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Error with Smart Tuition integrated Re-Enrollment Contracts not returning contracts to Enrollment Management

Mary Fernandez

We launched our Re-Enrollment contracts (3rd year with Smart Tuition integration SSO). When parents make a payment, it activates their 2020-21 Smart Tuition account, takes the payment and posts it to Smart Tuition. HOWEVER, it does not return the contract to Enrollment Management as signed, paid, submitted.

Tried reaching support, ticket has been created, but no resolution yet.

There is no pattern for these glitches - some with siblings, submissions on different dates and times, etc.

Also, for parents who have a declined payment, Smart Tuition also activates their 2020-21 account even though it didn't take a payment. Now parents are unable to go back and make the payment.

Has anyone else experienced these issues?

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Bryan Lorenzo

Hi Mary Fernandez‍ - we started our contracts today for the new students and so far we have not had any issues for the 15 that have come in. Do you mean declined payments for credit card transactions?

Karintha Marshall

Mary Fernandez‍, we've also been using integrated smart contracts for 3 years. We've had a variety of glitches around the payment and data transfer process between the two systems over the years, but never one quite like this.

How many of your families are impacted? Is it possible there's a user behavior at play? We get parents from time to time that close the contract before the payment/submission confirmation page pops up, and that's caused issues.

The successful payment even though card decline is baffling, maybe in a couple of days those payments switch it failed on the Smart side? I'd hope so.

I'm a little anxious because we're releasing contracts in a couple weeks too.

Please let us know what support tells you, if they get back to you with a root cause. Also I find it helpful to ask support if there are any similar issues logged by other users, they're able to search tickets from all clients and a lot of times when I ask that the rep finds other tickets with the same issue and whether it's already being worked on.

Mary Fernandez

Hi Bryan and Karintha,

We have run into 3 different types of glitches so far.

The first one was declined payments - which still created a ST account and activated 2020-21, but took no payment. When families go back to the contract to make the payment, the error message says there is already an active ST account and they can't make payment and submit contract. When we contacted ST, their solution is to go on the back end, delete that student from ST, and then we ask the family to try again.

The second type of glitch is the one that has happened most frequently - the family completes the contract, a ST account is activated for 2020-21, the deposit is taken and applied to next year's tuition, BUT we do not receive a Returned Contract over on Enrollment Management. So when parents log back into the portal, they still see a "pending" contract to submit. And of course, at this point, they can't resubmit because the ST account has already been created.

** I contact support when the first incident happened, and I was advised to manually input the deposit received info. That locked the contract and marked it as Returned. The problem with doing it this way is that the parent somehow loses the ability to print the contract in Files and Forms. So again, not an ideal solution for us.

We have tried to pinpoint the glitch by date of submission, time of day, siblings vs. only child, first-time users vs. returning SSO, etc. There is no discernible pattern that we can see. I am ruling out user behavior in many of these cases since the families are able to submit for one sibling and not the other.

The third type of issue we have experienced is simply a family's inability to submit contract due to ST unspecified error. The contract simply does not allow for payment or submission.

We launched our Re-Enrollment contracts before the Christmas break. At this point, we have received over 500 contracts back, with another 600+ to go. We are close to 20 families with glitches at this point (including board member's children - yikes). There has been a support ticket created but as of today, we still don't know what is causing it. I am hoping for a quick resolution as the number of families re-enrolling and encountering issues will grown every day. In the meantime, I am manually tracking what ST accounts are created daily versus how many contracts I am getting back...

I'll keep you posted when I hear more!

Thanks!

Angie Stalquist

Following thread

Hope we do not have any issues. Fingers crossed!

Tasia Weatherly

Yes, we are having this issue as well. Parents are able to pay their deposit and submit their contract (and the accounts and payment do come over to Smart) but the contract in enrollment management is stuck as Pending on the parent side, and we don't see a returned contract. The workaround for us is to manually fill in the date returned field once student billing has confirmed receipt of payment. Luckily we haven't had many issues with failed payments yet.

