VETtrak 20.2.0 Release Notes - 25/05/2020

Version 20.2.0 is a major update from 20.1.x and includes database updates. If your VETtrak is locally installed, ensure you have a backup of your database before updating. If at all unsure please contact VETtrak Customer Support on 1800 838 872 or email support@vettrak.io.

The most significant changes are:

• Agent Commissions add-on.
• Invoice schedule calculations.

Changes in 20.2.0.2 patch (7/07/2020)

1. Payment Run Reports email attachment. An issue that caused the attachment not to be included when emailing the output of Bulk Run Reports for a payment has been fixed.
2. WA RAPT single name. When reporting a single-name client in the Student and Enrolment Exports for WA RAPT, the single name will be reported in the Surname field and the Given Name field will be left empty.
3. Excluding signatures when duplicating occurrences. When duplicating occurrences, even if "Copy documents" is ticked, VETtrak will no longer duplicate any signature files that are against any records in the occurrence (ie. those with a file type code of "AppSign").
4. External system code in search hover. The Client and Employer search will now include the client's or employer's primary external system code in the pop-up that appears when hovering over a record.
5. Match Web Employer default search. When matching an employer in the Process Web Enrolments Manager, the default search will now only show any existing employers whose name "starts with" the web employer's name. If this finds no records, the default matching option will be to create a new employer. This makes the behaviour consistent with the Client Match wizard.
6. Archived staff types in Client wizard. The list of staff types on the staff page in the Client wizard will no longer list any archived staff types, except any that were already assigned to the edited client.
7. VIC 2020 1.2 reporting changes.Small tweaks have been made to Generate AVETMISS 8 in VIC to comply with clarifications made in version 1.2 of the 2020 Victorian VET Student Statistical Collection Guidelines:
   1. Changes to which characters are stripped from the Name for Encryption field in the NAT80.
   2. Added validation that the Scheduled Hours in the NAT120 cannot be negative.
   3. Added validation that the Client Tuition Fee in the NAT120 cannot be negative.
   4. The ANZSIC field in the NAT120 will always be reported as empty.
8. Generate AVETMISS open folder. An "Open folder" tickbox has been added to the Save NAT Files button in the Generate AVETMISS 8 wizards. If ticked, after the files are saved, VETtrak will open Windows Explorer to show the folder that the files were saved to. This tickbox will be remembered per-user.
9. Data Insights Bulk Update Field. The Bulk Update Field action for clients or staff in Data Insights will no longer allow you to update your own client record, to avoid the risk of accidentally making changes that affect your own access to VETtrak.
10. Duplicate occurrence with units linked to classes. An error that could occur when duplicating occurrences, or classes, that have units linked to the classes has been fixed.

Changes in 20.2.0.1 patch (2/06/2020)

1. Calendar Manager class. An error that occurs when editing a class in the Calendar Manager has been fixed.
2. View enrolment email. An error that occurs when viewing an email that has been sent for an enrolment has been fixed.
3. Invoice item drop-down. An issue that could cause the enrolment/contract drop-down to be cut-off in the Invoice Item wizard has been fixed.
4. Add multiple skills. A button to create new skills has been added to the Bulk Add Client Skills wizard.
5. Payments across multiple invoices/holding. Under an invoice or enrolment node, a node for a payment that has been made across multiple invoices, or went to holding, will indicate how much of the full payment amount was applied to that particular invoice or enrolment. For example, a payment of $100 where $40 of it was applied to this particular invoice will be shown as "$40/$100". This was already being shown in some places in the Client and Employer Managers in VETtrak but will now show in more places such as in the Programme Manager.

