10/12/09

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

Student Portal – An option is now available to utilize the new Student Portal. Under your control, you allow a student to attach to a web page to print one, some, or all of the following: Schedule, Transcript, Degree Audit, and Account Card; the student can also do a Library Search and monitor his/her demographics. Please contact AlaQuest Support or AlaQuest Sales if you have interest in this new feature of the software.

Instructor Portal – Now in production, this new application will become part of this version as it becomes ready.

Student Login - There is now an option for Demographics. With this turned on, a student can make corrections to his name, address, telephone, etc.

Security - A new means of telling the system which software packages a user is permitted to enter has been added to the Support Files Menu. The name of the job is Menu Security. When you enter this task for the first time, the security you have previously set up will be imported to this new security file. You can then add, change, or delete options for users from a user-friendly input screen. Read the help for this item at the menu using the F6 key.

Password - The operator’s password has been lengthened from 3 characters to 9 characters. You can continue using your current 3-character passwords if you do nothing. If you would like to use the 9-character password, you must make the following change in the Operator Code File: change the ENTRY PROGRAM to either AS3VIP (VIP is ON) or AS3VIPN (VIP is OFF). If you don’t remove the old 3-character password from the Operator Code File, the user will be asked for two passwords!

Setup Options - Storing documents can be done in several modules. In the setup options you need to tell the system where you will store the documents (Z\DOCS is suggested—Z being the folder where your AS3 currently begins). Also, enter the default file extension in the appropriate field (e.g., jpg, pdf, etc.). The operator can override the file extension when entering the document.

INQUIRIES

You can now email a schedule, transcript, and/or account card using the F7 key. This F7 option is available from the Inquiries Menu. You can also display, print, or email an academic transcript or an attendance transcript from a new Archive Inquiry Menu.

Attendance Inquiry – The user will have the option to specify a given block code to report on only courses within that selected block of courses. This is convenient when within a given term code a student passes through more than one “block” of courses.

CUSTOMERS/CLIENTS

This module name has been changed to CLIENTS.

Refer to the AS3 Manual for details on running the Clients software.

The size and scope of the Clients module has more than doubled.

STUDENT RECORDS

Attendance Summary Report - Now includes two decimal places in the output.

Archived Students - On the Inquiries Menu, there is a link to a new menu titled Archive Inquiries. From this menu you can look at the student's master file, academic records, and/or attendance records. You can even print or email the academic transcript or attendance transcript.

Build Selection File - Current Term has been added as a prompt for the selection of records. For example, if you were to use “***” for transfer records, you could find current students who have “***” records by putting the “***” in the Academic Records field and the current term in the new Current Term field.

Degree Audit Inquiry - This inquiry has been added to the Inquiries Menu. You can request that the degree audit print for one, two, or three majors.

Documents - You can now scan and store documents for a student. This new file is used to specify the name of the scanned documents for a given student.

Health Records - A new menu for health records has been attached to the Student Records Menu where you can track immunizations.

Student Entry - The Major Code should not be changed in Student Entry. A student's major should be changed using the Status Entry program. If you attempt to change the major in Student Entry (Admissions), you will get a warning and the old major will be retained in that field.

Journal List by Student - This report has had its name changed to Daily Absentee Report. It now prints from a new file (Daily Absentee Records) which can be found in the History Files in Student Records. These records are not erased so now this report can be printed at anytime even if you have run the update.

Long Name - Student Entry has a new choice on the menu for Long Name. If a student's name will not fit in the allotted space in the Demographics section of Student Entry, place what you can in Demographics and then in the Long Name section, enter the complete name (you must enter both first and last names in both sections if you are to use this option). The long names will be used for transcripts, schedules, and account cards.

Major File - A new field has been added (Earnings Method) to provide the Earnings Report (Accounts Receivable) more flexibility. You can now earn by attendance.

Academic Progress - The SAP File contains a flag which you can set which will appear on the report to warn you that you need to do a ‘special check’ at this time for the student. The flag will appear on the report based on the indicator you must set in the Standards of Progress File (“Special Check Point”).

Term Description - The description field in the Term File has been lengthened from 15 to 20 characters.

