New Features and Enhancements in PSA Spring 2023

The following new features have been introduced in the Spring 2023 release of PSA.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, see Upgrading to PSA Spring 2023. This provides a summary of the items that have been added for each feature and details of any required upgrade steps.

FinancialForce is Now Certinia

We have made the following changes to align with our new Certinia brand:

  • The publisher name has been updated to Certinia
  • Package names no longer reference FinancialForce
  • In most cases, text referring to FinancialForce has been replaced with Certinia

For more information about these updates and related text changes, see the Package Name Updates article in the Certinia Community and the Technical Documentation Pack.

To learn more about our rebrand, visit the Certinia Community for a message from our CEO, Scott Brown.

Note:

Major versions include updates to both package and publisher names. In service packs, only the package name has changed. Some elements, such as theming and logos, have not been updated and other references to FinancialForce might remain visible in your org.

Certinia Trailhead: Release Highlights

If you want to learn more about the new features in this release, see the PS Cloud - Spring 2023 Release Highlights Certinia Trailhead module. This module will guide you through the new features in our PS Cloud products.

Lightning Experience

For Spring 2023, we have built on the PSA Lightning components and actions that we previously introduced.

Lightning Components

We have introduced the following Lightning components.

Name Description Further Information
PSA Work Planner View and update all resource requests and assignments. Work Planners Overview

PSA Utilization Administration Actions

  • Create or manage your current active utilization setup.
  • Delete all utilization results within a specified time period.

Setting up Utilization Analytics

Deleting Utilization Results

We have enhanced the following Lightning components.

Name Description Further Information
PSA Timer

We have added the following:

  • Timecard Sync can now be enabled automatically.
  • The Edit window has been enhanced for greater visibility on the fields relating to your timer session, and timecard when timecard sync is enabled.
  • Expanded record types to record timer sessions against. The default field set on the Timer Session object now includes cases and milestones.

Using the Timer

Enabling Timecard Sync on the Timer

Lightning Actions

We have introduced the following Lightning actions.

Lightning Actions Added in PSA Spring 2023
Lightning Action Page Layout Further Information
Delete Utilization Results PSA Administration Deleting Utilization Results
Manage Utilization Setup Setting up Utilization Analytics
Utilization Setups
Utilization Runs

Assign Multiple Resources to Project

Using the Assign Multiple Resources to Project Lightning action on the Project record page, you can now do the following:

  • A new Show Selected link enables you to view the selected records to be assigned. You can also sort and search the selected resources.
  • You can view all of the records available to be assigned using the new Show All link.
  • The state of selected resources, applied filters, and pinned resources is retained when switching between Show Selected and Show All.
  • The selections and filters applied are retained when you switch from the Assignment Details grid to the Select Resources grid.
  • The Assign button has been renamed to Assign All.

For more information, see Assigning Multiple Resources to Projects.

External Calendars Integration with PSA

You can now integrate Microsoft Outlook in PSA to keep a check on the project task assignments and assignments. An event is created and synced with Outlook as soon as you create a PTA or assignment, so you can keep a track of the timeline and important dates of your planned work.

You can sync PTAs and assignment events with either Google calendar or Microsoft Outlook as per your requirement. When you update and delete the PTAs and assignments the corresponding events in the calendar also gets updated or deleted.

You can prevent particular assignments, PTAs and project tasks from being synced with external calendars by selecting Exclude from External Calendar Sync checkbox.

The permission sets listed below have been updated to include the required permissions to use the Action: Sync with External Calendar and Exclude from External Calendar Sync checkbox fields. When this checkbox is selected, calendar events are created and updated in sync with your PTAs and assignments.

  • PSA - Manage Project Assignments
  • PSA - Manage Gantt and Project Tasks

Also, the following page layout have been updated to include the Action: Sync with External Calendar and Exclude from External Calendar Sync checkbox fields:

  • Project Task Layout
  • Project Task Assignment Layout
  • Assignment Layout

For more information, see Customizing Page Layouts.

To control this functionality we have created the External Calendars Integration with PSA Settings custom setting.

For more information, see Setting up External Calendars.

Field-Level Security

To improve security in PSA, we have added field-level security checks for the fields on different objects to perform the following actions without security check errors in the different UIs and pages across PSA:

  • Using the Self Assignment Visualforce page
  • Updating schedules and resource requests through the Search Resources UI
  • Changing filter preferences in the Planner UI
  • Creating and updating assignments from Trigger
  • Linking Project Task Assignments with Resource Request and Assignment
  • Assigning a resource to a project on the Assign Resource to Project page

To avoid errors when accessing these fields you can create a new permission set or edit an existing one. For more information, see Field-Level Security in the Upgrading guide.

