Exporting Parents' NetClassroom Logins

At the beginning of each year, you probably send out a letter to your students’ parents with their NetClassroom login credentials. You can easily export and merge this letter within The Education Edge (BB151820). Here’s how:

1. Create a new Student export using the Blackbaud Simple Word Merge format.
2. On the Output tab, select the appropriate fields:
   • Expand the Student category and select fields such as Student name and Student ID.
   • Expand the Relationships category and then the Person Relation subcategory and select Online password, Online user ID, Primary addressee, and Primary salutation.
     Note: When you select the first field in the Person Relation subcategory, a screen appears so you can define the relationships to include. For example, you can include only emergency contacts with the relationship types of Father, Mother, Stepfather, Stepmother, and Legal Guardian.
   • Expand the Addresses subcategory and select Full address.
3. Select Edit Word Merge File on the Action bar to create the merge template (BB199112) with your selected fields.

Don’t forget about creating labels to go with the letters! Hope everyone’s year is off to a great start!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Refunding Records

Has a student decided not to attend your school this fall or have a credit from last school year that needs to be returned? Whatever the reason, you can add the refund to the record and even print the check if you have Accounts Payable.

If you have AP, the first thing you need to do is ensure your AP bank is configured for Student Billing refunds. Now that you have configured your bank, or if you do not use AP, it is time to add the refund.

1. In Records, Refunds, click Add a New Refund.
2. In the Record name field, click the binoculars and select the record to receive the Refund.
3. Select the refund billing fee from the Item/Description dropdown list and enter an amount.
4. Click Create Refund Check.
   Note: If this option is grayed out, refer to Knowledgebase solution BB206696.
5. On the Create Refund Check screen, select the bank account and the record to print the check to and click OK.
6. Verify the information on the one-time check and click:
   • Record and Close if you will manually write the check.
   • Print Later and Close to print the check in the next Accounts Payable check run.
   • Print Now to print the check.

Talk to you soon!

Connect with Students and Parents Through Email

After enjoying the retirement life for two years, my dad decided to return to teaching this year. Today was his first day with students, and I know he's excited, but it can also be a bit overwhelming to get going with the school year again (especially after having a substantial break from teaching).

As teachers try to get their classes and lesson plans together, it can be challenging to find time to connect with their students, let alone their students' parents. Fortunately, the optional module NetMail helps facilitate communication by giving teachers the convenience of ...no snail mail here; we're talking about email!

If you have NetMail, you can grant teachers rights to email directly from FAWeb (BB254948):   

1. On the Administration page, click Set up system security.
2. Open the appropriate security group, such as FAWeb Teachers or FAWeb Advisors.
3. On the Group screen, in the System Components box, mark the Shared Components checkbox.
4. In the Shared Components box, mark the NetSolutions checkbox and click Options.
5. On the Security Options screen, mark the NetMail checkbox and Undeliverable Mail checkbox (to allow users to view undeliverable mail).
6. Click OK and then click Save and Close.

Once teachers have rights to email, they can open the door to communication with their students and their students' relations (BB255752):

1. In FAWeb, click Email on the navigation bar and select Create New Email from the list on the left.
2. On the General tab, select the appropriate academic year and session. (If you teach in multiple schools, also select the appropriate school.)
3. In the Send email to field, select Students, Student Relationships, or Both. If you are a teacher and an advisor, the Create email for field appears. Mark Students in classes or Advisees.
4. If sending email to students or relations, select the Classes tab and mark the checkbox for each class to include. All classes are automatically included for advisees.
5. Select the Students tab and mark the checkbox for each student to include.
6. On the Compose tab, enter your email address and the email's subject line. In the Email type field, define the email address type to use (such as Email Business or Email Home). If you do not select a type, the program sends the email to the first email address on the primary address record.
7. In the email box, write and format the text. To include merge fields (e.g., student first name), select from the Available Fields list on the left. (Note: Select only fields you know are consistently populated in your database; otherwise, if a selected merge field is blank on a record, the email will include a blank space where the field should be inserted.)

