Release notes: 2010

Release: October 18, 2010

• Project Email Groups – On the Contact tab of the Project form, you can now add Email Groups. An Email Group is a list of multiple email addresses. Right-click the Email Group folder to add a new group. Right-click an Email Group and select “Send Email” to send an email to that group.

• Email from Documents Tab – You can now select one or more files and quickly email them to one of the Key Contacts or an Email Group of the current project. Right-click the selected files and select one of the menu options under the “Email to” sub-menu.

• Sticky Client Window – The main Crows Nest application window now remembers its state and location when it’s closed. When reopened, it should jump back to its last location and size.

• Added Invoice Security – There is a new security option on the Employee form titled “Can Access Invoice Form”. When a user does not have this option enabled, the following items will be disabled or hidden: Invoice tab on Project Form, Invoice Form, Reports containing Invoice values.

• Default Output Folder for Project Reports – There is a button on the Report form while viewing an RFI, RFQ, Invoice, or Transmittal that has an image of a disk. This button let’s you export the report to Excel or to PDF format. When either of these export functions is used, the file browser’s starting location will be the current project folder.

Release: September 4, 2010

• Labor Operation/Department Relationship – Labor Operations are now sub-items of Labor Department and cannot be created without a department. The Operations selection popup window now utilizes a treeview control to show how Operations are organized. Right-click the treeview to add new Departments and Operations.

• Employee Labor Operation/Department Filters – On the employee form there are two lists that can be used to select which Departments and which Operations are available on the Timeclock. Right click the lists to add/remove items.

• Shop Timeclock Interface – A new Timeclock interface designed for use by shop employees is available. It is a separate application from the main Crows Nest client.

• Part Lists – New buttons on the Part Lists form let you automatically create POs and MRs with a click. There are three new columns on the form titled “Order”, “MR”, and “PO”. The MR column shows the total qty of matching items that are on submitted MRs that have not yet been moved to a PO. The PO column shows the total qty of matching items that are on POs that have not been received. Use the Order column in conjunction with the two new buttons located at the top of the form titled “Create POs” and “Create MR”. Enter the quantity you want to order in the Order column and then click one of the two buttons to complete the process. The values in the Order column are temporary and will be removed when another list is loaded or the form is closed. At the top of the form there is a link to select a Project that will be used to create the MR and/or PO Items. To create POs you must select a Vendor for each item you are ordering. The value entered in the Price column will be used when creating the PO Items.

• Edit Task Grid Columns – On the Task grid on the Project form there is a hyperlink at the top of the tab titled “Edit Columns…”. Click this link to open a popup window that allows you to determine which columns are displayed and reorder the columns. These settings are stored per user so each user can customize the order individually.

Release: August 25, 2010

• Contract Change Order Tab – There is a new sub-tab titled Change Orders on the Contract tab on the Project form. Use this tab to keep track of change orders and change order proposals on a project. Right-click the grid to add new Change Orders. The # (number), Rev (revision), Description, Amount, and Sent (date) columns are editable. The other columns are modified when the status of a Change Order is changed. Highlight a cell in one or more rows and right-click the grid to change the status to Pending (default), Approved, or Rejected. Highlight a cell in one or more rows, right-click the grid, and then select Add to SOV to insert a corresponding record into the SOV table. On the Contract tab, there is a new indicator to the right of the Changes textbox which lets you know when the Sum Amount of the Approved change orders balances with the Sum Value of Change items on the SOV. There is a Notes pane which displays the notes for the currently selected Change Order. Right-click the Note pane to add/remove notes.

• New Employee Fields – On the employee form, there are two new fields. There is a checkbox titled “Show on Timeclock”. This will be used with a new timeclock application designed for shop timeclock stations (coming soon!). There is also a spot to import a picture for each employee. Right-click the picture box and select “Change Image…” to select an image file to import. This will also be used in the new timeclock application.

