Documentation for Administrators

8.8 New Features Release Notes

Updated on

Notable Changes
SIS/ERP

Changed the pull-down used to switch between SIS and ERP to buttons for faster navigation to either system.  

Updated the CKeditor used in Setup > Letterhead Templates, Students > Print Letters & Send Email (both legacy and new), Users > Print Letters & Send Email, Students > Print Avery Labels, and Human Resources > Employee Agreement Maintenance so that inserted fields are now highlighted in yellow. Inserted fields can now be dragged and moved more easily using the gray + icon.

SIS
General
Teacher Schedules Report/Advanced Report/Saved Reports

Added a new “Filters” toggle to these reports. When enabled, a filter is available for each column, just as when using the Filters functionality on data tables throughout Focus.

Assessment
Test History Report

Added a new check box “Test Not Taken” to the Test History Report. When the check box is selected, the report will display students who have not taken the selected test. The check box is not selected by default.

The “Test Not Taken” check box has also been added to More Search Options in the Test History section to display students who have not taken the selected test.

Attendance
Take Attendance

Updated so that when schools use a rotation schedule, teachers can take attendance for a section that meets on today’s rotation day, regardless of whether today is set as a meeting day on the section. Previously, attendance could not be taken if today was not set as a meeting day on the section.

Absence Summary

Added an N/A option for period attendance. When setting a future date to N/A, the period attendance record is removed and the daily code for the student is set to present. When setting a previous date to N/A, the period attendance records are set to the default code and the daily code is changed accordingly.

Discipline
Referrals

Added the ability for administrators to close a referral without processing it. The option “Closed without Processing” displays on the referral form beneath “Reviewed by an Administrator” and also displays as a column when viewing a list of referrals. When a referral is closed without processing, it is not included in the “X new referrals” Portal alert. The referral is not included in counts for Discipline > Category Breakdown or Discipline > Students with Referrals. The referral is not displayed on the Parent/Student Portal and is not included in state reporting. Referrals cannot be marked “Closed without Processing” and “Reviewed by an Administrator.” Selecting one option will deselect the other. A referral cannot be marked “Closed without Processing” if it is linked to a discipline incident or if it has an action record. A warning will display indicating why the referral cannot be closed.

Added the ability for administrators to send a referral back to the originator for correction. The button “Send back for Correction” now displays at the top of the referral form for users with view and edit permissions for Referrals. The user can add a comment on why the referral is being sent back. A Portal alert will display to the originator. The comment will display at the top of the referral and will remain there until the referral is updated. When viewing the list of referrals on the Referrals screen, the new column “Sent back for Correction” displays a “Y” if the referral was sent back.

Added a message to the top of the referral form when the referral is attached to a discipline incident: “This referral is linked to incident #xxxxx.” If the user has view access to Discipline > Incidents, the incident ID will be a link that will take the user to the discipline incident. If the user does not have view access to Discipline > Incidents, the incident ID will display but will not be a link. Only teachers and administrators will see the message on the referral. The Incident column has also been added when viewing a list of referrals. The column will display N/A if there is no incident attached to the referral. The column will display the incident ID if there is an incident attached. If the user has view access to Discipline > Incidents, the incident ID will be a link that will take the user to the discipline incident. If the user does not have view access to Discipline > Incidents, the incident ID will display but will not be a link. Only teachers and administrators will see this column.

Positive Behaviors

Changed the word “sticker” to “badge” throughout the Positive Behaviors program.

Florida Reports

Added page numbers to the printed report.

Grades
Pull Grades for Report Cards

Added the ability to pull grades for multiple schools at the same time. When the user has access to multiple schools, the School(s) pull-down allows the selection one or multiple schools.

Added the ability to recalculate GPAs when pulling grades using the new “GPAs” option. Each school’s system preferences are used to determine weight.

Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank

Added the Report Card Comments column to Course History for schools that have the system preference “Pull-Down Comments” enabled. The column will display pull-down comments entered by teachers. Users with edit permissions to Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank can view the Report Card Comments pull-down and can make edits, which will transfer over to the Post Final Grades screen. Users who do not have edit permissions to Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank will see a non-editable Report Card Comments field with a list of comment code numbers that were entered. Clicking on the Comment Codes link above the table will open the legend of comment codes.

Updated so if an “I,” “J,” or “Y” is entered in the “Online Course” field, the indicator for “Met Online Course Req:” will update to “Met.” Note: If “J” is entered, a “Course Number” is required in order to meet online course requirement. 

Updated the logic for determining if the online course requirement is met so that when the first seven digits of the course number are 0200985 and Online Course is set to J, the online course requirement is met.

Graduation Requirements Report

Updated the name of the report to Promotion Requirements Report when the school does not have a grade 12 set up in Setup > Grade Levels.

Added the course number in parentheses next to the course title throughout the report.

Scheduling

Added a “ESOL/ELL Seats” field to Courses & Sections and the Master Schedule Report. If a number is specified in the corresponding field, the number of ESOL students in the section will be limited by the number of seats available. The Scheduler will limit the number of ESOL/ELL students who can be scheduled into the section based on the value entered in the ESOL/ELL Seats field.

  • If the value is null, an unlimited amount of ESOL/ELL students can be placed into the section. If the value is zero, no ESOL/ELL students will be placed into the section.

