The Month in Review: May 2022 Feature Releases
Published
Feel that heat? The summer months are upon us, which means it’s also time to look back on everything that happened through the month of May for the Education management products.
In a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, May has finally given way to June. For most schools, this is the best time of the year as it also means that summer vacation is about to kick off, or has already for some.
It also means that the blog is going to be going through a few changes as well, but I’ll touch on that next week. For now, let’s kick off the Month in Review, where we look back on all of the changes and updates that arrived for May 2022 for the Education management products.
Academics
Bulk diplomas! That’s right, in May, the Academics squadron rolled out a new bulk-add feature for diplomas. Using this feature, schools can associate diplomas with students in bulk via the Grades Management Overview page. You can use this feature to start a group of students using graduation requirements. To access the Overview page, you will need to be logged in as a user with the Award Manager or Diploma Manager role. Go to Grades and select Grades management. The Overview tab will open by default. Want to know more? Check out our Help topic right here.
Also this month:
In May for Billing management, the team made more list updates to hopefully make your life just a bit easier. First, Student ID is now available as an optional column in the Financial aid awards and Past due balances lists. The column persists on CSV exports of the list.
The Aged accounts receivables list also received some love in May including two columns that have been renamed. Not yet due is now Future transactions while Total overdue is now Balance. In addition, Transactions with due dates that occur after the specified Calculate as of date in the Aged accounts receivables list now contribute to the total for the most recent aging period.
Also during the month of May:
Important reminders for our Core users! First, platform managers can now select to join the early adopter program (EAP) which forces all users to log in with Blackbaud ID (BBID) before it’s required for all schools. From Core, select Security, select Blackbaud ID authentication, select Enforce Blackbaud ID authentication, and finally select Enforce to confirm you want to join the EAP.
The last day users can log in with legacy usernames and passwords is July 25, 2022. On July 26, all users must log in with Blackbaud ID. Parents do not need to login with a single sign on (SSO), such as if parents are not part of your school’s domain. Platform managers can migrate users to Blackbaud ID via the links on the Core home dashboard. They can also export user lists for use in mail merges and other communications.
Also released this month:
Candidate features got some love in the month of May for EMS. After uploading a file, parents will now see the checklist step status to be set to Submitted. In addition, once the file has been processed, the status will update to then show as Completed.
Next, when enrolling candidates, admissions managers can now assign active student checklists. The selected user group would all get the same checklists, though more than one checklist can be selected if needed.
Finally, the candidate header has been updated so that admissions managers can now view the User ID and Student ID.
Want more? Here are the other updates made to EMS this month:
If you want the full and complete details of everything we’ve added to the Education management products in April, make sure to visit our What’s New letter. Use the Recent option at the top of the page to view past and archived releases. Want to stay updated whenever we have a new release? Get notified via email by signing up for our mailing list here.
Before I go, don’t forget that next week, we’re publishing the “What’s New” letters right here in the community! NEXT WEEK! Exciting times are ahead! In case you missed the announcement or want to know what to do, make sure to check out the blog post here. In the meantime, we’ll see you next week for an all new post. Thanks, as always, for reading!
It also means that the blog is going to be going through a few changes as well, but I’ll touch on that next week. For now, let’s kick off the Month in Review, where we look back on all of the changes and updates that arrived for May 2022 for the Education management products.
Academics
Bulk diplomas! That’s right, in May, the Academics squadron rolled out a new bulk-add feature for diplomas. Using this feature, schools can associate diplomas with students in bulk via the Grades Management Overview page. You can use this feature to start a group of students using graduation requirements. To access the Overview page, you will need to be logged in as a user with the Award Manager or Diploma Manager role. Go to Grades and select Grades management. The Overview tab will open by default. Want to know more? Check out our Help topic right here.
Also this month:
- The Student Obligation - By Block report now displays student names sorted alphabetically by last name, then by first name.
- The Manage holds page can now display students’ email addresses in a column labeled Email. This is not a default column.
- When adding a faculty member to a course via the Manage Classes tool, users will now be prompted to select a Role for the faculty member from a drop-down menu (for example, Instructor or Graduate Assistant). This is a required field.
