OpenAir Enhancements

Display booking location on resource booking chart
Display the state or country code for each user's booking location directly on the chart.

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Apply job code filtering in time billing rules and set rate(s) by job code
Filter time billing rules by job code. Specify hourly rate by job codes without arate card association.

Optionally view and designate revenue hours for recognition transactions
View revenue hours generated from hourly charges via "As billed" and "Time project billing" revenue recognition rules. Enter revenue hours for manually created recognition transactions.

View tasks for inactive projects in Task List view
Display tasks associated with inactive projects in Task List view.

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Allow an approver to edit a submitted invoice
Allow the modification of an invoice and associated charges in submitted status.

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Additional options in timesheet rule configuration
Require daily time entries regardless of available work days in work schedule. Require the selection of a project for specified time types.

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Auto-approval rules for proposals
Allow proposals to be automatically approved if total value is a specified amount.

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Past OpenAir Product Update release notes moved
Access to previous release notes moved to Support tab.

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Display booking location on resource booking chart
With this release, we have continued to enhance the Resource booking chart to allow resource managers to effectively staff resources. In addition to allowing for greater visibility into resource utilization and availability, it is beneficial to view where each resource is located on a given day. The ability to see where a resource is booked allows resources managers to identify the appropriate resource to work on projects located in selected states or countries. For example, managers can quickly view the chart to see that Mary Adams will be located in California for a week and therefore cannot work on a project located in New York for that same week. However, Mary may be an appropriate resource to work on another project in California.

To display the location code on the chart, OpenAir has leveraged the current project location field to designate the state or country code. Project locations can be configured with a designated state or country code. Upon the creation of a booking, the location (from the list of project locations) can be defined on the booking form. The daily booking chart view will then display the corresponding location code for the booking.

How to configure state and country codes:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Projects Settings > Project locations.
Under the "New" dropdown, select "Project location".
Enter the name of the location and any notes.
In the "Country code" or "State code" box, enter the two character location code.
Click Save.

How to select a location for a booking:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Resources > Bookings > New.
Fill out the necessary fields and select the booking location from the "Location" dropdown.
Click Save.

Note: The booking location is also available in the resources booking grid and multiple bookings form.

To add the location to the booking grid, navigate to Resources > Bookings > Grid/Worksheet. On the "Settings" form, check the option "Show booking location". Click Save.
To add the location to the multiple bookings form, navigate to Resources > Bookings > New, multiple. Click on the "customize" link at the bottom of the form. Add "Location" to the "Selected Items" box and click Save.

How to display the booking location on the booking chart:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Resources > Bookings > Chart.
Navigate to the "Settings" form and check the option "Include location code".
Click Save.

Additional notes:

If multiple locations with different booking types are displayed for a day, the order in which the location displays corresponds to the order of the booking types.
To maximize usability, the ability to view the chart with larger bars has been added. To leverage the larger bars, navigate to Resources > Bookings > Grid/Worksheet. On the "Settings" form, check the option "Use larger bar". Click Save.
The location for a booking can now be viewed in the booking detail report. To report on this value, navigate to Reports > Detail > Resources > Bookings. Configure the desired date ranges and in the Report layout, select the value "Location", any other values and click OK. Run the report.
The hover bar for the booking chart for a daily view can be configured to include the booking location. To include this information, please contact OpenAir Support to request that the field be added to the account.

Apply job code filtering in time billing rules and set rate(s) by job code
At times it may be necessary to bill projects by job code depending on the user's role on the project. With this release, we have enhanced our time billing rule to allow for filtering by job code. This new functionality expands the scope of attributes that can be used to filter approved time entries. In conjunction with the ability to override job codes at the project and task levels, this new feature provides more flexibility in the configuration of time billing rules. If job code filtering is applied, the filters will be respected by charge projections. Job code overrides specified at the project or task level will also be respected by the billing rule if a filter is applied.

Additionally, rates within a time billing rule can now be specified by Job code.. Therefore, it is no longer required to associate a rate card to specify billing rate(s) by job code. In addition, individual rates can be set on a per-billing rule basis.

To leverage this functionality, the project job code feature must be enabled. To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support. For more information on project job codes, please see the July 2009 product update.

How to apply a job code filter to a time billing rule:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Financials > Billing.
Select or create a new "Time billing rule".
Scroll down to "Billing rule filters" and click "Job code".
A pop-up window displays job code selections for the rule. All job codes are specified by default. To remove job codes, click on the names and select "Remove selected items."
Click Save.

How to designate billing rates for job codes in a time billing rule:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Financials > Billing.
Select or create a new "Time billing rule".
In the "Billing rates" section, under the "Get the billing rates from" dropdown, select "Job codes".
Select the necessary job codes and designate the appropriate rate for each job code.
Click Save.

Optionally view and assign revenue hours for recognition transactions
Typically, an "As billed" or "Time project billing" recognition rule is create to generate the total revenue amount based on hourly charges. In addition to seeing the total recognized revenue, it is beneficial to view the total recognized hours specifically for transactions generated from hourly charges. With this release, we have added two enhancements to the revenue recognition functionality that will allow users to view and modify revenue hours for recognition transactions.

The ability to display the revenue hours for each recognition transaction has been enabled for all accounts. To disable the display of revenue hours, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Financials > Recognition. Select the "As billed" or "Time project billing" rule and uncheck the option "Populate hours in recognition transactions". This functionality can be disabled on a per rule basis.

