In This Release… [Click here for a video overview of all the new features]
Accounting Updates
Sales Tax Locking
Before the release, users were able to edit transactions that change the Sales Tax, even after the Sales Tax was paid. This feature was built to lock tax agencies to prevent changes or additions being made to transactions prior to the lock date specified.
By navigating to Company → Settings → Accounting → Tax → Agencies, you can select the tax agency in your system you wish to lock. The locking option is located on the Sales Tax Info page for the tax agencies, noted by the Tax Paid Through Date. The Tax Paid Through Date must be a past date; it cannot be today’s date or any future date. Setting this date will determine the lock date so users can no longer make changes that affect the Sales Tax for that agency.
The exception would be for users that have the “Transactions Prior Closing Date - Edit” permission included in their User Role. Users with this permission will be given the choice to allow the changes to be made, whereas a user without the permission will be unable to save any changes or additional transactions that are prior to the Tax Paid Through Date.
Creating a new Invoice, Credit Memo, or Sales Receipt
If the user has the “Transactions Prior Closing Date - Edit” permission in their User Role and the transaction date is prior to the tax agency Tax Paid Through Date, Striven will display a popup confirmation message stating that the payment for the tax agency used has been paid through a certain date and asks if you wish to proceed.
If the user does not have the permission in their User Role and the transaction date is prior to the Tax Agency Tax Paid Through Date, Striven will present a popup error message notifying the user that the transaction date cannot be on or before the date of the Tax Agency’s Tax Paid Through Date. It will also not allow the user to create the transaction.
The same applies to editing existing transactions. If the user has the permission, they will get the same popup notification. If the user does not have the permission, the transaction will be uneditable for them.
We’ve also made an enhancement to the Pay Tax page that works with this new feature. After the tax is paid, the user now has the ability to set the Tax Paid Through Date directly from there by selecting the tax agencies they would like to update and save. This will save time and help the user avoid having to go to each Tax Info page individually and update the Tax Paid Through Date for the agencies that had Tax Payment checks created.
- Note: Specifying the Tax Paid Through Date for Tax Groups is not possible, so Striven will always take the latest Tax Paid Through Date specified for the component tax agencies.
A/R Formats Update
Sales Order, Invoice, and Sales Receipt formats will now allow for expanding Item Groups in the Line Item sections. You will now be able to configure the Items section of these formats so that Item Groups show all the component Items on the printable format.
When editing the Items section of a Sales Order, Invoice, or Sales Receipt format you will find the new option to Display Items in an Item Group Expanded. With this option toggled on, your printable formats will display the individual Line Items that make up your Item Group.
This feature will come in handy when you wish to show your Customers all the component Items that make up the Item Group. Another helpful use is when using the format as a Picking Ticket so your Employees know exactly what components to pick for the Item Group.
P&L Widget - Filter by Chart of Accounts
We’ve added a new way to filter the P&L widget on the Accounting Dashboard.
The goal of this enhancement is to allow you to filter the P&L widget by the Chart of Accounts so that you can compare certain Income and Expense accounts to see the health of a particular department within your company. For example, comparing the Shipping related Income accounts with the Shipping related Expense accounts to see how profitable your company is in that field.
We’ve added a GL Account filter to the P&L widget settings which will display in a tree structure and allow for the selection of individual accounts. Available accounts will be nested under COGS, Expense, Income, Other Expense, and Other Income type accounts as these are the account types that are part of the P&L calculation.
When accounts are selected as filters for the widget, only those account postings will be included in the P&L calculation and displayed in the widget. Otherwise, all accounts will be included. You will also have the ability to select a percentage of the total amount for the selected account. For example, if you select a Sales account and specify a percentage of 50%, only 50% of the total amount for the Sales account will be added to the total income amount shown on the widget.
Additionally, we’ve added the options to Exclude Gross Profit Bar and Exclude Net Income Bar from the widget graph.
- Note: The bars on the P&L widget graph will not hyperlink to the P&L Report if there are GL Account filters selected in the widget settings.
API Additions/Updates
Threshold Notifications for API Usage Limits
There were some enhancements made to the usage limit notifications that subscribers receive as they use the Striven API. Before this release, Striven provided the option to select recipients to receive a notification when the Daily Usage Limit was exceeded. Now, users will have the option to send an additional notification when a certain threshold is reached. This threshold can be set anywhere between 1% to 99%. This notification will be great for those subscribers who need to receive notifications as they reach certain thresholds because once they reach the limit, it is too late.
