Spring Release Guide 2016

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v. 1.2 Final

Spring Release

Guide 2016

Assistance PSA Suite

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Introduction

The Assistance PSA Suite Spring release is packed with great new functionalities. This guide will give you an overview of all the new features of this release which will be available in April 2016. With the launch of the Assistance PSA Suite Spring 2016 release we are introducing a full PSA Suite for eight specific verticals:

You can install a Vertical Package directly from the Assistance PSA Suite; see the Vertical Package section of this document.

For more info watch the Vertical movie.

Assistance Software provides a complete Suite for the Professional Services Industry which consists of multiple modules working seamlessly together.

For more information watch the complete video.

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With the introduction of the Spring Release we are also introducing our new license model:

For more information, please see: http://www.assistancesoftware.com/Pricelist/Licenses.pdf

Our goal is to provide you with an innovative solution that will make your business more efficient and productive.

We are also introducing to all our Partners and End Users the Assistance Software Academy. Please sign up to learn more about the full potential and benefits of your Assistance PSA Suite.

Finally I want to thank all our Users and Partners for all your input; enjoy this great new release!

Martijn van der Hoeden

CEO, Assistance Software Group

Note: This document is not a guarantee that all the functionalities and features listed in this document will remain the same as described; there might be changes in the final release.

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Assistance PSA Suite | PSA

The PSA Module of the Assistance PSA Suite is the core module of the whole suite. In the spring release we have focused on additional functionality in the following areas:

 Project Accounting  Project Forecasting  Project Planning  Resource planning  Approval

 Additional Timer functionality  Purchase Order Module  Performance Report

You will find more information regarding the new features in the Release notes of the Download section of our website:

http://www.assistancesoftware.com/downloads/

Project Accounting

The project accounting module works seamlessly together with the Assistance PSA Suite | Financials module. This part of the release guide describes the financial modules from the Project angle.

Revenue Recognition

With the Revenue Recognition module you can recognize revenue Project by Project based on the

calculated percentage completed and actual completion. PSA will create Journal transactions in our financial module that can be integrated with your Financial back-end.

The Revenue Recognition module will also create a log of the completion progress.

Booking Groups

Based on Booking Groups the PSA Suite can direct Revenue to specific GL accounts. The Booking Groups can be setup by Account.

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Sales Tax

The automated calculation of Sales Tax can be overruled at the Project level (vs project item). Furthermore if you use an automated Sales Tax calculation through any service providers (e.g. Avalara) you can leverage our new setting to prevent the Sales Tax calculation by Assistance PSA.

Project Forecasting

Revenue Forecasting

You can create Revenue Forecasting directly from a Project Item Activity by entering a total forecast amount. Assistance PSA will automatically divide this amount equally over the duration of the Project Item Activity.

Cost Forecasting

You can create a Cost Forecast which will be calculated based on your Cost rate or can be added manually. In future releases you will also be able to link the Purchase Order module to the Cost Forecast module.

Project Planning

We have redesigned our Gantt chart module and have now included the Utilization Sheet. This new feature enables Project managers to review availability while scheduling activities. You will also have the option to create Recurring Activities or to manually edit the number of Hours by Day, Week or Month.

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Resource Planning

To have a different overview of scheduled resources we have a new feature for the Resource manager: the Resource Availability Sheet. In this sheet you can see without expanding on which projects resources are scheduled and if resources are over/under allocated.

By hovering over the scheduled project, PSA will retrieve the scheduled project information including all the dates and hours via a tooltip.

You are now able to Re-assign Projects or Project Item Activities to other available resources directly from here. Business Closure and PTO are also visible here which will give the Resource manager the complete overview of the resources.

Approval Tools

The Assistance PSA Suite provides two new approval tools for Administrative Approval and Project Management Approval.

The approval tools are developed in HTML 5 and are also accessible through our Assistance PSA Suite | Portal or via a direct link; the Approval tools, therefore, can also be launched from any device (iPad or other tablet) in any browser.

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Administrative Approval

The new administrative approval tool helps the department manager to review booked hours and new booked hours in a clear and interactive panel. The Key Performance Indicators are showing the performance of your employees in the following categories:

 % Internal Hours  % Production Hours  % Sick

 % Leave

The new Approval tool is compliant with the Time Cards or with Hours entered without a time card. In the approval tool you can also approve the posted expenses.

Project Manager Approval

The Project Manager Approval tool is grouped by Project and is designed for the Project Manager. The approval tool will give the Project manger a clear view of the Key Performance Indicators of his/her project by project item with Actuals versus Budget.

