2023 Release Notes

2023-12-17 Release Notes

• Enhancements to filtering on Sales/Installs/Tasks Screens - Updated filtering features to improve/clarify filtering, including:
  • Updated heading of these screens to make features more concise/clear.
  • Cleanly separated "Clear" filters feature from Show/Hide feature, making both more usable.
  • Customizable Filters - Each user can now customize which set of fields they wish to set filters on and how they want the filters arranged on the screen. Enables addition of other filtering fields in the future.
  • Updated "Timing" filter on Tasks screen to make it more useful (and match "Timing" filter on the mobile app).
• Individual Accounts can create Custom Forms - Prior to this update, SolarNexus had to create all forms in a shared library accessed by all accounts. This prevented accounts from partially completing a form with their own default data that doesn't come from a SolarNexus field. This also gives client accounts ability to create forms without dependence on SolarNexus support.
• Tasks > Calendar view > default timerange displayed - Prior to this release all users would see the same default timerange displayed for the Calendar Week and Day views. Now an Administrator can set a default work hours time range on Resources > Company Information which will set the daily timerange that users see when looking at their tasks on the Calendar Week or Daily view. Users can scroll to see times outside of this range.
• Full Override of Indirect Costs for a Solution - Solutions priced with cost items typically include automatically calculated indirect costs (overhead, profit, and commission). SolarNexus has allowed users with Admin or Global Sales Management permission to manually modify sales commissions on these solutions. SolarNexus has expanded this capability to include ability to manually update all three potential indirect costs for a given solution. On the price screen, users with Admin or Global Sales Management permissions will see a link at the bottom right to open a dialog where they can see the automatically calculated indirect costs and may optionally input values for overhead, profit, and commission that will replace the amounts that were automatically calculated by SolarNexus according to the pricing model built for the solution. The user can use the same dialog to revert any manual changes back to the automatically calculated values. Also note that solutions with manual override of indirect costs are automatically flagged in the database. You can now include this flag in Project Detail reports to see which jobs primary solution has had its indirect costs overridden.
• Webhooks refactoring and enhancements, including:
  • New screens for administering webhooks
  • Can define a webhook for a specific milestone completion. Rather than send a webhook for all milestones, can now limit to only sending a webhook when a given milestone is completed. This is one of the most common webhook event types used.
  • Webhook Filters - Webhooks are used to notify third-party applications of specific events that occur in SolarNexus. Third party applications are typically only interested in events about a specific subset of jobs, however, for example ONLY the jobs that they have created in SolarNexus. This has required some way to implement filtering logic. In most cases this has required the use of a Zapier Zap that can catch our webhooks, and then filter out any unwanted notifications from taking actions on third party applications. Now you can pre-filter the webhook notifications that are sent from SolarNexus, simplifying the setup of third party notifications integrations, and lowering the required processing load.
  • Webhook data payloads for Project Created/Updated event now include account's project_number rather than just id.
• Send Docs for Internal Signature Only - Removed a requirement that precluded sending a document via DocuSign for signiature unless it also included a customer signer. This feature can be used as quality check by owners to OK a project via signature.
• Project Pro Updates - Refactoring to cleanly separate all energy and cash flow analysis out of Project Pro edition, and add more complete pricing features. Updates include:
  • Admin user can define Finance Companies and Programs
  • User can Price solutions and input the type of financing used for a given solution.
  • Cannot create array areas and layouts
  • Site tab excludes Array and Equipment Locations section - Can still use Site Defintion screen to view site and place pins for equipment locations.
  • Disable Admin Access to Unavailable Features - On Project Settings, Admin in a Project Pro account cannot access PV Output Modeling, Storage Modeling, Indirect Costs (for cost item pricing), and Analysis Parameters.
  • Storage Modeling features hidden from Project Pro users.
  • PV Production Modeling features hidden from Project Pro users.
  • Efficiency savings modeling features are hidden from Project Pro users.
  • Energy Summary section hidden from Services screen - Project Pro excludes energy analysis.
  • Fixed available template types - Can create all types except Proposals.
• Subtasks can be optional - Admin user can define subtasks for a milestone to be optional. This allows definition of task that may only be necessary for some jobs, but should always be considered by the user. If an optional task is not needed for the milestone, the user may delete the task in order to complete the milestone. Here is an example use case: Use subtasks to create a lead contact cadence. Define a set of "call lead" subtasks with set spaced deadlines. The caller may reach the lead on the first attempt, or it may require multiple attempts (maybe 5 or 6). Once contacted, the user would no longer need the remaining series of subtasks directing them to attempt calling the lead, so they want to be able to delete them, or simply complete the milestone without having to complete the remaining "attempt contact" subtasks.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • User can set status from the "Update Scheduled Task" dialog. This dialog allows user to update the date-time of a scheduled task, and now user can also change its status, for example from "Tentative" to "Confirmed."
  • New Lead Capture Form field: "Estimated Annual Use (kWh)".
  • When bulk tagging files, tags are shown in alphabetical order.
  • Updates to Nearmap API consumption
  • Improve error handling when bill calc service (Genability / Arcadia) is down.
  • Improve response speed for Show Projects API calls
  • Improve abiltiy to troubleshoot milestone completion issues - Added "Created At" column to the View All milestones screen so that its easy to see what milestone(s) are generated as result of another milestone completion. Show if "Completed At" date-time was backdated.
  • Fixed problems deleting/scaling custom imagery uploaded to Site Defintion.
  • Fixed milestone propagation error.
  • Fixed deadlock error when marking subtask complete.
  • Fixed error running report.
  • Fixed error rendering map tiles.
  • Fixed error opening Payment Schedule editor for docs when name is changed to include unexpected characters.
  • Fixed issue with GET Participants API call not returning all expected participants.
  • Fixed issue with Search bar.
  • Upgrade to Ruby 3.1.
  • Separate classes for Google and Nearmap tiles.
  • Migrate user preferences to new table.
  • SolarNexus administrators can download a CSV file of accounts.

