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Saturday, November 11th, 2023 New Features
  • DASH-288 / DASH-913: Admin → Projects → Project Folders: We have now added a Project Folders feature that shows your active Projects in an “Active Projects” accordion and all of your inactive Projects are under the “Inactive Projects” accordion. Rippled the Project Active / Inactive Accordion Folders down to the Codes, Notebooks, Resources, Rates and other areas of the Admin.
  • DASH-1035: Estimating → Cost Estimate Reports → WBS Dictionary Quality Check Report: We created this report to show all of the WBS Dictionary fields associated with your project and whether they are filled in or not.
  • DASH-543: Admin → Projects → Project Backups: This is a new page that lists every project backup that an Admin has created. This allows you to go back to Dash360 and find an old backup project file that you may have misplaced on your local machine.
  • DASH-1005: Reporting → Compare Cost Class: This is a new report that allows you to compare up to 2 projects and 2 cost classes to each other.
  • DASH-941: Admin can now Share User Views: We built a feature that allows an Admin to share a System View or User View with another user. The Admin can also set that view as the default view.
  • DASH-880: Modify Resource Assignment Start & Finish Dates and Costs based on attached Activity Dates: This feature is present in the Resource Assignment, Work Package and Project process icon. When selected, the system will find all of the Activities that are assigned to a Resource Assignment. It will then set the Start and Finish Date to the earliest assigned Activity Start Date and the latest assigned Activity Finish Date. Then, the system will linearly spread the total Budgeted cost for the Resource Assignment across those new dates. It is important to understand that this feature linerarly spreads the data (every months value will be the same). Also, if you have the Do-Not-Change-Historical flag turned ON, then this feature will only change the dates and respread the remaining values in the future. If you run this at the Cost Estimate level, then the system loops through every Resource Assignment in that Cost Estimate and respreads each one-by-one. Same for running this at the Proejct level. We highly recommend new users try this feature out at the Resource Assignment level and see how the feature works before running it at the Cost Estimate or Project level. The only way to revert this change is from a project backup restore.
  • DASH-907 / DASH-1106: Admin → Projects → Bulk Assign / Auto-Assign Resource Codes to CAMs: In a previous release of Dash360, we added a Registry setting called CAM-Access-To-Resource-Codes. When this feature is turned on, an Admin can assign Resource Codes to a CAM. This then locks down the ability to see any Resource Code that CAM does not have access to by hiding them in the Cost Estimate Form. In this release, we enhanced that feature. You can now bulk assign resource codes to CAMs. We also have locked down the Cost Estimate Form and imports more so Resource Codes that don’t belong to the WP’s assigned CAM will be rejected. We also built an auto-assign feature so existing customers could turn this feature on and have the system auto-assign all of the existing Resource Codes to a CAM for every Work Package that they own. Again, this feature is off by default and must explicitly be turned on in both the Default and any project registries if you want to use it.
Bug Fixes / Small Enhancements
  • DASH-834: Schedule → Schedule Status Report / Admin → User Status Update Report: We added the CAM, WBS, Actual or Expected Start, Actual or Expected Finish and Revised % Complete to these 2 reports. This is so we can make these reports look more like the Quick Status report and allows the user to see the before & after on schedule changes more clearly.
  • DASH-552: Risk → Risk Register: We right justified all dollar amounts in the main Risk datagrid.
  • DASH-1009: Admin → Projects → Resources → Resource Calculation: If a Form 1030 Code is assigned for a Resource Result, then the Edit Resource Calculation form will now auto-select that Form 1030 Code for you.
  • DASH-747: Admin → Projects → Import Codes: When importing hierarchal codes with a separate specified, you no longer have to set the Parent Code field. Now, the system will use the separator and automatically figure out the Parent Code field for you on import.
  • DASH-920: Admin → Import / Export → Resource Calculations: We added the Form 1030 File Name and Form 1030 Code Name to the import / export. Now, you can change the Form 1030 codes by Resource Calculation Result (just like in the Admin UI).
  • DASH-1004: Estimating → Cost Estimating Reports → Cost Summary Report: This report now has a multi-select Cost Class selector. This allows you to select multiple cost classes at one time and have the system sum up all data.
  • DASH-1011: Earned Value → EV Curves: We used to cache all of the EV Curve data for each user by project. This was to try to make the report go faster. Since then, we have implented a change that caches all CPR data when you Calculate Earned Value. This allowed us to remove the EV Curve specific caching in lieu of the CPR cached data instead.
  • DASH-1049: Earned Value → CPR → Variance Thresholds: For customers using complex, multi-OR/AND variance thresholds in the CPR, Dash360 would sometimes not apply all thresholds. This was seen by some of the different colors chosen to highlight a variance not showing up when they should in the CPR. We have reworked this area to ensure the variance colors now appear correctly.
  • DASH-1056: Estimating → Cost Estimate Form: User Views were not remembering some added columns. Now, the system correctly remembers the columns that you want the view to remember.
  • DASH-1055: Estimating → Cost Estimate Form: If you used Microsoft Edge and clicked on a BOE / Document link and that file was an Excel file, Edge would open that file in the browser and open a new untitled browser tab. This only occurred in Edge. We have updated Dash360 so that these documents are always downloaded. They will no longer open in the browser.