Whether you use email for assigning homework or to simply provide periodic updates, you make yourself more accessible to your students and their parents by keeping your communication going beyond the classroom. Hope it helps you get the school year off to a great start!  

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Reconciliation Recommendation

I wanted to share a great reconciliation tip with you guys. In Student Billing 7, all credits and payments need to be applied to charges to ensure statements are correct. So the question is how can you tell if there's activity that needs to be applied? The first thing you need to do is create a record query for records with a balance greater than zero. Here's how:

1. Create a new record query.
2. On the Criteria tab, select Activity, Summary, Record Balance, Operator greater than, enter a value of 0 and click OK.
3. Save the query.

We can now use the query to filter the Unapplied Credit report to show the records with a balance and unapplied payments or credits.

1. In Reports, Transaction Reports, highlight Unapplied Credit Report, and click New.
2. On the General tab, mark the Create an output query of checkbox and select Records.
3. On the Filters tab, change the Assigned To filter from All to Selected, mark the Query option and select the query you created above.
4. Click Preview and save the output query.

The output query created will give you quick access to each record with activity to apply. With that said, let's move to the last step in this process:

1. In Query, open the query created from the Unapplied Credit Report.
2. On the Output tab, select Record, Full/organization name and any other appropriate fields.
3. Select the Results tab.
4. Double click the first record in the query.
5. On the Record, select the Activity tab and apply the payment or credit.
6. Click the single right arrow to move to the next record in the query.
7. Follow steps 5 and 6 until all credits or payments are applied.

Now you are ready to run your statements in confidence! I recommend performing this process each month before you process your statements.

Talk to you soon!

7.77 Sneak Peek

There are a few posts on The Ledger blog highlighting some cool new features with the release of version 7.77 due out in Quarter 4.  Check them out:

• Organize Queries
• City Lookup Field
• Strong Passwords

Looking for other Student Billing stuff? Click the Student Billing tag in The Ledger blog.

Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Top Questions for July

Each month we keep track of the top Student Billing questions you ask.  Here are the Student Billing questions you asked in July and June.

July

• How to reconcile subsidiary ledgers to the General Ledger: BB3358
• How to generate transactions automatically: BB203516
• How to void a posted payment: BB113811
• How to add new table entries: BB5313
• How to identify and merge duplicate students: BB198656
• What is the Address Import ID (AddrImpID) and how to find it: BB91758
• How to import: BB73785

June

• How to generate transactions automatically: BB203516
• How to reconcile subsidiary ledgers to the General Ledger: BB3358
• How to reenroll students, globally create Student Progression Entries, and globally delete checklist items and tracks: BB184652
• How to void a posted payment: BB113811
• How to promote students: BB221822
• How to add transactions to a group: BB203392
• What are the Student Billing end-of-year procedures: BB221777

Talk to you soon!

Stop, Drop, Withdraw, or Transfer

Do you have students who want to switch sections of the same class or move from one course to another course? Which option will keep grades and attendance with the students' records? Let's take a look at the differences in dropping, withdrawing, and transferring students:

• Drop deletes the student's enrollment in the class, deletes the student's grading and attendance information for the class, and omits the class from report cards and transcripts.
• Withdraw retains a record of the student's enrollment in the class, retains the student's grading and attendance information for the class, and includes the class on report cards and transcripts.
• Transfer moves a student between sections of the same course.

You can drop, withdraw, or transfer students using Edit Student Schedules (BB134926). On the Scheduling page, click Edit student schedules and open the student.

