Documentation for Administrators

12.0.55 - 07/13/2024

Updated on

Finance

FOCUS-44151- feat(accounts-payable): add PO Names column to Check Report

The PO Name(s) column has been added to the toggle functionality of the Accounts Payable Check Report, Accounts Payable Check Line Report, and Accounts Payable Check Allocation Report.

FOCUS-44048- *[Enh Rqst] Monroe_Forms_Add Field Columns to Pending Approval and Approval History Tabs

System improvement adding 'Toggle Columns' to Forms > Approval History Tab.

See Forms > Viewing Approval History for more information.

FOCUS-43962- Add Budget Maintenance reversal functionality

System enhancement adding ability to create a reversal draft in Budgeting/General Ledger > Budget Maintenance. To enable: turn on Profile Permission 'Reverse Requests.'

See Budget Maintenance and Internal Account Budget Maintenance for more information.

FOCUS-43961- feat(elements): add 'stop (x)' to fund details

System Improvement adding Fund Details in Setup > Setting > Elements > Fund that will stop expenditures in PO's, Invoices, and Checks.

See Setup > Settings > Elements for details.

FOCUS-43891- Paid Date Range on FA Report

System improvement 'Paid Date' range as a search in Fixed Assets > Fixed Assets Report.

See Fixed Assets Report for more information.

FOCUS-43816- feat(finance): allow specifying internal budgeted for element category

System Improvement to Setup > Settings > Element Categories > Budgeted column separating it into Internal Budgeted and District Budgeted.

See Setup > Settings > Element Categories for more information.

FOCUS-43701- Message option redirects the current tab

System improvement to open messages in District Reports in new tab.

FOCUS-42043- Voiding AP Focus Check From Prior Year

System improvement adding ability to set a system default general ledger Debit and Credit in Setup > Misc > When a Check is voided for prior fiscal year.

See Checks and Internal Account Checks for more details.

FOCUS-39867- Add Staff ID to Various User Dropdowns in ERP

Payroll

FOCUS-44034- HR | Add manual persist to jobs

System enhancement adding a new setting for a SAVE button on HR > Employee > Jobs. To turn on: Setup > Settings > Misc > Misc > Use save button on employee jobs.

See Settings > Misc tab > Misc section for more information.

FOCUS-44029- put overpaid supplements into wage recovery

System enhancement adding a new payroll setting - "Overpaid Supplements Create Wage Recovery On" and set to Yes > Save. This is for supplement recovery.

See Settings > Payroll > Payroll Calculation for more details.

FOCUS-43615- Add Cancel Leave Request to ESS

System improvement adding ability to cancel leave in Employee Self Service.

See Employee Requests and View ESS > Employee Requests for more information.

FOCUS-43166- AT Process to Roll Job Postings / Applicants to New Year

System enhancement adding ability to roll Applicant Tracking Job Postings and Applicants in Setup > Rollover > Applicant Tracking. To activate, enable profile permission.

See Applicant Tracking (Rollover) for more information.

SIS

FOCUS-44211- Form Builder: Ensure Collections Field Save & Display in Form History

Previously, form fields populated by collections were not saved if the user lacked edit permissions for them. With this update, these form fields are now saved correctly and displayed in Form History, even if the user does not have edit permissions.

FOCUS-44206- Communication Platform: Resolve Errors After Marking a Message as Unread

This update resolves an error in the Communication Platform that occurred when attempting to use 'Mark as Unread' on multiple messages in an email thread. Now, using 'Mark as Unread' returns you to the inbox, and selecting multiple messages as unread is no longer possible.

FOCUS-44204- Communication Platform: Prevent Errors with Translated Templates

This update resolves an error seen when using translated templates in the Communication Platform. Previously, users encountered an error when composing an email and selecting a template multiple times. This issue has been fixed, and the error no longer appears.

FOCUS-44182- Discipline: Introduce AI Referral Code Feature in Missouri

This update introduces compatibility with dynamic discipline code suggestions using AI for customers leveraging Missouri state reporting. For additional information on this feature, please reference our Focus University article:

https://focus.screenstepslive.com/s/admins/m/sis/l/1759268-dynamic-discipline-code-suggestions-using-ai.

