This update includes a number of great new features, including the ability to add email attachments to a work order and an option to send the copy of a work order to an additional email address. We've also made improvements on existing functionality and resolved some issues prioritised by our users.
Features
In this section you’ll find details of new features we’ve added to the platform since the last update.
Work Orders
We've extended the functionality around work orders to further enhance this feature.
Email Attachments
When creating a new Work Order, you can now provide more information to assist the supplier in assessing the work required when using the Urbanise Facilities system. Adding Email Attachments is as simple as using the drag & drop feature in the Work Order screen.
Email Attachments will be used when creating a new work order where no quote is required and the email is sent to the specified supplier advising of a new job assignment. When creating a new work order where quotes are required, Email Attachments will be sent to the specified supplier/s..
Email Attachments cannot be added or deleted after the work order is saved, so take care to attach or delete the required files before saving the new work order.
Email Attachments will display in a grid as each new file is added, and a description can be added against each file for easy identification when reviewing any stage of the work order.
Email Attachments will be sent with the original file name and file format.
When attaching files to a Work Order, the standard file type and size specifications will apply.
To ensure the system can deliver the email, the total size of all attachments cannot exceed 10MB.
Email Attachments will be sent in addition to any Location Attachments configured against a plan in Compliance > Work Order Attachments.
Watch a quick video to see how easy it is.
Email Copy for Work Orders
A new option has been added to Settings > Financial > Work Order Settings to nominate an additional email address and/or copy the assigned strata manager on work orders emailed via the Urbanise Facilities system.
When an email address has been nominated and/or The Assigned Manager has been selected as an option in Work Order Settings, the settings will apply to the following emails sent to suppliers via Urbanise Facilities:
Job Assigned emails sent to suppliers advising of a new job assignment
Quotation Accepted emails sent to suppliers advising their quote has been accepted
Quotation Declined emails sent to suppliers advising their quote was not accepted and the work was assigned to another supplier
Job Cancelled emails advising that a previously assigned work order has been cancelled
The Email Copy settings apply only to emails sent via Urbanise Facilities to suppliers advising of a new job assignment and not to internal emails relating to work order workflow.
When a supplier is added after a work order requiring quotes is created, all saved Email Attachments will be emailed to the newly added suppliers.
Urbanise Facilities Community
When editing Work Order settings for Urbanise Facilities, an optional new field is now available to record details of the Urbanise Facilities Community.
Communications Preferences
We've streamlined the way in which communication preferences for levies and correspondence are recorded and managed. As a result of this enhancement, you will notice some changes when creating, editing and viewing owner contacts.
Owner Contact Information
The Use for field previously used to flag a contact's email address for levies and/or correspondence is no longer available when viewing o editing Owners, Tenants, Letting Agents and Mortgagees.
Previously configured preferences set using the User for flag will be automatically updated to display in the new Unit Comms list.
Unit Comms screen
The new Unit Comms screen allows you to view and edit the all unit contacts nominated communication method for levies and correspondence against each contact for a property from a central location instead of drilling down to associated contact level. To access the new feature, navigate to Property > Units & People > Unit Comms.
To assist in easily identifying contact types, all contacts in the Unit Comms list will be grouped as follows: Owner, Tenant, Letting Agent or Mortgagee and each group will include all associated contacts.
Click here to learn more about the Unit Comms screen.
Committee members with invoices requiring approval
A prompt has been added to avoid inadvertently deleting a committee member who has invoices pending approval.
The new prompt will display when deleting a Committee member with pending invoices in Invoice Processing with a status of (3) for Manager Review or (4) for External Approval.
When the prompt displays, you will have the option to cancel or continue with the deletion.
The prompt will not display when the Committee member does not have invoices pending approval.
Uninvoiced Disbursements
When creating or editing a disbursement that has not yet been invoiced, the pre-filled default Rate and the Total Amount values are now editable.
This handy new feature applies when creating new disbursements and when editing Uninvoiced Disbursements that were created prior to today's update, including scheduled disbursements.
Edits to individual invoices will not override default rates configured in the Management Agreement.
QuickAP
We've created a public API to extract supplier details for agencies who have signed up for QuickAP. An option has been added to configure a QuickAP user in Settings > 3rd Party Systems > Quick AP.
To configure an existing system user, simply select the Use QuickAP checkbox and pick an API User from existing users.
When viewing the User Profile for a user configured as an API User, the Delete button will not be available and an onscreen message will advise that the user cannot be deleted.
All logged requests made to tQuickAP will display in a new activity log screen.
Direct Debit Configuration
To avoid enabling a unit for Direct Debit when the property has not been enabled, the status of the Direct Debit Enabled flag will now be reflected when viewing or editing each unit of the property.
Unit List Enhancements
Unit List Search
Finding what you're looking for in the Unit List just became easier with extended filtering options in the Unit List.
When viewing the Unit List for a property you can now also search the list by Name and Email.
The search will return records for all contact types, so if your results don't show the record you're expecting, try expanding the hidden contacts under + More to reveal Tenants, Estate Agents and Mortgagees.
When the search string is cleared the list will reset to display all units.
Certificate Issued Date
The Unit List has a new column named Last Certificate which will display the date the Owners Corporation Certificate was last issued. Where that date is within the last three months, a small tick icon will also appear to quickly identify the relevant units.
