We are happy to announce that we are nearly ready to begin testing Civil Pro version 9. This release builds on the recent introduction of the mobile platform (v8.10.73), custom reports and custom views to bring a swag of new features. As is always the case with Civil Pro, we do not publish a major release without good reason. This time its as much as what happens under the covers as what you see in the application. We have totally rewritten the data layer behind Civil Pro to make it WAY faster and easier to extend. This means the new features in the first v9 release are only the beginning!

Our current testing release with selected projects begins in November 2016.

Full project daily costs, docket, progress claim and invoice reconciliation management

Our daily cost and production management engine has been rewritten and extended. By the time you know your costs from head office, it can be as much as 6 weeks since they were incurred! Most engineers deal with this by monitoring their daily costs with some kind of spreadsheet. Then they have another one for checking dockets, and possibly another for invoices. Rack up more for checking against progress claims. These spreadsheets are hacked and copied, are inefficient and inevitably introduce mistakes.

Now you can manage it all within Civil Pro.

For smaller businesses, match our cost and revenue management with accounting in packages like MYOB and your projects will be as tight as a drum. For big projects and businesses, Civil Pro is the bridge between your everyday site work and your enterprise resource systems. On release we will have videos of how Civil Project can provide the best systems without all of the high level ERP overhead.

New registers

Civil Pro now supports the generation of risk assessments. These are most typically seen in OH&S documentation such as the Job Safety and Environmental Analysis (JSEA) of Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) but will work for any kind of risk analysis. We expect to be including additional non-QA checklists (for example pre-start checklists and punchlists), but are not sure whether they will make the first v9 release or not.

New data layer

You will notice the changes from the first log in which occurs in a fraction of the time of previous versions. You will see some other changes too – for example, you log in to your database first, then choose a project. This means changing projects is a breeze without having to create a new connection for each one. If all your projects are on the same database, you just use the same connection and choose your project. Easy.

Multiple projects in standalone

Standalone files now support multiple projects. This makes is easier for users who run lots of smaller projects and don’t want to have to be hanging files all of the time. You can also store all of your template data in the same file with our repository projects…

Repository Projects

You can now assign any project as a repository project. This can just be a dummy project you use to hold your ITPs, work types, test methods etc so that you can import into new jobs quickly, or it can be a job you just finished that you use as the data source for your next job. Data can be imported easily from repository project on the same database with a couple of clicks from the context menu.

Interface

Extended functionality in related items and linking

The related items engine has also been rewritten and now supports double click to add in every linking interface (as well as the good old drag and drop). Double click to navigate has also been tidied up to apply to all records.

Less clicks

Wizards such as the import wizard and the new project wizard have been streamlined to minimise the clicks. If we can figure out how to reduce complexity, then that’s what we have done.

More reports and improved customization

We have also changed the reporting engine and are in the process of rewriting reports so they are easier to customize and there is greater control during customization! Some of the reports to have the facelift include the checklist, ITP, NCR and Lot Conformance Report. Of course, the new reports for the Risk Analysis and Cost Management are in the new format.

More customizable view support, and more pre-baked views

Our customizable views have proven very popular with users. Version 9 now supports customization in more registers (the checklist for example) and we have written more pre-baked views that work out of the box!