FOCUS-44146- Grades: Ensure Conduct Generates in District Report Cards & Transcripts

This update fixes an issue where conduct grades were not displaying on report cards generated from "District Report Cards & Transcripts." With this update, conduct grades will now be correctly displayed on the report cards generated from this section.

FOCUS-44135- Grad Req. Report (Florida): Adjust Logic for Qualifying Assessments

This update corrects an issue in the Graduation Requirements Report for Florida customers. The Biliteracy Seal will now consider both FSA and FSST tests. Additionally, this update ensures that the Spanish Language and Culture exam is recognized as a qualifying Florida assessment.

FOCUS-44113- Parent Portal: Improve Display of Student's Primary Enrolled School

This update ensures that parents see their child's correct primary enrolled school listed in the Parent Portal. Previously, the logic did not appropriately order schools by the enrollment start date in descending order, leading to potential inaccuracies.

FOCUS-44106- Communication Platform: Ensure Insert Fields Populate for Custom Emails

This update resolves an issue where insert fields were not populating values on Communication Templates sent via triggered emails (such as online applications, school choice applications, and workflow triggers) when the recipient was a 'custom' email address.

FOCUS-44104- Scheduling: Remove Unnecessary Teachers from Teacher Schedules Report

This update resolves an issue where unnecessary teachers erroneously appeared on the Teacher Schedules Report for the future year. With this fix, only the relevant teachers will be displayed in the report, ensuring accuracy.

FOCUS-44102- Communication Platform: Add Message Button to Fast Report (Florida)

This update introduces an improvement to the Communication Platform for customers leveraging Florida State Reporting. A new messaging option is now available on the FAST report when viewing students, provided the user has the "send messages" profile permission.

See the FAST Report for details.

FOCUS-44100- Communication Platform: Support School Fields in Staff Messages

Previously, school fields used with staff would not populate in messages. With this update, these fields will now populate correctly within Communication Platform messages.

FOCUS-44088- Scanning: Install New Dynamsoft Key for 2024-2025 School Year

This update implements the new Dynamsoft Key, which is required to support document scanning into Upload Fields. The existing key will expire for all customers using this feature on August 31, 2024. To avoid disruptions, customers leveraging this feature should ensure they are on a minimum version of 12.0.55 before this date.

FOCUS-44084- Integrations: Memory Performance Improvement

This update implements a memory performance improvement to Integration Scheduled Jobs, ensuring they run as expected.

FOCUS-44054- Blackboard: Limit Observer Transfers to Students with Blackboard Ids

This update to the Blackboard API integration prevents sending observer records for students and users who do not have a value in the 'external_api_uuid' field. This ensures that only records with the necessary identifiers are transmitted.

FOCUS-44049- Test History: Display Errors for Test History Records Outside Acceptable Score Ranges

Previously, test scores outside the acceptable score ranges were not flagged as errors. With this update, Test History records in error will now be highlighted in red when viewing a student's Test History.

See Test History for more information.

FOCUS-44037- Transcripts: Re-Enable Additional Options when Grouping Changes

When configuring transcripts for generation, changing from the CTE Grouping to another non-CTE grouping previously prevented the end-user from editing Additional Options. This update corrects that issue, allowing end-users to edit Additional Options regardless of the grouping selected.

FOCUS-44036- Grades: Display Gradelevel on Approve Grade Change

This enhancement adds a column to display the student's grade level on the Approve Grade Change screen for administrators.

See Approve Grade Changes for details.

FOCUS-44021- Discipline: Rename 'Link Referral' to 'Link/Unlink Referral'

With this update, the 'Link Referral' option on discipline incidents has been renamed to 'Link/Unlink Referral' to better summarize the functionality when that option is selected.

See Discipline Incidents for more information.

FOCUS-44004- Discipline: Add Minor Infraction Teacher Code to Advanced Reports and Communication Platform

This enhancement adds the Minor Infraction Teacher Code as an available field for inclusion in Communication Platform Messages and Advanced Reports. Administrators and teachers can now use this field to provide specific details about minor infractions directly in their communications and reports. This allows for clearer and more detailed documentation and communication regarding student behavior incidents.

FOCUS-43991- Hall Pass: Kiosk Hall Pass Location Feature

This update includes an enhancement to Hall Pass. When the "Student should Check In" option is enabled, applicable location options will become visible as selections on Kiosk devices. When a student checks in to a Kiosk device set to a Hall Pass location, the location category title will now be tagged and displayed in the applicable Check In/Check Out areas of the Hall Pass report.

