What's New in 2020

DECEMBER

Inspection Updates

• In a major upgrade, now third party inspectors and subcontractors can review, edit, and approve inspections by any of their affiliated inspectors in a controlled way. Restricted users can view planned inspections that their affiliation can inspect but not inspections assigned to users of other affiliations. They can view and edit inspections by users of the same affiliation and report corrections on deficiencies assigned to their company. Everything related to their affiliation is visible on FTQ360 dashboards. This gives subcontractors or third party agencies the ability to use FTQ360 for their end-to-end inspection workflow starting with their inspection queue, conducting inspections, reporting corrections, and obtaining approvals, ultimately getting their work passed.
• Icons reflecting inspection status is refined based on user feedback. Now you can scan down listings to easily see completed inspections that still have open items. This is important to know when deficiencies are the only thing left to do to pass the inspection.
• 

Inspection Emails

• On email notifications, choose a default subject line format that has the important information your recipients need to see at a glance. Choose from a list of formats on the in the Email Customization and Settings page. Do you have format you’d like to see? Please email support@FTQ360.com with your suggestion.

• A new option to default your inspection emails to project personnel. Previously inspection email “To:” defaulted to the responsible party. You can still select and edit email addresses as before. Set the “email to” to the project email list on the customization preferences screen.

• Now all emails sent by FTQ360 are also emailed as a BCC to an email address you choose. This gives you the ability to establish a repository for archiving automated FTQ360 reports and communications for backup purposes.

Dashboards

• A new Project Inspection Progress dashboard. Never again wonder where you stand on the completion of inspections on a project. The current status of every started inspection is shown with a checkpoint bar indicating overall completion percent and how many deficiencies are still open. The colors coordinate with the completion status of the inspection itself. Tap and the line item to open up the inspection for a closer look. This dashboard includes all project inspections, planned or not.

User Permissions

• “Inspected by Me” is a new inspection access permission. You can use “Inspect by Me” permission for tightly controlling third party inspector access to only inspections they create. This permission gives an inspector permission to inspect on allowable projects but not allowing them to view any inspections performed by others.

Inspection Archive

• Archive grids now have active search fields highlighted so that you know for sure what is filtering your listing grid.
• 

ITP (Inspection and Test Plans)

• Scheduling inspections on large projects just got easier. Now you can collapse all phases and see the overall timeline and open just the phase that interests you. And you can expand them all when you need it.

Reports

• Get long reports broken up into one pdf file per inspection. When project closeout or clients require one pdf file per inspection, now you have the option of running them all at once and choose “Spilt the report”. FTQ360 will out put them all as individual pdf reports and put them all into a zip file. This is an advanced enterprise feature activated on request.

Setup Screens

• Setup screens now default to listing only active items. A toggle button reveals inactive items. Previously both active and deactivated item were listed.
• The setup of checklist templates for a project just got an upgrade. Now you can decide which checklist templates are active for a project, and then decide if it should be active for the entire project or just some phases. It is much easier to use than the previous method that used multiple screens.

JUNE / JULY / AUGUST

• If-Then checkpoints: Now you have dynamic branching ability based on entries made on the inspection screen. It allows IF-Then branching based an entry or status of any other checkpoint. You also have the ability to cascade branches based on entries made at each junction. This is useful for asking a series of questions that lead the inspector to properly complete an inspection based on observations made along the way. It is also opens new opportunities for creating master checklists that insert groups of checkpoints based on inspector entries.

• Interactive scheduling of inspectors and inspections on a timeline: See the completion status of planned inspections for a project, slide to schedule/reschedule the inspection, and assign an inspector. This gives you the ability to use FTQ360 to match upcoming inspections to inspectors and track their progress on one screen. Available to Enterprise accounts.

• New inspection and test plan (ITP) Listing Screen: Easily find ITP status and and details on a single listing screen including past and future projects. Filter, sort, and download the selected data. The ITP listing screen complements the inspection and deficiency listing screens of a similar format.

• Project email list option for inspection emails: Now you have the ability to narrow the inspection email selection list to only project and responsible parties active on the project. With this option, emails from other users and and responsible parties are not displayed. This is a useful feature when you want to focus project inspectors on need-to-know emails relevant to the project and hide your complete email list of users and responsible parties.

