Unanet 3.4 - New Features and Functions

The Unanet 3.4 new features and functions are described in the following sections:

New Unanet Modules -- UnaTime and Una$ense for your PDA

Enhancements for the Unanet Administrator
Enhancements for the UnaTime User

Enhancements for the UnaSource User
Enhancements for the UnaPulse Project Manager
Enhancements for the Unanet Manager

Important --> 3.4 Impacts to Existing Users <-- Important

New Modules - UnaTime and Una$ense for your PDA

Unanet Technologies has extended access to the Unanet functionality via alternative devices - that is, devices other than a wired PC with a browser. The initial rollout will include support for entering time and expenses on a Palm Pilot OS™ PDA device. The new capability allows syncing with the Unanet system. Project information for the PDA user will be copied down to the PDA. The PDA user will enter time and or expenses into the PDA. At any time, the user can sync up the PDA time and expense data with the Unanet server data.

PDA access benefits all levels of the organization. The road warrior will benefit by using time during flights or when access to the Internet is unavailable to immediately record time and expenses. The project manager benefits because immediate capture of data results in better information. Administrators and managers, who must ensure that timesheets and expense reports are approved in a timely manner, benefit because users are able to promptly enter time on the day that timesheets are due. This new capability is available as a separately purchased module!

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the Unanet Administrator

Expense Import. This new import allows for the importing of expense information from an external system. Check out the Expense Import page for more information.
Project Import. A new field (project probability percentage) has been added to the project screen and additionally to the Project Import. Additionally, an edit has been lifted that previously prevented projects managed at the task level from begin setup to allow user self sign up.
Planned Work Import. A new import was added (actually a late 3.3 addition) to allow for the importing of Planned Work in the UnaSource module. This could be useful for importing historical planned work entries to pre-load your system for day one operations or for the purposes of on-going scheduling if this information is available in an external system. Check out the Planned Work Import for additional details.
Export Fields. A number of new fields have been made available for use when creating export/extract templates. See Important Impacts below regarding time template field changes.
Restrict Project Manager Rate Overrides. Two new properties were added to the system which can be set to prevent Project Managers from overriding cost and bill rate information (see unasource.allow_cost_rate_edit and unasource.allow_bill_rate_edit). This is apparent in the Project Manager -- Plan Work screens, as well as the Project -- Assignment Override and Task -- Assignment Override screens. Project Managers can still select a Labor Category, which can affect the cost and bill rate, however, they can no longer override the specific cost and bill rates associated with a particular Labor Category (if the properties are enabled).
Disable Expense Types. Expense Types can now be enabled/disabled via the Expense Type screen. This can be useful if you would like to better control which expense types appears in the user's drop down lists. Disabling undesired expense types will also reduce startup time for the expense screens and wizards, thus it may be worth your time to disable unwanted types.
New Export Templates. A number of new export templates have been created and made available for download via our web-site download page.
Timesheet Status Report (Details). The timesheet status report now provides the option to run by user classification as well as the option to include the detailed preview versions of each timesheet. This may be useful for the purposes of bulk printing a number of timesheets at once. Check out the Reports -- Status -- Timesheet page for additional information.
New Properties. The following list is a recap of the new properties introduced with the 3.4 release:

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the UnaTime User

UnaTime for the PDA. Available as a separate product, you can manage time entry via a PDA.
User Self Sign-Up at the Task Level. The My Projects screen has been renamed to My Assignments. For projects that are setup to be managed at the task level, this screen will now contain Project and Tasks for the user to self-assign. For projects that are setup to be managed at the project level, the screen will contain only the Project (as it did in past versions).

