Release notes: 2015

Release: November 28, 2015

  • Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

  • Added Employee Permission “Can Edit Triggered Tasks” – When this permission is disabled for a user, the Task Trigger popup that is shown when tasks are triggered is automatically closed and all tasks are added with the default settings.

  • Task Definition Option “Match Assignment to Trigger Task” – When this option is checked, and the task is triggered by the completion of a task, the default assignment for the triggered task is the overridden with the employee assigned to the task that was completed. This can be used to create reoccurring tasks that trigger themselves and are assigned to the same employee on each trigger, such as machine maintenance and quality control reminders.

  • Part option “Stock” – There is a new indicator for Parts titled “Stock”. Items cannot be designated both “Inventory” and “Stock”. “Stock” parts can be hidden on the Picket Ticket tab of the Inventory form by unchecking the box titled “Show Stock Items”.

  • Option to Limit Pick Ticket Consumption to only Allocated Material – On the “Parts/Inventory” tab under Settings > Options, there is a new option titled “Limit Pick Ticket Consumption to only Allocated Items”. If this box is checked, only items that have been allocated to the same Project & Phase as the Pick Ticket will be available for consumption.

  • Manual Consumption of Inventory – On the Inventory form, on the Inventory Tab, on the Detail grid there is a new option titled “Consume…”. This option lets you consume inventory without first creating a Pick Ticket. This is handy for reconciling inventory after extra material was used.

  • MR Option - Substitute from Inventory – On the PO Form, on the MR tab, there is a new option titled “Substitute from Inventory”. If you want to modify an MR Item to match an item that you have available in Inventory, select the item, then right-click it, then select “Substitute from Inventory”. A selection window will open that displays available inventory. Select an item and click OK and the MR will be revised to match the item in Inventory. Inventory is considered “Available” if it is either allocated to no Project, or Allocated to the same project as the MR Item but not allocated to any Phase.


Release: November 10, 2015

  • Project Cost Form – Removed some of the older obsolete tabs and added new editing tools to the Labor and Material tables on the Budget tab. Fixed bugs on the Material & Labor Budget Import.

  • Phase Detail Form – New tab added titled Labor which displays a summary of hours logged for the phase. Added right-click menus with editing controls on the Labor and Material tables on the Budget Tab for editing budget records.

  • Copy & Paste on SOV Grid – Added functionality for copying and pasting multiple cells on the SOV Grid. Use the typical Windows keyboard shortcut keys.

  • Added Help File – There is now a Help file available. Open it from the main app under Help > Help. It is just a starting point and most of it is just an outline yet to be filled.

  • Inventory Form – On the Stock Check tab, if you select one or more Inventory items and use the “Use Stock” right-click menu option, it will warn you and ask if you want to continue.

  • MR Reports – You can now print MRs by importing Custom Reports with a prefix of “CN_MR_”. A simple canned report has been included.

  • MR Approval – A “Rejected” option has been added to the MR Approval table.

  • PO Item Invoiced Column – A new column titled Invoiced has been added to PO Items. This is a manually checked column to indicate if Invoices have been received from the vendor for the items.


Release: October 28, 2015

  • Estimate Improvements – Lots of additions to the Estimates form. Added “Links” and “Notes” to estimates. Added a Long Description field per estimate and per Group. Added a Reference field per Group to store a drawing reference. New Options for setting the default folder for Estimates and creating folders when Estimates are created. You can now set Qty at the Group level. You can set a default Markup % for Labor and Material, and override individual Departments/Categories with different Markup %. You can override the default labor rates by Labor Category or Department.

  • Thunderbird Support – Under Settings > Options > Notifications Tab, the “Email Method” and “Method w/ Attachments” has a new selection “Thunderbird” for companies who use Mozilla Thunderbird as their mail client.

  • Employee Hourly Capacity on Calendar Form – Various improvements and bug fixes.


Release: October 15, 2015

  • Employee Hourly Capacity on Calendar Form – On the Calendar form, you can now display a Capacity amount based on available Hours by Department. First, define how many hours a day each employee works on the Employee Form, on the Labor Tab, in the area titled Capacity. Enter the quantity of hours the employee works each day. Below the hours for each day, right click to add one or more Labor Departments and define what percentage of the hours entered should be considered for capacity for that department. On the Calendar form, on the Capacity Tab, check the box titled “Display Capacity for Department” and then click the link to the right to select a Department. The grid below will show a list of Employees who have a percentage of their hours configured for the selected department. The column titled with a percentage sign (%) is the percentage of their hours that will display on the Calendar. You can adjust it up and down in increments of 5 using the + and – buttons or manually enter a value. There are two columns that show what percentage of their actual time logged was linked to the selected Department for the last 30 days and the last 90 days. Right click the list of employees and you can populate the % column with the values from the 30 & 90 day average columns. Right-click the list and use ‘Save as Default’ to save the value from the % column to the Employee form. Select cells in multiple rows before right-clicking to apply to multiple rows at once.


Release: October 12, 2015

  • Customized PO Reports – The PO reports can now be customized using the Report Builder 3.0 application (from Microsoft). Import reports using with a prefix “CN_PO_” in the Description and they will show up in the new drop down selection titled “Select Report:” above the printed PO. All of the original built-in PO reports are included with the Crows Nest application and can be found in the program folder in a subfolder named “Reports”. If no reports are found with a “CN_PO_” prefix, it will automatically import the included reports when the PO Form loads.


Release: October 9, 2015

  • Inventory Auto-Allocation Option – An option has been added under Settings > Options > Parts/Inventory tab titled “Allocate PO Items when they are received”. When this option is unchecked, PO Items check as Inventory items will be added to Inventory when received, but will not be allocated to the Project and/or Phase that the PO Item was linked to.

  • PO Item Price Calculation from Extended Price – You can now edit the Extended Price column on PO Items and it will calculate the Price by dividing the Extended Price by the Qty Ordered.

  • Various minor improvements and bug fixes


Release: October 8, 2015

  • Inventory: Stock Check and Allocation Verification – Inventory forms and functions added.

  • Activity Timeline Form – New Activity Timeline form added.

  • Custom Report Form Improvements – Importing Custom Reports has been streamlined.

  • Customizable Key Contacts/Businesses – Key Contacts/Businesses can now be created using Customizable Keys.

  • Drawings – New Drawings tab added to the Project Form

  • Estimating – New Estimating form and Product Library added

  • Business Account Number – New field named Account added to Business form for storing Business Account Numbers.

  • Part List Functions – Added functions to rename Part Lists and Copy/Move items from one Part List to another