Agent Commissions add-on

The new Agent Commissions add-on allows you to record agent commission information in VETtrak. The functionality includes:

1. Agencies and agents. Mark employers as agencies and employer contacts as agents, and enter additional details on a new Agency screen in the Employer wizard (the CRICOS agency details have also been moved to this screen). This functionality is available for all customers.
2. Bank account details. In the Employer Manager, you can enter bank account details for making payments to an agency employer.
3. Commission rules. Set up multiple commission rules in the Configuration Manager. For each you can specify a percentage rate to apply to selected pricing items, and/or a fixed amount per enrolment, and you can specify a rule for when agent commission invoices will be generated.
4. Link agent information to enrolments. In the Enrolment wizard, you can select the agency, commission rule, and optionally agent for the enrolment. VETtrak will calculate and show the estimated total agent commission based on the commission rule and enrolment pricing. New nodes in the Employer and Client Managers allow you to see the enrolments that are linked to the agency or agent.
5. Generate agent commission invoices. The new Generate Agent Commission Invoices wizard will find agent commissions that are due to be generated - these will be generated after an invoice for a student enrolment that is subject to commission has been fully paid, and the terms in the commission rule are met. You can also preview upcoming commissions for student invoices that are not fully paid yet. Completing the wizard will create accounts payable invoices against those agencies containing line items for the commission amounts generated from each student enrolment invoice.
6. Accounts payable (creditor) invoices. A new node in the Employer Manager shows agent commission accounts payable invoices. Just like for normal accounts receivable invoices, you can generate reports and record your commission payments and refunds against those invoices. You can also generate a Recipient Created Tax Invoice to issue to the agency.

For more details of how the Agent Commissions add-on works, refer to this article. If you would like to activate the Agent Commissions add-on in your VETtrak subscription, please contact VETtrak Sales on 1800 838 872 or email sales@vettrak.io.

Invoice schedule calculations

VETtrak's invoice scheduling functionality has been extended to allow the dates at which pricing items are to be invoiced to be calculated using various rules. Previously you had to enter all invoice schedule dates manually, but using the new calculation rules you can have pricing items invoiced at dates that are based on activity in the enrolment. The available calculation options are:

1. Fixed date, for the traditional manual entry of an issue date. If the issue date is empty, the pricing item is not scheduled.
2. Enrolment start date. For contracts, this will use the contract start date.
3. Enrolment finish date. For contracts, this will use the contract finish date.
4. Unit start date, when started. For enrolments, this will use the earliest start date of all the units in the enrolment.
5. Unit finish date when complete. For enrolments, this will use the latest finish date of all the units in the enrolment, when they are all complete.

For any of the calculation options, you can also elect to adjust the calculated date by adding a specified number of days, weeks or months to the date.

Changes include:

1. Funding models. You can now optionally specify a default invoice schedule calculation rule for each pricing item in funding models. This rule will be applied when the funding model is applied to an enrolment.
2. Enrolment wizard. A new "Show schedule" tickbox has been added to the pricing page in the Enrolment wizard. Ticking this shows the Schedule Rule and Issue Date fields, allowing you to schedule pricing items without having to go into the Invoice Schedule wizard. Note that you can only manually enter or clear an Issue Date if the Schedule Rule is set to "Fixed date". Pricing items with a Schedule Rule of "Fixed date" and no Issue Date are not scheduled.
3. Invoice schedule wizard. The new Schedule Rule field is also available in the Invoice Schedule wizard, and can be filled-down like other fields.
4. Invoice schedule calculations. Changing the Schedule Rule will automatically update the Issue Date if the value is currently known. VETtrak will automatically re-calculate and update the Issue Date based on the Schedule Rule as data is changed in VETtrak, the Trainer Portal or API, if the pricing item isn't yet invoiced, such as when enrolment dates and unit results are changed.
5. Generate Schedule Invoices wizard. As VETtrak automatically calculates and updates Issue Dates, these dates will be used to determine when pricing items will be invoiced by the Generate Schedule Invoices wizard as normal.