Changed the wording of the “SPED Seats” field in section setup to “IEP Seats” in Courses & Sections and the Master Schedule Report.

Course Catalog

Added a “Total Credit” column, which is displayed on the Student Requests screen as an override for the CCD credits.

Teacher Schedules Report

Changed the rotation day pull-down on each section into a select multiple pull-down, allowing one or multiple rotation days to be selected and assigned to the section for schools that use rotation days.

Master Schedule Report

Added the following columns to the report: “Filled Seats - Male,” “Filled Seats - Female,” “Total # of Sections,” and “Total # of Requests.”

Student Requests

Added a “Schedule First” column to the Student Requests screen. When selected, the scheduler will try to fulfill the selected requests before all other requests not selected as “Schedule First.”

Added the count of Credits and Units under the count of Requests and Alternates, as well as a “Credits” column.

  • These additions apply to the Student Requests screen for all users; therefore, students and parents will see the new column and the credit and unit calculations.
  • Note: These additions are only applicable if utilizing the Course Catalog; for districts that do not use the Course Catalog, these changes will not display.
  • The units are calculated based on the course length set on the course: Full Year would be 1 unit; Semester would be .5 units, etc.
  • Note: The credit calculation varies by state: Florida:
    • If there is a value in the Total Credits column in the Course Catalog for that course in that syear, then that value will display next to the student request record.
    • If there is no value in the Total Credits column, then it will refer to the Credits per Course column (which pulls from the Course Code Directory for that school year).
    • If there is no value in either the Total Credits column or the Credits per Course column, and there are no records for that syear in the course code directory, then it will look to the course code directory of the previous school year for a value.
    • If there are no values found anywhere listed above, then that request will display as 0 credits.
  • Note: The credit calculation varies by state: Texas:
    • If there is a value in the Total Credits column in the Course Catalog for that course in that syear, then that value will display next to the student request record.
    • If there is no value in the Total Credits column, then it will refer to the CO22 for that syear.
    • If there is no value in either the Total Credits column or the CO22 for that course, and there are no records in the CO22 for that syear, then it will look to the CO22 of the previous year for a value.
    • If there are no values found anywhere listed above, then that request will display as 0 credits.
  • Note: The credit calculation varies by state: Other states (aside from Florida and Texas):
    • It will only refer to the column Total Credits in the Course Catalog. If there is a value for that course in that syear, it will display that value next to the student request record. If there is no value, then the request will display as 0 credits.

Added new option “Show Schedules From All Schools” that prints the student’s schedule from all of the schools in which the student is scheduled onto one schedule. When the check box is selected, all periods that exist in all the district schools are displayed under Periods in the School Day for selection. The schedule generates with the School, Period, Rotation Days (if applicable), Course, Course Number, Teacher, Room, Term, and Meeting Days.

Master Schedule Builder

Updated to display the title of the selected run in the header; If a run is added, deleted, or edited, or if a different run has been selected, the header automatically updates to reflect the current run’s title. In the example image, “Default with Periods” is the title of the current run--as displayed in the header of the Master Schedule Builder.

Added the “Total # of Sections” and “Total # of Requests” columns to the Section List tab of the Master Schedule Builder.

Added an “Equals” option for sorting on the applicable columns.

Builder Reports

Added the course number before the course title in the Overlapping Singletons report. The sort order was updated to sort the courses by course number instead of course title.

Added a new option “Include Co-Teacher Sections” to the Print Class Lists screen. When the check box is selected, class lists will print for all teachers, including co-teachers. When the check box is not selected, class lists will only print for the primary teachers.

Setup
Add a School/School Info/School Fields

Converted school fields to custom_fields. There is a new source class in custom_fields called SISSchool. Note: All queries including school fields will need to be re-written.

If actively using the Importer for data imports, either scheduled or manually executed, verify that the import key for the Schools table has been set to "School Number (CUSTOM_327)

Updated the Add a School, School Info, and School Fields screens. Add a School looks similar to Add a Student, School Info looks similar to Student Info, and School Fields looks similar to Student Fields.

Added new fields “Min Syear” and “Max Syear” to School Info. This allows a district to make a school inactive, preventing it from displaying in the school pull-down at the top-right of the screen and in the School pull-down in the student enrollment record.

Now profile permissions can be given to individual school fields. In Users > Profiles, “School Fields” has been added as a Permission Type.

System Preferences > Default School Preferences > General Tab

Added a new system preference “Google Analytics.” Districts can add the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) for their Focus site into the system preference. This will add the gtag to the footer of each page in Focus behind the scenes, allowing Google Analytics to collect data about the pages being accessed by users logged into Focus.

System Preferences > Attendance Tab

Added a new system preference “Minutes before attendance is considered late” to define the number of minutes past the start time of the period after which attendance taken by the teacher is considered late. When a number of minutes is defined in the preference, the option to display teachers who took attendance late on the Teacher Completion report includes the number of minutes: “Show teachers who took attendance more than X minutes late.” When hovering the mouse over the late icon on the Teacher Completion report, a tool-tip now displays with the date and time attendance was taken for the period and when the period started.