Real-Time Attendance - If you prefer not to have to run the Update Attendance program after you do Attendance Entry, you now have a setup option for this bypass. Note that you will not be able to run the Journal List by Course since that report printed from the journal. This new option will post the attendance directly to the Attendance History records, so if mistakes are made, you will need to run History Edit/Make-up to make corrections. Records are also written to a new file named the Daily Absentee Records so you can still get a list of who was absent on a given day, or range of days.

Course Catalog - The unused field Class Code has been renamed: PRACTICUMS. For schools that attach practice work for students to a course in the Course Catalog, place a Y in this field. Then, enter the practicums in the new Practicum File. This field will also now be found in the Academic Records file under Support Files / History.

Practicum File - This new file enables you to define practicums that belong to a higher-order course (found in the Course Catalog File). It is used primarily with the new Clients Software module, which has been added to AS3.

Schedule Entry - If a course being scheduled was taken in a prior term, there will be a notice with two options, ENTER will reject rescheduling the course but F1 will override and allow the user to schedule the course anyway.

Profile Report – A new report has been added to the Population Reports menu. This report prints students between two start dates in order of Major. Subtotals are printed for each major.

FACULTY

This new menu brings together some of the tasks that you might have instructors run. The system administrator can assign a level of security so that instructors can only get to the Faculty Menu.

INSTRUCTOR GRADES

Instructor Grades File - Three new fields have been added which will give you more control over what grades will be used in the averaging and which ones will not. Also, you can specify a grade to be applied regardless of the average if a certain grade is found during the averaging (e.g., if a student gets an F on a test, he will receive an Incomplete grade for the course regardless of the averaging process).

BUSINESS OFFICE

Canadian Tax Forms T2202A - If your school is in Canada, you can now print your T2202’s from AS3.

Peachtree GL Interface - AS3 can now post records to be imported to the Peachtree General Journal. The reports/journals that will output data to the GL are Cash Journal, Billing Journal, Earnings Report, and FA Payments Report. Peachtree chart of account numbers cannot be longer than 12 characters and all chart of account numbers used with the interface must contain the same number of characters. Call AS3 support for details on setting up the import/export.

Cash Receipts Entry - If a student has been put into Collections, this will be noted on the data entry screen for the operator's knowledge.

Build A/R Selection File - An option has been added to select students based upon their expected starting term.

Statements - The student’s phone number on the account card has been formatted.

PROSPECT TRACKING

Propect Entry - When you add a new prospect with an Applied Date, the prospect’s Status will be set to A. For this reason, you must add a status description under SetUp Support Files in Prospect Tracking in the Status Description File. When you add the prospect, if you also include an Interview Date, the status of I (for interview) will override the ’A’ status; however, both status records will be written to the Prospect Description File.

Best Time To Call - ’W’ has been added as an input option for Weekends to the Prospect Entry Screen.

Documents - You can now scan and store documents for a prospect. This new file is used to specify the name of the scanned documents for a given prospect.

Enrollments by Date Report - Lead Date has been added to this report.

FINANCIAL AID

EDExpress interface has been upgraded to bring in ISIR's as they have in the past, but also awards to the packaged level ready for you to disburse using the Payments Journal.

Documents - You can now scan and store documents for a student. This new file is used to specify the name of the scanned documents for a given student.

Eligible Aid for Applicants – This report prints Section F of the FISAP report.

Funds Summary Report - This report will print up to seven selected funds for each student. The sum is printed for each fund (disbursements less refunds). The report prints one line per student. You can enter a date range, award year, and/or a host of other options.

Packaging - The Pell Payment Schedule has been added to the system so that during packaging, if an award year is entered, the maximum Pell award will be displayed in the header information along with the student's course load (F,T,H,L), the EFC and the Pell COA.

Student Award Year File (ISIR) - The following new field has been added: First Prof. Degree Y/N. The default is N. This new field will be used to print the Eligible Aid Applicants Report (FISAP Sect. F).

TAP Import - Schools in NY State can now import TAP Roster records directly to AS3. This software is on the FA Servicers Menu under Financial Aid.

LIBRARY

Book Return - When a book is returned and is overdue, the cursor will stop at the overdue amount charged field to allow you to make a change if desired.

Collection File - A new field has been added: BOOK ID. This will enable you to have the Bar Code and the ISBN numbers in the records in addition to the Catalog Number.

CAREER SERVICES

Documents - You can now scan and store documents for a student. This new file is used to specify the name of the scanned documents (e.g., RESUME).