Dear clients,
the year 2019 is slowly but surely coming to an end – and we would like to take this opportunity to release another update for GigPlaner. Compared to last year, we have reduced the number of versions a little, but this is already the seventh version this year, again with many new and interesting features.
The biggest topic in this version is the new driver's logbook, which enables you and your employees to record and evaluate routes as part of the time recording. Similar to the working hours, the start and end mileage is stored in order to make the recording as easy as possible.
In addition to the driver's logbook, there are also some new rights, enhancements in travel expenses, statements and time recording as well as minor optimizations. The new version will be available as usual tomorrow for all of our clients.
A contemplative pre-Christmas time and further success with GigPlaner wishes you
Sven Schlotthauer
Driver's Logbook
The new driver's logbook makes it much easier for you and your employees to record driving routes. Thanks to the direct integration into the time recording system, the mileage at the start and end of the journey is recorded and GigPlaner then calculates the covered distance. As with time recording, the GPS position for the start and end of a trip can also be saved automatically as an option.
Recording of driving distances
To record routes, this must be activated for a time category in the time clock (Settings > Statements & Time recording > Time categories). Ideally, you should create a category "Driving time" for which recording is activated. When stamping the working hours, the mileage is then queried in a further step – but can also be recorded later via the time clock (for example, if the trip does not start direectly but a few minutes after the start of the working hour). As soon as the travel time is completed via the time clock, the end mileage is also queried.
Displaying routes
A logbook is kept for each vehicle and each employee, in which all journeys are recorded. You will find these logbooks in the base data in the respective employee or vehicle profile as well as under "My Account".
Transfer of travel distances to travel expenses
All recorded routes can be easily and conveniently transferred to a travel expense report. In this way, individual routes do not have to be calculated together manually and the individual routes are clearly visible later in the accounting.
Certificates for vehicles
In the settings for certificate categories (Settings > Employees > Certificates) it can be defined whether these are relevant for vehicles. All these certificates (e.g. driving licences) are then displayed in the vehicle profiles and can be activated via checkbox. Afterwards, only employees with the relevant certificates can be set as drivers.
Rights management
The rights management has also been extended in this version by some additional configuration options:
Approve own requests
Requests for travel expenses, certificates, holidays and working hours were previously always automatically approved for administrators. Starting with this version, it is possible to regulate the approval of own requests separately, so that a four-eyes control is also possible for administrators if desired.
Access to employee addresses
The address data of employees, freelancers and subcontractors can now be released separately via a separate right. In this way, you can, for example, release the employee profiles with contact information only, but not with the address for other employees.
Seperate rights for requests & bookings
The option of requesting or booking employees in a job can now also be assigned as a separate right. Regardless of whether an employee can edit a job, you can control whether he or she can request or book employees at all. This does not affect the entry of personnel requirements (the addition of categories into a job).
Statements & time recording
Some optimizations have also been made in Statements & Time Recording to make working with the GigPlaner easier and more flexible.
Changing working hours
For working times, it can now be defined in the settings that these may no longer be changed after one-time approval. A change is then only possible by administrators.
Statement periods
The statement and time recording periods (statement to the xth of a month) can now be defined separately for employees, freelancers and subcontractors. In this way, different periods can be implemented for internal and external employees.
Time recording for subjobs
In a main job it is now possible to show the working hours for all subjobs. The working hours of all employees from all subjobs are displayed and can also be edited or added from this view.
Travel expenses
The travel expense overview can now be grouped by employee. In addition, the "Outstanding Approvals" widget in the dashboard has been enhanced to display travel expense reports that are ready for payment. This provides a better overview for those employees who only pay travel expenses.
Further optimizations
- Freelancers are now also able to specify an optional reason for absences, as it was already possible when employees were on leave.
- If desired, e-mails for comments can be sent with each new comment. By default, the system does not send new notifications until the employee has logged on to the system once in the meantime. This can be changed in the settings now.
- In the "central time clock" widget, employees who are on break will be marked accordingly in the future.
- Contact persons can now also be stored in the system for subcontracotrs – analogous to the locations and customers.
- The categories in the employee list in a job can now be sorted. In this way, you can place important categories such as project managers at the top of the list.
- If records are created using the API, individual fields can be locked for editing in GigPlaner. Until now there was only one common option for employees, freelancers and service providers. In the future it will also be possible to lock the fields in these three resources independently of each other.