Edit Rules & Workflow

Added a new column “Profiles” to the Alert Icons tab. This allows districts to restrict the profiles that can see each alert icon for students and users. If the Profiles column is left blank, then all profiles who could previously see alert icons will still be able to see them. If at least one profile is selected, only those profiles can see the alert icon. Users with multiple profiles will see alert icons if at least one of their profiles is selected. Student and parent profiles are not available to be selected.

Added new check box “Match Any” for edit rule criteria. When the check box is selected, the edit rule is met when any of the criteria is matched instead of having to match all of the criteria (each row of criteria is an “or” statement). When the check box is not selected, each row of criteria is an “and” statement.

Application Editor

Added a new “Hidden” option on fields in the Application Editor. This allows the user to create a grouping condition based on the value of a field that they do not want parents or students to view and edit on the application. For example, if the user would like to set up a grouping condition to display a group of fields based on the value in the Primary Home Language field, but the user does not want parents/students to view and edit this field on the application, the Primary Home Language field can be added to the application and marked as “Hidden.” This feature is intended to work for districts using the online application for returning students. This feature does not work for new student applications since the new student does not have any data in student fields in Focus to reference.

Automated Cron Emails

Added the ability to send both a message and a query in the same email. The Email Content section of the screen now contains a “Message” and a “Query” column, which can both be used for the same email. Any message that was previously marked “Message is a Query” has been moved into the new Query column. The subject displays as Focus System Message when sent through Automated Cron Emails. When a message is sent that is both a message and a query, the title of the message displays above the query results, followed by the message that was entered. When only a query is entered, the title of the message displays above the query results. When only a message is sent, the title of the message displays above the message. When a message is sent through the Messenger that contains a flagged word, the word will now be visible in the email. Flagged messages sent by students still require the user to log in to Focus to see the message.

Letterhead Templates

Added the “Available For” option in Letterhead Templates to select the programs in which the letterhead template will be available for use. For example, if only “Transcripts” is selected for a letterhead template, then the letterhead template will only be available for use on the Transcripts screen. One or multiple programs can be selected.

Importer

Added a pre-processing importer tool called “Test History Parser,” which allows users to standardize the file format of any test score file and make the process of importing test scores more efficient.

Student/Parent Portal

Changed the “Download Report Card” link to display as “Download Progress Report” if any of the marking periods on the report card are progress periods. 

Updated the Messages section to automatically include a link to the student’s test scores to be viewed in PDF formatting; the linked file must be available in the uploader folders.

  • Note: This is a Florida-Only feature.
  • In order for this feature to be utilized, the district must place the PDF files in a specific folder on the server; the file must also include the student’s FLEID. Once a match is found for the student’s FLEID, the file will be available on the student/parent portal.

Updated so that when parents register for a Parent Portal account for the first time, the parent now creates his/her own password instead of being assigned a password, preventing the issue of forgotten passwords. The password must comply with the system preferences “Minimum Password Length” and “Require Complex Passwords,” when enabled.

Students
Advanced Report

Updated so that inactive select options are always displayed at the bottom of the list in select fields in More Search Options.

Added “Primary Contact: Sort Order,” “Secondary Contact: Sort Order,” “Third Contact: Sort Order,” and “Fourth Contact: Sort Order” fields in the Available Fields list. This pulls in the Contact’s Priority assigned to the contact in Students > Student Info > Address & Contacts. This is useful to compare the sort order of the contact with their designation as the primary contact, secondary contact, etc., and is also useful to view which contact has the priority of 1 for sending report cards and letters. If the district does not assign priorities to contacts, the Sort Order field will be null. These fields are also available in Print Letters & Send Email (both legacy and new).

Student Info

Updated so that the maximum length set on long text fields is enforced.

Added a “Re-enrollment Restrictions” tab in Student Info to prevent a student from being enrolled in the district. The student cannot be enrolled from Add a Student or the Enrollment screen when there is an active re-enrollment restriction record in effect. Defining a date range is optional. In Users > Profiles in the Student Fields permissions, permissions must be given to create and delete Re-enrollment Restrictions form records and to view and edit the fields.

Updated so that when printing or emailing a letter from Student Info, the letter/email is generated using letterhead that was attached to the letter in Print Letters & Send Email (New).

Student Info > Immunizations Tab

Added the ability to import immunization records from Florida Shots in the Immunizations tab. Click “Import from Florida Shots” above the Immunizations table. If the student is matched, the immunizations will import into the Immunizations table and a tooltip will display when hovering over the “Import from Florida Shots” button indicating if the process was successful or if there were errors. If there are too many matches or duplicate records are found, a pop-up window will display where the user will select the appropriate student and the immunization records will import. If a student has an exemption status, the immunizations will not be imported since there is not an immunization record in Florida Shots. Note: Using this feature requires setup and configuration; please contact the help desk for assistance.

Student Info > Addresses & Contacts Tab

Fixed an issue in Addresses & Contacts where the address parser incorrectly parsed an address when the street name contained a suffix such as “ROAD” and there was no actual street suffix (e.g. 555 COUNTY ROAD 54).

Add a Student

Updated so that when adding a phone number for a contact, clicking Save will add and save the phone number; previously the user had to press Enter and then click Save. It is now unnecessary to press Enter first.

Student Fields

Added the ability to use {course_period_id} in the Suggestions Query for text fields.

Birthday Report

Added a Student ID column to the Birthday Report.