Warning: This is a mandatory requirement and must be carried out before upgrading to PSA Spring 2023.

Project Planner and Resource Planner Permissions

We have also introduced field-level security checks for the Preference object and its fields and have updated the permissions that are required at object and field level. Accordingly, we have added the required access to the following permission sets that are provided by Certinia:

  • PSA - Use Project Planner
  • PSA - Use Resource Planner
Warning:

If you use your own permission sets for the Project Planner and Resource Planner, you must update them to avoid errors. For more information, see Field-Level Security in the Upgrading guide.

Financial Insights on Project Tasks and Project Task Assignments

To ensure that project managers are better informed when considering the financial impact of changes to project plans, we have added financial fields, and updated permissions and permission sets.

Fields Added

We have added the following fields to the Project Task and Project Task Assignment objects, and Gantt.

Locations of Financial Information Fields

Location

Field
Project Task

Actual Cost

Estimated Cost
Project Task Assignment

Actual Cost

Estimated Cost

Estimated Hours
Gantt Task Grid

Actual Cost

Estimated Cost

Note: The Actual Cost field is available in the Gantt Read Only Custom Columns field set on the Project Task object. You have to add it to the field set if you want to use it in Gantt.
Gantt Task Editor

Estimated Cost

Permissions and Permission Sets

We have renamed the PSA - View Cost and Revenue Summary for Project permission set to PSA - View Financial Information for Project. You need to have this permission set assigned to you to be able to view the Actual Cost and Estimated Cost fields, and to calculate the Estimated Cost field in Gantt.

In the PSA - View Financial Information for Project permission set, we have added read access for:

  • The Rate Card object, which contains read access for the Average Cost Rate field used in the calculations.
  • The following fields.
Permission Set Fields Added with Read Access

Object

Field
Project Task

Estimated Cost
Actual Cost
Project Task Assignment

Estimated Cost
Actual Cost

Existing fields that are needed to view and calculate the Estimated Cost fields are already in the permission set.

We have also added read access for the Estimated Hours field on the Project Task Assignments object to the following permission sets. You need to be assigned one of these permission sets to be able to view the Estimated Hours field on the Project Task Assignments object, and for it to be used to calculate the Estimated Cost fields:

  • PSA - Manage Gantt and Project Tasks
  • PSA - Manage Resourcing for Project Tasks

For more information, see:

Gantt

We have made the following enhancements to the Task Assignments tab of the Task Editor in Gantt:

  • The Assigned to this project option is now selected by default if there are assignments on the current project. This means the Resource Name drop-down list contains only resources assigned to this project, making it easier to find the resources you need. You can deselect the option if you want to select from all resources. If you manually select or deselect this option, PSA retains your selection on this project when you use the same browser on the same device.
  • When you first select a resource, the role of the resource is displayed by default in the Role drop-down list. If you change a selected resource and the original resource had a role displayed, the original role persists. You can change the role manually as required.

For more information, see Task Assignments Tab.

Gantt Preferences

If you select Adjust This Project's End Date in Gantt Preferences, a new Adjust End Date checkbox on the current project record is automatically selected. This means the preference is saved on the project itself and no longer only applies to the user who selected it in Gantt Preferences.

When selected, the Adjust End Date checkbox indicates that the current project's end date will be automatically adjusted to match the end date of the task with the latest end date in Gantt. To support this, we have added Read and Update permissions for the Adjust End Date field to the PSA - Manage Gantt and Project Tasks permission set.

Warning:

If you previously had Adjust This Project's End Date selected in Gantt Preferences for a project, you will need to select it again. The preference now applies to all users of that project and not just the user who selected the preference.

For more information, see the following:

Gantt on a Project Record

When exporting data to Microsoft Project from Gantt on a project record, the following are now included:

  • Resource roles and external resources assigned to tasks
  • Data in custom columns added to the Project Gantt component by an administrator

For more information, see Exporting Data to Microsoft Project.

From Gantt on a project record, you can now view details of the resources assigned to project tasks. For more information, see Viewing Resource Details.

Note:

An administrator must assign users permissions for any fields they need to view, for example, the resource's region, practice, or group.

To make it easier for you to see an overview of project tasks when viewing Gantt from a project record, we have made the following enhancements:

Note:

Gantt on a project record page no longer loads the Synchronize Milestone and Task field by default. If you want synchronized milestone tasks to display in orange, an administrator must add the Synchronize Milestone and Task field to the selected Project Task field set. For more information on how the tasks are displayed, including the color-coding, see Gantt Chart Controls.

