VETtrak 4.4.5 Release Notes

Release 4.4.5.0 - 15/01/2016

Version 4.4.5 is a major update from 4.4.4.x and includes database updates. Ensure you have a backup of your database before updating. If at all unsure please contact VETtrak Customer Support on 03 6333 0166 or email support@vettrak.io.

The most significant changes are:

• Victorian AVETMISS reporting changes for 2016.
• Additional features for VET FEE-HELP.
• Reporting of Victorian Foundation Skills assessments.
• Custom fields for clients and employers.

Victorian AVETMISS reporting changes

1. Program Unique Supervised Hours (PUSH). A new field has been added to the VIC state page in the Enrolment wizard to record the PUSH. This should be set as the total number of unique hours of the student's supervised training and assessment activity for the enrolment. You can enter a value manually, or have VETtrak calculate an initial value by ticking "Sum of unit hours" or "Sum of class/event hours". "Sum of class/event hours" will total the hours from the classes the client is in, in the occurrence that this enrolment is in, as well as hours from this enrolment's events that have the new "Contributes to PUSH" field ticked in the Event wizard. On non-occurrence enrolments that are linked to occurrence enrolments, "Sum of class/event hours" will include the hours from classes and "Contributes to PUSH" events for the linked occurrence enrolments. You can set a default calculation option for new enrolments in the File menu -> Global Preferences -> Compliance Preferences -> VIC tab. Recording a PUSH is mandatory for non fee-for-service reportable enrolments that commence in 2016 or later. It is reported in a new field in the NAT130 file.
2. Program Supervised Teaching Activity Completion Date (PSTACD). A new "Supervised end date (PSTACD)" field has been added to the VIC state page in the Enrolment wizard. This should be set as the date when the student is scheduled to complete, or did complete, supervised training and assessment. This is mandatory for non fee-for-service reportable enrolments continuing into 2016 or later. It defaults to the enrolment end date. It is reported in a new field in the NAT130 file.
3. Bulk update PUSH/PSTACD. A new Utility menu -> VIC utilities -> "Bulk update PUSH/PSTACD" option has been added. This allows you to find a set of enrolments using a range of search criteria, and then update or recalculate the PUSH, and/or update the PSTACD, for individual enrolments or in bulk for selected enrolments in the grid. Before your first 2016 AVETMISS generation, you can use this to set the PUSH and PSTACD for 2016 enrolments in bulk.
4. Superseded qualifications.When a qualification is superseded and a client is transitioned to a superseding qualification, it is now required for you to report that the enrolment in the new qualification supersedes the enrolment in the old qualification. In addition, units that were partially completed in the old qualification, and continue in the new qualification, need to be reported as withdrawn in the old enrolment, and the hours for the same unit in the new enrolment adjusted to subtract the withdrawn hours. To do this:
   1. Create the new qualification in the Qualification Manager if it doesn't already exist.
   2. Edit the old qualification in the Qualification Manager, and set the status field to "Non-current". This will make available the new "Qualification superseded by" field on the second page - in this field, select the new qualification that supersedes this one.
   3. For a client's enrolment that needs to be transitioned from the old to the new qualification, record a withdrawal for each unit that is continuing into the new qualification, with the correct number of attended hours.
   4. Create a new (or edit a second existing) enrolment that will supersede the old one, and select the new qualification. Add the units for the new qualification, including any that are continuing in this superseded enrolment. On the VIC state page, the new "Supersedes enrolment" field will list the client's enrolments that have a qualification that is marked as superseded by the qualification on this enrolment, so select the old enrolment that is being superseded by this new enrolment (this will also set the new enrolment's enrolment date to the same as it was in the selected superseded enrolment).
   5. When you click Next, VETtrak will look for any units on the new enrolment that are withdrawn in the superseded enrolment. For any that it finds, it will automatically reduce the hours of those units in the new enrolment by the withdrawal's attended hours in the superseded enrolment. VETtrak will display a message informing you of the unit hours that will be adjusted when you save the enrolment, or warn you if the data is not available to perform an automatic adjustment.
   6. When you generate VIC AVETMISS, the qualification from the selected "supersedes enrolment" (or its "report this qualification as", if one is selected) will be reported as the "Associated course identifier" in the NAT120 file for all units in the superseding enrolment.
5. Funding eligibility key. New "Funding eligibility key" fields have been added to the VIC state page in the Enrolment wizard, and in the Edit AVETMISS Values wizard. This is for future reporting in the NAT120 file.
6. Removed rule from NAT130. VETtrak now allows you to report records in the NAT130 file for a qualification/course that has a level of education of 912 (Other non-award courses) or 999 (Education not elsewhere classified).
7. Enrolment date in occurrences. The "Enrolment date" on the VIC state page in the Enrolment wizard is now optional for an occurrence or booking.
8. VIC dates in duplicated occurrences. When duplicating a VIC occurrence, the commencement date, enrolment date, and PSTACD, if they are set in the occurrence, will now be adjusted to align with the new occurrence's start date.