• Linked accounts for all users: Now anyone with multiple FTQ360 logins has the ability to link them together so that they can login once and easily switch between accounts with a single click. This is handy for users that may work on several accounts or to switch between users on one account.

Matrix Updates

• Matrix table formula calculations: FTQ360 will make Excel-like formula calculations based on values of any checkpoints on the inspection and insert it into a matrix table. This gives you the ability to perform complex engineering and measurement calculations that previously required external spreadsheets. Calculations are also useful for summarizing row data on daily time reports. Available to Enterprise accounts.

• Improved formatting of matrix tables on reports: Tables width now adjust to the number of columns to fill the full width of the inspection report thus avoiding excessively folded text in narrow columns.

Report Updates

• A new report to show Incomplete & Not Started Planned Inspections by inspector: Report FTQ-485q provides a list of incomplete and not started planned inspections by inspector, as well as inspections not yet assigned to inspectors. Run it online or on an automatic weekly schedule. Save it as a favorite report with project filters and schedule it for interested parties. This is useful for keeping track of inspections scheduled for each inspector and making sure all planned inspections get assigned. It is also useful for inspectors to see their own backlog of scheduled inspections.

• New sort order (Project-Phase-ITP) for 401 Report: The FTQ-401ex report allows you to automatically print out inspections that are in the same Project-Phase-ITP Sequence order as the FTQ-485 series of ITP progress and status reports. This is helps easily prepare project closeout and monthly ITP status reporting to clients and/or project repositories.
• A new report for photos and attachments only: Now with the report FTQ-593 you have with the ability to submit pictures in a separate report file. The pictures and attachments also have clickable links to the original files. This report is useful for submittals to clients that have legacy requirements for separate submittals, or you want to keep pictures is a dedicated repository.

MARCH/APRIL/MAY

• Project & Phase Access for User Settings:  These new settings will let you give or limit users access to project data on Inspections, Dashboards, and Reports Screen. The Project Access setting is good for showing users only what they need to see (simplification) as well as showing users only what you WANT them to see (security).  Note: Your account might use a different term for "Project" such as "Community" or another preference.
  • Add a New User

• Examples for setting up different Inspector Types - All newly added users will have "View", "Edit," and "Create" permissions by default. Note: You can set a preference for whether newly added users are given access to all projects or no projects by default. 
  
  • Project Managers who do not do inspections, audits or observations
    • Set Project Access to "View" for their projects
    • Select Run Rpts. and Data In/Out on the Permissions screen to give access to Dashboards and Reports for their projects
  • General Inspectors, Foremen, Superintendents, QA Personnel, and others who do inspections, audits, and observations
    • Set Project Access to "View", "Edit", "Create" for their projects
    • Select "Data Overwrite/Delete on the Permission screen to allow users to Delete inspections
  • Third-party Inspectors from different organizations
    • Setup Project Phases that are specific to the work each Third-party inspection company will be inspecting if you do not want them to see inspections done by other companies
    • Set Project Access to "View", "Edit", Create" for their projects and only the phases you want them to access.
    • Do not select "Restricted" on the Permission screen unless you do not want them to make changes on inspections for which they are not the inspector.
  • Subcontractors who will only respond to open items/actions
    • Select "View", "Edit" and "Restricted" on the Permissions screen.
    • No need to change Project Access. They will only have Project Access if they are assigned an action on a project.
  • Subcontractors who "Self-inspect"
    • Select "View", "Edit" and "Self Insp. Only" on the Permissions Screen.
    • Select/deselect Checklists as needed
    • Set Project and/or Phase Access for the for their projects and only the phases you want them to access.
  • Customers, Project Owners and Management who just want to do surveillance and do not do inspections, audits or observations
    • Set Project Access to "View" for their projects
    • Select Run Rpts. and Data In/Out on the Permissions screen to give access to Dashboards and Reports for their projects

Helpful Tip: Use the User Setup screens (Proj. Access and Permissions) when giving individual users/inspectors access to multiple projects. Use Project Setup screens (Project Inspectors and Phase Inspectors) when giving multiple users/inspectors access to individual projects and/or phases.  
Guidelines for Setting up User Permissions

