What’s New in 4castplus – August 28, 2016
There’s a lot of great new stuff in this release, so be sure to keep scrolling down to find all the treats that will be valuable to you. Here’s a quick list of the top new features delivered in this release:
- Document Management – Controls, Revisions and Document Workflows
- Estimating by Resource Class (aka, by discipline)
- Synchronization with Primavera P6
- PO Receiving by Lump Sum
- Updates to Discounts & Surcharges – New options for when you can recognize Revenue
That’s just a few of the new features – please keep reading to discover more and learn how to find these new & enhanced capabilities. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback so feel free to contact us to discuss any of these updates.
Project Management
New! Synchronization with Primavera P6
You can now synchronize your WBS and schedule with the popular P6 product from Oracle. The 4castplus LiveLink with P6 allows you to synchronize your P6 projects over and over again with 4castplus. This ensures that your cost management data remains in-step with the schedule, and vice versa. You can use the desktop P6 or the enterprise EPPM version to integrate the systems together. You can even customize the sync to exclude schedule-only activities & milestones that you don’t want to appear in 4castplus. You can also align the cost codes from P6 through the Activity ID. Click on the image to the right to get a glimpse as to where to sync.
Enhancements to Discounts & Surcharges
Update to Discount & Surcharges: Users now have the option to recognize revenue and costs related to Discounts & Surcharges either when the Timesheet entry is created or when the project billing is created.
Estimating
Estimating by Resource Class
The following brief video will give you a glimpse into the new estimating-by-class features:
Flex Codes in Estimating
Thanks to Duane at DEME Group for helping us with this feature.
Document Management
Controlled Documents
This release introduces the concept of “Controlled Documents” that can be added to your document repository. A Controlled document is one that you can apply document controls against such as: workflows, revisions and explicit permissions. In the Configuration Area, document Classes can now be tagged as “Controlled” – and along with that, can have a list of Document “Owners” by role defined. See the screenshot to the right.
Document Uploader
The Documents area now has a global document upload module that allows you to mass-upload documents into the repository. It also has convenient tools for Committing controlled documents into the repository.
Document Controller Role and new “Role Assignment Scope”
In 4castplus, you can now assign a Document Controller role. The Document Controller has special privileges with Controlled documents. Additionally, all roles can now be given an Assignment Scope. The Assignment Scope allows you to assign roles to people in your organization globally, by Business Dimension, and by Project.
Documents Dashboard
To enable document controllers and Owners to quickly identify documents that need to be attended to, there is now a new Dashboard that displays the critical path for document management. Click on the screenshot to the right.
Document Workflows
Administrators can configure multiple document Workflows that define the stages of Contribution, Review and Approval that a document can pass through. When a document gets Committed or Revised, the owner or controller can enter that document through one of these assigned workflows.
The two screenshots to the right show first where document workflows are configured; and then second what it looks like when an Owner or Controller launches a workflow.
Document Revisions
Controlled Documents can now be “Revised”. Not to be confused with a document “Version” – which is also controlled by 4castplus – the “Revision” is a document controls tool for incrementing the publicly available document revision. Each revision can be put through a formalized document Workflow for multi-stage contribution, review and approval.
Click on the screenshot to the right.
Reporting
Custom Properties now Available in Custom Reports
You can now select project Custom Properties and Site Details to be included as Header information in custom reports. This adds tremendous reporting flexibility since you can configure any customized attributes specific to your business and include those attributes in your reporting templates.
More Reporting Enhancements
- All Projects Reports in Business Intelligence have been moved from Tabs to more conveniently in the Report Tree
- Add a new “Program” column to “All Project Summary” reports
- Added a new “Notifications” report
Approvals
Update to Jobsite Timesheet Approvals
Revision to the JT Approvals module to allow the Approving PM to be able to edit all fields in the Jobsite Timesheet that have been entered and Submitted by the Site Foreman, without having to reject the Timesheet. This removes bottlenecks by reducing the number of rejected timesheets.
Notifications
User-created Notification messages now displayed in the user Notifications area
Procurement
Receive by Lump Sum or Quantity
By popular demand, this feature enhancement to the PO Receiving and Field Receiving modules now has greater flexibility for how items are received. Prior to this release, receiving was performed by Quantity only. This is ideal for receiving itemized shipments of, for example, materials. However, often costs are incurred by a lump sum amount rather than by quantity. This release allows you to enter lump sum amounts in incremental incurred costs. You’ll now see two open cells in the receiving item to give you the choice of quantity or amount to enter.
Configuration
The Show/Hide Setting for Labor Resources is now “Sticky”
The labor resources area of configuration can get to be a very long list filled with inactive or terminated resources – so we’ve added a sticky Show/Hide Inactive button that will allow you to hide any terminated or inactive resources. Sticky means that it’ll stay that way until you change it again.
Jobsite
Improved Keyboard Navigation
On the Jobsite Timesheet, we’re continuously improving the usability to ensure Site Personnel can enter daily information as efficiently as possible. Amongst other improvements, you can now use Tab and Up/Down arrows in Progress area to enter progress quantities.
If you want to learn more about this software upgrade and more – and we hope you do – please feel free to email us at info@4castplus.com. Or, if you’ve landed on this page and you’re not already a customer, here’s where you can sign up for a free live demo of 4castplus.