The Operations Trinity - v3.1.0
Sam Webster
Software Developer
This release is all about day to day operations and includes a big overhaul of the Scheduler, Flights and Timetable. We have packed a truckload into this release so let's dive in!
Administrators be sure to check your “Settings” to enable and tweak the new features in v3.1.
Scheduler
We have completed a near ground up rebuild of the heart of Smart, the Scheduler. This is the screen that's open 99% of the time and has the most interaction of any part of the system by a country mile. The team know how important it is, and how much data flows through this part of the system. It is now easier and faster to add and edit events along with dragging and moving events around. We also changed the look and feel, collapsing the sidebar to take advantage of the whole screen, and the mini-calendar is now in V3 to quickly navigate around.
Even while dragging events around and changing resources, all checks are still being performed. If there is a problem detected the system will tell you exactly why, rather than just a give vauge generic “unable” message. The events also link to their respective flight and lesson record, making it easy to move between, but still keeping things quick and easy to view. A popular request now integrated is that you can now see how many hours to run until the next maintenance is due on aircraft right under their name.
Flights
A close second to the Scheduler is flights, where you dispatch and return your flights. New to V3, the Flight screen acts more like an interactive departures board. We have packed a lot of changes to this area including the ability to add a dispatch checklist. The dispatch has options for solos, will highlight maintenance along with all the checks and balances required to dispatch a flight. In V3 rather than recieve generic blanket block that leads you down the rabbit hole, we will show you what the issue is so you can track down what’s causing the particular problem fast. There are also varying levels of overrides that administrators can enable if they wish.
You can now also cancel a dispatch and edit a returned flight. The idea behind cancelling a dispatch and not the event, is say you have a flight first thing in the morning and the weather turns, you can cancel the dispatch, perhaps bump the booking to the afternoon and try to dispatch again. Without creating a paperwork nightmare, or losing track of an events/flights history. When returning a flight, we will now also perform some simple gross error checks like if the hours entered are more than 25% of what was booked, these are just checks, they won’t stop the return from saving, but may help you from putting in 24 hours instead of 2.4 hours.
Timetable
Completing the trinity is the Timetable, where your training records are completed. Also new to V3, the Timetable acts to clearly separate flying operations and training or education. While the Scheduler, Flights and Timetable all work in harmony, their distinctive areas allow teams to stay more focused and only showing the relevant information.
Completing a lesson record is now much simpler and faster, allowing you to quickly assess but also provide fine-grained feedback and assessment where required. You can “Mark All To Lesson Standard” if enabled in your organisation, but you can also mark the competency, the element or even the individual performance criteria if required. Another piece of great feedback we got was to drive the lesson record duration's from the completed flight dispatch/return, further reducing the potential for error and duplication.
V2 Migrations & Time Machine
We have also completed developing the V2 – V3 pathway. The reality is there is no one size fits all approach to this, every organisation has particular requirements and concerns. The best way to migrate from V2 to V3 is to reach out to us so we can tailor a plan specific to your needs and your operations. We will make sure your transition from V2 to V3 is as smooth as possible. We also have the Time Machine, which allows you to view your historical V2 data once you have made the switch, you can also download this V2 data as a .csv at any time if required.
Dark Imports
Another request was to be able to add new people like students to your organisation without sending them the registration email, so you can either build up and evaluate V3 as you transition, but to also allow administrators more easily add new student intakes for example. So we have introduced Dark Imports, which allow you to add either just one person, or bulk import people as a Dark Import. When ready, you can simply select these people and choose “Enable Dark Imports” from the Bulk Actions dropdown in the People screen, which will fire off the invite email so they can get started.
Finance System
Now the team are embarking on the most requested feature. The Finance System. This is a big one, handling invoicing, connecting to Xero and so much more. The whole team is fired up and keen to get this one built, we know how much power there is in a feature like this and how much value and efficiency it can add to your organisation. We won’t let you down, but like all good things, it won’t happen overnight. If you have any feedback or requests about the Finance system, please get in touch so we can take that on board as we develop.
Wrap Up
There has been a lot packed into v3.1 and we hope that these improvements enable you to conduct a more streamlined and efficient operation. The team always put their heart and soul into these features, remember our whole team is made up of pilots and they are super excited for you to get hands on and start using the tools they wished they had. Like all releases, there are too many smaller fixes, tweaks and enhancements to mention, if you want all the details please check the Release Notes.
Remember our team is always available to help out. If you have any questions or just simply need a hand setting something up please get in touch via the Support link on the sidebar and we'll be in touch right away.