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the Una$ense User

Per Diem. Two new wizards are available to facilitate per diem reimbursements. The Lodging Wizard and the Meals and Incidental Expenses (M&IE) wizard allow you to specify the location and date the expense was incurred and calculates the reimbursable (and overage) amounts.
Una$ense for the PDA. Available as a separate product, you can manage expense entry via a PDA.
Wizard Performance Improvements. A number of performance enhancements have been implemented with this release in an effort to speed up the Expense Wizards. Try them out and see.
Disable Expense Types. Administrators can now enable/disable expense types via the Expense Type screen. This can be useful if you would like to better control which expense types appear in the user's drop down lists. Disabling undesired expense types will also reduce startup time for the expense screens and wizards, thus it may be worth your time to disable unused types.
Copy Expense Line Items. A new icon appears on the expense detail page that will allow you to duplicate an expense entry. This may come in handy, for example, if you are trying to record several similar entries for multiple days. You could enter one item, copy it and simply change the date.
Project Information on Expense Reports. The eye glasses icon has been added to the expense purpose page as well as the expense detail page. Clicking on the icon will present the standard project information popup page (exactly like what you get when pressing the same icon on the timesheet page). This provides the capability to quickly view project details when entering expense information.
Mileage Wizard Changes. You may notice that the mileage wizard has lost a few fields. Additionally, the "Round Trip" and "One Way Miles" fields have been replaced with simply "Total Miles". Existing (pre 3.4) entries will be converted appropriately to accommodate this change.
User Self Sign-Up at the Task Level. The My Projects screen has been renamed to My Assignments. For projects that are setup to be managed at the task level, this screen will now contain Project and Tasks for the user to self-assign. For projects that are setup to be managed at the project level, the screen will contain only the Project (as it did in past versions).

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the UnaSource User

Self-Assignment - via UnaSource. The UnaSource user can now Assign themselves to a project via the User -- Plan Work screen. Previously, they could only plan their own time, they can now additionally assign themselves to the project for the purposes of recording time. Each project can be setup to allow or prevent this capability (via the existing "User Self Sign-Up" indicator). Also with this release, users can self assign to tasks via the My Assignments screen (users could previously only self assign to projects managed at the project level).
User Selectable Labor Category - via UnaSource. This new functionality is property driven (see the unasource.user.plan.show_labor_category property). If enabled, the User -- Plan Work screen will display an additional field - Labor Category - that the user can select for a given assignment.

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the UnaPulse Project Manager

Project Probability Percentage. You can now assign a probability percentage to each project. This may be used to indicate a 'soft-booked' vs. 'hard-booked' project. This percentage can be optionally used when running the various Forecast reports as a means to forecast revenue based on the probability that a project comes in. You'll find this new field available on the Project Information screen.
Revenue Forecast Reports. The existing Financial -- Revenue Forecast reports have been moved on the menu. They are now located under Reports -- Project -- Forecast -- Detail and Reports -- Project -- Forecast -- Summary. Additionally, a second set of these reports has been added for the Manager -- which show up under Reports -- People.
Restrict Rate Overrides. Two new properties were added to the system which can be set to prevent Project Managers from overriding cost and bill rate information (see unasource.allow_cost_rate_edit and unasource.allow_bill_rate_edit). This is apparent in the Project Manager -- Plan Work screens, as well as the Project -- Assignment Override and Task -- Assignment Override screens. Project Managers can still select a Labor Category, which can affect the cost and bill rate, however, they can no longer override the specific cost and bill rates associated with a particular Labor Category (if the properties are enabled).
Approval Process Improvements. The number of screens necessary to navigate when approving project time and expenses has been reduced, thus saving time. Also, a change has been implemented that user's are no longer required to approve their own submittals (time or expense). For example, if you are the project manager of a project, and also record and submit time against that project, you will no longer be required to approve your own time. Additionally, a new button (Skip) is available when processing your approval queue -- which allows you to skip the current item and move on to the next item in the list.
User Self Sign-Up at the Task Level. In version 3.3, a project could not be set up to allow for user self sign-up if it were managed at the task level. This restriction has been lifted (and the user's My Assignments screen enhanced).

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the Unanet Manager

Revenue Forecast Reports. The existing Financial -- Revenue Forecast reports have been cloned -- and provided from the perspective of the Person Organization vs. the Project Organization. They are located under Reports -- People -- Forecast -- Detail and Reports -- People -- Forecast -- Summary. The original version of these reports was moved from Reports -- Financial to Reports -- Project.

