March 2018

Update on First Wave Districts

Some of the first wave districts started their dual-processing period the beginning of February with additional districts starting this month.  The SSDT has made continuous improvements and enhancements based on first wave feedback.  We greatly appreciate the efforts our first wave districts and their supporting ITCs have made! 

Documentation Videos and Crosswalks

SSDT is continually updating and improving the on-line Redesign documentation.  We have created various crosswalks throughout the documentation, many of them printable so you can easily associate the Redesign programs with their Classic counterparts.  For example, at the beginning of the Report chapter in the USAS-R manual, there is a link to print a crosswalk of the SSDT Template Reports with the names of the Classic reports they replaced.  You will also see mini-videos throughout the documentation manual.  The videos are designed to help step you through a program's options/features.  For example, the purchase order chapter in USAS-R contains a video on how to create a purchase order.  The videos were created to be simple, concise and just a few minutes in length.  We are in the process of moving the video links to the top of the chapters for easy reference.  For example under the ACH Destination chapter in the USPS-R manual, the video link is denoted with an arrow (example below).    You will then need to click on the 'here' link to view the video.

Creating Custom Fields in USXS-R

A Custom Field is a district-defined field.  For example, you can create a custom field to mark if a vendor's W9 is on file.  Once the custom field is created, it will be available for use in the program.  Custom fields can be added to your grid by selecting the field under the MORE option as well as included on custom reports. 

Along with creating your own custom field, you can also customize a 'user-defined' field imported from Classic.  For example, if you are using user-defined fields in Classic to track ACA reporting codes, they will be imported into the Redesign under standard (generic) user-defined fields that you can rename to better define them.

Listed below are two examples of Custom Fields:

1. Renaming a Classic User-Defined field in the Redesign

• • In BIOSCN, in the'User Defined Fields' section, I have data for ACA reporting in the 'Code 1', 'Code 2', and 'Text' fields.   

• • This data will be imported into the Redesign under the 'Standard Payroll' section of the Employee record under 'Personnel Code 1', 'Personnel Code 2' and 'Personnel Text 1' field names.

BEFORE

• • Under 'Custom Fields', I can query these three field names and edit each of them, changing the 'Display Name' and 'Property Name' fields to field names that makes more sense to me.   The Display Name is the field name that displays on the Employee record or under the 'More' option.  The Property Name is the field name that will be used when creating a custom report.

AFTER

2. Creating a custom field and using it in the system.

• • In order to track if a W9 is on file, create a custom field and place it in the '1099' section of the vendor record.

BEFORE

• • Under 'Custom Field Definitions', click on 'Create' to create the custom field.  

AFTER

• • Custom Field can be added to the grid via the MORE option.

• • Custom Field can be included on a custom report.