What’s New and Next at FACTS: Q2 Product Roadmap Update

We’re back with the second installment of our quarterly product roadmap series! At FACTS, your feedback continues to guide how we build and improve our solutions, and we’re committed to keeping you in the loop every step of the way. In this update, you’ll get a look at what’s launched recently, what’s currently in progress, and what’s ahead across our product suite. Keep reading for your official Q2 update.

Product Updates:

• Student Information System
• Application & Enrollment
• Grant & Aid
• Payment Plans & Billing

What’s New with Student Information System

Scheduling:
We launched our first phase of scheduling enhancements on June 9. This release included an update to our general scheduling application, updates to templates and patterns, and our new person locator, which can be used to locate students and staff members according to their daily schedule.

Medical:
Released May 27, our medical enhancements include a brand-new interface along with many at-a-glance features to help school medical staff manage student health records. We also completed key school-requested updates, like removing the ability to overwrite medical notes and allowing staff to select relationship types before emailing parents about medical events.

SIS Main Menu and Navigation Bar:
On June 9, we released our new SIS main menu and navigation bar that includes a more modern look with icons for menu items and better placement of help icons.

What’s Near with Student Information System

Dashboard Builder:
This is a Power BI embedded reporting solution designed for K-12 school users. It enables educators to create, customize, and share dashboards using live data from the SIS. Users will have access to pre-built dashboards such as Student Information, Medical, Behavior, Admissions, or At-Risk. Additionally, school users can export reports for use in meetings or compliance reviews. With Dashboard Builder, we are making data accessible for all users!

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
We’re excited to share the latest progress on our rollout of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for SIS users.

Since our last update:

• We completed beta testing with a group of schools using Premier Integration.
• We gathered feedback from a broader set of users across our SIS platform.
• Based on that feedback, we extended the authentication window from 4 hours to 8 hours, reducing the need for frequent re-authentication during the day.

What to Expect:

• Rollout Timeline: We are targeting to have all SIS schools enabled by the end of August.
• Advance Notice: Schools will receive at least two weeks’ notice before MFA is enabled. Notifications will come from your Account Manager and appear directly in the SIS via in-app messaging.

For more information on MFA and related changes, please visit: https://www.nbshubhelp.com/

What’s Next with Student Information System

Here’s a sneak peek at some things we’re exploring and building behind the scenes. These updates are on our roadmap, but they might take a little time—good things are worth the wait! Want to share your thoughts or stay in the loop in the meantime? Join the conversation in FACTS^SPACE.

Scheduling:
We continue to work on our large, comprehensive update to scheduling. This project will include an updated interface to make scheduling more intuitive for school staff, added features such as teacher recommendations and the ability to mass update classes, and improvements to reporting to help manage scheduling conflicts and ensure scheduling is complete. The project also includes enhancements to courses and classes that support the scheduling process. This is an ongoing initiative, with features released in phases.

• Phase 1 is now live, and here’s what’s coming next:
• Phase 2 – Course Requests
• Phase 3 – Courses, Classes, and Rooms
• Phase 4 – Manual and Auto Scheduling Enhancements
• Phase 5 – Updates to schedule reporting

What’s New with Application & Enrollment

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):
Our Application & Enrollment teams released all changes needed to be ready for the MFA Launch happening next quarter!

What’s Near with Application & Enrollment

We’re introducing Inquiry Triggers to Email Series Manager, enabling you to automatically send nurturing emails to parents who submit an inquiry. This enhancement also includes an opt-out option for marketing emails, giving families greater control over the communications they receive.

What’s Next with Application & Enrollment

New Look and Experience for Inquiry & Application:
We’re continuing to modernize the Parent Inquiry and Application experience! Over the next year, we’ll transform the look and feel of our platform to provide a more modern and visually appealing experience. But that’s not all: our focus is also on enhancing the user experience with improved, intuitive, and streamlined workflows. Expect a smoother, more efficient process that will make your parents’ interaction with our system more enjoyable.

Here is a sneak peek at the design:

What’s New with Grant & Aid Assessment

SIS Current Student Status Integration:
Previously, we added the ability to show the SIS student admission status and new/returning status in Grant & Aid custom reporting. Now, you can also add the SIS current student status for an up-to-date status throughout the school year.

