Optimized vehicle management and other adjustments​

Vehicles

In addition to the planning of personnel, the planning of vehicles is also an important part of CrewBrain for many of our clients. We have used this version to make a number of optimizations in this area.

Categories

Vehicles can now be divided into categories. The categories can be created in the administration and then used for planning in the same way as the employee categories. In this way, it is possible to record the need for vehicles in advance in a job. The vehicles in question can then be scheduled in the job as usual.

Inspections

Inspections and maintenance can now be created for each vehicle. Each inspection is assigned to a type (e.g. MOT or inspection) and for each type CrewBrain calculates the next due date based on a time period (e.g. date of last inspection plus one year) or mileage. Automatic notifications and a new dashboard widget provide timely information about upcoming inspections or maintenance.

Branches

A few versions ago we introduced the possibility to manage different branches of a company in CrewBrain. Consequently, vehicles can now also be assigned to a branch, so that they can be quickly filtered in the calendar or in the job, for example.

"Vacation" for vehicles

Periods during which vehicles are not available can now also be entered into the calendar. In order to use existing processes, we have extended the vacation view to include vehicles, and these periods are entered in the same way as vacation is entered for employees.

Calendar

Also in the calendar there are again some adjustments in this version. These are partly related to the extensions in the vehicles, but they also speed up the work with the calendar.

More colors

Additional colors are now available for job and vacation categories. This makes it easier to distinguish between appointments and events of different types in the calendar.

Performance

Especially in our overviews the performance (=loading time) was often quite bad in the past. From now on only the first lines are loaded and further lines are loaded individually when scrolling down – this speeds up the work with the overviews.

Filter vehicles

Since categories and branches can now also be defined for vehicles, it makes sense to filter by these attributes as well. From now on, vehicles can be filtered in all overviews. As with employees, these filters can also be saved as filter favorites.

Planning view

In the planning view, the axes can already be swapped since some versions. If the jobs are one below the other, the categories in which the employees are requested or booked are also displayed. These can now be optionally hidden.

Jobs

There are also some useful enhancements within the jobs. For example, the values of the "copy" dialog are now automatically saved. The individual settings are thus automatically always set as they were last used. But we have also made some other adjustments.

Documents

For the visibility of documents within a job, there is a new option as of this version: Visibility for selected user groups. This makes it possible to release a document for individual user groups and thus define even more precisely who is allowed to read a document.

Booking confirmation

It is already possible to create an individual order confirmation for an employee in a job. Until now, however, this was only possible from the job itself, not from a main job or project. A new option in the print menu now provides exactly this functionality, so that an order confirmation can also be created for all sub-jobs. In addition, the client can also be selected as the addressee of this confirmation.

Statements & Time recording

An update without an extension of the time recording is almost unthinkable. We are constantly expanding the functionalities and making meaningful enhancements in this area.

RFID-Chips & Barcodes

Via our central time clock, it is also possible to punch in and out using RFID chips or barcode cards. Until now, it was necessary for the cards or chips to have the employee's personnel number encoded on them. As of this version, it is possible to store an individual ID for an RFID chip or barcode for each employee in the statement & time recording period.

Automatic logout

If an employee forgets to record an "Out" booking via the time clock, he will now be logged out automatically by the system after 12 hours. The corresponding working hour is closed and marked as "rejected". The employee is also informed by mail that he must correct this booking.

Closing of months

In statements & time recording it is possible to mark the individual months with the status "settled" or "completed". To simplify the workflow, this is now also possible from the overview for all employees, freelancers or subcontractors with a single click.

Active employees

Some additional features have been added to the dasbhoad widget "active employees". Optionally, administrators can now view who has been clocked in and since when. For schedulers, there is a useful function to display employees who are currently booked in a job but not yet clocked in.

Further optimizations

Of course, in addition to the major features, there are also some minor adjustments that make working with CrewBrain easier and add useful features to the system.

• For the work equipment that can be stored in the employee base data, inspections or maintenance intervals can be stored from this version in the same way as for vehicles. In this way, inspection records can be tracked completely digitally. The functionality is rounded off by a print function that can be used to create a list of all stored work equipment including inspection results.

• If vacation or sick leave is created for an employee, an additional checkbox can now be used to specify whether the availability for the jobs in the same period should be set to "not available". If this checkbox is activated, the dispatchers will also be notified accordingly.
• A "reply-to" address can be stored in the administration for all e-mails. If an employee clicks on "reply" to an e-mail in his mail program, the reply will be sent to this address. Starting from this version, it is possible to overwrite this address with the address stored in the profile of the respective user. The necessary setting can be found under Administration > E-Mail > Signatures.