See Hall Passes on the Kiosk and Mobile App , Hall Passes (Admin), and Hall Passes (Teacher) for more information.

FOCUS-43973- Signatures: Resolve Signatures for SAML Customers

This update resolves a signature issue for customers leveraging SAML for Single Sign-On (SSO).

FOCUS-43959- Student Info: Adjust Columns in Medication Order

This update introduces changes to the Student Info system logging field called "Medication Order" (alias: Medication Order). The columns "When Admin Starts" and "When Admin Ends" have been adjusted from time fields to text fields. Additionally, a new column called "When Admin Time(s)" has been added, offering options in 30-minute increments.

FOCUS-43958- AzEds API: Limit StudentSchoolAttendanceEvent Minutes to Present Attendance Codes (Arizona)

This branch fixes the reported issue with EdFi/AzEds by ensuring students' attendance data with present codes also pull the associated 'Instructional Minutes'. By design any attendance codes that are mapped to the descriptor of #3 under the Attendance Event Category on the Ed-Fi Setup are the ones that should have minutes. All other codes should not have any minutes attached as they are considered absences.

FOCUS-43955- FAST Report (FL): Respect Admin School-Level Permissions

This update resolves an issue where school permissions were not respected on the FAST report for Florida customers. With this change, administrators will see school totals on the FAST report but will not be able to drill down to individual student results unless they have the appropriate school access in their permissions.

FOCUS-43950- Student Info: Respect File Size Limit Preference when Uploading

Previously, when a user scanned a document into a File Upload field, they received an error that the file exceeded the file size limit, even when the document size was within the range defined by the customer's system preference "File Size Limit." This update resolves that issue, ensuring that documents within the specified file size limit can be uploaded without errors.

FOCUS-43900- Scheduling: New Global Alternate Requests

This update introduces a new feature to Scheduling Requests, allowing up to three Alternate Global Requests for a course. If a student's primary request cannot be fulfilled, Run Scheduler or Auto Schedule will place the student into an Alternate Request. Global Alternates can be set within Courses and Sections or on the Master Schedule Report Courses Tab. This feature is available only when the Scheduling System Preference "Use new Alternate Student Course Requests" is enabled.

See System Preferences > Scheduling and Courses & Sections for more information.

FOCUS-43899- Communication Platform: Warning Before Posting to All schools with Announcement Permission

This update introduces a warning message when an admin user with access to over five schools selects "All Schools" for an announcement. The warning will state the number of schools the announcement will be sent to, providing a safeguard against unintentional mass communication. This warning does not display for teachers sending announcements to sections or for users with access to a single school.

See Communication (Admin) for more information.

FOCUS-43888- Communication Platform: Improve Text Editor for Announcements

This update corrects an issue in the Communication Platform where bolded text couldn't have its font size adjusted in the Text Editor for Announcements. With this fix, users can now adjust the font size of bolded text as expected.

FOCUS-43863- Discipline: New Offense Tracking Features

This enhancement to Discipline Offenses adds two new system fields to the schema. First, a new system Student Field called "Probationary Contract" has been added. Referral Codes and Actions now have a new checkbox for Probationary Contract. When a referral has a code marked as probationary, and the referral date is within the start and end dates of a probationary contract entry in the Student Field, the offense count is ignored, and the offense is treated as the highest set. Secondly, a new Referral Field called "Offense" allows for manual adjustments when processing a referral. Actions are limited by the number of offenses, calculated as the number of previous referrals with the same Disciplinary Code plus one for the current referral, including any local adjustments using the Offense field.

See Referral Codes & Actions > Adding a Code for more information.

FOCUS-43862- Scheduling: Improved Display of Planning Periods with Rotation on Teacher Schedules Report

This branch improves the new Scheduling, Planning Periods feature. This update improves the display of the Teacher Schedules Report with the addition of the rotation day label assigned to department meetings and duties. The improvement to the Teacher Schedules Report will now show a better display for a sections and planning periods meeting in the same time slot but on different days.

