In this release notice we are launching some great new enhancements, as well as highlighting some features of the platform that we believe can significantly enhance your productivity. Whether you’ve missed them or are yet to try them, these tools will help your Recruiters to be more efficient and deliver better outcomes.
We have also taken the opportunity to show you some of the new features that are not part of this release, but are due out shortly – for more information on these please speak with your Mercury Customer Success Manager. Use the pink selector below to jump straight to a topic.
🟣 What you may have missed...
Microsoft Bookings - OneNote - Focused View - Improved access to Knowledge Base, Academy and Mercury Assist
🟢 What's being released in Version 27
New Broadbean v2 integration - New Org Chart - Agreement Approvals - Likely to Extend on Placements - All other New Updates - Software Fixes
🟡 What's coming soon!
Pinned Notes - New Search - Pay & Bill - New Mercury User experience
🟣 What you may have missed...
Microsoft Bookings Reduce the tools you need and the associated cost
If you are using products like Calendly or Chili Piper to book internal/external meetings, then this functionality is already available to you, courtesy of the Power Platform - and at NO additional cost!*
Microsoft Bookings makes scheduling and managing interviews and appointments beautifully simple.
Bookings includes a web-based booking calendar that integrates with Outlook to optimise your staff’s calendar and gives your Candidates and Clients greater flexibility to book a time that works best for them.
Giving your Candidates and Clients an eCommerce-like experience will streamline the process of booking meetings and ultimately lead to more conversations, especially when looking to arrange many appointments or at scale.
* Microsoft Bookings is available on Microsoft 365 A3, A5, E3, E5, F1, F3, Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium licences.
OneNote Reduce admin and work more efficiently!
OneNote connects directly to Mercury at the account level so you can capture notes during a Client meeting and save them instantly against the associated record.
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Type notes or record audio on your laptop
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Sketch or write ideas on your tablet.
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Add a picture from your phone.
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Find notes instantly.
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Freely move notes around the page.
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Organise your notes pages into sections.
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Keep your sections in one or more notebooks.
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Switch between devices and pick up right where you left off.
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Share your notebooks with others so you can all view and contribute at the same time.
Why duplicate work when you can capture key information during a Client meeting and have it automatically saved against their record in Mercury.
Focused View Work more efficiently without having to navigate through multiple screens
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View all your open records that have activities that are due or pending in a centralised place.
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Search, filter and sort the records that you want to view in the list to quickly identify only the records that you want to work with and ensure you don’t miss any key tasks.
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Easily switch between the focused view and the list view.
Improved access to Knowledge Base, Academy and Mercury Assist
We’ve introduced some new icons & tooltips to help you make the most of our Knowledge Base (KB), Academy and Assist tools, where you will find a number of options and a wealth of information available to help you get the most out of the Mercury platform.
Your Mercury Customer Success Manager is always available to help you get the very best out of the Mercury platform, but for those times when you just need a quick answer, the above resources are easily accessible.
🟢 What's being released in Version 27
New Broadbean v2 integration
Broadbean is the global leader in job advert distribution, and we have introduced a new integration with a greatly improved user interface and more comprehensive advert management that allows users to upload, edit and repost adverts to their preferred job posting sites.
The new integration for posting is now live and available. For it to be set up, Broadbean will need to redeliver the client via their Implementation team. Please contact your Mercury Customer Success Manager (CSM) who can help facilitate this process for you.
If you are a user of the existing Mercury and Broadbean integration, you can request an upgrade to the new version by contacting your CSM.
LogicMelon users can also integrate with Mercury - please speak to your CSM. For existing users, please see the All other New Updates section of these notes.
Create new Broadbean v2 config that shows or hides the Broadbean Tab - 30430
What
There is a config to show or hide the Manage Adverts tab in a Vacancy form to enable the new Broadbean v2 functionality.
Where
It’s a tab on any Vacancy form.
How
The Manage Adverts tab will only show if there is a config called ENABLE_BROADBEAN_V2 and its value is set to Boolean equals Yes.
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New Org Chart Identify all key stakeholders and instantly see the quality of the relationships you hold
Microsoft originally scheduled this for release in October 2023, however, it has been made available ahead of time so you may already have access to this!
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Map accounts, identify key stakeholders and use it in conjunction with LinkedIn Sales Navigator (Sales Navigator licence required).
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See the ‘health’ of every contact so you can capitalise on your best relationships, but also address any which are in decline.
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See when people move on or change roles within their existing organisation (subject to having a Sales Navigator licence).
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Tag each Contact to see how they impact the hiring process - Decision Maker / Influencer / Blocker / Other.
