What's coming in CMap Winter 2020?

Winter is coming. Which means the new CMap Winter 2020 release is rapidly approaching, so we thought we'd give you a quick overview of what's coming your way...

We're conscious that a number of significant changes arrived in the Summer Release, so our intention is for the Winter Release to be more of a "catch your breath" release.

There’s far more going on behind the scenes this time, to make CMap better, faster, stronger (enabling bigger and bolder upgrades next year!) than the big focus on new, end-user functionality we had in the Summer Release.

Over the coming weeks, we'll go into more depth on each functional area to help you prepare for launch. We'll also communicate use cases from the Summer 2020 Release to help you make best use of the features that went live last month!

In the meantime, here's a quick overview of what CMap Winter 2020 has in store for you!

HR updates

We're making changes to what people can and can’t do in HR pages, and we’re taking the security further to enable companies to do more with the functionality, including:

• Setting the default starting position for HR custom fields to "private" on set-up.
• Removing sensitive fields from the "Customise Columns" option in user grids e.g. Actual Cost Rate, Sales Target, Productivity Target, etc.
• Creating the distinction between "Me", "My People" and "Other People" permissions in Security Groups.
• Enabling "private" self-serve fields to be shown in the self-serve section of the user profile too.

Stricter invoicing controls

We're going to build a new feature that gives you the option to apply further restrictions to invoices, including:

• Preventing edits to created invoices i.e. once they have the status "Invoiced" and an invoice number.
• Introducing the approval of "draft" invoices, which will lock-in the details and ensure that only what’s been approved in the draft can be taken through to the real, physical invoice i.e. no further edits are possible.
• Introducing an "Are you sure?" prompt on invoice creation, warning that no further changes will be possible.
• The option to disable the Word format so that only PDFs can be created.

This will be an optional feature, so don't panic - you don't need to have it turned on if it's not relevant or necessary.

AEC invoice templates

We’re creating a new version of the Stage Breakdown bookmark that only shows “won” stages. The “fee” value will be summed up to include the fee and externals, removing the breakdown of external costs, and totalling at the stage-level.

We’re also updating the existing Stage Breakdown bookmark to show an additional column with the “Externals”, which will enable the grid of figures to balance up.

Invoicing purchase invoices in resourced time & materials

For users running the Resourced Time & Materials fee type (mainly those in the Consulting Edition), we’re making a change that enables you to include personal expenses and purchase invoices on your sales invoices.

When you’re in the page where you determine the time entries and expense items to include on the sales invoice, you’ll soon have a list of un-billed purchase invoices that you can choose to include, too.

If selected, they’ll also be included in the detailed breakdown on the backing sheet.

Activities updates

Whilst we intend to do a larger review of the activities functionality in the Spring 2021 Release, there are a few items we're going to act quicker on:

• Introducing a "Copy From Fee Estimator" option, which will automatically copy the tasks from the Fee Estimator as activities so they can be assigned to individuals, you can take advantage of the Gannt tool, etc.
• Add an "Is Empty" filter to the “Category” field in the grids, so they can be filtered and updated.
• Allow activity templates to be applied to potential projects, where previously it didn't function if you didn't have the option to set Project Manager and Co-pilot(s) at this stage.

QuickBooks Online

We're making some changes to solve an issue with the automated tax function that applies to instances of QuickBooks Online in the US.

We'll now pass the State through from the invoicing address, which will enable the tax to be calculated correctly in QuickBooks Online.

Quickbooks desktop integration

In addition to bolstering the QuickBooks Online integration, we're releasing an integration with QuickBooks Desktop.

It will enable CMap to transfer sales invoices, personal expenses and purchase invoices to QuickBooks Desktop and also enable CMap to read sales receipts from QuickBooks Desktop.

PTO (Paid Time Off)

We're making some changes to help regions of the world where annual leave is calculated on an accrual basis i.e. a person gains x number of days leave for each month they work.

The new functionality will enable you to configure the settings for leave types / users, so the accruals can be automatically administered.

Preparing for launch

CMap Winter 2020 will be available in beta from the end of October 2020 and will go live for all users mid-November 2020.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing movies and guides so you can delve into how the new functionality will work and plan how you're going to take full advantage of it in your company.

Our Customer Success team will also be on hand to provide any help you might need as you're figuring things out.

In the meantime, if you have any questions don't hesitate to get in touch!

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