4.6.38 - 19 Aug 2024

Owned by Maria Harreguy
Last updated: Sept 25, 2024
9 min read

Workbench Release Notes

Scheduled Release - 23 August 2024

Plant Groups

A bug was introduced when adding the new column Upvise Valid on Plant items, and which was preventing the creation of new plant groups. This has been fixed.

Scheduled Release - 19 August 2024

Xero

  • support short Xero access tokens

Quotes

  • Default note type for the new Quote types has been added.

Scheduled Release - 12 August 2024

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh_0fHIZs1I

Upcoming Functionality & News

 

Important announcement on Contract Claims Accrual Process

In November last year, we released the new & improved process to accrue uncertified Contract Claims. This can be enabled with a beta control parameter. Until today both ways are still available, and the time has come to deprecate the old way in early September.

We encourage you to check out the details of the new process either in the Release Notes [HERE] or in the User Documentation [HERE]

 

New Webinar Advanced Procurement - 13 August

Register HERE

How well organised is your Procurement for large projects?

Most businesses involved in delivering construction projects need to procure a range of items as part of the project, defining what you need at the estimate phase of the job is often well done but when it comes to actually ordering and organising the materials to site during the construction phase this can often be poorly executed.

Learn how Workbench can assist you in getting better with your procurement by putting structure and controls around the whole topic.

  • Become more efficient when ordering

  • Have more visibility of what is needed and when it is needed.

  • Quickly compare pricing of like items from different suppliers before ordering

  • Manage material call-ups from the field

Join Clive Gardner as he takes us through a discovery session on a range of features within Workbench to enable you to become experts in the art of Procurement.

 

Community Forums

Workbench is excited to announce that the Community Forums are live and ready for you to dive in. We’ve created a detailed topic outlining the Guidelines for using the Forums, which you can check out here: Forum Guidelines.

If you don’t have a login, please click this link: Freshdesk. This will send us an email, and we will send you a link to set up your Freshdesk portal password.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and seeing you engage with the community. Remember, your votes on other people’s ideas help shape the future of the Workbench product, so don’t hold back!

 

Contract Progress Claim Process - upcoming changes you need to know 

image-20240708-235838-20240730-064026.png

We will be making changes to improve the Claiming process on Contract Claims, and users will soon be able to:

  1. Capture Claimed Values.

  2. Capture Certified Values.

Available from September 2024 as a beta feature.

 

New Features

New access to System Update

  • A new way to access the latest updates on each release.
    You can check the summary of the new features, and be informed of important upcoming changes or news by opening the System Update screen using the new megaphone icon on the top bar, next to the notifications bell.

    All users have access to this feature. If you like keeping up-to-date with new functionality, check it out.

    The icon will have a red dot when there is something new for you to check. You can open it anytime. The information on this screen is updated with each release.

    Alternatively, you can always access in-detail Release Notes via the Release Notes option on your profile menu.

    image-20240813-001939.png
    System Update



Export Control - enhancements to help you manage your batches better:

  • We trust that these additions on the Export Batch screen will make your exporting and troubleshooting of exporting errors a breeze.

    • A new link to open the actual batch you are working on in case you need to make any further changes or fixes.

  • When an AP Invoice or AR Invoice batch errors, in the Error details pop-up you will now see a link to open the specific invoice that failed.

Feature Revisions

User Experience enhancement

  • Navigation changes on the previous release - Back To Invoice List/Back to Invoice buttons

    • We have removed:

      • the To Invoice List button on the Job Invoice screen and

      • the Back To Invoice button on the Input/Output Get Sales screen,

to be consistent with the navigation throughout the rest of the application, and encourage the correct use of breadcrumb menus.

When opening a Claim from the Contract, you will always go back to the Claims list, rather than going back to the Job Invoice list by mistake.
When opening a Job Invoice from the Job Invoice List, you will always navigate back to the Job Invoice List (if specific filters were used, those are kept when going back to the Job Invoice List to open the next invoice in your filtered list).
A new tooltip has been added to guide users to use the breadcrumb menu to navigate back:

 

  • Displaying the correct buttons when first opening some document screens:
    We have enhanced the user experience when opening the following screens so that when the document is opened the user sees only the appropriate buttons corresponding to the status the document is at.
    (instead of briefly seeing all possible buttons first, until the not required ones are hidden):

    • Job Invoice

    • Job Invoice credit

    • Contract Claim

    • Internal sale

    • Revenue Journal

    • Contract Schedules

  • Bin icon for deleting a page of records:
    We have revisited the bin icon functionality used for deleting records in bulk, as users could only use it on the first page of records but it was not working on subsequent pages. This has been enhanced on all grids.

Job Contract

  • Job Work Centres - Extension columns import
    For those using Job Work Centres' extension columns extensively, you might find the new import of Extension Columns data handy. You will find it in Data Imports: Job Work Centre Extension Column

    An example of when JWC extension columns are used is by adding Purchase Order numbers for each Work Centre/project stage so that it can be billed accordingly.

Purchasing

  • AP Vouchers - default GST type on manual lines:
    The GST Type now populates in manual lines on the This Voucher tab, based on the Job and Activity selected.

