COMING UP THIS MONTH... November typically involves completing the 1st quarter Report Cards and gearing up for mid-quarter reports for 2nd quarter. Here are some FastDirect functions that may need to be addressed: Closing input for 1st mid-quarter reports Opening up teacher input for 1st quarter Report Cards Closing 1st quarter Report Cards when teachers have finished importing grades If your school is printing report cards, keep in mind that you can allow your parents to view them online. This option will save your school time, money, and the environment. If a parent signature is needed to verify that they have seen the report cards, then you can create a WildCard field where parents can enter in their initials and the date electronically, letting you know they have viewed the report card. During Report Card time, you may discover some changes that will need to be made to the format, layout or to the courses themselves. Report Card changes can take up to a week to process so make sure to plan accordingly.     ...Read more FOR TRIMESTER SCHOOLS... As the end of the trimester approaches, your teachers will need to go through the Report Card input process. After the import process, you can either print the Report Cards or permission them to be viewed by parents online. Opening up teacher input for 1st Trimester Report Cards will require: Changing input for 1st mid-trimester from 'Allow Input' to 'Input Complete' Changing input for 1st trimester Report Cards from 'Not Yet' to 'Allow Input' Having teachers go through the 1st trimester Report Card input process Closing the input process by changing 'allow input' to 'input complete' If your school is printing report cards, keep in mind that you can allow your parents to view them online. This option will save your school time, money, and the environment. If a parent signature is needed to verify that they have seen the report cards, then you can create a WildCard field where parents can enter in their initials and the date electronically, letting you know they have viewed the report card. During Report Card time, you may discover some changes that will need to be made to the format, layout or to the courses themselves. Report Card changes can take up to a week to process so make sure to plan accordingly.     ...Read more DID YOU KNOW... ADMINISTRATORS: If the parents at the school are scheduling automatic online payments in FDpay, then you'll want to get familiar with the Schedule Payments Report! You'll be able to see who has set up automatic payments, the amounts, the frequency and to which finance accounts.   ...Read more TEACHERS: While FDmail and Bulletin Boards are effective tools for keeping the school community connected, they may not be necessary for everyone. For the staff accounts that do not need to receive FDmail or have a Bulletin Board, administrators have the option to hide these accounts from displaying in the list of staff.   ...Read more PARENTS: If your school is tracking attendance hours for day care or before/after school care in our Timer feature, then you will have access to an Extended Care Report.   ...Read more HELPFUL FAQs FOR THE MONTH... +  Can I have a specific group of students always appear in the Extended Care Log for Timer? +  How does the system calculate the average grade? +  How do I add a link to my bulletin board?  +  How do I set up the Unexcused feature for attendance?                     Last Year's Helpful FAQs for the Month VIDEO TUTORIAL OF THE MONTH... Watch this video tutorial to find out how to make batch receipts, charges, and send out finance messaging to multiple families.  Watch now in MP4 format or in YouTube!   www.fastdirectsis.com   |   helpdesk@fastdir.com   |   (866) 805-3116