Students/Users
Student Info/User Info

Added the ability to view an uploaded file without having to download the file first, saving the user time. When clicking the View icon on an uploaded file in the student’s or user’s record, the file will display as a preview in a new tab.

Users
My Preferences

Added new option “Last Name, First (Nickname)” to the Student Name Format options in the Student Listing tab of My Preferences. When this option is selected, the student’s nickname will display in parentheses following the last name and first name if the student has a nickname defined (CUSTOM_200000002). If the student does not have a nickname defined, the student is listed as Last Name, First.

Profiles

Added a new profile permission “Edit Primary Residence” under Student Info for administrator, teacher, parent, and student profiles. A migration will enable this permission by default for profiles that have permission to edit addresses. Users without this permission will not be able to select or deselect the Primary Residence toggle on any address; it will be grayed out. The user also cannot edit the address fields for the address marked as the Primary Residence. The user will be able to edit the mailing address and can edit the phone number on the primary residence.

Added a “View” permission for the Add a Student screen in the menu permissions. Users with only the View permission can access the Add a Student screen and search for a student, but cannot enroll the student. Profiles that already had the Edit permission before the update will automatically have the View permission enabled.

Profile Permission Audit Trail

Added Export and Print buttons, and removed the Print button at the bottom of the screen.

Audit Trail

Added Export, Print, and Filters buttons, and removed the Print button at the bottom of the screen.

CTE
Attendance
Take Attendance

Added a new column “Course Title” to the Take Attendance screen that displays when the teacher has the preference “Combine sections in the same period for taking attendance” enabled in Preferences. The column displays the course the student is enrolled in for easier distinction. The “Course Title” column also displays for administrators when using the Take Attendance teacher program when the teacher has the preference enabled.

Grades
Course History

Updated so that when grades are pulled or posted, the Attended Hours are populated in Course History.

Scheduling
Student Schedule

Added a warning prompt when the user attempts to add a section to a student’s schedule where the WDIS Class End Date has already passed. The user can cancel adding the section or continue adding the section.

Classes for Sale

Added “Import” button to the Classes for Sale screen to import classes from a file. The file used for import must include the course period ID, start date, and end date. The start date cannot be in the past.

Setup
System Preferences > Post Secondary Tab

Added new system preference “Allow Individual GL Accounts on Fees.” When enabled, all fee setup tables will have Debit Account and Credit Account columns. When processing the payment on the schedule invoice through POS, receipt allocation will use fee GLs if applicable. Also added a setting in ERP > Setup > Settings > Miscellaneous called “When a receipt is collected from an invoice” where the Debit and Credit accounts can be defined. District receipt allocations will use this setting if no payment GL is available on the relevant product, if any. This setting will default to the accounts selected in the “When an Accounts Receivable invoice is generated” setting until changed by the district.

LMS
Assessment
FAS Tests

Updated so that bubble sheet scan results or reprocess results display as a PDF that can be saved to the computer or printed.

ERP
Accounts Receivable
Product List

Added the ability to define multiple allocations to a single product, which allows users to create Invoices and Receipts that include the newly split-coded product.

Employee Self Service
Leave History

Added the ability for employees to view their leave bank enrollment, donated hours, and transferred hours, which is performed via Human Resources > Leave Maintenance.

Request Employee Information Change

Added the ability for employees to request changes to their demographic information. A new setting has been added in ERP > Setup > Settings > Miscellaneous, called "Fields to include on ESS information change Demographic Info." This allows the user to select the demographic fields that can have change requests. If no fields are selected, Demographic Info will be excluded from Request Employee Information Change.

Fixed Assets
Transfer Requests/Manage Assets

Added three new required fields to the Transfer Requests screen, Condition (Good, Fair, Poor), Courier Pick-up (Yes, No), and Reason (text field). These will only display when the disposal facility is selected as the Destination Facility (as defined in Setup > Settings > Miscellaneous > Disposal Facility). Three new columns have been added to the Transfer History table, Condition, Courier Pick-up, and Reason. These will display the values entered in the transfer request.

In Fixed Assets > Manage Assets > View, a Disposal Transfer Information section has been added, including the Requester, Original Facility, Date Requested, Approved Date, Condition, Courier Pick-up, and Reason.

Human Resources
Employee

Added Alert icons to users/employees, which also displays via the Employee list.

In Employee > Deductions > Calculated by Job section, added a Vendor column. This allows the user to generate AP invoices for the specified vendor instead of the vendor that is applied to the deduction in Payroll > Deductions.

In Employee > Pay History > View Details (button), the Wages section is now broken into two parts, Totals and Wages. The Totals section displays wage details based on what is shown in gl_ba_check_totals (Gross Total, Gross Taxable, Gross Retirement, etc.). Note: the Gross Total amount shown here will exclude non-contract wages, such as reimbursements. The Wages section is now broken out by both job group and wage type. The pay type for the staff position is also displayed.

In Employee > Pay History, added a Check History tab. The tab displays the Run, Check Date, Check Number, Type, Bank Name, Account, Net Pay, and Voided. The Check History tab has also been added to Employee Self Service > View Paystubs and Pay History and Human Resources > View ESS > View Paystubs and Pay History. In Payroll > Payroll Reports > Check Register, columns have been added for Bank and Account.

