Monthly Mentions Newsletter April 2024

If your school is approaching the 3rd quarter report, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed.

Opening up teacher input for 4th Mid-Quarter Report will require:

• Confirming the mid-quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-quarter from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-quarter report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Opening up teacher input for 3rd Mid-Trimester Report will require:

• Confirming the mid-trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for mid-trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the mid-trimester report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Timer is a component in FastDirect that allows schools to track attendance hours for daycare, preschool, before and after school care, and more.  This robust component features a billing component which lets you take those attendance hours and bill the families directly.  The Timer component also includes:

• One-click clocking in/out of one student or a custom group of students
• Ability to create multiple rate groups
• Custom settings for billing, rates, and groups to fit your school’s needs
• Billing reports by family or by date range

Once the Timer component is linked with a specific Finance account, you are able to bill a family’s account directly with just a click. Timer allows you the ability to set up different rate groups as well as different rates for morning or afternoon care. Other great features include the ability to charge picking-up-late fees, round up minutes, and set minimum time rates. Additionally, with the billing process, you can make adjustments to a families total and add any necessary notes.

To find out more about Timer and how it can help transform your school’s tracking of preschool or extended care hours, contact HelpDesk to schedule an appointment!

After the start of the 3rd quarter, principals have the ability to allow individual teachers to edit ReportCard grades for the entire year without having to ‘allow input’ for a specific grading period or without having to ‘allow input’ for the whole school. Once a principal has given permission to a specific teacher to edit ReportCard grades for the entire year, then that teacher will need to follow these steps:

1. Go to ‘Grades’
2. In the first drop down inside the gray box at the top, choose the course that has ReportCard grades that need to be edited
3. Click the large yellow button that reads ‘You are temporarily allowed to edit ReportCard grades for the whole year’
4. You will now see the list of students in that course and their ReportCard grades
5. Click ‘Edit’ next to the student whose grade you would like to change
6. Enter in a grade or change an existing grade for that student, then click ‘Update’
7. Repeat these steps for any additional student grades or courses

Click here to read the FAQ on Principal’s Only report card editing.

Tax season is here and FastDirect has a tax report for parents. This report can be found when parents click on the Finance icon in the top menu bar.  In the left hand menu will be a Tax Report option.  Once you click on Tax Report, you will select the tax year and then click ‘Tax Year Printout’.  A new window will open with the report for easy printing! The tax report will have the following information:

• The Federal Tax ID Number
• The tax year
• A breakdown of deposit transactions for each account
• A total deposit amount for each account
• A total deposit amount for all accounts

• How can I make changes to a specific family’s tuition payment schedule?
• How do I edit the max score of an event?
• How did I get an incomplete clock after the date was billed and deleted?

Helpful FAQs from April 2023:

• When creating a new event in GradeBook, what are the ‘Status’ Options?
• How do I add access to FastDirect Communications to the home screen of my smart phone?
• How do I delete a link from the ‘Links’ section?

Helpful FAQs from April 2022:

• How do I create a link to an uploaded file?
• What should I do at the end of the year in relation to keeping records of the student’s history in Nurse?
• How do I edit data fields using the Make Your Own Report?

Watch this video tutorial to find out how parents can make payments online with FDpay:

• Click here to watch the video tutorial as an MP4!
• Click here to watch the video tutorial in YouTube!