Wishlist Items

[shadow7]

Location Renumbering - the ability to renumber locations especially after copying an address to reuse.
Outlook Contacts - the ability to import / export contacts for MS Outlook.

[Lynn]

Location Renumbering - the ability to renumber locations especially after copying an address to reuse.

I believe 3.5.8 does support moving locations up and down (which actually renumbers them). Have you tried this? (click on the address in the treeview, then in the right pane, click on a location and 'move up' or 'move down'.)

- Lynn

[AndyH]

I've used the move up and move down commands to re-arrange, and the copy with a renumber to "try out" a new spec.
Importing Outlook contacts would also be a plus for me.
I would like to be able to get "into" a spec from the checklist editor, either to just see the difference between two similar specs, or to jump from editing the checklist to editing the spec.

[Janelle]

Importing contacts from Outlook is something we've been looking into. But you'll be happy to know that viewing specs' descriptions in the Checklist Editor is already on our to-do list!

Keep the wishlist ideas coming - thank you!

[AndyH]

The ability to separate specs into one or more contracts in the construction management section would also be very helpful. In many smaller jobs we are using two or even three subcontractors to do distinct portions of the same job, without an overall general contractor. I am currently managing this function by creating two identical addresses - e.g. "2 Main Street - Roof and Carpentry" and "2 Main Street - Plumbing and Heating" but this is clunky and kludgy - requiring many extra steps of copying and associating documents. It also throws off some of the total unit counts and other data. Being able to create one address with two contracts seems simple, but I'm guessing it's probably a lot more complicated than it looks!

[Janelle]

Andy, are your subcontractors from different trades? It sounds like they might be. You can award multiple contracts by trade for an address in HDP, they just need to be separate trades.

[AndyH]

That's a workaround I've also used Janelle - "forcing" a couple of disparate work items into one trade category to create two separate contracts. In some cases the trades are the same, it's more a difference of "inside work and outside work" or "owner's unit and rental unit" and such. I've been able to figure out workarounds using either different addresses or categorizing the trades together, but if it's an easy addition, I find that this type of work happens more times than I'd like! Andy

[Lynn]

The ability to separate specs into one or more contracts in the construction management section would also be very helpful. In many smaller jobs we are using two or even three subcontractors to do distinct portions of the same job, without an overall general contractor.

Andy,

As a last big "hoorah" for 3.5, we are going to be adding support to bid a job out on a per line item basis. Note, that you must still assign what will be done in the contract as either (a) all trades or (b) only specific trades. This means you'd still have to have those 'other' specs in a different trade if you'd want to assign them to a different contract, but bid prices will be able to be collected on a per line item level as opposed to 'by trade' or 'total bid amount'.

- Lynn

[AndyH]

The ability to separate specs into one or more contracts in the construction management section would also be very helpful. In many smaller jobs we are using two or even three subcontractors to do distinct portions of the same job, without an overall general contractor.

Andy,

As a last big "hoorah" for 3.5, we are going to be adding support to bid a job out on a per line item basis. Note, that you must still assign what will be done in the contract as either (a) all trades or (b) only specific trades. This means you'd still have to have those 'other' specs in a different trade if you'd want to assign them to a different contract, but bid prices will be able to be collected on a per line item level as opposed to 'by trade' or 'total bid amount'.

- Lynn

To which I say, "Hoorah!"

[AndyH]

Here's another - when I am working on a property, clicking on any of the report-generating tabs does not automatically select the current address or contract for reporting. Often if I'm in a hurry I'll forget to go to the drop down lists and pick the appropriate choices. Once I even hit print without noticing this and began generating a report of all specifications for all addresses before I caught it. Only killed a couple of trees as I was able to delete the print job before too many pages had printed!

And another - the ability to associate or link documents, for example, I physically attach the job specs, projected draw schedule, and contract together, but can't automatically link them in either a Word file or other document. On a recent job involving two separate contractors for two sets of trades, I had to export the specs to Word, trim off the specs not used, scan the contract document to add a couple of special provisions, print the draw schedule, and then scan and store the whole document in the appropriate client file. Many agencies are now requiring auditable electronic files in a central location, as well as hardcopies, and having an auditor sitting at my computer, learning how to look up contracts in HDP is not an experience I look forward to.

[eclayton]

I like to be able to paint a list of all Contractors, addresses, phones numers etc. in my contacts and I'd like to see a place to put in the contractors e-mail eddress

[Lynn]

I like to be able to paint a list of all Contractors, addresses, phones numers etc. in my contacts and I'd like to see a place to put in the contractors e-mail eddress

This is a great idea; I'll add it to the list for a future version.

[Charity@HRA]

How about being able to upload multiple pictures at once?
(Perhaps there is a way to do this I am not seeing)
Thanks
Charity

[Janelle]

Charity, I can certainly see how that would be helpful.

We're writing these suggestions down for future reference so please keep them coming!

[AndyH]

How about being able to upload multiple pictures at once?
(Perhaps there is a way to do this I am not seeing)
Thanks
Charity

You can upload pictures? I must have missed that part... How?