4.6.17 - 02 Oct 2023

Owned by Maria Harreguy
Last updated: Oct 16, 2023
9 min read

Workbench Release Notes

General Release 4.6.17.2

Scheduled Release - 02 October 2023

Upvise

  • Enhanced attendance import
    Attendance integration from Upvise will now record the check-in and out times in order of scan time, where the latest scan for the day will always be the last scan recorded. Where there are multiple breaks taken in a day, only the first break is recorded in the attendance table.

Beta Release 4.6.17.1

Scheduled Release -25 September 2023

Sharperlight - Workbench Data Model Release

2.5.1 - 31 Oct 2023

New Features

Subcontracts Retention Trust Accounts

Further functionality is being released on this version, and enhancements to the reports.

Remember to enable this functionality with control parameter BETA FEATURE - Subcontract RTA

Please register your interest for a demo session in October by emailing Maria Harreguy mariah@wbi.co.nz

 

  1. Reports enhancements

    1. Subcontractor All in One Report (wbSubcontractClaim005)



      • The description of how the Retention is calculated has been added to the 'Less Retentions' row, to assist your subcontractors on understanding how your are calculating their retentions and to make the process more transparent. This displays the Retention Code Details (not the Description or Code)

      • The new Retentions in Trust Summary is all on the first page with all the relevant information of this Claim/Payment Certificate.

    2. Subcontract Payment Certificate (wbSubcontractClaim003)
      Retention Code Details are also displayed in this one.

    3. Subcontract Retention Statement (wbSubcontractTransactions004)
      A note has been added for clarity:
      ”This report only includes Subcontracts with a Retention balance.”

  2. Retention Trust Account setup:
    The Retention Trust Account on each Subcontract can now also be configured from with in the Retention Release Management screen. This allows for better visibility of what subcontracts do have a trust account set, and which ones don’t, and can also be maintained from here without the need to open each individual subcontract.
    The ability to edit this column is controlled by permission ‘Edit Retention Trust Account details on Subcontract' which is the same that applies in the Subcontract screen.



  3. Retention Balance reporting to multiple Subcontractors:
    The legislation requires that Subcontractors be reported of their Retentions periodically. Workbench enables Head Contractors to send these Retention Balance reports to all subbies at once.



    1. A new tab will be added to the Subcontracts Retention Management screen, where a list of Subcontractors with a Retention Balance can be selected to send the Balance report. This report is the same format as the Retention Balance Statement, and it only contains information about the particular subcontractor to which the report is being sent.

    2. Report is sent to the Commercial Contact on the SUbcontractor company contacts.

    3. For bulk emailing, if using Office 365, it is safer to turn Control Parameter 'Office 365 Bulk Email' on, to force the emails to be sent using Sendgrid, our SMTP server, rather than Office 365, as this does not support sending emails in bulk very well.

    4. Steps to generate and send reports:

      1. Select the subcontractors you want to send a Retention Balance report.

      2. Click Generate. This will populate the Created date, and the Report column will have a link to the latest generated report.

      3. To preview the report that will be sent open each report from the Latest Report link. Every time the Generate button is clicked on a new report is linked to the Latest Report.

      4. Every report generated is stored as an attachment on the SUbcontractor company’s file attachments for future reference.

      5. There is an optional step which is to flag records as reviewed. Select the records that you want to flag as reviewed and click on the [Review] button. This will populate the Reviewed column with today’s date.

      6. Make sure the Commercial Contact is populated before sending the report.

      7. Next, when you are ready to send the reports select the records that you want to send and click Bulk Send.
        Emails are stored in the Emails List with a status (failed, succeeded, to be processed.


Things to note:

  • This functionality is still in beta, and requires a control parameter to enable it: ‘BETA FEATURE - Subcontract RTA' = yes

  • Do you have custom Payment certificates or Payment Schedule reports that need updating to support Trust Accounts or can you use the new standard reports from Workbench?

  • Get started setting up Commercial contacts on your Subcontractors with the right email addresses to where the Retention Balance Statement will be sent. Note that an existing contact (like a Billing contact) can be also identified as a Commercial contact.

  • For New Zealand, the Amendment Act will come into force on 5 October 2023 and become part of the Constructions Contracts Act.

  • To see all details about how this new functionality works and how to setup it visit the User Documentation here

  • We are still working on the Project Trust Accounts functionality to assist our Queensland Construction clients, which 1st stage of the functionality is scheduled for the last quarter of 2023.

  • We take the opportunity (again) to thank our clients who have kindly provided their time and feedback in this process.


Utility Scheduler

The Utility Scheduler provides the mechanism to schedule the execution of specific tasks/utilities that have been registered as utility procedures and that have been flagged as a procedure that can be scheduled.

These tasks can be repetitive manual tasks that take up too much time, and could be automated and streamlined with a schedule.

Currently, there are 2 tasks available that can be scheduled:

  • Incomplete Timesheet Reminder - Sends weekly email to active employees (can be specified by Timesheet group and/or Profit Centre Group or single or multiple Site map profile IDs) missing the previous week’s timesheet.

  • Pending Timesheets Approval Reminder - Sends weekly email reminder to timesheets approvers that have unapproved timesheets for the previous week. Optional filter employees by Profit Centre or Timesheet Group or multi SiteMapProfileID.

Step to configure the Utility Scheduler:

  1. Create New Schedule from the Utility Scheduler screen located under the Administration folder in the Standard site map profile.

  2. The Schedule has 2 tabs:

    1. Set Schedule:

      1. here choose an appropriate schedule. Only one can be configured. The schedule can be disabled if needed.

      2. Start Time (Local): Local time means the user’s local time. If the user creating the schedule is in New Zealand, the local time is New Zealand time.

