For many of you, even though the daily routine has slowed down with summer break, this is still a very busy time of year. Whether you’re wrapping up the last school year, or working on the next, here are some tips, training links, and best practices to make your job easier for the next academic year.

FACTS SIS Administrative Training Center

For comprehensive references concerning most SIS related tasks you might have, check out the administrative training center. This helpful link will lead you directly to webinars and interactive step-by-step checklists for over 40 topics. A few that might be particularly helpful this time of year are:

  • Starting a School Year in FACTS SIS
  • Learning Management System (LMS)
  • Report Cards A to Z

Attendance Setup

Attendance is a big deal, and we all know it is important to gather and keep accurate attendance information. FACTS SIS has the tools you need to address accurate recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Did you know that a school with 200 students, 7 periods per day, 180 school days per year, and 4 attendance codes could potentially make 1,008,000 errors per year!?

FACTS SIS allows schools to collect classroom attendance data using either a homeroom or period method, and automatically calculates a daily attendance mark based on variables that you define. Schools can use existing attendance codes and add custom codes to fit their specific needs. Check this link to learn more about attendance configuration for administrators and this video about classroom attendance for teachers.

Advanced features such as: attendance by group, convert tardies to absence, classroom attendance using a seating chart, staff attendance, and automatic attendance notifications, make your attendance tasks more efficient and effective – and help you avoid those potential attendance errors. A wide variety of attendance reports are available to help you track and analyze attendance data.

Adding and Inactivating Staff Members

This is the time of year that many schools are adding and inactivating staff members from their SIS database. Here’s a great resource to help you with managing student, staff, and family information.

Inactivating a staff member is as simple as unchecking the active box on the employee’s dashboard (Main Menu > Staff > choose staff person > Human Resources > uncheck active). There is no need to delete them from the system – in fact we advise against this – because inactivating a staff person prevents them from logging into the system and removes them from staff lists in various screens.

Browser Best Practices   

When you use a browser like Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, it saves information from websites in the cache and cookies to improve the performance of the browser. Clearing them occasionally helps avoid certain problems like loading or formatting issues on sites. Some people like to clear them daily, some weekly, and others wait until something is not working right on a website. Regularly clearing the browsing history can speed up your computer and help avoid problems when using web-based applications. The following links provide browser-specific instructions on how to clear cache and cookies:

Transitioning from SIS Help to HubHelp

We are transitioning from SIS Help to a one-stop shop, where you’ll be able to find information for all FACTS products (SIS, Tuition Management, Incidental Billing, Grant & Aid Assessment, Giving, Application & Enrollment, and more). After signing into the SIS, looking at the main menu in the top right corner, click on HubHelp.

An image of how to access HubHelp in FACTS SIS by clicking on the navigation hamburger menu.

Hopefully these tips will guide you as you begin preparations for next year!