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Biweekly Platform Digest
Period: September 28, 2026 – October 12, 2026
Highlights
- Ernest now connects much more deeply with Sage 300. Teams can export the original project budget, approved budget modifications, and approved prime contract change orders to Sage 300, and can import Sage 300 job cost transactions as read-only direct costs. A new ERP activity screen and export ledger also let users review the history of data exchanged with their accounting system.
- A new contract generation and e-signing experience creates contracts as documents from project information and sends them out for electronic signature. Users can also now attach supporting documents to prime contracts.
- Project plans can be downloaded in bulk, including by category. On mobile, plan sheets have new categories, drawings can be linked to other drawings, and tasks, action items and plan sheet callouts now work offline-first and sync across devices.
- The Gantt chart is easier to read and navigate, with start and end date columns and click-to-scroll for objectives and milestones. Shackleton, the AI assistant, now shows more chart responses, including pie charts, when users ask for breakdowns by category.
Ernest API (3 releases)
Areas Affected: Notifications, Gantt/Schedule, Objectives, Media Library, Subcontractors, Shackleton AI Assistant, Agents, Prime Contracts, Plans, RFIs, Contracts, Finance, Change Orders, Budget & Invoices, Sage 300 Integration, Submittals, Settings, Mobile, Action Items, Billing, Budget, Integrations (Sage 300), Messaging, Integrations (Sage 300 / ERP), Users & Roles, Files, RFIs & Submittals
Release on October 1, 2026
- Improved how user notification preferences are stored and synced, including a fix for cases where a user's notification account was missing. (Ticket)
- The Gantt chart now includes start date and end date columns so timelines are easier to read at a glance. (Ticket)
- Clicking an objective or milestone name in the Gantt chart now scrolls the timeline to it. (Ticket)
- Removed the estimation option from objectives to simplify how they are set up. (Ticket)
- Fixed the empty state shown for Media Library albums and an issue where change orders could display outdated information. (Ticket)
- Applied a round of quality review fixes and polish to a recently released feature. (Ticket)
- Added a notification preference toggle for subcontractor insurance expiry, and renamed 'Subcontract Insurance' to 'Subcontractor Insurance' throughout the product. (Ticket)
- The Shackleton chat assistant can now display chart responses as pie charts. (Ticket)
- Agents can now be scheduled with more frequency options, and the agent run description area keeps a consistent height so the layout stays steady. (Ticket)
- Users can now attach supporting documents to prime contracts. (Ticket)
- Added the ability to download project plans in bulk, along with a configuration fix needed to make the download work reliably. (Ticket)
- The AI summary in media reports now also analyzes photos that are not construction-related. (Ticket)
- Project plans can now be bulk downloaded by category, and the category rows in the download screen are fully clickable. (Ticket)
- Improved how Contracts, Subcontracts, Finance, and Change Order pages display on different screen sizes, including design refinements. (Ticket)
- The RFI Past Due monitor now flags RFIs before their expected resolution date, giving teams earlier warning. (Ticket)
- The horizontal scrollbar on Budget & Invoices now stays visible so wide tables are easier to navigate. (Ticket)
- The Media Library album download now shows clear, separate messages when a download fails versus when an album is empty. (Ticket)
- Added Sage 300 support for commitment item change orders, along with other integration improvements. (Ticket)
- The Overdue RFI Response modal now shows each RFI's actual status instead of a generic one. (Ticket)
Release on October 5, 2026
- Added organization-level and project-level settings for controlling how objects are numbered. (Ticket)
- Action items now sync with the mobile app, so changes appear across devices. (Ticket)
- Behind-the-scenes update to how message templates are managed. No change to how users work with them is expected. (Ticket)
- RFI bulk exports now include every official response on an RFI, rather than only some of them. (Ticket)
- Submittal PDF exports now include every official response on a submittal. (Ticket)
- Users can now enter credits on existing schedule of values lines in later billing months. (Ticket)
- Internal quality improvements to keep existing functionality working reliably. No visible change for users. (Ticket)
- Approved prime contract change orders can now be exported to Sage 300. (Ticket)
- Plan sheet callouts now sync with the mobile app, so they are available on mobile devices. (Ticket)
- Approved budget modifications can now be exported to Sage 300 as approved estimate changes. (Ticket)
Release on October 6, 2026
