June 2023 Monthly Release - 20.11.59 (May 26)

EFIN-101759

Changes to Favorites and Favorite Groups Using the Toolbar on a Page

If a user adds a page to a Favorite Group or removes the Favorite designation using the Add Favorite or Remove Favorite toolbar options on the page, the changes will be reflected on My Dashboard and in the Favorites list after manually refreshing the browser or upon the user's next login. Previously, an automated refresh was occurring and it sometimes caused system resource issues in larger organizations. When a user adds or removes a page from a Favorite Group using the options on My Dashboard, the changes are reflected immediately.

EFIN-101732 and EFIN-103169

New Tabbed Page for Integration Status Logs

The legacy page for Integration Status Logs has been replaced with a version that is easier to navigate and provides information in fewer steps. The new format reduces load time, increases performance, and decreases user wait time.

A single page provides inbound and outbound log tabs including information for status, integration source for inbound logs, date and time of events, and the request and response for use in troubleshooting.

EFIN-100703

Help Center Link Directs to New Portal

The Help Center link in PowerSchool ERP software has been updated to go directly to the new help portal which displays cards for each topic of PowerSchool ERP help content. From the portal the user can perform a search across all sections of the online help, select a specific section to search to refine results, and navigate to a content page from the search results.

Users can click the PowerSchool P logo to reach the portal if they are on a content page and want to perform a universal search.

Previously, the Help Center link was redirecting from the former help site.

EFIN-98712

Changes to Batch Journal and Batch Last Year Journal Entries Pages

For organizations that do not activate Advanced Workflows for journal entry approvals, the instances of Submit have been reverted to Post for consistency. The wording of Submit or Post is dependent on the activation of Advanced Workflows for journal entry approvals.

• Legacy (not using journal entry workflow approvals): All instances of Submit have been replaced with Post.

• Using journal entry workflow approvals: The term Submit is used.

Changes have been made to the security resources needed for a user to manage the Batch Journal Entries and Batch Last Year Journal Entries pages:

• Existing security resources have been renamed as follows:

  • Resource 117: May Post Batch Data Entry is renamed to May Submit/Post Batch Journal

  • Resource 123: May Approve Batch Data Entry is renamed to May Release Batch Journal

The authorizations will work in the following manner:

• If the user is assigned resource 117 or 123:

  • Release/Submit action bar menu is enabled if you are using journal entry workflow approvals.

  • Release/Post action bar menu is enabled if you are not using journal entry workflow approvals.

• If the user has only resource 123 then in the subsequent screen user is allowed to proceed with Release Only option.

• If the user has only resource 117 then in the subsequent screen user is allowed to proceed with

  • Submit Only option if you are using journal entry workflow approvals.

  • Post Only option if you are not using journal entry workflow approvals.

• If the user has both resources 117 and 123 then user is allowed to proceed with

  • If you are using journal entry workflow approvals:

    • Release Only

    • Submit Only

    • Release and Submit

  • If you are not using journal entry workflow approvals:

    • Release Only

    • Post Only

    • Release and Post

• If neither resource 117 or 123 is assigned, the system displays a message stating the user is not authorized.

EFIN-98700

On Premise Customers Only: Prompt to Enter Credentials for Each Visit to PowerSchool ERP or Employee Access Center (EAC)  

For on-premise customers a global variable feature, EFPSSOPROMPTALWAYS, has been added. When this variable feature is enabled for customers using Single Sign-on (SSO), users are prompted to authenticate each time they open PowerSchool ERP or the EAC website. This addresses a concern with shared devices where the SSO authentication was automatically logging in previous users if it was still valid. The variable is enabled at the application level, and the application needs to be restarted after changing the value to enable or disable the feature.

EFIN-95164

Notification of Pending Record in Demographic Effective Date Changes

A warning message appears on the Employee Information page if the employee has pending records in Effective Date Changes - Demographics. This does not stop the user from changing values in the employee record. If the records in Effective Date Changes are later posted, they may override the change to the employee record.

EFIN-66314

Advanced Workflow Feature Flag for Journal Entries

In the Workflow Configuration Profile, on the Advanced Workflow Configuration page, a feature flag has been added for Advanced Journal Entry Workflow. If you are currently using other Advanced Workflows, you need to enter a Support case to have the journal entry workflow provisioned. You also need to set up Workflow Groups, Roles, and Applications for journal entry approvals. After completing setup, you can select Advanced Journal Entry Workflow to implement journal entry approvals.