  • DASH-1130: Estimating → Cost Estimating Reports → Cost Summary Report: When a CAM clicked on a Work Package link, Dash360 is supposed to take the user to the Cost Estimate Form for that Work Package. That functionality was working for Administrators but not for CAMs. It has been corrected in this release.
  • DASH-1054: Estimating → Cost Estimating Reports → Cost Summary Report: If a Work Package had the less than (<) or greater than (>) symbols in it’s Work Package Description, then those were getting stripped from the display on this report. This is now fixed.
  • DASH-1123: Estimating → Cost Estimating Reports → Cost Summary Report: The Fiscal Year and Resource Result (Direct, Escalation, etc) columns were not taking into account negative values in their calculation. This means the summed values were wrong. These columns are hidden by default on this report. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-991: Schedule → Quick Status: The Quick Status was highlighting all Finish Dates in the future without a Revised % Complete yellow. Now, the Quick Status Finish Date is only highlighted yellow if the Start Date for the task is on or before the Schedule Status Date AND the Finish Date is on or after the Schedule Status Date.
  • DASH-1104: Reporting → Cost Estimate Detail Report: Work Package Summary Labor, Non-Labor, Travel, Total Cost were sometimes showing all $0 even though they had values. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-910: Admin → Projects → Backup / Restore Project: The Backup Project file was missing the DoneDate and Approved columns in the ScheduleStatus tab of the backup file. We have added these columns so data is correctly restored for this part of the application.
  • DASH-946: Admin → Projects → Restore Project: Sometimes when restoring an old project, that old project can be missing new Registry values. This fix will copy any missing values from the Default registry to this project’s registry on restore.
  • DASH-1143: Admin → Projects → Calculate Earned Value: If a Cost Estimate is set to LOE EVT and had a budget Resource Assignment in the past with a different Resource Code / Resource Calculation and the Do-Not-Change-Historical-Flag was turned off and Earned Value was already calculated in the past with the old resource code assigned, then the system’s Earned and Budget data will not match each other. This can cause a CTD Schedule Variance that should not exist. This fix tries to correct that issue by creating a reversal (variance) in the current period so that CTD SV is always 0.
  • DASH-1119: Admin → Projects → Resources: The Resource Code Tree would sometimes throw an error if you deleted a parent resource code with children. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-1033: Admin → Projects → Resources → Bulk Edit Resource Codes: This screen had an error when adding multiple Form 1030 codes. As you clicked to add a new Form 1030 code line, the system would forget what you previously entered in the line above. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-944: Admin → Users: Inserting a user that already exists in Dash360 threw a bad error message. Now, the system throws an error stating that this user already exists.
  • DASH-1111: Admin → Import Codes: When importing some Work Package codes with the Delete flag = Yes, the system would sometimes throw an error. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-1073: Admin → Import / Export Resource Calculations: If you chose a Resource File and a Resource Code from the Export Resource Calculation filters, then you would get a blank Excel export file. Now, the system will export just that resource code’s calculation.
  • DASH-1039: Admin → Import / Export Resource Calculations: If a project has a Rate Set or a Resource ID that Excel sees as a number (743.4), then Excel was automatically converting that column to a number instead of treating it as a string. This would then break the Import Resource Calculations. You can manually fix this by adding an apostrophe in front of the value. However, we also modified the Export Resource Calculation to ensure that the Rate Set and Resource ID columns will always export as a string.
  • DASH-1057: Admin → Import / Export → Notebook Entries: If you want to delete a notebook entry, the system would require that the Project, WBS, Work Package Number and Notebook Category fields were all filled in. Now, only the ID and Delete=Yes columns need to be set and the system will delete that record.
  • DASH-1034: Admin → Import → Resource Assignment Replace Timephase Data: This import was rounding Value data imported into the system down at the 2 digit level. Now, it rounds at 8 digits.
  • DASH-1133: Admin → Import Risks: When importing Risk data, the system would sometimes incorrectly pick the next Risk ID for a prefix. This would cause an odd Primary Key Error to appear in the app. This has been corrected.
  • DASH-1096: Import → Schedule: When trying to delete a task through the import, sometimes the system would throw a bad “Object Null Reference Error”. This has been corrected in this release.
  • DASH-195: Rebuild Database Indexes: Dash360 sits on top of Microsoft SQL Server. Sometimes, a system’s indexes can get heavily fragmented if an Administrator is import a lot of data into Dash360. This change automatically runs a rebuild index stored procedure nightly to help with speeding up client databases.
Release v3.48.4 Tuesday, September 26th, 2023
  • Fixed a bug in the user views. User views were not saving changes. With this release, that functionality has been restored.
Release v3.48.3 Thursday, August 24th, 2023
  • Fixed a bug in the Premium Pay / Longevity Pay where resource results that depend on the Longevity Pay as a source calculation were sometimes processing out of order. If you had more than 1 resource result that depended on Longevity Pay, those results were not being processed in order. This could cause some results to get the wrong value for its result.