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See previous notes from the Timeline, excluding tasks and activities, or add new ones.
This added visibility will allow you to map and develop your account base so you can ensure you are working with all key stakeholders.
If you manage key accounts, then this insight will be invaluable as it will show where you are losing momentum with certain Contacts, allowing you time to resolve any issues that may impact revenue.
How to enable the new Org Chart function
As a System Administrator, go to Admin > App Settings > Org Chart
Agreement Approvals Multi-level approval process. Capture issues such as discontinued fees before they reach your Clients!
Where
Request Approval button in the ribbon, and the Approval section in the Agreement form:
How
Once requested, the Status will change to Pending Approval:
And the Approval record is created.
It will be owned by whoever is set within the Approval step.
Once Approvals are complete, the Approval Status and Status Reason will be updated.
Likely to Extend on Placements Improve visibility & forecasting - highlight Placements that are likely to be extended
Where
A new field under the Placement ID field on a Contract/Temp Placement record only:
How
The options available are:
The field can be hidden via standard config > HIDDEN_FIELDS.[CLIENTNAME]_PLACEMENT
All other New Updates
Broadbean v1: Remove existing 'Advertise Vacancy' button - 32561
What
The original Advertise Vacancy button on the Vacancy form is now always hidden to facilitate the config to hide and show functionality for the new Broadbean integration.
Where
Vacancy form.
How
A new enable rule has been added to the button to always hide it so that a new button can be displayed based on the config for the required job posting provider - i.e. Broadbean v1, Broadbean v2 or LogicMelon.
Move Broadbean v1 to new config and ribbon button - 32277
What
The Advertise Vacancy button for Broadbean v1 visibility is controlled by a config.
Where
It's a ribbon button on the Vacancy form:
How
The Advertise Vacancy button will only show if there is a config called ENABLE_BROADBEAN_V1 and its value is set to Boolean equals Yes.
Move Logic Melon to new config and ribbon button - 32268
What
The Advertise Vacancy button for LogicMelon visibility is controlled by a config.
Where
It's a ribbon button on the Vacancy form:
How
The Advertise Vacancy button will only show if there is a config called ENABLE_LOGICMELON and its value is set to Boolean equals Yes.
Move Logic Melon to new config and ribbon button - 32268
What
The Advertise Vacancy button for LogicMelon visibility is controlled by a config.
Where
It's a ribbon button on the Vacancy form.
How
The Advertise Vacancy button will only show if there is a config called ENABLE_LOGICMELON and its value is set to Boolean equals Yes.
Likelihood that a Candidate will extend their Placement - 36123
What
As Placements near their end with a Candidate, it is important that the Recruiter can understand how likely it is that the Candidate will extend their Placement and continue working. We have added the ability to record this likelihood on a Placement, so that it can be viewed and reported on. Therefore, a new field called Likely to Extend has been added to Placement records to allow Recruiters to set an intention for the Candidate. This will only be shown for Contract & Temporary Placements.
Where
Placement Entity(UCI form) underneath Placement ID
How
When a user creates or updates a record for Contract or Temporary Placements.
Shortlist Update improvement - 34200
What
This is an update to the existing process which now means a Shortlist Update will be created when a Candidate is Selected for a Vacancy. A Shortlist Update will now be created when a Candidate is selected for a role.
Where
When adding a Candidate for a Vacancy.
How
When a Candidate is added to a Vacancy via the Candidates tab and then the New Shortlist button, a Shortlist Update will now be created. This will show on the Timeline of the Vacancy and the Candidate.
Contact Information on Placements
There are a lot of Contact ‘lookups’ on a Placement, where you can select either Client Contacts at the Client, or a Contact within that hierarchy, or a Contact who is connected. When looking at the list of Client Contacts, you don’t always know who works where.
Information when looking at Contacts on a Placement - 32043
What
Additional information is now displayed when looking for a Contact on a Placement.
Where
The below Contact fields on a Placement:
How
When looking to populate one of the above fields, users will be shown the person's Full Name and their Current Client.
Contextual Last Contacted
On a Contact there are fields which indicate when that person was last contacted via Email or Phone. This is only for outbound communications. These Last Contacted fields would cascade up to the Client and update the appropriate fields. When contacting a person as Candidate, you do not want the Last Contacted fields to update on the Client. We have therefore made some changes to ensure the correct dates are rolled up to the Client, based on the correct context of communication.
Contextual Last Contacted on Client Contact - 37233
What
Specific fields to store data when a Contact was last contacted within a Client Contact context.
