May 2024 Release Notes

The Kahua 2024.2 release will be deployed to our Production environments on May 11, 2024.  A preview of this functionality can be accessed at https://earlyaccesslaunch.kahua.com beginning on April 27, 2024.  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 the updates described below in the following functional areas:

• Administration
• General
• Reporting
• File Manager
• Design Review
• Cost Management
• Bid Management

Administration

New internal users automatically associated to your domain

We've made it easier for your company's new users to get started using Kahua. Instead of going through the registration process, new users can immediately log in to Kahua after setting their password. Domains configured with SSO will not require a password reset. 

Add new internal users the same as before via the Users App, Contacts or Quick Add icon and associate them with your company. Once the new internal user is invited to Kahua, an "account is ready" email will be sent. The new user can click the Launch Kahua link to begin using Kahua. Alternatively, they can access Kahua's login url and enter their email address to log in.

The new user is prompted to set a new password during their first login. They will be required to use the access code sent to their email confirming their identity. 

Display Project and Partition Numbers when moving projects

When moving a project or partition, the Project Numbers and Partition Numbers will appear in front of the project name in the selection tree if the user has the Show Project Number option enabled in their user settings.  

Minor UI changes to the Approvals Configuration application

In preparation for some more significant changes coming to the Approvals Configuration application in a future release, we've made the following minor UI changes:

• Approval Levels have been relabeled to Steps.
• Role has been relabeled to Recipient(s).  In a future release we will add support for multiple recipients in a step.  
• The Role Type radio button control has been removed from the approval step modal and now both named approvers and actors are listed in a single Recipient dropdown.

General

Added the ability to move an accepted share to a different project

We have added the ability to change which project an accepted inbound share is associated with. In the Share Manager application, users with permission to edit records will have the option to edit an inbound share. 

To move the share to a different project, select the inbound share and click Edit. On the edit page, click the pencil icon next to the Destination project and select the correct project. Once saved, the inbound share will be associated with the correct project.

NOTE: If the Shared App was open when you associated the share with a different project, you’ll need to close and reopen that app to see the change.

Added wrapping to multi-line text fields during data entry and on hover

Typing and editing longer text content has been improved. Multi-line text fields will now wrap text as you type, accommodating longer entries without sacrificing visibility or ease of editing.  The wrapped text is visible when the field is being edited and when you hover over the field.

Added quick filters to more apps

We have added the ability to perform quick filters in logs to the following apps and Kahua provided extensions:

• Daily Reports

• Field Observations

• Issues

• Meetings

• Packaged Submittals

• RFIs

Reporting

Report Wizard - Increased project selection limit

We have increased the project selection limit from 500 projects to 10,000 projects.  This will better accommodate those portfolios with a large project count and a need to report across the entire organization.

Report Wizard - Added relative date filtering

Reports leveraging the new query data sources now benefit from being able to filter on dates in a relative manner in the same way which is possible in log views.  For instance, filter conditions such as "Due Date within 90 days of today" and "Target Completion Date more than 14 days ago" are now more easily implemented without calculating a specific date. This feature is also available for scheduled query data source reports.

Added ability to download custom report definition files from Kahua

Custom report definition files for DevExpress (.RPT) and Stimulsoft (.MRT) can now be downloaded from Kahua while in edit mode for the report.  Once downloaded, the report definition can be imported into kBuilder to review and modify the report as needed.  After clicking the Edit button for an uploaded report, there is a new action button at the top labeled Export RPT/MRT File. 

Data Store Reports - Added support for Multi-select

Data store reports with parameters for lookup or entity fields will now benefit from being able to configure the parameters to allow multi-select.  Enabling multi-select does require making updates to the report data source SQL in order to properly filter for the multiple selected values.

File Manager

Title Block Extraction - Added support for date fields

The Title Block Extraction now supports mapping extracted dates to date fields (e.g., a Drawing Revision Date).  The extracted dates will follow the domain's date format as defined in Domain configuration. 

Title Block Extraction - Auto-Navigate to Working Folder when Title Block Extraction process begins

When a user initiates the Title Block Extraction process, the system will now auto-navigate to the Working Folder where the Title Block Extraction is taking place (which is a staging area directly beneath the target upload folder for reviewing the results of the Title Block Extraction prior to publishing the drawings to the target folder).

Added ability to view MSG and CSV files

When MSG (Outlook email message files) or CSV files are uploaded to File Manager or to the References Section in entities throughout Kahua, the file will be rendered as a PDF for viewing.

Design Review

Design Review - Added ability to set a Review Status for multiple items at once

Instead of setting Recommended Review Status for one file at a time, the multi-select option can now be used to assign a value to a subset of or all the Files for Review.  

Design Review - Added Review Step as a column on the Reviewer Recommendations grid

We have added the Review Step column to the Reviewer Recommendations grid. The new column provides an indication of what step of the Design Review process the review occurred.

Design Review Comments - Added multi-file select for extracting markups

We have added the ability to select multiple files in a design review set to extract comments from, instead of having to perform the extraction on one file at a time.

Design Review Sets - Added New Configuration options

In Configuration > Applications > Design Review Sets > Settings, there are three new configuration options. The options are outlined below.

Design Review Sets - Added Configuration option to remove New action 

A new setting called Enable NEW Action has been added. This option controls whether a new Design Review Set can be initiated from within the Design Review app itself.  It’s recommended that this option be disabled for clients that normally create their Design Review Sets by processing documents from Controlled Folders in File Manager.

Design Review Sets –Option to Partially Complete a Design Review Set

A new setting called Enable Partial complete has been added.  Enabling this setting allows users to partially complete a Design Review Set.  This will enable the Final Review to release a subset of documents while other documents are still in review.

