Monthly Mentions Newsletter – February 2019

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 Report Cards from ‘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
• A time-stamp for when the child was re-registered
• Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
• The finance account for Registration 2019-2020
• 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 Report Card, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed. Opening up teacher input for 2nd trimester Report Cards will require:

• Changing input for 2nd mid-trimester reports from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Confirming the dates for 2nd trimester in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Changing input for 2nd trimester Report Cards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
• Having teachers go through the 2nd trimester 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
• A time-stamp for when the child was re-registered
• Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
• The finance account for Registration 2019-2020
• 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.

The Registration report has a new feature!  Ever since January 8th, we have been time-stamping when parents re-register their child. If the Registration report has been enabled at your school, then here are the steps to view this information:

1. Go to Reports
2. In the left hand menu, click on Parent Data
3. In the left hand menu, click on Registration 2019-2020
4. In the top right of your screen, click the ‘Download Spreadsheet’ button.

This will download a CSV file to your desktop.  Once opened, the far right column will show the date and time of any parent who has re-registered their child.

During registration season, we know printing parent forms is sometimes needed. Whether you print parent information for registration or to keep for a paper copy,
these printing options should make things easier. There is a batch print option and individual print option for all parent/guardian accounts. To print an individual parent’s information, you will pull up a parent account. In the top right of the page will be the ‘Print’ button. Here are some specifics to keep in mind regarding printing a parent form:

• While we have tried to condense the form so that it will fit on one page, there will be some circumstances when all of the information may require a second page. One factor that will contribute to a longer page print would be the number of WildCards for the parents or students.
• If a parent or student WildCard has been marked as ‘Hide Information’ (in Settings), then that WildCard and its information will not appear on the printed form.

Here are the steps for how to batch print the parent information forms (with one parent per page):

1. Go to People, then Parents
2. Click ‘Print’ next to the very last option that reads ‘Print All Active Parent Information Forms’
3. A new internet tab will open with each parents’ information displayed per page and then you print through your browser’s print commands

Comment codes are now available as clickable, customized options for your teachers! If your school uses a set of comment codes for report cards, those comments can now be added to the system and teachers are able to select the comments they need for each student.

Here is some important information about the clickable, customized comment codes:

• Comment codes are supplied by the school and added to the system by FastDirect’s HelpDesk
• Comment codes can be applied to one grade, several grades, or all grades
• Teachers simply select from the list of assigned comment codes to be added to a student’s report card

Have an administrator contact HelpDesk if you are interested in adding clickable, customized comments for your report cards!

Tax season is approaching 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

• When a school chooses to open the GradeBook to Parents, will they be able to view the whole year?
• I have a family who made their tuition payment early. How can I charge them now?
• How can I edit the attendance calendar for a transfer student?

Helpful FAQs from February 2018:

• 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 what Cash Only means in Cafeteria!

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