• PO Contact – You can now select a Contact on a PO. If a contact is selected, then “Attention: ” will appear at the top of the printed PO in bold near the Description. On the Vendor tab of the Business form, you can select a default Contact for that business which will automatically be added to a PO when that Business is selected as the Vendor.

Release: August 20, 2010

• Tasks Tab Improvements – The Tasks tab on the Project Form has been redesigned. The treeview has been replaced with a grid view. The Tasks tab has a new checkbox titled “Phase” Tasks. When this box is checked, then Phase related tasks will also be loaded into the grid. When this box is not checked, the Phase column in the grid is hidden to preserve space. An additional filter has been added to filter a specific phase. The grid is sortable and can be sorted by clicking on the column headers. A Notes pane displays the notes for the selected Task. Right click the Notes pane to add/remove notes. You can toggle the location of the Notes pane from the right to the bottom of the grid by right-clicking the grid and selecting “Split Vertical/Horizontal”. The size of the Note pane is “sticky” and CN will remember where it was last set when loading the form. The grid supports multiple selections for the shortcut menu items Delete, Assign, Unassign, Set Date, Set Formula, Clear Date, and Clear Override. Date fields show an f to indicate that a date is based on a formula. A red exclamation indicates that a date formula has been customized or manually overridden. On the Phase tab, right-click a phase and select Tasks to jump to the Tasks tab and automatically filter tasks for that phase.

• Documents Link to Phase – The shortcut menu on the Documents Tab of the Project form has an additional Link -> Phase selection. Link a document or a folder to a phase and open that link by right-clicking a phase on the phase tab and selecting Link.

• Project MR Improvements – Project MR Items are now submitted/retracted individually by clicking the checkbox in the new “Sub.” Column on the MR Item grid. Two new columns on the far right of the grid display when the item was selected and by whom. The Submit All and Retract All button affects all items on the currently displayed MR. There is a new column titled Order By to indicate a deadline for placing an order. Both the Need By and Order By dates are now calculated and work similar to Task Due Dates. When setting a formula for either of these dates, the Submitted Date is an available Origin date. When setting the formula for an Order By date, the Need By date is an available Origin Date.

• Calculated Need By and Order By Dates – Calculated Need By dates are also present on PO Items. The Order By date has been added to the MR tab on the PO form. On the Purchasing tab on the Settings form, you can set default global formulas for Need By and Order by dates.

• Task Start Date Origin – Task Start date formulas now also include the same Origin date selections as Due Date formulas.

• Labor Rates per Category – On the Labor tab in Settings, you can apply labor rates to labor categories for Regular and Overtime hours. This affects the Labor values shown under Values on the General tab on the Project form.

• PO Summary – The Summary tab on the PO form now has a Created On and Created By column.

• Project Status Sort Order – The order of Project Statuses can be rearranged. When Project Status selection popup has an Up and Down button that will move the selected item up or down in the list.

• Project Status Notifications – On the Project Status selection popup window, right-click a Status and select Notification Text to set a default Additional Comment for the Status. If a user changes the Status of a Project and answers yes when prompted to add additional comments, then this text will be preloaded when additional comments are entered.

• Employee Phone Numbers – There are new fields on the Employee form for entering Employee Home and Mobile numbers as well as an company phone extension.

• Print and Preview on Query Form – The Query form has two new buttons to Print and Print Preview the selected result set. It is currently rudimentary and does not support columns spanning multiple pages. It should only be used for queries with a low qty of columns.

• Custom Report Definitions – A new form has been added to import custom reports. This form is for advanced users. CN uses the RDL report format and currently only supports definitions compatible with .NET 2.0. Click Custom Reports under Settings to open the form. A treeview on the left side of the form displays each report. SQL Datasets are added to each Report to supply the data. Parameters can be added to each Dataset to prompt the user for data and modify the results of the SQL query.

