August 2023 Release Notes

The Kahua 2023.4 release will be deployed to our Production environments on August 19, 2023.  A preview of this functionality can be accessed at https://earlyaccesslaunch.kahua.com beginning on August 6, 2023.  Please click here for more information on the Early Access program. The release notes below are subject to change. For any changes to these notes, please see the change log at the bottom of the article.

In addition to various performance improvements, user interface updates and error corrections, this release will also include updates to the following:

REPORTS

GROUPS

PORTABLE VIEW TEMPLATES

SHARE MANAGER

CSI CODES

FILE MANAGER

RFIs

DESIGN REVIEW

BID MANAGEMENT

PACKAGED SUBMITTALS

EXPENSE CHANGE ORDERS

Desktop

NEW DESKTOP EXPERIENCE

Kahua is excited to announce a new Kahua for Windows Desktop Application and updated Webhost with this release. As part of our vision of having a consistent and highly performant web, mobile and desktop experience we have rebuilt our Windows Desktop Host from the ground up to utilize technology advancements from Microsoft, our Development Partners and our own Research & Development team. 

For more information, visit our New Host page.

HEADER REALIGNMENT

Kahua is updating the header in the Kahua for Web and the new WINUI Windows Desktop hosts. This improved header displays a breadcrumb to indicate whether the current application view is project-specific or applies to all projects (when available to all projects, the project name will not be displayed).  Also, Tasks and Messages are accessible directly from the header for all users.

Updated Header

NEXT GENERATION KAHUA REPORTS

Beginning in the 2023.4 release and spanning the remaining 2023 releases, we will be releasing new versions (next gen) of the Kahua out-of-the-box reports.  With the introduction of these new report versions, the existing Kahua reports will be denoted with a "[Legacy]" prefix in the report description.  The legacy reports will remain for now but will be officially retired over the next several months.

Legacy report and next gen report Kahua platform reports in the Punch Lists app.  Legacy reports contain a “[Legacy]” prefix in the description and will be retired in the coming months.

The next gen reports offer an all-new filtering experience and faster performance!  The filtering UI has been redesigned and offers the following new features: 

• Individual conditions & groups of conditions
• New operators such as "Is in List" and "Is Not in List"
• Ability to filter on any attribute
  
  

The new filtering UI allows for groups of conditions and boasts new operators to make filtering more robust and easier than ever

The next gen reports can also be scheduled in the same way as the legacy reports.  The new filtering controls can be found in the scheduled report manager.  Now is a great time to switch existing reports that have been scheduled to the next gen version.

The following Kahua apps will contain the next gen report versions in the 2023.4 release:

• Expenses
• Field Observations
• Issues
• Meetings
• Packaged Submittals
• Portfolio Manager / Projects
• Project Directory
• Punch Lists
• RFIs

Next gen reports for the remaining Kahua apps will be launched throughout the rest of the year.

REPORT WIZARD PROJECT SELECTION – SELECT ALL

The recently introduced project selection control that allows reporting across multiple projects for report wizard reports has been enhanced to allow the user to select all descendant projects with a single click making it simpler to report on all projects for a given partition.  To use the new feature, simply expand a given partition and check the Select All check box.   

There is a configurable limit to the number of projects that may be selected.  The default limit is 500 projects, and there is an indicator providing the count of currently selected projects.

Report wizard project selection control with "Select All" capabilities

GROUPS – Removing a user will also remove that user from the 'Domain User’ Group

When a user is removed in the Users app, Kahua will now remove that user from the 'Domain User' group.

Currently, when a new user (account) is added, Kahua automatically adds their Contact as a member of the 'Domain User' group.  This change does the 'reverse', and automatically removes a User's Contact record from the 'Domain User' group when their user account is removed.   Previous to this change, the Contact needed to be manually removed from the ‘Domain User’ group after their account was removed.

This auto-removal will not be applied to any other Groups that the User may be a member of; there’s no danger of inadvertently auto-removing members from Distribution Groups.

Note that this change only affects the ’Domain User' group at the domain root – any child projects that have overridden the Domain User group won’t be affected.   

