Release notes for the Aloha Smart Manager (ASM) restaurant and hospitality software product.

Version 1.16

April 17, 2025

New features

• ASM-4432: Managers can now update employee records, such as address, phone number, user device login, role, jobs, and pay rate, using the updated employee user interface. Employee record updates automatically synchronize with other parts of the application, ensuring that the updated data is consistent throughout.

• ASM-3448: Aloha Smart Manager now includes two new jobs, 'General Manager' and 'Shift Leader,' alongside the existing 14 default system-owned jobs. For newly onboarded customers, the two new jobs appear in the Active tab, while for existing customers they appear in the Inactive tab under Labor settings > Job configuration. Additionally, we replaced the 'Jobcodes' label with 'Jobs' in Labor settings > Job configuration.

• ASM-3412: We're excited to introduce the Copy Schedule feature, which is designed to streamline the scheduling process for managers. This new functionality lets managers seamlessly copy the schedule from the previous week to the current week, significantly reducing the time and effort needed for manual scheduling.

  Key Benefits:

  • Timesaving: Quickly replicates the schedule from last week, eliminating the need for repetitive manual entries.
  • Conflict Resolution: Easily resolves conflicts if an employee is terminated or a job is changed, ensuring a smooth and accurate scheduling process.
  • Manual Error Prevention: Minimizes the risk of manual errors by automating the copying process, leading to more accurate and reliable schedules.
  • Consistency: Maintains consistency in scheduling, ensuring employees have predictable work patterns.
  • Flexibility: Allows for easy adjustment and modification to the copied schedule, providing flexibility to accommodate any last minute changes.
  • Improved Efficiency: Streamlines the overall scheduling workflow, allowing managers to focus on other critical tasks.

  We believe this feature enhances your scheduling efficiency and provides a more seamless experience.

• ASM-2518: ASM users with access to other NCR Cloud apps can now update user account information, which automatically synchronizes with other applications.

• ASM-2516: The 'Employee invite' flow is now referred to as the 'Create new user' flow. When a manager clicks 'Create new user' in the Labor function, they enter the basic details of the employee in NCRID. The employee record is automatically added to the Active tab with a Pending status in ASM, skipping the invitation acceptance and the login steps. When the manager adds job information, the employee is automatically activated.

• ASM-1801: ASM now fully integrates with the common component library used by the rest of the Home-associated applications. Users now see the familiar app-switcher in the top left of the screen, along with an organization switcher that matches other Home applications.

Version 1.15.1

February 24, 2025

New features

• ASM-2516: The 'Employee invite' flow is now referred to as the 'Create new employee' flow. When a manager clicks 'Create new employee' in Labor > Employees, they are redirected to Identity, where they enter the basic details of the employee. After clicking Create User in NCR ID, the employee record is automatically added to the Pending tab in ASM, skipping the invitation acceptance and login steps. The manager can then add job information and activate the employee.

Version 1.14

January 30, 2025

New features

• ASM-1683: Customers subscribed to Cloud Data Sharing now receive an export with sales total data. The system triggers the export following the End-of-Day process and sends it to the designated users through an email.

Version 1.13

January 9, 2025

New features

Labor

• ASM-3540: Managers can now run two new reports: the Employee Payroll Report and the Approaching Overtime Report. The Employee Payroll Report displays each employee's hours and wages, with the Summary tab breaking down hours and wages by job and the Details tab providing hours and wages for each individual shift. The Approaching Overtime Report calculates the total hours worked for the week so far, combined with any remaining scheduled hours. The manager can review the report and take action if an employee has exceeded their scheduled hours and is on track to incur overtime by completing their remaining scheduled shifts.

• ASM-2770: Managers can now access the Punch Summary page to manage employee time punches. They can view punches imported from the POS, manually add punches for employees who forgot to clock in or out, and edit existing punches as needed.

Version 1.12

November 19, 2024

New features

• ASM-2770: Managers can now invite new employees to start using ASM with Aloha Cloud. They enter the employee's information, assign jobs, pay rates, and activate the employee to make them available in the weekly schedule. Employees can manage their own personal information within a more restricted view of ASM.

• ASM-1: Managers can now create a weekly schedule for employees, easily print and post it in the restaurant. Employees can view their schedules within their restricted view of ASM. Managers can also filter the schedule by employees and jobs, allowing them to work specifically on the server schedule or print the cooks' schedule to post in the kitchen. The manager keeps the schedule in draft status while working on it, then use the 'Publish' function to share with the staff. The 'Shift tracker' menu option lets the manager quickly view the scheduled shifts for a given day.