Release: June 28, 2010

• New Employee Permissions – New Employee permissions have been added to the Employee form. There are settings to control access to Options and Task Definitions. There are also settings to allow editing of Queries on the Query form and to allow executing of Update, Insert, and Delete queries.

• Add Note to Notifications – Some notifications now allow the user who triggers them to add some more information to the email.

• New Project Notification – A new notification has been added that triggers when a new project has been created. A new field on the Notifications Tab in Options controls who receives these. Enter email addresses separated by commas.

• Document Tab Improvements – Added keyboard support for F2 to edit a File or Folder name and Delete key to delete selected Files or Folders. The right-click shortcut menu now has the “Open With…” option which works the same way it does in Windows explorer. The shortcut menu also has an option to “Add to Zipped File”. This works similar to Windows explorer except that you can choose the location of the zip file and you can select an existing zip file to add the selected files to it. The shortcut menu also has an option to add a link to the selected files to a PO, RFI, or RFQ.

• Phase Tab Remodeled – The Phase Tab on the Project Form has been redesigned. It is now a combination of the original Tree and Grid view. There are new filters and a search box to narrow down the list of displayed phases. Date fields show an f to indicate that a date is based on a formula. A red exclamation indicates that a date formula has been customized or manually overridden. Right-click menu options can be applied to multiple cells by selecting multiple cells before clicking them. Quantity cells accept mathematical input. For example, enter “(10*50)+15” and it will calculate and enter 515.

• Materials Tab Remodeled – The Materials Tab on the Project Form has been rearranged. The Colors, Parts, and Transmittal tables are now on separate sub tabs of the Materials tab. A new sub tab has been added named “Materials Ordered”. This tab shows a list of all PO Items linked to a project. There is a search box and filters on the top of the tab. Right-click a phase on the phase tab and select “Materials Ordered” to automatically jump to the Materials Ordered tab and filter out items for that phase.

• Query Form Improvements – The Query form has been updated. A bug was fixed that kept queries from saving properly. A column lookup was added which lets you view the tables and columns in the database to help in writing queries. You can drag-n-drop column names from the Fields list into the SQL text. Right-click the query result tables if you want to remove them to clear up the form.

• Drag-n-drop Links – File links now show file indicator icons and support drag-n-drop. File links are currently located on POs, RFIs, and RFQs. Drag files into the Link list to add links to those files. You can also drag links to copy the file indicated in the link to another location. If your email client supports drag-n-drop attachments, then you can drag a link from a PO to an email to attach the file referenced in the link.

• Email PO Button Uses PO Title – On the View/Print tab on the PO Form, the Email PO button now uses the Title field to create the subject of the email as well as name the PDF attachment. The subject of the email will be the Title followed by the PO Number. The PDF attachment will be named similarly.

Release: May 12, 2010

• Label and Requirements added to Task Filters – When creating Filters on the Task Overview form, you can select Project Labels and Project Requirements.

• PDF Preview App – A new applet has been added to the Crows Nest folder named “Crows Nest PDF Preview”. When this applet is running an icon will appear in the system tray. Right-click the icon to open the Settings. Enter your Server Name, Database Name, and Select a Folder to monitor. PDF Preview will monitor this folder and notify you when new PDF documents appear in the folder. Double-click the icon to open a Preview form to view the PDF documents in the folder. You must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer for the preview form to function. The left side of the Preview form shows a list of PDF files in the folder. The right side of the form uses Adobe Reader to preview the PDF. Right-click the filename on the left side of the form for options to move the PDF and automatically link it to POs, RFQs, or RFIs. This applet was designed primarily to process faxes received as PDF files but can be used to aid in moving PDF files to Projects.

• Part Lists – On the Purchasing drop down menu, there is a new form titled “Part Lists”. Use this form to create Inventory lists. You can store Min and Max quantities to be used for restocking.

