2018 Release Notes

2018-09-05 Release Notes

• Round robin project role assignment. Added a new option for auto-assigning users to project roles in round robin fashion. On the admin screen for a workgroup, under the option When this workgroup is assigned to a project role, if you select Automatically assign it to a member in round robin fashion, then when the workgroup is assigned to a project role (either manually or automatically upon milestone completion), the next group member in sequence will be assigned to the role. 
• Auto-assignment of project milestones to users. Just like members of a workgroup can be auto-assigned to a project role, workgroup members can now be auto-assigned ownership of project milestones. To enable this, go to the admin screen for a workgroup, check the Allow workgroup to be assigned to a milestone, and select the assignment algorithm. Then, if you manually assign a milestone to the workgroup, a group member will automatically be selected and assigned as the owner. If you set the default owner for a milestone to the workgroup, the milestone will be assigned to a selected member of the workgroup when the preceding milestone is completed.
   
• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Added support for using solution-specific template variables in milestone completion email templates
• SPECIAL NOTE about legacy feature: Individual Cost Item Markups: SolarNexus ended support for the individual cost item markups feature in August of 2018. SolarNexus accounts existing prior to August 27, 2013 had access to the legacy feature of each individual cost item having its own markup percentage to account for indirect costs.

2018-06-08 Release Notes

• Enhanced document management. Streamlined the project document module on the right side of the project screen and created a new full page view that lets you more easily manage documents. From the new Project Document screen, you can view documents in list or "gallery" view (with thumbnails), and tag, download or delete documents in bulk. Click the "Full View" link in the Documents module to access the new full page view.
   
• Improved usability of project imports. Added warnings about unknown columns in the CSV and added the option to map each unknown column to a SolarNexus fields, improved handling of large import files, added a % progress indicator during import, and added an email notification upon completion with list of any errors/warnings.
   
• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Added the new Workmanship Warranty field to the Company Information screen. This can be used to automatically populate warranty details in proposals and contracts.
  • Improved the workflow for selecting whether to overwrite or skip existing files with the same name when uploading project documents.
  • Fixed issue with fin_opt.tax_savings_depreciation_lifetime template variable.

2018-05-30 Release Notes

• More control over milestone completion notifications. Automated milestone completion notifications help you keep customers and other third parties informed of the progress on projects using standardized email templates. Sometimes, however, there are cases where you don't want the automated email to go out. You now have the option to skip the automated email when you're completing a milestone. You can also see a preview of the notification email so you have more visibility into what's being communicated to the customer. To help you keep tabs on automated emails, the project log viewer now shows an icon next to milestone completion events that indicates whether an automated email was sent (or skipped). NOTE: by default, only admin users and sales managers can skip milestone completion notifications, but this option can be enabled for users on a milestone by milestone basis in the milestone admin section.
   
• Proposal variable for front-side-only PV output. Added new document template variables "energy_output_annual_pv_frontside", "energy_output_annual_pv_backside" and "backside_boost" for use in showing the breakdown of PV production for systems using bifacial modules.
   
• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Added option to create milestone inclusion rules based on array mounting type and project labels.
  • Added ability to change order of project scopes.
  • Added date field to Project Log CSV download.
  • Improved duplication row detection when importing new and existing projects by CSV.
  • Fixed issue with new array form going off screen when adding more than 5 arrays without defining areas.

2018-05-10 Release Notes

• Customer contact tracking (beta). When adding a new project log entry, you now have the option to indicate that you are logging a customer contact attempt or interaction. This is used to better track customer contact history in SolarNexus. The full Project Log Viewer displays an icon next to each customer contact log entry to help you quickly see the contact history for a project, and the Sales screen shows the last contact date for each project.
   
• More detail on Sales/Installs screens. Added options on the Sales and Installs screens to toggle the display of additional details in the Project Name and Current Milestones columns. When toggling additional details in the Project Name column, the table displays the project sector (residential/commercial), lead source (Sales screen only), project/solution scope, and project labels. When toggling additional details in the Current Milestones column, the table displays the owner, due date/scheduled date, subtask indicator, and date of last status update or estimated completion date for each pending milestone.
   
• Editing milestone deadlines. Default milestone due dates for a project are set automatically based on the interval defined in the milestone administration. Previously, only global sales managers or account administrators could update the default due date for a project milestone once created. Now, non-manager/non-admin users with the permission "can manage project responsibilities, milestones and subtasks" are allowed to update milestone due dates as well. Additionally, workgroup managers are now allowed to update due dates for milestones owned by users in their group.
   
• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Significant update underneath the hood to modernize the Javascript framework used across the application.
  • Added timestamps next to milestone status in Status module on project screen. Timestamp indicates how long since the status was last set.
  • Added option to create milestone inclusion rules based on Lead Source.
  • Added Sold Solution Financing as an optional field for batch imports of completed projects.
  • Added pre-completion name to milestones list in Administration > Project Milestones screen.
  • New subtasks are now automatically assigned to the task creator by default.
  • Fixed issue with users not receiving notifications when @mentioned in the log entry for a completed milestone.
  • Fixed issue with Close Sale milestone being included when filtering Tasks screen by "any post sale", and not included when filtering by "any pre sale".

2018-03-15 Release Notes

• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Added option to select the number of projects to display per group in the My Tasks module on the dashboard.
  • Improved the lead source selector when entering a lead and filtering projects/reports to group lead sources by category.
  • Fixed an issue where renaming a sales doc from the document editor did not rename the associated PDF file.
  • Fixed an issue when sorting by AHJ on the Installs screen.
     

2018-03-01 Release Notes

• Larger sales rep photos in proposals. Added a new template variable -- salesperson_photo_large -- that renders a larger, higher-resolution (400x400) version of the sales rep's profile photo. The existing template variable, salesperson_photo, renders the profile photo as a 100x100 image. Before using the larger version in your proposal template, make sure that all sales reps upload a profile photo that's at least 400x400 in size.
   
• On Hold project status. Added a new On Hold status for sold projects that can be used when work is temporarily stopped on a project. Like with Deferred leads/opportunities, On Hold projects are listed separately on the Installs Screen (select On Hold at the top) so they don't get in the way of active projects. While a project is On Hold, milestone owners will NOT see the milestones on their My Tasks list or calendar and will NOT be sent reminders or other notifications about the project. All assignments will be restored when the project is reactivated.
  
  To put a project on hold, click the Put On Hold button at the bottom of the Status module on the project screen. Click the Reactivate button to move it back to active status. 
   
• Option to apply all first year incentives to pay down loan. Added a new option to loan programs that allows you to model payment of first year rebates to the finance company in addition to the first year tax credits. To use this option, select "Contract price minus down payment and optional first year incentives" as the principal amount for Term 2 when defining a loan program, then select "All Year 1 Incentives" under End of Promo Finance Payments. When analyzing a solution using this loan configuration, standard period monthly payments will be adjusted down to reflect the application of any Year 1 rebates to lower the standard period starting principal.
   
• Bug fixes and other improvements:
  • Added Lead Source Category as an available filter and output column in reports.
  • Fixed an issue where if you changed the name of an existing lead source, any projects with that lead source would still show up with the old name. Now, if you change the name of a lead source, it's reflected on all associated projects.
  • Fixed an issue preventing you from entering a state depreciation value of zero when using the 100% bonus depreciation method.
  • Fixed an issue preventing you from adding more than one inclusion rule to a milestone at a time.
  • Fixed an issue where the auto-generated name for cloned solutions would be empty at first until making some other change to the cloned solution.
  • Fixed a problem with the solution scope input box on the New Solution dialog box that made it difficult to specify a large number of solution scopes.