In Employee > Pay History > Run History, added a Reallocated column that displays Yes or null. In View Details, a Reallocations section has been added beneath Allocations. This indicates the accounting strip that was changed in the reallocation process.

Updated Employee > Jobs so that supplements are recalculated when terminated or reactivated.

Leave Maintenance

A “Max Balance” column has been added to the Buckets tab of Leave Maintenance.

  • The cap (Max Balance) is not automatically imposed on buckets based on the value set in this column; the limit is applied when the user runs the “Reduce balance to the bucket max” tool located in HR > Leave History Report.
  • The Max Balance value is shown for each bucket in Leave History, ESS > Leave History, and the Leave History Report.

Added the ability for employees to enroll in created Leave Banks, which allows them to donate and use hours from a district-wide pool. The bank leave bucket is set up on the Buckets tab; Employees are then enlisted in the bank option via the Bank tab.

Added the ability for employees to donate their leave hours to another employee from any facility in the district via the Employee tab. This is commonly referred to as “compassionate leave” because it’s generally used in cases where an employee takes a leave of absence due to a family or medical emergency.

Added the ability for employees who transfer to a new position within the district to transfer their leave hours upon transferring via the Employee tab.

Leave History Report

Added a new Leave History Report where the “Load bucket max into Balance Filters” tool will pull the max balance applied in Leave Maintenance into the Balance Filters section. Therefore,  if VAC (Vacation) has a Max Balance of 100, using this tool will apply VAC Balance > 100 in the report filters to pull any employees who are over the max.

Added filters that can be manually applied by entering individual bucket balance criteria or by selecting employees.

Added an “Include Inactive employee(s)” check box so users can choose to either include or exclude inactive (terminated) employees.

Added a “View Leave History” button that allows users to view leave status, pending leave, adjustments, etc. in a separate pop-up screen.

Added a “Reduce balance to the bucket max” tool allows the user to reduce the balance of any bucket that has a max balance applied. The adjustment will only be applied to the users who are displayed in the report when the user launches the tool.

Payroll

Added a new type of supplement that is calculated based on a percentage of the employee's contract wages (Payroll > Maintenance > Main Tables > Slots/Steps). The percentage of contract used for this supplement can include or exclude other supplements that the employee is also receiving; the supplement amount is reduced if payment is docked and increased if if overtime payment is received.

Run Payroll/FRS Adjustments

Added “Leave Payout” check box to Misc Pay tab in Run Payroll. When a record is added with “Leave Payout” selected, Focus requires the Hours field to be completed. An Hours column has also been added to Payroll > FRS Adjustments.

Purchasing/Accounts Payable
Checks

Updated so that when voiding a check from the previous year, and the setting “No Journals for voiding checks from previous years” is set to No in Setup > Settings > Miscellaneous, a pop-up window will display. In the pop-up window, the reason and void criteria is entered. When the “Create reversal journal entries?” check box is selected, the Debit Account and Credit Account can be selected and the accounting strip can be edited.

Invoices

Updated the Invoices screen when using the setting “Invoices can be entered before POs are released but items must be applied” in Setup > Settings > Accounts Payable to allow for viewing past receiving, invoicing, and quantity remaining information for items.

Setup
Settings > Payroll

Added setting “Contribution Object Display.” When the preference is set to “Mask,” the object code in deduction maintenance can be manually changed by the user. If left as “2xx,” Focus generates an object code using the last two digits of the object from the employee’s staff job allocation.

Added setting “Exclude from purchase orders” in the “Allow Strips Having” option. This allows salary and contribution object elements to be excluded, preventing users from selecting these object codes on the Purchase Requests/Orders screen.

SSS

General

Added a “Require Objectives” preference that can be enabled/disabled: Require 2 objectives to save goal.

Manage Student

Updated the display of the screen, which included a green check mark to indicate a completed Event.

Added an “Extended Time” column to ESE > Initiate/View Event > Accommodations/Modifications > Scheduling.

Updated IEP events so required fields and domains can be specified and automatically present upon navigating to the student’s Goals & Objectives; therefore, the user will know the required domains. To set the domains, users navigate from the ESE tab to Initiate IEP Event > View > Preset Levels tab where domains can be identified > IEP Goals & Objectives tab.

Reserve

Added the Reserve screen, so users can assign case managers to students via the Section 504, Medical, MTSS, Rtl, and ESE tabs.

Other Changes
SIS
General
Scanner

Updated the scanner default options when scanning files into Focus.

Assessment

Updated Test History, Standardized Tests, the State Performance Report, the Leading Indicator Report, and the State Performance Report so previous data linked to inactive score ranges does not display.

L25 Report

Updated the L25 Report to display as a data table. This adds the ability to apply filters, sort the report by clicking on a column header, export the report to Excel, or print the report.

Community App

Removed the character limit on Twitter news feeds so that the full text of the tweet is viewable in the News Feed.

Updated so that the News Feed section of the Community App now displays the 40 most recent items instead of 10.

Added a new section to Setup > Community App called School News Settings. This allows districts to disable news feeds for specific schools' portal notes. Disabling a news feed for a school will prevent students/parents/users from being able to subscribe to a school's news feed (it will no longer appear in the list of schools on the School News Settings list). It will also prevent all existing subscribers from receiving news/push notifications from the deactivated school

The School News Settings list in the Community App will only display schools where the current default syear is between a school's min_syear and max_syear. If no min/max syear are set on the school, then it will still appear on the School News Settings list.