In May for Billing management, the team made more list updates to hopefully make your life just a bit easier. First, Student ID is now available as an optional column in the Financial aid awards and Past due balances lists. The column persists on CSV exports of the list.
The Aged accounts receivables list also received some love in May including two columns that have been renamed. Not yet due is now Future transactions while Total overdue is now Balance. In addition, Transactions with due dates that occur after the specified Calculate as of date in the Aged accounts receivables list now contribute to the total for the most recent aging period.
Also during the month of May:
- Organization name is now available as a journal reference segment. Organization name shows the organization name for payments from third party payers when preparing to post the list of distributions.
- Billing clerks can now review all previous Post to GL runs in one list using the new All date filter. Results are in reverse chronological order and in segments of 30.
- The placement of the Post to GL button on the Previous post runs page has changed and it now appears alongside Go back and Editing post rules.
- Future transactions on the Aged accounts receivables list now include interactable totals. Billing clerks can select a Future transaction total to then expand a pane that itemizes the transactions constituting the total.
- Billing clerks selecting an amount listed under ‘Payments received’ and ‘Scholarships/grants’ see a pane open that now includes the student’s name associated with the respective record.
Important reminders for our Core users! First, platform managers can now select to join the early adopter program (EAP) which forces all users to log in with Blackbaud ID (BBID) before it’s required for all schools. From Core, select Security, select Blackbaud ID authentication, select Enforce Blackbaud ID authentication, and finally select Enforce to confirm you want to join the EAP.
The last day users can log in with legacy usernames and passwords is July 25, 2022. On July 26, all users must log in with Blackbaud ID. Parents do not need to login with a single sign on (SSO), such as if parents are not part of your school’s domain. Platform managers can migrate users to Blackbaud ID via the links on the Core home dashboard. They can also export user lists for use in mail merges and other communications.
Also released this month:
- Platform managers can now determine how many items to show per page when viewing the Registered, Awaiting, and Unregistered lists. Select a large number (such as 500) to more quickly Enable , Connect, Reinvite, or Disconnect large numbers of users to Blackbaud ID. Platform managers can now invite up to 2,500 users at one time. To invite more users than that, invite them in batches of 2,500 or fewer.
- When a user has been Connected to Blackbaud ID but has not logged in yet, they are Awaiting Response. Now when the Awaiting Response user enters their username on the school login page and selects Continue, the link directs them to a page which is "smarter.” The user’s account status now determines whether they see Sign in or Sign up.
Candidate features got some love in the month of May for EMS. After uploading a file, parents will now see the checklist step status to be set to Submitted. In addition, once the file has been processed, the status will update to then show as Completed.
Next, when enrolling candidates, admissions managers can now assign active student checklists. The selected user group would all get the same checklists, though more than one checklist can be selected if needed.
Finally, the candidate header has been updated so that admissions managers can now view the User ID and Student ID.
Want more? Here are the other updates made to EMS this month:
- Admissions managers now have access to a column that displays the Inactivation Reason.
- Parents of and Candidates now have the same access to the BBID invite link as users in Core. Essentially, when creating an email notification text, administrators can add an accept invitation button which will behave exactly as the notification link does in Core.
- When selecting the link to either complete or decline the recommendation from the notification email, Recommenders now see the candidate's preferred name formatted as Preferred, Last Name. If no preferred name exists, notifications will then default to Candidate Name.
- If branding is enabled and an enrollment manager sends invitations to create a Blackbaud ID, the notification email now directs the user to the school’s branded sign-up page.
- Billing managers now have the option to calculate tuition amounts by payment plan for BBBM contracts.
If you want the full and complete details of everything we’ve added to the Education management products in April, make sure to visit our What’s New letter. Use the Recent option at the top of the page to view past and archived releases. Want to stay updated whenever we have a new release? Get notified via email by signing up for our mailing list here.
Before I go, don’t forget that next week, we’re publishing the “What’s New” letters right here in the community! NEXT WEEK! Exciting times are ahead! In case you missed the announcement or want to know what to do, make sure to check out the blog post here. In the meantime, we’ll see you next week for an all new post. Thanks, as always, for reading!
News
Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions™ Announcements
05/31/2022 9:00am EDT
Leave a Comment