User removal prompt 

MS-WORD™ PORTABLE VIEW TEMPLATES

We’ve added support on MS-Word™ based portable views for the following:

• Improved conditional logic in tables, lists, fields or sections: support Hub-style conditions
• Use standalone Word tables in conditional tokens
• PIN signature and DocuSign tokens also can be output in PVs in tabular format

SHARE MANAGER – Ability To Relabel an Inbound Share

When accepting Inbound Shares from other Kahua organizations, the label for the share defaults to:

[SourceDomainName] - [ListName]/[FolderName]

For example, if “ACME, Inc.” shared their Construction RFIs with your organization, the name of the shared list would default to “ACME, Inc. - Construction”.   If they shared a folder with you named “Drawings”, the name of the shared folder would default to “ACME, Inc. - Drawings”.

While this default naming convention has worked well for most organizations, there are scenarios where having the ability to give the Inbound Share a different name would be beneficial.

Some of the more common reasons organizations may want to change the name of an Inbound Share are:

• to provide a name with more clarity regarding the purpose of the share
• to better align the name with your organization’s naming conventions
• to differentiate between shares that are given the same default name

These are some examples where the same default name may be given to two different Inbound Shares:

• RFIs shared from 2 different projects within the same Domain, but to the same target project:
  • SourceDomain1 - Construction (inbound from external Domain1, Project1)
  • SourceDomain1 - Construction (inbound from external Domain1, Project2)
• Folders being shared in from 2 different parent folders from the same project:
  • SourceDomain1 - Drawings (parent folder of the Drawings folder is “Volume 1”)
  • SourceDomain1 - Drawings (parent folder of the Drawings folder is “Volume 2”)

Within the Share Manager app, on the ‘Inbound’ share tab, users with Edit Permission to the Share Manager app may change the Share’s name.  Simply select a Share, and then use the EDIT action to enter in a Custom Share Name.  If no Custom Share Name is entered, the system shall continue to use the Default Share Name.

 Relabeling Inbound Share
 

CSI CODES - New Permission Role

The CSI Codes App has been updated with the following enhancements:

• A new “Coordinator” role has been added for CSI Codes.  The Coordinator role will allow full control of individual codes, including deletion, but not permit importing or exporting.  Groups assigned to the Coordinator role will be able to perform the following operations:

Add

Delete

Edit

Open App

View

 CSI Codes permissions

FILE MANAGER – Cross-Domain View and Copy

File Manager is an indispensable feature of Kahua for helping your organization organize, manage, and share all the various files (such as drawings, specs, models, photos, submittals, etc.) associated with your project.  While these files are readily available to anyone within your organization (assuming they have the necessary permissions) and from any device (desktop, web, and mobile), Kahua has always been unique in also providing an easy way to both:

• share your documents out to other organizations who use Kahua, and 
• enable other organizations who use Kahua to share their documents with you.

This sharing process is aptly named “Sharing” in Kahua and provides a way to make any set of documents available to another organization such that they’re fully accessible within their own instance of Kahua, and without the need to copy and create multiple ‘sources of truth’.

However, it’s recognized there are often scenarios when an organization does want to have their own ‘copy’ of certain documents, especially the files that have been shared with them in File Manager.  Assuming the necessary permissions are in place, these external organizations have always had the ability to download files from a ‘shared’ folder, creating a new local copy of those files, which they could then upload back into their own instance of Kahua.

Kahua now makes this process much easier with a new cross-domain view of File Manager with an intuitive cross-domain copy capability as well:

Your root File Manager folder will now be labeled with your Project Name:

All folders that have been shared with your project will still be listed in the List dropdown.  Selecting a share from this dropdown will put focus on the share in the ‘Folder View’ and will list its associated Folders/Files.  You may also navigate to a shared folder directly in the ‘Folder View’ since all folder shares will also now be represented as additional root folders in a single unified view: 

Displaying all this information in a single unified view now also enables you to easily copy files (or an entire folder and its subfolders):

• from your local File Manager folder structure to a location in one of your Shared Folder hierarchies
• from one of your Shared Folders to anywhere in your local File Manager folder hierarchy
• from one Shared Folder to another

NOTES: 

1. If you have File Manager open while someone in your organization is accepting a new In-Bound Folder share, you won’t see the newly accepted Folder Share until you close File Manager and re-open it.
2. Copying a Folder can only be performed if you have been granted the necessary ‘Create Folder’ permissions at the target location.
3. Multi-Select COPY does not currently apply to selecting multiple Folders.  The COPY action can be applied to multiple files at once, but only a single folder at a time.  However, the Folder COPY action does include all the selected folder’s contents, including all its child subfolders and associated files.  Multi-Select COPY of Folders is under consideration for a future release.
4. Root folders currently cannot be copied (including both the ‘Root File Manager Folder’ for your project, and any Root Folders associated with Folder Shares).  The ability to copy a Root Folder to a target destination is under consideration for a future release.