Version 1.11

October 14, 2024

New features

• ASM-1601: ASM features are segmented into various packages: Default, Starter, and Core, as well as multiple sub-packages. The NCR Voyix Implementation team uses a tool to update an organization's subscribed packages, to ensure alignment with the customer contract.

Version 1.10

August 27, 2024

New features

• ASM-2762: Additional improvements and filter enhancements are completed for all reports to boost performance.

• ASM-2156: The Site filter and Site selector are synchronized to provide a more consistent user experience. A standardized Site filter is also implemented to ensure uniformity across all report pages.

Version 1.9

July 30, 2024

New features

• ASM-1932: Additional improvements to report performance with filter enhancements have been completed for the following reports:
  • Landing Page Dashboard
  • Sales Summary - Report
  • Transactions - View Transactions
  • Transactions - Export Views
  • Taxes
  • Revenue Centers
  • Internal Sales and Labor
  • Invoice History - GL categories (Detail)
  • Invoice History - Vendors (Detail)
  • Employee Break
  • Approaching ACA Threshold - Employee Average Hours Worked
  • Job Code History

Version 1.8

July 9, 2024

New features

• ASM-1932: Improved performance for the following reports by enhancing the grids, charts, and data collection:
  • Discounts
  • Voids
  • Refunds
  • Transactions - View Transactions
  • Transactions - Export Views
  • Taxes
  • Employee Payroll - Summary
  • Approaching Overtime Threshold

Version 1.7

June 4, 2024

New features

• ASM-1932: Improved performance for the following reports by enhancing the grids, charts, and data collection:
  • Dashboard/Landing page
  • Sales Summary
  • Product Mix Menu Items
  • Product Mix Employee Sales

Version 1.6

May 7, 2024

New features

• ASM-1076: Updated the third-party libraries to resolve security vulnerabilities identified by the automated security scans.

Administration

• ASM-91: Users with access to multiple organizations can now easily switch between organizations while staying logged in to the same session.
• ASM-1286: Optimized the automated onboarding process for new organizations.

Sales

• ASM-255: The Product Mix Menu Items report is no longer limited to 5000 rows of data. This report is enhanced to include the 'Export to Excel' option, optimized to support dark mode, and is more user-friendly.

Labor

• ASM-36: Managers can now rate the performance of an employee per jobcode using star rating mechanism ranging from one to five stars. The stars appear against each jobcode assigned to an employee. For example, managers can rate an employee as a 5-star server but only a 2-star bartender.
• ASM-704: Optimized various sales and labor reports.
• ASM-1: Managers can now print a weekly schedule to post in the restaurant.
• ASM-1630: When you add a new restaurant site, the default labor rules (minimum wage, overtime, and more) for the site’s location are now automatically enabled without the administrator’s intervention.

Inventory

• ASM-2: Administrators can now configure custom unit of measures. They can easily understand custom units and how their conversion factors relate to other units in simple, plain human language, and validate the units of measure for completeness and accuracy.
• ASM-34: Managers can now view the inventory units of measure associated with each raw item. The relationship of vendor items and their receive units with the associated raw items are easily understandable. They can also validate inventory units of measure for completeness and accuracy.

Version 1.4

March 12, 2024

New features

• ASM-883: Updated the third-party libraries to resolve security vulnerabilities identified by the automated security scans.

Administration

• ASM-249: Managers can now view the current day data on the Dashboard. The Dashboard now automatically refreshes for every two minutes with the most up-to-date data.

Sales

• ASM-255: The Product Mix Menu Items report is no longer limited to 5000 rows of data. This report is enhanced to include the 'Export to Excel' option, optimized to support dark mode, and is more user-friendly.

Inventory

• ASM-2: Administrators can now configure custom unit of measures, easily understand the custom units and how their conversion factors relate to other units, and validate the units of measure for completeness and accuracy.

Version 1.3

February 20, 2024

New features

• ASM-166: Updated the third-party libraries to resolve security vulnerabilities identified by the automated security scans.

Labor

• ASM-18: Managers now have helpful metrics available when working on employee schedules. Appearing at the bottom are daily and weekly values for the average of the past six weeks' sales, total number of hours scheduled, and scheduled labor cost as a percentage of the sales average.

Inventory

• ASM-3: All units of measure are available for managers to view, including industry units and receive units. This helps managers understand the industry units and how the conversion factors relate to other units. They can also validate units of measure for completeness and accuracy.

Version 1.2

January 11, 2024

New features

Inventory

• CBO-6742: Managers can now upload and process an invoice (digital image file or PDF) using their desktop or phone. Aloha Smart Manager processes and reads the uploaded image, detecting the individual elements of the uploaded invoice. Managers can make changes to the resulting invoice values. When all required invoice data is complete, Aloha Smart Manager adds the invoice to the solution for future processing and reporting.

