Changes introduced in SDL Trados Business Manager version 5.3.0

Eugene Kuchynski — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 09:08:22 GMT

Current Revision posted to Wiki by Eugene Kuchynski on 6/5/2020 9:08:22 AM

New Release for SDL Trados Business Manager version 5.3 (Build 5.3.4, release date 08 June 2020)

[NEW] - new functionality [ADD] - smaller additions [IMPROVE] - changed functionality [FIX] - bug fixes

Important! As for any new major release, please backup your database before installing an update.

Application settings

[NEW] (BACCS-168) New localization language - Portuguese!

[NEW] (BACCS-501) Translation assignments > Notify other candidates about assigned work. This new setting allows to automatically send notifications to all candidates who still didn't answer if some vendor gets assigned to an assignment. Notification text is contained in a message template with 'Use as default for' value set to 'Automated notification - notification to candidate that a job was assigned to another vendor',

[ADD] (BACCS-25) Two new options under 'Translation assignments' tab: 'Disable machine learning for recommendations' and 'Disable recommendations based on previous work'.

[ADD] (BACCS-601) In addition to Street field, a 'Building' field has been added, as in certain cases it is required to specify street and building separately.

Reference data

[NEW] (BACCS-22) Vendor editing form - added new "Auto unit conversion settings" tab, which allows to specify rules for automatic unit conversion when creating assignments for a specified vendor. For example, job could be counted in words, but a company uses 'lines' to count vendors' work. This table allows to automatically convert 'words' to 'lines' by applying corresponding adjustment factors. When application does such auto conversion. you will see corresponding confirmation message. See changes in this Documentation article.

[NEW] (BACCS-25) Added new table - 'Vendor groups'. Allows to create groups linked with particular customers, projects, specializations, language pairs and services to facilitate vendor selection - application will recommend vendors based on these groups. See documentation article.

[NEW] (BACCS-24) Test pieces and vendor employment process (documentation article)

From now, it is possible to create predefined test pieces for particular language pairs and specializations, accompanied by a list of preferred proofreaders. Test pieces could be automatically offered to newly registered vendors or manually assigned by administrators. Submitted test pieces can be forwarded to proofreaders, who can check them on free or paid basis. After test piece returning from a proofreader, results can be sent back to a vendor. Depending on a test piece score, vendor gets approval in language pair and/or specialization, which will be highlighted during vendor selection in translation assignments. For non-employed vendors high test piece score will mean that manager will be offered to mark a vendor as employed.

Test piece editing form:

When vendor, for example registers and adds some language pairs, system will look for test pieces marked as available for vendors. If such test pieces are found, they will be offered to a vendor:

And new tests will appear in a vendor profile and on a dashboard. Vendor can edit them and submit when done:

Managers, from their side, get notification for submitted test piece and can check it by themselves or send an offer to one of predefined proofreaders:

Depending if proofreader is paid or not, system will create translation assignment with purchase order or simple mail message with test piece details.

[ADD] (BACCS-562) Expense types - added 'Exclude from Ledger' box, which allows to register expenses but not include them into the Ledger, which reflects accounted incomings.

[ADD] (BACCS-600) Service types - added 'Service code' filed.

Quotes

[NEW] (BACCS-553) Added new default quote printing template which shows total savings to customer thanks to applying TMs. Customer will see price per fuzzy type and price if there were no fuzzy matches.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-552) Added 'Fuzzy type' column to the Quote items table. Consequentially, it is now possible to import analysis reports not only by calculating total average, but also with full fuzzy breakdown.

Translation projects and jobs

[NEW] (BACCS-24) New vendor recommendation mechanism (documentation article), which now can recommend vendors based on:

User-defined vendors groups, which allow to link particular vendors with specified customers, projects, specializations and services;
Machine learning model, which analyses user behavior and recommends vendors;
Previous work completed by vendors;
Willingness to work expressed by vendors

How it works. You can get recommendations from the translation assignment window in the following ways:

Open Vendor selection drop-down menu
Click Search icon in the Vendor field to open vendor selection popup window
Switch to the Candidates tab and click Add candidate button.

Recommended vendors will be highlighted using following colors: orange - recommendation from vendor group; violet - recommendation by machine learning system; yellow - recommendation based on previous work completed by vendor; green - recommendation based on vendor's willingness to work.

[ADD] (BACCS-543) Translation project - added possibility to import analysis files (previously was possible to import these files only on translation jobs). During import, if analysis file contains data for different language pairs, values will be written into corresponding translation jobs (translation jobs will be created if not exists or modified if they exist).

