Coming Soon: Aspire Version 5.5

Aspire will be deploying a new release Thursday evening, March 26. The updates included in this release are designed to help streamline operations and provide Aspire users with increased control.

Major updates in Aspire v5.5 include construction- and payment-related enhancements to help users improve job costing through the use of General Conditions templates, improve flexibility and allow grouping capabilities within the Schedule of Values, and streamline communication with automatically emailed transaction receipts. Complete details of all improvements will be provided to Aspire customers in the Release Notes.

**General Conditions Kits

**

General Conditions kits can now be created to increase the overall price of the estimate's services by a fixed amount or proportionally by hour or quantity to account for items and services that are often missed in the estimating process. Users can setup templates for common General Conditions, such as design fees, loading hours, and porta-pottys, to apply to Work Order estimates. This functionality helps ensure that these frequently overlooked costs are incorporated into the estimate, improving profitability and margins.

**Schedule of Values Adjustments

**

The Schedule of Values (SOV) has been updated to increase flexibility by allowing adjustments. Now, users with permission can modify the SOV after an opportunity is won. Additionally, a new grouping UI allows users to create new groups, nest services, and alter the SOV to best fit their billing needs. With this change, once a Fixed Price Open Billing opportunity is won, the SOV now allows for adjustments as projects progress.

**Electronic Transaction Receipts

**

Instead of taking valuable time to send ‘paid’ invoices or manual receipts from CardConnect, Aspire’s new Digital Receipts function allows clients and customers to opt-in/-out of receiving automatic receipts when their electronic payment methods are used. Customers can log into the client portal and subscribe to electronic transaction receipts or Aspire users can opt customers into the receipt subscription. When the customer is opted in, they'll receive an emailed receipt anytime their electronic payment methods are used to process payment in Aspire as well as an automatic email each time they are subscribed or unsubscribed.

**Signature Capture on Proposals

**

With this release, users can now accept signatures right from the Opportunity screen on their tablet-device—a significant update for residential users. To accept a signature, users simply select “Sign and Win” from the Opportunity options menu and capture the customer’s signature.

**Pay Code Overrides at the Opportunity Service Level

**

If a pay code value needs to remain constant but the wage amount varies, users can now configure a flexible amount, by pay code or by service, to be applied as a Pay Code Override. Pay Code Overrides are assigned on an estimate's service detail screen to allow the use of variable wage amounts by service. This improvement unlocks payroll flexibility and enables the use of multiple pay codes.

If you have any questions about these features, contact AspireCare for more information. If you are not an Aspire customer but want to learn more about our software, please contact us.