2023-09-08 Release Notes

• User may add an Entire Workgroup to a Job as Project Associates - In a job's Responsibilities section, user may select a workgroup when assigning a project associate. All members of the workgroup are added to the job as individual associates, and may only be removed one by one.
• Milestone templates - SolarNexus application administrators can now define re-usable milestone templates. When creating a new milestone, an administrator can create the milestone from a pre-created template, making it faster and easier to produce high quality milestone definitions. Milestone templates include several attributes: names before and after, description, status values, scheduled event settings, deadline settings,and subtasks.
• Enforce Battery Replacement Costs - Analysis was allowed to run even if Analysis Parameters indicated battery replacement costs should be included but no values were defined. Now SolarNexus enforces user to to input an estimated amount for those replacements if modeling is defined to include it (if battery simulation includes interval or capacity based replacements, then this input is required). User may input $0.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • Admin user can download a PDF of billing statement.
  • User can set milestone status from the "Update Scheduled Task" dialog.
  • Summary Reporting refactoring to greatly speed up the execution.
  • Clarified "Allowable Discharge Rate" field in Storage Dispatch Strategy editor.
  • Fixed error when changing product edition to Project Pro.
  • Fixed issue with Slope Estimator just spinning.
  • Fixed a couple minor bugs in the Setup Guide administration.

2023-08-31 Release Notes

• Batteries Can Discharge to Grid - California's new "net energy billing" tariffs (aka "NEM3") allow customers to export energy from their batteries to the grid and to be compensated. SolarNexus added features to enable this new behavior for grid connected storage systems. Updates include:
  • Upgrade version of NREL's System Advisor Model Simulation Core (SSC) software which supports battery to grid exports, as well as improvements to battery performance modeling.
  • Update internal battery model parameters for simulations using newest SSC software.
  • Update battery dispatch modeling UI's to incorporate ability to export to grid.
  • Update analysis graphs to show new "export to grid" data series.
  • Updated assumed initial state of charge for any new battery installation to 30% (newest requirement for shipping of lithium batteries).
• Milestone Administration Enhancements - Made multiple updates to enhance administration of milestone and subtask definitions.
  • Clearer process and UI for editing milestone definitions.
  • Improvements to UI for communicating pending propagation of milestone definition changes.
  • Improved milestone "Status" values editor.
  • Milestones > Subtasks displays whether subtasks have relevance rules.
  • Slightly modified propagation behavior, removed changes to "calendar color" and "name before completion" as changes that require propagator to run.
• Milestone Subtasks Can Be Assigned Using Rules - Administrators can now define rules for automatically assigning users/workgroups to subtasks defined for a milestone. When a milestone instance is created for a job, SolarNexus evaluates the rules and auto-assigns according to the defined rules. This functionality is especially helpful for assigning work to different people in different office locations based on where a job is located, or based on its scope of work.
• API Enhancements -Included:
  • Updated Log Entry API to support revisions introduced in last release.
  • Show Log Entries endpoint now allows submission of search/filter values.
  • Improved error messages for problems in utility_services element, such as when energy_cost is submitted improperly.
  • Deprecated "energy_services" element which has been called "utility_services" for some time.
• Additional Project Detail Report Output Fields about Primary Solutions: Now includes solution letter, description, whether the project currently has an unapproved revision, if there are any change orders, and total change order amount.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • User can open Project Logs from the Installs screen.
  • Lead Capture form can capture "Description" field into new job.
  • Allow file uploads to deferred / on-hold jobs
  • Updated Google Project Sunroof API calls to their new "SolarAPI" product.
  • Fixed bug in showing secondary predecessors within info rollovers on Job Process/Milestones screen.
  • Fixed bug in log entries showing incorrect dates.
  • Fixed issue with Universal Search failing.
  • Fixed issue preventing access to a some Company Catalog categories from within Project Pro accounts.
  • Fixed issue with secondary predecessor not being enforced due to missing check of current milestones as being in the secondary predecessor's successor path to the milestone. Updated/expanded logic check.