Design Review Sets - Added Configuration option to control Design Review Completion Behavior

A new setting called Behavior for Completing a Design Review Set with Open Comments has been added.  This setting has been added to control the behavior for completing a Design Review Set that has open comments.  The available options for this setting are:

• Complete Regardless of any Open Comments
• Warn if Open Comments, but still allow Completion
• Prevent Completing if Open Comments

Cost Management

Construction Change Directives - Added option to include existing comments to CCD Approvals

The option to include existing comments with approvals generated by the Construction Change Directive (CCD) app has been added to the Configuration.  When enabled, past comments will appear in the Approval task.

Pay Request - Display Activity Codes on Items

This change applies to the Kahua-supplied Expense Pay Request application in the Kahua for Owner, Kahua for Education, Kahua for General Contractor, and Kahua for Subcontractor packages.  

The Activity Code from related contract or change order items can now be optionally configured to be displayed as a read-only field in the Pay Request item grid and panel. 

Pay Request Item Overbilling - Allow reporting on Work Breakdown

This change applies to the Kahua-supplied Expense Pay Request application in the Kahua for Owner, Kahua for Education, Kahua for General Contractor, and Kahua for Subcontractor packages.

Kahua allows overbilling on Pay Request items. We now have a way to track overbilled amounts for inclusion on the Work Breakdown.  

For each overbilled item, the pay request includes a Payables Overbilled - Total Value and Payables Overbilled - Quantity attribute. 

• These are populated when the pay request is billed or paid (remitted)
• These are available on the Work Breakdown via Configuration/ Work Breakdown/ Columns.

Please note that these values are only populated on new pay requests. Existing pay requests from prior to the 2024.2 release are not included.

Planning Budget - Added custom fields and Item Category lookup

Standard custom fields have been added to the Planning Budget document.  Item Category was added to the Planning Budget Items grid.

Modernized the Base Pay apps

The base application for Funding Pay applications has been updated to take advantage of Kahua’s modern HUB architecture. This makes the applications more usable, with higher stability and performance.

Reinstated Expand/Collapse function in Cost Items Grouping

In December 2023 we temporarily removed expanding and collapsing grouping rows on item grids within a document.  It is back in this release.

Note:  The following updates apply to the Kahua for Education, Kahua for Owner, and Kahua for General Contractor Issues application. 

Issues - Renamed Close Issue to Close Out Issue and require confirmation for closing or voiding an issue

To reduce the risk of accidentally closing or voiding an issue, the Close Issue button has been renamed to Close Out Issue and the user must confirm their intent to close or void an issue after selecting Close Out Issue or Void. 

Issue Items - Added option to exclude issue items from the Work Breakdown

This change applies to the Issues application in Kahua for Owner, Kahua for Education, and Kahua for General Contractor.

Issues are often used to assist in the buying process through the soliciting of quotes, reviewing and approving prices and quotes, queuing up the final authorization, and so on.  This often includes the authorization process for allowances and contingency already committed on the issue item's related expense contract. 

Kahua's issues app now supports excluding selected issue items from the Work Breakdown report. This eliminates potential double-counting and streamlines the business process to manage allowances and contingency authorization within issues. 

In the configuration app, the default value of Exclude from Work Breakdown for new issue items can be set up under the New Item Defaults section.  Additionally, the setting can be exposed on the Issue Item grid and Issue Item panel.

When Exclude from Work Breakdown is selected for an issue item, all the values that would typically contribute to the standard Work Breakdown report columns, such as Issue Expense Projected, Issue Expense Pending and Issue Expense Approved, are suppressed.

This functionality applies to the datastore as well, in the following ways:

• Values are suppressed in Work Breakdown datastore tables. 
• The new attributes used to manage Exclude from Work Breakdown are available in Issue and Issue Item datastore tables.

Issue Items - Added column filters to the Issue Items grid

We added column filters to the Issue Items grid. These filters work best in the Show All item grid.  There may be some performance impacts when used on larger issue item lists.

Issue Items - Added Custom fields to Issue Items

Standard Custom Fields have been added to Issues Items. These can be configured in the Configuration app > Applications > Issues > Fields.   The fields appear as Item Custom <field type>.  When Is Visible is selected for an Issue Item custom field, it will appear in the Issue Item panel on the Details section of Issues.  These fields are available in the datastore and portable views.

Issue Items - Ensured all Return for Clarification and Reject selections require Reason values

All "backflow" actions for issue items, such a Return for Clarification or Reject, were reviewed to ensure a Reason was requested and subsequently included in the corresponding Kahua message.  

Issue Items - Reduced manual steps needed when using Confirm Price action

Selecting Confirm Price on an issue item now queues up the next process step without requiring additional manual steps.

Bid Management

Bid Solicitation - Simple SAVE action replaced with SAVE combo box

The Save button on bid solicitations is now a multi-function Save button.  Among other benefits, this enables the user to perform periodic saves without having to re-enter Edit mode following each save.

Scheduling/rSchedule (Runding)

Note: These features are available for customers in Commercial environments. They are not yet available for customers using the Kahua Government Network.

Schedule Updates

A new version of the Guidebook has been released for all users. This includes Schedules and Schedules with Earned Value.

Schedule import performance has been significantly improved; performance has increased as much as 500% under specific customer conditions. 

Unusable Vendor and Vendor contact fields have been removed from both Schedule Preview and Edit view for Schedule Task Subitem Grid. 

Earned Value Updates

Field order within the Earned Value application has been adjusted to match our standard.

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