DECEMBER 2021
New Setup Activity Log
Who did that? Now you have visibility into setup adds/changes/deletes, when they were made and by whom. Included is setup activity for checklists templates, projects, responsible parties, users, and permissions. You now have the ability to use this to monitor setup activity or investigate unexpected setup changes.
Help Documentation:
Smart Inspector Project Access and Permissions Setup
Now when you add new phases to a project, FTQ360 figures out which inspectors should have access. Each inspector will inherit the highest access permissions that they have on ALL other phases of the project. When an inspector’s overall project permission box is marked as checked (not partials) they will get the same permission on newly added phase.
Help Documentation:
Improved Dynamic Button Format
The dynamic button format is updated. It looks better, especially when there are a series of dynamic buttons.
Help Documentation:
Add New Users - and Activate Later.
Now you have the option of adding new “inactive” users to FTQ360 and activate them later when you need them. This simplifies setting up users for new projects and then when the project progresses activating users as needed. In FTQ360 only active users count towards your subscription plan.
Help Documentation:
Permission Counts on the User Setup Screen
Now it is easy to see how many users have each type of permission, especially when you have a lot of users. For example, seeing how many people have setup privileges or the number of inspectors can help keep permissions organized.
Help Documentation:
New checklist setup screen tweaks.
The screens remember more settings and many small improvements, which make the new checklist setup screen better and easier to use. Continuous improvement!
Help Documentation:
New Columns Added to the Q1025 and Q1029 Queries
By popular demand these queries have added some fields and consolidated names and codes in other columns. It makes the dataset more useful for analytics using visualization tools such as Power BI. On the Q1025 checkpoint detail query new columns include Checkpoint Category, Division and Assigned Approver. On the Q1029 Inspection query new columns include Division, and Project Information Custom Fields (1-5).
Help Documentation:
Single Sign-On Improvements
Now SSO integrations can sign-on to FTQ360 by either the FTQ360 username or email. This provides flexibility to accommodate integrations with corporate authentication protocols that may use either email addresses or usernames.
SEPTEMBER 2021
APRIL 2021
Changes to automatic setting of Inspector Permissions when adding new projects/phases. You are affected only if you manually control project inspector permissions.
If you take manual control of project inspector permissions, FTQ360 will no longer automatically give inspection permissions to all users when adding new projects or phases. This prevents data security issues related to automatically giving users inadvertent project access or unintentionally giving view-only users inspection privileges which affects paid user-inspector counts.
You can give all users inspection permissions on a project with one checkbox on the project inspectors setup screen. If your inspection permissions are more complex contact FTQ360 support for more tips.
Help Articles:
You can “smart copy” parts of a Daily Report to a new Daily Report. It is a real time saver now that you have the ability to copy a manpower list, equipment, and/or subcontractors from a daily report to a new one! To make it even easier, data that changes every day is not copied, like the reported hours or daily site pictures. In the Checklist Setup> Checkpoint> Options you will see a new Copy Mode feature allows you to select how that checkpoint gets copied; all data, all but attachments, or nothing. Of course, this feature can be used on any checkpoint on any checklist. Get creative!
Help Articles:
Attach an image directly from your clipboard. While on a windows browser you have the option of editing an image from your clipboard and saving it as an FTQ360 attachment file. This is especially useful for adding a marked-up screenshot of a project document to document a deficiency; take a screenshot of the drawing of spec, annotate it, and attach your citation to the inspection. This one streamlined process replaces converting screenshots to files and uploading them. iOS and Android versions are coming.
Help Articles:
If-Then branching and visibility based on multiple criteria. Now you can use free-form Excel-like formulas to hide or show checkpoints. This gives you the ability to have a master checklist template that has many options that are initially hidden but dynamically add checkpoints to the inspection depending on the work being inspected and the inspection observations. The formulas can be based on almost any data that appears on the inspection report. You can also use formulas with complex logic such as If-Then, AND, OR.
On Checklist Setup>Checkpoint>Options you start in designer view and click “Formula View”. You can revert to “Designer View” if no changes are made. If-then formulas are available to Power Plan accounts.
Help Article:
Choose a format for date and time. You now have the option of choosing from a variety date and time formats that appear throughout FTQ360 on screens and reports. Stop confusing international users!
Help Articles:
New Android FTQ360 Mobile App Version 8.5. This version adds a host of new features for taking photos and editing faster easier and better! Available one week after the April FTQ360 platform publish.
Dedicated BCC email address for automated reports. FTQ360 admins can now see emails that were emailed as expected and verify the email addresses they were sent to. You will have blind copy of every report emailed by FTQ360 including emails sent from the inspection screen, online reports run manually, and automated reports sent on a schedule.
