December 2023 Release Notes

Legacy Desktop Application

Kahua is excited for the December 2023.6 release, when we will be rolling out the updated Kahua for Windows Desktop Application! The Kahua Development Team has been working hard to deliver a single web and desktop host that unifies, and simplifies, the user experience. 

You will not need to take action if your header and footer bar is dark blue in the version of Kahua you are using today and the sign in screen looks like this:

New experience:

You will need to act if the header and footer bar in your current version is teal and the sign in screen looks like this:

Current legacy experience:

What you need to know:

• On Dec. 16 the desktop version is being updated to a new and improved experience.

• Your login credentials will remain the same.

• You will have two options to transition to the new experience:

  • Download and install the new desktop host (It only takes a couple of minutes)

  • Click the link to log in via your browser (Chrome or Edge)

    Legacy host after December 16, 2023:

    

For more information, visit our FAQ page.

Desktop Host Launching from Browser

For users that prefer the desktop experience, we've added the ability to either open and/or download the Kahua desktop application directly from the browser sign in screen.  Some organizations have disabled the ability to use the desktop application, in those cases, the options will not be available. 

Opening the desktop application:

We’ve updated the email used to invite new users to your Kahua domain, added an email verification process for those users, and improved the registration page for both internal contacts (users in your own company) and external contacts (users in a different company).   

Updated email invitation

The email invitation that is sent to the internal and external contacts you invite to join your Kahua network has been updated. Any pre-existing custom text or links will continue to be included in the email invitation. 

Added email verification

When a new user opens Kahua for the first time from the invitation email, a login code will be sent to their email account to verify their email address. The user will be required to enter that code into the login screen. The code will expire after 15 minutes. The user can then request that a new code be sent.

Improved the registration page

New users are required to complete the registration page to create their account. These new users are either internal contacts, which are employees of your own company, or external contacts, which are employees of a different company. The registration pages for both types of users have been updated.  

New internal contacts are added in the Users app and will be required to select their password and accept the agreement terms in the updated registration page.    

New external contacts are added in the Contacts app.  We have updated the registration page and improved the process used to match their company to existing companies in the Kahua network.

We will first search the Kahua network for companies where the company email domain matches the new user’s email address domain. If that domain does not exist or the match is not correct, the user can review a list of matches made by company name. If none of these potential matches are correct, the user can enter any term to perform their own search of companies in the Kahua network.  

If no match is found by these methods, the user can create a new company record.  

Once the company record is found or created, the user can complete the registration process in the updated page and sign in to Kahua.

Notifications and Messages

Notifications and messages originating from apps that have Restricted/CUI documents will not include attachments or sensitive content, further securing the handling of confidential information.

Sending Restricted Files

The ability to use the 'Send File' and 'Send for eSignature' actions from any file/record in File Manager that is designated as Restricted or CUI has been removed.  

A user who has CUI Access or CUI Admin rights to a CUI item will still continue to have access to the 'SEND LINK' action if their role includes this operation (this is existing functionality and shall remain unchanged).  This link will be a Kahua Link that will authenticate the user to determine whether they have access to the file/document or not.  When the recipient clicks the link, if access is available, they will be automatically navigated to the file. 

File Markup Indicator in Log

Users can add a new column to their views to indicate if a file has been marked up.  Using Manage Views in any File Manager folder you'll now have an option of adding a column to indicate whether a file has any markups.

Title Block Template Layout Changes

When creating/modifying a Title Block Template, as attributes are mapped onto the Drawing, the Viewable Area of the Drawing gets progressively 'thinner' (the height of the view area is reduced).
To improve the usability related to this issue, the layout has been changed such that the viewable area for the drawing is now on the entire left side of the screen, and the attribute listing is on the right side.

Additional Support for Splitting/Renaming a Batch of Multi-Page PDFs

There is now a new capability to split an entire batch of multi-page PDFs, and then using either the existing 'Title Block Extraction' (or 'Revision Matching' process), add the resulting documents to a controlled folder (aka, Drawing Log).  Previously each multi-page drawing Set needed to be split individually. 

Now when uploading 2 or more files where at least one is a multi-page PDF, you will be presented with the following prompt:

If this option is selected (checked), then any multi-page PDFs in this upload set will be split (all pages), and those individual pages will be copied to a working folder where the Title Block Extraction process can be run and the files can be reviewed/verified before making the files available to the project team.