For more information, see:

Managing Skills

We have enhanced the skills management experience by surfacing the predefined skills classification and visualizing the way skills and certifications have been grouped.

  • The Add to Profile section in Manage Skills and Certifications Lightning component is enhanced with the following three different views:
    • Add from Hierarchy
    • Add from Skill Set
    • Add from Filters
  • You can define the skill filters using the Add from Filters view.
  • The search capabilities are enhanced to help you select the right skills for your profile and manage skills better. You can browse through skills, certifications and categories. The sibling skills in the same category are also displayed so you can select related skills easily.
  • The new skills hierarchy view makes visualizing skills in categories and understanding the relationships between them easier. The hierarchy displays up to 10 levels helps you identify where the skills sit in the hierarchy or its level.
  • The Add to Multiples Profiles window in the Mass Manage Skills and Certifications Component has been enhanced similarly, where you can add skill ratings for multiple profiles.

For more information, see

Project Team Schedule

The following enhancements are available on the Project Team Schedule:

  • Use the Weeks, Months, Quarters, and Years zoom levels on the Grid view.
  • Update resource allocation week-by-week using the Weeks zoom level on the Grid view.
  • Identify resources that are under-allocated from the Grid view. Under-allocated resources are indicated by Down arrow icon indicating under-allocation of a resource. next to the summary value for the selected zoom level, for example, Days or Weeks.
  • Identify resources that are correctly allocated from the Grid view. Correctly allocated resources are indicated by Tick icon indicating the resource is scheduled to work the correct number of hours. next to the summary value for the selected zoom level, for example, Days or Weeks.
  • Identify the different types of record on the Grid view from the icons displayed. For more information, see Icons and Color-Coding Used.
  • View hourly values calculated by PSA for resource requests that do not have an associated schedule. These values are displayed in italics on the Grid view.

For more information, see Using the Project Team Schedule.

Resourcing Pages Include Essential and Desirable Skills

The following resourcing pages now include the Essential and Desirable skill categorizations:

Resource Optimizer

We have made the following enhancements to the Resource Optimizer in Spring 2023:

  • Resource request IDs displayed in the Resource Optimizer are now linked, enabling you to navigate to the record.
  • The View Schedule button is now found at the end of the row, when clicking the icon.

For more information, see:

Revenue Forecasting

If data is taking a long time to load in the Forecast Breakdown grid on the Review Forecast Version page, you can speed things up by changing the filters to reduce the amount of data being processed, for example by shortening the date range covered or by specifying the projects or RPGs you want to focus on. You can apply the changes while the data is loading, which makes loading large volumes of data significantly faster as you don't need to wait for Revenue Forecasting to finish applying the original filters before applying new ones.

For more information, see Filters.

Volumes and Performance Enhancements

  • We have enhanced the performance and volume support for saving time cards.
  • You can now pass 100 or more scheduling requests for each scheduling strategy in a single transaction as part of the volume and performance support for scheduling strategies.

Time Variance

In order to recalculate the time variance for the same Region, Practice, Group, or week, the already calculated time variance detail records were deleted manually. As a result, it was challenging and time-consuming to update the time variance.

With this release and moving forward, we have improved the time variance calculation capability, which enables you to recalculate or update the already calculated time variance for the same Region, Practice, Group, or week.

The existing time variance detail record is deleted if the variance hours are zero and if not, then it is updated with the latest variance hours and time variance calculation.

For more information, see

Work Planners

Work Planner for Resource Managers

A Work Planner Lightning page is now available and contains a new Work Planner Lightning component. The page is designed to enable resource managers to view and edit all assignments and resource requests. The data fills the entire page, making it easy to view a large number of assignments and resource requests and see their associated projects and resources. This work planner adds to the existing suite of work planners for line managers, project managers, and resources but unlike those work planners, it does not include any preset filters.

You can access the Work Planner page by selecting Work Planner from the App Launcher. If you want to customize the page, follow the steps detailed in Work Planner Lightning Page. Alternatively, you can add the Work Planner Lightning component to any Lightning app page or home page. For more information, see Work Planner Lightning Components.

