FAQ
General
Field Trip Managment
Job Application Managment
Teacher Certification Reimbursement Management
General Questions
What is the School Automation Suite?
School Automation Suite is a new set of programs directed at the K-12 Education
market. These programs not only save you time, but make administering of field
trips, job applications and course approval & reimbursement, web calendar
and shopping cart simple and economical. Customization of the program to your
respective school district’s needs can be achieved at a very reasonable
cost.
Who needs the School Automation Suite?
Any K-12 school district will benefit from the SAS greatly. By streamlining
your work flow and eliminating time consuming tasks, it not only saves time
and money, it keeps the environment green by saving trees as there is less paper
waste. ??As costs increase for salaries and supplies, any way a school district
can cut down on expenses and time spent on everyday tasks is a major factor
in determining what is needed. School Automation Suite saves you time and energy
doing the work you need to do. Therefore, saving money and allows you to accomplish
more during your day.
Why should I buy it?
Your school district should buy School Automation Suite because it save costs,
time and energy. No matter what your needs are, School Automation System can
help you benefit far more than any other product.
How many schools are included in the purchase of the software?
There is no limit to the number of schools that can use School Automation Suite
software.
What do we have to do to get the program working?
Since this is an online program (meaning your users use the web browser to access
it), you will either need to host the programs on your own servers or host them
with a hosting company.
Do I have to host it myself?
No, you have options.
Option 1 - Requirements if hosting at your premises:
- Web server computer, using web server software
- FileMaker Server Computer, using FileMaker Server Advanced software
- FileMaker Pro Client software for all users
- SSL certificate
- Maintenance of all of the above
- The web pages are outside your firewall and the program is behind it
Option 2 - Hosting: Point In Space Hosting (www.pointinspace.com)
- For less than $50 / month you just sit back and use the program(s): (Special
pricing - include PSI in comments area for special discounted price!)
- Web Server Computer
- FileMaker Server Computer
- FileMaker Server Advanced software
- SSL Certificate
- Email Accounts, if desired
- No maintenance, no headaches and up and running 24/7
- Access to your site is easy and instructions are clear and precise
- Once you purchase the program(s), we send to Point In Space (or any hosting
company of your choice) and they will put the program on your web space.
NOTE: You will need to purchase FileMaker Pro client software for the Board
of Education to administer the programs. One client for each computer that will
be used.
Once the files are on servers, then what?
Once the files are set up either on your servers or at a hosting company,
the setup is easy! There is a Board of Education section where you complete
a form with your school district’s information (name, address, contact
phone numbers, etc.) and add as many schools that are in your district (there
is NO limit under 500). For each school you enter the principal’s name
and email address and the bus garage affiliated with that school. If there is
one bus garage, the information is carried from one school to the next.
THAT is it! You are ready to begin working with School Automation Suite.
Field Trip Management
What does Field Trip do?
Field Trip Management allows the school district to have on-line forms
that teachers can access from home or school and complete in order to submit
a field trip for their class or a group of classes. Priincipals and Transportation
can easily review and approve or deny the trip. The Board of Education accesses
the program through FileMaker Pro for final approval or denial.
Can Field Trip be integrated into our school’s website?
Absolutiely! Just have your IT department link to the hosting company’s
address or your own web server.
Does everyone have their own password?
Everyone can have their own password, but we have found it easier to have a
generic password for teachers, principals and transportation. But, if you prefer,
all you do is enter the user’s username and password into our password
database and you’re ready to go.
How much does the program cost?
Field Trip Management costs $3,995 US.
What if we need something added to the program for our special needs?
No problem . . . contact us and we will customize the program to fit
your needs at our hourly cost. We will give you an estimate at no charge.
Can we program ourselves?
School Automation Suite is a commercial product. Therefore, it cannot be modified
by end users. Any customization can be done by possible SOLUTIONS, Inc. at the
hourly programming cost.
What does Demo mean?
The demo versions of our programs allow you to set up the program either on
your servers or ours for 20 field trips. After that you will have the ability
to call us and after the payment is received, you will get a registration code
that will allow for unlimited use of the program.
How are Field Trips Approved or Denied?
The Principal and Transportation access their specific screens with a password
through their web browser. On their screen is a section that shows the specifics
of the field trip and the approval or denial button. If the trip is denied,
the principal or transportation must enter a reason why. Teachers can then search
for the status of the field trip, if it is pending, approved or denied and the
reason why it was denied.