For example, if these are the files that were uploaded:

• Bid Drawings 09-29-2023 (Part 1 of 3).PDF

• Bid Drawings 09-29-2023 (Part 2 of 3).PDF

• Bid Drawings 09-29-2023 (Part 3 of 3).PDF

Then after selecting the 'Split' option, you can select a single Title Block Template for the set:

The Working Folder will then indicate which multi-page file, and which page within that file the sheet came from:

'All' attributes available in Working Folder Log Views

When performing a Title Block Extraction, a staging area called the 'Working Folder' is created where documents can be reviewed and corrected before making them available to the project team.
Previous to this release, only a subset of the more common 'Controlled Folder' attributes were available to the Working Folder log.  With this release, all applicable attributes are now available to the Working Folder views.

Re-run Title Block Extraction on Selected Sheets

There are several reasons why a set of Drawings might have 2 or more Title Block variants.  Sometimes Drawings from different sources are merged into a single PDF.  Sometimes different revisions of Drawings may have a slightly different Title Block arrangements.  

This release introduces a new multi-select RE-PROCESS action, that gives the ability to re-initiate the Title Block extraction process with a subset (or even the entire set) of sheets in the Working Folder.  When doing so, you will be prompted to select the Title Block Template that you want to apply to the selected sheets.

After selecting 'Continue' from this dialog, the system shall cancel the processing of the selected items if they are in the TBE queue and re-process the selected items, applying the newly selected TB template.

Updated Save Button

Within the PDF Viewer/Markup Tool, the Save icon has been replaced with a much more prominent SAVE button so that the action is easier to find.  

Data Download

Reports can now be run and downloaded without first rendering them in Kahua.  After selecting a report, the report details pane contains a download button which allows you to choose a download format (PDF, XLSX, CSV, or TXT).  This allows a user to save time when it is known that they want to get a copy of the data outside of Kahua.

A new tab in the reporting app will open, and a button to download the resulting file will appear once the report has completed generating.  This is useful when you don't need to visualize the report in Kahua and especially useful when a report takes a significant amount of time to render in the PDF viewer.

The Universal Lookup fields have been added to the following Document Management apps:

• Communications

• Daily Reports

• Field Observations

• Issues

• Meetings

Universal Lookups span multiple applications to properly align key information that may need to be captured across a variety of business processes. For example, you may have a common list of internal tracking codes you may want to select on different documents or potentially want to include as a categorization to help you catalog different records. To support this process, Kahua has added the ability to include five unique lists of values, which are managed in Configuration>Universal Lookups. Once the values have been established, an administrator can enable the fields within the applications above or any of the other apps that already support this functionality.  

To enable within one or more of the applications, update the appropriate "CustomUniversalLookup" attribute on the Fields tab in Configuration to assign the proper label and make it visible.  The field will be displayed within the Details section on the Preview and Edit views.  Note this field will not be available on any of the workflow views.

Named on Document

Kahua is adding the “User’s Company is Named on Record” to several Cost Management applications, including:

• Purchase Orders
• Purchase Order Change Orders
• Invoices

Similar to the behavior in other applications, when a user is a member of a group that has this permission filter set, the user will only be able to access records where their Company or any person with their company is selected as value on an attribute of that record.

Relocated in Configuration

App messages can be copied to the Communications app when choosing Copy to Communications before sending it. The screenshot below shows an example of a Punch List message that will be copied to the Communications app when sent. 

Copy to Communications Setting for a Punch List Record:

The default value for this option has always been configurable but has been relocated for improved usability. It is now stored within the Settings tab of the Configuration App. The functionality is the same where the value applies to the partition and honors inheritance configuration. 

Configuration Option to Copy to Communications:

Lost Day Notice

We're pleased to announce a new enhancement in our Daily Reports feature designed to simplify the tracking of "Lost Days" and their respective causes, such as weather, safety/accidents, equipment failure, environmental factors, permitting issues, labor strikes/disputes, and utility interruptions. For projects bound by contractual obligations to inform clients of any lost work days, our latest update includes a feature that identifies who is responsible for sending notifications, when they are due, and when they are completed, complete with an automatic workflow task to ensure timely dispatch.

