VETtrak 18.2.1 Release Notes - 13/07/2018

Version 18.2.1 is a minor update from version 18.2.0. This version introduces a new direct integration with NCVER's AVS (AVETMISS Validation Software) system.

Changes in 18.2.1.3 (14/09/2018)

• NSW Smart and Skilled training not completed. Generate AVETMISS for NSW Smart and Skilled will now allow a unit start date in the past with an outcome of 85 (Not yet started) if the training status is "Training not completed" (TNC).
• NSW Provider Calculator Export extra columns. The NSW Provider Calculator Export wizard will now include the new columns "Strategy_Initiative", "Strategy_Code", "Sub_Strategy Code" and "Voucher_No" in the export spreadsheet, so the NSW Provider Calculator will accept it. For now, Strategy_Initiative will always be 0, and the other new columns will always be blank, so if you need to specify values for these fields, this will need to be done manually in the spreadsheet. The ability to enter values for these fields will be added in the future 18.3 update.
• Performance when right-clicking a payment. An issue that could cause VETtrak to freeze for some time when right-clicking a payment node has been fixed.
• CRICOS CoE and Student Import. The CRICOS CoE and Student Details Importer wizard now caters for the additional "Visa Non Grant Action Date" column that PRISMS has added to the import spreadsheet.

Changes in 18.2.1.2 (7/08/2018)

• NSW extend not yet started units. The NSW Extend Unit Dates wizard will now extend the dates of units with an 85 "Not yet started" result.
• Report location address state in NAT20. If you have a location that has an address state that is different to the location's state, the location's address state is now reported as the state in the NAT20 file. You are also now able to report an employer as the location even if the employer's business address state is different to the enrolment's location state, but VETtrak will warn you when this is the case.

Changes in 18.2.1.1 (27/07/2018)

• NSW fee waiver. The new fee waiver of "W121 = Fee Free Apprenticeships Initiative" has been added to the Enrolment wizard for NSW Smart and Skilled.
• AVS error handling. An issue causing VETtrak to unnecessarily repeat the AVS authentication process when it receives certain types of errors from AVS, such as when attempting to upload NAT files for a collection that is not open in AVS, has been fixed.
• Web publish allow to enrol. The "Allow to enrol" drop-down has been reinstated when web publishing occurrences, as some VETtrak API integrations may be using it.
• Report Scheduler send from client. A new "Staff member to send from" field has been added to the Settings page in the Report Schedule wizard. This allows you to specify the staff member whose credentials will be used to send emails from the Report Scheduler, when you have "Use individual staff member email logins" turned on.

AVS Integration

NCVER have introduced a new web service for AVS. VETtrak can now integrate with AVS using the new web service, allowing you to do the following:

• Update the AVETMISS classification data lists in your database from NCVER, such as languages and countries, without requiring a VETtrak software update. This will now also update the hours on applicable units and enrolled units to the nationally-agreed nominal hours. This functionality does not require an AVS account.
• When saving your AVETMISS NAT files after generating them, you can tick a box to have VETtrak upload them directly to AVS for validation. This can be done for National generations, as well as State generations for STAs that require you to validate via AVS before submission. You can choose which AVS validation options to apply.
• AVS will validate your files. VETtrak will show you a notification when the validation is complete.
• VETtrak can show the results of the AVS validation, with buttons allowing you to directly edit any VETtrak records in error.

For more information on how the AVS integration works in VETtrak, refer to the Using the NCVER AVETMISS Validation Service Integration article.

Note: Use of the AVS integration functionality is optional; you can continue to save NAT files from VETtrak and upload them manually to AVS if you wish. Each VETtrak user that uses the AVS integration functionality must have their own AVS account, that is registered for the organisation(s) that they upload NAT files for (you cannot use a self-registered AVS account that is not linked to an organisation). If you do not already have an AVS account, information about how to register for AVS can be found on the AVS website.

AVETMISS reporting changes

1. VIC parchment number. For AVETMISS generations in VIC, if you are reporting an award that is not issued, the parchment number will now be reported as empty, as per SVTS rules.
2. NSW empty outcome. From 1 August 2018, AVS will be reactivating validation rule 4742, which will produce an error if you report any unit in the NAT120 with an empty outcome code. To deal with this, VETtrak will now report an outcome code of 85 (Not yet started) for any units with an empty result when generating AVETMISS for NSW.