FOCUS-43846- Document Management: Improve OCR Scanning for Sideway Orientation

Previously, uploads from the Document Management module that were oriented sideways were not correctly interpreted by the OCR, resulting in incorrect word recognition. With this update, rotated images are now interpreted correctly, allowing for accurate text recognition and searchability.

FOCUS-43719- Teacher Portal: Improve Performance Switching Sections from Gradebook

This update improves system performance when switching sections in the Teacher Portal from the Gradebook screen, ensuring a smoother and faster user experience.

FOCUS-43436- Communication Platform: New Reward Positive Behaviors Enhancement

We are excited to introduce a new Positive Behavior interface that allows teachers to reward positive behaviors directly through the Communication module. Teachers need access through Profile Permissions, and Positive Behaviors must be configured. The feature lets teachers toggle between views for awarding Positive Behaviors, selecting one or multiple students for badges, with options for mass selection or individual deselection. If permissions allow, teachers can also message selected students directly, redirecting to the Compose screen with pre-populated recipients.

See Communication (Teachers) > Postive Behavior, Communication (Admin) > Setting Profile Permissions for Teachers, Configure Positive Behaviors (Teachers), Positive Behaviors (Teachers), Positive Behaviors (Admin), Positive Behavior Awards (Admin), and Reward Positive Behavior (Teacher Programs) (Admin).

FOCUS-43401- User Info: Resolve Print ID Badge Generation

This update corrects an issue where Staff ID Badges were not generating as expected from User Info. With this fix, Staff ID Badges will now be generated correctly, ensuring accurate and consistent badge creation for staff members.

FOCUS-43128- Signatures: Resolve Null Signatures

This update introduces a not-null constraint on the signature data column. A migration will be executed to populate this column with appropriate data. If applicable, the data will be sourced from the application table; otherwise, it will be populated with an "N/A" image.

FOCUS-42400- Test History: Add Index to Test History Scores

This update introduces an index to Test History Scores, aimed at preventing the occurrence of duplicate entries that can arise during data importation. Additionally, the branch includes a migration process designed to identify and remove existing duplicate records that share the same score and administration ID, ensuring data integrity and consistency within the Test History Scores.

FOCUS-41654- New Search: Improve Appearance of Referral Log

This update improves the visual appearance of options in the Discipline Referral Log when using the New Search feature. This enhancement ensures a cleaner and more user-friendly interface for better navigation and usability.

See Referral Log for more information.

FOCUS-38993- Translations: New API Automatic Translations Feature

This update introduces our new Translations feature, leveraging the Microsoft Azure Translator API. This module allows districts to automatically translate phrases used in Focus, such as course titles, report card comments, student fields, and system preferences. Translations will be available throughout Focus based on the user's language settings. Districts can select which language and source phrases to add to the Translations screen for automatic or custom translating. If a parent or student with a non-English language preference encounters untranslated items, Focus will automatically add these as blank entries needing translation on the Translations screen. The district can then use the Auto Translate function or the scheduled job "Update Automated Translations" to provide translations. The update also removes the "Language" field on the Application Editor and the "Google Translate" system preference. Only the original version of applications/forms will remain, and untranslated items will be added to the Translations screen as blank entries. For more information, please refer to our Focus University article:

https://focus.screenstepslive.com/s/admins/m/sis/l/1805523-translations-new?token=LmjBakugpCYDnD1clE-kkYZLmZxi0S8G.

FOCUS-42914- Communication Platform : Archive, Unread, and Message Counts Enhancements

We are excited to introduce several new features and improvements to enhance inbox management and message search functionality for staff members in the Communication Platform:

Archive Messages:

- Staff can now archive conversations, moving them to a new Archive tab and removing them from the inbox for both staff and student/parent recipients.

- Students and parents cannot archive conversations.

- Admin-to-admin/teacher conversations are archived only for the user who archived them.

- Admin/teacher-to-parent/student conversations are archived for both parties until unarchived by the staff member.

- An unarchive option is available to move conversations back to the inbox.

Mark as Unread: Users can mark messages as unread, allowing them to revisit important conversations later. The unread message indicator and portal alert will be displayed.

Message Counts: Displays total counts of unread messages, scheduled messages, drafts, and open polls and signups in the inbox for better management and visibility.

Improved Message Search:

- Comprehensive Search: Filters now allow searching through all messages, not just the 100 most recent records.