Communication changes

1. Email recipient types. A new "Recipient types" list has been added to the bottom-left of the Send Email wizards. This lists types of related recipients that you can send the email to. Ticking or unticking these will add or remove related recipients of that type to or from the recipient list. The list of recipient types will vary depending on the type of record you're sending the email for. So that you can address the recipient, new merge fields for "Recipient full name" and "Recipient given name" have been added to all email merge contexts (for an employer recipient, both these merge fields will be the employer name).
2. View email sent for record. A new "Sent for record" field in the View Email Message wizard indicates the VETtrak record that the email was sent in relation to.
3. Send portal messages.If you are using the Student Portal or Trainer Portal, you can now send direct messages to users of those portals through VETtrak. Note that replies to those messages are not yet supported. Messages can be sent:
   1. For a single client by right-clicking the Messages node in the Client Manager.
   2. For all clients in a class by right-clicking the Messages node under a class node in the Programme Manager.
   3. Via a new bulk action in Data Insights when querying clients, staff and classes.

VIC changes

1. Epsilon replacing Delta. In VIC, the contract code field is now labelled "Epsilon Cont Id" (short for "Epsilon Training Contract Id") and the Delta student no is now labelled "Apprentice Epsilon No". The "Aust Apprenticeship Centre (AAC)" field is now labelled "Apprenticeship Network Provider (ANP)".
2. Funding source requires purchasing contract. All VIC funding sources in v1.1 of the 2020 supplement that are not Skills First have had "This funding source requires a purchasing contract" turned off, so that purchasing contracts are not required for non-Skills First enrolments.

Client changes

1. Pending client. You can now give clients a status of "Pending", to differentiate unconfirmed clients from "Active" and "Inactive" clients. By default, pending-status clients are hidden from client searches, but you can choose to show them. Any clients created through VETembark are initially given a status of "Pending".
2. Client search. To simplify the client search, the groups/divisions and advanced search options have been moved into the drop-down. The new pending status is available for searching by clicking the Status button.
3. Client status change. If you have a client with a status of Inactive or Pending, and you add an active enrolment to that client, VETtrak will now automatically update the client's status to Active.
4. Position changes. Code is no longer a mandatory field for positions, but if you enter one it must still be unique. Position names must now be unique. A new option to "Merge other positions" has been added when right-clicking a position in the Configuration Manager - this allows you to select one or more positions to delete and merge into the right-clicked one, which will also change over the position on any client employment records.
5. Recording multiple skills. A new "Add multiple skills" option has been added when right-clicking the Skills node in the Client Manager. This allows you to add multiple skills at the same time. You can filter the skill names and fill-down the acquired and expiry dates by clicking the headers. A new "Add skills" bulk action is now available when querying for clients or staff in Data Insights allowing you to add multiple skills to multiple clients at once.
6. Award digital credential issued. Award nodes will now include a "(Digital credential)" note if a digital credential has been issued for it.

Occurrence changes

1. Online class links. A new Online Class Link field has been added against occurrences and classes. Here you can enter the URL of an online meeting for the occurrence or class. This URL will be shown in the Student and Trainer Portals to allow them to easily join the online class, and trainers can also edit it for a class. A new merge field for this has been added to the Occ Enrolment and Class merge contexts allowing you to include it in email and SMS merge templates. These fields can also be bulk-updated in Data Insights.
2. View in manager. In the Programme Manager, you can now right-click a client in a class to view the client in the Client Manager, and right-click a staff member under the Linked Staff node to view the staff member in the Staff Manager.
3. Short code search. The Short Code search in the Programme Manager will now allow you to enter 30 characters.

Finance changes

1. Funding Model improvements. You can now have funding models without a state selected, which will make the funding model available in all states. Such funding models are shown under the "National" node in the Configuration Manager. Other small improvements have been made to the Funding Model wizard, such as allowing the grid to be right-clicked to add Item or Date rows, and copying the values from the previous Date row when adding a new Date row.
2. Employer accounts contact. You can now mark one contact per employer as the "accounts contact". When sending email for an employer invoice or payment, the email will be sent to the accounts contact if the invoice doesn't have an employer contact selected.
3. Invoice node order. Invoice nodes in various managers are now sorted by invoice date instead of invoice number.

