What's New in Asset Essentials?

Work Order Messages

As a work order (WO) moves through its lifecycle from creation to closure, it’s imperative that all parties involved remain in communication and alignment on the maintenance requirements, repair progress, and priority of the work at hand.

 

Work Order Messages helps resolve dependencies shared between maintenance teams and requesters by allowing them to engage in seamless two-way communication pertaining to a work order or request.

Adding and Replying to Messages

The Work Order Messages card exists on the web version of the requester form and work order form. This card enables you to start message threads, ask clarifying questions, provide updates throughout the repair process, and ensure crucial changes in a work order or request’s lifecycle can be shared.

Start A New Message Thread

The text entry box at the top of the card allows you to start message threads on an existing work order or request to which you have access. Messages added via this entry box will act as the “parent” message within the thread, and all replies to the thread will live beneath it.

 

Reply Within an Existing Thread

Clicking the Reply button under any existing message will open a new entry box underneath the message being replied to. To add a reply, type your response in the entry box and click Add. To better track the flow of conversation between different individuals, replies are indented at each level.

 

NOTE   To ensure compatibility with narrower screen sizes, there is a max indent level of 3.

 

Edit/Delete Messages

Messages can be edited and/or deleted by the user who created them. To edit or delete a message you have left, hover over the message’s contents until you see the ellipsis icon to the right-hand side. Clicking on this ellipsis will open the actions menu that contains the Edit and Delete actions.

 

When a message’s contents have been updated, the Edited tag is placed next to the message time stamp. The time stamp will also be updated to reflect the time the edit took place.

NOTE  Even though message timestamps are updated to reflect the time of edit, they will not reorganize within the thread’s chronological order. Each level of message indentation is always ordered from oldest to newest by original message creation date.

 

It is not possible to undo the deletion of a message. Upon confirmation of deletion, the thread will be updated with a placeholder for where the deleted message originally existed.

 

Email Notifications for Work Order Messages

To ensure that critical, timely information shared via the Work Order Messages feature reaches the proper individuals quickly, targeted email notifications are triggered based on message activity.

 

Parent messages (those left via the entry box at the top of the card and not as a reply to any specific user) will prompt an email notification to be sent to the WO Originator and all those currently “Assigned To” the WO at the time the message is left.

 

Replies to specific users will send email notifications directly to the individual who left the message being replied to.

 

Notification Options

Users who would like to opt-out of receiving email notifications for Work Order Messages are able to do so via their Asset Essentials profile settings. When they disable this checkbox, they will no longer receive email notifications for message activity, no matter if they are the Originator, Assigned To the WO, or being replied to directly.

 

 

Three Way Match

This release provides users with the ability to link invoice data to their Purchase Order Line Items through a new modal at the line-item level. By exporting their Purchase Order information and linking it to their ERP data using either their Invoice Number or Voucher Number, users can cross-check that the quantity and price they are being invoiced for match the quantity and price they ordered, as well as the quantity they received. This enables them to ensure a three-way match during the purchase order workflow, ensuring data quality and preventing users from overspending on parts.

New Invoice Icon for Three Way Match

A new invoice icon has been added next to the location icon in the leftmost column. This feature allows users to link invoice data to their Purchase Order Line Items through a modal interface.

 

1. Locate the Invoice Icon: The invoice icon is positioned next to the location icon in the leftmost column.

 

2. Open the Modal: To open the “Three Way Match Reference Info” modal, users can click on the invoice

icon.

 

3. Enter Invoice Information: In the modal, users can enter the following details:

• Invoice Number

• Voucher Number

• Invoice Date

• Invoice Quantity

• Receive Transaction ID

 

4. Save the Data: After entering the relevant invoice information, users can click on the “Add Invoice Data”

button. This action will save the data to the line item. Once the information is added, users can close the modal; the data will be retained in the

system.

 

Asset Essentials Mobile Improvements

As part of the work order process flow, technicians must be able to access and view pertinent work order information quickly. They also need to be able to view this information in a way that best fits their needs.

 

As part of the initiative to help technicians manage their work and complete work orders more efficiently, the Asset Essentials Mobile team has reduced the Work Order Details Form load time and added additional sort options to the Mobile application, along with a few other enhancements.

Work Order Details Form Load Time

To improve efficiency and productivity for technicians, the Asset Essentials Mobile team has made improvements to the Work Order Details Form load time. This enhancement aims to load the Work Order details form faster than the older version of the application. We have achieved this by collapsing all the cards (excluding the General information card) and using placeholder cards when the Work Order Details form is opened. This enhancement will improve the efficiency by helping technicians to access relevant information quickly and return to completing Work Orders faster.

 

To see these changes, navigate to the Work Order list and open an existing Work Order.

Additional Sort Options

To enhance the application's usability, the Asset Essentials Mobile Team has introduced additional sort options to the Sort By functionality for Work Order, Asset, and Parts.

 

Along with this enhancement, we have added additional labels on the cards which now allows technicians to quickly sort the respective lists with the new options and arrange the list according to their liking.

 

Below are the changes in the respective modules:

 

Work Order:

1. New Sorting options added

• Priority - Users will now be able to sort their Work Orders by Priority in alphabetical order.

• Work Order Type - Users can now sort their Work Orders by Work Order Type in alphabetical order.

2. New Label added

• Work Order Type - a new "WO Type" label has been added to the WO card under the "Status" label.

Asset:

1. New Sorting options added

• Criticality - Users can now sort their Assets by the weight of the Criticality assigned in the Asset Essentials Web application.

2. New Label added

• Criticality - a new label for the "Criticality" has been added to the Asset card in the top right corner.

Part:

1. New Sorting options added

• Criticality - Users can now sort their Parts by the weight of the Criticality assigned in the Asset Essentials Web application.

2. New Label added

• Criticality - a new label for the "Criticality" has been added to the Part card in the top right corner.

 

Work Order Labor Entry Description

With the release of this feature, the mobile team has created parity with the Asset Essentials Web application by adding the Description field to the Labor Entry card inside the Work Order Details form.

 

This Description field will allow technicians to enter a brief description for the time logged. This will improve reporting as managers can now understand the reason behind the entered labor entry.

 

To see these changes, go to the Work Order List, open an existing work order, and scroll down to the Labor Entry Card; a description text field will be visible.

 

Work Order List UI Enhancements

As part of our efforts to provide our technicians with relevant Work Order details, the Asset Essentials Mobile team has added the Area/Room # and Expected Due Date/Time information to the Work Order list Quick Reference slide-out.

 

To view these changes on mobile, go to the Work Order List and click on the Ellipsis button on the top right-hand corner of the work order card.

 

Archived Release Notes

Click here to view previous releases that have been deployed to Asset Essentials.