We have an open case with support as well, hopefully it is resolved soon!

Bryan Lorenzo

Mary Fernandez‍ & Tasia Weatherly‍ - we have come across 3 students so far that have their account in Smart Tuition created, charges & payments applied but the contract does not show are returned in Enrollment Management. I know we can mark the contract as "returned" but we really don't like doing that. It seems to happen to a few contracts every year for us.

Has support responded back to you as to "why" it happened to yours?

Julie Baker

Just curious are all of you using the single sign on and having this issue or is it that you required all signatures? If you required all signatures like we do Parent 1 submits everything in the contract to SMART and then yes we dont see the contract back till parent 2 signs. Hoping there is not another issue as we are getting ready to issue ours Tuesday and it will be our 3rd year too.

Mary Fernandez

Hi Brian,

Unfortunately still no response or resolution from support.....

I just checked again this morning and we had glitches from parents who re-enrolled as recently as last night.. so it is definitely still happening.

I have had to manually return contracts (so that the parents are not panicking about their re-enrollment) but it is less than ideal because 1) Their Smart Tuition ID/payment method and timestamp is not picked up in Contracts (see my attached screenshot 1) and 2) the parents lose the ability to view and print their contract. (see attached screenshot 2).

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Mary Fernandez

Hi Julie,

We are using SSO, but we only require ONE parent signature. For our families who didn't experience the glitch, it was smooth sailing because of the SSO from years past.

However, given that we haven't heard what the root of the problem is, nor that there is a fix in place, we have had to do daily matching up (number of ST accounts created versus Contracts Returned) ...until we hear of a solution.. Best of luck with your upcoming re-enrollments!!

Bryan Lorenzo

Mary Fernandez‍ & Julie Baker‍ - our contracts also only require one signature. I didn't know the parents lost the ability to view and print their contract once we marked it as returned so thanks for that info! It is totally a pain to be checking numbers in Smart and EM constantly to get them matched.

In the past years if a parent clicked something in a "strange" way it would mess up the contract process. Let's see what support says for these.

Tasia Weatherly

Bryan Lorenzo:
Mary Fernandez‍ & Tasia Weatherly‍ - we have come across 3 students so far that have their account in Smart Tuition created, charges & payments applied but the contract does not show are returned in Enrollment Management. I know we can mark the contract as "returned" but we really don't like doing that. It seems to happen to a few contracts every year for us.

Has support responded back to you as to "why" it happened to yours?

Bryan Lorenzo‍ - According to support, our issue is a scenario they are aware of and they are actively working to prevent it from happening. What appears to happen is that the parent fills out everything successfully and the contract integration does its job, but the response to mark the contract as returned automatically is timing out. They flagged it as a high priority issue with their standard 30-90 day turnaround.

Sarah Bienvenue

Hi All, we're looking at this now, as soon as I have more information, I'll let you know!

thanks,

Sarah

Mary Fernandez

Hi All!

We are 3 days away from the end of our Re-Enrollment period, and still no resolution.

We continue to track the contracts received daily against those created in Smart Tuition, and push them through manually on Enrollment Management. (which is NOT ideal, as the parents cannot access or print the executed contracts)

In addition to those glitches and the "unspecified error ones" (see attached for screenshot), we have another error message occurring now where a parent is unable to re-enroll a second child after successfully submitting contract for a first sibling. The error message states that a "School Family ID already exists"

Has anyone else experienced these issues?

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Kathy Steinman

Following this thread - going live tomorrow. Yikes!

Julie Baker

Now following for sure as we launched yesterday and we are now having this issue as well Yikes!

Kathy Steinman

Sarah Bienvenue:

Hi All, we're looking at this now, as soon as I have more information, I'll let you know!

thanks,

Sarah

Hi Sarah - it's our plan to go live with re-enrollment today. Is there a resolution coming soon? If yes, I could put off re-enrollment a couple of days if that would avert this issue.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Kathy

Mary Fernandez

Good morning!

