Product Updates

In this release, we’re excited to introduce several significant enhancements to the Customer Portal Messages module: Messages are now visible in Job Details and you can now reply to a Message directly within Constructive.

We’ve also introduced a new role — Contract Coordinator — perfect for staff who perform job coordination-type tasks only, but should not have permission to edit Users, Jobs or Selections.

1 — NEW: Messages enhancements

Messages Tab

We’ve introduced a new Messages tab in Admin View under Job Details.  Here, you can see a list of Messages for the Job including the status and creation date.

Message Reply

You now have the ability to reply to a Message. Click the three-dot kebab menu on the far right of each Message and select ‘Edit’ and then the blue + Add Comment button. You have the option to include an attachment. Once sent, this will trigger an email notification to the client and your response will be visible as a reply under the original message.

Clients can now also add their own comments and replies to Messages — both of which will trigger an email notification to you (builder). You can disable this function under Settings / Portal / Messages.

You can also update the Status of the Message from this screen via the Status drop-down menu. When you mark a Message as ‘Resolved‘, Constructive will automatically populate the Resolved On Date.

Remove a Message

Roles System Administrator, Company Administrator, Contract Administrator and Contract Coordinator can now remove a Message from a Job by selecting ‘Remove’ on the Message via the three-dot kebab menu in the Job Details / Messages screen.

Clients cannot remove a Message.

Important — please note: Despite removing a Message, an email notification will have already been sent and delivered to the client. The removal function is for when you don’t want the Message to remain stored in the client’s Portal.

2 — New Role: Contract Coordinator

This new Role is for staff members performing Job coordination-related tasks only, for example: adding or commenting (replying) to client Messages, adding Progress Items, Photos, Documents, To Do Items and Maintenance Items.

The Contract Coordinator Role is similar to the Contract Administrator Role, but with reduced permissions.

Contract Coordinator can: 
See all Jobs
See (but not edit) selections on a Job
Add new Messages
Comment (reply to) on Messages 
Add photos and documents
Add, and edit, Progress Items
Add, and edit, To Do items
Add, and edit, Maintenance Items  

Contract Coordinator cannot:
 Create new Users
 Create new Jobs
 Edit Selection Templates
 Edit Selections
 Edit 3D Models

3 —Selection Template & Report Layouts — Preserve Groups’ collapsed state on Save

Previously, when you opened or saved a Selection Template or Report Layout, Groups defaulted to ‘expanded’ which could be fiddly to navigate.

Now, when you open a Selection Template or Report Layout, Groups are defaulted to be collapsed.

On Save, Constructive will preserve whichever Groups were open or collapsed, so you will retain your context and can continue working where you left off when you pressed ‘Save.’

Navigating away, and then back to the Selection Template or Report Layout resets the Groups’ states to be collapsed.

4 —Bug fixes

• Name Override on an Item within an Item List in a Selection Template now correctly updates the name in Selections Admin.

• Constructive now prevents duplicate items from being added into a selection, including from Item Lists, Selections, or both. This eliminates client confusion, and allows clarity and accuracy in reports and pricing.

For this release, we’ve listened to your feedback and requests and introduced several new enhancements to make both your Selections and Jobs admin more efficient, as well as introducing a new embedded Intelligence Analytics Report for To Do List so you can access your data directly within Constructive’s Admin View.

1 — Selections Admin — Copy/Hide/Lock/Clear by Area

You now have the ability to Copy, Hide, Lock or Clear by Area in Admin View.

Navigate to Job Details / Selections / Selections Admin. After toggling on ‘By Area’, clicking the 3-dot kebab menu on an area will display a drop-down of choices: Copy Area, Hide Area, Lock Area , Unlock Area or Clear Area.

2 — To Do List embedded Report

The To Do List embedded Intelligence Analytics Report is now visible directly in Admin View under To Do / To Do Report for Roles: System Administrator, Company Administrator, Company User, Contract Administrator, Maintenance Coordinator, Construction Area Manager.

Here, you can review data by Business Unit, Brand or Region including: Jobs with Open Items, Jobs with Submitted Items, Open Count and Submitted Count, as well as general Job To Do Count and Job To Do Details.

3 — Users — Secondary email address

On User creation, Constructive can now auto-populate any existing secondary email address field from your source system. Please note that registration emails and reminders continue to only be delivered to the one, primary email address.

4 —Items — New Price Override drop-down with pre-set text options

Within Client View Items, My Selections and Selections Admin, you now have the ability to choose a pre-set text option from the drop-down menu list, saving you time from typing the same text over and over.

The options for the pre-set texts are configurable in your Company level of Settings under Selections / under the Prices heading. Toggle on Price Override Text Presets and enter your drop-down options, with one option per line, for example:

Included in contract
Included in Variation #1

— and then save your Settings. Once saved, your can edit the pre-set text option in place when editing an Item.