[ADD] (BACCS-569) Added automatic customer notifications about completed projects. When project is marked as Finished and non-disabled project delivery message template exists, and customer portal is enabled, then customer will receive e-mail notification about completed project.

[ADD] (BACCS-631) Added automatic customer notifications about completed jobs. When job is marked as Finished and non-disabled job delivery message template exists, and customer portal is enabled, then customer will receive e-mail notification about completed job.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-25) Added two new fields to the vendor selection drop-down menu: 'Average rating in language pair' and 'Average rating in specialization'. These values are calculated on fly based on language pair and specialization used in a base translation job.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-256) When a new task is added to a job, Service type and Unit columns will be automatically populated based on a previous task existing in a job.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-257) In certain cases, when status gets changed from Sent to any previous step, 'Date delivered' field could be automatically erased.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-580) Translation project editing window - it is not mandatory not to select workflow to automatically create assignments on the Translation assignment tab. Now, if Workflow is empty, system will create single assignment per each job, for the whole unassigned volumes.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-624) Projects won't be automatically closed when all translation jobs are marked as Finished or Delivered. This is to prevent situations when project could get new jobs in future. Instead, projects with all completed jobs will be highlighted in the project list.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-618) When importing CAT analysis into a job or a project, previously application erased existing tasks. Now, default behavior is changed and tasks won't be erased anymore. Instead, Erase existing tasks option was added to the analysis import dialog, which allows to force task deletion when importing analysis results. However, if particular task in a job was already assigned to any vendor, it won't be deleted anyway.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-617) Translation jobs - on the files tab, files from linked translation assignments will be displayed as well. This allows to view all files from a single place.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-642) Jobs which are not marked as finished or sent, which are fully assigned to vendors, will be highlighted with orange color if all assignments are delivered.

Translation assignments

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-648) Much improved workflow for splitting a single job into multiple assignments. When you create an assignment over a job, all unassigned volumes are copied to an assignment. Then, when you import analysis report generated for just an assigned part, application will find existing tasks and correct quantities there. Previous behavior: task were fully replaced. With new behavior, application will automatically adjust unassigned volumes in a base job and next assignment created for a same job will have only unassigned volumes.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-549) Vendor pickup table - added Notes from vendor column, which will store notes from vendors when they decline or counter-offer jobs.

[ADD] (BACCS-542) Added Discount/markup % column to assignment tasks and payables tables.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-568) Default PO template - added 'Fuzzy type' to the table.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-24) It is now possible to create translation assignments without base translation job. To achieve this, Translation job field was made non-mandatory, and Language pair, Specialization and Translation project fields were added to the assignment editing form. These fields are editable when Translation job value is empty, otherwise they become disabled. The same was implemented in the Assignment tasks table. If base job task is selected, Service type, Unit and Fuzzy type fields are disabled (information is taken from base job task). But if base task is not selected, these fields become editable.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-24) During vendor selection, vendors who has approvals (passed tests) in a language pair or specialization, will be marked with special icons:

[ADD] (BACCS-503) During vendor selection in the Candidates table, system now displays possible job margin if particular candidate will be selected to do a job.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-580) Translation project - Create assignments button. It now does not require to select Workflow. Without workflow selected, translation assignments will be created using default approach - one assignment per each job which contains any unassigned volumes, regardless service type.

Invoices and payments

[NEW] (BACCS-613) Improved approach to corrective invoices (see documentation). Important: breaking changes. There is no more "corrective invoice" term used in previous versions. Instead, we joined Invoices and Credit notes into single entity. So, now, if sent invoice should be corrected, you can use one of the following approaches:

Cancel existing invoice (new Cancelled status was added) and create a new one. This approach is available only if you don't use e-invoicing functionality.
Issue credit note for existing invoice, send it, and then create a new invoice (if needed, because creating a credit note could be enough). For this, a new Credit note status was added. Invoices with this status can't be paid, and they can't have any other status. When you create or edit credit notes, editing form will look identically to invoice editing form, but instead of Invoice items table you will see Invoice item corrections table. This table contains all items from original invoice, and you can't add or remove records here. It is only possible to change values in the Quantity and Price columns, thus decreasing amount of original invoice item:

By default, when you create a credit note, values in the Quantity column are set to zero. For reference, you can see initial quantities and amounts nearby. If you wish to deduct something from original invoice, just type necessary values in the Quantity and Price column. Resulting amount will give you credited amount. Then, you can apply same taxes to this amount, as were used in original invoice.
Additionally, you can provide Correction reason in the corresponding field.
For credit notes, a new special invoice template was created. You can find it under Print button:

During update, all your existing corrective invoices will be converted into regular invoices, and corrected invoices will be marked as Cancelled.

