New Features and Enhancements in PSA Summer 2023

The following new features have been introduced in the Summer 2023 release of PSA.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, see Upgrading to PSA Summer 2023. This provides a summary of the items that have been added for each feature and details of any required upgrade steps.

FinancialForce is Now Certinia

We have made the following changes to align with our new Certinia brand:

  • The publisher name has been updated to Certinia
  • Package names no longer reference FinancialForce
  • In most cases, text referring to FinancialForce has been replaced with Certinia

For more information about these updates and related text changes, see the Package Name Updates article in the Certinia Community and the Technical Documentation Pack.

To learn more about our rebrand, visit the Certinia Community for a message from our CEO, Scott Brown.

Note:

Major versions include updates to both package and publisher names. In service packs, only the package name has changed. Some elements, such as theming and logos, have not been updated and other references to FinancialForce might remain visible in your org.

Lightning Experience

For Summer 2023, we have built on the PSA Lightning components and actions that we previously introduced.

Project Creation

There are no enhancements to the Project Creation process in this release. See Project Creation for details of upgrade steps required.

Project Overview

We have added a new Project Overview grid, that gives you an overview of your projects and their associated records, making it easy to view the status of your projects.
In the Project Overview you can:

  • View the status of your projects.
  • View the current hierarchy created for a project.
  • Determine if a hierarchy is necessary for your projects.
  • View project actuals fields for an overview of project performance.
  • View monthly revenue forecasts for records in the project hierarchy.

For more information, see:

Project Task Board

Provided an administrator has added it to the page, the Project Task Board shows the status of the following:

  • From a project record page: all project tasks for the current project.
  • From an app page, such as a workspace: project tasks you own or are assigned to, and all project tasks on the projects you manage.

Using the Lightning App Builder, an administrator can customize the title and height of the board and control whether users can edit project tasks from the Project Task Board.

For more information, see:

Gantt on a Project Record

When exporting data in custom columns from the Gantt chart on a project record to Microsoft Project, the data is now exported in the order displayed and any hidden columns are excluded from the export. This means if you exceed the number of custom columns that can be exported for a Microsoft Project custom field type, you can hide or rearrange the columns to control the ones that are exported and the ones that are excluded. For more information, see Exporting Data to Microsoft Project.

We have replaced the Critical Path button in the toolbar with a smaller, less obvious button Critical path to free up space and improve the user experience. If you don't need to see this button, an administrator can hide it by deselecting Show Critical Path in the Project Gantt component properties in the Lightning App Builder. For more information, see Project Gantt Lightning Component Properties.

A Reload button is now available on the Gantt toolbar. This is useful if, for example, project tasks or project task assignments were created or updated after you loaded the project record page, or if you have made a change in a different tab.

You can now double-click individual resources displayed in the Assigned Resources column of the Gantt chart to view information about them in the Resource Details panel.

Gantt Task Editor

On the Task Assignments tab of the Task Editor in Gantt, the Held on this project option is now selected by default if there are held resource requests on the current project. This means the Resource Name drop-down list contains only the held resources on this project, making it easier to find the resources you need. You can deselect this option if you want to select from all resources.

If the Assigned to this project option is also selected, both held and assigned resources are displayed in the Resource Name drop-down list. PSA retains your selection on the current project when you use the same browser on the same device.

For more information, see Task Assignments Tab.

Project Task Scheduling Enhancements

We have enhanced the Project Task Scheduling field in Task Management Settings custom setting by adding another value Retain Schedule Adjustments, to retain the adjustments and modifications made in the following scenarios:

  • When only Project Tasks are moved and there are no changes in the working days and estimated hours: when the dates are shifted in the Gantt, all assignments should reflect the new dates, and any schedule adjustments done to the assignments’ schedule in the planners should remain as it is and adjust to the new dates.
  • When Project Task having Multiple PTAs is shifted and an assignment related to only one PTA is updated or modified: that one assignment updated via planners will now reflect the new hours but will retain the hours distribution between the start and end dates as per the planner. All schedule adjustments done to the assignments on the project in the planners should remain as it is.
  • When the entire hierarchy of Tasks is shifted: all the schedule adjustments done within the associated assignments should remain as it is and should reflect the new dates as per Gantt.

