What’s new in Zetadocs Expenses May 2020 update

New Express edition

This article describes the new features and other improvements in the May 2020 update of the Zetadocs Expenses service.

Changes in this update

Feature enhancements

New Express edition

This update adds support for the Express edition, a new edition of Zetadocs Expenses with restricted functionality for use by smaller companies.  Express edition accounts are configured using a similar admin site to other editions, but some of the pages and configuration options are not available.

The edition is shown on the System Settings screen.  This also displays the account name and an account ID which should be quoted if you need to contact the Equisys support team.

Improved sign in experience with Microsoft Authenticator app

We have improved the sign in experience on mobile devices with the Microsoft Authenticator app installed.  When signing in you can now select your Microsoft work or school account from a list instead of having to enter the account name yourself. 

The sign in process now matches Microsoft phone apps like Outlook, making it simpler for users to sign in and quicker for administrators who use two or more Zetadocs Expenses user accounts on their phone.

Improve display of admin site validation errors

We have improved the way the admin site displays validation errors to make configuring the system easier and more intuitive for users.  Errors are now displayed in the same way on different page types, with clear feedback when a setting needs to be corrected before configuration changes can be saved.

Preview features

The following enhancements are enabled on selected accounts only.  This allows channel partners and other users to understand the feature and to give feedback on its implementation before general release.  Please contact Equisys if you wish to use any of these preview features.

Reduce sign in time for heavy users

We have improved the startup process for the client, reducing the time it takes to download the expense data from the server so that a user can start using the app more quickly.

Improve display time for the status screen

We have reduced the time to display the status screen, which is used by finance processors to display and manage approved reports.  The improvement is particularly noticeable on larger systems where it significantly improves usability for this screen.

Quality and performance improvements

This update includes a number of quality and performance improvements, including the following:

Unable to sign in with some Microsoft work or school accounts

Previously some users were unable to sign in on Apple (iOS) devices using their Microsoft work or school account.  This affected Microsoft accounts which had additional security policies applied – for example where a company had set policies to limit which applications could be used on mobile devices.  This issue has now been corrected.

Additional upgrade steps

Extension for Business Central

There is no update to the Extension for Business Central with this release.

This release is compatible with previous versions of the extension.

Connector for NAV

There is no update to the Connector for NAV with this release.

This release is compatible with previous versions of the connector (versions 3.3.18178 and later).

Reporting Template

There is no update to the PowerBI reporting template with this release.

Mobile apps

Installed mobile apps will be updated automatically on mobile devices where this is enabled.

Known issues with released features

Status screen

On larger systems the status screen can take a long time to display, and at busy times the request may timeout and fail.  The display time depends on the number of reports and expenses in the system, so the screen will typically take longer to display on larger systems.

The display time can be reduced by displaying the Settings page in the Zetadocs Expenses client app, then reducing the Status Screen Report Viewing Window setting to 30 days.

Report export fails when using Expense/Capitalize sales tax setting

There is an issue with the current version of Business Central which causes exporting reports to fail with a rate mismatch error on some Canadian systems.  This occurs when using sales tax rates which have the Expense/Capitalize option set in Business Central. 

The issue is described in this technote, which also includes details of a workaround to overcome the issue.

Unable to post exported purchase invoices on some Canadian systems

In some cases Business Central displays an error when you try to post a draft purchase invoice created by exporting a report from Zetadocs Expenses.  This affects Canadian systems where the Tax Area Code field is not set automatically on new purchase invoices.

The issue can be corrected by configuring your Business Central system to set the Tax Area Code automatically when creating a new purchase invoice – for example by setting the Tax Area Code for the company using the Company Information screen.