Release Notes - HWIT/Method Business Mgmt
Version 2024 Updates
Gary Hawton
Last Update sebulan yang lalu
- The Vendor Management screen now has a checkbox to exclude various vendors from all Vendor Management and Work Order dropdowns. For example, you might have Chevron or Kroger as a vendor since you pay them regularly, but you don't want this to appear as a valid vendor for Work Order tasks or in the Vendor Management applications.
- When creating a Work Order from an Estimate, the attachments on the Estimate will be copied to the Work Order.
- When sending mass emails to customers (from the Customer List screen), you now have the option to use either the primary email address or all of the addresses in the Report Email field. If the Report Email field is blank the system will use the primary email address, just like when sending inspection reports.
- The ability to create a brand new invoice, without having any Work Orders assigned, is now available so that you no longer have to originate these invoices in QuickBooks. For example, if creating a new Prepayments invoice, you can do so right off of the Invoice Reconciliation screen.
- A new variable - TODAY - has been added that will generate the current date in MM/DD/YYYY format and can be used on all report emails (subject and/or body). If you are using the variable Activity.DueDateStart currently, and no longer wish to show the date AND time -- switch it to the TODAY (all capitals) variable and it will no longer show the time.
- The ability to change Work Order Tags in bulk is now available in the bulk Actions on Selected WOs button on the Admin/Work Order List screen.
- A new "Process Incoming Emails" screen has been added to allow you to easily associate incoming emails with Customers, Issues, Work Orders or Opportunities, and save these emails with your Customer Activities.
- The Invoicing App will now check your QuickBooks settings and let you know if you need to adjust them prior to creating invoices. This will prevent "missing numbers" if QB turned your settings back on.
- The Invoicing App will now update the Email Sent checkbox for those invoices that have fully synced to QuickBooks.
- When changing the dates on In Residence entries, the system will automatically reinstate Work Orders that were cancelled rather than prompting the user to do so.
- You can now change Tags in the Bulk Actions options on the Work Order List screen.
- You can now flag Vendors to "exclude" them from Vendor Management dropdowns. For example, you may wish to exclude certain vendors from appearing to your Technicians in the field (such as rent, electric company, insurance company, etc.). You can update this on the Vendor Maintenance screen.
- Some internal updates have been made to the SignNow Contracts process.
- Some UI updates have been made to mobile screens to make them easier to use.
- The ability to update the "Invoice Comments" in QuickBooks. This is the item that QuickBooks calls the Customer Message. Due to a QuickBooks bug, when generating invoices from an outside system, like Home Watch IT, the comments do not get placed on the invoice. You can now create your own Customer Message in the Preferences screen, which will be applied to all invoices generated.
- You can now add unlimited photos, along with description and notes, to the Customer Property screen (Under Property Notes). The same capability has been added to the Home Inventory Item screen. These photos are reduced in size so that they easily work within the customer record and can be quickly accessed -- if you want full sized photos you should put them in the Attachments area or in the File Folder.
- The Preferences Screen now has the ability to show all Emails sent from the system and their status.
- The Work Order Clone screen now has two additional options: the ability to have the new Work Order automatically assigned to the person who the property is assigned to, and the ability to leave In Residence customers off of the list of customers to clone the Work Order for.
- Contracts Management now supports SignNow templates and documents for more flexible contract processing options. More information is here.
- If using Estimates, the Work Orders created will now provide a link back to the original Estimate
- Two new information grids can be added to your report emails – you can put a list of Open Issues and also a list of Work Orders upcoming for the next 30 Days. Both of those options are detailed in the list of variables available here.
- When creating a sub-Work Order you will have the option to copy attachments from the Master WO to the Sub WO.
- A report or list of all Service Dates in use, by customer, is now available -- you will see this report under the 3 Dots on the Home Watch Admin tile on the dashboard.
- When generating Invoices, you can now add a line with the Work Order No above the details lines from the Work Order, essentially acting as a Header for the lines. You can turn that option on in the Preferences Screen.
- A Series List/Report has been added so that you can proactively check on Series that are going to expire in the next 30 or 60 days. You will find that link on the Series screen in the upper right.
Other small fixes and enhancements.
- RBO entry now allows you to schedule a Pre-Guest walkthrough. This will be added to the calendar as a non-billable Work Order for informational purposes. If you wish to make it billable you can then edit the Work Order to add the billing information.