FILE MANAGER – New Role in Groups app to Import/Export Drawing Log (Controlled Folder)

The ability to import/export from a Controlled Folder (which typically represents a Drawing Log) has always been limited to just the Domain Admin or a user who has the Administrator role for File Manager.

A new ‘Import/Export’ role has been added, so the ‘Import/Export’ operation role can be combined with any other role (e.g., Moderator, etc.), such that a non-admin user may be granted the necessary permissions to import a drawing log.

File Manager permissions

FILE MANAGER – Folder Notifications added for Controlled folders

File Manager Notifications have been enabled for Controlled Folders, as they already exist for standard Files Folders.

For the Notification configurations shown in the image below, this is the new behavior:

• An 'Add File' message/notification is now generated anytime a new Primary File is uploaded (using 'Add Files' or Drag-and-Drop) to a Controlled Folder (thereby associating it with a Revision record)
  • if more than 1 file is selected in 'Add Files' that generates multiple new Revision records, or that result in files being associated with existing Revision records, only a single Notification/Message shall be generated that lists each File
• An 'Edit File' message/notification is now generated anytime a new Version of the same Revision is uploaded (using 'Add Files') to a Controlled Folder
• A 'Delete File' message/notification is now generated anytime one or more Revision Records, each with an associated Primary File, are deleted.
• A 'Lock File' message/notification is now generated anytime one or more Revision Records are Locked.
• An 'Unlock File' message/notification is now generated anytime one or more Revision Records are Unlocked.
• A 'Folder Update' message/notification is now generated anytime a folder is moved or renamed.

Notifications tab of Folder Properties

RFIs - Move to Different List 

The ability to move an RFI to a different list is now available. Select one or more RFIs in the Log view, choose the MOVE action on the toolbar, then select the desired list to move the RFI to. Note that the current number will be retained, so if the move would result in a duplicate number, Kahua will prevent the move from happening if the project's configuration does not permit duplicate RFI numbers.  Moving an RFI does not impact existing tasks.  

Move dialog

DESIGN REVIEW – Ability for Admin to Delete a Completed Design Review Set

Domain Admins or users with the Administrator role for Design Review Sets can now delete a Completed Design Review Set.

BID SOLICITATION - New 'Q&A Admin' Role on Bid Team tab

In Bid Management, when setting up a new Bid Solicitation, there is now a new role listed on the ‘Bid Team’ tab called “Q&A Admin”.  For this release, this new role is exactly the same as the “Q&A Manager” role, and will get the same notification as the “Q&A Manager”.  However, there will be more changes in upcoming releases which will take advantage of this new role, with the option of enabling more anonymity in the bidding process.

Q&A Admin

NOTE: This new field is ‘turned off’ by default.  To enable this new field, go to Configuration | Bid Solicitations | Fields | Override, and check the box for “Is Visible”

Bid Solicitation Configuration

BID ROOM - Permission Filter

We have added the "User's Company is Named on Record" permission filter for the Bid Room that, when set, only displays Bid Solicitations that have been sent to the specific Company the user is associated with.  This is beneficial for companies that operate multiple subsidiaries and want to hide non-relevant Bid Solicitations from users.

SCHEDULING/rSCHEDULE (Runding) 

The rSchedule Application will now have a Revision Section in the UI. This will load with the rSchedule Application. This quality of life enhancement will allow users to track revisions more easily within the UI. Current rSchedule revisions will migrate into the new revisions application.

 
Configuration for Schedules now has an Additional Configuration tab for MS Project and P6 features. This tab will support automatic WBS mapping and Milestone mapping for both PC and MS Project

Mobile

Kahua Provided Extensions

To continuously improve our best-in-class Kahua provided extensions, we will be updating offerings to include the following features:

Kahua for General Contractors, Kahua for Owners, and Kahua for Program Managers

PACKAGED SUBMITTALS – Standard Workflow – Submittal Packages & Items – Recall Message

Kahua is adding recall messages to the standard workflow of both submittal packages and submittal items. Now, when a submittal package or item is recalled, all users who previously had an open task for the submittal are notified.
 

