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Snap Schedule Changelog

What's new in Snap Schedule 2013 5.0.3.0

Sep 20, 2013
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed bug in planned and recorded Employee Weekly Time Sheet, Employee Bi-Weekly Time Sheet, and Employee Period Time Sheet reports that can cause an error message to be displayed when filter criteria are applied.
  • Fixed bug in planned and recorded Employee Weekly Time Sheet, Employee Bi-Weekly Time Sheet, and Employee Period Time Sheet reports that can cause the shift code to be displayed incorrectly if it is specified in the format of "mm-dd" where mm is a number between 1 to 12 and dd is a number between 1 to 31.

New in Snap Schedule 2013 5.0.0.0 (Oct 1, 2012)

  • Multiple Shift Premium Policies Per Shift:
  • You can now associate multiple shift premium policies to a shift to implement complex shift premium pay rules. For example, in Australia, many awards and enterprise agreements include additional rates of pay for employee working evenings, nights, weekends or public holidays. By creating multiple shift premium policies, you can now easily set up Snap Schedule to compute virtually all kinds of shift allowances and penalty rates.
  • Credit Shift Hours the Next Day:
  • You now have the option to credit the hours that your employees worked on shifts crossing midnight to the day following the shift start date. This is helpful to the security and protection industry where most shifts start at 11pm and cross over to the next day.
  • Enhancements to Existing Reports:
  • Added an option to display employee's pictures in the Employee List report.
  • Added a new report, Total Work Hours by Location, that shows employees' total work hours over a specified data range based on shift start/end times for each shift location.
  • Upgraded the report engine to improve report generation performance
  • Provided a new option to open the exported file immediately after data exporting.
  • Updated several reports to use the SDK’s classes instead of direct SQL queries to improve flexibility and reusability
  • Attach Task Assignment Notes
  • You can now attach a note of up to 128 characters to each task assignment. Task notes will now be displayed on the pertinent reports when they are present. You can also configure the Task View to display task notes on task assignments.
  • Smooth Migration to Snap Schedule Premium:
  • Snap Schedule 2013 is designed to ensure a smooth upgrade to Snap Schedule Premium 2013 in one simple step without any loss of data. You can easily upgrade to Snap schedule Premium 2013 to take advantage of its multi-user, concurrent access capabilities and employee remote access apps.
  • Run on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012:
  • Snap Schedule 2013 has been tested and passed certification tests for Microsoft's recently released Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Shift Premium Form:
  • Added a new tab, Applicable Shifts, to associate the shift premium policy to any number of shifts.
  • Added a new tab, Applicable Days, to specify the days of the week or specific dates and the start and end times when the shift premium pay will take effect.
  • Select an Employee for the Shift Form:
  • Re-layout the Configure Employee Information Table to make it more compact.
  • Employee Form:
  • Added a new Location Code column in the Locations tab.
  • Shift Form:
  • Added a new Shift Premium Policies tab to identify all applicable shift premium policies.
  • Other Enhancements:
  • Added a new placeholder for customizing how employee schedule will be shown in e-mail messages.
  • Extended the SDK to allow access to detailed employee work hours, time off schedules, and pay data.
  • Removed Features:
  • Removed the option to import data from Microsoft Office Accounting because this product was discontinued by Microsoft.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.2.0 (Oct 1, 2012)