• To Drop or Withdraw the student — In the Class column, select the blank. You'll get a prompt saying you can drop or withdraw the student. Click Drop or Withdraw. If you receive the prompt the student will be dropped, check the withdrawal date on the term (BB145859).
• To Transfer the student — In the Class column, select a new section. If you transfer a student to a new section within a term, only the new class ID and teacher name appear in the row for the course on report cards. If you transfer a student to a new section across terms (for example, Madelyn is in section 2 of Earth Science in Fall and section 5 of Earth Science in Spring) and print report cards for both terms, both class IDs and teacher names appear in the row for the course on report cards.

Knowledgebase solution BB134926 contains even more information and steps. Not sure of what happens when you drop, withdraw, or transfer a student? Review How to determine whether to withdraw, drop, or transfer a student (BB376574), which has an awesome reference chart.

Happy to Help - 7.77 Feature Preview #2

Sneak Preview #2 – Transcript Enhancement

For transcripts, we added the option to print outside school information in one of three different ways:
#1. You can print the outside school information with the current school information.
#2. You can print the outside school information in a separate section above.
#3. You can print the outside school information in a separate section below.

You now have even more control over your transcripts' format.  This small enhancement can mean a big change for your transcripts and potentially happier students and colleges who receive copies of your transcripts. Your students' future schools may need to see your school information separate from other schools the student attended. Also, visually it may be easier to determine if a student has met the requirements for graduation based on separating the content out. And if you prefer to keep the records mixed, you are certainly more than welcome to do that.

For more information about Transcripts, please see the Mail Guide, Transcripts chapter.

Happy to Help - 7.77 Feature Preview #1

Wow, where has the summer gone? I know on the EE team, we’ve been feverishly working to produce our next great release – The Education Edge 7.77. Triple 7's, Lucky 7's, or whatever awesome name you want to call it has some fantastic features I’m excited to share with you. Over the coming weeks I’ll be giving you a sneak preview of our new features and enhancements.

Sneak Preview #1 – Admissions Office Academic Performance History

When you add an education record for an applicant, have you ever wanted a place to store information about an applicant’s history at a previous school?

With the academic performance history, accessed on the education record, you can enter previous academic information such as GPA, Class Rank, Diploma, and more. You can then use this performance history information in your recruiting and marketing process as well as your financial aid decision-making if the applicant enrolls.

For example, to aid in your admissions process, you could use this information to rank your candidates.

Also, when you are evaluating your admissions process success, you could review your recently graduated students and compare the success in your school to their academic performance history. Are your most successful students applicants that came in with a high GPA or high class rank? Perhaps you are successful enrolling students from a particular geographic area with a high percentile (class rank out of class size).

I'm sure you can come up with even more excellent ideas for how to use this feature in your organization. If you'd like to share your ideas with other EE users, add a comment below!

Check back soon for more sneak previews…

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Control Generated Credit Applications

How would you like to ensure credits generated from Financial Aid schedules can only apply to tuition or specific charges? Beginning in version 7.75, you can set application restrictions to control the application of advance deposit credits and financial aid credits.

Follow these steps to restrict applications when generating financial aid credits or advance deposit credits:

1. In Configuration, click Products and Billing Items.
2. Open the Financial Aid or Advance Deposit item.
3. Select the Restrictions tab.
4. In the Use the restrictions from field, select Specific settings below and define the appropriate filters or Configuration and select the appropriate application restriction.
5. Click Save and Close.

Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind Time Saver: Enter Charges and Payments Fast!er

I wanted to share with you a little known, and extremely under utilized, feature in Student Billing that can save you hours of charge and payment data entry time.  It's called Fast!. Using Fast! allows you to quickly enter a large number of charges or payments at one time using a customized datasheet, instead of opening each record individually. When you process the datasheet, Fast! automatically creates the group of new records.