• Sample Transmittal – A new Printer Icon is located on the top-right corner of the Samples area on the Materials Tab of the Project Form. Use the check boxes on the grid to select samples that you want to include in a transmittal, and then click the Printer icon. A window will popup to let you enter in an addressee, address, and body. Right-click the addressee or address area to insert Key Contacts from the Project. Click OK to open a Transmittal report that you can print or save as PDF.

• Auto Complete a Phase – When all Tasks are completed on a Phase, CN can mark the Phase as complete. See the Phase tab on the Options form to control how this is applied.

• MR Need By Date Requirements – On the Purchasing tab of the Options form, there are options to control whether or not an MR can be submitted without a Need By Date entered.

Release: April 26, 2010

• PO Pricing, Preferred Column – The MR tab on the PO form suggests a vendor based on the lowest price found in Pricing. There is a new column on the Pricing table titled Preferred. The MR tab will first look for items with this column checked, and if none are found, it will look for the lowest price second.

• Task Categories – Tasks can be categorized on the Task Definition form. The list of Task Categories is customizable.

• Task Details – When tasks are added it will store the time/date and who triggered the task. Right-click a task and select “Task Details” to view these properties.

• Filters on Task Tab on Project Form – Use the filters on the top of this tab to filter out which tasks you want to see. Filters include Category, Department, Operation, and Assigned Employee.

• Clock in to Task on Task Overview – You can right-click a task on the Task Overview form and select “Clock in to Task”

• PO Filters – Use the filters on the top of the PO Form to filter Purchase Orders by Vendor, Status, and Author. These filters take affect when the PO navigation buttons are used. You can still jump to a specific PO using “Goto PO” box even if it doesn’t match the filter.

• Automatically Update Prices on PO-Item Tab – When the check box located on the Items tab on the PO form is checked, the price will be automatically be updated (if found in pricing) when a Part or Color is selected on an Item.

• Blank Item Button – A button titled “Add Blank Item” is added to the Item Tab on the PO Form and the MR Item tab on the Project Form.

• Receive All Remaining Items – A button has been added to the top of the Items tab on the PO Form. Click this button to receive all remaining items for the current PO. Voided items will be ignored.

• Tomorrow's Arrivals changed to Future Arrivals – A filter was added to control how many days out the form shows. Type text into the Search box to filter the list.

• Late Items Filter – The Late Items tab on the PO Form has a filter so you can avoid showing items that were just created and do not have an ETA date.

• Summary Tab on PO Form – A new tab was added to the PO Form which displays the quantity of POs for each PO Status. Highlight a Status to load a list of POs with that Status. Double click a Status to load the Status filter on the top of the PO Form. Double click a PO to jump to that PO. Right-click a Status and select “Show/Hide” to customize the list and choose which Statuses appear and in what order.

• Received and Void Status of PO – On the Purchasing tab of the Options form you can select a PO Status to automatically change to on a PO when all (non-voided) items on the PO are received or when a PO is marked as Void.

• Qty Back Ordered Column – Many of the tabs on the PO form now have a third quantity column titled “B/O” which displays how many are remaining to be received when an item is partially received.

• Color Coded text on PO Items – The quantity received column will display Green text when the item is received 100%. The quantity columns will display Red text when an item is voided. If an item is partially received, then the quantity back ordered column will display Orange text.

Release: January 15, 2010

• PO Pricing, Preferred Column – The MR tab on the PO form suggests a vendor based on the lowest price found in Pricing. There is a new column on the Pricing table titled Preferred. The MR tab will first look for items with this column checked, and if none are found, it will look for the lowest price second.

• PO Form, Multiple Selections – The Today’s Arrivals, Tomorrow’s Arrivals, and Late Items tabs now let you select multiple rows and set their ETA simultaneously. These tabs also allow you to use the Receive Remaining function on multiple items. The Items tab will let you use the Receive Remaining, Delete PO Item, and Set as Default Price functions with multiple row selections.