Help Article:
Customization Preferences description update. With almost 100 points of customization, we updated the descriptions of each to be self-explanatory. Did you know that FTQ360 can customize your account with 50+ terms that are threaded throughout the application? These can be terms used for your specialty or even an international language. There are also 20+ settings that control how FTQ360 works. See Setup>Customization>Customization Preferences.
Q1025 query locations. Checkpoint locations are included on the Q1025 query. When running query Q1025, you can select specific checkpoint locations for filtering the data. The Q1025 query lists 35+ fields of checkpoint data, which can be very useful for custom analytics.
Help Article:
JANUARY 2021
Calculation formulas make your inspections smarter than ever. Now you have the power of over 75 spreadsheet formulas that get evaluated in real-time on the FTQ360 inspection screen. This gives you the ability to alert inspectors to failure situations for immediate correction, adding up hours on timesheets, performing complex engineering calculations, or sophisticated if-then branching based on multiple criteria. There is no need to use separate spreadsheets when you put FTQ360 formulas to work. This is an advanced Enterprise feature activated on request.
- More info> Dynamic Matrix Calculations and Formulas Overview
- More info> Formulas for Standard Checkpoints
- More info> Formulas for Matrix Tables
- More info> Formulas Tables
The If-then feature is expanded. Now your inspection checkpoints can branch through multiple levels based on the value of a checkpoint’s Ready for Review status, scores, priority, and key metrics. This allows you to use a single checklist template to adapt to multiple scenarios, replacing the need for separate checklists for each variation.
- More info> If/Then Checkpoints
Upload any file type in the new iOS FTQ360 Mobile app V8.4. FTQ360 is taking advantage of a recent iOS update allows access direct access to the file system on your device. Now you can attach up to 10 files at a time directly from emails and other applications to FTQ360 inspections. This can include test reports, videos, and operating documents. The app is available now on the app store.
View any file type from the new iOS FTQ360 Mobile app. You could always view pictures and Pdf files by tapping on the thumbnail right on your inspection screen. This new capability allows you to tap on any kind of file to automatically call the external apps to view and work with specialty files directly. And when you are done, to easily go back to FTQ360 where you left off. For example if you have an Excel spreadsheet, it will open the file in your Excel app. Also, if you have a drawing file, it will open the file in your drawing application. Specification documents are available offline when the document management app has the capability to redirect to locally stored files when the mobile device is offline.
- MORE INFO> Enter a New Inspection
Historical data file download. Now you can get a complete history file of your inspection data for a special analysis or to initialize your API synchronization files. This gives you the ability to use past FTQ360 data for your corporate analytic dashboards and use APIs for daily updates. This is an advanced enterprise feature activated on request. Contact support@FTQ360.com for assistance.
- MORE INFO> Open APIs using Data Queries
New checklist setup screen
Custom triggered alerts
When adding new phases to a project, inspectors inherit permissions they have on other phases. FTQ360 will automatically give inspection permissions to users if they already have inspection permissions on all other project phases. This applies to phases added online or by file import. This simplifies managing inspector project access by allowing project inspectors to inspect on a newly added phase. As always you can give (or remove) inspection permissions on individual phases as you wish.
Help Articles:
Enhanced If-then visibility logic.
Change alert on the inspection screen.
Project closeout package
If you have long-running projects with numerous inspections, you can simply request a complete set project reports, photos, documents and files to be copied onto a cloud drive repository. This is very useful for closing out large projects or providing a commissioning package that may have many gigabytes of data - just too much to run online. The closeout package includes every inspection report, and also every file attached to the inspection report including photos, videos, PDF’s and other files. This makes project closeout as easy as possible. This feature is available to Power and Enhanced Plus accounts only. Contact FTQ360 support for more information.
Help Article:
Inspection/Inspector scheduling screen update
Project reference documents can be up to 250Mb
Administrator BCC on all emails.
Now all emails sent by FTQ360 are also sent to this BCC address. If anyone does not receive an expected email, you (as the bcc) can verify and forward as necessary. This includes emails sent from the inspection screen, online reports run manually, automated reports sent on a schedule, invoices, user invites, and password reset requests. Consider dedicating an email address to receive BCC emails so they do not overwhelm your personal inbox.
Print PDF from the inspection screen
On the inspection screen, the PDF report will downloaded normally. In addition the requested reports are listed on the report history screen showing their processing status. This gives you the ability to navigate away from the inspection screen and download your report at your convenience from the report history screen.
Help Articles:
Numerous tweaks and refinements
Many small changes add up to make the user experience easier, smoother, and reliable under adverse conditions. Too many to list here.
Happy treasure hunting!