Approval Process Improvements. A change has been implemented that user's are no longer required to approve their own submittals (time or expense). For example, if you are a manager in an approval group, and have recorded and submitted time against a project, you will no longer be required to approve your own time. Additionally, a new button (Skip) is available when processing your approval queue -- which allows you to skip the current item and move on to the next item in the list.
Dynamic Approval Sequence Improvements. A change has been implemented to the Una$ense approval sequence if your system is configured to use the dynamic approval sequence feature. This change will render the unasense.approval.enforce_order property obsolete. Essentially, if you use the dynamic approval sequence feature, the sequence of the approval managers will be dynamically sorted (ascending) according to their approval authority amount (previously - this was enforced).

Release 3.4 Enhancements for the Unanet Customer

Approval Process Improvements. The number of screens necessary to navigate when approving project time and expenses has been reduced, thus saving time.

!! Important !!

Impacts to Existing Users

Import Layout Changes

Notice to users that use the project import

The file layouts for this import have changed in this version. If you utilize this import you will need to make adjustments to accommodate for the new field. A summary of the changes follows:

Project Import

New Field -- Project Probability Percentage

New Expense Types

Notice to users that may have created their own expense types and called them "M&IE_PER_DIEM" or "LODGING_PER_DIEM".

Because we are adding these two new expense types to the system, and they each have a wizard associated with them, if you have already created an expense type that has one of these names, your users will see the new wizard rather than your generic wizard when entering expenses. If you did happen to have created your own expense types with these names, we would recommend that you rename them prior to upgrading to this version.

Time Export Template Field changes

Notice to users that use time export templates.

The list of database fields available in the time export templates is changing with this release. In particular, you should note that the behavior of certain existing fields is changing. In past versions, any of the fields that began with either "PERSON_ORG_" or "PROJ_ORG_" were not picking up the current profile information as you might expect. Instead, they were returning the 'point in time' values that were saved at the time the timesheet cell entries were saved. That is, they were behaving as if they were named "TIMESLIP_PERSON_ORG_" or "TIMESLIP_PROJ_ORG_".
With this release, we will be adding a number of additional fields prefixed with the "TIMESLIP_PERSON_ORG_" and "TIMESLIP_PROJ_ORG" names and changing the behavior of the existing fields to pick up the current related profile information. You could think of it as though we are renaming the current fields to the timeslip_ name and adding new fields (with the old names) which will result in your having the option to export either the current information or the information that was stored at the time the timesheet was saved.
What does this mean you have to do? Depending on what data you are expecting to be returned in your time templates -- and -- only if you are using any of the PERSON_ORG_ or PROJ_ORG_ fields, you will need to revisit your time templates and make sure you have the appropriate fields chosen to meet your need.
This only impacts time templates (not expense, org, project, etc) -- and only those fields that begin with person_org_ and proj_org_.

Time Export Template Field changes (a few more changes)

Notice to users that use time export templates.

In addition to the changes mentioned in the previous bullet, we have made several 'behind the scene' changes to the processing of the following fields:

PROJ_ORGANIZATION_ACCT

PROJ_ORG_CODE

PROJ_ORG_NAME

If you were using any of these fields in a custom time template, your template will initially be invalidated after the migration to version 3.4. If you were to edit this template, and select the "Order" button, you would notice that the field name above would be replaced with the text "null". This would cause a problem if you attempted to use the template (you'd get a sql exception - column not found).

What does this mean you have to do? The system will repair the condition if you take the following two steps. First, edit any field on the template and hit "Save" (you don't have to make any change -- just hitting save will update the template structure). Second, (and this step is only necessary if you care about the sort order of the output), you would need to hit the "Order" button and re-order the fields according to your desire (you'll notice that the affected field was corrected but placed at the bottom of the list).

This only impacts time templates (not expense, org, project, etc) -- and only those containing the fields listed above.

If you have any questions, contact Support.

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