5 — Bulk upload Documents to Jobs by Job Status

You can now save time by bulk uploading a Document to many clients at once via Job Status.

First, add your document(s) via Documents / Company Documents as per usual.

Next, on the Jobs list screen, toggle on the Bulk Actions switch to make the Bulk Actions feature active. Choose the required Status in the left-hand filters and select the jobs you wish to add a new document(s) to. Clicking the button will give you the option to add Company Documents to these jobs.

Tick the ‘Notify client’ box to send a notification to each client whose Job has Document(s) added.

6 — Bug Fixes

Custom Items in Packages not showing — Custom Items in Packages will now appear correctly.

Selection Status ‘Not Created’ to include ‘None’ — The ‘Not Created‘ filter was incorrectly ignoring ‘None”. This filter now also includes ‘None‘.

Progress top bar displaying incorrect stage — The Progress screen was occasionally defaulting on some Jobs to show Pre-Construction despite being 100% complete. This has now been fixed.

Selections displaying in a different order to Selection Template — In some cases, Selections were incorrectly ordered in Client View in comparison to the Selection Template order. This has now been corrected.

Deleted House Type names unavailable and displaying an error message that the House Type name already exists — Deleted House Type names are now available for use.

1 — My Selections — Search by Model Number

When conducting Selections meetings from the My Selections screen, you can now search by Model Number in the modal pop-up when selecting products.

2 — Pre-selected Items — Select multiple specifications for one line

You can now save time by selecting multiple specifications for one line via multi-select checkboxes, instead of having separate lines for each specification.

3 — Bug fixes

Selections – House Types Admin screen

When a user attempts to create a House Type with a name that already exists, they are now prompted to either re-name the existing one — or choose a different name — so that House Types can remain unique for a Company.

Selections – Packages with Note required

Previously, when selecting a Package that contained Items with Notes required, you were unable to successfully select the Package. Now, you are prompted to enter a Note if required on selection of the Package.

Maintenance – Maintenance Report

Fixed incorrect numbering of Maintenance Items.

Usernames with spaces

Constructive now supports Usernames that contain spaces as an allowed character.

1 — Security

Within Settings, you’ll find a new Security tab that allows you to customise authentication settings and password validations.

NEW – Customise password complexity requirements

You can now customise password validation requirements with number of characters as well as requirements for lowercase letters, uppercase letters, digits, special characters and custom complexity. Try out a test password in place to see if it validates against your requirements.

NEW – Customise password error validation message

Customise the error validation message that appears when your password complexity requirements are not met.

NEW – Two Factor Authentication (TFA)

To increase your security, you can now secure User logins with Two Factor Authentication.

Your users, (internal and clients), can set up TFA at any time by navigating to their account settings, scanning the QR code in their Authenticator application, (eg, Authy, Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator), and entering the six digits displayed in their Authenticator app to complete setup.

Now, whenever they log into Constructive, they’ll be prompted to enter a six-digit code if:

1. They have not logged into Constructive authenticated with TFA in the number of days specified in the setting TFA Re-authentication Days; or
2. They are logging in from a new device.
   
   

If the user doesn’t have access to their Authenticator app when logging in, they can opt to send a one-time code to their email address, instead, (this code is valid for six minutes). The user has 10 attempts to correctly enter the code before their account is temporarily locked for 20 minutes.

Note that TFA is disabled by default.

Configuration settings

Disabled, Optional or Required TFA

You can prompt your users and clients to set up TFA when they next log-in using their password. Within settings, you can configure your preferred TFA option:

• Disabled – Never prompt to set up TFA (but the individual user can choose to set it up if they wish)
• Optional – Prompt user only once to set up TFA with the option to dismiss.
• Required – User must set up TFA to access their account in Constructive.

TFA Reauthenticate Days

Here you can specify how many days it can be since a user last logged in using TFA, (default and maximum days is 30).

Customise TFA One-Time Code Email

Customise the email that contains the code you send to Users logging in without an Authentication app and set it under: Settings / Notifications / Two Factor Authentication — One-Time Code Email Content.

2 — Maintenance improvements

Structural Warranty Ends On date setting
You can now record the Structural Warranty Ends On Date for a Job within a new date-picker setting in Job Details.

End of Structural Warranty notification

Using the new Structural Warranty Ends On date, you can now notify clients via email that their Structural Warranty period has ended with the End of Structural Warranty email.

Configure this setting under: Settings / Portal / Maintenance under the Notifications heading.

This email is triggered to send on the Structural Warranty Ends On date within Job Details.

