March 31, 2017

Redesign Demo scheduled 

For those of you who may be attending the OASBO conference next month in Columbus, a demonstration of the latest Preview release of the USAS/USPS Redesign Software will be held on Tuesday, April 25th, before the conference begins.  It will be held at the Hyatt Regency in the Knox Room starting at 10:00 AM.  The presenters for the session include a school treasurer and an ITC Fiscal Support staff member.  From 10:00 - 12:00, the presenters will be covering the Accounting software (USAS-R) and then from 1:00 - 3:00, the Payroll software (USPS-R). Registration to attend this session is NOT required.. it's on a first come, first serve basis (seating capacity is 65).  Hope to see you there!

If you are unable to attend the session, a recording of a previous demo covering the same material is available at the following link Redesign Demo.

What is the status of the Redesign?

The SSDT will release the final ‘Preview Release’  of the software within the next few weeks.  The primary goal of the Preview Releases was to allow end-users to experience and evaluate the software in a production-like environment with their own data.  The Preview Releases were not meant to represent a complete replacement for Classic USAS & USPS.  We did receive some helpful feedback and appreciate everyone who took the time to evaluate the software.  Information on what is included on the final Preview Release for both USAS & USPS will be available in next month's newsletter.

Release Candidate 

Our next phase is ‘Release Candidates’.   The minimum set of features that make Classic USAS & USPS what they are will be completed during the Release Candidate phase. There will be several implementations of Release Candidates and with each implementation, all mandatory features will be available and known bugs eliminated.  At this point the software should be evaluated for production implementation.  We strongly urge users to evaluate each Release Candidate and provide feedback to the SSDT.  Your feedback is essential and invaluable!  Feel something is missing?  Let us know!  We prioritize our work load based on what we hear from you.  The more feedback we receive on a feature/report/etc., the higher priority it will have.  Look to your right for the email used to provide feedback.  

 But I haven't seen the Redesign yet... please read the next article!

Production Release

Once a district evaluates and accepts a Release Candidate, we move to 'Production Releases'.  The first Production Release will not satisfy every district.  A district's individual requirements will determine when they are ready to move to Production.  User feedback continues throughout this phase and each subsequent Production Release will add more features.  As the functionality is added, districts will decide if the functionality they need is there.  At that point the system is ‘done’ for them and they can choose to switch from Classic to Redesign.  We do not have a volunteer district in writing yet, but have received definite interest and verbal commitments. 

Have You Seen the Redesign yet?

We're hoping the answer is "Yes!"  If not, could your reasons include:

Reason #1:  I don't have time.

While we understand your extra time is in limited supply, we hope you will make some time to see a demonstration given by your ITC or request a test environment from them.  The Preview Release version of the software has been made available for districts to test and familiarize themselves with for over a year.  

Reason #2:  It hasn't been made available to me.

A test environment of the Redesign software can be made available to any district.  You simply need to request one from your ITC.  The test environment can even be populated with a copy of your district's financial data for you to experiment with.  Please contact your ITC for further details.  If your ITC is unable to provide one for you, please contact the SSDT at ssdt-feedback@nwoca.org.  We'd be happy to help!  

Reason #3:  I'm waiting until it's 'done'.

The SSDT can't provide a definition of 'done' for you, only you can decide when the software best suites your district's needs.  As was stated in the above article, "A district's individual requirements will determine when they are ready to move to Production."  The best way to find out is by experimenting with the software yourselves.

As was mentioned in the first article, a demonstration of the software is scheduled for Tuesday, April 25th at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus (prior to the start of the OASBO conference).  Details are included above.  If you are unable to attend the session, a recording of a previous demo covering the same material is available at the following link Redesign Demo.

Grids - your new BFF in State Software 

Almost every interface in USXS-R is in a grid-style format.  Grids will become your best bud in the redesign due to the customizing you can do in each interface.  Gone are the days of the USASWEB queries where you were stuck with the columned data provided in your query results.  In USXS-R grids, if you want to remove a column because you don't use it, done!  If you want to rearrange your grid columns to where they make more sense to you, done!  If you want to query for specific things in the grid and save the query settings for future queries, done!   Here are the highlights on the grid features:

Lazy Loaded:  

Grid results are "lazy-loaded", meaning as you scroll down through the data, it loads as you go.  This means there is no limit on maximum records that can be returned, and no "page numbers" to deal with to see your results.

More: 

Allows you to select the fields you want to appear in the grid.  Clicking on 'More' in the upper right hand side of the grid displays a list of fields you can checkmark to include or exclude from your grid.

Grid Column Order:

Once you have the desired fields on your grid, re-order them by simply dragging and dropping the column headers left-to-right or right-to-left.  Column widths may be changed by hovering over the column line and dragging it to the desired size.  Your changes will be automatically saved and used the next time you access the grid, even after logging out and back into the system.

Filter Row:

Users will be able to filter grid results directly via a "filter row", which is directly beneath the column headings as shown here:  

Just start entering what you wish to filter on.  For example to find all vendors that are active enter 'true' in the active field.  You may also include '%' as a wildcard to find fields containing a value.  For example, '%school%' would select records with 'school' anywhere in the Primary Name.  The default for date fields and other numeric fields is to select values greater than or equal to the value entered.  More filters available are displayed on the sidebar (listed on the right).

Sort Columns:

You can sort any column by ascending or descending order by simply clicking on the column header name. To sort by more than one column at a time, click on the column header name you wish to sort by first and then hold down the shift key and click on another column header name. The columns are noted with a number beside the column name to show the order it was sorted. The sort can be reset by clicking on any column header name.

Advanced Query: 

Advanced Query is a more elaborate search where you select a property to search on, the operation to search by, and enter the filter value you are searching for.  This may be useful for complex queries that are not easily done via the Filter Row.

Click on  to display the Advanced Query menu.

1. Double click or drag the desired property from the "Properties" box to the Display Name. 
2. Next, select an Operation from the dropdown box
3. Enter in a Filter Value.  For example, selecting the 'Type 1099' property, an operation of 'Not one of'' and entering a Filter Value of 'Non 1099' would include all 1099 types except Non 1099 vendors.You can add as many search lines as desired from the "Properties" box. 
4. Click on  to apply the search criteria to the grid.  Click on  to clear the entire query.  Enter a Query Name and click on  to save your query to recall it at a later time by clicking on  and selecting the Query name.  You can also use Saved queries as a filter when creating a report or share your query with others by clicking on the expert box (to the right of the query screen), highlight the text and copy it in an email to someone. .