Blackbaud’s Education Management Solutions: What’s New For August 30, 2022

Katie Burckhalter · August 2022

Here are all of the latest changes, updates, and new features for the Education management products for August 30th, 2022.

Academics

Viewing current schedule in Edit Student Enrollment
When using Edit Student Enrollment, a new row at the top of the Find a section grid displays the student’s current schedule. As you scroll down the page, this row will freeze in place to remain in view.

If a student is enrolled in multiple courses in the same block, they will display side by side. Select the name of a course name in this row to see more details about it. Please note that the Current Schedule row will not update when you add enrollments on the rest of the grid.
By default, this row will display the student’s enrollment for the same term indicated in the Starting in dropdown menu. You can change this by selecting a different term under Current schedule.

Billing management (Early Adopter Program)

Student preferred name available now on statements
Billing clerks can now use Statement builder to include a student’s Preferred name on billing statements. The student name format on a statement, when including a Preferred name, is as follows: Preferred name Last name; if a Preferred name is unavailable, the field defaults to First name.

The Preferred name toggle appears under Student info to display when editing the charges for a section on a Statement builder template.

Payment plan column added to Transactions list
A new optional column, Payment plan, is now available on the Transactions list. Include the Payment plan column to determine which charges originate from payment plans.

Record electronic payments processed “offline.”
Adding credit card and debit card payments manually no longer requires Billing clerks to use a payment processor, providing a means for adding payments made “offline.” If a Billing clerk accidentally selects a payment processor, a new blank drop-down entry can be chosen under ‘Process with’ that reverts the selection.

This change also includes hiding the processor field if the online payments form section has not been configured under Billing settings.

Core

Blackbaud ID: Update your branding
In the coming weeks, users will see some improvements to app.blackbaud.com, including your Organization display name and Logo icon, which will take them directly to your Education Management site. If the user has admin access to a solution, such as Education Management or Raiser’s Edge NXT, they will see it listed under Solutions on this page.

To prepare for these changes, an organization admin should update your branding from blackbaud.com. Go to Admin > Settings > Branding and be sure to review your branding settings – especially the Organization display name and Logo icon, which will appear at app.blackbaud.com.

Be mindful to follow the recommended logo ratios so your image will display appropriately next to your Organization display name.

Blackbaud ID: Sign in with Apple
Looking for help? Check out the how-to videos on our YouTube channel:

Or view the online help for Blackbaud ID.

Blackbaud ID: Migrate by September 27, 2022
Platform managers should 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.

Ensure your school’s users are on BBID by September 27, 2022.

Authenticating with Blackbaud ID:

ensures an even more secure authentication process,
enables users to further enhance security by enabling multi-factor authentication through text messages or mobile authenticators,
enables users to login to multiple Blackbaud solutions and support resources with a single username and password,
enables users to login with “social authentication” via Google’s authentication requirements, password resets, and other support needs,
enables users to help themselves reset forgotten passwords, rather than platform managers needing to provide tech support for forgotten passwords,
enables schools to enable an optional SSO for any roles they prefer, so that those users sign in with the school’s identity providers and the school can then manage the users in their claimed domains.

Enforce Blackbaud ID Requirement (Opt-In to EAP)
Platform managers can 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.

When you enforce BBID, all users, regardless of their security role, will be required to log in with Blackbaud ID.

During the EAP, you can revert and opt out to stop enforcing BBID. However, later this year, it will still be enforced for all schools, all users, and all security roles, as previously announced.

School website

Mobile Deprecation Announcement
On September 27, 2022, Mobile will be deprecated from Blackbaud's School Website System, meaning it will be removed from BBSWS and any users who edit the page will lose access to its features. This feature is currently a low traffic, low-impact feature so we recommend that schools direct all web traffic through your main school website for the best experience. All schools with Website Mobile traffic should expect to see an email notification with additional details regarding this change. If you have any questions, please reach out to Blackbaud Customer Support.

Tuition management

Mobile app decommissioned
As of August 31, the Blackbaud Tuition Management mobile app will no longer be available for download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Previous downloads of the app will no longer be accessible on mobile devices. All payers should access the fully responsive mobile site — parent.blackbaud.school — for a consistent and streamlined experience viewing their account, processing payments, and more.

Payers who used the mobile app to submit a payment in 2022 were sent a communication alerting them to this change.

API and Integrations

(School) SKY API
For information about recently added endpoints and updates, view the School API and OneRoster API changelogs.

Subscribe to “What’s New”

To receive email notifications when the What’s new update appears, make sure to subscribe to the K12 community’s blog by logging into the community site and selecting the Subscribe button.

To manage your community subscriptions:

Log into the community and locate your name and profile picture in the upper right corner.
Select the drop-down arrow and select My Account.
From the My Account page, select the Subscriptions tab and scroll down to the Blogs section.
Locate Blackbaud K-12 Education solutions Blog. If you want to be notified as soon as the What’s new content goes live on the community, select the Instant option. You can also opt for Daily and Weekly notifications.
Scroll to the end of the page and select Save changes.

What’s Recent

Missed any of our weekly releases? You can catch up on everything in our Month in Review blog posts, which cover every feature and update Education management releases each month.