This new feature is optional and remains hidden by default. To reveal the added fields, navigate to Configuration>Daily Reports>Fields, and make visible the following: Delay Reporter, Lost Day, Lost Day Cause, Lost Day Notice Due, and Lost Day Notice Sent. When editing a Daily Report, simply checking the "Lost Day" box will unveil related fields for tracking the cause, responsible party for client reporting, due dates, and completion status.

The Lost Day Notice Due value is automatically calculated by adding a specified number of days to the current date. You can configure the days offset by setting the "Lost Day Date Due Offset" value in Configuration>Daily Reports>Defaults>Daily Report.

For users of the "Kahua Daily Report Workflow," a triggered workflow task can remind the Delay Reporter contact to send notifications to the client regarding Lost Days. To activate this task workflow, visit Configuration>Daily Reports>Settings, and select the "Use Lost Day Notification Workflow" box.

New Package Attribute - Date Requested from Vendor

Kahua is adding a "Date Requested From Vendor" field to Submittal Packages. This field records the date the submittal is requested from the Submitting Vendor and corresponds to the "Requested from Vendor" field on Submittal Items.

This field is visible by default and can be hidden on the fields tab of Submittal Package configuration.

New "Days in Review" Attribute

Kahua has added a "Days in Review" field to both Submittal Packages and Submittal Items. This field keeps track of how long a Submittal Package or Item has been in review by calculating today's date minus Date Submitted to Official Reviewer(s). This field can be configured to utilize your project's configured Work Days rather than calendar days in Submittal Package / Submittal Item configuration on the Settings tab and can also be added to your custom log views. This field is not visible by default, and must be made visible in the Fields configuration of Submittal Packages and Items.

Updated "Assigned To" Attribute

Kahua has updated the "Assigned To" field in Submittal Packages and Items to display all contacts the record is assigned to. If, for example, a Submittal Package is currently assigned to 3 Official Reviewers and 4 Consultant Reviewers, all 7 of those contacts will appear in the "Assigned To" field.

Kahua has also added the ability to display "Assigned To" on a Submittal Package or Item record's preview in addition to the log view. Simply configure the "Assigned To" field to be visible in Submittal Package or Submittal Item configuration to see the field on the preview of your records.

Updates to "Auto-Send to Consultant" Functionality

Kahua is updating the "Auto-Send to Consultant" field to be a visible field in the Kahua Standard workflows for both Packages and Items. Previously the default value affected behavior in both workflows, but the field was not visible in the standard workflows.

Kahua is also updating the default value of "Auto-Send to Consultant" to "True" for Submittal Items in both workflows. Previously the default value was "True" in Packages but "False" in Items. With this update, the default value of both Packages and Items will match and be set to "True" so that default values are consistent across the two applications.

Updates to "Consultant Reviewers Can See All Responses" Functionality

Kahua is adding the "Consultant Reviewers Can See All Responses" field to the standard workflow for both Packages and Items. This field controls whether or not Consultant Reviewers can see the responses of other Consultant Reviewers in their tasks. Previously, in the standard workflow, Consultant Reviewers could always see the responses of other Consultant Reviewers, and this field was only available in the Owner Directed workflows.  

Kahua is also updating the default value of this field on both Submittal Packages and Items from false to true.

Relabeling of "Reviewers" Anchor Section

Kahua has added the ability to relabel the "Reviewers" anchor section header for greater flexibility.  This can be updated in Configuration on the Fields tab of Submittal Items and Submittal Packages.

New Setting: Only Official Reviewer can Mark Complete

Kahua is adding a new setting to the settings tab of Packaged Submittals configuration, "Only Official Reviewer Can Mark Complete".   When enabled only an Official Reviewer on the Package/Item has the "Mark Complete" action on the parent records of Submittal Packages or Items in the "New" or "Responded" states.

New Setting: Allow Submitter to Submit to Review

Kahua is adding a new setting "Allow Submitter to Submit to Review" to the settings tab of Packaged Submittals configuration. Enabling this setting will give users with submitter permission to Submittal Packages and Items apps the right to submit a package/item to review. When coupled with the pre-existing "Allow Submitter to Create Records" settings, which can be found on the settings tab of Submittal Package and Submittal Items configuration, these settings allow Submitters to create records and submit them to review.  