- Job cost transactions from Sage 300 can now be imported into Ernest. They appear as read-only direct costs, so they can be viewed but not edited in Ernest. (Ticket)
- New contract generation and e-signing experience. Contracts are generated as documents from project information and sent out for electronic signature. Optional contract fields that are left blank now show as empty placeholders instead of causing problems in the finished document. (Ticket)
- Added an ERP integrations activity screen and an export ledger, so users can review the history of data exchanged with connected accounting systems. This is now turned on in test environments. (Ticket)
- The original project budget can now be exported to Sage 300. (Ticket)
- Behind-the-scenes update to how user management is built. No change in how users work with the product is expected, but report any unusual behavior on user or account screens. (Ticket)
- Added a new Owner General Contractor role, with refinements following QA review. (Ticket)
- The Sync Users Data button is now hidden from anyone who is not a system administrator. (Ticket)
- Item detail pop-ups now handle item numbers that contain letters as well as digits. (Ticket)
- The ERP activity ledger and its history backfill are now enabled in production, making ERP activity records available to customers. (Ticket)
Ernest iOS App (2 releases)
Areas Affected: Submittals, Daily Logs, Media Reports, Plan Sheets, Drawings, Authorization, Tasks, Mobile (iOS), Estimating
Release on September 29, 2026
- Updates to the Submittals area. Specific details were not provided, so confirm with the product team before sharing with customers. (Ticket)
- Updates and follow-up fixes to Daily Logs. Specific details were not provided, so confirm with the product team before sharing with customers. (Ticket)
- Media reports can now be added and synced. (Ticket)
- Existing general contractor (GC) log data has been cleared out as part of a data cleanup. Customers may notice previously stored GC logs are no longer present. (Ticket)
- Existing daily report data has been cleared out as part of a data cleanup. Customers may notice previously stored daily reports are no longer present. (Ticket)
- Behind-the-scenes update so the platform continues to handle sign-in and permission checks correctly after a change in how authorization information is returned. No change in day-to-day use is expected. (Ticket)
- New categories have been added to plan sheets, giving users more ways to organize them. (Ticket)
- Drawings can now be linked to other drawings, so users can move between related sheets more easily. (Ticket)
Release on October 5, 2026
- Objective estimation has been removed from the iOS app. Customers who used this on iOS will no longer see it there, which simplifies the mobile experience. (Ticket)
- Tasks now support offline-first use. Users can view and work with tasks even with a poor or no internet connection, and their changes sync automatically once they reconnect. (Ticket)
Ernest MCP Server (5 releases)
Areas Affected: AI Assistant (MCP integration), Estimates, Finance, Billing, Integrations, Platform reliability, Sage 300 Integration, Direct Costs, MCP Server
Release on October 1, 2026
- The AI assistant integration can no longer set objective estimates. Estimate values are now only entered or changed by users directly, which prevents unexpected changes to estimates. (Ticket)
Release on October 5, 2026
- Finance billing contracts are now tracked in the platform. This update also fixes how retainage (the portion of payment held back until work is complete) appears in the billing summary, so the amounts shown are accurate. (Ticket)
Release on October 6, 2026
- Requests that are missing required information are now stopped with a clear rejection instead of being processed incorrectly. This reduces the chance of confusing errors or unexpected behavior for customers, and no action is needed from users. (Ticket)
Release on October 6, 2026
Release on October 7, 2026
- Direct costs imported from Sage 300 are now included when direct costs are viewed through the MCP integration. Previously these imported costs were not visible there, so customers using that connection can now see their Sage 300 direct costs alongside other direct costs. (Ticket)
Ernest NLS API (2 releases)
Areas Affected: Shackleton (AI Assistant), Reporting and Charts, User Management, Platform Infrastructure, Document Processing
Release on October 1, 2026
- Shackleton, the AI assistant, has been updated to show charts more often when users ask for breakdowns by category, such as costs by type or items by status. Customers should see visual charts in these responses instead of plain text lists, making the results easier to scan and understand. (Ticket)
Release on October 6, 2026
- Behind-the-scenes improvement to how user accounts are identified across the platform. User identifiers are now handled in one consistent format throughout, which reduces the chance of user-related mismatches or errors. No change to how users work day to day. (Ticket)