With summer here, everyone wants to enjoy the outdoors and take care of business quickly. That being said, you can save yourself and Skyward CS a lot of time by clearly stating the issue on your service calls and documenting the issue/question as best you can. 

This can possibly avoid the need for a CS person to call you to just ask for more information. In addition, by clearly stating your issue vs. “Year End – help” we can make sure the CS rep contacting you is ready/has the knowledge to handle the questions you will be asking.

We know the sooner you can get an answer to your question or problem the sooner you will be able to get on with your work and possibly to get out a little sooner to enjoy the nice summer weather.

HI!

This posting is for those of you that have not yet made that move to the WEB.

I realize that changing to new screens/processes can be difficult, but hopefully some of these items (only available on the WEB) might entice you to “make the leap!”

Look up a student by FIRST name

Set the screen display to “large font”

Having multiple windows open at one time

Printing to a queue instead of having to wait for a print job to process

Spell Check

Building charts/graphs on the fly

Report templates so that report setups do not need to be done from scratch each time

User Group season has wrapped up and I am surprised how many features people are not always aware of.  I would like to highlight a huge time saver when you setup new employees.  We have added a few features to our Employee Types that aid in setting up employees.  Specifically you can default deductions and benefits, add their default setup for time off and assign them to security groups.  Check it out; it’s all out there on the Web Employee Types. 

We are continuing to enhance the web version of our School Business Suite and I encourage you to investigate what is available and take advantage of these benefits. If you need access, please contact your system administrator.  You can also learn more on these new features through our documentation and release notes. 
 

Make sure you test your backups regularly! This past year we have had a few districts learn this the hard way.  Some had to recreate their database from scratch using reports and anything they had in hardcopy format.  I know backups seem like an automatic, and everyone does them, but the failure usually happens because the backup was not tested.   The last thing you want to have to do, is recreate your database or history from a year ago, when you have a payroll or report cards that need to go out next week.  This is where the old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” really rings true.

We have an exciting option, currently in beta testing, that will be available to everyone with the December 2010 release.  This new Web option called AP (Accounts Payable) Check Request, will allow your users via their PO group setup to submit requests for AP checks and go through the approval process; once approved it will automatically become an AP invoice and ultimately a check.  This is huge for paying occasional people like sports referees, chaperones, etc.  The school can submit the request (do the data entry), get it approved and the AP person just needs to print the check (no data entry).

Check out our release notes for upcoming December release for details on implementing this new option.

User Group season is upon us and if you have not done so, make sure to attend one in your area.  While attending the User Group conference try to attend the New Features sessions, these are the items we have handpicked to demonstrate because we think they have the most impact for our customers.  If you have ever attended a User Group, you know it is a great way to meet your fellow users and take home a lot of information/new ideas to implement at your districts.

Did you see Skyward has a new retro pay process based on contract amounts vs. individual pay checks?  This new process is really slick because it looks at the total amount the employee will be paid for the remainder of the year vs. the outstanding contract balance.  The difference (shortage) is the amount of the retro pay.  To see this option go to Payroll\Reporting\Employee Contracts\Options\Calculate Retro Pay from Remaining Contract Balance.   You can also find out more information in our documentation. 

In addition to the new retro pay process for salaried employees, we also have retro pay for hourly employees, if you use Payroll Worksheets.  Click the Web Options button on the main Payroll Worksheet screen.  Check out our release notes for full instructions.