This setting option can be found by navigating to Company → Settings → Integrations → API Settings. At the bottom of the page there is a checkbox to Send additional notification when a certain threshold is reached. Once that box is checked, a field for Threshold Percentage will display to enter the desired threshold percentage. If a notification recipient is already selected for the Daily Usage Limit Exceeded notification, they will also be sent the Threshold Percentage notification.
API Call Log Report
There’s a new report in Striven that will allow you to view details about your recent Striven API usage. You can locate this report by navigating to Reports → Communications → API Call Log or by clicking on the Call Log button located on the API Settings page.
This report displays a variety of information related to all calls made to the Striven API within the last 30 days. The following information is provided in columns of this report:
- Request URI: Where the request is being made (i.e. the source of the information being requested).
- Method: GET, POST, PATCH, or DELETE.
- IP Address: The address from which the call was made.
- Owner: Either the resource owner selected on the API Settings page, or in the case of Custom Reports, it will be the report owner.
- Report Name: Name of the Custom Report used in the call, if applicable.
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#of Calls: Lists the number of calls for that particular Request URI. This also hyperlinks to a Breakdown page with further details about each call. The Breakdown details are also exportable. - Last Called: Displays the last date/time a call was made to that particular Request URI.
By default, the report is sorted by Last Called, but you can choose to sort by Request URI, Method, or Owner, if desired.
Next to the Sort options you’ll find the Export button to download the report.
At the top right corner of the page you will also find a Search icon. This will provide you with the following search filters:
- Date Range
- IP Address
- Request URI
- Request Method
- Owner
- Report Name
There are two (2) new User Role permissions associated with access to this report:
- “API Call Log Report - View”
- “API Call Log Report - Export”
It is also very important to note that the permission to View the report is a very HIGH level permission because it exposes the Custom Report URIs, which effectively gives access to the data in the report.
For more information about our APIs, visit our API Reference Page.
Buzz Updates
Buzz Revamp & Updates
We’ve performed a revamp on Buzz for this release, so you will see a few changes on the Buzz List and Add Buzz Post pages. For the most part, Buzz will continue to function in much the same way as before, with better performance due to the upgrades and the added Label filtering feature.
The UI has been upgraded, so you’ll notice some minor changes to how the page displays. Buzz will still have the same basic settings, though they may be moved around on the page a bit. For example, changes made to the Buzz List include:
- The Add Buzz Post button is now a blue Plus ( + ) button instead of the Create New Post button.
- The Buzz Search option is now a small Magnifying Glass icon on the top right corner of the page. This feature will also now allow for searching for Buzz Posts based on their assigned Labels. When the Buzz List is filtered by Labels, the selected Labels will display at the top of the page with the ability to deselect them as well. There is also a Quick Filter for Buzz Labels located next to the Search button.
- Tagged Employees are displayed on the right side of the Buzz post instead of at the top of the post.
- There’s a new feature for Buzz Labels which will allow for filtering of Buzz Posts to display posts based on their designated Label. Like with other areas of the system with Labels, there will be both Public and Private Label options.
- Users can now add a Rich Text comment to a Buzz Post without having to select the “Advanced Editor” option. This Rich Text comment section also allows pasting images, which wasn’t allowed before the update.
Additionally, changes made to the Add Buzz Post page include:
- The new function to add Labels to Buzz Posts. Users who have the necessary User Role permission to manage Public Labels, “Public Labels: Add/Edit”, can click the Manage Labels link to create or edit Labels. Other users will just be able to select an available Label from the drop-down list or use their own Private Labels once the post is created.
- If no specific Employee is selected to share the post with, it will be shared with all Employees.
- We’ve streamlined the ability to add images into Buzz posts. Users can now just copy and paste images into Buzz, link to the image via a URL, or upload as an attachment to the post. Because of this we have removed the image manager feature so any existing buzz templates that utilized this feature would need to be updated.
- The UI for Buzz Post Templates has been updated, however, the automated posts will still function the same way as before the release.
We’ve also made updates to the Buzz Notification Subscriptions. Now, you can go to the Notification Subscriptions page from your Profile Menu to update your preferences.