Credit notes section in the Workspace menu group still exists, but it will be removed in the next major release. Please take this into account and try to convert existing credit notes to invoices with Credit note status.

[NEW] (BACCS-498) Now it's possible to create invoices right from projects (Create invoice button in the project list and project editing form). This button allows to create an invoice or multiple invoices for all delivered uninvoiced project's jobs. If set of jobs contains jobs in different currencies, multiple invoices will be created.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-484) New batch payments feature. Allows to create payments in batch mode from the invoice list screen. Now it is possible to select any number of invoices in the list and click Create a payment button. In the result, the system will create necessary number of payments per each customer/currency pair, marking all selected invoices as paid.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-558) From now, it is possible to edit and delete invoices if e-invoicing functionality is disabled in the application settings. If e-invoicing is enabled, application must follow requirements to protect sent invoices from changing.

[ADD] (BACCS-602) Added 'Correction reason field for corrective invoices.

[ADD] (BACCS-612) Added XML Generated column, which allows to track invoices for which electronic invoice files have been generated.

[FIX] (BACCS-546) Invoice list - if invoice is marked as Sent, but its amount is zero, then invoice protection won't work and this invoice will be available for deletion.

Reporting and dashboards

[ADD] (BACCS-483) Added new built-in QuickReport - Average volumes by vendors. It displays average volumes for vendors in a specified period and allows to detail this volume by units and services.

[ADD] (BACCS-482) Added new built-in custom reports - TM Leverage report. It displays jobs and total savings thanks to translation memories. Allows to filter data by projects, customers and time ranges.

[ADD] (BACCS-571) Added new documentation article demonstrating implementation of complex invoice template: article.

SDL products integration

Other

[NEW] (BACCS-513) Custom fields and data entry forms customization in Online version. Now it's possible to create custom fields in Online version and customize any data entry form (add, remove, re-arrange items, combine them into tabs and groups). For example, you added 'Comment' field for Taxes using custom fields editor. After restarting application, you can go to the taxes list, open any tax editing form and click on layout customization button:

Layout editing form will be displayed:

From here, you can drag/drop existing fields between groups, change item order in group, etc. Also you can create new item. For this, select target group via check box and click New button. In an opened item creation dialog fill in necessary data and select created custom field in the Database field field:

Click OK, and then Save and close to return to the tax editing form. You will notice that now there is a field to enter a comment for a tax:

[NEW] (BACCS-504) Re-designed system of automatic notifications. All notifications created by TBM are now customizable, and all templates for such notifications can be found under Reference data > Message templates table. Each notification type can be disabled, so application won't be sending any notification for particular event types. See Automatic notifications article for details.

[NEW] (BACCS-550) Added new table called System messages (see documentation article). By default, available only for admins. It's kind of log where information about different events in the application is recorded, but when showing a message to a user is not enough. When any event is added to this table, user will see notification icon a number of new events in the log. When all messages are read, this icon disappears. Currently, different error messages could be written to this log. For example, when the app fails to send automatic notification (for example, due to broken connection or other unexpected reason), a record will be added to this log.

[NEW] (BACCS-485) Other/tools > Global audit trail book - new view which provides centralized way to view all entries created by the audit trail system.

[ADD] (BACCS-514) Added new option to the Data transfer button under tool tab - Finalize data transfer. It helps to process data after importing it from external system, by recalculating net and total amounts, re-determining currency rates, updating statuses, creating transactions. etc. in all documents imported into TBM database.

[ADD] (BACCS-477) Added new default mail message template for delivering projects.

[ADD] (BACCS-548) Added new variables to the messaging system: Recipient > RecipientPassword, Translation job > JobURL, Translation project > ProjectURL, Translation assignment > AssignmentVendorPickNotes, AssignmentNotesFromVendor, AssignmentVendor, AssignmentStatus, Quote > QuoteURL, QuoteLastMessageFromCustomer, Customer > CustomerName, CustomerCode, CustomerVAT, CustomerAddress, CustomerCountry, Incoming invoice > InvoiceInNumber, InvoiceInDate, InvoiceInTerm, InvoiceInAmount, InvoiceInNumberOfAssignments

[ADD] (BACCS-24) Added to new variables to the messaging system: Test piece > TestPieceName, TestPieceLanguage, TestPieceSpecialization, TestPieceSourceText, TestPieceTargetText, TestPieceComments, TestPieceScore, TestPieceReferenceNumber.