IRS Integration Updates:
We have added the ability for co-applicants who file separately to get their tax transcripts through IRS integration.

Supplemental Document Enhancements:
Supplemental documents allow you to collect extra documents outside of the FACTS collected and reviewed tax documents.

We added two enhancements to increase flexibility in triggering document requests, ensuring only relevant families see them as a requirement. You now can conditionally request documents based on:

• Family Not Filing Taxes (DNF Status): Request documents from families not filing taxes, such as an attestation of non-filing.
• Internal Tracking Fields selection: This allows you to tie a document requirement to a checkbox or drop-down option for internal tracking, allowing you to add document requirements after reviewing a family’s submitted application. You will be able to leverage all the tools associated with internal tracking, such as being able to assign documents in mass within reports.

New Fund Details Page:
As part of our ongoing modernization, we’ve updated the Fund Detail Awarding page with a refreshed design, full-screen viewing, faster reporting, and an improved user experience!

Student Submit Date/Timestamp as a Reporting Field:
To assist with scholarship organizations prioritizing by submission date and time, we’ve added a student specific submit date and time stamp reporting field that can be added to all custom reporting areas.

Preference School Change Notification:
Scholarship organizations will now get a notification in the Daily Digest when a student’s preference school changes.

What’s Near with Grant & Aid Assessment

IRS Integration:

• Most Recent Year Tax Return: We have added the ability to retrieve the most recent tax documents from the IRS. This will become available as soon as the IRS fixes an issue with the 2024 transcripts, which is scheduled to be released July 20.
• W2s: We will be adding the ability for applicants and co-applicants to get their W2s directly from the IRS in addition to the tax returns. This will include both the prior year and most recent year W2s as they become available through the IRS. We expect to release this on July 28.

Turn Off W2 Wage Adjustment & New Year Document Override:
Currently, our system automatically adjusts a family’s income based on the most recent W2 when paired with a prior year tax return and will use the most recent tax return when submitted by a family.

Some of our schools and scholarship organizations have requested the ability to turn off this automatic adjustment, allowing them to receive more recent year’s W2 without it affecting the family’s assessment, or still request and use the prior year tax return in the assessment even when the most recent year has been received. This will be an optional setting.

What’s Next with Grant & Aid Assessment

Prefill Custom Questions for Returning Users:
To continue to make the applicant process easier for returning families, we are adding the ability to select if the responses to a custom question should be pre-filled based on last year’s responses. This can be chosen per custom question, and applicants will still have the ability to update the response if something has changed from last year.

What’s New with Payment Plans & Billing

3rd Party Payment at Institution:
We’ve added the ability to record a Payment at Institution from a third party, such as payments from school choice programs. This will give you better reporting on the money received from school choice programs and ensure the parents’ payment summary is accurate, as it will not include these payments.

What’s Near with Payment Plans & Billing

3rd Party Payment at Institution Phase 2:
Following the initial release of this enhancement, we received valuable feedback that highlighted opportunities for greater flexibility. As a result, we will be adding support for multiple editable third-party adjustment reasons.

What’s Next with Payment Plans & Billing

Auto-Replenish Prepay Accounts:
We will be working on adding the ability for families to have their Prepay Account automatically refreshed from a saved account when the balance reaches a certain threshold. Love this idea and want the most up-to-date news? “Like” the idea in FACTS^SPACE and you’ll be among the first to know!

Mass Transfer of Funds & Credits:
We are excited to announce that we will soon be adding the capability to transfer funds and credits in mass. Previously, we introduced this feature for balances due and received valuable feedback indicating a need for similar functionality for funds and credits.

Parent Invoices for School Choice Programs:
To meet state requirements, we aim to provide parents with compliant documentation that supports state-level funding processes. This ensures regulatory adherence while simplifying the experience for families.

Payment Plan Modernization:
Modernizing the payment plan enrollment experience enables parents to sign up for a payment plan from any device, streamlining and simplifying the enrollment steps, and enhancing existing processes. The updated experience will include compliant disclosures and leverage a design system to ensure a modern, accessible, and user-friendly interface.