CARS has been updated

We pushed about 15 fixes to the CARS application on Thursday evening.

There are a lot of fixes you may not notice, so I'll focus on the top three you are likely to notice.

1. You can now invoice via XML if you a sub
2. You will receive an email via the CARS application if your invoice has been rejected
3. Indirect rates will now true up when your rate changes - you will also receive a note that this has happened.

There are a few other details that will be sent out via email to all CARS users on Friday.

While this fixes and enhances CARS, there are a few fixes coming next week that are in the works.

One issue in particular that is not working correctly is if you are a sub, and also are part of an amendment subcontract, and you have invoiced for greater than the original sub amount, the application is having a problem with paying you that amount that is greater than the original sub amount. It is something we've been aware of for a while and will be excited when it gets fixed.

Let us know if you have any questions with the new aspects of CARS.

A link to the CARS Training videos is here.

A list of all firms trained in CARS is here.

what's next for CARS

Just wanted to announce that if you missed the first round of training in CARS, that we do plan on having additional training in the CARS application. There are some things that have changed since the initial launch, but for the most part, the application has the same look and feel. We will be sure to make an announcement when new training opportunities become available.

We're also getting a lot of questions about when the new mandatory date for using CARS will be. At this time, we have a few major fixes that need to be made to CARS before we can come up with a firm date. When we know, we'll let you know.

I thank you for your patience as we work through the issues in CARS.

Sometime during the next week (Apr 27 to May 1), we will have paid our 1,000th invoice through the CARS application. I think at this time we're doing about 15-20% of the invoices through CARS (that's a very rough guess).

If you are interested in CARS training, but can't wait for the in class training, you can watch the training videos here.

A link to the firms trained in CARS is here.

are there things missing?

The most common question that I get about CARS is why can't I upload documents?

That and most any simple display questions can be answered by making sure you are using Internet Explorer (not Chrome or Firefox).

Another thing you need to make sure is that your Compatibility View settings are set for the application.

When you are in CARS, go to Tools - Compatibility View settings, then click "Add"

A demo can be seen here.

A link to all firms trained in CARS is here.

A link to the CARS Training Videos is here.

Selecting All Contracts and Creating Groups, in a Jiffy

Back a long time ago selecting all contracts posed a problem in CARS because the application was running so slow. I think I said at the most you should have about 30 contracts selected, otherwise your system would be unbearably slow.

Since the last update, I believe it you have the ability to select all contracts (prime, sub, and amend sub) and assign them to yourself. This is fast and simple.

Note, when you "Select All Active," you are only selecting that "Active" contracts at that moment.

I have a large fake firm. I was able to create 3 groups of all my active prime, subcontract and amend subcontracts and assign them to myself in 3 minutes and 1 second (I did not edit out the waiting times).

I think this is the best and fastest way to make sure you can get to your contracts.

Maybe you make it a habit as a vendor admin to go in every week for each of your 3 groups, to go ahead and look at your groups and "Select All Active" contracts again to make sure you have all your contracts. Also, everyone that is attached to those groups also gets those contracts. That will basically take a minute to update to make everyone in your firm happy.

Note, unless I schedule a blogpost in advance, this is the last blog you'll see until April 22.