Welcome to the August issue of InTouch Online - Back to School Edition! The summer seemed to fly by, but we hope that everyone enjoyed it. Now with the 2007-2008 school year upon us, we hope that together we can make this the best year yet. We all look forward to hearing your success stories over the course of this year and hope that the SubFinder system is a part of it.

With that said, let’s get to the latest CRS news! Here are the featured articles in this month’s newsletter:

      Back 2 School Check List

      Why use Leave Control?

      The SubFinder ASP - Are You Ready for a Web Based System?

      Automate Your Professional Development

Words of Wisdom from Client Services

Gearing up for Back 2 School

It’s that time! Everyone is heading back to school. To ensure a smooth start to the new school year, there are a few things you will want to check in SubFinder. 

• Are all of your preference and exclusion lists up to date and assigned to the correct employees? Many districts using WebConnect Pro will allow the site administrators to update their own preference lists. If you do not allow for site level list management, you will want to make sure you get an updated list from your schools. If any changes are necessary, make them through the edit program.

• Have you verified that your SubCast email addresses are correct? Have administrators left the district or been reassigned to a different location? To ensure that the correct people are receiving the SubCast reports, please take time to check the SubCast Information tab in your Site and Site Group records. Simply remove those people who should no longer receive the reports. Remember! Do not to leave blank spaces between email addresses when entering new email addresses; also, please remember that you can only enter one email address per line.

• If you are using SubPay or Verification, have you created your pay periods? Since SubPay and Verification each use this field, the pay periods for the new school year will need to be set up in your system. If you are not sure of the pay periods for the entire year, set up the first couple in the SubFinder system until you get a complete list.

• Have you set up your 2007-2008 Calendar tracks? If you have not done so already, you will want to mark all non-work days on each active calendar track for the 2007-2008 school year. If you do not see 2008 in the drop down list in the Calendar track simply highlight the year 2007, type in 2008, hit your Tab key, and then click on OK. When you go back into the record, you will then see 2008 in your drop down list. Simply continue with your active calendar track for the remainder of the 2007-2008 school year.

• If you use a specific date to limit absence reporting, have you modified the date? For those people who choose to limit the reporting of absences to a specific date (this is found in the SubFinder Control Panel under the Absence/Job Creation Option), you will want to make sure to change the date to allow your employees and administrators to start entering their absences for the 2007-2008 school year. If you use more than one Configuration profile, you may need to make this change in each profile.

• If you have added any new sites or job positions this summer, have you voiced them? If so, please remember to use the Record Names program to voice those new sites or job positions. If these items are not voiced, users will not be able to hear where they will be working or what job position. If you are unsure of how to record names, please contact your Account Specialist.

• Have you updated your itinerant schedules? Often itinerant schedules will change from year to year. You may want to run the Itinerant Employees report and verify that the information you have in each record is correct. Please keep in mind that all portions of the itinerant schedule must be included on the itinerant schedule tab (including the portions that occur at the employee’s home site).

• If you have been upgraded to SubFinder Version 5.6, you are most likely aware of the new Tutorial buttons available for the Employees and Substitutes that will walk them through the steps of WebConnect. The tutorial buttons are available once the employee or substitute logs into WebConnect. Feel free to contact your Account Specialist if you wish to provide direct links to these tutorials from your district's web site.

Interested in printing this checklist out? Go to the Customer Support Center and under the 2007 Newsletter Supplements click on “Summer Check List”.

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Why Use Leave Control?

Keeping up with employee leave entitlements and balances can be a time consuming responsibility. But why not let your absence management system do the work for you!

SubFinder’s powerful Leave Control feature allows your district to establish your district’s leave entitlements on a per employee basis, and automatically deducts the employees’ leave as they report absences to the system. Additionally Leave Control provides you the option to restrict absence reporting for reasons which the employee has already reached their maximum allotment.

• You can select the reason or reasons you wish to control. 

• Leave can be calculated in units of either hours or days. 

• Each controlled leave reason can have a unique limit. 

• You have the ability to view both Time Used and Time Available. 

• Leave can be accrued at whatever interval you require- monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. 

• You can roll unused leave over to the same reason or different reason.

“The Leave Control feature is so easy and useful! When an employee reports an absence for a controlled reason, it is then automatically deducted from that selected reason. We find it very useful that employees can keep track of their entitlements themselves by viewing them in WebConnect or via the IVR portion of the SubFinder system.”

SubFinder Operator, ID

If your district would like to learn more about SubFinder’s Leave Control or to begin using this feature today please contact your Account Specialist; they will be happy to help you out!

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Are You Ready for a Web Based System?

As you know, SubFinder is available either as an ASP or a box-on-site solution; but what does that really mean? The box-on-site, also referred to as a client hosted application, means that your district houses your SubFinder hardware, software, and dedicated phone lines.

SubFinder delivered as an ASP offers all of the same system functionality as your box-on-site solution, but eliminates the need for hardware, software, and phone lines.

      -  The definition of an ASP: 

An Application Service Provider (a.k.a. ASP) is a third-party entity that manages and distributes software-based services and solutions to customers across a wide area network from a central data center. 

      -  Are still thinking, what does that mean?

An ASP is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network – typically the Internet. Software offered using an ASP model may also be called On-demand software or software as a service (SaaS). The most basic definition of this business focuses on providing access to a particular application or program using a standard protocol such as HTTP (the Internet). 

      -  How can I use SubFinder as an ASP?

You can access SubFinder via the Internet! With SubFinder as an ASP your district can enjoy all of the same great benefits that SubFinder provides as a Box-on-Site without the hassle of hardware! The SubFinder system is located in a secure Data Operations Center, right here in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Imagine eliminating the burden of troubleshooting your hardware issues. CRS will maintain your entire SubFinder system, which includes Internet and toll free telephone access for all of your users, automatic software upgrades, SubCast, DataExchange Pro, Verification, and so much more!

Other Great Benefits Include:

• Reduce Costs: No hardware, software, or  dedicated telephone lines to maintain and no more long distance phone charges.
• All software upgrades are FREE and automatically applied as they become available.
• Eliminate the need for internal IT support.
• Low monthly fees.

To learn more about the SubFinder ASP solution, please contact Katy McCloskey at 800.782.3463 Ext. 6171. Let us handle SubFinder so you can focus to what is important!

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Automate Your Professional Development

It is a commonly held belief that teacher quality is the single most important factor influencing student achievement, and Professional Development is a key mechanism in ensuring your teachers are highly qualified.

Managing individual Professional Development activities for your school districts teachers, administrators, and other staff takes great coordination and often times involves a lengthy paper trail. Let CRS Incorporated’s Professional Development Management System, CoursePlanner™, help your district improve the way you manage PD activities.

CoursePlanner is a fully automated ASP system which allows teachers and other district employees to register for district provided courses and allows users to manage their own PD plans. It is designed to track and maintain individual PD and provide accurate, real-time tracking for administrators as well as facilitate district level state and federal reporting requirements.

Start your school year off on a high note by getting your district PD organized. Let CoursePlanner and SubFinder work together to ensure you always have the most qualified person in the classroom. For a demonstration or more information about the CoursePlanner software, contact Katy McCloskey at 800.782.3463 Ext. 6171.

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