Monthly Mentions Newsletter – February 2018

If your school is approaching the end of the 2nd quarter, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed.  Opening up teacher input for 2nd Quarter ReportCards will require:

• Changing input for 2nd mid-quarter report cards from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Confirming the dates for 2nd quarter in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for 2nd quarter ReportCardsfrom ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the 2nd quarter report card input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Registration is an important part of the school year and FastDirect can help make the process easier.  In FastDirect, you can track new student applications, re-registrations of returning students, as well as the charging and depositing of registration fees. Here is some of the information that is tracked in the Registration report:

• The number of students for each grade level
• The number of students returning in each grade level
• The number of new student applications in each grade level
• An estimated number of spots available in each grade level
• A breakdown of each existing family and their re-registration status

Here are some other features involved in registration through FastDirect:

• The ability to allow your parents to re-register their child online
• Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
• The finance account for Registration 2018-2019
• A report showing all families and if they have been charged their registration fees
• A report showing all families and if they have paid their registration fees

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in MP4 format

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in Youtube

WildCards are a good way to keep track of all the required forms and if parents have completed and submitted those forms to the office.  Here are other uses for WildCard:

• Student immunizations
• State testing scores
• Protecting God’s Children

WildCard fields can be created for:

• Students
• Parents
• Staff

Here are the steps to create a WildCard field:

1. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon
2. Click on the ‘People’ option in the left hand menu
3. Click on the link that reads ‘Add/Change WildCards’
4. In the drop down, select who you are creating the WildCard for: Staff, Parents or Students
5. Type in the name of the WildCard field, such as ‘Immunizations’
6. Click ‘Create New WildCard’

Registering students for next year often means forms and paperwork.  With the file upload function, you can add these forms to the Links page, send them as attachments or create links to them on the login screen.  Making these forms available online means you won’t be spending your time making copies and mailing them out. Additionally, by allowing your parents to upload files, you can have a paperless process!  After you have uploaded the forms and made them available online, your parents can fill the forms out and send them back to you through our secure FDmail eMessaging. Here is how to turn on file upload for your parents and ways to help get your parents started:

You can activate this feature either for parents or students or both. To do so, you’ll go to Settings and click on FDmail in the left hand navigation menu. Check mark the option to Allow Parent File Upload and click ‘Save Changes’.  To allow students, repeat these steps and check mark the option for Allow Student File Upload.  To learn more about file upload, click on your FAQ Icon (the blue question mark), click on the “Look in: All categories” drop-down menu, select File Upload/File Attachment and click “View FAQ”. To help teach you parents and/or students how to use the file upload tool, you can point them to the FAQ section under the heading of ‘File Upload/File Attachment’. HelpDesk would like to help you get your Registration processes set up in FastDirect. Please send an FDmail message or give HelpDesk a call when you are ready to get started.

If your school is approaching the 2nd trimester ReportCard, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed. Opening up teacher input for 2nd trimester ReportCards will require:

• Changing input for 2nd mid-trimester reports from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
• Confirming the dates for 2nd trimester in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for 2nd trimester ReportCards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the 2nd trimester ReportCard input process
• Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

Registration is an important part of the school year and FastDirect can help make the process easier.  In FastDirect, you can track new student applications, re-registrations of returning students, as well as the charging and depositing of registration fees. Here is some of the information that is tracked in the Registration report:

• The number of students for each grade level
• The number of students returning in each grade level
• The number of new student applications in each grade level
• An estimated number of spots available in each grade level
• A breakdown of each existing family and their re-registration status

Here are some other features involved in registration through FastDirect:

• The ability to allow your parents to re-register their child online
• Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
• The finance account for Registration 2018-2019
• A report showing all families and if they have been charged their registration fees
• A report showing all families and if they have paid their registration fees

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in MP4 format

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in Youtube

WildCards are a good way to keep track of all the required forms and if parents have completed and submitted those forms to the office.  Here are other uses for WildCard:

• Student immunizations
• State testing scores
• Protecting God’s Children

WildCard fields can be created for:

• Students
• Parents
• Staff

Here are the steps to create a WildCard field:

1. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon
2. Click on the ‘People’ option in the left hand menu
3. Click on the link that reads ‘Add/Change WildCards’
4. In the drop down, select who you are creating the WildCard for: Staff, Parents or Students
5. Type in the name of the WildCard field, such as ‘Immunizations’
6. Click ‘Create New WildCard’

Registering students for next year often means forms and paperwork.  With the file upload function, you can add these forms to the Links page, send them as attachments or create links to them on the login screen.  Making these forms available online means you won’t be spending your time making copies and mailing them out. Additionally, by allowing your parents to upload files, you can have a paperless process!  After you have uploaded the forms and made them available online, your parents can fill the forms out and send them back to you through our secure FDmail eMessaging. Here is how to turn on file upload for your parents and ways to help get your parents started:

You can activate this feature either for parents or students or both. To do so, you’ll go to Settings and click on FDmail in the left hand navigation menu. Check mark the option to Allow Parent File Upload and click ‘Save Changes’.  To allow students, repeat these steps and check mark the option for Allow Student File Upload.  To learn more about file upload, click on your FAQ Icon (the blue question mark), click on the “Look in: All categories” drop-down menu, select File Upload/File Attachment and click “View FAQ”. To help teach you parents and/or students how to use the file upload tool, you can point them to the FAQ section under the heading of ‘File Upload/File Attachment’. HelpDesk would like to help you get your Registration processes set up in FastDirect. Please send an FDmail message or give HelpDesk a call when you are ready to get started.

Parents have a new icon in the top menu bar!  We have added a Finance icon to all parent accounts which will provide a dedicated space for parents to view financial information. When a parent clicks on the Finance icon, they will have access to the following information:

• Clickable account balances (transaction history)
• Tax Report (by year)
• Electronic payment buttons or widgets, such as PayPal (only with schools that have set this up)

When a parent or guardian views their Home page, the finance account information will no longer be displayed however, there will be a note alerting them that the information has been moved to the Finance icon page.  In the note will be a link which they can also click on to go directly to the Finance page.

In the registration feature, we can allow for existing families to register new children without allowing new families to register online. This way, new applicants will need to contact the school directly and existing families can continue to register online quickly and easily.

To get registration started in FastDirect, contact HelpDesk.  If your school is interesting in allowing existing parents to register new children but blocking new families from registering new applicants online, make sure to contact HelpDesk for assistance.

The students’ names in your GradeBook rosters are clickable links. Click on a student’s name to see an isolated report of that specific student’s grades for that course. When working in your GradeBook, it might be helpful to view a student’s grades in an isolated report. This report will give you a breakdown of the grades that student has earned for a specific course. To get this report, you will open up a GradeBook for one of your courses.  Once the roster appears, you can click on any name in the roster.  Here are some of the advantages to this report:

• The report will be in a new internet window which can be printed
• The report will not contain grades for any other student, which makes it an ideal screen to show parents during conferences
• The button to the left of the student’s name allows you to toggle to the next student in the class

Tax season is approaching and FastDirect has a tax report for parents. This report can be found by clicking on the Finance icon in the top menu bar. The report provides them with a new page 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

For the parents, this report can be found when they click on the Finance icon in the top menu bar.  In the left hand menu will be a Tax Report option.  Once they click on Tax Report, they will select the tax year and then click ‘Tax Year Printout’.  A new window will open with the report for easy printing!

• Archiving old finance accounts.
• What do I need to know for the registration process?
• How can I view/print a report card for a transfer student?

Watch this video tutorial to find out how to charge registration fees!

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