For more information, see:

Advanced Lookup Search

A new lookup advance search has been introduced in PSA. You can now use search windows as part of the lookups, where you can see additional information fields related to the records and select the best option as per your requirement.
This is an in progress feature and will be implemented throughout PSA.

PSA Mobile Application

We have introduced a new PSA Mobile application that lets you access data on the go. You can use it for time entry, expense entry, and viewing weekly summary from your phone.

The mobile app contains the following tabs:

  • Enter Expense
  • Enter Time
  • Weekly Summary

As part of this functionality we have created two new permission sets:

  • PSA - Mobile
  • PSA - My Weekly Summary

For more information, see:

Resource Management

We have enhanced the resourcing capabilities for you to find the resources best suited for a resource request. The following enhancements have been made to accommodate advanced resourcing:

  • The worked with customer functionality is refined by implementing two new fields Minimum Work Duration and Last Worked in addition to the Work With Customer field in the resource request filter. You can now search resources based on how long the resource was associated with the customer and how recent was the interaction. For more information, see Using the PSA Resource Filter Lightning Component and Resource Filter Lightning Component Fields.
  • We have added field-level security checks for the newly added Minimum Work Duration and Last Worked fields.
  • The Resource Details tab now includes the Assignment History section where you can see the last five assignments the resource has worked on. You can see the name of the skills assignments have in common with the current resource request, regardless of rating, essential/desirable status, or match Any Skill/All Skills criteria.
  • You can filter the assignments by Account and Skills present on the resource requests using the filters in the Assignment History section.
  • A new View History button is available in the Assignment History section of the contact card and will be displayed wherever the contact card is used.
  • The Work History window opens when you click View History. The Work History shows the details of all the past or closed assignments a resource has worked on, in a grid. Sorting is available on all the columns displayed in the grid except the Requested Skills column.
  • You can group the assignments displayed in the Work History window using the Group by drop-down. By default, the assignments are sorted by the most recent start date.

For more information, see:

Also, the performance of the PSA Manage Skills and Certifications component has been enhanced for you to work easily with a large number of skills. The component can now work smoothly with up to 50,000 skills.

Rate Cards

We have created the RateCardMatcherPlugin API that provides an interface that can be used to create plugins to be executed during the matching of rate cards. The plugins customize how the best matching rate cards are chosen. For more information, see Permission Sets and Other Technical Documentation.

Resource Optimizer

We have made the following enhancements:

  • Columns displayed in Resource Optimizer are now sortable. You can now sort your results, for example by the Resource Request ID, Role, Start Date.
  • The expiration date of skills is now taken into account during the matching process.

For more information see:

Resource Requests

You can now retain the preferred schedule on a resource request when holding or assigning resources.

For more information, see Holding Resources and Creating Assignments.

Resource Schedule

The Schedule Options window is now available on the Resource Schedule tab, which enables you to choose whether to retain the preferred schedule on a resource request or create a new schedule when holding or assigning resources.

For more information, see Resource Schedule in "Upgrading to PSA Summer 2023".

Services Forecasting

Using Weighting for % Complete Revenue Forecasts

It is now possible to forecast based on cost rate or other attribute so that the monetary value of each hour on a project or milestone differs depending on the resource the hours are assigned to. For example, if the cost rate amount for resource A is twice the cost rate amount for resource B, an hour of resource A's time accounts for twice as much revenue as an hour of resource B's time.

You can enable this feature from the active revenue forecast setup record and can specify the fields on the Assignment and Resource Request objects that determine the relative value of the hours.

With the introduction of the weighting feature, we have updated the description of the % Complete for Recognition fields on the Project and Milestone objects in the PSA Help. For more information, see Project Fields and Milestone Fields.

Tip:

If you are using the weighting feature, the following fields on the Revenue Forecast object allow you to validate the values returned in revenue forecast calculations for the relevant monthly time periods, provided an administrator has added the fields to the Revenue Forecast Layout page layout:

  • Actuals Weighted Effort
  • Scheduled Weighted Effort

For more information on weighting, see:

Specifying a Total Revenue Field for Fixed Fee Projects

If you are using the % Complete or Equal Split recognition method and do not want PSA to use the value in the Bookings field on a project record as the total project revenue in forecast calculations, you can specify an alternative numeric field in the Total Revenue Field on Project field on the active revenue forecast setup record.

