April 2016 Release
This release has been approved by eTASK for use in production environments. You can download the release now and install it on your server. There are no special
notes for this release.
eTASK BIM
New Feature: First Prototype of the eTASK BIM Explorer Available
This release includes the first version of the eTASK BIM Explorer. The BIM Explorer is the central control console for using building models in eTASK and thus the core of the eTASK.BIM product. The BIM Explorer combines state-of-the-art visualization technologies into a single central function. In addition to the 3D visualization of the building model, it offers the "familiar" two-dimensional floor plan view, which can be automatically derived from the model. With eTASK.BIM, there’s no need to draw floor plans! Features such as map-based navigation using OpenStreetMap, the visualization of revisions, new display filters for specific building elements (IFC classes), and defined perspective views round out the BIM Explorer. Are you interested in the possibilities of Building Information Modeling with eTASK? Would you like to test the use of BIM for your FM in a pilot project at an early stage? Contact our sales team and/or find out more in advance at http://www.etask.de/building-information-modeling-bim
eTASK Inventory Financial Accounting Reconciliation
Paid feature: Matchcode assignment of financial accounting assets as the basis for inventory reconciliation
The "Financial Accounting Asset List" has been expanded to include the assignment of a company and a matchcode to an imported financial accounting asset. The assignment of the matchcode serves as the basis for reconciling the actual inventory from eTASK.Inventory with the target inventory in the financial accounting asset list.
"Floor Plan with Responsibilities" report
Improvement: Condition for displaying agents in the floor plan
Assignees are now only displayed in the "Floor Plan with Responsibilities" report if the "In Assignee List and Floor Plan" checkbox is selected for the assignee.
eTASK Payment Transactions
Improvement: Print optimization for the "Payment Run Approval" report
Empty intermediate pages for bank accounts with no transactions have been removed from the report. The report now also displays all transactions from the payment run for incoming and outgoing invoices.
Improvement: Optimization of account statement display for lower resolutions
The overview tables for account statements in the account statement overview have been optimized for display on monitors with lower resolutions (than required by system specifications). This now allows both the top and bottom tables to be viewed and used simultaneously.
Highlight: Account Statement Report with Overview of Imported Statements
The Account Overview has been expanded to include an overview that displays all essential information about the imported account statements (via the banking interface or as a file) at a glance. In addition to data on banks and accounts, the overview provides information on balances, transactions, and entries. A traffic light icon in the overview also indicates whether there is still a balance discrepancy for a bank statement. In this case, the bank statement is marked with a red traffic light. You can print a PDF receipt for a bank statement directly from the overview. If a bank statement is selected, a table below displays all transactions associated with that bank statement. You can edit the transactions directly from this view.
eTASK Correspondence
New Feature: New Dynamic Distribution Lists for Mail Merge
In addition to the existing dynamic distribution lists, eTASK.Mail now offers two additional dynamic distribution lists:Existing distribution lists:1. All current tenants of a building2. All current tenants of a companyNew distribution lists:3. All current customers of a company (to whom an outgoing invoice has been issued within the last 36 months)4. All current vendors of a company (for whom an incoming invoice has been recorded within the last 18 months)Are you familiar with the eTASK.Mail product? Use eTASK.Mail to automate postal communication with your tenants and business partners. With the dynamic distribution list feature, you can automatically generate form letters for a specific group of recipients at the click of a button.
eTASK Outlook Room Booking
Improvement: Compatibility between differing, country-specific date formats on the application server and Outlook client
Room reservations now support the use of different, country-specific date formats for the application server and Outlook clients. For example, if the application server uses the English date format and the booking is made via the eTASK Outlook Add-In in an Outlook version with the German date format, the web service between the server and client ensures the correct synchronization of the date formats.
eTASK FM Procurement
Improvement: Faster loading time for order reports
The loading time for the order reports "Order (Letter)" and "Order (Fax)" has been significantly optimized. The printable PDF document is now generated much faster.
eTASK Cost Entry
Bug fix: Adjustment of the document number in the invoice cancellation printout
When printing an invoice cancellation, the corresponding cancellation number of the invoice is now displayed instead of the invoice number.
Improvement: Optimization of the "Underpaid Incoming Invoices" view
The "Reminder Level" is now also displayed in the "Underpaid Incoming Invoices" view (menu item "Property Accounting/Cost Entry | Incoming Invoices | Incoming Invoice Checklists"). Direct access to the invoice is also possible via the document number.
Improvement: Timing overlaps with partial payments on unapproved invoices
In extremely rare cases, when a partial payment was made against an outgoing invoice that had been assigned to a payment run even though it had not yet been approved, this outgoing invoice would, after its final approval, re-enter the payment run with the full payment amount, even though a partial payment had already been made. This timing overlap is now prevented to avoid operational errors.