• Changes to Project/Phase Inspector Settings: The Project/Phase Access Settings mentioned above are also available in the Project Setup area. Use Project Setup screens when giving multiple users/inspectors access to individual projects and/or phases. Use the User Setup screens when giving individual users/inspectors access to multiple projects.  For Project Inspector settings, go to Setup > Project Setup Process. Select each Project and then select "Project Inspectors" on the left-hand Process Menu. If you'd like to set Phase Access, select the Project, then the Phase, then "Phase Inspectors" on the left-hand Process Menu.
  • Define Project Inspectors

• Safety or Quality "Category Types": To help you analyze Safety and Quality inspection data separately, we've added a "Category Type" field to the Category Setup Page. Choose "Quality" or "Safety" type for each Category. That's it. You'll choose the Category for each checklist as usual. Then, as inspections are completed, you'll be able to see separate inspection data for Quality and Safety category types on most dashboards. If you don't use FTQ360 for Safety, you can repurpose this Category Type for something else. Maybe Commissioning, Manufacturing or Fabrication? 
  • Add or Edit Categories

• Key Metric "#" Column: We've added a Read-only "#" column to the Key Metric Setup screen so that it's easy to identify Key Metric #1, which is the only Key Metric that appears on multiple lists and dashboards -- including the View Recent Deficiencies, All Deficiencies List, Priority Open Item Dashboard and Responsible Party Dashboard. Remember, Key Metrics are customizable, so your Key Metric #1 as well as the other Key Metrics can be different.
  • Add Key Metrics

MOBILE APP

• Please Use the iOS FTQ360 Mobile App instead of Labs App: For iOS device users, we're moving away from having two iOS apps and will only be supporting the FTQ360 Mobile app starting June 1st. The latest Mobile app version is 8.2. Please download and begin using this now. The newest app includes:
  • *Photo zoom in viewer. (new feature)
  • Rotate photo in editor.
  • Undo-redo in photo editor.
  • FTQ360 app opens from links on web pages and other applications
  • Upload photos from album or camera roll.
  • Ability to optimize photo resolution for efficiency and detail in account settings.
  • Warning of device memory exceeded error.

MENU & SCREEN CHANGES

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 

INSPECTIONS

• ITP Progress shows inspection checkpoint % complete vs. ITP items passed: This new ITP progress calculation method applies when the setting in your Customization Preferences is “1 - Only with status PASS”. If your Preference setting is “0-started”, the status bar will show the status of the ITP plan item, but not the % complete of the inspection(s) associated with the plan item. ITP item progress % = (the Sum of (% inspection complete calculated on the inspection screen) / (100*Qty inspections required). Maximum of 100%. If there is only one inspection required (Qty=1) then the calculation will appear for the inspection that has the highest percent complete. Note: Fail or WIP complete inspections will never fulfill an ITP requirement so they are not counted. 
  • TP Progress Screen

REPORTS

• 591 Combined inspection report: For any one checklist, you can now run a report that combines the output of multiple inspections as if all of the checkpoints were created on one inspection. This report is only available when selecting the same checklist. All like/same checkpoints will appear together grouped together on the report with the sort order of the Inspection ID (most recent first). There are numerous use cases for this feature, but one would be for concrete pours. For example, when concrete is poured every day for a month, multiple inspections can captures the concrete data on multiple deliveries per day. A combined report can consolidate the pour and strength tests over multiple days and multiple inspections into one report. Tip: when you create your Combined Report, you can choose a "Checkpoints Types" filter to select only those the checkpoint types that you want on the report. In the example below, I filtered on "Checkpoint - Dynamic Matrix Item".
  • Inspection Reports

DASHBOARDS

Two new Performance Dashboards

• Key Metric Trends by Total/Average Value: This dashboard will allow you to compare trends, and see totals and averages for each of your Key Metrics. Panel #1 shows a trend line for each key metric: the sum value of (OPE and FIXED) deficiencies by month, panel #2 lists the total value of each key metric, and panel #3 lists the average value of each key metric. 
  • Key Metric Trends by Total/Average Value

