What's New in 2021 R8

What's New lists the enhancements and changes made in the 21.08 release. This release is available as of 8/18/2021. Android users can download the mobile app the same day as its release. For iOS users, apps take 24 to 48 hours following the release date to become available in the App Store.

Customers hosted in a Viewpoint cloud solution receive the latest update automatically. For customers who update modules manually, see Update the Portal for help.

Important: Please be advised that test and live versions of portal websites must have an SSL certificate applied as of the 2021 R9 release. If you update to the R9 release without having an SSL certificate applied, you will not be able to access your portal. For help, see How to Apply an SSL Certificate to Your Portal.

Important: The OptInPaperless check box on the Update My Personal Info page is no longer used and will be removed with the R9 release. Please ensure that all users have set paperless consent options under Manage Paperless Settings (available under their name in the navigation bar) prior to the R9 release.

General Highlights

  • Login Auditing

    • The Login Method called Identity has been renamed to VPID (Viewpoint ID). See Login Auditing for more details.

HR Management Highlights

The following customer suggestions were added in this release. For a list of defect corrections, see the Issues Fixed page.

  • Earnings
    • New SSRS reports were added for Forms W-2, T-4, and the PAYG report. To accommodate this change, the following portal settings were removed from Admin > Portal Settings > Earnings > Tax Documents:

      • Vista W-2 Report ID - Full Copy (B, C, 2)
      • Vista W-2 Report ID - employee Copy C only
      • For W-2 printing, show (F)ull (B, C, 2) or (C)opy C only
        Note: Only the full W-2 now displays and prints.

      • Vista T-4 Report ID
      • Use local KDS T-4 version
  • Onboarding / Applicant Tracking

    • New portal setting for Applicant Tracking users: Hide the Company, Location, and Title filters from external careers page. Designed for customers with a multi-company Vista environment who have set up company-specific URL links for their external careers page, this setting allows you to limit job requisitions shown on the careers page by company. For more information, see Create Company-Specific Links for Your External Careers Page.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Onboarding / ATS > ATS.

  • Timecards

    • New Time Clock Dashboard. Timecard Admins can now review start and stop times, total hours worked, add notes to clock entries, and edit time clock rows from a single dashboard. See Time Clock Dashboard in Help for details.
    • For approved timecards, notes added to the Memo field in Timecard Approval are now shown in a new Approval Notes column on the Timecard Dashboard page.

      Note: Remember to reset the grid layout to see the new column.

    • For Batch Timecard Move, new steps have been added to filter the Post Date and Employee Group when selecting time to be moved in the batch.

Field Management Highlights

The following customer suggestions were added in this release. For a list of defect corrections, see the Issues Fixed page.

  • Daily Huddles

    • Daily Huddle now supports Apple .m4a and .mov file attachments to the general huddle notes.

  • Field Management Mobile App

    • New selective sync for mobile. When a user selects Sync All or any automatic syncs take place, data is synced based on line types enabled for mobile. Portal settings, pay periods, earn codes, and employees always sync. Crews sync only if the logged-in user has access to crews.

  • Field Tickets

    • For approved field tickets that include Material Usage, field ticket numbers are now saved to Vista JC Material Use (Info tab) for users on Vista 2021 R1 or higher.

    • The Payroll section of the field ticket no longer shows the GLCo and PRDept fields above the grid.

  • Timecards

    • New Time Clock Dashboard. Timecard Admins can now review start and stop times, total hours worked, add notes to clock entries, and edit time clock rows from a single dashboard. See Time Clock Dashboard in Help for details.

    • For approved timecards, notes added to the Memo field in Timecard Approval are now shown in a new Approval Notes column on the Timecard Dashboard. Select an approval note on the Timecard Dashboard to view the text in a pop-up window.

    • New Crew filter for grid timecards when Grid Timecard Setting Enable Copy by Crew is enabled. With this setting enabled, multiple employees can be selected in the Employee drop-down menu. When filtering timecards, users can now filter by crews. When a crew is selected, all employees in that crew will be auto selected in the Employee filter. Setting location: Employee Tools > Grid Timecard Settings.

Vista Field Service Highlights

The following customer suggestions were added in this release. For a list of defect corrections, see the Issues Fixed page.

  • Close a Trip
    • Generate SM invoices automatically when closing a trip with the new portal setting Enable Payment Collection Option during Trip Close-Out. Technicians collect payment on-site and record a payment reference number from the third-party payment system of your choice. See Close a Trip in Field Service for details.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > Work Complete.

    • When closing a trip, scope notes are now read-only (Edit button not available) on the Work Completed Details page if you have enabled the portal setting Show SM Trip notes on the completion screen instead of SM Scope notes.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > General Configuration.

    • New portal setting: Hide work completed lines for employees that the logged-in user does not have access for. Enable this setting to prevent the logged-in user from seeing work completed lines for employees whose information they do not have permission to view.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > Work Complete.

    • New portal setting: Save work completed labor notes to the scope notes. Enable this setting if you want notes entered for work completed to be added to the scope notes (as a new line). Changes made to the memo during timecard entry do not update scope notes.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > Work Complete.

  • Scopes
    • Technicians now see only the scopes that match the assignments made on the trip in Vista.

    • New portal setting: Mark the scope complete when a trip is marked complete. Use this setting to automatically mark scopes as complete when a technician closes a trip. This setting does not apply if a return trip is required or if more than one trip is assigned to the scope and one of those other trips is still open.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > Work Complete.

    • New portal setting: Do not send email confirmation when completing trips. Use this setting if you do not want email confirmations sent as part of the trip closeout.

      Setting location: Admin > Portal Settings > Field Service > Trip Close-Out.

  • Work Order Dashboard / Work Orders
    • Drop-downs for Customer and Service Site now show only active SM customers and service sites.