  • Added explicit sorting (by location description) to the location drop-down list in the Display Filter. The list was not sorted in previous versions.
  • Added logic to the Select Employee To Fill a Shift wizard to exclude employees who do not meet the minimum rest time between consecutive shift assignments.
  • Added logic to save the Schedule Wizard checkbox states for each user upon exiting the program.
  • Added logic to skip displaying the plug-in verification screen if the plug-in is published and signed by Snap Schedule developer, Business Management Systems.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug in Edit Schedule Plans that may cause a crash when a shift in the schedule plan has a location without any authorized employees.
  • Changed the sort order of shift assignments within a cell on the Daily View to sort by shift assignment start time instead of shift start time. Note: Unless manually adjusted, the shift assignment start time is the same as the shift start time.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.1.0 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Fixed a bug that may cause Snap Schedule to crash when creating a schedule file on a computer that has the "My Documents" folder mapped to a slow network share.
  • Fixed a bug that, while in the Shift view, did not update the employee position description and icon color in the assignment pane when a change is made to an employee position record.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Notes field in text-based email templates to be truncated to 41 characters. Changed the truncation to 2048 characters on the NORMAL and SHORT templates and 41 characters on the MINI and MICRO templates.
  • Fixed a bug in the Software Development Kit (SDK) that did not read or save EmployeeTasks data when reading or saving an employee record.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.0.1 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Summary of new features and enhancements:
  • Updated the Daily Assignment Validation report to allow for displaying multiple validation errors in an employee shift assignment.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug in the E-mail schedule wizard that caused an error if the schedule file is located on a slow or heavily used network.
  • Fixed a bug in the overtime limit validation check where a "period overtime limit exceeded" error may be reported as a "daily overtime limit exceeded" error.
  • Fix a bug in the Assignments for Employee form where changing the assignment reason for one shift assignment may affect the assignment reasons for other shift assignments.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.0.0 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • New and Improved User Interface Features:
  • Snap Schedule 2011 has a new look featuring the new Microsoft Office 2010 Fluent interface.
  • Improved Ribbon:
  • The Ribbon has a facelift and a new File tab to easily find system level commands. When you click the File tab, you will see many of the same basic commands that you saw in the Application Button from earlier releases of Snap Schedule.
  • Backstage View:
  • Clicking the File tab will take you to the Snap Schedule Backstage view. The Backstage view is where you can perform operations related to managing the schedule as a whole, such as New, Open, Save, Print, etc. If you decide not to do anything in the Backstage view, clicking the File tab again will take you back to wherever you originally were.
  • Persistent User Settings:
  • Snap Schedule 2011 remembers your schedule view settings so the next time you start, you will have the exact same settings as when you logged off. Best of all, your settings remain even when you log on to the same schedule file from another computer.
  • Improved Schedule Views:
  • Task View:
  • On the Task Assignment panel, you can now choose to show all tasks or only the applicable tasks for the selected filter criteria. This feature is handy when you have specified who can perform which tasks and want to minimize the chance of assigning a task to an unauthorized employee. Applicable Tasks is the default selection at each program start-up. The logic used by Snap Schedule 2011 to determine applicable tasks is as follows:
  • Use the criteria set forth in the Display Filter to obtain a list of all applicable shift locations.
  • From the list of applicable shift locations, derive a list of employees who are authorized to work at those locations.
  • From the list of authorized employees, derive the applicable tasks as the tasks that those employees are allowed to perform.
  • When you choose to show only applicable tasks on the Task Assignment panel, the Right-Click context menu will only show the applicable tasks.
  • You now have the option to make certain tasks more visible in the Task view. From the Employee Count Graph Configuration form, you can select the option to darken the tasks that are excluded from the Employee Count Graph, effectively highlighting the tasks that are included.
  • Daily View by Employee
  • On the Shift Assignment panel, you can now choose whether to show all shifts or only the applicable shifts for the selected filter criteria. The logic used by Snap Schedule to determine applicable shifts is as follows:
  • Use the criteria set forth in the Display Filter to obtain the list of all applicable shift locations.
  • From the list of applicable shift locations, derive a list of employees who are authorized to work at those locations.
  • When you choose to show only applicable shifts on the Shift Assignment panel, the Right-Click context menu will only show the applicable shifts.
  • You now have the option to display summary data for any combination of employee work hours, on call hours, and paid time off (PTO) hours. You can also display the labor cost summary data for the selected date range. The hourly and cost data is automatically updated as you change shift or time off assignments.
  • Daily View by Shift and Shift View
  • On the Employees panel, you can now choose whether to show all employees or only the applicable employees for the selected filter criteria. The logic used by Snap Schedule to determine applicable employees is as follows:
  • Use the criteria set forth in the Display Filter to obtain the list of all applicable shift locations.
  • From the list of applicable shift locations, derive the applicable employees as the employees who are authorized to work at those locations.
  • When you choose to show only applicable employees on the Employees panel, the Right-Click context menu will only show the applicable employees.
