Release History

Getting better all the time! 

November 2022 Release

A new update to MEC is available!

  • Jobs Page
    • Customer contact information moved to the ‘Contact’ page to make job’s home page less busy with data
    • A map of the job site is now shown in the ‘Contact’ tab.
  • Jobs Grid 
    • The current margin for the job is now shown in its own column on the grid
    • The ‘Status Description’ was removed from the Job grid to free up space on this page.  To change status just click the status icon now.
    • The Filter icon has been replaced with a ‘Show Closed’ button.
  • Gantt Chart  
    • Work Orders automatically added to Gantt Chart
    • Tasks are automatically added to the Gantt Chart
    • Can jump to the job details from the Gantt Chart.

October 2022 Release

 A new update to MEC is available!

  • Laptop Support
    • When using a laptop if you click the three line icon at top left of page, MEC will switch to ‘laptop mode’ and keep the menu sidebar minimized, giving you a lot more space to work with
  • New Change Order Type  
    • If you have Change Orders enabled then there is now a second type of CO available!
    • To use: From Estimates page select the “Change Order” switch, choose the main job, and create an estimate as normal for the requested work
    • Send Estimate to Customer and Create a Job as you do now
    • The Change order will be be grouped under the main job in the Jobs grid and can be managed and scheduled independently from the main job
    • Change Orders are prefixed with a “C”
    • When job is complete, an invoice can be created for the Change Order and it will cross reference the main job
    • The Change order will be sent to QuickBooks as its own invoice
  •  Job Drawings & Plans (beta) 
    • A new document type called “Drawing/Plan” has been added to the Upload button in the Job Attachments Tab.
    • If chosen then any PDF you upload will have the first page of the PDF  previewed as a thumbnail when the new “Drawings” button is clicked.
    • Change any existing plans you have from “Doc” to “Drawing/Plan” to enable this new PDF preview mode
    • You can also add ‘Revision’ information
    • This is first release so refinements will be coming
  • Improved Leads Manager
    • The Leads Manager has been overhauled to provide better email, call and message tracking.
    • Workflows have been improved
    • Tracking of Touch events has been added
    • More fun to use
  • Labor Geo-Location
    • When reviewing Time Entries of staff in Jobs, a map is displayed showing the geo-location of where the time entry occurred.
  • Customer Address From Estimates 
    • When a job is created from an estimate and a new customer is created, the Customer Address information for the job is also updated
  • Jobs Notes made Better
    • You can now assign categories to notes in Notes tab to help track things like scope creep, job compliance and special events for jobs.
    • Categories are: 
      • Accident
      • Meeting
      • Inspection
      • Delay Reason
      • Weather
      • Other 
  • Hiding Inactive Items
    •  You can now give Items a status of ‘Inactive‘.   This will remove Items from selection lists and drop down lists but will retain all the historical job time that may have been added for the resource for historical reporting
  • Hiding Resources  
    • You can now give resources a status of ‘Inactive‘.   This will remove Resources from calendars and drop down lists but will retain all job time that may have been added for the resource for historical reporting.
  • Mandatory Resource Type
    • ‘Resource Type’ is used to determine mobile view permissions and is now a mandatory Field.  When a resource is created the Resource Type will be defaulted to “Staff“.
  • Bug Fixes/UI Improvements
  • Future Enhancements – Useful or Not? Let us know.
    • We are always scouting out what could be useful enhancements and are conisdering two new features.
      • Real-Time Cost Price Lookups – We are able to get current cost prices for items in your area from HomeDepot.com.   Would having the latest Cost Price from HD help you with your estimates?
      • Real-Time Staff Locations – We are able to determine the current location of your mobile users and plot these on an interactive map to help with changes in scheduling.   Would this be useful to have?

September 2022 Release

A new update to MEC is available.  Here’s what you can expect:

 

  • Items
    •    You can save the web store URL of the item for a later quick reference to check cost prices.
    • The item margin calculation has been made simpler to use
    • Trade Discount has been deprecated
  • Purchase Orders
    •     PO report has been released.
      • View PO’s by date Range
      • View PO’s by Supplier
      • Export your PO’s to Excel
  • Work Orders
    •    You can copy and insert job items into a work order with the “get Job Items” button
    •    Employees can record time against Work Orders
    • UOM now printed on WO reports
    • Report restyled to support long sub-contractor email addresses
  •  Estimates
    • UOM can be shown on Estimate reports for items if wanted
  • Estimates -> Quick Estimates
    •    Quick Estimates have been totally revamped and works slicker.  Send a simple estimate to yourself in under 30 seconds to check it out!  Save time with QE’s.
  • Jobs/Service Plans
    •    Customer Equipment info (model/serial# etc) can be inserted into service calls
  • Bug Fixes/UI Improvements

 

July 2022 Release

We have a released an update to MEC and here’s what you can expect:

1. Change Orders   You now have the capability to create and send Change Orders to customers that can be e-signed off. This new feature can be turned on from the Company/Features page.  Simply modify the Job’s original item estimate value and you are ready to Preview or Send. 

2. Resource Documents     A new Tab has been added to the Resource page which can be used to store documents and images relating to a resource.    This is a great place to store items like employment contracts, copies of ID documents, tax info and pretty much anything related to a Resource you need to have on record.   In the Address tab you can now store Emergency Contact information too.

3. Compliance Information     – If you have resources  you can now store compliance information in the new ‘Compliance’ tab.   Information such as IRS W9, General Liability & Workman’s Comp certificate information, and Insurance policy Information, with expiry dates, can be stored here.

4. Scheduler – The rule that restricted resources to the same start & end date as the job has been removed.   You can now assign any resource to any date on the resource scheduler without impacting the Job Start & End dates, or, continue to use the Job Dates by clicking a checkbox.

5. Cost Codes    MEC has been expanded and now incorporates the full set of NAHB Cost Codes.  This optional feature allows you to assign, group and report on Materials & Labor using standard Cost Codes.

6. Crew Calendar – The calendars can now be scrolled horizontally.

 

May 2022 Release

 

1. For QuickBooks users the biggest change is that we have combined the “Invoicing” function into the existing “Jobs” page.   You can now post completed jobs into QuickBooks directly from Jobs.   The extra step in invoicing was felt by many to be unneeded and has now been removed.

2. Purchase Orders – We have added “Date Created” to the PO screens to help you manage your PO’s better

 3. Assemblies – When Assemblies are created from an import we now record the associated Job Name in the Assembly Notes to help group and filter Assemblies better.  Imported Assemblies are also now automatically filtered by Job# when creating Purchase Orders to make searching a breeze.

 4. Taxable/Non-Taxable Support – you now have greater control over when tax is, or is not charged on both Items & Labor.   Watch for the ‘non taxable’ checkbox when you add Labor to toggle your taxable flag on or off depending on the type of work being done.

 5. Extras – Extras, or ‘Other Charges’, have been totally revamped and made much simpler to use.   If you use extras you will see the improvement immediately.

 6. Image Handling – This area has been revamped to provide much better support for inserting and resizing images into Job and Item Descriptions.

 7. Receipt Upload   The mobile app now lets you fast track the upload of cash receipts into the job from the Actions Menu with one click.

8. Appointment Setting – The Appointment setting functions have all been significantly improved to work better with your preferred calendar