Before the release, there was only the option to turn ALL Buzz notifications on or off, but with this update users will now also have the ability to filter their notifications of Buzz Posts by whatever particular Labels are selected.
Calendar Updates
Route-It Feature
Striven now has a routing feature added to the Calendars. This will be a helpful tool for Employees who go onsite to Customer Locations. To use this feature, your Calendar needs to be displaying the Day view. This will allow you to map addresses from different Calendar Events and send the address to Google Maps for creating the route. This feature will work for Appointments, Tasks, Orders, and Opportunities.
On an individual Calendar displaying a single user’s Events in Day view (such as the My Calendar), you’ll find a Map Route button on the top left of the Calendar, next to the Calendar Quick Add button.
Clicking on that button will send all the addresses from the Striven Calendar to Google Maps and will create a route using all the addresses. These addresses can even be rearranged to accommodate the route by dragging/dropping them into the appropriate order.
- Note: If you wish to have your route displayed with a particular starting or ending point, such as your office or warehouse, it is recommended that you set a recurring Appointment or Task on your calendar that includes those Locations.
For Team Calendars with multiple Employees displayed as Grouped by Resource in a Vertical view, the feature can be used based on each individual resource on the Calendar’s Event by clicking on the down-arrow next to the Map Route button and selecting the resource.
- Note: If a resource’s Events have no address, there will be an alert message that pops up letting you know there is no address found.
On a Team Calendar displayed as Grouped by Resource in a Horizontal view, the Route-It feature will take the addresses from ALL Events from every resource on the Calendar for that day and display it on Google Maps. This provides a really convenient way to dispatch Employees for service calls or onsite jobs by letting you know where your Employees will be that day. Then you can decide who is closest to or available for a new Task, Order, etc.
Discussions Updates
Discussions on Financial Transactions
You will now be able to create and respond to Discussions on transactions in Striven. This will apply to Invoices, Credit Memos, Sales Receipts, Credit Card Charges, Checks, Bills, Bill Payments, Payments, Bill Credits, and Journal Entries.
.At the bottom of the transaction page, there will be a Discussions section located below the Save buttons, similar to how Discussions display on Tasks.
Users will also be able to view and initiate Discussions on transactions through the Customer/Vendor Portal. When initiating a new Discussion from the Portal, the default recipient will be automatically populated based on the person who is configured to send the transaction notifications to the Customer. If there is no one set to receive that notification, the default recipient is selected from the Sales Rep of the Order, or it can fall back to the Primary Assignment at the Customer/Vendor level if there is no Order associated with the transaction.
Employee Updates
My Profile Menu
Some of the changes made to Striven in this release include the renaming and redesign of the My Info page found on the Profile menu. This will now display as the My Profile page, which will relate to the Employee’s side of their Employee record. The functionality is largely the same, but the layout has changed. Some of these changes include:
- The addition of a Save button on the bottom of the My Profile - Info page to actively save any changes made to the information on the page.
- The notable difference in how to navigate the various areas of the My Profile record. We’ve switched from a tab navigation layout to a Waffle menu to view the Info, Bio, Signature, Pay, Shifts, Skills, Hub, Surveying, Notes, and Security areas of the My Profile Record.
- There’s a new page layout on the Security page. The functionality on the page will depend on how you have signed into Striven (i.e. Username & Password, or SSO). Your sign in method will be displayed at the top of the page. If you sign in using the Striven credentials (Username & Password), you will see a Change Password button, along with a View Recent Logins button and a Sign Out from All Devices button. If you have signed in using the Microsoft or Google Single Sign On methods, the page will contain the same buttons, with the exception of the Change Password button.
- If your Striven system has one of the Calendar integrations turned on, your access status information will also display on this page. For example, if you have granted access to your Google Calendar, this page will display that information. If you have not granted access, there will be a Grant Access button available to sync your Striven Calendar with your Google Calendar.
- The Surveying and Skills page are basically the same with some of the columns re-arranged on the page.
In addition to those changes, we’ve also added a feature that will allow subscribers to mark Employee Custom Fields as either visible to the Employee or visible and editable by the Employee themselves. This setting option is found in the Custom Fields Basic Info section of Employee level Custom Fields and can be edited by checking the Visible to Employees on their Profile checkbox, which will then display the Allow Edit checkbox for selection.