VET FEE-HELP changes

A number of improvements have been made to the VET FEE-HELP functionality.

1. Automatically setting VET FEE-HELP completion status from unit results.VETtrak can now set VET FEE-HELP unit of study completion statuses automatically, based on a client's unit of competency results. The functionality includes:
   1. Relating enrolments to courses of study. A new menu option "Relate enrolments to course of study" has been added when right-clicking a course of study in the Client Manager. This allows you to select one or more of the client's enrolments to relate to the course of study, to contribute to resulting. This then allows you to perform the next step to relate units.
   2. Relating units of competence to units of study. A new menu option "Relate units" has been added when right-clicking a unit of study in the Client Manager. This allows you to select one or more of the units from the client's enrolments that are related to the course of study, to relate to the unit of study. This enables the auto-completing feature.
   3. Auto-completing units of study from unit of competency results.If units of study have been related to enrolled units of competency, when you record results for those units of competency, VETtrak will automatically set the completion status on the VET FEE-HELP unit(s) of study based on the results of the related unit(s) of competency. The rules VETtrak uses to determine the completion status for each unit of study are:
      1. If all units related to a unit of study are withdrawn, with a finish date on or before the census date, then the unit of study's completion status will be "Withdrawn without penalty".
      2. If all units related to a unit of study have a final result, and at least one has a not competent result, or at least one is withdrawn with a finish date after the census date, then the unit of study's completion status will be "Failed".
      3. If all units related to a unit of study have an RPL result, then the unit of study's completion status will be "RPL".
      4. If all units related to a unit of study have a successfully completed result, then the unit of study's completion status will be "Successfully completed".
2. VET FEE-HELP profiles.You can now create and apply VET FEE-HELP profiles. These are similar to contract profiles, but for VET FEE-HELP. This allows you to create a standard course of study, with units of study, along with related enrolments and units of competency. You can then apply the profile to multiple clients in bulk, which will create your standard VET FEE-HELP course of study, units of study, and related enrolments and units of competency, for each client in one hit. Your existing VET FEE-HELP templates have been migrated to profiles. The functionality includes:
   1. Creating a VET FEE-HELP profile from a course of study. A new menu option "Create profile from this course of study" has been added when right-clicking a client course of study in the Client Manager. This allows you to create a new profile from an existing client's course of study and its related enrolments, which you could then apply to other clients.
   2. Manage VET FEE-HELP profiles. The "Course of study profiles" node shown when expanding a qualification in the Qualification Manager will list all VET FEE-HELP course of study profiles that have been created for the qualification. You can edit most details within a VET FEE-HELP profile, as well as view the client courses of study that have been created from the profile.
   3. Creating a VET FEE-HELP profile from scratch. You can right-click the "Course of study profiles" node in the Qualification Manager and select "Add basic course of study profile" to create a new VET FEE-HELP profile from scratch. Note that you cannot create related enrolments or units of competency when you create a VET FEE-HELP profile this way.
   4. Applying VET-FEE HELP profiles to clients. Right-click a VET FEE-HELP profile in the Qualification Manager and select "Enrol clients in course of study profile" to apply the profile to one or more clients. Alternatively, you can go to the Create menu and select "Course of Study from Profile".
3. 2016 reporting requirements.The following changes have been made to comply with the 2016 VET FEE-HELP reporting requirements:
   1. VCC and VCU half yearly. The Exporter wizard now allows for half-yearly VCC and VCU exports.
   2. USI added to VEN. The client's USI has been added to the VEN file export.
4. Edit client VET FEE-HELP details. The "Edit client VET FEE-HELP details" right-click menu option has been moved from each course of study node, to the "VET FEE-HELP" node, in the Client Manager.
5. Show invoice notice. A new menu option "Show invoice notice" has been added when right-clicking a course of study.
6. Calculate census date. A new Calc button has been added to the Client Unit of Study wizard, which will calculate the census date based on the entered start and end dates.
7. Unit of study discipline code. The "Discipline code" for a unit of study has been moved from each client's unit of study, to the Unit of Study wizard.
8. Highest Prior Educational Participation default. In the VET FEE-HELP Client Details wizard, for Highest Prior Educational Participation, the "Unknown" option has been renamed to "Not stated", and will be the default.
9. Disability.You now set and edit the VET FEE-HELP disability status in the Client Personal wizard. Previously recorded statuses will still be reported but cannot be updated from the VET FEE-HELP Client Details wizard.
10. Withdrawn completion status. In the Dates/Completions wizard, the "Withdrew" completion status has been renamed to "Withdrawn without penalty" to make its meaning clearer, and the field changed to a drop-down to make room.
11. Organisation wizard. The VET FEE-HELP provider code has been moved to a new page in the Organisation wizard. In addition, a new field to allow you to record the URL of your VET FEE-HELP withdrawals policy, for use on reports, has been added.
12. Removal of unit of study/enrolment relationship. The ability to relate units of study to enrolments has been removed, as the new functionality supersedes it.

