Release Highlights
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Release Webinar Recording
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Key Features
Other Features
Key Features
New HR / Business Landing Experience
The new HR / Business landing experience allows users to manage all stages of an employee move.
New interactive widgets allow managers to dive into the details of a move.
Employee Requests & Exceptions
With the new employee requests feature, employees can initiate requests. For example, to ask for additional tax support, or notify mobility of a change in circumstances.
Request availability can be controlled automatically
Once submitted, coordinators can approve or deny the request
Exceptions can be created from a request
Requests can be returned to employees for more information and comments can be added to requests by employees and coordinators
Document Management
Search and labels have been added to the documents screen.
The document uploader has been updated to better handle multiple files and users can now add labels when they are uploading a file.
Bank Account Validation
Now, when entering bank account information, the IBAN, SWIFT and routing number fields are subject to data validation, plus country/currency validation warnings have been added.
Employees can also inactivate bank accounts on the MEE.
Dark Mode on the MEE
The Mobile Employee Experience (MEE) now allows users to select between dark and light mode in their settings.
Other Features
Assignment Documents
The Assignment Documents page has been overhauled for better usability. The following new features have been added:
Easily upload multiple documents, including drag and drop.
Search the documents page instantly.
Documents now support labels for easier categorization and reporting. Add labels to a document during upload.
Columns can be shown, hidden, sorted and resized on demand.
Document sections hide when no documents exist in a section.
Progress indicators show when uploading files.
Buttons to create E-Signature Documents and to Copy Existing Documents have new locations for better usability.
Assignment Packages
Assignment Package performance has been improved by up to 30%, by caching the appropriate metadata. See User Reports for more information.
Bank Accounts
The Bank Account Screens have been enhanced for better usability. The following new features have been added:
IBAN, SWIFT/BIC, and Routing Number fields have been enriched with input validations that filter common errors as illegal characters and format errors.
IBANs will also be validated using the IBAN’s checksum.
Bank accounts can now be activated and inactivated by employee users on the MEE.
IBAN, SWIFT/BIC, and Routing Numbers now support encryption.
Creating a new Bank Account now uses the country data for that move, to support easier input.
Bank accounts can now be sorted by active and inactive status.
Benefit Sets
Fixed an issue that prevented navigation to the Benefit Set Calculation Input Mapping page.
Billing Invoices
The standard invoice merge data set has been enhanced, so that the Code field for Company Segments can now be included on invoices.
Checklists
Fixed an issue where deletion of a checklist item resulted in deletion of quick workflows with the same ID.
Dashboards / Widgets
The following enhancements were made to improve dashboard user experience:
The home page will load faster: Widgets will now load asynchronously to allow the Home page, including the menu system, to load quickly and widgets to load as they are generated.
Users can now navigate away from the home page without having to wait for the widgets on it to load first.
Added the ability to cache the data for user report backed widgets for a specified number of hours.
The cache duration can be specified at the dashboard level and overridden at the widget level.
For example, a dashboard can be configured to cache its results for twelve hours. When a user signs in at the beginning of the day, the reports would execute and load the widgets with current data. Over the following twelve hours, the home page would load using the stored report results. If a widget needs it data refreshed more frequently, it can be configured to have a shorter cache period. Once the twelve hours expire, the next time the user signs in or clicks on home page the reports would execute and provide fresh data to the widgets.
A Refresh Dashboard button has been added to the dashboard page (to appear when caching is activated). The user can click this button at any time in order provide fresh data to all widgets.
A message has been added to the bottom right-hand corner of each widget to communicate the age of the data, for example: ‘As of 4 Hours 5 Minutes ago’.
A refresh icon has also been added to the bottom right-hand corner of each widget to allow the user to refresh the data for just that widget.
In addition to the cache duration, a setting has been added to the widget configuration screen to hide the age of the data and the refresh icon that has been added to the bottom right-hand corner of the widgets. This feature is intended to be useful for widgets that contain static content.
Domestic Tax Gross Up
The Year End Tax Report now has a new option which allows the State Summary page to be excluded.
Fixed an issue that could make a Year End Salary Copy batch error and cause services to shut down.
Employee Requests and Exceptions
Employees can now create requests from the Mobile Employee Experience.
For Employee users:
Requests can be created by an employee or their delegate(s) in the Mobile Employee Experience, via a new request page (accessed from the left-hand menu bar).
The request page has dynamic tabs to organize requests by:
All (all requests)
Open (submitted or needs more information status)
Closed (approved, canceled or denied status)
Other (requests without a status)
Employees may cancel submitted Requests.
Employees can upload documents to support Requests.
Requests are created in a ‘Not Submitted’ status, to allow employees and internal users to save request drafts before submitting.
Badges appear on request cards:
New (for recently created requests)
Updated (for recently updated requests)
To Do (for requests that require an action from the employee)
Employees can edit/update requests that were returned back by the internal user.
A ‘communication’ section allows employees to view and respond to notes for the request.
For internal (coordinator) users:
The status of submitted requests can be changed to: Approve, Deny, Cancel or Request More Information, leading to statuses of Approved, Denied, Canceled or Needs More Information.