  • AP Invoice Line import - incorrect validation removed:
    The import was validating that the LogNumber on the Log’s Client was the same as the Ap Invoice Supplier, but that is incorrect. The AP Invoice’s supplier has nothing to do with the Service LogClient.

Subcontracts

  • Who to notify when a Subcontract Claim has been approved:
    A new Setting "Email on Subclaim Approval" has been introduced to provide multiple options of whom to notify by email when a subcontract claim has been approved.

    Multiple, one or none options are valid, and they are a comma-separated list with the following valid options:

    • Claim Submitter (default for WF approval process only),

    • Job Manager

    • Job Account Manager

    • Subcontract Administrator

Applies to both the Standard and Workflow approval process.

Note that the default Claim Submitter option in the new setting is to ensure backward compatibility for Workflow approvals. When the setting is blank, no email is sent out.

Quotes

  • New Notes tab:
    Users can now add Notes of any kind to a Quote, from the new Notes tab.

  • Quoted By filter in Quotes list is now a list of active employees.

Licences

  • Licence changes:

    • A Stock site licence is not required anymore to access the Stock Item List. This list is not only used for Stock management but also for the creation of BOMs.

Minor enhancements:

  • Custom Job Statuses:
    We have limited the creation of Job Statuses to a maximum of 30 characters, and no non-alphanumeric characters are allowed. Validation is in place for this.

  • Data imports - import templates:
    A few data imports were missing the data import template that users can download to ensure they use the correct format when importing. The imports below now have a template available:
    ImportCompanyAlpha

    • Adjustments with Log Numbers

    • Company People

    • GL Accounts

    • GL Trial Balances

    • Job Outputs By Log No

    • Opening WIP

  • SSRS reports edited with a new version of SSRS:
    SSRS reports edited with a new version of Microsoft Report Builder were not compatible with Workbench. We have made changes so they now are.

 

Integration

SAP

  • New SAP B1 agent update:
    A new version of SAP B1 agent is available. Please contact our support team for an upgrade.
    New version includes:

    1. Update Job Receipt No mapping to OCRT.DocNum. This will enable the user to match Receipt No to the corresponding receipt in SAP.

    2. Enhance error messages for AR and AP exports to display the invoice number instead of the line ID of the invoice with the error.

 

Upvise

Driver Sync Optimisation

We've optimised the integration between Workbench and Upvise so that when a plant item driver is removed in Workbench, the corresponding driver field in Upvise is now cleared, while the Owner field remains unchanged.

Project Code in Job “Linked to” field

The project code, is now visible in the job linked to the field, enhancing clarity and improving project management efficiency.

Resource Scheduler - Equipment Tile

We've enhanced the Resource Scheduler by updating the equipment tile colour to a more visible dark grey, making it easier to identify scheduled equipment on the platform.

 

Fixes & Technical changes

  • Expense claim attachments:
    Expense claim attachments are now linked to the Expense Claim ID, rather than the Person ID and date.
    Existing attachments will be updated to be linked to the right Expense Claim ID.
    In the past only one Expense Claim per person per day was allowed, so linking the attachments to the user and date worked ok. However, last year, we added the ability to have more than one Expense Claim per user (one can be Credit card expense claim and another reimbursable expense claim).
    None of these changes are visible from a User perspective.

  • Job Margin screen:
    WIP rows now have the Base GL Account populated, and this triggers them to be included in the Job Margin screen. They were previously not included due to missing GL Account defined in the WIP codes.

  • Fix for Plant Issues on EBA Billing:
    A bug was introduced on version 4.6.36, that caused plant issues entered on a timesheet to be excluded from Get Sales when billing. This has been rectified.

  • Utility - wbUncompletePurchaseOrder:
    The utility has been modified to make sure any POs uncompleted using this utility are later on not left stuck in a New status, even after it has been approved and AP invoiced have been processed against them.

  • Editable Jobs List:
    Export to excel feature is now working.

 

  • Upvise- Timesheet Imports:

    • Resolved an issue where nightshift hours worked on the last day of the payroll week incorrectly synced to the following payroll cycle by converting the time before determining the week-ending timesheet date, with adjustments to handle timezone discrepancies effectively.

    • Resolved an issue impacting the Upvise timesheets import logic to always prioritise active employees in the correct financial company (finco).

 

  • Upvise- Docket Imports to Workbench

    • Resolved an issue where multiple Docket photo attachments in Upvise with the same filename were overwriting each other in Workbench, resulting in duplicate images. Now, each image is correctly saved and synced, preventing overwrites.

 

  • Upvise- Personal Weekly

    • Optimized the application to ensure all role-based configurations are applied wherever a template or template group is specified, enhancing consistency and accuracy across different user roles

 

Things we are busy working on...

Contract Claims: record claimed and certified values on each Claim (like in Subcontract Claims). New approval process on Contract Claims to resemble the certification process.

Custom Views on List screens, and exploring the ability to add extension columns to these views. This will expand your reporting ability on the List screens.

Audit for configuration changes.

Month End Process: controlled and easy to follow.

Analysis graphs on Sales Invoices.

🔨 Interval- Based Equipment Maintenance in Upvise (e.g. 250-hour increments- 250, 500, 750, 1000 repeat)