2023-06-14 Release Notes

• Relevance Rules for Pre-defined Subtasks - Administrators can now define rules that determine whether a defined subtask on a milestone will be included for a given job in which the milestone is included. This allows the process to more easily and accurately present specific task requirements for jobs in varying jurisdictions.
• Refactored Milestone Editor - In order to accommodate the ability to define rules on subtasks, and to simplify the complexity of editing a given milestone, the milestone definition editor was refactored, breaking the various aspects of the definition into a tabbed structure. Updates include:
  • Navigation to the various aspects of a milestone's definition are listed as section headings on the left side, allowing administrative user to select each section independently and only view that part of the milestone's definition at a time.
  • Predecessor milestones for scheduled events no longer have "Results in a Scheduled Event" control. All scheduling configuration for a scheduled event milestone is handled in the editor for that scheduled event milestone.
  • Control for
• Additional Milestone Attributes Visible on Job Process Screen - Now administrator users can see which milestones in a given job process define the "common process" steps (shown by appending the double-arrow icon to the name). The 'Options' column now also displays if the milestone has predefined subtasks.
• "Cancel Project/Work Order" Milestone can have Subtasks - Administrator may define subtasks for the standard "Cancel Project" milestone. If user clicks "Cancel" button in a job and the Cancel milestone has subtasks defined, the Cancel milestone is populated into the Tasks section showing its required subtasks. After completing the subtasks, user can complete the Cancel project milestone. If no subtasks are defined, the job is canceled normally.
• Scheduled Event Milestones can be Instantiated without a Predecessor Scheduling Milestone  - Now a scheduled event milestone can be configured so that no predecessor includes the scheduling of the event. In these cases the scheduled event milestone is simply instantiated as an unscheduled event (not yet placed onto the calendar).
• Project Log Updates - Added features to provide full tracking and visibility of all changes made to a project log.
  • Users can see all changes made to a log entry. All versions of edited or deleted entries are kept and can be viewed by opening the Project Log window.
  • Regular users cannot edit/delete another user's entries.
• Universal Search Improvements:
  • Performance of project list & sorting improved
  • Real-time indexing allows job updates to be immediately searchable
• Refactored PV Production Data Archive/Cleanup:
  • Always keep ALL pv_outputs for proposed solutions, sold solutions, and all approved revisions
  • Delete PV_outputs for all draft solutions after 14 days of no changes, and any draft revisions after 14 days of no changes (automatically regenerated PV production estimates if user re-opens solution).
  • Make any analysis/docs out-of-sync with a solution that has an updated pv_output series
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • More equipment type pins added to Site Definition screen, including: battery, well pump, and septic field.
  • Support for .HEIC and .HEIF image file types - Uploaded HEICs are automatically converted to JPG, since browsers can't display this format.
  • Energy Summary on Services screen includes Annual Load in kWhs.
  • When job is canceled, remove any instances of "Approve Revision" milestone.
  • Added document template variables for data series colors.
  • Upgrade PVWatts API from v6 to v8.
  • Upgraded Rails from v6.0.6.1 to v6.1.7.3.
  • Fixed uncompleting a milestone instance when milestone propagation is currently running.
  • Fixed bug allowing user to change a custom created product in their Company Catalog to a restricted category (pv module, inverter, DC optimizer, etc)
  • Fixed error when changing a project's energy use from Green Button file upload to average annual use.