         

      3. Set Utility:
        Add a row per utility. The most common use is to have one utility per schedule, but more than one is allowed. Select the utility from the list available on the picker.

        1. The line is populated with Parameters. These can be left as they appear by default or each Parameter (which are the words starting with double @ - example: @@Body) can be edited.

        2. Note there is always a comma separating the parameters.

  3. Save and this is ready to run.
    The main list of Schedules displays details on each scheduled utility reflecting:

    1. Status which shows if it was successfully executed or it errored. Message records a summary of what happened last time the utility was executed ( error messages or summary of the results).

    2. Next Run time and Last Run time.

Things to note:

  • Emails are sent using the STMP server which by default is Workbench Sendgrid STMP server (regardless of Office365 being enabled or not - 365 does not support well sending emails in bulk).

  • Email from is defined by the email address in Control Parameter: Send Email From

  • If the utility task is to send emails, every email sent is stored in Emails List (admin user can access this).

  • Submit your utility ideas that will add value to our standard processes via Fresh Desk Support portal.

  • This is an example of the email reminder sent to employees to complete their timesheets for the week:



General

  • Handle filename attachments with special characters:
    Workbench now supports uploading attachments with special characters on the file name like the ones used in Te Reo Maori language: ā, ē, etc.

Feature Revisions

Lists

  • Editable Jobs List:
    The “Open / Closed” column has been changed to "Status" which better represents the values it displays.

 

Purchasing

  • AP Vouchers:

    • Enhancements to AP vouchers that use Stock POs:

      • For every PO line added there is now a Source link on the This Voucher tab to enable editability back on the Stock Receipt tab. To facilitate this we have:

        • Modified Stock Receipts grid to always show reconciled inwards goods for the current voucher

        • Added PO Number column to the stock receipts grid for clarity

      • Cancelling a voucher currently clears the VoucherId on the InwardsGoodsLine. It now also resets the value on UseForStock and ApprovedQuantity/ApprovedValue fields.

    • AP Credit Notes - applied to PO lines did not reinstate outstanding PO value (despite Control parameter set to Yes). This has been rectified.

 

Plant

  • Plant Locations - Grid management has been added to manage this screen.
    Default Job column is hidden by default.

Billing

  • Selling zero quantity lines:
    Workbench supports zero Quantity Value lines in POs and Vouchers but this was not carried through to Get Sales where these were then not sellable. We have made changes to support the selling of these kinds of lines in Input and Output billing types.

  • Revenue Forecast:
    Values were not loading properly on this screen when ‘Revenue Forecast Mode’ Control Parameter value was ‘Header Both'. This has been rectified.

 

Service Desk

  • Service Log - Arrival and Completion time:
    These fields were cleared after completing a Log. This has been rectified.

 

Month End

  • Processes - Contract Claim Accruals:
    Revised criteria for what is included in contract claim accrual generation:

    • excludes internal sales (where InvoiceCreditFlag = 2)

    • only includes actual contract claims (i.e. when ContractClaimNo > 0)

 

Administration

  • Workflow - Multi Value Schema Approval:
    A logic to support the reassignment of review steps in multi-value schemas was influencing the behaviour of the approval step and causing the reassignments to be recorded as additional approvals steps, although this did not affect limit testing. This use case has been rectified.

Integration

Upvise 

Upvise Inspection Test Plan (ITP) module- EOI OPEN

Expressions of Interest are now open for early adoption of our new ITP Upvise Module. Register your interest here.

  • Equipment Utilisation

    1. Upvise has resolved a bug where backdated meter readings now update the equipment utilisation history as well as the equipment maintenance data.

  • Expense Claim settings

    1. New expense claim options have been introduced to enable Mileage & currency to be hidden

    2. When entering an expense with these settings applied, they will not longer be presented as options:

  • Upvise Reporting Integration: Punch Table (Sharperlight or PowerBI Reporting)

    1. Toolid has been added to the CSV export to enable users generating reports using the Punch Table, to easily link punch items to equipment in reports.

  • Punch View on Mobile Devices (iOS)

    1. There was a bug impacting iOS display of punch items that has now been resolved by Upvise. iOS Users should update their mobile application to v6.38 to receive the fix.

 

  • Punch Item- Count on equipment

    1. A enhancement was made to show the OPEN punch count only in the view equipment Screen. You can still tap on the punch button to see all punches

  • Archived Photo’s attached to Subforms

    1. A bug has been resolved by Upvise to address an issue where restoring subfoms from the form archives, any attached photo’s will now restore.

  • Subform Photo’s not showing in PDF output

    1. A bug has been resolved by Upvise to address an issue impacting the Photo display on the PDF output of subforms.

    2. Photo’s now display on PDF’s as expected.

  • Daily Diary- Equipment Hours

    1. An update has been made to Equipment hours subform to correctly calculate the duration when Finish time is entered first.

  • Upvise Notifications for Managers


    Upvise has changed the way they specify the form submission notification:

    • Previously, a form with no workflow, all manager users were notified, with a limit of the first 20 users.

    • In order to allow sending fewer but more reliable and relevant notifications for the relevant manager users, a new option per form template have been introduced under the Info section called “Notify managers”

      • This new field allows you to specify per template the exact list of managers to be notified. (within the 20 users limit)

    To implement the change:

    1. To ease the transition, and for a period of 1 month, if this field is empty, Upvise will attempt to send the notification to all managers, like before.

    2. From 25th October, Upvise will stop sending automatic notifications to all managers at form submission if this notify managers field is empty.

    3. Admin Users should configure this new setting over the next month on all form templates to ensure the notifications send as expected.

    4. Go to form templates

    5. Select templates

    6. Click “info”

    7. Select managers in “Notify Manager” setting.

    8. Save