Costrac V6.1 launched |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jan 04 2010 |
As part of our continuous improvement on the software that we develop & support, we’re glad to announce the launch of Costrac version 6.1, the first big release since version 6’s inception. Thanks for all the constant feedback from all our Channel Partners & Clients, which enables us to improve Costrac to better assist you in effective project cost management.
Below is a brief overview of the new modules & new functionality. These won’t affect your current usage of Costrac, so you can create demo projects to play around with the new functionality, or alternatively, let us know if you want a 1-day training course to step through the functionality in detail.
2. NEW MODULES
2.1 RFQ – Request for Quotation
The new “Request for Quotation” (RFQ) Module will enable Costrac to send emails to Contractors in order to prompt them to complete their RFQ online in Costrac. This new Module is enabled by selecting the “Request for Quotation” option when creating a new Project (this functionality will only be available if the Procurement option is switched on though). The RFQ module will follow a three step process, i.e., Purchase Requisition (PR), RFQ, and then Purchase Order (PO). When adding a PR, there will be a tick box available to enable the RFQ process. If the RFQ process is not needed, then the normal PR to PO process will continue, as it is currently. In the RFQ section you’ll be able to select the Contractors to which emails will be sent to prompt them to complete their RFQ’s online in Costrac, as well as upload any additional documentation needed. You will be able to monitor the progress of who has completed their RFQ’s, and compare them easily against each other. Once you have selected which Quotation is suitable, you can approve it and then follow the normal PO process.
2.2 Additional report design application
We’ve been spending alot of our time designing a new reporting module. We are currently using a third party tool, Crystal Reports 2008, for all our standard Costrac reports, and dotnetCharting for all our Graphs. In order to have more flexibility with our reports & graphs, we’re busy migrating our reports & graphs to DevExpress (http://www.devexpress.com/). As an additional tool, we’ll also have a reporting designer available for the Costrac “super users”. This is a Windows application (separate from Costrac), where you’ll be able to design/modify current reports, or even create your own reports (as per the screenshot below). This new module won’t be available in V6.1 though, but will be launched towards the second quarter of 2010, so watch this space!
3. NEW FUNCTIONALITY
3.1 Negative Journals: users will now be able to load negative journal transactions on posted Journals. This will work the same way as a negative Variation Order on a PO, where a negative transaction is linked to an existing transaction line in the current Journal in order to reduce the value in the current period.
3.2 Workflow: we’ve put in quite some effort to build in additional workflow to fit in with the current Costrac processes. Under the Administration -> Users section, super users will now be able to define the lowest amount (in the Base Currency) for which approval is needed per project, per user, per document (e.g. Journals, Change Orders, PO’s etc). If the document total is above the amount specified in this section, the users applicable will get notifications of approval needed (sequentially), and can either approve it, or reject it (with comments), which will send it back to the initial approval person to rectify the document as needed before going for approval again.
3.3 Breadcrumb navigation: Costrac V6.1 will allow for easy navigation between screens by providing “breadcrumb” navigation in the top right-hand corner which will enable you to move to the previous screens within specific sections. For example, under the Forecasts section, you might see something like the following: Forecasts - List > List > Edit > Trend Log > Costflow, showing your browsing history for the selected item, and enabling you to link back to a previous window.
3.4 Multiple Budget Baselines with version control will now be available. The different baselines will also feature in reports & graphs, and hence you can choose which baseline to report against.
3.5 Payment certificates will now be easier to load where there are multiple transactions. Costrac V6.1 will now give you the option of loading all the transactions at once. The different lines in the Purchase Order will be made available and the invoice can then be allocated against different lines all on one screen. This can be done by simply clicking on the “Add Multiple Payment Allocations” button on the selected Payment Certificate screen, and completing the necessary details.
3.6 The released budget can now be controlled at the budget work up level and the amount you want to release per line can be specified. Previously you could only release full lines, but now you will be able to specify the exact amount, giving you a lot more budget control.
