February 2022

If your school is approaching the end of the 2nd quarter, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed.  Opening up teacher input for 2nd Quarter ReportCards will require:

  • Changing input for 2nd mid-quarter report cards from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Confirming the dates for 2nd quarter in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
  • Changing input for 2nd quarter Report Cards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
  • Having teachers go through the 2nd quarter report card input process
  • Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

FDpay! Activate the online payment component to make your February even sweeter! Watch the video below to see just how simple it can be for everyone!

Registration! Registration is an important part of the school year and FastDirect can help make the process easier.  In FastDirect, you can track new student applications, re-registrations of returning students, as well as the charging and depositing of registration fees. Here is some of the information that is tracked in the Registration report:

  • The number of students for each grade level
  • The number of students returning in each grade level
  • The number of new student applications in each grade level
  • An estimated number of spots available in each grade level
  • A breakdown of each existing family and their re-registration status

Here are some other features involved in registration through FastDirect:

  • The ability to allow your parents to re-register their child online
  • A time-stamp for when the child was re-registered
  • Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
  • The finance account for Registration 2021-2022
  • A report showing all families and if they have been charged their registration fees
  • A report showing all families and if they have paid their registration fees

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in MP4 format

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in Youtube

WildCards! WildCards are a good way to keep track of all the required forms and if parents have completed and submitted those forms to the office.  Here are other uses for WildCard:

  • Student immunizations
  • State testing scores
  • Protecting God’s Children

WildCard fields can be created for:

  • Students
  • Parents
  • Staff

Here are the steps to create a WildCard field:

  1. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon
  2. Click on the ‘People’ option in the left hand menu
  3. Click on the link that reads ‘Add/Change WildCards’
  4. In the drop down, select who you are creating the WildCard for: Staff, Parents or Students
  5. Type in the name of the WildCard field, such as ‘Immunizations’
  6. Click ‘Create New WildCard’

Registering students for next year often means forms and paperwork.  With the file upload function, you can add these forms to the Links page, send them as attachments or create links to them on the login screen.  Making these forms available online means you won’t be spending your time making copies and mailing them out. Additionally, by allowing your parents to upload files, you can have a paperless process!  After you have uploaded the forms and made them available online, your parents can fill the forms out and send them back to you through our secure FDmail eMessaging. Here is how to turn on file upload for your parents and ways to help get your parents started:

You can activate this feature either for parents or students or both. To do so, you’ll go to Settings and click on FDmail in the left hand navigation menu. Check mark the option to Allow Parent File Upload and click ‘Save Changes’.  To allow students, repeat these steps and check mark the option for Allow Student File Upload.  To learn more about file upload, click on your FAQ Icon (the blue question mark), click on the “Look in: All categories” drop-down menu, select File Upload/File Attachment and click “View FAQ”. To help teach you parents and/or students how to use the file upload tool, you can point them to the FAQ section under the heading of ‘File Upload/File Attachment’. HelpDesk would like to help you get your Registration processes set up in FastDirect. Please send an FDmail message or give HelpDesk a call when you are ready to get started.

If your school is approaching the 2nd trimester Report Card, then these functions in FastDirect might need to be addressed. Opening up teacher input for 2nd trimester Report Cards will require:

  • Changing input for 2nd mid-trimester reports from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
  • Confirming the dates for 2nd trimester in ‘Grades’ then ‘Report Card Input Controls’
  • Changing input for 2nd trimester Report Cards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘Report Card Input Controls’
  • Having teachers go through the 2nd trimester Report Card input process
  • Closing the input process by changing ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’

FDpay! Activate the online payment component to make your February even sweeter! Watch the video below to see just how simple it can be for everyone!

Registration! Registration is an important part of the school year and FastDirect can help make the process easier.  In FastDirect, you can track new student applications, re-registrations of returning students, as well as the charging and depositing of registration fees. Here is some of the information that is tracked in the Registration report:

  • The number of students for each grade level
  • The number of students returning in each grade level
  • The number of new student applications in each grade level
  • An estimated number of spots available in each grade level
  • A breakdown of each existing family and their re-registration status

Here are some other features involved in registration through FastDirect:

  • The ability to allow your parents to re-register their child online
  • A time-stamp for when the child was re-registered
  • Time stamps for when parents verify their parent information
  • The finance account for Registration 2021-2022
  • A report showing all families and if they have been charged their registration fees
  • A report showing all families and if they have paid their registration fees

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in MP4 format

Click here to watch the Registration video tutorial in Youtube

WildCards! WildCards are a good way to keep track of all the required forms and if parents have completed and submitted those forms to the office.  Here are other uses for WildCard:

  • Student immunizations
  • State testing scores
  • Protecting God’s Children

WildCard fields can be created for:

  • Students
  • Parents
  • Staff

Here are the steps to create a WildCard field:

  1. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon
  2. Click on the ‘People’ option in the left hand menu
  3. Click on the link that reads ‘Add/Change WildCards’
  4. In the drop down, select who you are creating the WildCard for: Staff, Parents or Students
  5. Type in the name of the WildCard field, such as ‘Immunizations’
  6. Click ‘Create New WildCard’

Registering students for next year often means forms and paperwork.  With the file upload function, you can add these forms to the Links page, send them as attachments or create links to them on the login screen.  Making these forms available online means you won’t be spending your time making copies and mailing them out. Additionally, by allowing your parents to upload files, you can have a paperless process!  After you have uploaded the forms and made them available online, your parents can fill the forms out and send them back to you through our secure FDmail eMessaging. Here is how to turn on file upload for your parents and ways to help get your parents started:

You can activate this feature either for parents or students or both. To do so, you’ll go to Settings and click on FDmail in the left hand navigation menu. Check mark the option to Allow Parent File Upload and click ‘Save Changes’.  To allow students, repeat these steps and check mark the option for Allow Student File Upload.  To learn more about file upload, click on your FAQ Icon (the blue question mark), click on the “Look in: All categories” drop-down menu, select File Upload/File Attachment and click “View FAQ”. To help teach you parents and/or students how to use the file upload tool, you can point them to the FAQ section under the heading of ‘File Upload/File Attachment’. HelpDesk would like to help you get your Registration processes set up in FastDirect. Please send an FDmail message or give HelpDesk a call when you are ready to get started.

The login page can be a great way to carry over your Church and School’s branding into FastDirect. If you would like your login page updated, we can help! If your Church and School could benefit from a new website where you are in control of the content, we can help with that, too!

For help with redesigning or updating the login page, read this FAQ to learn more about what can be changed and view some suggested templates. Once you are ready to make some changes, contact HelpDesk to get started!

If the website that your Church and School is currently using is cumbersome, out-of-date, and hard to manage, we have the solution! One of our partners, Lauren Rau, is a marketing consultant with experience working with multi-million-dollar companies and small businesses alike. Her background in brand strategy, visual design, user experience, public relations and account management inform her iterative approach. Here are some of the reasons why a well designed and easy to update website can help your school:

  1. It sets the first impression. Website design and usability is important because it is often one of the first ways your audience perceives your brand. This can happen within seconds! Together, we can update your website to make a positive impact.
  2. It builds trust with your audience. Poorly updated or designed website makes people less likely to trust you and your site.
  3. It creates consistency. When your website utilizes the same fonts, styles, layouts and feel across every page, your brand is reinforced.
  4. Your competitors are doing it. Don’t get left behind!
  5. Less time worrying about your website, more time focused on the kids!

For an example of Lauren’s fantastic work, you can head to Suburban Bethlehem’s website: https://www.suburbanbethlehem.org/

Here is how we carried over the branding from Suburban Bethlehem’s website to their FastDirect login page to provide a consistent and unified look: https://ssl.fastdir.com/sbls/

To find out more about Lauren Rau, you can head to Lauren’s website or contact HelpDesk for more information!

After the start of the 3rd quarter, principals have the ability to allow individual teachers to edit ReportCard grades for the entire year without having to ‘allow input’ for a specific grading period or without having to ‘allow input’ for the whole school. Once a principal has given permission to a specific teacher to edit ReportCard grades for the entire year, then that teacher will need to follow these steps:

  1. Go to ‘Grades’
  2. In the first drop down inside the gray box at the top, choose the course that has ReportCard grades that need to be edited
  3. Click the large yellow button that reads ‘You are temporarily allowed to edit ReportCard grades for the whole year’
  4. You will now see the list of students in that course and their ReportCard grades
  5. Click ‘Edit’ next to the student whose grade you would like to change
  6. Enter in a grade or change an existing grade for that student, then click ‘Update’
  7. Repeat these steps for any additional student grades or courses

Click here to read the FAQ on Principal’s Only report card editing.

Tax season is here and FastDirect has a tax report for parents. This report can be found when parents click on the Finance icon in the top menu bar.  In the left hand menu will be a Tax Report option.  Once you click on Tax Report, you will select the tax year and then click ‘Tax Year Printout’.  A new window will open with the report for easy printing! The tax report will have the following information:

  • The Federal Tax ID Number
  • The tax year
  • A breakdown of deposit transactions for each account
  • A total deposit amount for each account
  • A total deposit amount for all accounts

Watch this video tutorial to find out more about how parents can learn more about the finance component:

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