Where
New fields on a Contact which aren’t visible on the form.
How
When communication is sent to a Contact in a Client Contact context, a date & time stamp will be recorded along with who sent that communication.
NOTE: This is only applicable for outbound Phone Calls and Emails.
Maintain Last Contacted on Client - 21295
What
The field called Last Contacted that appears on a Client record, will only be updated when outbound communications are made to the Contact at that Client, in Client contact context.
Where
Existing fields on a Client record.
How
When a communication is sent to a Contact in a Client contact context, this will also update the Last Called, Last Emailed and Last Contacted fields on a Client record.
Placement Extension Date Format - 34853
What
When extending a Placement, this new update will ensure that the date format within Placement Extension is taken from the user's settings, so as to match the date format stored within the user's own settings.
Where
The Extension button in the ribbon menu when in a Placement record.
How
When selecting a date within Placement Extension, this will match the format set within the user's personal settings.
Connections on Agency - 38284
What
We’ve enabled the ability to build relationships between Agencies and other entities within Mercury. You can now use Connections on an Agency within Mercury.
Where
From the Related menu on an Agency record, then Connections.
How
Able to then Connect an Agency to other records within Mercury.
Add Agreement on Approval Steps - 35271
What
The ability to select Agreement when setting up Approval Steps within Mercury. We’ve introduced the ability to set up an approval process on Agreements. This process can currently be found on Clients, Vacancies and Projects. We will potentially look to extend this onto other entities within Mercury. Users will have the ability to build a hierarchy of Approvals which can go to individual users or teams.
Where
The Support area of the Mercury Admin app, under Approval Steps.
How
When creating a new Approval Step, you can select the entity that this Approval Step is related to (you can select from Agreement, Client, Project and Vacancy). However, you must also choose whether this is the first Approval Step.
NOTE: There can only be one First Step for each entity. An error message preventing you from saving will occur if you try to add multiple first steps.
You must select who the Approval should go to - i.e. the Approval type - the options are as follows:
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User’s Manager – this will be the Manager of the User (Owner of Client).
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Specific Team – ability to select a specific Team the approval should go to.
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Manager of User’s Primary Team – Administrator of the User’s (Owner of Client) Primary Team.
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Named Individual – ability to select a specific individual the approval should go to.
NOTE: The User’s Manager and Manager of User’s Primary Team require a hierarchy to be set up accordingly within the customer's environment. If not set up correctly then an error message will appear.
If you select Specific Team you are required to select a Team:
Similarly, if you select Named Individual then you are required to select a specific User:
You can build up a hierarchy of Approvals by selecting another Approval under Step If Approved. This list will be filtered based on the entity selected:
View Approval Status on Agreement - 35272
What
The ability to view the Approval Status on an Agreement.
Where
On any Agreement record.
How
A new Approval Status field is visible on an Agreement, Client, Vacancy and Project record, confirming where this record is within the approval process. Values for this can be New, Pending Approval, Approved or Rejected. The visibility of this field is controlled by the relevant entity configuration file:
Amending Enabled to False will hide the Approval Status field:
Request Approval on Agreement - 35276
What
The ability to send an Agreement for Approval.
Where
In the ribbon menu when in an Agreement record.
How
If a record is at New, Rejected or the Approval Status is blank, users will have the ability to Request Approval from the ribbon menu on that particular record, upon which, the Approval Status will be updated to Pending Approval, and the first Approval record will be created based on the Approval Steps.
Approve / Reject an Approval - 35278 & 35277
What
The ability to Accept or Reject an Approval for an Agreement.
Where
Within any Approval record in Mercury.
How
Once any Approval has been requested within Mercury, it will create the first Approval based on the criteria specified within the Approval Step. An Approval activity will be created for the individual or Team based on the first Approval Step, and will show on the Timeline for that particular record. Specific information will be displayed on the Approval record:
The majority of the fields are locked on the Approval activity to prevent direct updates to the Agreement record.
Owners or members of the Substitute Approvers team can Approve or Reject these approval activities from the ribbon menu:
If approved, the process will continue and try to find a next step and create the approval for that specific individual or Team. If there are no further approval steps, then the Approval status will be updated to Approved on the specific record.
The Status Reason of the Agreement, will be updated to Agreed.
Approval activity can be Rejected via the ribbon menu, which will update the Approval Status on the specific record to Rejected, which will result in the process being needed to be re-triggered.
Deletion of SharePoint location & documents upon deletion of a Contact - 34874
What
We've introduced new functionality that will automatically delete SharePoint locations and the files stored in those locations that are associated with a Contact record when the Contact record itself is deleted.