[ADD] (BACCS-551) Message templates - added Disabled field, which allows to disable particular notification type without deleting message template from the database.

[ADD] (BACCS-24) Message templates - added new built-in templates: 'Test piece to proofreader', 'Vendor submitted test piece', 'Test piece results', 'Test piece delivery', 'Test piece'.

[ADD] (BACCS-572) Added mandatory password complexity validation for users and changed default password for Admin user (see Breaking changes below).

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-584) Automated notifications - when automatic message is generated for assigned vendor (provided that this feature is enabled in settings), then purchase order file, if such file exists in an assignment, will be automatically attached to a created message.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-247) Desktop version only - All lists - Menu keyboard key opens list's context menu.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-557) Online version only. Improved data entry screen loading times. On such screens as job/quote/project/assignment/invoice editing screens fields which already has some values will be displayed in read-only mode by default (for example, if customer is already selected in viewed job, this field will be in read-only mode), which allows not to load data for drop-down lists on initial load. If you still need to make a change in such read-only field, click Edit button on the toolbar, which will switch all read-only fields to edit mode.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-557) Online version only. Implemented in-cell editing in all main tables, like tasks in translation jobs or items in quotes. This improves performance and user experience when working with such entities, allowing to enter data much faster.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-246) Combo-boxes for custom fields with predefined lists of values - values are now sorted alphabetically.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-17) Custom fields can now be marked as required. This means it won't be possible to save corresponding entity until this field is filled. Be careful when using this functionality: after creating custom field it is necessary to verify that this field is added and visible for all users, otherwise they won't be able to fill it and save data.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-582) Online version - improve UI language selector, which now looks more compact and prettier:

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-595) Online version - implemented HTTPS forcing feature. It allows to automatically redirect users to secure version, even when they try to access the application via http protocol. This can be disabled in the configuration utility.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-597) Online version - added endpoint to check application health (/HealthCheck), which return OK code if application is running correctly.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-585) Analysis import from CAT tools - improved language pair detection when importing analysis files. Usually, analysis file contains information only about target language, which required users to fill language pair manually. However, if source language is specified in a quote or a project, system will use to determine language pair: source language will be taken from a quote/project, and target language will be determined from an analysis file.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-647) Desktop version - when application works in network mode, this is better presented in the application status bar, by displaying database engine and connected database name.

[FIX] Fixed Spanish localization, which by mistake had some string from Italian localization.

Vendor portal

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-24) Added 'Test pieces' tab to a vendor profile and main dashboard.

Customer portal

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-567) Quote requests created by customers are now immediately visible to customers (previously they were hidden until processed by a manager).

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-604) Added possibility to attach additional files to quotes, projects and jobs. Previously, after entity was created, users were not able to modify them in any way, except adding messages to managers. Now it's possible to upload additional files, and managers will be notified about that.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-604) Added 'Upload purchase order' button to translation project and translation job views. Customer now can add purchase orders even after project is completed and delivered.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-623) Added currency name to the title of the Total turnaround chart.

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-604) Added possibility to specify PO number and send PO files after a project has been closed. For this Upload purchase order button has been added to the project window:

[IMPROVE] (BACCS-604) Added possibility to upload additional files after project has been started.

[FIX] (BACCS-603) Added Job name field to the job list in the translation project view.

[FIX] (BACCS-603) Fixed language selection field when creating a new project. Previously it was needed to click "Find" button and then select source language in a popup window. Now users can type language name right in the 'Source language' field.

Bug fixes

[FIX] (BACCS-545) Fixed a bug with saving assignments and jobs.

[FIX] (BACCS-555) Desktop version. Fixed an issue when Print preview tab (containing buttons to work with printed document, like saving, exporting, printing, emailing, etc.) wasn't automatically focused after printing a document (i.e. quote, invoice, PO, etc.).

[FIX] (BACCS-100) Fixed an issue with default folder selected in the PDF export dialog when saving printed documents (invoices, quotes, etc.). This settings is available under Settings > Invoice settings > Invoices save folder.

[FIX] (BACCS-559) Translation job - when 'Save and close' is clicked in a job, if customer has min charge specified and job's amount is lower than min charge, system will display dialog offering to automatically correct amount. If user clicks 'No', job was saved, but not closed.

