September 2022 Release Notes

With this release, you will find an extensive list of exciting features! With the snow season around the corner, many enhancements and new functionality are centered around implementing upgrades derived from client feedback regarding our snow division. Even though these enhancements were made with snow in mind, they can certainly be leveraged across all divisions in Aspire.  

Cap Fixed-Priced Contracts by Date or Occurrence

You can now set a date or occurrence limit on Fixed-Priced Contracts that contain multiple service visits. You can also configure your estimate to allow you to add As-Needed T&M services once all of the capped Fixed-Price service occurrences are completed, or the capped contract end date for the Fixed-Price service expires. This allows you to easily add additional Work Tickets beyond the scope of the capped Fixed-Price Contract you created at the cost of a T&M rate. This feature can be utilized for services under a Fixed-Priced Contract within any division. For more information, view the getting started guide.

Schedule Board; Bulk Move Work Tickets & Manage Routes Bulk Action

Bulk Move Work Tickets

• You can now move multiple Work Ticket placards on the Schedule Board in a single instance using the new Bulk Move mode. Click here for instructions and more details. 

Manage Routes Bulk Action

• You can now activate or deactivate routes in bulk from the Manage Routes search list screen. Activated routes will appear on the schedule board, and deactivated routes will be removed from the schedule board. Click here for instructions and more details.

Work Tickets: Adding As-Needed Services without Work Tickets 

You can now change an As-Needed service without creating a new Work Ticket if there are no Work Tickets associated with the Per Service and T&M service types. Click here for more information and instructions.

Crew Mobile - Visibility of Create New Ticket Functionality

If you have access to the Schedule Board and the permission to Edit or View Route enabled under your Aspire role permissions, you can control who within the Crew Mobile app can create a new ticket in the app by either restricting or enabling the visibility of the Create New Ticket button in Crew Mobile. Click here for instructions and more information. 

Generate an Invoice Per Service 

Within the Invoicing Assistant, you can generate an invoice for an individual service with a Per Service Invoice Type. This will enable you to generate separate invoices for individual occurrences that are associated with a service. So, if you want to generate an invoice for a specific snow event on a certain date, you can do so. Before generating the invoice, you can initiate a system configuration to display the Opportunity Display Name in lieu of the Opportunity Service Item Description to appear on your invoice. This allows your customers to see the description you provided within an estimate from the original estimate. To do this, you must navigate to the Administration Menu, select Configuration > Invoicing, and checkmark Use Opportunity Item Display Name. You can also use the Per Service field to filter, sort, group, and display advanced searches within the Invoicing Assistant. 

Improved Weather Event Logging 

So that you can leverage performance and financial data related to Work Tickets for Snow Events, you will find additional fields that you can use to group and sort data in the Weather Events Report. Click here for detailed information and instructions. 

CRM Enhancements

In addition to focusing on the Snow Division in this release, you will find enhancements relating to our Customer Relationship Management tools and functionalities. Below is a list of enhancements designed to improve your daily workflows. 

Delete Contacts 

• Delete Contacts - If the Delete Contacts permission is enabled under your Aspire Role Permissions, you can delete contacts not associated with an existing record. (Merge Contacts coming soon!)
  • To carry out this action, ensure you have Delete Contacts enabled for your role under the Administration menu. Then, you can go to the Contacts module, search and select the contact you want to delete, go to the three dots menu next to the Save button, and click Delete Contact. Please note that you cannot undo this action after you click Confirm.

You can keep track of timestamps and who is creating and deleting contacts from the Audit Contact History Report. To access this report, you will need to navigate to Reports > Standard Reports> Audit Reports and select Contact from the dropdown.

Attachment Enhancements

• Attach to Proposal

You can manage and add attachments directly from the Email Proposal modal. Your customer will receive the attached proposal as soon as the Opportunity email is sent from Aspire. You must go to the Opportunities module and create an Estimate to carry out this action. Once you have created your estimate, navigate to the three dots menu and select Email Proposal. This will open the Email Proposal modal, where you will find the Select and Manage attachment options. Additionally, when attaching a record to an Opportunity, you can select the Attach to Proposal checkbox to include an attachment with the proposal email. This option is also available in the Manage Attachments modal. By selecting Attach to Proposal, your chosen attachments will automatically be included when you Email the Proposal to your customer.
 

• Attachment Preview - You can download an image or attach a file directly from the Preview modal, so you do not have to navigate back to the Preview in the Select Attachments modal. To preview attachments from the search list, select the attachments you wish to preview and then select Preview from the Bulk Actions dropdown. 

Properties

When creating a new Property, you will see a message populate before you save the information if you may be creating a potential duplicate property. This message will appear if your address is already listed under an existing Property in Aspire. Within the Potential Duplicate Properties message, you can see a list of all the other properties that contain the same address you are using, along with the options to Cancel the action or Create the property. You can also navigate the existing property by clicking the Property Name. 

Advanced Search

• You can now use a new date filter type called the Last 12 Completed Months for all date-related fields. This can be used to sort, group, display, and filter your advanced searches. 

•  In the Purchasing Assistant search list, you can now display, sort, group, and filter your searches using the Material ID 1 and Material ID 2  fields from the material item catalog, 

Work Tickets

• To mitigate potential confusion, the Delete Bulk Action in the Work Tickets module was updated to Delete As Needed Tickets because this is the only type of work ticket that can be deleted. 
• The Service Note tab on the Work Tickets detail page was updated to Operations Notes because the notes derive from the Operations Notes tab on the Property details screen. 

• The T&M Calculated Cost for T&M Work Tickets on Completion will also account for Earned Revenue because it best reflects how the T&M pricing table is configured. 

New Property Bulk Actions

As an Aspire user, if you have the System Admin or Edit All Properties permission, you can use the following new Bulk Actions on the Properties search list to update properties simultaneously: 

• Change Property Status  
• Industry
• Active Status

Under the following Bulk Actions, you must also have an Edit Billing permission to initiate changes:

• Tax Jurisdiction 
• Separate Invoices
• Paperless Invoices
• Payment Terms

New Administration Menu

The Administration menu has undergone several changes to appear and function uniformly with the rest of Aspire! Among many changes, you will experience a newly updated user interface, and you can now favorite the sections of the Administration menu that you most frequently use. Click here to view a full overview of all the administration menu updates! 

Takeoff Integration Combination

• If you use both Go iLawn and LandOne, you can synchronously integrate with both Go iLawn and LandOne in Aspire.  You will notice under the Configuration Application portion of the Administration menu that after you Enable the Takeoff Integration feature, you will see the option to multi-select integration platforms so that you can check both Go iLawn and LandOne simultaneously. After check-marking both integration options, you will see a drop-down to designate a default Property and Estimate Takeoff Provider.
• If you have a takeoff integration enabled, your settings will remain the same.
• You can switch your default estimate takeoff option for a specific Opportunity or Property by utilizing the Takeoff Override feature. Navigate to the Opportunity or Property details screen and select Go iLawn or LandOne from the Takeoff Override dropdown menu.  
  • Remember that you will only see the Takeoff Override dropdown menu if you have Takeoff Integration enabled and both Go iLawn and LandOne are selected takeoff integration options at the system level.