Version 1.1

November 6, 2023

New features

Administration

• CBO-505: Accountants and bookkeepers can access and modify fiscal and payroll calendar configuration.

Version 1.0

October 11, 2023

New features

Administration

• CBO-2: A new dashboard with key performance metrics is now available for viewing for the selected site. Each dashboard tile provides a comparison of metrics to a previous period. This helps in identifying whether the trend is moving upwards or downwards. When you click or tap a dashboard tile, a report appears to allow you to gain more insight for the metric. In a future release, the dashboard will support the period selection of the current business day to improve load time and performance.
• CBO-965: A new User management screen allows you to easily access your NCR ID.

Labor

• CBO-13: Managers can now navigate to the desired schedule week, add shifts for employees, and create an employee schedule. The shift must contain a job code, start time, and end time. Managers can add up to three scheduled breaks per shift. Additionally, they can add a note to a specific shift for one employee or a general announcement to all employees for the scheduled week. The schedule remains in draft status and viewable only to managers, until published to the entire staff.

• CBO-1313: Administrators can now view the local labor rules in effect for their location and have the ability to edit the rule to remain in compliance with any future change to the regulation. Additionally, they can assign a date to take effect in the future. For example, if the minimum wage is expected to increase in the next fiscal year, they can enter the future date now instead of later.

• CBO-1696: Managers can now use the Punch Summary screen to edit an existing time punch or add a new punch for an employee who did not clock in or clock out.

• CBO-2172: All new employees now receive an email invitation to start the onboarding process. Upon clicking the confirmation link in the email, the new hire sets a password for their account. Once logged into Smart Manager, the employee enters their personal information, emergency contact details, and any certification they have completed, such as for liquor, food safety, and others.

• CBO-2173: Managers can now onboard newly hired employees into Aloha Smart Manager. After the employee enters their personal information, as described in CBO-2172, the manager can assign their employment status (full-time/part-time), job codes, pay rates, and POS permissions, and set an export ID, if necessary. Upon completion, the manager can activate the employee record and schedule shifts for the employee.

• CBO-2174: Administrators can now modify the properties of the 13 seeded job codes available in Aloha Smart Manager and perform the following:

  • Change a job code name.
  • Exclude job hours and dollars from reporting, which is useful for salaried managers.
  • Select the labor group in which the job code reports.
  • Configure the POS ID and access level.
  • Activate and deactivate a job code.

• CBO-4827: Managers can now use the 'Employee break' report to view the scheduled breaks of all employees for the day. The details include the length of a break, whether the break is paid or unpaid, and start time of the break.

• CBO-4828: Managers can now use the 'Employee payroll' report to view employee payroll information for a selected pay period. The summary section of the report displays the hours and dollars by job code, and any overtime or penalty pay earned for the employee. The detail section of the report displays information for individual punches.

• CBO-4831: Managers can now use the 'Employee sales performance' report to compare various performance measures across employees. They can compare per-person average (PPA), average check time, comps, voids, and several other measures. This analysis helps to identify the best performing employees and the employees that may need improvement.

• CBO-4833: Managers can now use the 'Approaching ACA Threshold' report to view the employees who are at risk of exceeding the 30-hour-per-week average mandated by the Affordable Care Act. The report displays the average hours over a selected pay period and the hours for a single pay period. This analysis helps the manager to proactively avoid providing paid benefits.

• CBO-4834: Managers can now use the 'Approaching overtime threshold' report to view the employees at risk of working overtime for the scheduled week. The report displays the actual hours worked for the week, the remaining hours scheduled to work, and the expected sum of these two values. Employees are subdivided by less than 30 expected hours, between 30 and 40 hours, and over 40 hours. This analysis helps the manager to proactively avoid overtime costs.

• CBO-4837: Managers can now use the 'Generic payroll export' report to upload payroll information to a payroll processor or to simply analyze in a spreadsheet. The detailed information about each punch includes job code, pay rate, hours worked, sales, and any overtime or penalty pay earned during the shift.

• CBO-4838: Managers can now use the 'Interval sales and labor' report to analyze the sales and labor data in detail. The report provides details such as net sales, forecasted sales, actual hours, scheduled hours, labor cost in dollars, percentage of sales, sales per labor hour, number of guests, and number of checks. The manager can view this in increments of 30 to 60 minutes.

• CBO-4840: Managers can now view the job code history of an employee from their date of hire, including each job code and pay rate.

Sales

• CBO-2676: Managers can easily view guest transaction details with the ability to view and reprint receipts. Additionally, they can export detailed information about the transaction.