2023-04-20 Release Notes

• Modernized All Analysis Charts - All energy and financial charts have been modernized to the same technology we have used for the energy charts on the Services screen. The new charts are interactive and can be viewed on the Analysis screen by clicking on the "Graphs" tab. All the data series have been reviewed and in some cases mapped to a different color to maintain consistency of meaning across charts (for example PV cost and PV energy being same color). SolarNexus is updating all of its predefined proposals to replace the old legacy graphs with the new charts. The "All Available Variables" document template also includes the new charts. NOTE that if you have a custom proposal template that includes any old charts, those are still in place. You will need to have those templates updated to get the new chart versions to replace the old legacy ones.
• Chart Color Palettes - Now you can click to select from 5 different pre-defined "theme" palettes. An administrator can go to Administration > Document Templates > Edit Document Theme to make changes. The selected theme palette controls the colors used in graphs shown on the services screen, the Analysis screen, and in proposals. You can still input your own colors for each data series. See Brand and Graph Colors.
• Simplified "Energy Summary" section of Services screen - Now there is a single summary of the customer's annual load for the year, showing various energy flows contributing to satisfying their load. More clearly call out annual use of PV energy by percentage, as well as percentage of annual load offset by PV and efficiency measures.
• Simplified Solution Reporting Elements - Prior to update, there were separate sets of "Primary Proposed Solution" reporting fields, and "Sold Solution" fields. These both actually refer to the same concept of one and only one primary solution in a job. The issue is that they had combined the primary solution and whether the solution was proposed or sold - causing a duplication of fields. Reporting already has the ability to set criteria for whether a report should output proposed or sold jobs. So we consolidated the solution fields into a single set of "Primary Solution" fields.
  • In criteria fields, combine all proposed or sold solution fields into a single Primary Solution field.
  • In Summary reports, combined "PRIMARY PROPOSED SOLUTION" and "SOLD SOLUTION" attribute sections into a single "PRIMARY SOLUTION" section.
  • In detail report field outputs, combine SOLD SOLUTION INFORMATION and PRIMARY PROPOSED SOLUTION INFORMATION into a single "PRIMARY SOLUTION" set of fields.
  • In Summary Stats, "PRIMARY PROPOSED SOLUTION STATS" and "SOLD SOLUTION STATS" are combined into single "PRIMARY SOLUTION STATS"
  • All existing reports with any output fields of either section are migrated to the fields used in the the single Primary Solution field section.
  • Automatically updated existing reports
• New report outputs, "Sales Assistant" and "Project Associates" - Project detail reports can now include these additional output columns.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • Fixed issue with custom image upload processing after specifying scale.
  • Planset service provider is given access to an account's AHJ information.
  • Fixed issue with saving custom inverter efficiency.
  • Fixed issue with filtering files using Thumbnail view
  • Energy charts, fixed thousands place comma issue.
  • Fixed issue with planset provider not being able to access a client's project when more than one project service order was submitted.
  • Fixed issue with energy profile unnecessarily updating on solution reload.
  • Resolved issue with stuck preview generator jobs blocking other queued jobs.
  • Implemented a workaround for a periodic Leaflet bug returning Lat/Lng positions far from actual site.
  • Upgraded Rails from v6.0.6 to v6.0.6.1.
  • Fixed issue with product subcategory being properly copied to an account when cloning a SolarNexus defined service offering.
  • Fixed deferred opportunities filter on Home screen Tasks section.

2023-03-03 Release Notes

• User can create "Test" jobs - Creating fake or bogus jobs in SolarNexus is an effective way to train users and test new features. These "test" jobs can get in the way of conducting your actual business because they get listed in your Sales and Installs screens and any associated tasks get added to user's task lists. Having fake or bogus jobs also skews reporting results. To avoid these and other issues, SolarNexus now allows you to create "Test" jobs in your account that are segregated from production jobs.
• Warnings for Heavily Shaded Arrays - When any array has solar access of 75% or less, SolarNexus will show a warning on that array in the PV System to tell the user to remember to manually reduce the Shade Mitigation Factor for any module level power electronics used on that array (see PV System Production Modeling).
• Refactored UI for Creating New Doc Templates - Revised UI design to improve clarity and usability.
• Search function for Authorities Having Jurisdiction screen - As AHJ databases have grown substantially over time for many accounts, the screen has been paginated. New search box allows quickly pulling up the desired AHJ record.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • Added "Lead Source" filter to Tasks screen, updated filters presentation.
  • New "Does Not Equal" operator for milestones in Reports
  • Improve performance of Project Detail reports.
  • Added "Sold Solution Scope" to condition options on milestone "assign to" rules
  • Improved "Project Workspace" load speed.
  • Improved "Tasks" load speed.
  • Updates to account for changes in Verse API.
  • Improvements to PVWatts error handling.
  • "Account ID" added to WalkMe data.
  • Fix issue with solar access not updating on array definition UI.