Victorian Foundation Skills assessment reporting

Functionality has been added to VETtrak to allow you to record and export Victorian Foundation Skills assessment data. This is useful for Victorian Foundation Skills Approved Providers that need to report this assessment data to SVTS.

1. Record foundation skills assessments. A new "Add VIC foundation skills" option has been added when right-clicking a Victorian enrolment. This allows you to select the assessment framework used, and enter the assessment results on Commencement and Completion for each of the five skills (Learning, Reading, Writing, Oral and Numeracy). If you right-click an enrolment that already has VIC foundation skills data recorded, you can Edit or Delete it.
2. Export foundation skills data. A new menu option Utility -> VIC utilities -> "Foundation skills export" has been added, to allow you to export a foundation skills assessment CSV file to upload to SVTS. In this wizard, select the year and organisation to generate the export for, and click the Generate button. The grid will list foundation skills data for enrolments for the selected organisation that have any reportable result activity in the selected year. Each row will be validated to ensure that at least 3 skills have a commencement result and, if any skill has a completion result, that each skill with a commencement result also has a completion result. Click a red status to see the details of the errors, and use the on-the-fly buttons to edit the VIC foundation skills assessment data. Click Export to export the valid rows to a CSV file.

Custom fields

Functionality has been added allowing you to configure custom fields, and assign them to be collected for clients and/or employers. This allows you to store additional data in VETtrak that is specific to your organisation. Please note that there are restrictions on how custom fields can be used, VETtrak will explain these when you first open the Custom Field wizard.

1. Define custom fields. A new "Custom fields" node in the Configuration Manager allows you to define custom fields. This includes giving it a name, a unique code for identification, a type (such as text, date, number, tickbox, single selection from a list of options, and multiple selection from a list of options), settings that vary depending on the type (such as, for text, a minimum and/or maximum length), and optionally a description that will be shown in an Info link. If the type is a list of options, you then enter the available options, order them, and can set a default selection. Finally, you can apply the custom field to clients and/or employers, and indicate whether the field is mandatory for users to fill out.
2. Custom field applicability. A new "Custom field applicability" node in the Configuration Manager allows you to configure which custom fields apply to a type of record (client or employer), order the fields in the record, and preview what the custom fields will look like. This allows you to view and define which custom fields apply to a type of record, as opposed to the Custom Field wizard above that goes the other way and defines which types of records that a custom field applies to.
3. Client Personal and Employer wizards. If clients or employers have custom fields applied, a new page will appear at the end of the Client Personal or Employer wizard, respectively, showing the custom fields and allowing the user to enter values for them for the record, with the rules that were configured.