We have costs associated with each field trip. How do we handle these?
On each field trip application, the teacher completes the CCCS section and the
principal or administration completed the account that is associated with it.
We have another program that handles costs. Can the information from
Field Trip get to this other program?
YES, the program exports data in many formats.
How do we know how many trips each school took?
Field Trip has reports! All you need to do is go to the Export/Report screen
and enter a time frame or, if you want, get a report for all schools or just
one school. Click a button and the report is generated.
Job Application Management
What does Job Application Management do?
Job Application is a program that allows you to have specific jobs
for teaching, non instructional and internal jobs (such as coaches, mentors,
etc). The teaching and non-instructional jobs are shown on the web so that anyone,
anywhere, can apply for a job at your school district. Internal jobs are for
those teachers already employed by your district and are accessible only through
your intranet (internal computers).
There are three different applications. New applicants complete a resume that
includes preferences of what they want to do, all history and references, both
personal and professional. Teachers already employed at the district, but wanting
to change positions, complete a form without references and those applying for
internal jobs, complete a form that is extremely short with no preferences for
job or references.
The Human Resource department can easily see who has applied to what job, review
the specific resumes and choose from the applicant list the person/people for
that job!
How much does the Job Application Management solution cost?
Job Applications cost $5,995 US for the entire district.
Can Job Applications be linked to our Employment Link on our website?
Absolutely. Just have your IT department link your website to the hosting computer.
How are jobs posted to the web?
From within FileMaker Pro, the Human Resource department accesses Job Applications
and chooses the ‘posting’ screen. On this screen, there are various
pieces of information that are completed along with job description and requirements.
You choose whether it is a teaching job, a non-instructional job or an internal
job. Once this is completed, the job is a listed in the correct category with
all the information.
Job Applications contain personal data, is it safe to use the web?
Yes. This is why you need a SSL certificate, (Secure Socket Link). This certificate
encrypts the data so that it is safe to transmit from the web to your servers.
What if someone just applies and doesn’t know what job they want?
All applications for new employees have a section that has a ‘preferred’
position section. In this section, the applicant completes what interests them.
When the school district is looking for a teacher for a certain grade, they
do a search and all applicants who fill those requirements will be available
to view.
How does the Human Resource Department choose an employee?
When a position needs to be filled, the Human Resource Department accesses the
Job Application solution with FileMaker Pro. They go to the Job List screen
and select the job they are looking for. Once this is done, they go to the Administration
screen and see a list of all applicants who have applied for that specific job.
At this point, they can see each resume and decide which applicant is considered
and move that name to the considered list and when they final decision is made,
move that person’s name to the selected list.
Each list can be printed.
My school district has certain Union contract requirements that must
be reflected on the application. How is this done?
Within the Board of Education setup area, you are asked to complete what is
to be reflected on the job applications and the teacher certification reimbursement
programs of School Automation Suite. This text will automatically be shown on
the applications and the teacher certification reimbursement forms.
Teacher Certification Reimbursement Management
What is Teacher Certification Reimbursement Management used for?
Most school districts reimburse teachers when they complete continuing
education courses after the teacher shows proof of passing the course. Some
courses are reimbursed 100%, others 50% and others are not reimbursed at all,
but need to be completed, nevertheless.
Teacher Certification Reimbursement Management allows the teacher to apply
for reimbursement for completed courses online. The Administration accesses
this program with FileMaker Pro and can approve or deny the request easily.
Is this information secure to be sent over the web?
Yes. This is why you need a SSL certificate, (Secure Socket Link). This certificate
encrypts the data so that it is safe to transmit from the web to your servers.
We only allow our teachers to go to certain schools, how will they
know which ones?
In the Board of Education setup section, you can list all schools that you approve.
However, there is a place on the application for the teacher to enter a school
that may not be on the list. It will be up to the Administration to determine
whether this school is acceptable or not.
The information about payment has to get to the payable department.
How is this done?
If the email notification is set to ON, then the accounts payable department
will get an email. If it is not on, then the information can be exported or
a report sent to them.
What type of reports can I see from Teacher Certification Reimbursement
Management?
You can generate a report for a specific time frame or for everyone. There are
reports by Teacher showing what school, course, and amount and by school, what
teacher went there.
If you need any specific report, we can do that for you!
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