Where
When deleting a Contact record within Mercury.
How
When a Contact is deleted and they have an associated SharePoint document location, the related document location(s), along with any contained files and folders, will also be deleted. Should the deletion not be completed successfully, a task is created for the owner of the Contact to effect/arrange manual deletion.
Software Fixes
Vacancy - selecting a hiring manager not restricted to Client contacts - 38376
What
Addressed a bug whereby when a user is selecting a hiring manager, the lookup includes both Candidate and Client contacts for the associated Client, when only Client Contacts are needed.
Where
Vacancy form.
How
The lookup has been updated to only include Client Contacts in the lookup. This will greatly reduce the number of contacts that can be selected, simplifying it significantly.
Parsing fails if text is too long for the field in Mercury - 38820
What
Fixed a bug where parsing was failing if the address values parsed from the CV were too big to fit into the associated Mercury fields.
Where
Via the Upload CV button in the Contact ribbon list view.
How
Values from TextKernel parsing on address fields are now truncated if the value is too big to fit into the field in Mercury.
Sub Status on Applicant is not linked to Status - 38375
What
Fixed a bug when a user selects a Sub Status on the Applicant form, they can select any Sub Status. This should be restricted to only Sub Statuses linked to the Status.
Where
Applicant form.
How
The selecting of a Sub Status is now restricted to only Sub Statuses linked to the selected Status. If no Status is selected, then no Sub Statuses are selectable.
Zero Value expense email for an expense that has values - 23361
What
Fixed a bug where a Candidate gets told that their submitted expense has been validated, but is told it is a Zero Value expense even though values are present in the expense.
Where
In the Email received from submitting expenses in the Candidate Portal.
How
When a Candidate is notified of a validated expense, the value of the expense is correct.
'Follow' system views criteria - 24510
What
If a user is following a Contact, Mercury now adds the Contact to views for both the Client contact and Candidate contact.
Where
In a number of views as described below.
How
We've amended the filtering on existing views and added new views:
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Existing views: Candidates I Follow, Candidates Being Followed
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New views: Client Contacts I Follow, Client Contacts Being Followed
NOTE: Contacts I Follow and Contacts Being Followed cannot be updated as they are standard Microsoft views.
Search renders incorrectly when ‘! Important’ is in the description of a displayed email activity - 39311
What
When previewing Candidates within Mercury Search and viewing Email activities in Search that contained CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in the signature, the screen would go black.
Where
Within Mercury Search when viewing Email activities.
How
Now, regardless of any CSS in an email signature, the screen renders correctly.
Agreement changes fail to cascade - 23802
What
Resolved an issue where adding an Expense to an Agreement would not cascade to any related Placements.
Where
Expenses tab on an Agreement.
How
Now when adding an expense to an Agreement, it will cascade to the related Placements. Any Placement at a status of Completed will not inherit any Expenses.
We have also ensured the cascade works for all other aspects of an Agreement including Compliance, Rates, Benefits and Cost Centres:
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Rates, Expenses & Benefits to an Agreement will cascade down to all linked Placements which are not Complete.
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Criteria which is not onboarding or offboarding will cascade to all Placements which are not Complete.
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Criteria which is onboarding will cascade to Placements which have Status Reason Awaiting Onboarding or earlier, which are not Complete.
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Criteria which is offboarding will cascade to Placements which have Status Reason Awaiting Offboarding or earlier, which are not Complete.
Multiple emails sending on Single email - Email Editor 29548
What
Multiple emails were being created even though you have selected Single in the Email Editor and had more than one recipient in the To field.
Where
Email Editor.
How
In Email Editor, add 3 recipients in the To field for a Single email - only one email record will get created now.
Financial Transactions intermittent failure (Auto-numbering issue) - 35800
What
Fixed a bug where customers were reporting intermittent issues whereby Financial Transactions were failing to be created.
Where
On creation of any Financial Transaction, the name (Unique ID) of Financial Transactions is created as an auto-number.
How
Mercury's custom Auto-numbering feature for Financial Transactions has been replaced with the native Dataverse equivalent.
Replying to Email Failure - 36377
What
Fixed an issue found in v26 that when a user attempts to reply to an email via the Timeline on a Contact or on the email form, an error is displayed.
Where
On a Contact's Timeline or the Email form.
How
Replying to an email in the Timeline or by clicking the reply button in an email record's ribbon, now results in the email being sent and no error is generated.
Placement extension error for multi-option-set fields: "There was an error generating the XML document" - 34109
What
Fixed an issue where if a Placement had a multi-option-set field populated, with multiple choices selected, an error was displayed when a Placement extension was attempted.