- Infinite Scrolling: More messages load automatically as you scroll past the initial 100.

- Expanded Filter Search: Conducts filter searches across all messages for thorough and accurate results.

These features provide greater control, organization, and visibility, enhancing the overall messaging experience.

See Communication (Admin), Communication (Teachers), and Communication (Parents/Students) for more information.

SSS

FOCUS-44181- SSS/Formbuilder July 2024 Snapshot for Florida

This update includes compliance updates to the Florida Harm & Threat Management Instrument that went into effect on July 1, 2024. For additional information on the changes, please refer to our Zendesk Guide article:

https://focusschoolsoftware.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/27256021382939-July-2024-Part-1-Updates-to-FL-Master-Forms-Setup.

FOCUS-44178- SSS: Improve Last Imaged Time when Mass Printing

Previously, when mass printing SSS events, the "Imaged By" and "Image Time" columns in SSS Events were automatically updated even if the event had not been imaged. With this update, the "Imaged By" and "Image Time" columns will only be updated when the event is actually imaged, not during mass printing.

FOCUS-44159- SSS: Resolve Events Initiated Between Enrollments Visibility

Previously, if a student had only one enrollment and an SSS event was initiated after the student had been dropped from school, their record would not display in the SSS Event Reporting screen. With this update, events initiated between enrollments now display in the SSS Event Reporting screen as expected.

FOCUS-44051- SSS: Adjust Event Trigger "Add Step"

Previously, the Add Step event trigger action could only accept 'form_name' as the form parameter, not 'form_id', causing the step to not load. With this update, the Add Step event trigger action can now accept both 'form_id' and 'form_name' as form parameters, ensuring the step loads correctly.

FOCUS-44048- *[Enh Rqst] Monroe_Forms_Add Field Columns to Pending Approval and Approval History Tabs

System improvement adding 'Toggle Columns' to Forms > Approval History Tab.

FOCUS-43986- SSS: Display Archived Files for Applicable Stacked Profiles

Previously, if a user had multiple profiles, including a "Teacher" profile with the "Archive Tab" permission set to 'Deny', the Archived Files tab would not display for the user. With this update, if a user has multiple profiles and the "Teacher" profile does not have permission for the Archive Tab, but another profile does, the Archived Files tab will now display in Manage Student as expected.

FOCUS-43940- SSS: IEP Progress Report Enhancement

With this update, the Progress Period Title (PP1, PP2, etc.) will auto-save without requiring all fields to be filled out, and the Save button will not turn red. Additionally, the Expected Level on the Graph will also save automatically, and the Save button will not turn red.

See Manage Student: ESE Events > IEP Goals Progress Report for more information.

FOCUS-43898- SSS: Improve Scheduled Date Generation for Events Created through Managed Student

Previously, when creating an event from the Manage Student screen, users could change the Scheduled Date, causing an error if the IEP GPR event's Scheduled Date was before the IEP Scheduled Date. With this update, the Scheduled Date column is disabled and always defaults to today's date when creating an event from the Manage Student screen, ensuring the IEP GPR event loads as expected.

See Manage Student for more information.

FOCUS-43715- SSS: Allow Mass Locking Active Events when Event Status is Ready to be Locked

Previously, the Mass Lock screen incorrectly included 'Open' events, which are not completed and ready to be locked, when looking for Active Events with a status of 'Complete,' 'Unlocked,' and 'Open.' With this update, the Mass Lock Events screen now ensures all required steps are validated for Active Events before mass locking. It now works the same as locking individual events, only considering Active Events with a status of 'Complete' and 'Unlocked.'

FOCUS-42920- SSS: Add Student Field Text Box to bulk PMP Trigger Search Terms

Previously, users could not add multiple student IDs in Search Terms when setting Bulk PMP Triggers. With this update, a smart name field called 'Student' has been added to Search Terms, allowing users to add multiple, comma-separated student IDs.

See Bulk PMP Triggers for more information.

CTE

FOCUS-44024- Postsecondary: Add No Show/ Low Attendance Report for Teachers

This feature enhancement adds support for teachers to view the No Show/Low Attendance Report on their Teacher Portal. This functionality is specifically for postsecondary customers, providing teachers with direct access to important attendance information for better classroom management.

See No Show / Low Attendance for more details.

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