[FIX] (BACCS-620) Translation job - fixed a bug with editing and saving a job which was already invoiced and paid. In such cases, job status remained Paid. However, correct behavior is switching status to Partially-invoiced.

[FIX] (BACCS-610) Translation job - fixed an issue with Language pair and Margin% column in Online version, which were not displaying any data.

[FIX] (BACCS-614) Translation job - fixed an error message saying about missing file when opening job editing window.

[FIX] (BACCS-621) Translation job - fixed saving flow, when edited job was already invoiced. Previously, application offered to correct an invoice, if job amount has been edited. From now, if linked invoice was already sent or paid, such message won't be displayed. Additionally, fixed a behavior when such message appeared not after clicking Save button, but after clicking Create a translation assignment button, which also saves a job before executing and thus could display same dialog. In such case, regardless of user answer, translation assignment wasn't created.

[FIX] (BACCS-560) Security role editing screen - QuickReport data type was presented as 'Dashboard', which was confusing.

[FIX] (BACCS-565) Job payment status didn't automatically change when registering a payment.

[FIX] (BACCS-566) Customer portal - project created by a customer immediately god 'Closed' status.

[FIX] (BACCS-574) In the role configuration screen, when selecting target data type, there were two confusing types: Settings and Application setting. Settings means general application setting. While Application setting means internal table for storing different user parameters. So, for clarity, it was renamed to Temp parameter.

[FIX] (BACCS-575) Online version - fixed page refresh after clicking Calculate estimated amount button under Translation assignment > Candidates tab..

[FIX] (BACCS-578) Online version - fixed a bug with zero amounts in translation assignments (when details table has some amount, but total amount wasn't updated and remained zero).

[FIX] (BACCS-581) Fixed incorrect search in any combo box for selecting language pair.

[FIX] (BACCS-609) Mail sender - fixed rare bug when application could hang when sending a message. This behavior was noticed only for certain providers (SMTP servers). To overcome this, secure connection method to SMTP servers was improved.

[FIX] (BACCS-586) Online version - fixed a bug on Role configuration screen, when opening details for Dashboard object type took too much time (about a minute).

[FIX] (BACCS-587) Online version - Invoice editing window - Add job button - fixed a bug which prevented to select any job in a popup window, so it was not possible to manually add any job to an invoice.

[FIX] (BACCS-589) Online version - fixed incorrect representation of numbers in German, French, Italian and partially Japanese languages.

[FIX] (BACCS-590) Vendor portal - fixed a bug when vendor wasn't able to accept/decline assignments in certain cases.

[FIX] (BACCS-591) Online version - Project editing window - fixed functionality of the Print button.

[FIX] (BACCS-594) Online version - fixed a bug when application log file could grow infinitely. Now the size is limited by 10 Mb.

[FIX] (BACCS-607) Online version - fixed a bug in mail sender, when 'Send' button could become disabled after saving changes in a message, not allowing to send it until page is refreshed.

[FIX] (BACCS-608) Online version - fixed a bug with variables in mail sender. Variables inserted in Online version use <<VariableName>> notation, but variables inserted in desktop version use {VariableName} notation. This lead to an issue that variables inserted in Online version didn't work.

[FIX] (BACCS-623) Online version - Customer portal - Unpaid invoices widget displayed incorrect invoices, including those with Draft status.

[FIX] (BACCS-623) Online version - Customer portal - Total turnaround chart worked incorrectly in certain cases, displaying same month multiple times.

[FIX] (BACCS-626) Online version - in a popup dialog, when a user presses enter, application interpreted this as clicking OK button. However, in many cases, when a dialog contains drop-down lists for selection, users press enter to confirm selection in a drop-down list. From now, pressing Enter won't lead to closing a dialog.

[FIX] (BACCS-625) Online version - improved user locking mechanism. Previously, if you forget to logoff, system could block a user and won't allow you to login from another browser window. From now, system will remember user's IP-address and won't block a user if logon is attempting from the same IP. Additionally, lock time has been decreased to 10 minutes.

Breaking changes

From now, when you set passwords for users, password complexity rules apply. User's password must now be at least 8 characters long, include at least 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number and 1 special character.

For fresh installations, default Admin user password is now User@TBM.

Previously all automated notifications created by TBM were sent from notifications@ibaccs.com address. Not this is changed, and all notifications will be sent from default e-mail account configured in the system. To successfully send and receive notifications, please check documentation article and e-mail configuration by going to Reference data > E-mail accounts.