For more information, see:

Specifying a Total Revenue Field for Fixed Fee and Deliverable Milestones

If you do not want PSA to use the value in the Milestone Amount field on a milestone record as the total milestone revenue in forecast calculations, you can specify an alternative numeric field in the Total Revenue Field on Milestone field on the active revenue forecast setup record. This is available for all recognition methods.

For more information, see:

Excluding Assignment or Resource Request Records from Deliverable Revenue Forecasts

If you are using the Deliverable recognition method and want to exclude EVA records that relate to specific assignments or resource requests from the forecast, you can configure the active revenue forecast setup record so that PSA excludes records that have the checkbox you nominate selected.

Note:

EVA records generated for assignments and resource requests and used in fixed fee forecast calculations are currently unaffected. In a future release, we plan to enable you to exclude specific assignment or resource request records from fixed fee forecast calculations.

For more information, see:

Specifying Alternatives to the Bill Rate Fields for Deliverable Revenue Forecasts

If you are using the Deliverable recognition method, you can configure PSA to use values in nominated fields on assignments and resource requests instead of the default bill rate fields.

For more information, see:

Scheduling Revenue Forecasts

A Schedule Forecast button is now available on both the Revenue Forecast Setup and PSA Administration tabs. It allows you to quickly schedule revenue forecasts to run at set intervals. For consistency and ease of use, the process is now similar to scheduling a revenue forecast version.

When scheduling revenue forecasts, you can select an RPGClosed Abbreviation of region, practice, group., if you want the scheduled job to only include projects and opportunities that match a particular RPG. Projects or opportunities with an RPG that is below the selected one in the RPG hierarchy are also included.

For more information, see Scheduling Revenue Forecasts.

Previewing Revenue Forecasts

The Revenue Forecast Preview now supports EVA records for projects and milestones forecast using the % Complete recognition method.

For more information, see Previewing Revenue Forecasts.

Scheduling Revenue Forecast Versions

A Schedule Version button is now available on the PSA Administration tab, which allows you to quickly schedule revenue forecast versions to run at set intervals. It works in exactly the same way as the Schedule Version button on the Revenue Forecast Setup tab.

For more information, see Scheduling Revenue Forecast Versions.

Reviewing Forecast Versions

Enhancements

We have made the following enhancements to the Review Forecast Version page:

  • The date and time a revenue forecast version was locked is displayed.
  • You can rename a revenue forecast version, provided you have the PSA - View All Forecasts permission set.

For more information, see Reviewing Revenue Forecast Versions and Adjusting and Locking a Revenue Forecast Version.

Improvements to Performance

Performance of the Review Forecast Version page has significantly improved, owing to several added enhancements. Contributing toward the improvement are some new formula fields on the Revenue Forecast Version Detail object. These fields calculate the following in both corporate and local currency:

  • Actual revenue
  • Scheduled revenue

This means that fewer calculations are made on the Review Forecast Version page itself, resulting in faster performance.

For more information, see:

Self-Assignment

We have made the following enhancements to the self-assignment functionality:

  • Removed the Cost Rate Amount field from the default fields in the Self Assignment UI Assignment Fields.
  • It is now mandatory to assign FLS permission to the fields added to the field set.
  • The visibility and state of the Cost Rate Amount field on the Self-Assignment page are controlled by whether the self-assignment-default-cost-rate config is true or false and if the FLS permissions have been assigned or not.

For more information, see:

Services Billing

We have added some new Lightning App Builder options to customize the billing actions available on the following tabs:

  • Billing Events Awaiting Invoicing
  • Billing Events Awaiting Release
  • Projects Awaiting Billing

For more information, see:

A new View Status button has been introduced on all the services billing UIs, you can see the progress of the billing event batches and the errors encountered, if any. You can also delete the batch processes and error logs from the grid in the new View Status window.

To improve the performance and user experience a record limit is applied to all the services billing tabs:

  • For Projects Awaiting Billing it is 1000 project records
  • For Billing Events Awaiting Invoicing, Billing Events Awaiting Release, and Invoiced Billing Events it is 10000 billing event records

Also, the filters applied by you are now saved so that the next time the information on the grid is displayed according to the pre-applied filters.