Well, we are one day away from the end of our Re-enrollment period, and still no fix or resolution.

We have tried to escalate the issue through our account executive, our ST representative and chat support. We certainly have not been told that anything will be resolved before the end of the week.

With three different glitches happening, it has now become necessary for us every morning to identify what contracts need to be manually pushed through, (and apologize to the parents) and determine if the problem has a different root. (such as existing Smart Family ID/declined payment that activated ST, unspecified error, or non-returned contract.)

Joanne Galluccio

Hello,

We have an escalated bug that is currently being worked on that should address any contracts that are not being marked as completed when an account is being created in Smart. I will keep the thread updated as we make progress with this issue.

Please note: We are adding the ability for a parent to print a manual returned contract to the system!

Thanks,

Joanne

Nancy Kierstead

We just posted re-enrollment contracts this week. We have 25% returned, and just had our first incident (that we know of) where the Smart Tuition account was set up, but the contracts (siblings) could not be returned. We manually added the date to return the contracts as a work-around, but are also looking forward to a solution. Also happy to hear parents with manually returned contracts will be able to print them in PDF form soon as well.

Joanne Galluccio

Hi,

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We are still looking into this issue, as it is occurring intermittently it is taking additional time to pinpoint the exact cause and fix.

Thanks

Joanne

Kathy Steinman

I'm wondering two things about this and knowing I
may be completely wrong - here goes:

1. Several times we've had families think they are done but
when I impersonate them I have been able to click through to the
end on their behalf and then their contract is properly
processed. (I only do this when I have both parent signatures and
dates and then I send them an email letting them know I completed
the process on their behalf by pressing the final buttons knowing
they indicated their full commitment to the terms of the
contract.)

2. Today I had a family for whom one contract was a Smart
integrated full pay contract and the other was a Smart integrated
full remission contract and each had different payment plan terms.
As you likely know, the payment plans selected must be the same if
there is more than one child or Smart will complain and report back
an error when trying to process the contract.

This is only the start of year two for us so I'm still
relatively new to Blackbaud's online re-enrollment process but
thought I'd just throw these two scenarios out there with the risk
of knowing that it's likely neither of these reasons but just
in case...

I am hopeful BB can bring a resolution to this
issue.

Best,

Kathy

Kathleen
Steinman
Assistant Director of
Enrollment Management
NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL
635 Frogtown Rd
New Canaan CT 06840
Direct: (203)
801-5668
e-mail: ksteinman@countryschool.net

VISIT & EXPLORE

Mary Fernandez

Good morning All,

One week PAST the end of our Re-enrollment and there was unfortunately no fix or solution for us. It has been incredibly frustrating that we went through our entire re-enrollment period trying out all sorts of alternate workarounds to keep our data intact. (and our parents from worrying)

Our school enrollment is 1,250.... so keeping track daily of what contracts came in, what didn't, who glitched, who has unspecified errors, who needs to be manually returned, etc has been a less-than-ideal situation.

We are also still waiting on the ability to View and Print those contracts, as well.

Thanks!

Mary

Karintha Marshall

Mary Fernandez:

Hi All!

We are 3 days away from the end of our Re-Enrollment period, and still no resolution.

We continue to track the contracts received daily against those created in Smart Tuition, and push them through manually on Enrollment Management. (which is NOT ideal, as the parents cannot access or print the executed contracts)

In addition to those glitches and the "unspecified error ones" (see attached for screenshot), we have another error message occurring now where a parent is unable to re-enroll a second child after successfully submitting contract for a first sibling. The error message states that a "School Family ID already exists"

Has anyone else experienced these issues?

Mary Fernandez‍ , thanks for keeping us updated.

Yes, we have had this issue/error message every year with a handful of accounts. I never got a response to that issue, first reported 2 yrs ago.

Elizabeth Perron

Hi All on this thread,

As our product developers continue to try and figure out this intermittent issue. I want to encourage those who have not to submit a support ticket. While our Blackbaud Community is knowledgeable and willing to share, it's always a good idea to go through support to document any technical issues you are experiencing.