3.7 Costflow Templates: currently there are 2 ways to regenerate your costflow spread: either to regenerate using the alpha & beta parameters provided (by having the “Regenerate S-Curves” option ticked), or to bump the spreads provided (by NOT having the “Regenerate S-Curves” option ticked). The third one we’ve added in V6.1 one, is a regeneration of manual spreads. To enable this, you can manually define your spread, and then select the “Regenerate S-Curves” option (previously this option was de-selected for any manual spreads). It will then spread the bumped ratio evenly according to the left-over ratios, so the manual shape will maintain its profile.
3.8 Retention Certificates: Retention invoices could not be previously processed through Costrac. Upon creation of a new Payment Certificate (with 0 Invoice value, and a Retention value entered), a new field will be visible linking to an existing Payment Certificate. The retention certificate enables you to check if the correct value of retention is being released and also to generate a payment certificate for retention.
3.9 Batch transaction import: Costrac V6.1 will now enable batch imports for PR transactions so that you can easily capture historical transactions.
3.10 Commitment Templates: Costflow Templates for Commitments/PRs can now be created under Costflow Templates. This enables easier forecasting of payments, as you can have preset templates which can be used repeatedly for commitments.
3.11 A “Supporting Documents” section has been added to Change Notices / Purchase Requisitions / Work Requisitions / Journals / Payments, in order to upload any other documentation (Word documents, Excel spreadsheet, PDF files etc) to be saved on the server and linked to the entry in Costrac.
3.12 Project Grouping Code: we’ve added an additional project grouping code for a bit more flexibility on the Pivot View.
4. IMPROVEMENTS
4.1 Cost Breakdown Structure: we’ve implemented a new Tree control to be used in the CBS creation. With this new control, it’s a lot quicker to build or modify your CBS, and you can now drag and drop branches in the CBS if no commitments are against them.
4.2 Estimating control: The new Estimating control in Costrac has been optimized for a more user friendly way of controlling and updating the project estimates. The columns can now be grouped, sorted and filtered for a better view of the project’s estimate data. When editing or changing an estimate the functionality has been changed to inline editing as opposed to the popup windows. The core functionality of the Estimating module remains unchanged, updating the budgets and setting an estimate baseline is still just a click away.
4.3 Lists: A new Data List control has been introduced into the Costrac system. This new control allows for per column searching, filtering and even grouping. Browsing through the data list is now easier than ever with the first, last and numbered pages. Each data list in Costrac can be exported with a simple click.
4.4 New Date control: we’ve also implemented a new Date control across Costrac, for easier usage. Dates can now be typed in, or easily enough select a month or year, without the need to scroll back, and no popup windows any more, as it’s all on the same page!
4.5 Forex: we’ve added a new pivot to show all the forex transactions for Forex projects.
4.6 Work Requisitions: WR transactions lines are now billed against the “Manhours” Cost Class, and all other transaction lines against “Prime”.
4.7 Optimizations: we’ve made alot of the screens & transactions load quicker, & the pivot speed has also been improved quite a lot.
4.8 Project import: the Project import template now has an extra column to specify the Costflow Template to be used for each line.
4.9 Project Periods: multiple months can now be added at once. The “Add Months” button will prompt to ask for the number of months to add.
4.10 Escalation: under Cost Control -> Escalation, you will be able to import escalation indices against Attributes or Currencies. Import templates are provided to input the incremental percentages. These escalation values can then be viewed on the Costflow graphs to see the effect on the Forecast.
4.11 Change Notice transactions can now be edited without having to delete and reload them.
4.12 An “Edit Project” link has been created to edit the project you are working on easily without having to go to the main project screen which reloads the menu upon selection.
4.13 Costrac will log you out automatically if you close your browser window without logging out. Previously the system would have prevented you from logging in again if this was the case, but we found a way around this luckily. The functionality will stay the same though, i.e. you won’t be able to be signed in with the same username at the same time from different computers, due to our licensing model and also for keeping a correct audit trail.
4.14 Budgets can now be released all at once by clicking on the “Release ALL Budget lines” in the Budgets section when the Project Budget is NOT Frozen.
4.15 Reports:
4.15.1 The Payments by Contractor report can now be viewed per Purchase Order.
4.15.2 Roll-Up Cost Summary reports can now be viewed so that commitments in preparation are also shown if needed.
4.15.3 Additional filtering on a few other reports has also been added.
Last changed: Jan 04 2010 at 2:00 PM
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