For more information, see:

Time Entry Accessibility

We have improved the accessibility of the Time Entry UI by enhancing the focus shift, selection of tabs, and alternative text, which improves page navigation when using a screen reader.

To support this enhancement, we have changed the Summary, Tasks, and Notes buttons to tabs.

For more information, see Time Entry Lightning Component Fields.

Timecard and Expense Rollup

Prior to this release, if a change is made to a single timecard or expense, the rollup process recalculated the total rollup values for all the timecards or expenses under the assignment or milestone.

We have implemented the following configuration options in the ASM Triggers configuration group to reduce the overall limit usage in timecard or expense rollups on assignments and milestones.

  • UseDeltaRollupForTimecard
  • UseDeltaRollupForExpense

These configuration options ensure that the rollup on the assignment or milestone is performed based on the timecards or expenses that have been inserted, updated, deleted, or undeleted rather than all the timecards or expenses associated with the assignment or milestone. Thus, reducing the overall time consumed in this process.

For more information, see:

Utilization

We have enhanced Utilization Analytics to include:

Utilization Results Dataset Fields

We have included Resource Change, Group Reversed ID Chain, Practice Reversed ID Chain, Region Reversed ID Chain, and Resource ID fields to the PS Cloud Analytics Utilization Results dataset. These fields can be used as filter criteria to embed customized dashboards for Region, Practice, Group, and Resource.

For more information, see:

Work Events

We have added the ability for project managers to create work events that start at a specific time of day. These work events can span more than one day but are less than 24 hours duration.

We have targeted the situation where a project manager knows their project team and a resource manager has assigned some resources already. The project manager then wants to manage work that starts and ends at a specific time, with a duration of less than 24 hours. Examples:

  • Project stand-ups or review meetings that include multiple resources.
  • Resources setting up a training session with a customer. A resource can create a work event in the work event calendar and invite the customer's Salesforce contacts.

To support this feature, we have added:

  • The PSA Work Event Calendar component, which you can add to a project record using the Lightning App Builder.
  • Two objects:
    • Work Event: This is created in the Work Event Calendar component to define the event.
    • Work Event Invite: This defines the details of the invite, which is sent to the relevant resource's external Outlook or Google calendar.
  • The PSA - Manage Work Events permission set, which we have also added to the Certinia - PSA - Project Manager permission set group.

For more information, see:

Work Planners

The following enhancements are available for all work planners:

  • The Clone Assignment window now includes the option to filter the resources displayed by resource role and to give the name you want to a cloned draft assignment.
  • Clone resource requests from the Grid or Scheduler views by right-clicking a resource request.
  • Create resource requests from work planner using the Create Resource Request button.
  • Swap resources and split assignments from the Grid or Scheduler views by right-clicking an assignment.
  • Swap resources and split resource requests from the Grid or Scheduler views by right-clicking a held resource request.
  • The filter panel in the work planner now includes different filtering sections.
  • The Hover Details Field Set for Projects property in the Lightning App Builder on work planner Lightning components has been deprecated. This is because you no longer need to hover over a project on the work planner to view its details. Instead, you can either double-click a project or select it and click The Recod Details button. to view the details in the Record Details panel.

For more information, see:

Deprecated Features and Functionality

In this release, we have deprecated the following features and functionality.

Einstein Next Best Action - Update Skills

We have deprecated the Einstein Next Best Action - Update Skills component and the Feature Console step required to enable it.

Release Content

We want to help you find all of the information and help that you need to be productive with our products.

Certinia Trailhead

If you want to learn more about the new features in this release, see the PS Cloud - Summer 2023 Release Highlights. This module will guide you through the new features in PS Cloud.

In-App Guidance

Certinia In-App Guidance uses Salesforce user engagement features to deliver Certinia content, such as tutorials, and walkthroughs directly from our products.

In this release, we've updated several in-app guidance prompts. For a full list of the updates, see New Features and Enhancements in In-App Guidance Summer 2023

If you are upgrading from a previous version, see Upgrading to In-App Guidance Summer 2023. This provides a summary of the items that have been added for each feature and details of any required upgrade steps.

Fixes

Fixes are listed on the Known Issues page of the Certinia Community. You can access this page from the Community Support Hub. For a brief description of the issues that have been fixed in this version of PSA, see the relevant section of the Known Issues page.