PACKAGED SUBMITTALS – Owner Directed Workflow – Submittal Packages & Items - Consultant Response Enhancements
In the June 2023 release and prior, Kahua introduced several consultant response enhancements to the Standard Submittal Package workflow. Now, these same enhancements are being added for the Owner Directed workflow as well. All updates are as follows:

Consultant Package Notes

Kahua is adding a new field, “Consultant Package Notes” to submittal packages in the owner directed workflow. This field is a place for Consultant Reviewers to input notes that apply to the entire Submittal Package.  This field is visible by default but can be hidden in submittal packages configuration.

The Consultant’s package notes are also appended to the end of all their submittal item notes within the package as shown below.

Consultant Response Configuration

Admins can configure which response fields are required for a Consultant to respond to their task in Submittal Packages and Submittal Items settings. By default, Submittal Item Response and Response Notes are both required, but Submittal Package Notes are not.

The above configuration settings previously only affected behavior in the standard workflows but now apply to the owner directed workflow as well.

Consultant Reviewer Task Updates

Several updates have been made to improve the user experience of Consultant Reviewers working on Submittal Package tasks in the Owner Directed workflow. They are as follows:

A - Consultant Response for Items: Consultants select a response value in this field to populate all their empty “Response” fields on submittal items within the package (submittal items which already have responses are not updated)

B - Reviewer Notes for Items (Copy to Empty Items on Respond): Consultants type their reviewer notes into this field and those notes are copied to all their empty “Reviewer Notes” fields on submittal items within the package (submittal items which already have reviewer notes are not updated). Note that, unlike the “Consultant Response for Items” field, the Reviewer Notes do not copy until the Consultant clicks the “Respond” button. This allows the consultant to update their notes using the new field up until the point they finalize their response.

C - Consultant Package Notes: Consultants can add notes at the package level. This field was added to the owner directed workflow as of this release (new field shown in item 1 of this section).

D - Items Grid Response and Reviewer Notes Input: Consultant reviewers must no longer open the more details panel of each submittal item to add a response. They can now update their response and reviewer notes for each item from within the items grid on the front page of their task.

Display Consultant Response on Parent Document

Two new fields have been added to submittal packages and items in the owner directed workflow:

1. Display Consultant Response Upon Completion: When this field is set to yes, consultant response data (consultant reviewer notes and responses) displays on the main record of the submittal after the review process is complete (when the official reviewer or owner’s rep responds).
2. Display Consultant Response Upon Response: When this field is set to yes, consultant response data displays on the main record of the submittal as soon as that consultant reviewer responds to their task.

Display Consultant Responses Upon Consultant Response = Yes before submitting to review.

The consultant adds response data and responds to their task

When the consultant responds, their response displays on the parent Submittal record, not just in the official reviewer’s task.

Both of these fields are hidden and set to “no” by default in Configuration. They can be made visible on submittal records for users to select, or simply defaulted to “yes” in submittal package and item configuration. If neither of these fields are enabled, the default behavior of the application is still to not display consultant data on the parent record of the submittal (no configuration change is needed to retain current behavior).

EXPENSE CHANGE ORDERS – All Pending Changes Tokens for Portable Views

The Kahua Expense Change Order already had Portable View tokens available for All Approved Change Orders for the current contract, plus a summary value token of the original contract plus all approved changes. 

We’ve added the equivalent token for all Pending Change Orders on a Contract, plus a summary token including all Pending Change Orders as well.

• PendingChangesAmount: All pending change orders for the contract, including the current change order if Pending.
• ContractPendingPlusApprovedAmount: Original contract plus approved change orders plus pending change orders, including the current change order if Pending or Approved.

Kahua Host Updates  

All Kahua hosts have been updated with various enhancements and bug fixes. The Windows host will automatically update upon first launch after the release. 

Download the appropriate app for your device: 

• Kahua Mobile for iOS on iTunes

• Kahua Mobile for Android on Google Play

Release Note Changes