Maintenance Inspection On date field

The Maintenance Inspection On date field now appears on the Admin Maintenance Items page(when filtered by Job Number) to help you easily see, or edit, this date while working through a Job’s defects.  Note it can be edited here as well as in Job Details / Maintenance.

Changes to Statuses

We have replaced ‘Created’ with ‘Awaiting Submission’ and have a new pseudo/calculated status of ‘Submitted.’

Awaiting Submission

The previous ‘Created’ status is now named ‘Awaiting Submission’ and is default unticked in the filters in the Maintenance Items screen so you will now not see issues awaiting submission by default.

We have removed the ‘Ignore Due Date’ tick-box as ‘Awaiting Submission’ now covers this requirement and provides a cleaner interface.

Submitted

Submitted status is for items that are locked from client editing, ie, Urgent or past the Maintenance Locked Date. Note this is a pseudo/calculated status only.

Activity Update client notifications

Any time a client-visible status displayed changes, your client will now receive a notification via an Activity Update.

Note that clients only receive this Activity Update about client-facing status changes, not any Builder status changes. Status changes are the only information the client will be made aware of via the Activity Update email. The addition of photos, changing of Urgent, or allocation of dates and trades will not be advised via this email notification.

The following status changes will trigger a client Activity Update notification:

On Review
Approved
Assigned
Rejected
Completed
Submitted Direct — Client (On update only)

Job Number search top field enabled

Job Number search is now enabled in the top Search field of the right-hand panel in the Maintenance Items screen.

New email setting – Maintenance Ends On email content with no items

Sometimes, clients may never report any Maintenance Items during their warranty period. Previously, they would receive the Maintenance Submit Email Content email regardless if there were no defects lodged.

You now have the option for this scenario where there are no Maintenance Items to either disable the Maintenance Submit email so the client receives nothing at the Maintenance Ends on date, or send a custom email advising the Maintenance period is now over.

Price List Report csv extract additions — Manuals and Warranty and Care Information

You can now extract a list of products from the Selection Template that shows you the available documents in the Maintenance categories Manuals and Warranty and Care Information to help review and manage your manuals and warranties at handover. These are marked in two column headers Has Manual and Has Warranty and indicated by True/False.

Maintenance Items – Admin View comment icon visible

If a Maintenance item has one or more comments against it, you will now see a comment icon with the number of comments in Admin View, as already visible in Client View.

Maintenance – Client comments disabled until Maintenance locked

Previously, clients could leave a comment on a Maintenance issue that was created (Awaiting Submission), but not yet Submitted. This triggered a notification email to builders; however, this resulted in many email notifications for comments on non-urgent defects. The preference was to not receive these comments until after the Maintenance Locked On date.

Now, Client comments on non-urgent Maintenance Items are disabled until the Maintenance Locked On date. Clients should edit a Maintenance Item if they wish to add more information.

Please note:

• Issues flagged as Urgent still have Client comments enabled (which will immediately notify you via email).
• Builders are still able to add comments during this period.

Issue Types – ‘Unlocked’ months setting

For ‘Unlocked’ Issue Types (defects that can be lodged outside the standard Defect Liability Period), you now have the option to set a custom number of months for the Issue Type to remain unlocked to give you greater flexibility.

For example, appliances may have a 12-month warranty, but a hot water unit may have a 24-month warranty, so you’d enter a different number of months for each to remain unlocked.

Once an Issue Type’s unlocked months is passed, the Issue Type will no longer be ‘Unlocked’.

Configure the unlocked months from your Maintenance Wizard Template under the Issue Types tab.

‘Unlocked’ Issue Types customisable Wizard content for Pre and Post Locked periods

You can now customise the Maintenance Wizard content that is displayed to your clients depending on whether Maintenance is Locked, or not.

Configure content to appear in a Post-locked period by creating a Wizard Rule and create a new condition ‘Maintenance Locked’ by ticking the box. Constructive will check the Job’s Maintenance Locked On Date and display this content only if Maintenance is Locked.

3 — Bug fixes

Jobs – Stop all notifications on cancelled Jobs

Previously, if a Job’s status was ‘Cancelled’, clients would still receive a notification if a document or image was added to their Job in error. Now, if a Job is cancelled, no notifications whatsoever are sent to the client if something were to update on their cancelled Job.

Notifications – Send Low Selections Reminder logic updated

Sometimes, clients would receive Low Selections Reminder emails before they had the chance to register. We’ll now only send this email if the client has previously received an email with a registration link attached to it.

Notifications – Registration Reminder logic updated

We’ll now prevent this email from sending on the same day the Registration email is sent.

Reports – Mood Board Show Special Selections 

The Special Selections nominated to show in the Mood Board Report header are now showing correctly in the header.