Grades
Graduation Requirements Report

Updated the logic for credits earned for middle schools that use semester courses for non-full year grades. When the system preference “Weight GPA by Credits” is not enabled, and the grade is not an F or I, the system will check the marking period of the grade. If the marking period is 0 or full year, it is counted as 1 credit, otherwise it is counted as 0.5 credits. If the grade is an F or I, it is counted as 0 credits.

Updated the test requirement fields (e.g. Met Reading Assessment Requirement) to match the terminology used on the Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank screen (e.g. Passed Reading Assessment).

Progression Plan

Updated so that a warning message displays if the user navigates away from the screen when there are unsaved changes.

Gradebook

Updated so that the Gradebook screen is grayed out in the background when adding or editing an assignment, preventing accidental edits to the Gradebook.

Forms

Updated so that signature fields work correctly when students fill out forms.

Added a record count to the History tab for Form Builder forms in both SIS and ERP.

Online Application

Added config constants (ONLINE_APP_SCRIPTS_HEAD, ONLINE_APP_SCRIPTS_BODY) that can be used to drop scripts, such as Google Analytics, into the header, body, and the application_complete.php page of the online application.

Reports
District Reports

Updated to prevent variables from being named the same as system variables. An alert displays indicating the variable name must be changed.

Updated to prevent duplicate variable names. An alert displays indicating the variable name must be changed.

Added a “School Compliance Report” to Immunizations so the Immunization Compliance report can now be generated for the user’s selected school. This report is also filtered by a selected “Immunization Type?” pull-down.

Scheduling
Automatic Course Requests

Updated so that course requests are run starting with the lowest number priority (e.g. 1) and then in ascending order.

Student Requests

Updated so that courses that have a graduation subject with a short name of “FL” are included when using the teachers approve course requests functionality.  

Setup
Form Builder

Added an Actions tab next to the Builder and Collections tabs in the Form Builder. In the Actions tab, users can write SQL queries that are run when a form is approved or denied.

Added an edit icon next to the Collection pull-down in the options for drop-down, text box, and text area components. When clicked, the Collections tab is opened with the collection ready to edit.

Added the ability to “Disable Weekends” from date specific fields.

Updated the Font so forms display correctly via Firefox and/or Chrome and PC and/or Mac computers.

Improved the validation time of large queries. This improves the load time when adding collections.

Improved the load time when multiple Student Dropdowns are added to the form.

Added the ability to pass data into the Form Builder using the mediator. This can be accessed in Collections using the syntax {page.variableName}. In the case of SSS, it will pass a variable called event_instance_id.

Added the ability for the Programming feature to read values retrieved from collections and in turn do logic specific to the component.

Added a new option “Limit Precision” in the Text Box options when the Format field is set to “Numbers Only.” Enter the number of decimal places that can be entered in the text box.

Removed the Last Author column from the Focus Forms tab if the site is not an export site, as the author is always Focus Support.

Updated so that the Form Settings/Common Properties and component options are displayed on the right side of the screen when viewing Focus Forms in the Form Builder. This allows users to view field names when building triggers that use Focus Forms. The Save button is disabled so changes cannot be saved to Focus Forms.

Added Cancel button to the Collections tab that clears the inputs for Collection Name and SQL if the user decides not to add/edit the collection. Also added an alert if the user tries to leave the page or save the form before finishing adding or editing the collection.

Updated so that preview tabs that are already opened are automatically refreshed when new changes are saved in the form.

Updated so that all pull-downs in the Form Settings/Common Properties and component options on the right side of the Form Builder are uniform in length.

Added the ability to enter a Sort Order for hard coded dropdown options so that options display in the designated order.

Automated Cron Messages

Renamed the Automated Cron Emails screen to Automated Cron Messages, as the program creates a Focus Chat Message from the System User, which in turn can generate an email if the user does not view the message by the Focus Chat Message cron job.

Importer

Updated so that errors due to a non-numeric value in a numeric field are caught by the Importer before the file is imported into the database destination table.

Updated so that the User Enrollment tool converts data sent in the erp_profiles column.

Updated the Method for the Test History tool to display as “Delete and Insert.” Previously, the Method displayed as “Insert Only” when records are actually deleted and inserted.

Import Student Photos

Added the ability to mass delete student photos for any profile with View and Edit permissions to Import Student Photos. Select the check box next to each photo and click Delete.

Lockers

Added the student ID next to the student name in the Assigned Student(s) pull-down.

Scheduled Jobs

Updated the Submit DMV Attendance via FTP scheduled job to create a DMV student log entry every time a student is sent via FTP rather than updating an existing DMV log entry with new information. This allows the various dates a student was sent to the DMV to be viewable rather than just the latest in a 90 day period.

System Preferences

Updated the Release Notes tab so only the most recent 30 notes/updates will display.

Students
Student Info > Addresses & Contacts Tab

Updated to display contact numbers on address and contact cards; this is the calculated priority assigned to the contact. Contacts are now sorted by contact number.