Improvement: Different operating cost year for partial payments on invoices
For partial services on both an incoming invoice and an outgoing invoice, a "different operating cost year" can now be entered as an option. This allows the operating cost year assignment for a partial service to differ from that of the total invoice. This is required, for example, for energy bills that include both an advance payment for the current year and a back payment for the previous year. All related processes, such as the posting journal, have been adjusted accordingly.
Improvement: Offsetting entries to exclude them from the OPOS list
For payments posted directly to a customer or vendor without a supporting document, you can now manually "offset" the payment(s) against the document when the document is entered later. This allows you to exclude entries from the OPOS list that are still open in the system but have actually already been settled.This can be the case, for example, when a rent payment is assigned directly to a customer because, at the time of payment, the lease agreement—and thus the debit position—has not yet been created as a document in the system. When the debit position is created later, both the payment and the debit position remain in the OPOS list. Automatic retroactive assignment is not possible in this case, as there is no system-level link between the two entries. As a result, both entries remain permanently in the OPOS list. This missing link can now be established manually, either immediately or retroactively, via "Assignment to an opening balance" or via "Offset against a completed account entry."
eTASK Rental
Bug Fix: Fixed an error with index adjustment in the lease agreement
The index adjustment in the lease agreement failed under certain conditions. The error has been fixed.
eTASK Room Booking Calendar
Bug fix: Support for the English date format when using IE 11
When using the room booking calendar in Internet Explorer 11 with the language set to "English," no rooms were displayed due to the different date format. The room booking calendar has been updated to address this and now supports the English date format.
Improvement: Optimization of the mouse-over display in the room booking calendar for IE 11
When using Internet Explorer 11, the mouse-over display in the room booking calendar was sometimes cut off at the bottom (e.g., with long booking titles). The display has now been optimized for IE 11 as well.
eTASK Relocation Management
New feature: New view report "Employee Relocation History"
This new view report displays the complete history of all employee relocations. Relocations are displayed with ticket number, description, relocation date, employee information (first name, last name, email, username), origin (actual room/workstation), and destination (target room/workstation).
eTASK Training Management
New Feature: New View Report "HSE Officer Overview"
In addition to HSE information, the view also displays the building and floor of each officer from the personnel record.
Improvement: Email distribution list for training participants directly from the training form
In the training form, the email address for each participant is now displayed in the list of training participants. If the training form’s automatic invitation workflow is not used, an email distribution list can be generated manually from the list of training participants using the Excel export function.
Improvement: Automatic removal of the assignment to an area of responsibility when deleting a representative
"Cascading delete" has been enabled for deleting a representative. This means that when a representative is deleted, their assignment to an "area of responsibility" is automatically removed. The previous manual deletion of the assignment is no longer necessary.
Improvement: Display of a representative’s “publication” status in HSE reports
In the HSE reports "Number of Employees and Designated Persons by Floor" and "Designated Persons by Current Occupancy Schedule," designated persons who have been approved for publication are now marked accordingly. This makes it immediately clear which designated persons are still in the designation process and which have already successfully completed it.
Improvement: Enhancements to the "Representatives" form
The "Assignee" form has been expanded to include a new "Publication" section, as well as the checkbox "In Assignee List and Floor Plan" and the date field "Logged Out On." Note: The checkbox "In Assignee List and Floor Plan" affects the display of the assignee in certain reports and views.
eTASK Warranty
New feature: Documentation of warranty claim reviews in the warranty workflow
The warranty workflow now requires the responsible person to actively complete the review. They will be notified via email 30 days before the warranty expires, with a direct link regarding the upcoming warranty expiration. After reviewing for potential warranty claims, the person responsible for completing the workflow must document their review result via a dropdown menu (e.g., "Reviewed, no defects found" or "Reviewed, defects resolved"). Additionally, a comment regarding the review can be entered.
New Feature: New View/Report for Evaluating Warranty Claim Checks
The results of the review of potential warranty claims by the responsible parties can be evaluated in the new view and printed via the corresponding report.
eTASK Maintenance
New feature: Output of data from the "Order Overview" report as a view
In parallel with the expansion of the "Order Overview" print report (see the corresponding article in this changelog), the new "Order Overview (tabular)" view has been created, which offers flexible filtering options and allows you to export the data as an Excel table, e.g., for sharing with your service provider.
Improvement: Additional filtering options in the Order Overview report
The Order Overview report (found under "Technical Building Management | Maintenance | Operator Responsibility Checkpoints | 4. Execution") has been expanded to include a "cascading" selection of the responsible group (below the responsible company) as well as the selection of the "Property/Asset Manager."
Improvement: Additional filtering options in the maintenance plan reports
The four reports under the "Maintenance Plans" menu item now feature a "cascading" preselection of the buildings and contractors to be displayed; that is, after selecting a building, only contractors for whom there are actually orders in the selected building(s) are offered for selection. The reports have also been expanded to include an option that allows you to evaluate only the open orders or all orders for the selected time period.
Improvement: Clear error message when entering incorrect data in the order plan
If the "responsibility" (for contractor or client) is not selected correctly in an order plan (e.g., because the selected group does not match the selected company), this is now indicated to the user via a clear error message, allowing them to correct the incorrect entry.