The first thing you need to do is create the Fast! datasheet. Once the datasheet is created, it can be used over and over again to enter charges or payments. Follow these steps:

1. In Fast!, click New SB Charge or New SB Payment.
2. Enter a name and description.
3. In the Default set field, click the binoculars to select a saved or create a new default set (BB106328).
4. In the list of available fields, highlight the fields to include in the datasheet and click Select.
   Notes:
   • Fields appear in the datasheet columns in the order in which you select them.  I recommend prioritizing the field order to speed data entry. For example, put rarely used fields near the end of the datasheet.
   • If you add a field that causes other fields to become required, the program automatically adds the additional required fields.
5. Once all fields are selected, click:
   • Save and Close to save the datasheet and return to the Fast! page.
   • Save and New to save and close the datasheet and open a new one.
   • Datasheet View to save the datasheet and begin entering charges or payments.

Once you create and save the Fast! datasheet, it's time to get to the data entry. Here's how:

1. In Fast!, open the datasheet, and click Datasheet View.
   Notes:
   • If you entered a default set, the values appear in the default row (D). If you did not assign a default set, click the binoculars to select a saved or create a new default set.
   • Values selected to display in the default row will default based on the default auto-fill setting (BB351843).
2. Click Add Records By Query in the dark gray bar to automatically load a group of records into the datasheet, if appropriate.
3. Enter the appropriate data and press Tab to move through fields.
4. Click Save and then Commit Records to create the group of records.

For more information about Fast!, check out the Fast! Guide.

Enjoy your new found time . Talk to you soon!

Student Billing State-of-Mind: Incorrect Charges or Credits?

Here's a possible scenario: You just finished running statements and realized that there are charges on the wrong records. Now what? Well, I am glad to let you know that there is an easy fix for whatever your incorrect charge or credit scenario. All you need to do is delete the charge from the incorrect record and add it to the correct record if appropriate; this process also works for credits. To delete the incorrect charges or credits:

1. Open the Student record and select the Activity tab.
2. Select Activity from the View drop-down menu.
3. Highlight the charge and click Delete on the action bar.

If the charge or credit has been posted, you will be prompted to enter the date for reversing entries to post to General Ledger. 

Talk to you soon!

Happy to Help – Top 5 Places to Use F1 in Student Billing

I had such a fun time writing my first top 5 for my (borderline freakish) love of the F1 key, I decided to create a special edition focused only on Student Billing. We all know billing students can become complicated and stressful with deadlines, complicated fee setups, and (most importantly) trying to get your bills paid on time. To help you use Student Billing more effectively, here are my top 5 places to use F1.

5. Student Billing Processing page. What's even better than a page that graphically lays out the processing order for you? Press F1 and see documentation that outlines the different steps and how to complete each successfully.

4. Config > Determination Tables. If you bill students based on information from The Registrar's Office, setting up your determination tables correctly might be the most important thing you ever do. You can make your determination tables as simple or as complicated as you want.

3. Admin > Set up Student Billing > Define Schedules. When you spend time on your schedules in the first place, you create a gift for yourself that gives back year after year. When you define schedules you establish templates that you can reuse on billing item records. And, yes, I did use the word reuse. I love that word because to me it's the joy of doing something right once and not having to fuss with it later.

In fact, there are many such places in Student Billing where, if you spend the time to set up properly, you can save yourself time in future financial years. If you spend, or have spent, a majority of your time in Admin & Config you're doing something right.

2. Fast! How can anything be fast when you need to press F1? Well, by spending the time to learn how to use Fast!, you can speed through the process of designing datasheets in no time. Soon, you'll be faster than Tyson Gay when it comes to data entry. And we all know less time spent on data entry makes the world (well mostly your life) better.

1. Records > Students > Payers tab. No, this feature isn't the hardest area of Student Billing but when you press F1 on this tab and see "Adding Payers and Billing Item Exceptions", you are in a place where you want to get the information correct. Right?! After you've done all the setup, defined your billing items, and generated transactions automatically, what's vitally important that needs to come next? Well if you guessed getting your bill into the right hands so that it gets paid (and might I add on time), you're right. To make sure bills are paid, you need to make sure every student has the correct payer information on record.

