Mission Control launches first PSA release of 2026

Aprika has released the latest version of its PSA solution, Mission Control, 1.79. The release has several new and updated features. The new features include Project Phases and Team Assignment. Aprika has also added enhancements to Timesheets, Scheduler, field mapping and client pages. There are also several other minor, though important, changes. These include support for semi-annual and annual periodic billing, enhancements to custom field filters, and improvements to billing capabilities.

I asked Colin Johnson, CEO of April, what he felt the focus of this release was. He said, “There are a couple of existing features that have been refactored and some minor enhancements added.” These are the changes within Timesheets and the Scheduler. He explained that as customers request new features, the original code sometimes needs redevelopment to improve overall functionality and enable those features, leading to better performance.

The other element is the create phases functionality, which, according to Johnson, “makes it as efficient as possible for customers to build out their projects. It completes the product suite.

“We have created pages for all of the key elements of the work breakdown structure. You’ve got your project, and underneath it, you’ve got phases, milestones, actions, and checklists. We’ve already delivered the create pages for milestones, actions and checklists. So phases are the last in the cycle.”

Project Phases

The release introduces Project Phases. A project phase is a distinct stage within a project’s life cycle. It groups related activities and tasks that lead to a major deliverable, helping to structure the project from start to finish. Traditionally, these move sequentially through initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/controlling, and closing.

However, the exact number and names can vary, and they can but do not have to end in milestones. In Mission Control, Milestones are significant checkpoints in a project that often mark a billing cycle.

I asked Johnson to explain the difference between phases and milestones. He replied, “If I’m doing a major Salesforce implementation, I might have a milestone for some needs analysis and another for solution architecture. Each of those milestones has a set of tasks beneath it, but you might want to group both into a phase called discovery.

“Then you might have milestones for functional configuration, technical configuration, testing, and data migration, but all of those milestones could be grouped under a phase called development. It really is just an extra container level between projects and milestones.”

Each phase can have a phase owner, a budget, and a Gantt Sort order. It can also be excluded from Status reports when a phase is internal-only. Where required, details of phases can also be included in Client read-only reports.

Team Assignments

It is now possible to assign a complete Team to either a project or an action. Where a Team is allocated different roles, ownership will be assigned to the appropriate members of that team. To enable these features, teams must be configured correctly to ensure that each member has an allocated role that is automatically assigned within the project. Within a project, teams can also be assigned to specific projects.

While Johnson confirmed that Teams could not be assigned specifically to phases, they would be assigned effectively when applied to a project with phases. It is an interesting concept and one that should prove a huge time-saver for resource managers.

Enhancements

The release also includes several customer-requested enhancements to the Timesheet module. The user interface has been improved with easier ways to page through actions, and commonly used buttons, such as save now, always appear at the top of long action lists.

Timesheets are also simplified with the ability to change which days are viewed. Users can therefore opt for a view that includes single or multiple weeks using a range of criteria. It is also possible to hide non-working days, simplifying their task and reducing the risk of errors, for employees accessing and updating other consultants’ timesheets, where they have permission.

It is easier to switch to different roles both for colleagues and subordinates. Using Lightning, the Timesheet display also adjusts columns dynamically, ensuring that the maximum amount of data is visible and that columns are evenly spaced. Users can also add 6 custom fields to Timesheets for actions.

Within the Scheduler, users can edit existing holidays directly. There is more flexibility in what data is displayed. For example, if job roles are not required for each name, they can be removed.

The field mapping feature in Mission Control automatically populates fields when generating a project from another Salesforce record, such as an Opportunity or a Project Request. The latest enhancement enables field mapping to be configured for different record types. For example, there may be different field mappings for when an opportunity creates a project service, as opposed to when it is a product.

When is this available?

Customers can manually upgrade to the latest version from January 9^th. Sandboxes will be automatically upgraded on 24^th January. Salesforce Production Orgs will be updated on February 7^th. The gap gives customers time to test and try out the new version and its many features.

Aprika has also recorded a webinar that includes details of these releases; the recording is available on the Mission Control Support Centre. The full version of the release notes is also available here.

What is coming next?

Johnson revealed that the next release, in April, would feature a RACI matrix. It has been on the backlog for some time, and more and more customers have been requesting it. It is the latest major update that the development team is working on.

Johnson then added, “The thing I’m most excited about is adding in a Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) estimator. It will be able to take individual actions or requirements and put them out to a number of different resources, and say, please provide your estimate for this work.

“Ultimately, everyone goes through a process of estimating that. Then you can meet as a team, review all of the individual estimates and then agree on a final estimate that gets applied to the individual action or requirement as a level of effort.”

Enterprise Times: What does this mean?

This is a significant update for Mission Control. It not only provides a new level of functionality in Phases for all projects but also enhances the features and performance of both Timesheets and the Scheduler. There are also several other significant updates that many customers will be happy to see and take advantage of.

Aprika has a laser focus on improving Mission Control in response to customer requirements. It means that the updates it provides are both requested and needed by its customer base and, by extension, by similar organisations globally. With the PERT estimator due in April, it will be interesting to see what else Johnson and the team at Aprika have planned for 2026.

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