Improvement: Orders from order plans without objects are now possible
Order plans can now also be activated without assigned objects. This means that general activities, such as an inspection via eTASK.Maintenance, can be processed and documented as orders even if they are not related to one or more objects.
eTASK Room Reservation
Improvement: Cost center totals in the "Cost allocation for beverages with quantity" report
The "Cost Allocation for Beverages with Quantity" report has been expanded on the last page to include a cross-tabulation with totals by cost center and by room.
Improvement: Display of appointments in the Meeting Room Assistant with day of the week
When making bookings via the "Meeting Room Assistant," the selected dates are now also displayed with their corresponding day of the week.
Improvement: Comment field for room bookings now has no length limit
There is no longer a limit of 499 characters for entering a comment on a room booking.
eTASK FM Portal
New feature: New menu filter available for all date fields
Data records can now also be displayed in the menu sorted by date, grouped hierarchically by year and month. This allows, for example, invoices or workflow tickets to be preselected chronologically for a specific time period directly via the menu. If you require menu filters for date fields in specific data tables, simply contact your eTASK representative.
New feature: Central comment function now displays the sender in comment emails
When sending a comment via email (using the "Add and Send" option), the automatically generated email now also displays the name (first and last name) and email address of the sender—that is, the logged-in user who created the comment in the portal.
Bug fix: Totals calculation in the Room Occupancy report corrected
In the report for evaluating room and workstation occupancy (the "Room Occupancy" report, found under "Basic Data | Employee Management | Workstations"), a calculation error in the building total for occupied and vacant workstations has been corrected.
Bug Fixes
Correction of various minor bugs and optimizations in various eTASK products.
Improvement: Easier room deletion - Room cost centers are automatically deleted as well
When deleting a room, the room cost centers entered for that room are now automatically deleted as well and no longer need to be deleted separately beforehand.
Improvement: Automatic update of role assignments for all eTASK workflows
For all workflows, a timer job now checks and updates the automatic role assignment for all open tickets once a day. If the timer job identifies new users who are responsible for a workflow step according to the automatic role assignment, it adds these users to the workflow step of the current ticket. This allows new users to become active in already running tickets, provided they have the appropriate permissions. Similarly, users who have been removed from the portal or the role assignment after a ticket was created are also removed from the workflow steps of active tickets.
Improvement: Personnel transfers are now automatically executed at the start of the transfer day
Personnel moves are now executed by the system at the start of the scheduled move date, exactly 24 hours earlier than before. On the morning of the move date, the target room of the person moving is automatically converted to the actual room. Previously, the automatic conversion of the target room to the actual room did not occur until the day after the move date.
Improvement: Automatic totals in Views are now calculated much faster
The automatic calculation of totals and averages in Views has been significantly accelerated. In some cases, the loading time has been reduced to less than 10% of the original loading time.
Improvement: Central Excel import now supports the ".XLSX" file format
The central "Excel Data Import" feature in the FM Portal now supports the import of Excel files in the XLSX format. The older XLS format is no longer supported. When importing your Excel inventory lists, please ensure they are created in the correct format. Otherwise, you will receive an error message when using older XLS files.
Improvement: Importing units from the CC catalog into the eTASK object catalog
When importing the CAFM-Connect catalog, units are now also imported in a standardized manner into the individual attributes in the eTASK "Object Catalog." You can download the latest CAFM-Connect component types catalog here: http://katalog.cafm-connect.org/Viewer.aspxUm To import the CAFM-Connect catalog into your portal or update the already imported catalog, your portal provides the "Catalog" form under the menu item "Control Panel / Objects / CAFM-Connect Catalog." Here, you can use the "Extras" button to perform the "Import/Update of all object types."
eTASK Inventory
Paid feature: New interface: Transfer matchcodes for procurement to procurement software
The interface enables the transfer of object types and matchcodes to procurement software. Based on this data from eTASK, new objects can be ordered from the supplier within the procurement software. The matchcode in eTASK thus becomes the central, unique item master. This eliminates the need for duplicate data maintenance in procurement and inventory management. The interface has been optimized for integration with the WALLMEDIEN Procurement System "WPS." Are you interested in the interface but use a different procurement software? Then please contact our sales team to discuss the possibility of integration.
Paid feature: New interface: Automated goods receipt in eTASK for newly procured items from the procurement software
Building on the transfer of object types and match codes to the procurement software, items procured via this interface in the procurement system (e.g., a swivel chair) are automatically created as objects in eTASK. The barcode is assigned in the procurement system, ensuring a unique, cross-system identification throughout the object’s entire lifecycle. The initial inventory of the objects is completely eliminated, as the items are already booked into inventory by the purchasing department. The interface has been optimized for integration with the WALLMEDIEN Procurement System "WPS." Are you interested in the interface but use a different procurement software? Then please contact our sales team to discuss the possibility of integration.