October 2024
As the end of the quarter approaches, your teachers will need to go through the ReportCard input process. This means an administrator will allow input, the teachers will enter grades into the ReportCards and then the administrator will close input. From there, you can either print the ReportCards or permission them to be viewed by parents online.
Opening up teacher input for 1st Quarter ReportCards will require:
- Changing input for 1st mid-quarter from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Changing input for 1st quarter ReportCards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Having teachers go through the 1st quarter ReportCard input process
- Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’
If your school started in late August or early September, then you may be gearing up for mid-quarter reports. FastDirect allows you to create mid-quarter reports in two different ways. Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.
If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:
- Confirming the 1st mid-quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Changing input for mid-quarter from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Having teachers go through the mid-quarter ReportCard input process
- Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’
Previewing your report cards is a very important step and should be completed during these first few weeks of school. This step involves looking over each grade level’s report cards to make sure all courses, sub-categories, grade scale and layouts look correct. When you complete this step early in the school year, you help support your your teachers by making sure they have what they need and reduce last minute report card corrections at the end of the grading period. Please note that report card changes can take up to a week to process.
Here are the steps to view a report card:
- Go to ‘Grades’
- Choose a homeroom instructor in the ‘select instructor’ drop down then click the ‘view instructor’s grade book’ button
- Click the button ‘view report cards’
- When the homeroom roster appears, click ‘print’ next to any child’s name
Here are the components to review on a report card:
- Course names
- Course subcategories
- Grade scales/marking codes
- General formatting, for example school header, course list columns, layout
Click here to read the FAQ on how homeroom teachers can view their report cards!
Click here to read the FAQ on how administrators can view report cards!
If your school uses trimester scheduling, then you may be gearing up for mid-trimester reports. FastDirect allows you to create mid-trimester reports in two different ways. Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.
If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:
- Confirming the 1st mid-trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Changing input for mid-trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
- Having teachers go through the mid-trimester ReportCard input process
- Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’
Previewing your report cards is a very important step and should be completed during these first few weeks of school. This step involves looking over each grade level’s report cards to make sure all courses, sub-categories, grade scale and layouts look correct. When you complete this step early in the school year, you help support your your teachers by making sure they have what they need and reduce last minute report card corrections at the end of the grading period. Please note that report card changes can take up to a week to process.
Here are the steps to view a report card:
- Go to ‘Grades’
- Choose a homeroom instructor in the ‘select instructor’ drop down then click the ‘view instructor’s grade book’ button
- Click the button ‘view report cards’
- When the homeroom roster appears, click ‘print’ next to any child’s name
Here are the components to review on a report card:
- Course names
- Course subcategories
- Grade scales/marking codes
- General formatting, for example school header, course list columns, layout
Click here to read the FAQ on how homeroom teachers can view their report cards!
Click here to read the FAQ on how administrators can view report cards!
The Deposits and Charges Report is one of our favorite reports and we’ve made it a little more awesome by specifying the year of the finance account. If a family makes a payment to multiple accounts, the Deposits and Charges Report will now include the year of the account, such as: Multi:Tuition(2025)=350.00 Registration(2025)=100.00 Technology Fee=150.00
Here are the steps for how to view the Deposits and Charges Report:
- Go to Finance
- Click on the button that reads ‘Deposits and Charges Report
- Set the filters you need
- Click ‘View Report’
Here are the various filters you can choose from:
- Deposits or Charges
- Date range
- Parent/staff account or all parents/staff
- Specific finance account or all finance accounts
- Transaction payment type (FDpay, non-FDpay, etc)
You can also choose to check mark the option for Edit mode, which will allow you to change or delete transactions just like before. Finally, you can also check mark the option for Archives which will pull up any archived transactions within those search parameters.
There are several settings for your school that have to do with the parent BuzzBook (directory). These settings include showing email addresses, cell phone numbers, and more.
To view the settings that are available for your school’s BuzzBook, you will go to ‘Settings’ and then click on ‘People’ in the left hand menu.
Here are the various settings available for administrators to allow/disallow for the BuzzBook:
- Viewing of the BuzzBook for parents/students
- Email addresses
- Cell phone numbers
- Alternate parent information
Please note that if an administrator has allowed viewing of the BuzzBooks, parents are able to unpublish (hide) their information. They can do so by editing their parent accounts and viewing their parent information. Both Parent #1 and Parent #2 can choose their publishing settings separately.
When entering in grades in your grade book or report card, it is important to know how entering in letter/symbol grades vs. number grades can yield different results. When entering in grades in FastDirect (either in the grade book or in a report card), we recommend using number grades (instead of letter/symbol grades). The reason why is because when the system calculates grades that have a letter/symbol, then the system must use the click percentage. The click percentage (or click value) is a numeric equivalent of a letter grade (ie. A=100; B=90). The click % provides the system a way of calculating a letter grade by giving it an exact numeric value. Therefore, when a student receives a grade of a B+, the system needs to use the click % for that grade, which is specific to the grade scale that has been applied to that course.
Click here to see examples of letter vs. number discrepancies
These examples (in the link above) show how using click percentages will slightly change a student’s grade over time. While the report card grade differences can be minimal, grade book grade differences can be substantial especially if there are many grade book event grades.
Parents can schedule automatic online payments in FDpay! If your school has activated FDpay, our electronic payments processing feature, then parents can set up and schedule automatic payments from either a credit/debit card or a bank account (ACH).
Click here to learn how to schedule automatic or recurring payments (for parents).
- How can I remove the Secondary status?
- How can I change a person’s tuition rate after payments have already started?
- How can I add a link to the Links page?
Helpful FAQs from October 2023:
- How does a teacher/staff change their ScreenName and/or Password?
- How can I move students from one homeroom to another?
- How do I clear files from my File Manager and use file sharing sites?
Helpful FAQs from October 2022:
Watch this video tutorial to find out more about the GradeBook calculation options:
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