• First Key Metric - Totals by Checklist/Checkpoint: We're starting with 1 key metric for this dashboard. If you have more than one key metric, the first key metric added or the one that was there by default, will be what's shown in this dashboard. You'll be able to see a breakdown by checkpoint and the overall totals by category. In the example below, I've used "Key Metric 1" for Safety Fines. This dashboard shows me the total fines for the "Safety" Category, as well as the Checklists on which they were levied and the specific checkpoints and amounts per checkpoint item. Another use case might be to tabulate #Days Delay and the categories and checkpoint deficiencies that contributed to the effect on build time.
  • First Key Metric - Totals by Checklist/Checkpoint

SETUP

• Assign ITP Inspections to Individual Inspectors/Users: We've added an "Insp." (e.g. Inspector) column to the ITP setup screen to allow you to assign specific inspections to individual inspectors (e.g. users with "Inspect" permissions). Once inspections are assigned to individual inspectors, when the inspectors login, they will be able to select inspections that are either assigned to them or inspections that are assigned to "Any" under the "Insp." column. In order to use this feature, you need to add an ITP to either the Project or Phase in the Project Setup area. Go to Setup > Project Setup Process > Select a Project, then "All ITPs" on the left-hand Process Menu or Select a Phase and then "Phase ITP" on the left-hand Process Menu.
  • Setup an ITP (Inspection & Test Plan) for a Project
  • Setup an ITP (Inspection & Test Plan) for a Phase 

• Checklist version control: For those companies that want a little more control and information about the checklist version being used on inspections, we've added a "Checklist Details" area to the Checklist Form Setup Process section.  In addition to four standard fields (Version, Author, Effective Date & Approved By), there are also five User-defined fields. Input into all fields is optional; However, when a field is populated, the information will appear on the PDF Inspection Report (401ax format). It will be located under the checklist name (before Project Details if added) on the top right-hand side of the PDF report. 
  • Checklist Version Control on Checklist Details
  • Add a New Checklist

• Import/Export Asset Lists: You can now Import and Export Assets to and from FTQ360. This will save time when you have a lot of assets to add and and exporting your list will allow you to work with it in Excel if you choose. You'll see the standard "Export" icon on the bottom of the Asset/Equipment Setup screen if you have "Data In/Out" Permissions. Importing is done through our standard Import screen in the Setup > Administration area. The "Import" feature must be enabled by support if you do not see it on your menu.
  • Import Asset/Equipment Lists

• Export Assets Assignment History: Similar to the export option on the Assets/Equipment screen, you can also export your Assets Assignment History. Since this Assignment History can get long over time, having a way to export the data into a spreadsheet can be helpful.
  • Import Assets Assignment History

• Checkpoint Default Notes and Options included on Checkpoints Download/Upload CSV: If your company has multiple groups/accounts and you want to copy checklists between groups, this enhancement will be of interest. Otherwise, you can skip this. Now, when you export and/or import checkpoints, the file will include all of the default notes and options such as buttons and mandatory checkpoints so you won't have to manually reset these after importing. 
  • Import Checklists

DATA QUERIES 

• Score checkpoints added to Q1025 query: Query 1025 is the query you can use to download all checkpoint data from your inspections. Score checkpoints are now part of that query.
  • Report Overview: Data Queries
• Deprecating Query 1006 (List of Checkpoints): We've replaced Query 1006 with Query 1025, so Q1006 will no longer be available. Query 1025 provides you with up to 10,000 records and can be filtered. Q1006 was more limited.

iOS APP

*We support iOS devices running the latest iOS version. Please be aware that some older devices that don't have the capability to update to the latest iOS version may experience issues.*

• FTQ360 Mobile App has been updated with code from current Labs app. The main differences are with improved workflows for taking pictures using the camera icon. You'll notice other slight differences, but you shouldn't have trouble figuring out how to use it. For example, the positioning of the photo editor as well as editing tools are slightly different.

ANDROID APP

• A new and much improved Android App has been released!

MENU ADDITIONS

• Setup > Checklist Form Setup Process > "Checklist Details" on the left Process Menu is new.
• Setup > Project Setup Process > Project or Phase ITP > "Insp." is a new column on the screen.
• Dashboards > View All Dashboards > Sort by "Performance".  "Key Metrics Trends by Total/Average Value Dashboard" and "** Total Value by Checklist and Checkpoint Dashboard" are new.
• Reports > Activate Reports > 591 Combination Report is new for Show Online and Run On Schedule - Select the checkbox under the "Show Online" column to have it appear on Reports > Run Online.