Licencing changes

1. Concurrent "part-time" user licences. If you have been granted "part-time" licences when moving to Named User Licencing, please note that those "part-time" licences do not count towards the maximum number of users that can be logged into VETtrak at the same time. For example, if you had 3 concurrent licences for 5 users before moving to Named User Licencing, and you were granted 2 "part-time" licences to bring your total licence count to 5, you will still be limited to having 3 users logged into VETtrak at the same time. Under Named User Licencing, the same user can now be logged into VETtrak from the same machine multiple times and this will only count as 1 licence in use.
2. Expiring subscription. When starting, if your VETtrak subscription is expiring, before showing the warning message, VETtrak will now automatically check if you have paid your renewal and, if so, automatically update your registration key and not show the message.

Security changes

1. Enable password reset. If you have a mail server and default from address email preferences configured, and you are not using individual staff member email logins, the "Allow VETtrak Desktop users to reset their forgotten password" setting in the Security Settings wizard will automatically be turned on during the database upgrade. If you are using individual staff member email logins or no default from address, it is recommended that you use the File menu -> Security Settings option to set up VETtrak password resets on the third page.
2. Read-only Global Preferences. Read-only users are now able to access Global Preferences. They are not able to change any settings, but they can view and update the registration key.
3. Enrolments grid. The enrolments grid in the Client Manager will no longer show enrolment types that the user doesn't have security access to.

Portal changes

1. Publish Occurrence improvements. The Publish Occurrences wizard now has a Status column to indicate the reason why an occurrence can't be published. The wizard now allows you to edit the Max field so that you can more easily set or change its maximum places.
2. View class description in Student Portal. A new "Class description" entity has been added to the Student Portal in the Security Manager. This is off by default. If you turn this on, students will be able to view your class descriptions in the Student Portal.
3. Online document viewing. New functionality will soon be added to the web portals to allow users to view available documents (from the Document Database) online directly in the web browser, without having to download them. This will use a Google service to render the documents. If you do not wish your documents to be sent to the Google service to allow this, you can untick a new "Enable online viewing of documents via Google" setting in Global Preferences -> Portal Preferences -> Settings tab.
4. Booking documents in Trainer Portal. Options for "Bookings" has been added to the document permissions list in Global Preferences -> Trainer Portal -> Documents tab, to allow trainers to be able to view or upload documents against bookings.
5. Messaging permissions. The "Can view messages" and "Can send messages" tickboxes have been removed from the Messages tab in both Student Portal and Trainer Portal preferences. These tickboxes are redundant as you can already control access to messages using the "Client message" and "Class message" entities in the portals in the Security Manager.
6. Publish for VETembark. VETembark now allows you to link work items to occurrences. You can control which programmes and occurrences are available for linking in VETembark using new "Available in VETembark" tickboxes in the Programme wizard, Quick Publish wizette (for an occurrence) and Publish Occurrences wizard. All programmes and occurrences are available in VETembark by default.

Other changes

1. Data Insights disable criteria. A new tickbox has been added to the criteria list in Data Insights. Unticking a criterion will disable it, making it easy to run the query without it, and since you don't need to delete it, you can tick it again to add it back. This is useful if you want to run a query with varying criteria.
2. Maintain suburbs. To make it easier to maintain your suburb list, when you expand Suburbs in the Configuration Manager, you can no longer expand the states and see thousands of suburb nodes. Instead, right-click the state and choose "Adjust suburbs" to show a grid that lists the suburbs in the state. You can use the filters at the top to search and sort the suburbs by name or postcode, and use the buttons to Add, Edit or Delete suburbs from here.
3. Importer improvements. The new Importers will now show a message if your import file cannot be loaded because it is open in another application. A new filter button has been added to allow you to only see and export records with a particular status or action.
4. Use CAA for USI in hosting. The "Use CAA to connect to USI service" tickbox has been removed from the USI CAA tab in Compliance Preferences in hosting. Now that all hosted customers must use CAA to connect to the USI service, VETtrak will always use CAA if hosted so this tickbox is redundant.
5. Proxy SSL. A new Proxy SSL option has been added to Proxy Preferences to control how SSL is used when communicating with your proxy server. You can use this if the default automatic setting doesn't work for your proxy server.