At times, issues can seem similar but can be resolved through Support. Call me cautious, but I want you all to use all Blackbaud resources available to you to keep growing Social Good.

In harmony,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Kathleen Sanders

We launched re-enrollment on January 21st. I have followed this thread thinking how lucky we are- only 2 incidents of this. Oh, not so. Many, many "unspecified errors", many "Saved" contracts that are really "Submitted" contracts paid in full that may or may not be notated in Smart Tuition and/or Enrollment Management. It may be intermittent, but it is time-consuming to figure out what a student's current status truly is going back and forth between smart tuition and enrollment management. Is there a solution in sight?

Mary Fernandez

Hello All!

Our re-enrollment ended almost 3 weeks ago, and not only did we NOT hear of a solution... but our support person told us that since we manually forced the contracts through (as per the instructions of the first support person I dealt with), they were unable to get to the root of the problem. Here is an excerpt from chat support:

I apologize you have been experiencing these issues with the contracts. I wish I could give you an explanation of what is going on with the contracts in general, however these issues are coming from different scenarios, there is no general reason why the contracts are not going through. Please take into account that we as support need to replicate the issues and complete different tests, to finally come up with a solution to that specific scenario. I understand you have gotten to a point to manually return the contracts, but that does not leave the support team to much to work with, as we won't be able to replicate or test.

We are also still waiting on the Print feature in Files and Forms for our parents (whose contracts had to be manually returned.) We are told that for legal reasons, the parent must have access to print their contracts. Hoping to hear a solution to that soon.

I am sorry to hear that many of you are going through the same difficulties - I know how frustrating this is!

Mary Revie

I'll jump in right here and say we are also having issues with contracts being submitted on the Smart Tuition side but have to be manually processed to be completed AND issues with "we found one or more Smart Tuition accounts for you but they cannot be used because an unspecified error occurred." This is our 3rd year using integrated contracts with Smart Tuition and having the same problems. Someone needs to figure out what is causing it and how we keep it from happening. It's very frustrating for us and our parents. I understand "intermittent" problems are harder to diagnose but with as many of us that are having the issues it seems answers should be easier to come by.

Sarah Bienvenue

Hi Everyone, I understand the frustration and we're working to determine the root cause as quickly as we can. There are some fixes going out in the next 2 weeks, but the reported items in this thread represent different issues that are happening and the fixes going out may not resolve all of them. The best course of action is to continue to report these to support so that we can look into them and communicate when your specific issue has been resolved. Rest assured, if you mark the contract as manually complete, we WILL still look at what is happening.

Please note: The ability for a parent to print a manually submitted contract will be going live on 2/18.

Thank you for your continued patience,

Sarah

Margie Llinas

Joanne Galluccio:

Hello,

We have an escalated bug that is currently being worked on that should address any contracts that are not being marked as completed when an account is being created in Smart. I will keep the thread updated as we make progress with this issue.

Please note: We are adding the ability for a parent to print a manual returned contract to the system!

Thanks,

Joanne

We have begun to experience similar issues with Smart Tuition errors (I have contacted support for the 5 cases that have occurred). Is there any word on the ability of a manually returned contract to be printed by a family. This is our biggest issue with manually returning the contract after both parents have signed.

thanks,

Margie

Joanne Galluccio

Margie Llinas: The ability to print manually returned contracts is being released on 2/18

Joanne Galluccio:

Hello,

We have an escalated bug that is currently being worked on that should address any contracts that are not being marked as completed when an account is being created in Smart. I will keep the thread updated as we make progress with this issue.

Please note: We are adding the ability for a parent to print a manual returned contract to the system!

Thanks,

Joanne

We have begun to experience similar issues with Smart Tuition errors (I have contacted support for the 5 cases that have occurred). Is there any word on the ability of a manually returned contract to be printed by a family. This is our biggest issue with manually returning the contract after both parents have signed.

thanks,

Margie