CPI Values
A new settings screen is available to store CPI values for increases in management fees. The following fields can be edited and saved:
Effective Date
Type
%
Supplier Duplicate Payment Exception Report
This new PDF report will include all General ledger transactions with duplicate Invoice Number, Invoice Date and Invoice Amount against Accounts Payable invoices that triggered the duplicate invoice check in invoice processing. The report will display the following information:
Payment Date
Supplier Name
Supplier Email
Plan No.
Strata Manager
Invoice No.
Invoice Date
Amount Paid
Processed By
Supplier ID
Invoices paid by Direct Debit
A new option named Skip the ‘manager review’ step for invoices with payment method of “Direct Debit” has been added in Settings > Financial > Invoice Processing. The new option will be deselected by default and when selected, the following will occur:
When entering an Accounts Payable Invoice and selecting a payment method of Direct Debit, a category code must be added in Categories.
When viewing invoices in Data Entry (Step 2 of Invoice Processing) selecting a payment method of Direct Debit and clicking Next will automatically:
- set the invoice to paid, the transaction is entered in the General Ledger
- set the invoice status to 9
- display the invoice in the new for Direct Debit list in the Invoice Processing dashboard
Functional Improvements
We've made the following improvements to existing functionality:
Cost Centres
To prevent cost centres with active transactions being edited, the validation around this functionality has been extended. Edits will be restricted for cost centres with linked entries of the following types:
Budgets
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Special Levies
The following values will be editable when editing a cost centre with linked entries from the above list:
Description
Name
Entitlement Reason
Text on Notice
Start Date
This Account is Closed
Levy Statement - with Payment Details
When setting the parameters for the Levy Statement - with Details report generated from Property Reports > Accounts Receivable, the To date previously defaulted to today's date and was not editable. You will now be able to edit the default date to be up to 365 days in the future - the date cannot be in the past.
The From date will default to 12 months prior to today's and cannot be more than 365 days in the past.
Validation Rules for Invoice Processing and Accounts Payable Invoices
We've added additional validation rules to improve the quality of data when entering data in Invoice Processing and when adding a new invoice in Accounts Payable. The following new rules apply when entering and editing data:
Due Date cannot be prior to the Invoice Date
Due Date cannot be more than 365 days in the future from the Invoice Date
Invoice Date cannot be more than 1,825 days (approximately 5 years) in the past or future
Supplier Location
The latitude and longitude values will now be automatically recorded when the supplier's street address is entered to allow supplier office locations to be pinned on the map.
Tip: To update existing supplier records with the latitude and longitude, simply edit the supplier record, click into the Street Address field and select the address again from the list.
Items Resolved
In this section you’ll find details of items we resolved and also small changes not included in the Improvements section above.
Budgeted Categories (PHX-5596) Current year budget categories with a value of $0.00 will not be available to select in the Accounts Payable ledger and when creating an Accounts Payable invoice.
Management Agreements (PHX-6295) The fields for Increase by % and on are no longer required and have been removed from the Management Agreements screen.
Additional Charge Commissions (PHX-65245) When Nightly Calculation of additional charge items is enabled, commissions will be calculated every night and the file will be generated based on the frequency specified in the settings screen.
Building Details (PHX-2560) When viewing or editing Building Details from Property > Compliance, the address information now includes State and Country.
Invoice Processing (PHX-2939) When entering invoices Invoice Processing the message: This invoice does NOT require Committee Approval and will be paid immediately previously displayed when the invoice does require Committee Approval. This issue has been resolved, and the correct message now displays on the invoice: This invoice will be sent to the Committee for approval.
Special Levies (PHX-3214) Previously, it was possible to create Special Levies using a Closed Cost Centre on the Special Levy Screen and the Budget screen by using the breadcrumb navigation. This issue has been resolved, and closed cost centers do not display on these screens.
Management Details (PHX-3402) An issue with the Managed since date not displaying correctly in Management Details has been resolved.
Plan Details (PHX-6250) When viewing the Property > General Information > Plan Details page in a zoomed view, the Manager Details was not visible. This issue has been resolved.
Management Transfer (PHX-6324) An error in spelling the word instead in the Property > Management > Transfer screen has been corrected.
Invoice Processing (PHX-6375) When opening an invoice in stage (2) Data Entry or (3) for Manager Review of Invoice Processing, the open invoice was not included in the Accounts Payable Ledger for the property. This issue has been resolved.
Supplier Bank Account (PHX-6388) Changes to a supplier's bank account number did not reflect on the Suppliers Change Bank Account Exception report. This issue has been resolved.
Client ID selector (PHX-6605) When more than 5 Client IDs were available to select, it was not possible to scroll to the bottom of the list when changing IDs. This issue has been resolved.
Work Orders (PHX-6606) Creating a work order requiring a quote and adding an Amount could cause the the last job request to fail. This issue has been resolved.
Budgets (PHX-6664) In some instances, budgets were not available to be viewed from Finance > Property Functions > Budget when more than one budget matched the previous budget. This issue has ben resolved.
Task Triggers (PHX-4033, PHX-4058, PHX-4075, PHX-4077, PHX-4082, PHX-4726) Triggers have been updated for insurance valuation, annual budget not finalised, contract with supplier ending, review date on contracts register, management agreement expiry and levy enabled not ticked.
MyCommunity (PHX-5274) AP refunds are now visible in the "Accounts Payable" screen.
MyCommunity (PHX-6086) "Not enough credits" issue resolved in SMS system.
Master CID Search (PHX-6380) The global search now returns the owner's based on name when searching from a master CID.