Finance changes

1. Control which pricing items are invoiced by default. A new "Include this item by default when creating invoices" tickbox has been added to the Pricing Item wizard. Only pricing items with this ticked will be included by default when adding an enrolment or contract to an invoice, or using auto-create invoice. This allows you to indicate which pricing items you don't normally invoice. During the database upgrade, this is set to be not ticked for all Government Contribution and Loan Liability pricing items, and ticked for all other pricing items.
2. Funding model years changed to start dates. In the Funding Model wizard, instead of having separate pricing entries for each year, they now have a start date that they apply from, and they apply up to the start date of the next entry (if any). This allows you to vary pricing through a year, or have pricing that spans multiple years, and means you do not have to enter the same pricing entries for each year if the prices do not change. During the database upgrade, all your existing prices are changed to start from January 1 of the entered year.
3. Funding model amounts changed to 4 decimal places. In the Funding Model wizard, you can now enter amounts with up to 4 decimal places, allowing more accurate $/unit hour and $/unit point calculations in some cases. Totals will be rounded to 2 decimal places when they are calculated and applied to enrolments.
4. Payments against multiple invoices. When expanding an invoice to show payments, for any payments that were made against multiple invoices, VETtrak will now show the amount of the payment that was put against the invoice as well as the full amount of the payment (separated by a slash).

AVETMISS changes

1. Completed units with finish date in future. The "Don't allow completed units to have a start date in the future" preference in the Advanced tab of the Result, Unit and Award preferences has been changed to not allow the finish date of a completed unit to be in the future. It will also now be checked for both "successfully completed" and "unsuccessfully completed" results.
2. Withdrawal with future date. The Withdrawal wizard will no longer allow the finish date to be in the future if the "Don't allow completed units to have a finish date in the future" preference is on.
3. Reporting clients with a single name. The reporting of the "name for encryption" in the NAT80 file and the "given name" in the NAT85 file has been adjusted to comply with a clarification document issued by NCVER, in particular when reporting a client with a single name.
4. Remove NAT85 from National AVETMISS generation. A NAT85 file is no longer generated when you perform a National AVETMISS generation, as this file is not required by NCVER.
5. NT funding sources. The list of funding sources in NT have been updated. This includes adding a number of new common funding sources if they don't already exist, and archiving old ones.
6. NSW Smart and Skilled validation. For NSW Smart and Skilled, VETtrak will no longer report the error "This Unit/Module has a finish date in the past, so its outcome code must not be 70 or 90" when reporting a completed unit with a finish date after the end of the collection period but before the current date.
7. XLSX export. The option to generate an Excel XSLX export of the generate AVETMISS data will now always be available regardless of the number of records, but be aware that it may run out of memory if you are exporting many tens-of-thousands of NAT120 rows.
8. XLS export. Issues that could cause an Excel XLS export of AVETMISS data to not open correctly in Excel, or have incorrect date formatting, have been fixed.