Email changes

1. Reply-to address. A new "Reply to address" field has been added to the Email wizards. This allows you to specify the email address used when the recipient replies to the email. You can set a default for this field in Global Preferences -> Email Preferences -> Settings tab -> Default reply-to address. If left empty (the default), replies will go to the "from" address as normal.
2. Improved memory utilisation. To allow the Send Email Template wizard to send large email templates to a large number of recipients without running out of memory, the template merging no longer occurs when you go Next in the wizard. Instead, the merging occurs on-demand when you click a new View button to preview or edit a merged email, or when you actually send the emails. This means it is quicker to go Next in the wizard but slower to actually send the emails, but is overall more efficient as the merge only occurs for recipients that you have selected and does not require all the merged emails to be held in memory.
3. Bulk Run Report incorrect attachments. An issue that could cause the wrong attachment to be sent to recipients when using Bulk Run Report in Data Insights, where you go Next and then Back in the Email Template wizard, and then select two or more recipients on the left of the first screen, has been fixed.

Occurrence changes

1. Staff linked via classes. The "Linked staff" node in the Programme Manager now indicates whether the staff are linked via classes (by being a staff member selected for a class in the occurrence), or via the occurrence (by being in the occurrence's Enrolment Staff grid, along with the staff type).
2. Web publish bookings. You can now publish bookings for web enrolment. The latest version of the VETtrak API can then be used to create enrolments in published bookings, as if they were a normal occurrence (note that you cannot add more employees to the existing booking, but you can add new individual enrolments and employer enrolments). Tweaks have also been made to the Publish Occurrences wizard to indicate occurrences and bookings, and it now also shows occurrences/bookings that are in-progress so you can more easily unpublish them.
3. Occurrence Task Activity wizard with no date. An issue causing an empty date of status change in the Occurrence Task Activity wizard to display as 30/12/1899 has been fixed.

Data Insights changes

1. Bulk update division. In Data Insights, you can now bulk update the Division field for Client Enrolments and Occurrences.
2. Qualification and unit state details. New tables allowing you to access the state-based information for qualifications and units (such as nominal hours) has been added to Data Insights.
3. Enrolled unit reportability. An issue in the Enrolled Unit table in Data Insights queries causing a Reportability field value of "National" to show as "Not reportable" and vice-versa has been fixed.

Web portal changes

1. Document permissions. The Student Portal preferences has a new Documents tab allowing you to control which types of records students can access documents for in the Student Portal. New entries for "Client enrolment", "Client occurrence enrolment" and "Class setup" have been added to the Documents tab in Trainer Portal preferences.
2. Show new events under QA in trainer calendar. A new "Show new events under QA in trainer calendar" tickbox has been added to Trainer Portal preferences, ticked by default. When ticked, any new events created in QA (but not yet approved) will show as "ghosted" in the Trainer Portal schedule calendar.
3. Upstream timeout. A new "Upstream API timeout" setting has been added to the Upstream tab in FileTrak preferences, to control how long the portals wait for a list of documents from Upstream.

Other changes

1. View FEE-HELP limit and accumulated debt. You can now right-click a client's VET Student Loans course of study and go to "View debt information" to open a new wizard that shows the client's debt information that is retrieved from the eCAF system. This requires the client to have the correct CHESSN and date of birth entered. This wizard will also automatically update the client's CHESSN to the master if the client has a master CHESSN in HEIMS, and show a message to notify you of this. You can open this same wizard by clicking a new "View debt information" button in the Client Course of Study wizard, or clicking a new button in the grid in the Bulk Upload eCAFS wizard. The wizard will also automatically appear when you go to upload a single course of study to the eCAF system, in which case you press "Create eCAF" to continue; you can stop the wizard appearing by turning off the new "Show debt information when uploading individual eCAFs" setting in Global Preferences -> VET Student Loans preferences.
2. Suburb list update. VETtrak now sources its suburb list from www.australiantownslist.com. When you go to "Update AVETMISS Fields", your suburb list will be updated (existing suburbs in your database will not be removed, only new ones added). The new list only contains geographic suburbs from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, not postcodes that are only used for PO Boxes.
3. A2E assessment results. A new "Open results" button has been added to the A2E Assessment wizard. Clicking this opens a new page in your browser that shows the results of the assessment.
4. Unit results with outstanding tasks. A new setting to give a warning or error "When completing units with outstanding tasks" has been added to Global Preferences -> Task Preferences -> Unit Completion tab. If turned on, VETtrak will give a warning or an error when you record a completed-type result for an enrolled unit, if that unit is linked to any tasks that are not yet complete.
5. Copy and paste keyboard shortcuts. An issue causing the CTRL+C and CTRL+V keyboard shortcuts for copy-and-paste to not work in a few numeric fields has been fixed.
6. Reset payment export status. You can now right-click a payment that has been marked as exported and select "Reset export status" if you need to set the payment status back to be not exported.
7. Duplicate scheduled reports. A new "Dup" button has been added to the grid in the Report Scheduler wizard, allowing you to easily create a new report schedule item that is duplicated from an existing one.