A notes & communication section on the request allows internal users to create notes for internal use and notes visible to employees.
A cancellation reason section has been created on requests for internal users to set a reason when they cancel a request.
The status field and the cancellation reason field can be triggered by QWF and are both reportable.
Status changes are tracked in the status transition history section.
It is possible to undo a request action (e.g. roll back from approved status).
A new policy exception can be created from a request directly. A link will appear on the policy exception screen to allow navigation between the related request and exception.
An exception column has been added to the request history grid, with a link to open the exception record.
A request details section has been added to the exception external approval page, so approvers can see the details of the original request. This can be set as hidden when creating the request type.
The document uploader can now search for documents stored in user tables – to allow the passage of documents from requests to exceptions and approval pages.
A number of improvements have been made to the request type configuration screen:
New Display name field: to display a different and more friendly request type name in the Mobile Employee Experience.
New 'Uses Status Model’ check-box: to use the status field/values and the additional action drop-down button.
New ‘Available for’ drop-down: to allow some requests to be available for employees, some for HR / Business users (external client user types via the External Client Portal), or both.
New ‘Situational Rules’ configuration section to configure the availability of a request type only under certain conditions (e.g., only have this request type available if the ‘Assignment: To Country’ field is equal to India).
New ‘Show Details to Approvers’ check-box: to pass the request information to the exception external approval page.
User report icon-link to open the report in a new tab.
Fields can now be grouped into sections, to help structure requests when there are multiple inputs to complete.
To support the new functionality, an Equus system level checklist template has been created and shipped as inactive. This checklist will:
Create a checklist for the Relocation Coordinator when a request is submitted.
Create a checklist task on the What’s Happening Timeline, for the Employee when a request requires additional information.
Imports
Fixed the Employee Assignment Flexible Header Import to prevent ‘Unknown error importing row’ errors from sometimes occurring when importing to multiple user tables.
The Pay Register Data import was correctly disallowing duplicates but failing to display an error message. This has been corrected.
Landing Experience
The first version of the new Landing Experience is now available!
The new landing experience is a dashboard that provides HR and business users with a flexible and interactive way to view and manage their information. Key to the experience is the ability to drill into, edit, search, group, filter and sort data.
The dashboard contains twelve widgets that showcase these features:
Take Action: This Quick-Action widget displays actions that are commonly used by HR / Business users. Its purpose is to provide an easy, accessible place to see what actions are available.
Upcoming Start Dates: This widget displays a count of moves that have Start Dates identified as today or within the next 180 days, for the purpose of allowing HR / Business users to plan for those employees about to move. Clicking the widget displays all moves that make up the count in a table. From the table, users can modify the start date for any employee as long as the date is associated with the move.
Upcoming End Dates: This widget displays a count of moves that have End Dates identified as today or within the next 180 days, for the purpose of allowing HR / Business users to plan for those returning employees. If necessary, users can create an extension or repatriation request for any of the five employees that have the nearest upcoming dates right from the widget. Clicking ‘View All’ displays all moves that have upcoming end dates in a table.
Active Moves by Country: This map widget displays active moves broken out by host or home country in a heat map, as identified by the user. Darker colors on the map indicate more moves in a given country. Clicking a country displays the details for that country in a table. Its purpose is to provide HR / Business users a broad overview of where employees are located.
Expiring Immigration Documents: This Summary Table widget displays records for the following documents that have expiration dates within the next twelve months: Employee, Spouse, and Dependent Passport, Visa/Work Permit, and Certification of Coverage (Social Insurance screen). Its purpose is to give users who are responsible for ensuring employees’ immigration documents are current, a single place to review documents that are about to expire.
Active Moves by Phase: This Chart widget displays active moves broken out by phase in a pie chart. Clicking a sector displays the details about moves that make up that sector in a table. Its purpose is to provide HR / Business users a broad overview of how many moves are in each phase.
Extended Moves: This widget displays moves that have been approved for extension in the past 30 days. Clicking the widget displays all moves that make up the count in a table. Its purpose is to let HR / Business users know which employees aren’t returning home or which won’t be available for reassignment as originally planned, which allows them to identify the employees who need specific actions.
Cancelled Moves: This widget displays a count of moves that have been cancelled today or within the past 30 days. Clicking the widget displays all moves that make up the count in a table. Its purpose is to allow HR / Business users to plan for the next steps for that employee and that move.
Key Reports: This Data Table widget displays all company reports ‘favorited’ by the current user and provides the ability to execute the report as AssignmentPro data table, or download the report in portable document format (PDF) or comma-separated values (CSV). Clicking ‘View All Reports’ opens the Reports page for the company. Its purpose is to provide HR / Business users quick access to their most important user reports.
Exceptions by Policy & Category: This heat map Chart widget counts approved exceptions that are at the intersection of the top ten policies and ten categories in use; however, the resulting chart displayed is governed by the amount of space available to the widget. Darker cells indicate a higher number of exceptions for the specific policy. Its purpose is to allow users to understand which policies may require modifications to address exceptions being routinely requested.