Added the Contact’s Priority field to contact cards and to the tool-tip when hovering over the contact on the address card. This displays the value set by the user in the Contact’s Priority field when adding or editing a contact, if defined. This allows users to see the Contact’s Priority set on the contact versus the calculated priority.

Added the ability to define a Detail Priority on contact details, to sort the contact details by preferred contact method. The detail priority number will display next to the contact details on contact cards and in the tool-tip when hovering over a contact on an address card.

Updated the calculation for determining contact sort order as follows:

  • 1 - Contact’s Priority
  • 2 - Custody
  • 3 - Emergency
  • 4 - Primary Residence
  • 5 - Student Relation
  • 6 - Last Name
  • 7 - First Name

Updated so that the relationship is easier to read on contact cards.

Added a “View User Info” link next to the user in the Linked Users section of the screen to quickly open the user’s record in a new tab.

Student Info > Immunizations Tab

Updated Immunization Compliance to display red x’s and green check mark to indicate whether compliance of a vaccination has been met or not.

Advanced Report

Updated so that when using the Administration Date search option in More Search Options under Test History, the date range is respected when returning results.

Moved the “Billed By” search option in More Search Options from the Master/Student Schedule category to the Scheduling category. Also added “Billed” to the Available Fields list in the Schedule category.

Students/Users
Student Fields/User Fields

Added a new option “Visible on Add a Student/User Search” when adding or editing a student or user field. When selected, the field will display as a column in the search results when adding a new student or user.

Users
Gradebook Grades - Teacher Program

Updated so that the Reports link opens reports as expected when the user has permissions to the Gradebook Reports teacher program.

Profiles

Added a new menu permission for Import Student Photos, “Overwrite Existing Student Photos on Upload.” When this permission is disabled, and the user tries to upload a batch of photos where some of the students already have a photo for that school year, an error message will display: “Error: File already exists.” When the permission is enabled, the user has the ability to upload a batch of photos that includes students who already have a photo for that school year.

Added a new menu permission for Import Student Photos, “Upload photos to all schools.” When this permission is disabled, and the user tries to upload a batch of photos that contains students from a school other than the school selected at the top-right, an error will display: “Error: No student at this school matches this ID.” If the permission is enabled, the user is able to upload a batch of photos that contains students from any school.

CTE
Accounts Receivable (ERP)
Cash Drawer Setup/Cashout Report/Cashouts

Added an automatic Cashout process for the Portal-enabled Cash Drawers used by the Store for collecting online payments. The Cash Drawer automatically generates a cashout after the user-defined Authorize.net transaction batch settlement time.

The automatic cashout is generated by a Scheduled Job called "Store Automated Cashout" via SIS > Setup > Scheduled Jobs.

Removed the ability to assign users to Portal-enabled Cash Drawers. All users currently assigned to Portal-enabled drawers will be removed by the migration.

Portal-enabled drawers will not appear in the Point of Sale or manual Cashout, but the Cashouts created through the automated process will be visible in the Cashout Report.

Funding Sources

Added the ability to Filter and sort data via the column headers included on all corresponding tabs of the Funding Sources module.

Attendance (SIS)
Attendance Chart

Added a new check box “Display Scheduled and Attended Hours as Decimal” to the Attendance Chart. When the check box is selected, the Att Hrs and Sched Hrs columns will display as a decimal value instead of in the HH:MM format on the report and in the exported file.

Setup (SIS)
Scheduled Jobs

Added the ability to define the School Year for the Update Attended Hours scheduled job. If the School Year field is left blank, the job will run for the current school year. When a School Year is defined, the title of the scheduled job is updated to include the year, e.g. “Update Attended Hours for 2018.” Multiple scheduled jobs can be set up and run for different school years.

Updated the Basic Skills Assessment scheduled job so basic skills are updated for programs K300100 and H170222 (Minimum Requirements: Math = 9, Reading = 9, Language = 9, Level = D) when the job is run.

System Preferences > Scheduling Tab

Added a new preference “Do not add a drop date to continuing sections” for the reauthorization process. When the preference is enabled, a drop date is not added to the schedule record when the student is reauthorized as continuing.

LMS
General

Added the ability to enable Messenger without enabling LMS.

Assessment
FAS Tests

Added a “Search all sections” option for teachers on the Test Report, View Student Answers, Learners Proficient Report, Print Bubble Sheets, and Analyze Tests tabs.

Added Last Name, First Name, and Total columns to the Test Report tab.

Added Student ID, Last Name, and First Name columns to the View Student Answers tab.

Added Last Name and First Name columns to the Learners Proficient Report tab.

Lesson Planning
Lesson Planner

Added a new option “Display the forum introduction at the top of each topic” for discussion forums. When selected, the introduction is displayed at the top of the page so that students can refer to it as they are composing their responses.

ERP
Accounts Receivable

Updated so upon created a Receipt based on an Invoice, the “Credit” and “Debit” field will now default based on data entered in the Product List; however, the “Credit” and “Debit” fields will remain editable on the Receipt for data that differs from the Product List.

Deposits

Added a “Transaction #” column to the Undeposited Payments tab of Deposits.

Invoices

Updated the “Invoice Date” field so it defaults to the date created.

Invoice Report

Added a “Delete” column to the Invoice Report, which populates with “Yes” if applicable.