  • The Employees panel now has a Choose button to help you select the best available employees to fill an open shift.
  • Calendar View
  • Shift assignments are now sorted by shift start time.
  • On the Shift Assignment panel, you can now choose whether to show all shifts or only the applicable shifts for the selected filter criteria. The logic used by Snap Schedule to determine applicable shifts is as follows:
  • Use the criteria set forth in the Display Filter to obtain the list of all applicable shift locations.
  • From the list of applicable shift locations, derive the applicable shifts as the shifts whose locations match the authorized locations.
  • When you choose to show only applicable shifts on the Shift Assignment panel, the Right-Click context menu will only show the applicable shifts.
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  • New Scheduling Conflict Checks:
  • You can now individually select the validation checks you would like the system to perform and pick the display color for each resulting error flag using the Schedule Validation tab in the Business Information and Operational Settings form.
  • The following new validation checks have been added:
  • Assigned employee has a skill that has expired
  • Assigned employee has a skill that is about to expire
  • A lack of required rest time between employee’s consecutive shift assignments
  • Employee is not authorized to perform assigned tasks
  • Enhancements to Existing Reports:
  • Added shift location as a filter criterion where applicable.
  • For all the Assignment Calendar reports and Employee Calendar reports, the small square shift symbol for each shift assignment is now colored using the shift’s background color. Likewise, the small circle time off symbol for each time off assignment is now colored using the time off reason’s background color.
  • For the Assignment Calendar reports, shift assignments are now listed with the actual shift assignment start and end times instead of the default shift start and end times. Employee shift assignments with the same start time and same end time are grouped together to save space on the calendar.
  • The Monthly Assignment and Time Off Calendar report and the Employee Monthly Calendar report will now display shift description instead of shift code and time off reason description instead of time off reason code for clarity.
  • For labor cost reports, there is added logic to calculate shift premium only on the portion of the shift that is applicable. This change is to accommodate the new shift premium option which allows you to specify that shift premium is only applicable for a certain time period during the day.
  • For several reports, a new option to insert a page break for each selected report group (employee, day, location, shift etc.) is available.
  • Nine new reports:
  • Employee Weekly Time Sheet
  • Employee Bi-Weekly Time Sheet
  • Employee Period Time Sheet
  • Shift Coverage by Position
  • Daily Task Assignments
  • Weekly Assignment Calendar by Location. This report displays a full week of daily shift assignments in the familiar weekly calendar format, one calendar for each shift location.
  • Weekly Time Off Calendar. This report displays a full week of time off absences in the familiar weekly calendar format.
  • Monthly Assignment Calendar by Location. This report displays a full month of daily assignments in the familiar monthly calendar format, one calendar for each shift location.
  • Monthly Time Off Calendar. This report displays a full month of time off absences in the familiar monthly calendar format.
  • Changes Made to Forms to Support New and Enhanced Features:
  • Employee Form:
  • Added separate tabs for authorized skills and tasks
  • Allowed specification of multiple availability intervals for each day of the week in the Work Schedule tab.
  • Shift Assignment Reason Form
  • Added the Authorized Employees tab to allow specification of which employees can be assigned the shift assignment reason.
  • Location Form
  • Locations can now be made inactive.
  • Added a "Notes" field.
  • Shift Premium Form
  • Added a new feature to make shift premium payable only on the portion of the shift that falls within a specific time period of the day.
  • Time Off Reason Form
  • An all-day duration value (in hours) can now be specified for each individual time off reason. Previously, a single all-day duration value was used for all time off reasons.
  • Added the Foreground Color option to allow selection of the color to be displayed for the time off reason text on the schedule views.
  • Select an Employee for the Shift Form
  • Re-arranged fields to make the form more user-friendly.
  • Added the ability to keep the form open after each shift assignment so that additional employee candidates can be assigned to the same shift.
  • The list of employee candidates for the shift is now configurable. You can customize this list to display only employee information and workload data that are relevant to your scheduling needs.
  • Business Information and Operational Settings Form
  • Added the new Schedule Validation tab to list all shift assignment validation checks that the system can perform. You can now enable/disable individual validation checks and select a different color for each of the validation error flags. In previous versions, validation error flags were always displayed in red on the schedule views and reports.
  • Added an option to allow users to specify the minimum rest time required between any consecutive shifts assigned to the same employee.
  • Configure Details Form
  • Added the option to display summary data for any combination of employee work hours, on call hours, paid time off (PTO) hours, and their associated labor cost data. This option is only enabled for the Daily View by Employee schedule view.
  • Added the option to show or hide employee icons on the schedule views.
  • Added the option for color selection of the notes marker displayed on the schedule views for shift assignments with notes.
  • Added the capability to export and import schedule view configuration settings.
  • Added the capability to select custom fields for employee and shift data display on the schedule views.
  • Added the capability to remember the schedule view settings for each schedule file.
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  • Other Enhancements:
  • E-mail messages are now sent in both HTML and plain text
  • E-mailed schedules now include all employee scheduled time off information.