At times it may be necessary to create a manual transaction with varying revenue hours or edit an existing system generated transaction. For companies that allow users to manually create revenue recognition transactions, time (in hours and minutes) can be entered for each transaction.

To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

How to enter time for manually created recognition transactions:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Projects > [select a project] > Financials > Recognition.
Under the "New" dropdown, select "Recognition transaction".
Enter the time in Hours and/or minutes and any other necessary fields.
Click Save.

Note: Form permissions have been added to the revenue recognition transaction form. Time for existing recognition transactions can also be modified.

Reporting: In addition to the enhancements for viewing and adding recognition hours, reporting capabilities have been added to summary, detail, advanced reports as well as operands in custom calculations. The following reporting values have been added:

New summary report values: Projects - Recognition transaction time (Hours), Projects - Recognition transaction time (Days), Projects - Recognition projection count, Projects - Recognition projection time (Hours), Projects - Recognition projection time (Days)
New detail report values for "Recognition transaction" detail report: Time (Days), Time (Hours), and Time (Hr:Min).
New detail report values for "Project" detail report: Number of recognition transactions, Recognition transaction time (Days), Recognition transaction time (Hours), Recognition transaction time (Hr:Min), Number of recognition projections, Recognition projection time (Days), Recognition projection time (Hours), Recognition projection time (Hr:Min).
New report value for "Pending recognition" Advanced report: Hours
New available operands in custom calculations: Projects - Recognition transaction time (Hours), Projects - Recognition transaction time (Days), Projects - Recognition projection count, Projects - Recognition projection time (Hours), Projects - Recognition projection time (Days).

View tasks for inactive projects in Task List view
Managers often leverage the project task list view to manage tasks. At times, there may be a need to view information for tasks that are associated with an inactive project. Previously, only tasks associated with active projects would be displayed in the task list view.

To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

In addition, a new column has been added to the task list to allow users to filter on tasks associated with an active or inactive project. To add the project status, users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Projects > Tasks > Pending/Completed/All tasks and click on the "Customize list view" link on the upper left corner of the top menu bar. Click "Project active" and select "Add selected items." Click OK.

Allow an approver to edit a submitted invoice
Companies often require their users to submit invoices for approval by the finance department or management. To ensure the billing process is not delayed, it is beneficial for the approver to be able to make modifications to the invoice or associated charges. Previously, in order to make changes to the invoice, it needed to be rejected.

To enable this feature, please contact OpenAir Support.

Once enabled, to edit a submitted invoices, approvers navigate to Invoices > Invoices > Submitted and select an invoice. To edit the invoice header information, click on the "Edit" or "Properties" link. Edit the form and click Save. To edit the associated charges, click on the "Change charges" or "Charges" link. Edit or remove individual charges.

Additional options in timesheet rule configuration
To ensure that employees are in compliance with company policies, timesheet rules may be configured to notify users when timesheets do not meet requirements stated in the rule. With this release, two additional timesheet rules have been added.

First, companies can now require a user to enter daily time entries regardless of their work schedule configuration. For example, companies may require their employees to enter time on a Saturday and Sunday, however, those days may not be designated as work days in their work schedules. This new timesheet rule will allow companies to require users to enter time every day of the week, including Saturday and Sunday.

Secondly, for companies that do not require a project selection for all time entries, companies can now require users to select a project for specific time types. For example, companies may not require a project selection for "Non-billable" time types, however, may require a selection for "Billable" time.

How to configure timesheet rules to require daily time entries regardless of work schedule:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Timesheet Settings > Timesheet rules.
Select the option "Require a time entry every day, independent of workschedule".
Click Save.

How to configure timesheet rules to require a project selection for specified time types:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Timesheet Settings > Timesheet rules.
Select the option "Require project selection for the following time types" and click on the 'Create' link to select the appropriate time types.
Click Save.

Auto-approval rules for proposals
Proposals within the Opportunities module can be created, ranging from simple to complex drafts. Items within a proposal can include Text-only, Hourly, Flat price, Other rate, Expense, or Product. Once a draft has been created, proposals can be submitted for approval. If any item, excluding text, has been used, specific approval rules can be configured based on the total amount of the proposal. The approval can be routed to specific approvers based on certain criteria defined for each approver in the approval process. For example, the proposal may require approval from approver 1 if it is below a certain amount, however, if it is between a specified range it should be routed to approver 2.

How to configure auto-approval rules for proposals:

Users with the appropriate role privileges navigate to Administration > Application Settings > Opportunities Settings > Approval processes.
Name the process and select the approvers from the "Approver" dropdown. Assign sequence numbers if desired.
Under the "Auto-approve rules" column, click on the "Create" link for each approver.
Under the "Proposal auto approval rule" section, check the option "Automatically approve a proposal when the total value is:" and configure the criteria and amount.
Configure rules for the necessary approvers and click Save.

Past OpenAir Product Update release notes moved
The OpenAir user interface has been enhanced to provide easy access to past product update release notes. This new location allows all users access to past notes while working directly within the OpenAir application. To access the notes, navigate to Support > Product Updates and click on the "View past updates" link.

Suggestions, problems, or questions?
Contact us at support@openair.com. We take pride in the outstanding care we give our customers. Please let us know how can we improve your experience with OpenAir.