Release Notes Summary 2023
Release: 21.0 Release Date: 2023-12-21
- This release introduces construction Projects as an optional classification. Hierarchically, a Project is higher than a Phase and lower than a Company. The Project Code can be assigned to a Phase and be shown in Models and Lot as a flow-field. The list of Projects can be accessed from the HomeBuilder -> Operations menu of Role Centers "HomeBuilder Executive" and "HomeBuilder Admin"; or from the Search field. (Search Projects)
- The integration with the HomeBuilder Portal is fully available.
- The Phase Card is added for improved data entry and viewing now that the Phase has many more functions.
- The following check-box fields are added to Phase to turn on or off certain functionalities in the homebuyer interface of the HomeBuilder Portal. • Show Prices and Deposits • Show Notifications • Show Chats • Show Installments • Show Selections • Show Schedule • Show Service • Show Weather
- As an efficiency improvement, it is now possible to push House Areas to Models rather than selecting House Areas to pull into a Model. The Action "Push to Models" is added to the page "House Area". This action allows you to add multiple House Areas to multiple Models.
Release: 20.0 Release Date: 2023-11-26
- This release introduces the ability to cancel a Lot Selection Package after it has been released.
- This release introduces the ability for a user to specify which workflows are applicable to a Model.
- Two new reports are added for Lot Selection Choices.
Release: 19.0 Release Date: 2023-10-20
On the page "HomeBuilder Setup", the checkboxes
- "Use Lot Types"
- "Model Price per Lot Type" is added.
- "Check Vendor Invoice No. in all companies"
are added.
Release: 18.1 Release Date: 2023-08-16
Change the sorting order of the Planning Lines, made available on the Purchase Invoices and Orders to Phase Code, Lot Code, House Area Code, and Item No
Add an ability to change tasks in Lots from one set of tasks to another.
There is a new functionality called “Construction Diary”.
There is a new functionality called “Buyer Notifications”.
Miscellenous
The following actions are added to the page "Vendor Work Orders":
- Issue
- Un-Issue
- Re-Issue
- Report as Done
- Complete
- Cancel
- They work the same way as in the "Work Order Card" page.
- Cancel
In the page "Lot Workflows", a workflow can be deleted even if some of its tasks are 'Started' or 'Completed'. Upon deletion, tasks with a Status of 'Started' or 'Completed' will not be deleted, however, the dependencies for the remaining tasks will be deleted.
On the Pages "Construction Items" and "Construction Card", the action "Push to Models" will not update "Unit Cost" in Phase Items, Phase Item Variants, and Phase BOM Components if they are assigned with Vendor Contracts. The "Unit Price" gets recalculated based on Markup if the "Price/Profit Calculation" rule is 'Price=Cost+Profit'.
For the action "Split Costs Across Lots" in Pages "Purchase Invoice" and "Purchase Credit Memo":
- The flag "Apply to Planning Lines" is added. When this flag is set to 'Yes', the system will try to apply added Purchase Lines to Lot Planning Lines.
- Default values for fields "Default Line Type", "Default Cost Detail Code", and "Default No." get populated from the Vendor Card and not from the Purchase Header.
Business Central table "Item Template" has been customized to include HomeBuilder-specific fields. To maintain Item Templates for HomeBuilder functionality, call the page "Construction Item Templates" from Role Centers "HomeBuilder Executive", "HomeBuilder Admin" or from the Search.
Two actions are added to pages "Global Vendors" and "Global Vendor Card":
- Vendor Bank Accounts
- Document Layouts
- On dispatching Global Vendors to companies, the Vendor Bank Accounts and Document Layouts get pushed to local Vendors.
Page "Global Vendor Card" provides the ability to attach documents.
Setup and Implementation
- "Item Worksheets"
- A significant tool to aid with the creation of items (see release notes 17 for details).
- The concept is that you can start with a list of Items in a worksheet without rules (just like Excel). There are automations e.g. from Item Templates to bring in standard information. When you are ready, push the entries to become real Items.
- Can now view Items before adding to the system Item List.
- Can view as Items or Items + Variants.
- Import from Excel, build from existing items (for updates), or manually enter.
- "Construction Item Templates" are added to help with the setup of repeated information in the creation of new Construction Items, the system suggests choosing one of the available Item Templates.
- To remove various steps in the setup of a Phase you can now add the default Vendor and Contract information to the Construction Items. On pushing Items to Models, the system automatically creates a Vendor Contract for this Phase and assigns it to the Phase Item.
More details here: Release: 17.0 Release Date: 2023-06-28
Purchasing
- Page "HomeBuilder Setup": check box "Don't consume Planning Lines" is added – post purchases against an Estimate, but not consume the Planning Line (vendor contract).
- Purchase Line – just click on or off the “Apply to Planning Line” and the system will locate the Planning Line (vendor contract) if it can find it, or tell you if it cannot.
Finance
- The field "Check No. Prefix" is added to the "Bank Account Card". The prefix gets printed in front of the "Cheque No." on all custom cheques.
- "HomeBuilder Setup": check box "Don't Use Cheque Distribution" is added – if you have too many lines to fit on a stub, the cheques are voided and when all lines are printed you get the cheque (Base BC functionality).
- "Lot Budget" – You no longer need to create a new revision to track changes. Just change the Estimate value in the page and your history is tracked – just drill down on Estimate to see.
- "Budget Overage Control" – turn on item by item for any item that is allowed to go over budget irrespective of the users’ or system’s permissions.
- To assist with the setup of EFT/ACH, You can now attach documents to the "Global Vendor Card". In addition, the following fields have been added to "Global Vendors" and "Global Vendor Card". This information gets pushed to Local Vendors using the existing actions.
- Vendor Bank Accounts
- Document Layouts
- A series of Power BI Queries have been added (Models and budgets, Lots, Tasks, etc.). These can be called from Power BI using the API call in the base Dynamics BC SaaS load.
Operations
- Construction Workflows:
- Can make changes to Lot - Schedule and still push updates through.
- Gantt Chart added to "Lot Task Operations"
- A whole new functionality for the site-super:
- Easy to check off what tasks are completed for the Lot.
- A whole new reporting tool regarding Key Dates in the "Lot Date Analysis View"
- View your Key Dates in a Calendar view.
- View your Key Dates in a Gantt Chart view (coming in March).
- Export all Lots to Excel with the Key Dates you have setup in the view (see below for sample Excel output):
- Dates missed in red, hit in green, and near miss ("Lateness Threshold") in yellow.
- Red dates for not complete but past dates.
- View the "Key Date Template Items" to change font size, color, and other Excel outputs.
- You will need to load up the Template to make this work – email mwelford@suiteengine.com.
- The field "Phase General Lot Code" is added to Phases to specify the fictitious lot for posting general phase expenses.
HomeBuilder Excel Export for Scheduling
- "Un-site Model" in the Lot Card now works even if you have posted transactions. The posted lines are left in place and all unposted lines are removed. Re-siting overrides the planned amounts on the lines that are already there.
- Added ability to attach documents for a Model.