2023-01-28 Release Notes

• User can expand a job's "Tasks" section into the main workspace area - Many jobs in operation phases can end up with significantly long and detailed Tasks sections because of having parallel milestones with multiple subtasks. To relieve need to scroll, and make it easier to view, users can now click an icon on the Tasks section to expand the section into the main work area.
• User can regenerate an array layout without changing the orientation - A common use case is to modify the setbacks for a single area and need to regenerate that array using the new setbacks, while keeping the existing module orientation. After user updates setbacks, user can now immediately click a refresh icon to regenerate any array using the modified setbacks without having to change the module orientation or other array parameters.
• Enhancements to PV Output Modeling parameters - When using module level power electronics (MLPE), SolarNexus applies a shade mitigation factor (SMF) which lowers the losses attributed to shade on the arrays. Issues on the existing implementation were that the SMF value was fixed at 0.33 which was the original value recommended by NREL for use on PVWatts. But now we know that SMF value should probably be lower for DC optimizers than for micro-inverters, AND we know that the shade mitigation factor's effectiveness goes down on heavily shaded arrays (can't keep recovering sun that simply isn't there). Now SolarNexus allows admin user to set a default SMF in Project Settings, AND user can edit the SMF on any given array for a solution by clicking on the PV Output Modeling link. Also couple minor updates to UI for DC wiring and mismatch losses.
• User can input "Sales Tax" as an optional add on to Gross Priced solutions - Along with options for adding permit fee, shipping, can now manually input their own manually calculated Sales Tax amount that is added to the amount for the services.
• Doc Template variable: "bill estimate without storage" - When solutions have storage, SolarNexus provides electric bill estimates with and without storage to provide user an idea of the value of storage. CA's new solar tariffs will significantly drive adoption of storage. Users want to have these bill comparison variables available within proposals. New variables are: bill_elec_monthly_avg_post_proj_no_storage, and bill_annual_elec_post_proj_no_storage.
• Close Probability required - All projects in sales process have a close probability %, and if milestone completions change that percentage, it may ONLY increase as project advances in the funnel. This allows a more accurate sales value of your funnel to be reported on, as all active opportunities are included in the value calculation (% * primary solution price).
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • New API call - Reset password.
  • "Tasks" now first entry in Operations menu.
  • Fixed issue with syncing external calendars
  • PV Output Modeling form changed to read-only for proposed/sold solutions
  • Updated default character set and collation for some db tables (affected some special characters in certain fields)

2023-01-13 Release Notes

• Layout Arrays on Uploaded Images - SolarNexus now allows you to upload your own image, define its scale, and use the SolarNexus array areas and layout tools. This is primarily used for new construction cases where plan drawings are available. The Drawing Arrays Areas and Generating Array Layouts article includes videos showing you how.
• Brand SolarNexus with Your Company'sLogo - As a subscription add-on, you can now replace the SolarNexus logo in the application's banner with your own company's logo. Simply go to Administration > Subscription > Edit to add this feature.
• Customize "Approve (Solution) Revision" Milestone behaviors - Now an administrator can customize the assignment, status values, and deadline timeframe for this special milestone, helping to manage this from the Tasks and Installs screens.
• Change Orders are now a formal document type - Go to Project Settings > Documents and set a default template for Change Orders and you can set a default name, saving users from needing to come up with their own. Change Order docs can only be generated for solution revisions.
• Enhanced Solution Revision Information - Now you can select from a set of checkboxes to quickly capture one or more reasons for creating a revision. New info icon on revised solutions of record that includes reasons and whether a change order exists on this revision.
• API Enhancements - See API documentation for complete information. Select updates include:
  • Update milestone - JSON body now includes "responsible" object enabling you to update the user assigned to complete the milestone.
• Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
  • Calls to PVWatts now include DC/AC ratio. If inverter(s) are specified, the actual DC to AC size ratio is calculated automatically. In cases where no inverter is specified, a default DC to AC size ratio from Project Settings is used in calls to PVWatts.
  • Additional Tasks Milestone Filter Category: [any post-completion]. Makes it easy to see just scheduled project followups.
  • Analysis > system summary now includes "Total Effective Inverter Nameplate Rating", value (in kW)
  • Improved logging info on project CSV imports
  • Fixed issue preventing timely update of milestones on Installs screen
  • Updated error message when drawn keep-out has problems with polygon vertices.
  • Fixed issue setting conditions on secondary predecessors
  • Fixed issue with sales value in reports when close probability was not entered.
  • Multiple small code enhancements