*Note: Kahua plans to consolidate all settings which affect both packages and items into the Packaged Submittals configuration settings page in a later release

Owner Directed Workflow Work Days

Projects utilizing the Owner Directed workflows of Submittal Packages and Items can now leverage their configured Workdays. The pre-existing settings for configuring which days to use to calculate various submittal dates will now affect behavior in both workflows.

Restrict Sending Bids Only to Registered Kahua Users

In Configuration > Bid Solicitations > Settings, there is now a new option that will force all Bidders to be Kahua Users.

This setting comes into play both at the time that the Bidders are added to the Bidders tab of the Bid Solicitation, and when the 'Send Invitation' action is invoked.

Intent to Bid - Undecided option

When an “Invitation to Bid” is sent to prospective bidders, the receiving parties can indicate their bid intent as either “Will Bid” or “Will Not Bid”.  Because Bid Details (e.g., Bid Due Date, Scope of Work, etc.) may change over time, there may be contractors who originally didn't intend Bid to later decide that changed circumstances make the Solicitation more desirable to Bid on.

To support this scenario, a 3rd ‘Intent to Bid’ option of “Undecided” has been added to the existing “Will Bid” and “Will Not Bid” options. This will allow an “Undecided” contractor to continue to see all communication and any associated changes to the Solicitation, such that if the details of the Solicitation change, the contractor has the option of changing their ‘Undecided’ bid intent to either “Will Bid” or “Will Not Bid”. 

The new 'intent to bid' option can be enabled for any specific Solicitation (see below), or may be enabled by default via Configuration.

When this 3rd 'intent to bid' option is enabled, any subsequent "Invitation to Bid" shall include this new 'Undecided' response:

The new option will also be displayed in the 'Bid Invitation' Task and the Bid Room itself:

The Bid Manager will be able to easily tell what each potential bidder's intention is regarding whether they intend to bid or not, or are still undecided:

Add files for Controlled Folders

On the 'Documents & Drawings' tab of the Bid Solicitation, the DRAWINGS section now enables files to be added from Controlled Folders (which are often used to manage Drawings).
Importing Drawings from a controlled folder will also auto-populate several Drawing-related attributes (e.g., Discipline, Revision Number, Revision Date, etc.) as these Drawings are added to the Bid Solicitation.

We are temporarily disabling the ability to expand and collapse items in the items grid in Cost Management applications. Item grouping is still available; no other grids are impacted. We expect to re-enable this functionality in an upcoming maintenance release.

Inline Actuals

Kahua's standard Cashflow app allows users to spread budget and expense-based values over time.  Until 2023.6, actuals from invoices and pay requests appeared on a separate line, showing the per-period actuals per configuration options. 

Starting in 2023.6, the Kahua-provided Cashflow document allows users to optionally select an Actuals Line Type to populate the historical actuals of a budget or expense forecast line type.  

This allows the system to show the "as it was" history in previous periods and calculate how to spread the remaining amount from the current period to the item's end date. If the current period is between the Cashflow item's start and end date, the system calculates the remaining part of forecast curve to use in forecast calculations.  

A couple of edge cases are handled as well. 

• If the current period is before an item's start date, but actuals have occurred, the system assumes the remaining amount are intended to still occur within the item's start and end date.

• If the current period is after an item's end date, but there is still some remaining to spend for the items, the system unceremoniously dumps the remaining amount in the current period. 

• In both cases, a review of the item's start or end date is warranted, but not necessary to make things all add up.

Configuration/ Cashflow Forecasting/ Line Types - Budget or Expense Line Category, Select Actuals for Historic Financial Periods:

A cashflow showing some of the possible scenarios:

Allowing Variances

Kahua's standard Cashflow app can be configured to optionally allow variances on a cashflow item. 

This supports some critical use cases we've heard over the years:

• We only need to spread out part of the item's amount. We will come back another time and forecast the rest.

• We want to forecast a higher (or lower!) overall amount.  This is a leading indicator we'll square up in the system at a later time. 

To enable Allow Variances in your domain, mark the Allow Item Variance field as "Is Visible" in cashflow configuration:

Two new columns appear in the cashflow Manage screen when this field is checked on a given cashflow document. 

• Allow Variance: controls whether a given line can be saved with a variance.

• Revised Amount: what the spread amounts need to sum to, including Inline Actuals if used.