Work Planner Enhancements

The following enhancements are available for all work planners:

  • Group the assignments and resource requests displayed by region, practice, or group.
  • Use the Weeks, Months, Quarters, and Years zoom levels on the Grid view.
  • Update resource allocation week-by-week using the Weeks zoom level on the Grid view.
  • Identify resources that are under-allocated from the Grid view. When grouping by resource, under-allocated resources are indicated by Down arrow icon indicating under-allocation of a resource. next to the summary value for the selected zoom level, for example, Days or Weeks.
  • Identify resources that are correctly allocated from the Grid view. Correctly allocated resources are indicated by Tick icon indicating the resource is scheduled to work the correct number of hours. next to the summary value for the selected zoom level, for example, Days or Weeks.
  • View details about a selected project or resource request in a panel without leaving the current work planner and use the Lightning App Builder to configure the fields that are displayed in the panel.
  • Clone assignments from the Grid or Scheduler views by right-clicking an assignment.
  • Create assignments from work planner using the Create Assignment button.
  • Identify the different types of record on the Grid view from the icons displayed. For more information, see Icons and Color-Coding Used.
  • View hourly values calculated by PSA for resource requests that do not have an associated schedule. These values are displayed in italics on the Grid view.
  • Reduce the number of records displayed by using the Exclude Assignments, Exclude Held Resource Requests, and Exclude Unheld Resource Requests filter options and by filtering by region, practice, or group.
  • Prevent particular assignments and resource requests from being included on work planners by selecting Exclude from Planners on the assignment or resource request record. This speeds up loading time because it reduces the amount of records being loaded into work planners. If there are too many assignments and resource requests to show, a message is displayed so you can change the filters to reduce the amount of records returned, for example, by shortening the date range covered or by specifying the projects or RPGsClosed Abbreviation of region, practice, group. you want to focus on. Records are displayed in start date order, which means any records that cannot be shown are missing from the foot of the Grid view.
Note:

The buttons used to view details of resource and assignment records from a work planner have changed. Instead of clicking different buttons, a combined button View details of the selected record allows you to view details of the records on different tabs in a Record Details panel.

For more information, see:

Time Entry

The following enhancements have been made to the Timer component:

  • A new custom setting to automatically enable timecard sync, when creating new timer sessions.
  • The ability to resume the most recent timer session from the Current Timer section of the Timer Lightning component.
  • An improved process flow on the Time Entry Lightning component when creating timecards. Now, only global projects or projects with valid assignments for your resource are displayed.
  • Cases are now part of the default selectable fields when creating a new timer session, on the Timer component.
  • Milestones are now part of the default selectable fields when creating a new timer session, on the Timer component.
  • The Edit window has been expanded, to allow users to edit the timecard records associated when timer sessions are synced to timecards. The Sync to Timecard field has also been added to the edit window.
  • Timecard context fields, such as the project associated with the selected milestone, assignment, or project task now automatically populate on your selected timer session.

The following enhancements have been made to the Time Entry component:

  • Timecards can now be entered in daily mode. Your administrator must set up this functionality.
  • A filter for viewing timecards in Days or Hours mode respectively. Switching between day mode and hourly mode will automatically update the hours or days entered on timecards.
  • The Work Calendar hours bar indicator now displays remaining work calendar hours, when viewing the Time Entry component in dual mode.

For more information, see:

Task-Based Scheduling of Held Resource Requests

When you have created a resource request from a project task, and the resource request is then held, a task schedule is now generated. The resource's hours are spread equally across the duration of the task schedule.

For more information, see Creating Resource Requests from Project Tasks.

Utilization Analytics

We have enhanced Utilization Analytics to include a robust approach for managing utilization from the PSA Administration page. We have also introduced Lightning Experience in Utilization.

You can use Utilization to:

  • Create utilization setup record
  • Configure utilization setups
  • Schedule utilization job runs
  • Delete utilization results

For more information, see:

Queued Requests from Template Pages

We have added an information message and deprecated the Lightning spinner to enhance your experience by informing you that your request has been queued. For the following pages, instead of displaying a spinner when jobs are processing, pages now close and you receive a success or failure notification when the process has been completed:

You will also receive a partial success notification when some records are partially processed and others fail due to some errors. For the failed records an email is sent with the success and failure count and the details of the errors to help you resolve the issue. A new custom setting field Email When sObject Cloning Fails is created to support this feature. For more information, see Common Settings.

If an error occurs during the queueing process when creating a project from a template or opportunity, you are redirected to the Edit Project Details window where you can resolve the error.

Fixes

Fixes are listed on the Known Issues page of the Certinia Community. You can access this page from the Community Support Hub. For a brief description of the issues that have been fixed in this version of PSA, see the relevant section of the Known Issues page.