The ability to import Guesty RBO Reservations is now available.
Prepayments that have not been paid will no longer be calculated as a credit on the customer’s invoice.
“Expect Vendor Bill” indicator is now available on Series.
The ability to Hide the Alarm Password information on the Route Tech is now configurable by user. By default, all users will have this setting OFF. If you wish to hide the Alarm Password for a particular user you will need to turn this ON in the User screen. In other words, the default is to show the user the Alarm Password information unless you mark this setting to Hide the password.
Other small fixes and enhancements.
Full Text Search capability added to the Work Order system – you can look up a WO based on anything written in the Job Name or in any of the lines of the Work Order. Details here.
You can now create a link to send the Customer Info form to a new client if you want them to fill it out before issuing a contract.
Prices shown on the Customer Portal, for either Requests or In Residence Upsell Items, can now be varied by Customer by setting Price Groups. You define different prices for the Price Groups and then assign customers to the groups in order to have that price be effective for them. This feature requires the Estate Management application to function. Details here.
When a new Request is entered in the portal a notification will be sent (email, SMS, or push depending on the user’s settings).
Various cosmetic changes to screens.
If a new template is created in MonitorQA it will automatically sync to HWIT/Method – no need to manually sync templates any longer!
You can now send reports via SMS/text message from the Route Technician app and Admin app as well as the automatic email process. You set the option (to send via SMS rather than email) on the Customer screen, and the report will be sent by that method no matter where you send it from.
Vendor Management App: The ability to report on all Vendor Bills entered by the person entering and/or person assigned to manage the property. There is also a new section showing all Work Orders that have been flagged as waiting for a vendor invoice, and you can easily update that information from the same screen.
The Occurrences shown on the Series screen now have different views available and accessible via the dropdown. This will prevent multiple years of history getting in the way when trying to view upcoming Occurrences.
When emailing a new Contract the email will now include any attachments from the email template, as well as allow you to add additional attachments on the screen prior to sending. You can use this to send additional collateral or amendments to the customer along with the contract itself.
The status of the Report email is now on the Route Technician screen. It will show if the email has been Sent, Delivered, Opened or Clicked.
Contract automation and Customer Info automation. You can now generate Contracts, email them to your client for electronic signature, and store them. At the same time, you can ask your client various questions that then update the Customer HW/Property Information fields on the Customer screen. There is also an option to expose some of those notes on the Customer Portal so that your customers can update the information themselves.
You can now terminate a Customer with one button push on the Customer Screen – this will automatically delete all open WOs and Series and make the customer inactive in QuickBooks. Note that this only works with QuickBooks Online accounts that have enabled HWIT Integration. QuickBooks Desktop account will support deleting the WOs and Series, but cannot check if the customer can be made inactive. The process is explained here.
A new WO Status of “In Residence” has been created. If a client is In Residence, the Status of the WO will also say In Residence where it previously read Cancelled. A new tutorial video for the In Residence Calendar has been added to the Help Center.
The Actions button on the Work Order List has been split into 3 buttons to make it easier to find things, and to allow additional features to be added. The first new features, Delete Selected Work Orders and Email Customers, have been added in this version. An updated tutorial video has been added to the Help Center.
Notify your client you are on the way to their property via text message directly from the Route Technician app.
The Vendor Management system now tracks expiration dates on COI entries.
Ability to show Time Entries on the Invoicing screen.
A few other small changes.
Route Technician Work Order Entry now allows entry of an assigned Vendor as well as activating the checkbox to expect a vendor’s invoice.
Route Technicians can now create a new work order by dragging on the calendar screen, provided they have permission to create a new work order.
Any time a Work Order is cancelled and a MonitorQA report was created it will now be deleted.
HWIT now supports the MQA “Auditor Hint” text box by filling in fields from the HWIT Customer Screen or the Work Order in order to pass any information to your auditor or just serve as a reminder when conducting the audit. The MQA Linkage documentation has been updated to explain how to use this field.
The End of Day automatic emailer can now send the inspection report via text message. If the Preference to save Activities is on an entry will be made showing “SMS Sent” and the body of the text message will be saved.
You can now include a weekly weather forecast on your report email. The variable for that is FORECAST as shown in this document.
The error when calculating GPS coordinates on an address containing a number sign (#) has been fixed.