Unanet has revealed the latest updates to its A/E and GovCon project-centric ERP and CRM solutions. There are updates to the mobile application and for both project managers and finance teams for ERP customers. The CRM solution has received a user interface makeover.
Assad Jarrahian, Chief Product Officer, Unanet, commented, “We’re never satisfied with the status quo and are constantly working with our customers to ensure Unanet meets their ever-evolving needs.
“Industries are faced with unprecedented challenges right now, such as rapid growth, supply-chain issues, changing regulatory requirements, cybersecurity threats, and hybrid workforces. Unanet provides the backbone to help customers pursue new opportunities and manage projects consistently and effectively, so their businesses aren’t lagging behind.”
A/E ERP updates
Unanet has updated Unanet ERP AE’s Project Central Web. Project Central Web delivers project managers real-time updates to the status and progress of their projects. They can adjust planning and resourcing quickly and review various KPIs, including financial data.
There is a new mobile app, launching on November 6th for cloud customers only. Minimum requirements are iOS 12.0 or Android 8.0. It is only available to cloud users with specific licenses. The new app has several key features that users commonly expect to have available on mobile apps today.
Overview Screen provides a summary of timesheet and expenses information depending upon the license
- Time features: Enables the creation, editing, deletion, submission and approval of timesheets. It is also possible to add comments to time entries. There is also a limited set of functionality for timesheets available offline.
- Expenses: With appropriate access, users can create, edit, delete and submit expense claims. Users can allocate expenses to specific projects or allocate them across projects. They can add photos. The app will scan receipts for data and populate line items if required. This release does not yet appear to have the approvals process.
It has also added milestone billing capabilities in Unanet AE. This new feature enables finance management to lump-sum bills over a data range. What is unclear is whether this is tied directly to the project milestones or predetermined project milestone dates.
Other updates include an integrated bill review for operations teams and enhancements to invoice generation automation.
GovCon ERP
For Cloud customers, only Unanet has added multi-entity functionality. Once activated, an organisation cannot reverse the setting. This new feature supports organisations with multiple entities with a range of features. This new feature enables organisations to share resources between entities while keeping compliant financially. Finance teams can set up transfer pricing between organisations for labour rates and expenses.
There is also support for intercompany posts and a consolidation report. Unanet notes that it supports “automatic consolidation and elimination, all while maintaining the integrity of the Balance Sheet and P&L”. However, it is unclear whether entities can support different currencies. Unanet has updated around twenty reports to support intercompany information. These include:
- GL Details Report
- Journal Details
- Journal Summary
- Labor Cost Details
- Project Cost Summary (JSR)
- Project Forecast Summary
- Statement of Indirect Rates
- Project Revenue & Funding Summary
- Project Transactions
Other improvements include a range of new ICE reports that will simplify annual incurred cost submissions. Another significant update is the ability to approve line items on both expense and timesheets, which reduces the time taken to re-approve both.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a significant update from Unanet. While details of the CRM update were scarce, the new mobile app and support for multiple entities is a major update.
Unanet continues to enhance its product. The multi-entity support may also be a first step to internationalising the product, as intimated by Craig Halliday in a recent interview. It will be interesting to see how that develops and how Unanet further strengthens the solution.
Jarrahian added, “For thirty-three years, we’ve been providing technology that’s second-to-none and we continue to invest in and enhance it so our customers, across all industries, have the tools they need for success. But even more important is the world-class customer experience we offer. Our customer partnership philosophy paired with our modern solutions empowers people to truly unify their front-office vision with their back-office operations.”