Budgeting/General Ledger
Expenditure/Revenue Report

Fixed so the “PO #/ Req #” link of the Budget Drilldown opens in a separate tab.

Campus/Department Budget Planning

Updated so when a budget manager adds a new budget, if an existing budget mask matches the entered budget, the budget will be added to the existing mask.

Updated so if a mask is added by a manager, the budget will be highlighted in pink and the following warning will display: “This budget was added by the manager.”

Updated so if a mask was added by the district but a manager creates a new budget within the mask, the budget will be highlighted in pink and the following warning will display: “A new budget was added by the manager to this set of budgets.” The new budget will be consolidated within the existing mask and will not be segregated from the existing mask.

Employee Self Service
Leave History

Added an informative tooltip next to all leave buckets that are set up for “Change Also” (also changes another leave bucket); the tooltip displays on the Leave History tab, te Leave Status tab, and the Pending Leave tab.

Fixed Assets
Manage Assets

Removed the “Duplicate” button from Manage Assets when “Limited Edit Access” is selected via Setup > Profiles.

Human Resources
Employee

Added “Toggle Columns” to the Service Verification selection and the Show Previous Years selection of the Jobs tab.

Added a “Paid” column to the Service Verification selection and the Show Previous Years selection of the Jobs tab.

Updated the Pay History tab so “Wages” and “Adjustments” (new column) are calculated separately. A “Gross Pay” column has also been added to Pay History.

Leave Maintenance

Fixed the “Amount” field on the Employee tab so it rounds to two decimal places as opposed to rounding to the nearest whole number.

Professional Development

Added “Subject Area,” Banked Year,” and “Bank Used” columns to the Rosters tab.

Staff Report

Added an “Employment Type” column, as defined via the Employee screen, to the Staff Report.

Supplement Report

Updated so when “Include Allocations” is selected, the following message is displayed: “Note Regarding Accounting Strips: Greyed-out accounting strip elements indicate that the supplement allocation is missing, and that Focus is falling back on the job allocation for the effective accounting strip. A blank accounting strip means that none have been defined for either the staff job or the supplement, that the effective date is outside of the defined range for any allocation, or the current user lacks the proper permissions.

Updated so when a supplement is using a split allocation (i.e. 60% / 40%), the report now uses parent/child rows to display additional accounting strip details.

Updated so the “Allocation Percent” column is now displayed before the Fund, Function, etc. columns.

Added the option to “Include Descriptions,” which lists details pulled from the Employee module, such as Slot, Position, Job, State Job, Pay Type, EEO, etc.

Payroll
Check Voids and Reallocations

Updated the single employee update tool to a mass update tool. Payroll allocations can now be changed for multiple employees across multiple pay runs via the “Create or Reset Batch” and “Append To Batch” buttons.

Added the ability to reallocate wages and deductions from past fiscal years.

Added a new tab called “Reallocation Results,” which displays allocation history and updates based on reallocation batches that have been processed.

Purchasing/Accounts Payable
Receive Orders/Internal Receive Orders

Updated the Receive Orders and Internal Receive Order screens when “Invoices can be entered before POs are released but items must be applied” is enabled via Setup > Settings > Accounts Payable.

  • Removed the “Release” and “Partial Release” check boxes.
  • Removed the “Qty Released” field/column.
  • Changed the “Receive and Release All” button to “Receive All.”
Check Report

Added a drill-down link to the “PO #” column, which navigates to Purchase Requests/Orders screen.

Vendors/Customers

Added Regions Bank Electronic Transfer option as a Payment Method when activated in system settings.

Setup
Profiles

Added Vendors/Customers profile permissions to control profiles/users that can “Edit Contact Info,” Edit Payment Address,” and “Edit Other Addresses.”

Settings > Miscellaneous

Added two new settings under Check Printing. “Positive Pay Source Module” specifies which of the positive pay source files Focus will use. There are separate options for Accounts Payable and Payroll. In the “Wells Fargo Positive Pay Bank Code” setting, specify the 4 digit code provided by the bank.

Warehouse
Catalog

Added a “Last activity date” range filter to the Catalog criteria.

Pick List

Added a “PO #” column to the View Pick List tab.

SSS

Manage Student

Fixed an issue where tool-tips/required field pop-ups blocked users from viewing the information they entered into the field or blocked directions on the screen. The required field pop-ups have been removed, and custom pop-ups display so that they do not block verbiage on the screen.

Updated the wording on the print pop-up window to replace “form” with “step,” as any step can be printed.

Updated the Manage Student screen so that when hovering over the Status for Active Events, only a check mark displays in the pop-up if the step is completed and an asterisk displays if the step is not completed.

Added the ability to set student fields in SIS from SSS, for example, setting the Cost Factor on a Matrix of Services form in SSS sets the ESE FEFP Code in SIS.

Removed the Save & Validate button from the top of the screen for custom screens used in SSS events, as custom steps have their own methods of saving data.

Added the ability to print incomplete forms for multi-form steps.

Added a “Clear” button to the Goals & Objectives page to remove all the text.

Caseload

Added an “Add Student” button to the Caseload screen. After selecting the student from the pull-down, click Add Student to add the student to the caseload list.

Previous Article Revision 481937 - 07/11/2020
Next Article Revision 306491 - 2/12/2019