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Release Notes - 16 November 2022
Release Notes - 16 November 2022

Read the list of new features, improvements and issues resolved in this release

Updated over 2 years ago

New and improved

Document templates and styling

Our brand new document templating solution is now live, and brings major improvements to the output, configuration and styling options available for quotes, jobs, invoices, assets, sites and projects shared and exported out of Loc8, including

All new standard templates

  • We've completely reworked and redesigned the document templates (previously known as export templates) that are used to generate PDF exports, and for the first time, the public web views that are output when sharing / exporting individual quotes, jobs, invoices, assets, sites and projects.

  • Whilst templates were available previously for PDF exports, they were created using Microsoft Word documents which were exceedingly complex to configure and style, meaning the output left a lot to be desired. Furthermore, the templates could only be used to generate PDF exports, with no ability to configure the public web views.

  • The new document templates on the other hand are created using HTML, just like an ordinary web page, meaning not only are they more powerful, they are also more consistent between the different document types, easier to read with improved styling and layout, fully responsive, and suitable for public web views as well as PDF and print output.

Simple configuration and styling options

  • Underpinning the new standard templates are an extensive range of configuration options that allow you to take control over exactly how you want your documents to look and behave, without having to mess around with complex variables, styles or layouts yourself. There are too many options to list here (62 in fact!), however the standouts include

    • Global styling options such as accent colours to align with your branding, company logo / name layout options, and social media links

    • Global header options such as whether to show your company address or primary contact details

    • Entity specific template configuration options, such as what fields to show on a job, or which details to include on line items on an invoice, or whether to include attachments on a quote

Opting in (and out)

  • Given the scope of functionality and changes introduced with the new document templating solution, we couldn't just flick the switch overnight, so to use the new solution you'll need to opt-in on a per-template basis. To do so, please follow these steps, using the job template as an example

  • Once you have opted in, that template will become the default for the given entity, for both PDF exports and public web views, meaning that

    • All of it's configuration options will apply when sharing / exporting

    • All of the global style options will apply when sharing / exporting

    • Anyone who shares or exports a PDF or public web view, or accesses an existing link to the public web view will see the new format, options and styles applied

  • If you wish to opt out, you can do so by setting the 'Legacy template' in the list back to default

Custom templates

  • In addition to the new standard templates, configuration options and global styles, it's also possible to use custom HTML / CSS templates that bypass most of the out-of-the-box options.

  • Custom templates open up a lot of possibilities, however, will be handled on a case by case basis with our customer success team, and may incur additional charges depending on the requirements of the template.

End-of-life for legacy templates

  • In due course, the new document templating solution will replace the legacy export template solution in it's entirety, however we will keep you updated with end-of-life timelines and give you plenty of opportunity to make the switch.

Getting started

Quote, job and asset duplication

A duplicate action has been introduced to quotes, jobs and assets to make it easy to quickly copy important data from an existing quote, job or asset into a new one. Please note that duplicates only include data that is relevant for a new quote, job or asset, therefore excluding

  • Statuses

  • Appointments

  • Assignees

  • Comments / messages / emails

  • Quote > job > invoice associations

  • History

Tasks are duplicated, however where those tasks are related to an asset they will be removed if the customer or location is changed on the duplicate quote or job.

Asset automation actions

Asset automation actions such as 'Update asset status' are now available against 'Task has been updated' triggers. This allows automations such as

  • Change asset status when a job task has been completed against that asset.

General usability improvements

  • All url fields / properties now require a url protocol prefix (i.e. 'http://' or 'https://'). If one has not been specified when updating a url field then it will be automatically added.

  • The 'Appointment' filter in the jobs workspace now includes a new checkbox 'Check previous (multiple) appointments'. When set to true the appointment filter will match against jobs that have multiple appointments during the given time period rather than exclusively matching against the appointment closest to the current date/time.

  • Asset type 'Grounds' and 'Warehouse' are now available as preventative maintenance schedule location types.

  • Minor UI / styling improvements in various settings area.

Mobile performance improvements

  • The volume of downloaded jobs and associated data when first installing the app, or after resetting it, has been reduced considerably through ensuring only jobs that are considered 'active' are downloaded, being those that are in the statuses of 'On hold', 'In progress' or 'Open'.

  • For users, technicians and contractors who have been active on Loc8 for a long time, and subsequently have a large number of historical jobs that they have been assigned to this should ensure much better initial sync performance.

  • This behaviour is in keeping with the expected behaviour of the app, however ensures stricter enforcement of the logic used to match jobs by those statuses. As per existing behaviour, users, technicians and contractors can still download 'inactive' jobs by setting their download preferences on the mobile app.

Bug fixes

  • An issue that prevented the correct selection of contractor license types when creating new contractors in the portal has been resolved

  • An issue that prevented non-site quote locations from copying to quote-based jobs has been resolved.

  • An issue that caused the user selected charge template on new quotes or jobs to be overridden has been resolved.

  • An issue that prevented entities from associating correctly to regions has been resolved.

  • An issue that caused an error when drawing region boundaries has been resolved.

  • An issue that caused intermittent failure of preventative maintenance schedule task generation has been resolved.

  • The incorrect asset automation condition label of 'Asset has a problem' has been corrected to display as 'Asset has no problems'.

  • The invoice reference field character limit has been increased to 100 to prevent issues with financial integrations such as Sage, however is now also truncated if the value exceeds 100 characters.
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