In past decades you might have rolled your eyes at me because adding payer information was easy - Mom and Dad needed to send in the big check. However, after I attended a Student Billing class this past year, I know differently. I know it's become increasingly difficult to handle extended and complex family situations. You need to define the payers and scenarios in which the proper person pays the correct amount for the correct billing item. Mom pays for housing and books but Dad pays tuition. Or, Grandma and Grandpa pay half the tuition and Mom pays the rest. And so on. Of late, the expanded definition of the American family is causing those forehead stress lines for those working in student billing offices.

These are my top 5 places to use F1. Where do you find yourself itching to press the button?

Student Billing State-of-Mind: What's a Bill Code?

If you've recently started using SB 7, you may be asking yourself, "Self, should I use bill codes?"  Well the answer depends on how you bill students. 

Let's start with what a bill code is and how it's used. Bill codes allow you to only add the bill code to student records instead of multiple individual billing items.  When transactions are automatically generated, the system matches the bill code on the billing item to the student record to determine the appropriate fee schedule to add. 

If your students receive different fees based on grade for example, bill codes would be a good option.  Using bill codes allows you to only add the bill code to student records instead of each individual billing item.  

If all students receive the same billing items, you do not need to use bill codes. Generating transactions automatically provides the option to generate fee schedules for all records at the same time; no need to manually add the billing item or bill code to the student record.   

Talk to you soon!

Scheduling Teachers, Meeting Times, and Rooms

There's a lot of scheduling going on out there, so it's a good thing you can do lots of scheduling in The Education Edge. After you create classes for next year, you can automatically or manually assign meeting times, teachers, and rooms. Let's take a look:

Generate Master Schedule (BB129710)
Use Generate Master Schedule for the majority of your scheduling. You can schedule teachers, rooms, and meeting times at once, and then manually tweak the classes if you need to.

1. On the Scheduling page, click Generate Master Schedule, and then click on the Action bar.
2. You can run Generate Master Schedule for all, selected, or one course. You can exclude periods using student schedule conflicts, include teachers and rooms in the process, and select the start terms to schedule.
3. On the General 2 tab, you can schedule teachers, rooms, and meeting times. You can select to schedule class meetings only if one of the following conditions applies:
   • Room and teacher can be scheduled
   • Room can be scheduled
   • Teacher can be scheduled
   • Room or teacher can be scheduled
4. On the Advanced tab, you can override restrictions and course rules and determine the Generate Master Schedule algorithm. For example, you can override the maximum number of consecutive meetings a teacher can teach, or you can instruct the program to give the highest priority to classes with a single teacher or room resource and the lowest priority to estimated class size.

If you receive an exception such as Teacher conflicts with course rule, review How to troubleshoot Generate Master Schedule exceptions (BB189272).

Edit Master Schedule (BB139597)

1. On the Scheduling page, click Open a class, or click Edit master schedule and select the class.
2. Select the Meetings tab to assign meeting times, teachers, and rooms.
3. To speed your search for free resources, select Class, Find Free from the menu bar. You can also use the Display availability for field to identify times during which teachers and rooms are scheduled so you do not mistakenly create conflicts when moving a class.

Time Saving Tips:

• Review your course restrictions (BB358670): I know the heading says time saving tips, but trust me, Generate Master Schedule most likely won't schedule your Geology on Tuesdays unless you add those time or pattern restrictions.
• Schedule in layers: Take advantage of the Filters tab in Generate Master Schedule to schedule groups of classes instead of all classes at once. For example, schedule your science classes, and then schedule your musics, and then your social studies.
• Manually add the important classes first: If you need to make sure Honors Calculus is third period, manually schedule it before running Generate Master Schedule.
• Give the Business to the Business Rules: Set business rules to speed manual scheduling (BB146886). For example, instruct the program to automatically reflect changes to other meetings when you assign a teacher or room to a meeting.