Aluminium 8.00

by | Jan 12, 2024 | Releases

Aluminium 8.00

Relevance: All users
​Version release: Aluminium 8.00
Release to staging: 14/12/2023
​Release to production: 12/01/2024

Summary of functionality

Aluminium 8.00 is the third part of what was originally Aluminium 6.00.

We split it just because there was a lot of code there and this is the part where functionality is more us than you.

But we have included some stuff for you in here as well, so you don’t miss out.

 

Force managers to view the approve page if approving not submitted timesheets, and recalc non-submitted timesheets if approved

Because managers could approve a timesheet without it being submitted sometimes, some managers would approve timesheets before they were submitted by mistake, without really checking. Which is weird, right? So now, if a timesheet is not submitted then a manager can skip submit and then approve, but not just approve. Clear as mud? Yep, figured 🙂

 

Restrict ad hoc allowances to only allow costing to work-orders

Before this release, ad hoc allowances could only be costed to master cost centres or to master cost centres and work-orders, but couldn’t be limited to just costing to work-orders.

This created issues, especially where a user has a master cost centre that shouldn’t have allowances costed to it.

Of course, managers normally pick this up if staff have accidentally costed an ad hoc allowance to their master cost centre when they shouldn’t, but let’s say they miss it. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply not allow staff to do this in the first place?

So this setting now exists. If true, staff can only select the ad hoc allowance when costing to a work-order.

 

 

Business central financial report and Financial costing journal

This is a financial journal allowing costing data to be exported in a specific file format with relevant data to create financial journals. Though built for business central users, any financial staff might like a new financial journal to play with so we built one of those while we were at it. You are very welcome.

 

Altered plant summary page

The plant summary page now splits plant costing into more detail including unit rates.

This makes it easy to see the details of plant costing by a user without going into the details, so to speak. Nice one.

 

 

New hour meter and unit cost options for plant

Yes, you can record hours against plant and mileage and cartage and private works, or even all of these things at the same time. But you haven’t been able to record multiple hour types in the same entry. Now you can, stand down and operational hours in the same entry. Done.

We also added in hour meter fields rather than just duration and unit cost reporting and metrics.

 

Ability to cost to plant for private works

Yes, you can cost to private works against individual work-orders, but what about if you just want to cost your private works in one field for the whole timesheet? Until now you could not. But now you can.

 

Altered validations on timesheets to allow start and end times to be altered without deleted costing to work-orders or plant

If you entered a start time and end time and then costed to work-orders, but then tried to edit your start and end times, you would need to delete the whole block of time and start again.

With this version of elementTIME you can now embrace the magic.

As long as your time costed to work-orders is equal to or less than the span of hours between your start and end times, you can edit away.

 

Oh, and there is a new login page…

 

Enhancements

Misc

  • [FIX] Remove button to check details for users with no main roles assigned if user doesn’t have access to staff management page.
  • [FIX] Remove menu option to projects and work-orders dashboard main page if the user doesn’t have access to it.
  • [FIX] Fix “Total hours to be paid” blocks into timesheet summary that is adding leave without pay to the total paid hours.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where ended shifts didn’t show if there are no active shifts into user profile.
  • [FIX] Fix error where when ending a shift, sometimes the timesheets are not removed correctly (if user has adhoc allowances).
  • [FIX] Fix issues with calculating public holidays on timesheet when users have multiple roles assigned to period.
  • [CHORE] Amend work orders import to concatenate all descriptions to build work order name

 

Reports and dashboards

  • [CHORE] Add new columns for pay location and pay group type into “Staff summary” report. I think that pretty much covers it.
  • [FIX] Fix indicative leave report that only includes direct reports even if you are payroll. When payroll runs the report it should include the whole organisation – it now does… so yay 🙂
  • [CHORE] Amend layout of special assignment blocks inside department dashboard.
  • [CHORE] Relabel flag from “Include child departments” to “Include data from child departments” on department dashboard under “daily costing report” and “daily leave digest”.
  • [CHORE] Hide project dashboards.
  • [CHORE] Add button to download costing report to work-order dashboard.
  • FIX] Fix error on “Daily costing report” where hours recorded without any associated plant are not showing on the report.
  • [FIX] Fix error on report “All leave balances” where not all direct and indirect reports are showing when running the report as a manager.
  • [FIX] Fix error on timesheets listing page where direct reports don’t show on the listing if they are not part of the workflow and user is set not to have sub-reports timesheets visible.
  • [FIX] Fix department leave calendars where managers from parent departments are showing on child department calendars.
  • [FEAT] Create new version of the Authority batch upload file.
  • [FIX] Fix daily cost report automation – so if it is set to send then it actually sends.
  • [FIX] Fix error on report “Plant use by payrun” that was not working when user that used plant item does not have a current manager.

 

Higher duties

  • [FIX] Fix higher duties period validation when applying on the first day of the first available period.
  • [FIX] Fix issue with duties requests period validation that are not working properly and returning errors when it is correct.
  • FIX] Fix issues with duty requests not showing as info boxes on timesheets correctly after approved.