Other changes

1. Remember sizes of wizards. If you resize a wizard and make it bigger, VETtrak will now remember the size so that it appears in the same bigger size when you next open it. Each user has their own wizard sizes. A user can reset all their wizards back to standard size by going to the File menu -> Reset User Preferences, and clicking the "Reset wizard sizes" button.
2. Client secondary email address and mobile number. New fields have been added to the first page of the Client Personal wizard to allow a secondary client email address and/or mobile number to be entered. Ticking the new "Email both primary and secondary addresses" tickbox will cause VETtrak to send the email to both addresses when emailing the client. The "SMS both primary and secondary mobiles" tickbox allows the same functionality when sending SMS messages to the client. Some other fields have been rearranged and the HR/position information fields have been moved to the bottom of the address page to make room.
3. Unsuccessful results. The result types "Discontinued - No formal withdrawal participation ceased (after some participation) (WA)" and "RPL - Not Granted" have been changed to be final unsuccessful results, meaning that they will appear with a red unit icon in enrolments and can't be edited after they are recorded.
4. Upgrade to USI web services version 2.VETtrak will now use version 2 of the USI web service. This has the following impacts:
   1. If you use DVS override to create a USI (when a DVS identity document cannot be provided), you now must specify the non-DVS document type that was presented by the student.
   2. It is no longer necessary to select a preferred contact method when creating a USI.
   3. When creating a USI, if the student's Country of Birth is Australia, then the entered Town/city of Birth must match a suburb in Australia Post's suburbs list. VETtrak will not validate this.
   4. The list of countries available for a Visa identity document has been updated.
5. Qualification release and status fields. New optional fields for release number and status have been added to the Qualification wizard, if you wish to record this information. VETtrak will warn you if you create an enrolment or contract in a qualification with a non-current status.
6. Programme uses tasks. A new "Allow occurrences to have tasks" tickbox has been added to the Programme wizard. Only occurrences in a programme with this ticked will have the tasks functionality available, and give you the warning if you enrol in the occurrence before it has tasks assigned.
7. FileTrak file types. The management of FileTrak file types has been moved out of Global Preferences, and into the Configuration Manager. File types that are required for use by the portals are now marked as "System managed" and cannot be edited or deleted.
8. QLD public holidays. The dates of the Queen's Birthday and Labour Day holidays in QLD have been updated.
9. Unit Result Importer with NSW Smart and Skilled. In the Unit Result Importer, you can now import results with dates but no result type when importing results for NSW Smart and Skilled enrolments.
10. CCQI Export removed. The "Export CCQI data" menu option has been removed, as CCQI data no longer needs to be reported.
11. Custom report request. In the Custom Report Explorer, the "Email report template to VETtrak support" menu option has been changed to "New support centre report request", which opens the report request page in the support centre in your web browser.
12. Security category changes.In the Security Manager, some security entries have been moved from the Custom category to a better category:
    1. "Document Management" moved to a new Documents category.
    2. "Enrolment Task" and "Occurrence Task" moved to the Enrolments category.
    3. "Task Category Setup", "Task Setup", and "Task Status Setup" moved to the Configuration category.
    4. "Transfer Enrolled Units to Catapult" and "Transfer results from Catapult" moved to the Enrolments category.
13. Default report PDF export options. The "Report update" section in Global Preferences has been renamed to "Report preferences", and now contains a new section at the top allowing you to specify default PDF export settings for reports. These settings are used by default each time VETtrak is started.
14. Trainer Portal availability. New "Available in Trainer Portal" tickboxes have been added to the Attendance Type, Result Type and Task Status wizards, allowing you to control which attendance types, result types and task statuses can be used by trainers in the portal. Note that these settings will not take effect until you update to version 2 of the Trainer Portal, which is anticipated to be released in February 2016.
15. Default task statuses. Default "In progress" and "Completed" task statuses have been added, if they didn't already exist.
16. QA results for completed units. When QAing a unit result from the Trainer Portal, when the unit already has a completed result, VETtrak will now correctly show the requested result changes, but will not allow the QA item to be accepted (to accept it, the existing result would need to be reset first).
17. Icon update. Icons representing clients, staff members, groups and employers in VETtrak have been updated.
18. Selecting country of birth Australia using the keyboard. An issue that caused "Australia (including external territories) - 1100" to be selected instead of "Australia - 1101" when typing AU into the Country of Birth field in the Client Personal wizard has been fixed.
19. Changing state on nationally-reportable enrolments. VETtrak will no longer clear the data on the national AVETMISS page when changing the location's state of a nationally-reportable enrolment.
20. FileTrak documents against occurrence enrolments linked to contracts. An issue that could cause FileTrak documents, against an occurrence enrolment which is linked to a contract, to not be displayed in all circumstances has been fixed.