• Vendor Notes – The Vendor tab on the Business form has a new field named Notes. Text entered in the Notes field will show up on the top of the PO Form next to the Vendor Address. You can use this area to enter Vendor information such as ordering instructions and account numbers.

• Email PO Address and Body – The Vendor tab on the Business form has two new fields named PO Email Address and PO Email Body. When you click the Email PO button on the PO Form, it will use this information when creating the email.

Release: January 11, 2010

• Task Overview Columns Bug Fix – Setting individual filters back to “Use Default” was not functioning. This is fixed in this release.

Release: January 10, 2010 New Features:

• RFI Tab on Project Form – Create and Track RFI Documents from the Project Form. Right click the top area of the tab to open a shortcut menu to create a new RFI. The Summary, Scope, and Conclusion are short summaries that are displayed on the list of RFIs. The Body is what is displayed on the Printed RFI document. While editing the Body, you can still use the Crows Nest client to gather data for the RFI. On the bottom of the RFI tab, you’ll find an area to add Links and Notes. Links can contain a path to a local file, or a URL to a web site. Listed RFIs are grouped as “Open” and “Closed”. Once a Conclusion is entered for an RFI, it is considered “Closed”. You can enter a blank Conclusion to move an RFI from “Closed” to “Open”.

• RFQ Tab on Project Form – Create and Track RFQ Documents from the Project Form. Add an RFQ on the top left area of the tab. Add Businesses that you want to get quotes from on the upper right are of the tab. Like the RFI tab, add Links and Notes below.

• Materials Tab on Project Form – Link Color and Part Records to your projects on this tab. Use the Add and Delete buttons on the top right corner of each table. Also, keep a list of Material Samples that need to be submitted to the customer for approval. Once you’ve added a Color or Part, click the Sample (Envelope) button to generate a Sample record. In each of the three tables on this tab, you can select multiple lines before using the Delete button. On the Color and Part tables, you can select multiple records before using the Sample button. Click Preview (magnifying glass) to view the saved image for a Part or Color.

• New Quantity Fields – 5 Additional Qty fields have been added for a total of 10. Also, many areas of Crows Nest have been modified to allow for easier additions of Dates and Quantities in future releases. As always, enter “N/A” for any Date or Quantity Description when not in use to hide it on other forms.

• Columns on Task Overview Form – Use the Columns button on the Task Overview form to Reorder and Hide/Show columns. Click the button while the Report Tab is selected to modify the columns for the Report separately. Also, you can set custom columns for individual filters by right-clicking the filter in the filter list on the left side of the form.

• Second Project Folder – Support for a second Project Folder has been added. Use this if you want to use two different folders for different stages of a Project. On the Options form, you can edit the Title of each Project Folder. The Sub Folders that are created in each Project Folder can be edited separately.

• Document Tab on Project Folder – The Documents tab has been rearranged slightly to accommodate a second Project Folder.

• Send Email to Project Role Assignment – Right-click an employees name on the Project Role table to send them a quick email. This feature uses the same functions as Email Notifications and requires that the Crows Nest Email Server is installed and functioning.

• Immediate Update on SOV – When numbers are edited in an SOV, the percentage columns are automatically recalculated. When SOVs get large, this can cause a delay each time a number is edited. Uncheck “Update Percentages Immediately” to keep the columns from updating. They will be recalculated anytime the form is loaded or the checkbox is rechecked.

• Email Groups – Project Emails can now hold up to 1000 characters. You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas into a Project Email to create an Email Group that can all be addressed at once.

• New PO Tabs – Four new tabs have been added to the PO Form. The ETA tab let’s you see how an item’s ETA compares to a selected date. Today’s Arrivals and Tomorrow’s Arrivals let you see what shipments to expect. You can update ETAs and receive items directly from this tab without having to jump to the PO. Late Items shows you all items with an ETA in the past and also let’s you update ETAs and receive items.

• PO CTA Column Replaced – The CTA Column has been replaced with a Check Box column. Use this column to indicate that the ETA has been confirmed.