Construction Manager & CIS

Change in Functionality

• [NS] Implemented adaptive columns to the Requisitions and Project Requisitions Approval screens. Now when the screen is resized or zoomed in and out of, the buttons will stay on the screen.
• [NS] Implemented a change so users no longer need to re-download attachments every time they sync (Sicon Approvals App).
• [JS] Implemented redesigned Expenses entries screens that require less clicks to navigate.

Did you know, we have improved the Expenses Screen within Sicon Approvals?

We have been looking at ways of improving the user experience (UX) within Sicon Approvals; that could be speed of processing, which is always challenging and something that we are constantly working on, but also how the end user interacts (UI) with the software. This might be, the number of clicks a user has to get to certain information or how they enter a transaction or the use of information displayed on screen. With these UI/UX changes, we haven’t changed any functionality – just the way you interact.

The first area we looked at is with Expenses and in this area, we looked at two areas specifically; Expense entry and Expense Approval.

If we take a look at the changes on Expense Entry first and compare side by side what the changes look like.

Before:

After:

The first thing that we looked at was the space being used on the screen. The detail has been put alongside the Company Selection, Purchase Ledger Account and Expense Date. This allows the detail of the expense to be brought up and be more prominent on the page, as these are the import part of the Expense itself.

The next part of the changes comes when we are entering an Expense Line.

Before:

After:

Similar to the Expense Header, the available White Space on the screen has been minimized and all entry boxes aligned (e.g. Project and Project Header). As lines are added to the expense, they are now added to the bottom rather than the top to again ensure that the expense entry is the priority.

Another difference to speed up processing of the expense is when a new line is added, selecting ‘Add New Line’ blanks out the entry form so you can instantly add another line, whereas before you were taken back to the Line Detail, and would have had to click new line again.

For an Expense Line, again we have taken a similar approach to improve the User Experience;

Before:

After:

The first part of the mileage entry we tidied up was the Detail and Values section, this was displayed in three sections, Vehicle, Rate Components and Vehicle Details. The latter two are not initially shown on load and have to be expanded down, whereas now, removing all the unused space, we have been able to display all information and taking up less room on the screen.

For the line Detail the entry boxes have been lined up to use the available space on the screen, these are also adaptive so will use the space that is available to them, (unless really small).

The pop out for the distance calculator has also had a little revamp;

Before:

After:

In terms of space on the screen, there hasn’t been any changes, however we have regulated the layout, ensuring everything is ‘in-line’ and had has a more rounded, cleaner look.

To finish things of with the Expense changes, we can look at a 3-line expense and how that appears to an end user;

Before:

After:

These screenshots are taken on the same screen and resolution to show how much more information we have been able to fit on the screen. A big reason for that space saving is changing some of the buttons to common images, such as the dustbin for Delete or the Pencil for Edit.

Expect to see some of these user interface and user experience changes (UI/UX) coming to other modules within Sicon Approvals soon – some maybe be small but some maybe not!

In terms of functionality, nothing has changed – for more information on the Expense Module, please refer to the Help and User guide.