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Additional Timer Functionality

The new timer functionality gives more flexibility and control. Originally developed for the Legal industry this tool is more and more used by other industries. You can find the following new features:

 Create timer without initial Project  Pause and Resume Timer

 Auto pause timer when creating a new timer  Adjust Minutes with increase and decrease buttons

You can also access the Timer functionality through our new Assistance PSA Suite | Portal module.

Purchase Order

The Assistance PSA Suite provides a new Purchase Order module to register and manage purchases that are Project related. The Purchase

Order module is using an easy

to use in-line edit Grid and can

leverage standard workflow functionality.

The Purchase Order module will be integrated (in future releases) with the cost forecast and accounts receivable module of Financials.

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Performance Report

Based on the Project Budget, Actuals and Invoiced amounts the PSA Suite generates a Project Performance Report. This report is real time generated in HTML 5. We will also provide in future release standard Power BI Dashboards.

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Assistance PSA Suite | HRM

The HRM module of the Assistance PSA Suite is now a standard part of the total PSA Suite and is included in an Essential license as a self-service module and from Basic for full access. We will also integrate (in future releases) the Match Engine of HRM with Resource Scheduling and Project Planning.

In this release we have the following new features:  Allowances

 Expense Claims

You will find more information regarding the new features in the Release notes of the Download section of our website:

http://www.assistancesoftware.com/downloads/

Allowances

In addition to Expenses and expense claims employees can also have the right to Allowances based on company business rules. You can configure Allowances which will allow employees to create an allowance record during time Entry.

Expense Claims

Once an expense claim is approved HRM will now create an expense claim record in the Compensation table.

The Allowances and Expense Claims will be stored in the Compensation table of the HRM module by period and by employee; allowing you to leverage the compensation table for integration to your payroll system.

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Assistance PSA Suite | Financials

The Financials module has evolved from a financial transaction repository to a full accounting platform that can be leveraged to integrate with any financial back-end of your choice or can be used as a full accounting solution.

In this release of the Financials module we have added the following new features:  Journal entries

 Exchange Rates re-calculation  Full Accounting

You can find more information regarding configuration and implementation of the new features in the Release notes.

Journal Entries

The journal entries table is increased with additional financial information and will give you the ability to easily integrate with your financial back-end. We generate journal entries for WIP, Revenue Recognition, AR, AP and much more. You are also able to create write offs based on corrections during your T&M invoice process.

To learn more about the full capabilities of the Financials module we recommend to sign up for the Financials Webinars.

Exchange Rate re-calculation

For International companies we have developed the Exchange Rate re-calculation module. In the Exchange Rate table you can add a date range. With this module you can re-calculate all the journal entries based on booking date.

Full Accounting

With the introduction of the Assistance PSA Suite | Financials module you can leverage full accounting functionality. In future releases we will also integrate with an online Check module to generate checks.

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Assistance PSA Suite | Vertical Packages

The Assistance PSA Suite is developed for eight Verticals. A Vertical Package always consist of Vertical Templates and Vertical recommended solutions.

You can find more information by Vertical on our website.

Our Vertical templates are developed in collaboration with end users and other stake holders. We are hosting the Vertical templates in our Vertical Cloud.

You can install a Vertical Template by importing your Assistance PSA Suite solution with the template of your choice. This will save you implementation time!

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Assistance PSA Suite | Portal

Assistance PSA Suite Portal is the perfect extension of the PSA Suite. With this Portal your employees can use the core functionalities of the PSA Suite without having to log into Microsoft Dynamics CRM™.

In addition to time entry, the Portal offers your employees self-service functionalities. It also provides them with a clear overview of their planned activities and utilization. And, last but not least, the PSA Suite Portal is adaptable to your organization’s needs.

The Portal module provides the following features:  Time entry

 Expenses entry  Utilization Overview  Gantt Chart Overview

 Request Leave and Call in Sick  My Profile

Tailored for your own Business Needs

The Assistance PSA Suite | Portal is very innovative as it can be completely tailored for your own business needs by leveraging the standard Microsoft CRM Forms.

A perfect example in this release is the My Profile form. The Profile form is created in our HRM module by using standard form capabilities of Microsoft CRM. The Portal is then rendering real time the Employee form into a HTML 5 page with all the related functionality! We will have in future releases more standard forms available in the Portal module and will deliver out-of-the-box Portals for Project Managers, Resource Managers and Financial Managers.