Top Five Transcript Troubleshooting Tips

Jennifer Fox
Jennifer Fox
Tenth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud K-12 Education Solutions™ Blog
It’s the end of the semester, and you’re working on Sally Student’s and Samuel Student’s transcripts. There is an array of problems with the transcripts – information is missing or incorrect and Sally’s transcript isn't showing up to print. Below are 5 top issues that you may run into when running transcripts.

  2. Grades or courses are missing on the transcript
When you preview Samuel Student’s transcript, you notice that some grades and courses are missing. What to do? As far as grades, the place that you should always look first is Grades > Enter grades by student within Registrar’s Office. If the grade is not listed here for Samuel, then it will not be listed on his transcript. Other reasons why grades may be missing include:

  • The marking column does not award credit, and you did not mark to show grades that do not award credits
  • The marking column was not added to the transcript
  • The incorrect grade format is selected to show on the transcript
  • The Numeric Equivalent and Cutoff Values are not defined correctly on the translation table
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Click here for steps to troubleshoot this issue if you find grades are missing on your transcript.


As far as the courses not showing on the transcript, they could be missing for the following reasons:

  • The course record was not marked to print on transcripts
  • No marking columns were marked as graded on the course record
  • Print courses through <Term> is marked on the transcript, but that term is not included in the current year
  • The transcript is filtered on a query of courses. In this case, we would need to update the query to ensure all of the appropriate courses are listed. Remember: if the courses don’t show in the query, they won’t show on the transcript.
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Click here for steps to take to get the missing courses to show on your transcript.


Another reason why grades or courses may be missing on transcripts is because they are either historical or transfer courses. The transcript may not be set up to include the historical or transfer courses or there may be filters selected that are filtering out those courses. You will need to check your transcript parameter to ensure that historical/transfer courses are being included and check the filters to make sure you aren’t filtering out those courses.  If you are using a query to filter courses, check your query setup to see it’s filtering out those courses.

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  2. Incorrect credits showing on the transcript
You have included credits on Samuel’s transcript, but in looking at the preview, you think, “Hmm. Those don’t seem quite right”?  There are a few reasons why the credit information may appear incorrectly on the transcript.

  • Credits aren’t set up correctly on the transcript
  • Total Credits is selected to print and the student did not take any classes during the terms included in the “From” and “To” fields
  • The marking column doesn’t have awarded or attempted credits set up on the course record
  • The course has been taken multiple times
Here is a list of things to check for when troubleshooting credits on transcripts.

  2. Incorrect GPA
When reviewing Samuel’s GPA on his transcript you realized that it’s showing a 3.2 and not a 3.5 like you’re expecting. Here are some questions you should ask to pinpoint why the GPA is not correct:

  • Has the GPA calculation actually been run, or did I just preview it?
  • Is the correct GPA type being included on the transcript?
  • Is the correct marking column selected for the GPA on the transcript?
Click here for some steps to troubleshoot incorrect GPAs on transcripts.

  2. A course that a student was removed from is showing on the transcript
You have spent all summer spending countless hours working on perfecting the schedule for the next year. Then, lo and behold, Samuel is that one student who needs to make schedule changes after school has started. You make the necessary changes to his schedule, but when printing the transcript, you notice that the class you removed him from is still showing on the transcript!


If you withdrew Samuel from the class, then the course is still associated with him. Withdrawing a student within The Education Edge is designed to keep any course information tied to the student; so if grades, comments, skills, or attendance were entered for this student, this information would show on the transcript.


If this course should not show on Samuel’s transcript, you will need to re-enroll him into the original class, and then drop him from the class. Dropping a student will remove any grading or attendance information and will disassociate that course from that student.

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Click here for steps to withdraw, drop, or transfer a student, and click here to see what affects the records when withdrawing, dropping, or transferring a student.

  2. A transcript is not printing for one or more students
It’s late in the day, and you need to get these transcripts out by tomorrow morning. When you preview the transcripts, you notice that Sally’s is nowhere to be found! You may panic and think, “Oh no! Sally won’t get into college if I can’t get her transcript printed and sent out!” Try to stay calm and remember that there could be a few reasons why Sally’s transcript isn’t previewing.

  • Check your filters.

    • Are you filtering your students on a query? If so, does Sally appear in the query? If she doesn't show in the query, then she won’t show in the transcript preview. You’ll need to update the criteria in the query so she shows in the results.
    • Does Sally have a hold code?

      • If Sally has a hold code on her record, and that hold prevents her from receiving a transcript, this is why she would not show in the preview. You can override this hold code by marking the checkbox to Include students on hold that are not supposed to be able to send transcripts
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  • Is the transcript for the same school that Sally is enrolled in?

    • If Sally is in High School and you’re running a transcript for the Middle School, it would make sense that Sally doesn't show in the preview. You’ll need to update the school on the General tab of the transcript.
You can get a list of troubleshooting steps here to figure out how to get Sally’s transcript printed and mailed to the colleges she is looking to attend.


Have any other transcript tips and tricks? Let me know in the comments below!

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