Where
On a Placement with a custom multi-option-set field
How
Now, if a Placement has a multi-option-set field populated, with multiple choices selected, and a Placement extension is attempted, the extension is successful and no error is displayed.
Attachments are still linked to Timesheets that get deleted - 22030
What
Fixed a bug where if an attachment has been uploaded to a Timesheet and the Timesheet is then deleted and a new one with the same dates is created, the original attachments were still being retained and linked to the new Timesheet.
Where
Delete and recreate the Timesheet in Mercury - the original attachment can still be seen in the Candidate Portal.
How
Now, when a Timesheet is deleted, any attachments are also deleted.
Placement payload maximum limit - 3875
What
Resolved an issue where users were unable to extend Placements. This was an intermittent issue and was not occurring for every customer.
Where
When using the Extension ribbon button on a Placement.
How
We have extended the character limit of a field (which is not visible), which was preventing extension in some circumstances.
Referred By on a Shortlist - 3738
What
Found an issue where when creating a Shortlist for a Vacancy and selecting Referral as a Shortlist source, Referred By was not visible.
Where
When creating a Shortlist on a Vacancy.
How
Now, when creating a Shortlist, Referred By will always be available to populate.
State on Home Address not filtered - 33176
What
Fixed a bug where State was not filtering by the selected Country on a Candidate.
Where
Populating the Home Address on a Candidate.
How
The State field on Home Address for a Candidate will now be filtered by the selected Country, which matches the behaviour elsewhere within Mercury.
Unable to convert an Info record - 16198
What
Fixed a bug where users were unable to convert an Info to a Vacancy if Currency was not populated on the Info.
Where
Info record via the Convert ribbon button.
How
We have now made Currency mandatory on an Info. It will default to the default Currency of the environment.
🟡 What's coming soon!
Pinned Notes Highlight key pieces of information for quick reference
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Sometimes you just need to capture a key piece of information and always have it visible.
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You can ONLY pin notes - not calls or emails - but simply click the icon and pin the note you need most!
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Expect to see this in your accounts sometime in October.
New Search Faster and easier to use, helping you to find the right candidate first!
We’re excited to announce the upcoming release of our new Search offering, which will deliver an instant improvement in terms of speed and performance. Not only that, it unlocks the potential of Microsoft’s AI capabilities which will see greater functionality coming into this offering in time.
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Built on Azure Cognitive Search (ACS) to deliver improved speed and performance.
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An AI-powered information retrieval platform that allows us to build a far richer Search experience and leverage additional AI capabilities in the future.
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A brand new look that is highly intuitive to help you source the right Candidates quickly and easily.
Pay & Bill A personalised user experience that gives your Recruiters what they want but only what your Finance team needs
Our new Pay & Bill solution has been designed to deliver a more personalised user experience. Recruiters will get the functions they need to manage their Candidates all the way from Compliance through to Expenses, while Finance will have a different experience that is specific to their needs.
The new Pay & Billing functionality will still be linked to the Candidate Portal to streamline the workforce management process, and where purchased, the Client Portal will give greater visibility over the overall hiring process.
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Linked to the Candidate Portal to manage Compliance and Expenses and, where purchased, the Client Portal, to deliver a better hiring experience.
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Unlimited Rates and Expense types, giving you more control and flexibility.
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Create custom Timesheet templates or upload completed forms from external vendors.
New Mercury User experience A new way of working that allows you to do more with less
We are actively working on a new Mercury user interface which will deliver a more efficient and streamlined user experience. This update will bring a fresh approach to work, allowing users to accomplish more, with fewer clicks and less effort. One notable enhancement is the reduced sitemap which will offer a more consistent and visually appealing appearance across the platform.
Navigating the system will be more intuitive thanks to a reduction in the number of tabs required to access different features. The introduction of expandable records simplifies the process, enabling users to effortlessly access child accounts without the need for excessive tab switching.
Additionally, the new forms come equipped with dynamic on-screen calculations and a partial save feature, ensuring that users can easily save their work, even when interrupted by calls, meetings or interviews.
Finally, the new enhanced Shortlisting view with on-screen RAG (Red - Amber - Green) status, provides a more immediate overview of Candidate assessments.
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Reduced sitemap with a more consistent appearance.
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Less tabs to navigate across due to new expandable records so you can see child accounts.
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New forms with key features such as dynamic on-screen calculations and partial save so if you need to take a call or run an interview, you won’t lose your work.
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Enhanced Shortlisting view with on-screen RAG status.