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Version 8.3 (aka Sally) Release Notes

Key Points

  • Service Requests and Action Lists have been merged into Work Orders
  • There is a revised SmartQ Request form with a user-defined default Place
  • New SmartQ Self Registration function
  • A new Quick Job form designed to speed up single task Work Orders
  • Work Templates replace the awkward Action List setup for recurring jobs (and much more)
  • New Work Order section in Place, Thing, Organization and People dialogs show recent history
  • Quick Search function added to List Views
  • Descriptions and Notes allow text formatting

Work Order Overhaul

Work Orders can originate from four sources

  1. SmartQ or WebQ Requests that are picked up from Incoming queue and dispatched. 
  2. Quick Job function launched from ToDoQ
  3. Work Order option directly from ToDoQ
  4. Work Templates that are automatically generated based on Repeat rules using time or usage criteria

All of these paths will arrive on the Work Order Form. Most of the time you will want to use 1 or 2 above to arrive on the Work Order form because it will pre-fill most of the form for you.

Revised SmartQ Request & Quick Job

The SmartQ form has been redesigned. Here is a link to the help content for Requesters. 

To help speed up Request submissions by people that frequently make requests about a particular Place, each user can go into their Personal Settings and select a default Place. 

The new Quick Job form, that is available from an Action button on ToDoQ, looks just like the SmartQ Request form and provides a convenient front-end to the Work Order form. Managers, Dispatchers and Administrators will want to use this Quick Job option for those frequent simple, straightforward, single task jobs.

After submitting the Quick Job form, the full Work Order form is opened with many of the required fields pre-filled. The pre-filled fields include Work Order Name, Procedure Name, Task Name and Task Description (using the request text).

New Work Order Form

Work Orders can be simple, such as those that are initiated from SmartQ or Quick Job, or they can be complex. 

When the Work Order action button is clicked from ToDoQ, the form is opened as a blank slate. You can manually fill in a Work Order Name, a Procedure Name and one or more Task names, or you can use the power of Templates for any work that is done on a repetitive basis.

  • Work Templates replace the artist formerly known as Action Lists, but do much more and are much easier to use. 
  • Procedures – A Work Order can have one or more procedures. Procedure can have one or more Tasks
  • Tasks – A Procedure can have one or more Tasks. This is the level of the Work Orer hierarchy where work is performed, results are captured and where labor time and materials used can be recorded.
From the Work Order Form you can search the Work Template Library to find a model Work Order with associated Procedures and Tasks. Any work that needs to be done on a recurring basis, whether automatically scheduled or not, can be found in the Work Template library. The same is true for Procedures and Tasks.

SmartQ Self Registration

The SmartQ Setup option on the Settings menu provides a URL which allows new Requesters to register with login credentials. Optionally, a Work Order can be automatically generated and assigned to designated administrators to verify or modify the new registrants Place permissions. Note: Our intent is to phase out WebQ in favor of SmartQ. The timing of this phase-out will depend on customer feedback.

Work Order Assignments default to designated Maintainer

If the Place or Thing selected on a Work Order has a Maintainer defined, they are automatically assigned to the job. The Maintainer can be either a staff member or a contractor.

Recent Work Orders Section in Entity Dialogs

The term “entity dialogs” means Places, Things, Organizations and People. There is a new section in all of these dialogs that show the 5 most recent Work Orders in newest to oldest sequence.

For example, if you go to the Places List view from the main menu, and click on a Place name from the list, when the Place dialog displays you will see a section labeled Work Orders. When you expand this section you will see (up to) 5 of the most recent Work Orders associated with that Place. There is also an +Add button in this section allowing you to create a new Work Order for the Place.

Quick Search on List Views

There is a new Quick Search box under the menu bar in the top left corner of the Filter bar. This is designed to save some steps for frequently used filtering options. There are some variations on what elements are searched on different views, as noted in the list below:

  • ToDoQ – search on Work Order number, or short description
  • Activities – search on Work Order Number or Activity Description
  • Things – search on Asset ID, Brand, Model, Thing Type, or keywords in the Thing description
  • Places – search on words contained in Place Names
  • Organizations – search on Organization name, or keywords in the Notes (such as contractor, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, painting, carpentry, security, etc.)
  • People – search on first name, last name, and keywords in the Notes (such as skills, areas of expertise)
  • Work Templates – search on Template name
  • Procedure Templates – search on Procedure name
  • Task Templates – search on Task name

Miscelleneous Changes & Enhancements

There are numerous changes, enhancements, and tweaks in this new release. Many of these were suggested by customers, and others recommended by our QA team. 

  • Text Formatting – Most long text boxes throughout the application now allow formatting, such as Bold, Italic, Bullet, Hyperlink, and have an Undo and Redo option.
  • Attachments – in Entity Dialogs – Places, Things, Organizations, People, Tasks 
    • Thumbnail images return to List Views! The first attachment in the Attachment section of entity dialogs will be the one used on List Views.
    • Reordering – This has been a frequent customer request for a long time. When there are multiple attachments, you can move anyone of them to the leftmost position to make it the image used in List Views.
    • Drag & Drop option – For example, if you have a Windows File Explorer dialog open, you can drag and drop a file from the dialog
  • Action check button in each Filter Section – When using the filter dialog, which can be quite long on some list views (such as ToDoQ) each filter section now has a check action button you can click to activate the filter. This saves you from having to scroll all the way to the top of the filter dialog to the check button.
  • Contact Methods – Phone numbers are now formatted based on the country selection.
  • “Admin” – is an automatic and required Place name. It is used as the Place name for tasks such as Self Registration jobs assigned to Administrators. Only Administrators will see the Place.
  • Activity List View – Sort Order is now Activity creation date instead of Finished date. The result of this change is that newly created Work Orders will show towards the top of the Activities List instead of the bottom.
  • Thing Dialog Parent/Child – In the Relationship section of the Thing dialog, you can now select a Child Thing. For example if you are creating a Rooftop condensing unit and you want to set up the compressor as a child (component) of the unit, you can do so directly from the Thing dialog.
  • Things Import Enhancements – contact eSSETS support if you need to do bulk updates to Things using the CSV import function.
  • Dashboard Responsive to Mobile – If you have multiple columns configured on your desktop view, it condenses to a single column on your smartphone. Also, Dashboard gadgets have been relabeled for greater clarity.