Here are the latest changes, updates, and new features for the Education management products for November 14, 2023.

Academics

Updated Assignment and Discussion creation experiences from calendars

With this release, we've updated the Assignment and Discussion creation experiences in calendars to utilize the latest assignment creation modals. Teachers will now see the up-to-date modals when adding assignments from the Calendar, as well as the calendar view of the Assignment Center, and the calendar view of the Assignments tab on class pages. Previously, these calendar views launched older versions of the assignment creation modals that were inconsistent with the list view experiences.



Additionally, teachers can now edit an assignment by selecting the assignment tile in a calendar. Selecting an assignment name continues to open the assignment evaluation page.



The Assessment creation experience in calendars will be updated in a coming release.

Billing management (Limited Availability)

Blackbaud Billing management is available to customers not currently using Blackbaud Tuition management.

Post directly to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT (Early Adopter Program)

Blackbaud Billing management now directly integrates with the general ledger maintained in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, providing Billing clerks with a seamless means to synchronize transaction data between the two platforms.

These changes are also joined by a general Post to GL workflow refresh. Billing clerks participating in the early adopter program (EAP) can expect to see the following:

• When opened, the Post to GL page no longer prompts you to find transactions and instead defaults to all transactions with a post date within the last 30 days.

• Create batch replaces Mark transactions as Posted.

  • Create batch summarizes the distributions to post and alerts you if there are issues with the post, such as invalid account numbers or the debits and credits being out of balance.

  • Select Submit to send the data to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.

• Create CSV file is renamed to Export and now appears in the toolbar above the list of distributions.

• Filter is a new option that enables Billing clerks only to show specific distributions in the list and appears in the toolbar above the list of distributions.

• Edit posting rules is renamed to Edit journal references.

  • The Journal code to use when posting field now pulls directly from the options available in Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT.

• Work with previous post runs now provides a granular list of every run, including the Batch status, indicating whether the batch was sent to Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT or failed.

  • Select the Post ID for a post attempt to review the involved distributions; when the batch posted in FENXT, review why the batch may have failed and reattempt to post the batch.

Schools will only see these changes if they are participating in the EAP.

Copy more Billing year settings from the previous year

We’ve added more options to speed up rolling over from the previous billing year to the next. Billing clerks can now copy the following settings from the previous year if they are configured:

• Credit card surcharge fee

• Direct debit surcharge fee

• Tuition

• Miscellaneous fees

• Late fee

• Tuition refund plan

• Payment plans

• Financial aid

• Advance payments

• Enrollment Deposit

Credit card surcharge fee and Direct debit surcharge fee automatically copy over from the previous year.

Billing clerks will find the options to rollover settings by selecting Edit billing year on the Billing years page.

‘Charge on date’ now available for payment plan installments

Charge on date is a new field for payment plan installments, giving Billing clerks more granular control over how installments appear to payers.

The addition of the Charge on date is reflected across the following areas:

• Statements now reference the Charge on date instead of the Due date. For example, if an installment has a Charge on date of August 15, payers will see the installment reference on the statement period that incorporates August 15.

• Payers see the Charge on date when reviewing the Plan info for payment plans in the payer portal.

• Billing clerks see the Charge on date under Payment plans on each student’s Billing profile.

• Billing clerks can base aging on the Charge on date instead of the Due date, impacting the Aged Accounts receivables report and Aging graphs on the Overview.

Billing clerks configure the Charge on date under Payment plans on the Billing years page. By default, for existing installments, the Charge on date mirrors the Due date.

Core

Handle profile changes

Users who have access to Acknowledge the updates to user information via Handle profile changes in Core can now Filter the entries to see who the data was Changed by. Select to view changes by Others or Only me (includes impersonation). You can then approve the changes in bulk.



This saves time if you recently imported data in bulk and then need to acknowledge the changes you just added.

API and Integrations

School API

New



Create custom fields with a single request

We’ve added a new endpoint, POST Users custom fields list create, that enables creating a list of admin custom field for a user.

POST Users custom fields list create accepts an array of custom field objects; include a field_id in each object to update the corresponding custom field with the fields provided in the object, or exclude the field_id to create an entirely new custom field with the fields provided in the object.



Changed

• POST Users custom fields create is renamed to POST Users custom fields create – single

• PATCH Users custom fields update is renamed to PUT Users custom fields update – single

• GET Users extended by user, GET Users extended by role(s), and GET Users changed by base role now feature the latino_hispanic field in the JSON response.

  • The existing field is_latino_hispanic, will be deprecated 2/15/2024.