Exceptions Pending My Approval: This Data Table widget displays exceptions that require the current user’s approval. Its purpose is to provide HR / Business users a centralized list of exceptions requiring their approval, and give them easy access to do that.
Open Initiations: This Data Table widget displays authorizations/initiations associated with active moves where the current user is the Authorization Coordinator. Users can optionally display all open authorizations or authorizations associated with other Authorization Coordinators using the filter button. Its purpose is to provide users an overview of authorizations that are in progress for the current user, as well as other authorizations within the user’s company.
Users can also create Initiations, Requests, and What-If Cost Estimates, as well as navigate to Employee/Move Search, Company Document Library, and Company Policies.
While the widgets on the Landing Experience are not currently configurable, users can move and resize widgets within their active session. Logos, accent colors, and dark mode are honored from Employee Experience Configuration.
By default, the Landing Experience ships turned off, but can be turned on for a specific company on its Portal Configuration page. When turned on, external client users from that company are automatically directed to the Landing Experience. Users can navigate to their old dashboard by using the ‘Legacy Landing Page’ link in the left menu bar.
Mercer Standard Data Imports
The region codes that are used in Mercer imports and calculations have been updated to include support for the following region in Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mobile Employee Experience
Dark mode can be activated in the MEE, on the new Account Settings menu – this will override the default Theme choice at the system level.
All date fields have been updated to use an Equus standard date picker instead of the one provided by the browser. The Equus standard date picker provides users a consistent experience across different browsers, and gives improved date navigation functionality.
Previously, there was an issue with the date picker not being displayed for a required date field after the required error has been displayed. This has been fixed.
Previously, there was a problem with the date picker not staying ‘connected’ to its corresponding date field when users scrolled down the page. This has been fixed.
Employee Budget Templates now have an option to enable the merging of other Budgets created with the same template via election sets into one budget per move. Budgets must also share the same dates to have the amount incremented by the newly elected budget choice amount.
When an employee budget is closed, the new expense report button will no longer be available on the budget details screen.
Previously, the ‘You are 1 minute away from your session ending due to inactivity’ warning would continue to display even if users continued work, but didn’t click ‘Cancel’ on that message. Now, continuing work in the MEE automatically cancels the timeout warning.
Fixed an issue in which company level license agreements were not displaying for MEE users with multiple moves.
Resolved an issue which would cause a delegate MEE user to receive a blank license agreement that could not be accepted.
The ‘What’s happening’ timeline, icons and navigation bars have been updated to allow accent colors to improve branding opportunities.
The Settings menu has been renamed to Account Settings to better illustrate its purpose.
Online Help
The help center access button has been moved onto the screen, in line with common user design for help centers.
Users who have not yet opted in to use the Help Center will now be presented with an indicator on the ‘Help’ option of AssignmentPro screens, to encourage them to do so.
The Community link has been renamed and can now be used to access both Page Help, when applicable, and the Help Center.
Fixed an issue that was causing errors when accessing the Help Center due to expired authentication.
Open Help Center sessions will now be cleared when a user logs out of AssignmentPro.
Quick Workflow
Enhanced Quick Workflow automation to allow Election Sets to be published to the Mobile Employee Experience based on when a target date passes.
User Reports
Fixed an issue where company level user reports were not displaying in company level drop-down lists.
Fixed an issue where links to company level user reports were not redirecting to the user report screen.
Fixed an issue where it was not possible to match, on the User Report filtering, the Current/Previous Comp Worksheet ID with the Comp Worksheet ID.
Added a new system preference setting to limit the amount of memory that a user report is allowed to utilize. This will prevent rogue user reports from using up too much memory and causing the server to crash. The default setting is 2048 MB. It is not expected that there will be any reason to change this default setting. If a user report tries to utilize more than 2048 MB of memory, the report will fail, and the user will receive the following error message: The report execution takes more than 2048 MB.
User reports now have the ability to store their results for reuse during the calculation of a Cost Estimate or Compensation Calculation. With the advent of prerequisite user reports, it is not uncommon to have one report serve as a prerequisite report on many line items of a Cost Estimate or Compensation Calculation. Assuming the results of the prerequisite report are not intended to vary from one line item to the next, there is no need rerun the report for each line item. The report can store its results the first time it is run, and the results can be used by any subsequent line item that needs them. The purpose of this enhancement is to speed up calculations, particularly when run in assignment packages.
There is a new Cache for Cost Estimates and Compensation Calculations setting on the User Report Details page.
If the new setting is turned on for a user report, all of its prerequisite user reports should have the setting turned on as well. The user will receive a warning on the user report screen to alert them to this situation.
A system preference has been added to limit the amount of memory than can be used over the course of a Cost Estimate or Compensation Calculation for this purpose. It is not expected that there will be any reason to adjust this setting. In the unlikely event that this new feature causes out of memory errors, this system preference can be used to reduce the memory usage.
Vendor Integration
The Integration Event History page has been enhanced to allow users to view detailed information about an Integration Event, including errors and what was sent to, or received from Vendors.
The Event Definition that triggered an Integration event will now be displayed on the details of outbound events.
Fixed an issue that was causing Update Events to error out without logging when the Event was last updated by a deleted/expired user.