What's New in MainBoss 3.4, Update 1

The latest release of MainBoss Advanced is Version 4.2.4.

The following lists changes between MainBoss Advanced 3.4, Update 1, and the previous release.

Major Changes

Unit Maintenance Plan Summary

There is now a Unit Maintenance Plan Summary report which can provide a summary of your current unit maintenance plans. The summary contains a line for each plan, the expected duration of the job (based on work start and work end dates), and the total of labor expenses associated with the plan.

New Error Detection in Planned Maintenance Generation

Unit Maintenance Plans and Planned Maintenance Batch records now have an "Errors" section to report problems that may arise during work order generation. The section is filled by the "Commit" process; by showing you the errors, MainBoss makes it easier for you to find any problems that might have occurred.

Also, the Generation Details and Work Orders sections of a Generation Batch record now have a View Work Order button that opens a window where you can view a selected work order. View Work Order is also available in the Work Orders and Errors section of a unit maintenance plan.

ClickOnce Changes

ClickOnce deployment has been expanded to make it easier to use when you don't have an active Internet connection. Specifically, there are two builds of the ClickOnce version of MainBoss:

1. The "usually online" build is designed for people who always intend to launch MainBoss from the ClickOnce web page. It does not create an entry for MainBoss in the Windows "Start" menu. (You can still start the program without a web connection by using the Windows "Search" box or by creating your own shortcut to the file containing the program.)
2. The "usually offline" build is designed for people who may frequently work without an active Internet connection. When you first install the software, it creates an entry in the Windows "Start" menu which you can then use to start the program instead of going through a web page. (You should still go through the web page occasionally, because the web interface is designed to update your software automatically whenever a new version is released.)

For information on how to configure these two builds of ClickOnce, see the web page from which you download the MainBoss ClickOnce software.

Minor Changes

1. The Purchase Order and Purchase History reports now have an option that lets you see receipts separated from orders.
2. It is now possible to set the scheduling basis for multiple unit maintenance plans simultaneously. Any window that displays multiple unit maintenance plans now has a button labeled Correct Missing Schedule Basis, which lets you set the basis for any or all existing plans.
3. In previous versions, various windows had a button labeled New Select Scheduling Basis. This has now been shortened to Select Scheduling Basis.
4. In reports related to work orders, it is now possible to sort and filter by downtime.
5. The "Assigned to Current User" entry in the control panel contains a number of charts displaying the current state of your assignments.
6. Due to a change in the way that MainBoss Service handled email requests, blank lines were sometimes dropped when an email request was turned into a work order work description. This has been fixed.
7. In the previous release of MainBoss, the summation lines on the Purchase Order and Purchase History reports gave you the total of all orders plus all receipts associated with purchase orders. This was not a particularly useful number; now the report gives you a column of order costs and a separate column for receipts.
8. The previous version had a bug that arose when printing work orders if the "Additional Lines" default was blank. This has been fixed.
9. Previously, the Item Activity report only printed information on one item per work order. It also gave incorrect cost totals for items. This has been fixed.
10. Previously, the "..." button associated with expense categories in work order demands gave you a menu with not-very-useful options. This has been improved.
11. Previously, someone with the ItemFulfillment security role occasionally had trouble performing physical counts. This has been fixed.
12. On work order reports, resources were always summarized rather than giving you full details, no matter what options you specified. Now, you can get the details with the appropriate options. Also, the sums of resource costs were sometimes incorrect, often double what they should be. This has been corrected.
13. In some previous releases, planned maintenance that was deferred beyond the "Batch End Date" would still result in generated work orders. This has been corrected.

Registered MainBoss customers can obtain the latest version of MainBoss by clicking here.

This version of MainBoss requires license keys dated June 1, 2012 or later. Keys for earlier releases will be considered out-of-date. For appropriate license keys, contact support@mainboss.com.