Employee Expenses - Mileage Reimbursement
Prior to this release, in certain cases where an Employee would request reimbursement for mileage expenses there was no option to select to create the check when approving the expense. These mileage reimbursement checks had to be created manually. With this update, there is now a checkbox to select creating the check for mileage reimbursement.
Employee Record Actions - Create Task
You will now be able to select a Task Group to assign to the selected Employee from the Actions menu on the Employee record.
- Note: You will need to have Task Groups set up in your system before you will be able to use this feature.
This feature will be useful for sending out new hire forms, HR checklists, and career planning activities to new and existing Employees.
Inventory Updates
Taxable Discount Items
Users will now have the ability to flag a Discount Item as taxable during setup, which should also be populated when creating transactions. There is now a checkbox available to designate the Discount Item as taxable by default, along with a Configure link to the Taxable Configuration settings.
Incomplete Builds Data on Stock Status and Inventory By Location Reports
We added Incomplete Build transactions to the Inventory Stock Status Report, as well as the Inventory and Inventory By Location Data Sets. Businesses where inventory is ordered based on what has already been sold are not able to identify inventory demand on Item Builds that are waiting for BOM inventory to be received. Therefore, there was a need to add Incomplete Builds to these reports.
We also encapsulated these Incomplete Builds into the Quantity Available and Reorder Point formula similar to Pending Builds. If the Item is determined to be a Manufactured Item, meaning that it will be adding to the inventory, it will increase the Quantity Available. If it is found as a BOM Item, meaning it takes away from the inventory, it will decrease the Quantity Available.
We also updated the formula for the Quantity Available calculation on the Inventory and Inventory by Location Data Set reports created with Striven’s Report Builder.
Filter Income By Item Report by Manufactured Items
Prior to this release, Manufactured Items would appear on the Income By Item report results, but the Items filter for the page did not include Manufactured Items. Now you will be able to enter the name of a Manufactured Item in the Items search field and filter the report specifically by Manufactured Items.
Inventory Stock Status Report: Reorder Point Edit Feature
Prior to this release, users were able to change an Item’s Reorder Point directly within the Inventory Stock Status Report. Now, these changes will be made by clicking into the Item from the report and typing in the Reorder Point and saving it. This update was made in order to improve system performance.
Lot Numbers Logic Updates
We’ve made an update to more accurately reflect the Lot Numbers that are available to be used on Orders and Transactions. We now allow you to select Lot Numbers entered on Purchase Orders, particularly with partial fulfillment.
Projects Updates
Copy Milestones from Different Projects
We’ve added a new functionality to Milestones. Now when creating a new Milestone, you will have the option to copy an existing Milestone from a different Project. This will allow you to copy details such as the Person Responsible, Status, Milestone Name, Notes, and the setting for Portal visibility. The Start Date of the Milestone will be set to the current date, while the End Date will be left blank for you to select the desired date. There will also be a checkbox to select to Copy Task Assignments for the Tasks within the Milestone. If this option is not selected, the Default Assignment for the Project will be displayed as the Task Assignment.
To use this feature when creating a new Milestone in a Project, click on the Copy Milestone From link in the top right corner of the Add Milestone popup. This will display additional fields that will allow you to select the Project where the existing Milestone is located. Then you can select the Milestone you wish to copy. Once you have completed these steps, your new Milestone should be displayed in the current Project along with the Tasks related to the copied Milestone.
Tasks Updates
Task Attachments Upgrade
We’ve made performance enhancements on Task attachments within Striven so that the images are loaded asynchronously. This improvement will provide quicker loading times when viewing Task attachments.
Payroll File Updates
The following columns have been added to the Payroll File generation:
- Job Type
- Division
Security Updates
Please review the following settings and adjust your User Roles for these new permissions as needed:
- “API Call Log Report - View”
- “API Call Log Report - Export”
- “1099 Settings - Edit”
- Note: The ability to edit due dates and memos on transactions has been tied to the “Transactions Prior Closing Date - Edit” permission.
Notifications & Portal Content Additions
The following email and Portal content have been added:
- Added a new merge field option for Public-SalesOrder-Print-Link in the New Invoice Email notification.
- Added New Discussion sms/text message content.
- Added New Discussion Reply sms/text message content.
Report Builder Updates
The following lists updates and additions to the Report Builder feature in this release:
- Update Custom Search Custom Field Query Engine for field type: Custom List and Date (This will allow searching for blank/null values).