In this release of Intelligence Analytics, we’ve introduced three new pages related to Job Pipelines. Available from the existing Jobs page, Job Pipelines are a new way to analyse the state of your Jobs in Constructive.

Two pipelines have been defined: Selections and Workflow.

Selections Pipeline

Monitor Jobs running through the Selections process. With this report, you can identify jobs that have stopped moving or are taking a long time. Monitor average timeframes moving from meeting complete to Selections finalised.

1. Job created to selections created: The date the Job was created in Constructive to the date Selections were created.
   
   
2. Selections created to selections available or appointment: This stage has two possible end dates, the date Selections were made available to the client or the completed date for the selection appointment. The earliest of the two is used if the Job has both.
   
   
3. Selections available to appointment: The date Selections were first made available to the client to the completed date for the selection appointment.
   
   
4. Selections appointment to signed off: The date of the selection appointment to the completion date of the Selections Finalised progress task.

Workflow Pipeline

With this report, you can conduct overall monitoring of current workload per stage, identify bubbles and bottlenecks and uncover the average timeframes through each stage. 

1. Deposit to contract: Completion of deposit to contract signed progress tasks.
   
   
2. Contract to site start: Completion of contract signed to site start progress tasks.
   
   
3. Site start to handover: Completion of site start to handover progress tasks.
   
   
4. Handover to end of maintenance: Completion of handover progress task to the Job maintenance end date.
   
   
5. On hold: The start of the current on-hold period is used for the start of this stage. When the job comes off hold it falls back into the appropriate stage based on progress task completion.
   

1. New pages

Current Job Stages

See where your Jobs are currently for each pipeline. The current stage for a Job is the earliest stage in the pipeline which the Job has started but not completed. Drill through to Job Stage Details.

Job Stage Completions

Displays Job stage completions over time and average calendar days to completion.

Job Stage Details

See stage detail at the Job level.

2. Small additions and improvements

• Selection Detail page:
  • Add Is Updated column.
  • Added Choose Anything Details drill through.
  • Added progress complete/incomplete filters, and removed last complete progress item.
    
    
• Job Details page:
  • Added Client Email column.
  • Added Maintenance Coordinator and Supervisor to Job Details.
    
    
• New columns added to price configuration tables: Area, Specification, Override Calculations. Relative price measure updated to honour Override Calculations flag.
  
  
• NPS page: Add Job Created On filter.

1 — 3D improvements: Material rendering, lighting and performance

In this release, we’ve greatly improved our 3D Selections product with the adaption of a new 3D shading material workflow. PBR (Physically Based Rendering) has created a more accurate and realistic rendering of materials.

Lighting has been enhanced to use luminosity and kelvins of real lights resulting in lights appearing physically correct. We’ve also added Bayonet lights (point lights) — light sources illuminate and cast shadows in all directions.

3D has been optimised for improved performance, increased frame rate and faster loading times (approximately 38.5% decrease in draw calls and approximately 11% decrease in GPU memory).

All these improvements make the 3D Selections experience faster, and more accurate, for your clients when considering selections, materials and colour schemes for their new homes.

2 — 3D – Auto-assign Pre-made Models

You now have the ability to auto-assign Pre-made Models depending on House Type and Elevation combinations — allocate kitchen styles and bathroom styles based upon your House Types.

Contact your Client Success Manager to find out more about setting up Pre-Made Models.

This release, we’re introducing a new module — To Do List. A free add-on to Customer Portal, To Do List is an actionable list of everything your clients need to do — now — to progress their home build.

1 — Customer Portal — To Do List

To Do List drives your clients to action their responsibilities. It removes the need to chase up clients manually, reducing delays and missed deadlines, saving you time and resources.

As clients action their To Dos, tasks move to an In Review state. Once you’ve checked their submission and marked it as complete it will be ticked off as Completed, improving customer experience by delivering a satisfying sense of progress.

For more information and a Demo of To Do List, please register your interest here: Customer Portal — To Do List

2 — User Interface improvements

Client View — Changed order of Client Name and Job Number

In the Client View only, we’ve changed the order of the Job information in the top left-hand navigation to Client Name and Surname, Address and finally the Job Number. This small change helps clients feel valued as individual customers and not ‘just a number.’

Note Admin View retains the previous order of Job Number first for ease of administration.

Progress Emails Settings — Is Selections Visible

Previously, column 5 was titled ‘Is Prestart Created.’ We’ve updated this title to read ‘Is Selections Visible’ to be a more universal terminology.

Maintenance — Allow selection of a Unit Job Number if the Job is a Parent of other Jobs

In a Project Job, you can now select which Unit Job Number you are lodging maintenance defects for if the Job is a Parent of other Jobs.

3 — Bug fix: Area-specific package items now appear

We fixed a bug where packages/package items were missing when those Items had an area specified in a Package.