 

Workflow and alerts

  • [FIX] Fix issue where users with past workflows that were not finalised (excluded, replaces, split, etc) were blocked from being terminated.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where warnings and notes don’t show when submitting timesheets with eNPS functionality enabled.
  • [FIX] Fix issues where it was not possible to submit a timesheet with eNPS turned ON because actually submitting a timesheet is pretty important.
  • [FIX] Fix 500 error shown when trying to submit/approve timesheet and user has a new direct manager on the period.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where departments ending on the same date as the role is ending show warnings.
  • [CHORE] Add timeline entry to leave request when approval reminder is sent.
  • [CHORE] Add validation warning message to leave requests when request values are altered due to schedule.

 

Plant

  • [FIX] Fix issues with “plant coordinator” system access flag. It was hiding users from the staff list and not showing the flag against profiles with that access. Not cool.
  • [FIX] Fix spelling for “plantsheet” that was still showing as “plant timesheet” in some places. Come on, let’s be consistent we thought.
  • [CHORE] Add plant usage code field for global plant settings. Because while plant may not take over the world, it should at least be consistent through the tenant.
  • [FIX] Fix issue with plant hour validation on timecards.
  • [FIX] Fix issue with plant items when made inactive were still available for users. Inactive should mean inactive, right?

 

Excess time and allowances

  • [FIX] Fix error on calculating auto-allowances based on excess-time rule if allowance is calculated on work-orders.
  • [FIX] Reinstate overwritten project/activity code when assigning auto-allowances.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where the search function on the auto allowance table returns a 500 error.
  • [FIX] Fix error on period excess-time calculations when hours are against work-orders only and there is mix with daily excess-time. It was costing more excess-time than possible in some cases. Which is either cool or bad depending on whether you are getting paid or doing the paying, so we fixed it.
  • [FIX] Fix error with sending excess-time notifications when record is automatically approved.

Time recording and leave

  • [FIX] Fix error when automatically deducting a scheduled break after hours have been edited. Because if your break is a break, then you don’t need another break. Unless you do. But either way, it should be up to you.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where breaks are not being calculated correctly when using the mobile app API.
  • [CHORE] Amend process to manage breaks in the timecard to be the same for projects and work-orders.
  • [FIX] Fix issue where breaks are not being deducted if hours are recorded on the app and you are set up to cost time to work-orders.
  • [FIX] Fix entitled hours being incorrectly calculated for holidays.
  • [FIX] Apply fix on accrued balance calculations when leave type has a stand-down period. It was adding an extra payrun worth of leave if forecasting was turned off, which isn’t fair as forecasting on or off, leave should accrue right.
  • [FIX] Fix rounding error when resolving missing hours error on timesheet. Because round is round and square is square and if you are missing .01 minute then that needs to be rounded too.
  • [FIX] Fix rounding on FTE calculations when applying for leave.
  • [FIX] Fix issue with recording break on time that finishes at midnight. Because even if you are working the midnight shift you should get to have lunch, dinner… breakfast… whatever food at midnight is called.

 

 

API and integration

  • [DOC] Add documentation for service to upload new attachments to leave requests `/api/v3/leave/request/{id}/attachment`.
  • [CHORE] Add specific service to upload new attachments to leave requests `/api/v3/leave/request/{id}/attachment`.
  • [CHORE] Add field `recordMethod` to API service `/api/v3/time-card/{id}/config`.
  • [FEAT] Create new service `GET /api/v3/time-recorded`.
  • [DOC] Add breaks to service `POST /api/v3/time-recorded`.
  • [CHORE] Add `intercom_identity` on services that return logged user to be used on intercom connection.
  • [CHORE] Add `isSummaryOpen` on service `GET /api/v3/time-card/{id}`.
  • [CHORE] Amend the structure for breaks saved on service `POST /api/v3/time-recorded`.
  • IX] Add missing field `userShiftTimeType_id` on service `GET /api/v3/time-recorded/{id}`.
  • [FEAT] Add new service `GET /api/v3/time-sheet/{id}/submit/summary` to populate summary for submit page.
  • [DOC] Add missing issue description to service `GET /api/v3/time-sheet/{id}/submit/issues`.
  • [CHORE] Add `allowRecordingAcrossMidnight` to service `/api/v3/time-card/{id}/recorded/config` to allow controlling iff user can record time across midnight.
  • [FEAT] Add service to copy hours from schedule into API v3 called `/api/v3/time-card/{id}/copy-from-schedule`.
  • [CHORE] Add `canCopyFromSchedule` to service `/api/v3/time-card/{id}/recorded/config` to allow controlling if time can be copied from schedule on that day.
  • [CHORE] Add `canCopyFromPreviousDay` to service `/api/v3/time-card/{id}` to allow controlling if time can be copied from previous day on that day.
  • [CHORE] Add `canCopyFromSchedule` to service `/api/v3/time-card/{id}` to allow controlling if time can be copied from schedule on that day.
  • [DOC] Create documentation for API services for timesheet schedule `/api/v3/schedule/time-sheet/{id}`.
  • [FEAT] Create API service for timesheet schedule `/api/v3/schedule/time-sheet/{id}`.
  • [CHORE] Implement additional fields for plant items on `time-card` and `time-recorded` services.