Date has been populated in the Subcontract Dates tab. Note that this will be enabled for all Subcontracts, existing and new.
E. Changes on the following labels:
Subcontact to Contact
Original Subcontract Value
to
Original Contract ValueCurrent Subcontract Value
to
Current Contract ValueTotal Subcontract Value
to
Total Contract ValueBalance to Subcontract Completion
to
Balance to Contract Completion
Plant
Copy existing Plant item and its extension columns:
When creating a new Plant Item there is now an extra option to copy from an existing Plant Item and copy all its extension columns: "Duplicate of an existing plant incl. all extension columns"
Quotes
Re-use quote for multiple prospect clients:
There are some cases where the same quote is provided to several Prospect clients, all submitting their own tender for the same project in the area. So the quote is the same for all the Prospect clients that requested it. The Prospect clients can keep changing as the quotes are sent, and once one of those prospect clients has won the tender and accepted the Quote, the final Client will be changed/set and the Quote in Workbench.
Client, Client Contact, Prospect Client, & Prospect Contact are editable even after the Quote has been approved.
With this, either the Client or Prospect Client can be populated to Accept the quote, not both.
Revenue & Cost - Selling Rate rounding:
Fixed an issue when the Selling Rate of the Revenue line was being rounded and it shouldn’t.
Month End
WIP Accrual batch with $0:
When all Work in progress values in the batch are $0, the batch exporting will error saying '‘Batch is empty’'.Utilities - Job Adjustments:
Fixed scenario when Retail Rate was not being Calculated when FC Cost and FC Retail columns were hidden in the Grid.
System Setup
Jobs - Price Codes improved usability:
A few enhancements have been made to the Price Code maintenance screen for ease of use:The Materials tab only allows activity types of Activity or Item.
The same change has been made to the import. It only allows the import of Activity and Items on the Materials tab, and there are improved validation error messages.
On the Plant tab, the Price Group picker now also allows Plant Pricing Groups.
Administration
Licences
Warning messages have been added on the Licence Matrix screen when users assign licences that are probably not right and will guide the user to allocate the correct licences and make good use of them. Examples below:A user can only have 1 Role licence allocated at a time:
”A user typically does not require more than 1 role licence.”Module licences are only available to be allocated to Roles other than System Admin or Finance as these include all modules by default:
”System Admin or Finance role users do not require any module licences as all features are included in these 2 role licences.”Timesheet and Expense Claim licences are not able to be allocated to anyone with a Role licences as these functions are already included:
”Role licence users do not require Timesheet or Expense Claim licences as these features are included in all roles licences.”
Integration
Xero
AR Credit Export Error:
Fixed an error when exporting AR Credits by ensuring only AR Credits with Apply Number populated in them.