New in Snap Schedule 3.5.0.2 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Added safeguards to avoid exceptions that may arise when closing activation forms

New in Snap Schedule 3.5.0.1 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Summary of new features and enhancements:
  • Improved response time when checking for new version update.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Corrected typo errors on forms and in the help file.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.1.0 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug that may cause Snap Schedule to crash when creating a schedule file on a computer that has the "My Documents" folder mapped to a slow network share.
  • Fixed a bug that, while in the Shift view, did not update the employee position description and icon color in the assignment pane when a change is made to an employee position record.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Notes field in text-based email templates to be truncated to 41 characters. Changed the truncation to 2048 characters on the NORMAL and SHORT templates and 41 characters on the MINI and MICRO templates.
  • Fixed a bug in the Software Development Kit (SDK) that did not read or save EmployeeTasks data when reading or saving an employee record.

New in Snap Schedule 4.0.0.1 (Nov 2, 2011)

  • Updated the Daily Assignment Validation report to allow for displaying multiple validation errors in an employee shift assignment.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug in the E-mail schedule wizard that caused an error if the schedule file is located on a slow or heavily used network.
  • Fixed a bug in the overtime limit validation check where a "period overtime limit exceeded" error may be reported as a "daily overtime limit exceeded" error.
  • Fix a bug in the Assignments for Employee form where changing the assignment reason for one shift assignment may affect the assignment reasons for other shift assignments.

New in Snap Schedule 3.5.0.0 (Sep 22, 2010)

  • Summary of new features and enhancements:
  • In this software version, the database structure has been upgraded to accommodate the new changes and enhancements. When opening a schedule file created by a previous version of Snap Schedule, you will be asked to upgrade the schedule file before it can be used. Backup your schedule file prior to attempting the database upgrade as this process is irreversible. The database upgrade process is done seamlessly and should take only a moment to complete.
  • Added a new capability to the Copy Shift Assignments command to allow for disparate ‘“copy from” and “paste to” time periods.
  • Added a new option to the Monthly Assignment Calendar report and the Employee Monthly Calendar report to hide assignments for days that are outside of the specified date range. When this option is selected, days on the calendar that fall outside the specified date range will be grayed out with no assignments displayed.
  • Added a new option to the Shift Assignments by Employee report to insert a page break to separate each employee’s assignments.
  • Added a new sorting criteria to the Employee Monthly Calendar and Employee Weekly Calendar reports to enable sorting of the displayed shifts by Shift Start Time.
  • Removed the Active column in the To Do List report and changed the default filter criteria to display only to do items whose status is open.
  • Improved start up time by retrieving built-in report templates from embedded resources.
  • Added a new feature to automatically check our website for newer versions of Snap Schedule and open up a web page to enable downloading. This check can also be performed on demand, using the Check for Updates command under the Application menu.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Upgraded third-party controls to prevent Snap Schedule from slowing down when the HKCU\Control Panel\International\sThousand registry key is inadvertently set to empty.
  • Added handlers to catch and avoid the “object not found” error on certain computers when invoking WMI calls.
  • Replaced the WinForm control checkbox in the Employee Time Off Details report with a Rich Text box to prevent possible memory leak.
  • Fixed a bug with the report viewer that causes an error when the user selects the Single Page display mode then closes the report.

New in Snap Schedule 3.0.1.0 (Sep 22, 2010)

  • Fixed a bug that may cause the Employee Activity Details, Employee Activity Summary, Estimated Labor Cost by Employee, and Estimated Labor Cost Summary reports to generate an exception if an employee's home location is not assigned.

New in Snap Schedule 3.0.0.0 (Sep 17, 2009)

  • This 2010 software release is a major release and its database structure has been upgraded to accommodate many new features and enhancements.