Release v3.48.2 Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023
  • Fixed a bug in the Cost Estimate Form where a red javascript error box would appear if the project did not have any CPR data.
Release v3.48.1 Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023
  • Fix CSS issue that was causing the layout on pages like the Cost Estimate Form and Edit Project to show columns as rows
Release v3.48 Monday, August 21st, 2023 New Features
  • Track Earned Value / CPR Generation & Caching / Rebuild of all Earned Value Reports: When an Administrator chooses to Calculate Earned Value, Dash360 will now keep track of who ran EV, the datetime of the run and what project and reporting period was selected. It also will store all of the Work Package Percent Completes and Task Percent Completes for use in a future / to be released feature upcoming. The system now also calculates the CPR data whenever earned value is calculated and stores this into a table. The main benefit is now the CPR will be able to show you the BAC at the time you ran the Calculate EV method. The second benefit is that this CPR data is now cached and returns much more quickly. The CPR, EV Curves, RAM and Performance Index Report all now load much faster than previous versions of Dash360.
  • Active / Inactive Projects + Project Order: All of the Projects select boxes in the Earned Value, Estimating, Schedule, Risks and Reporting sections can now be controlled better from the Admin → Projects area. We have created a folder icon in the right hand corner of this screen. Clicking this icon will open a modal that allows you to select any projects that you would like to make Inactive (all projects are Active by default). If you Inactivate a project, the project will still show up in the Admin, however, it will be hidden from everyone in all of the other sections of Dash360. You can also sort the Active Projects in the list. If you order the Active Projects, then Dash360 will show that same order to all other users. If you do not select an order, then Dash360 will continue to show the Default Project first followed by all of the other projects in alphabetical order.
  • Assign Resource Codes to CAMs: We have added another new feature to Dash360 that is set to off by default in the Registry. To use this feature, you must turn on the “CAM-Access-To-Resource-Codes” registry setting. If this is turned on in the Default registry, then the Admin will see a CAMs select box in the Admin → Projects → Resources → Add / Edit Resource Codes modal. In this select box, the user can select the CAM(s) that should have access to this resource code. Then, when anyone is using the Cost Estimate Form → Add / Edit Resource Assignment form, only the Resource Codes assigned to the CAM of this Work Package will show up in the Resource Code field. This is basically an advanced security feature designed more for new customers who are just starting out and want to lock down their Dash360 instance even more (allow CAMs to only see specific resource codes).
Small Enhancements / Bug Fixes
  • Schedule → Quick Status: We made several changes to the Quick Status page this release. First, we added the Task Weight column to the column chooser. It is off by default. Second, we now have made the Finish Date yellow if the task is not yet complete but the task has already started. Next, we build a Hide LOE button that hides all tasks that are a part of an LOE work package. This button is also turned ON by default. Finally, we saw that some customers were entering in new Status Dates in MM/DD/YY format. The Quick Status does not support 2 year formats. Now, Dash360 will give you an error to request that you add a full 4 digit year value.
  • Admin → Projects → Import Schedule: When importing the Schedule with records set to Delete = Yes, Dash360 use to remove all Task / Resource Assignment references from the system along with deleting the task. This caused an issue because many of our customers completely wipe out their Schedule every month and then reimport it in from another scheduling tool (i.e. Primavera). This importing would delete the Resource Assignment / Task relationship and then the Admin would have to manually reapply them through a Resource Assignment import (a big undertaking). Now, the Schedule Import does NOT remove these references by default. We added a checkbox called “When Deleting Tasks, Also Delete Resource Assignment References”. Checking this checkbox is now the only way to remove those references on import.
  • Admin → Projects → Copy Cost Class: Copying a Cost Class from one cost class to another can have potentially unattended effects if the “Do-Not-Change-Historical-Data” registry setting is turned on. When this setting is on and you copy a cost class, Dash360 will only copy the data from the project’s current reporting period forward. It will not copy past historical data. Dash360 now grays out the “Copy all periods in your project” radio button and displays a message that reads “The Do Not Change Historical Flag option is turned on, so you can’t copy all periods unless you turn this registry setting off”. If you want to copy all periods (even those in the past), then we recommend you turn this flag off, copy the cost class and then turn this registry setting back on.
  • Tableau → Fiscal Year: We have modified the Fiscal Year column in Tableau. It used to be structure like this: [Fiscal-Year-Start-Month]/1/[Fiscal-Year]. So, you would normally get something like 10/1/2023 for all fields where only the year portion of the date would change when the data flipped to the next fiscal year. Now, however, we have changed this to read like this instead: [Resource-Date-Month]/1/[Fiscal-Year]. Now, dates will be more what users expect where the month is always the resource date’s month value.
  • Admin → Projects → Edit Project: Some of the dropdown boxes on the Edit Project screen were showing up at the top of the page instead of right next to the dropdown / select control. This has been corrected.
  • Admin → Projects → Tableau Favorites: We have changed the name of “Tableau Favorites” to just “Favorites”. This feature still works the same way, we simply shortened the name.
  • Risk Register Refactoring: We did several code clean ups of the Risk Register section making the code easier to maintain and faster. You should see no issues in this area, but wanted to note it here in the release notes for tracking purposes.