EFIN-103245

Effective Date Changes Deductions Page

On the Effective Date Changes: Deductions page, a fatal error was occurring when performing a search using the Employee Number field and entering an alphanumeric string of characters. This has been fixed.

EFIN-103149

New Employee Access Center (EAC) Identifier 2167: Demo - Allow Update of Employee Info (Global)

In new EAC when an employee clicks Update information on the Demographic Information page, fields will be active or inactive based on the administration setting of Identifier 2167: Demo - Allow Update of Employee Info (Global) along with other specific detail identifiers. If 2167 is:

No: All fields on the Demographic Information page are read only except for the following sections, which are controlled by other specific identifiers as described:

• Race/Ethnicity field is active if 2500: Show and 2501: Allow Update both = Y

• Gender identity field is active if 6002: Show and 6003: Allow Update both = Y

• User-defined fields are active if identifier 2205: Allow Update = Y

Yes: All fields on the Demographic Information page are active except for the following sections, which are controlled by other specific identifiers as described:

• Race/Ethnicity field is inactive if 2501: Allow Update = N. If 2500: Show = N, the field does not appear.

• Gender identity field is inactive if 6003: Allow Update = N. If 6002: Show = N, the field does not appear.

• User-defined fields are inactive if 2205: Allow Update = N

EFIN-102841

KPI Panels

An issue was occurring if a user removed all KPI widgets from a dashboard or did not have any KPI resources assigned. A message appeared that there were no KPI Resources for the user, and the Add a New Panel widget did not appear on the dashboard. This has been resolved.

EFIN-102643

Applicant Tracking (ATS) and Records Integration Phone Number Formatting

The hyphen (dash) is maintained in phone numbers in the payload when data is sent to Applicant Tracking (ATS) and Records. Previously, the dash was removed when sending from PowerSchool ERP to ATS or Records, and phone numbers were saved in ATS and Records without dashes. Validation errors occurred if the records were later sent back to PowerSchool ERP, because PowerSchool ERP requires dashes in phone number formatting.

EFIN-101554

Vendor Bank Flag on Employee Vendor

When employees elected to use a different bank account for accounts payable reimbursements than their payroll direct deposit account, the system was reverting back to the payroll bank information for accounts payable after each monthly install. This has been corrected.

EFIN-101409

AP Check Attachment Upload

The system will attempt to upload an accounts payable check attachment three times in the event of an upload failure to increase resilience. Debugging has shown there was sporadic failure during the upload and attachments ended up on incorrect check records.

EFIN-101406

Departmental Charge Summary Report Formatting

Fixed report formatting for the Warehouse Inventory Departmental Charge Summary report, so values in the quantity column always appear. Previously, the quantity displayed as asterisks if the value was too large.

EFIN-101333

Integration: Resolved Attendance Posting for the Records Created from PowerSchool ERP

Absence records were assigned the status of Pending for records created from PowerSchool ERP when Smartfind Express (SFE) integration is turned on. This was preventing the absences from being posted from PowerSchool ERP. This has been fixed and now absences can be posted for records created in PowerSchool ERP.

EFIN-101232

Profit and Loss Report Changes to Display Prior Year Budgets for Texas

A fix was implemented to display prior year budgets when running the Profit and Loss Report for Texas.

EFIN-101170

Location Activity Fiscal Summary Report: Beginning Cash Balances

In the Student Activities Location Activity Fiscal Summary Report, the beginning cash balance for the first location activity was incorrectly being displayed for all other locations. This has been corrected.

EFIN-101033

Attendance Preview Post Formatting Issue

Fixed a formatting issue for the remarks column on the Attendance Preview Posting report. If remarks had a line break or carriage return, it was pushing the rest of the columns on the report to the next line. This has been fixed.

EFIN-100766

New Resource Added for Posting PCard Records

Added security resource 5214 and assigned it to Post PCard Records menu option.

EFIN-100676

New Employee Access Center (EAC) What if Calculator: Federal Tax Calculation Checkboxes

In new EAC, on the What if Calculator Tax Information step, if the employee has a Pre-2020 W-4, the checkboxes for the Use 2020 or Later Form W-4 and W-4 Step 2 each displayed a label W-4 Step 2 Checkbox next to the checkbox. These extra labels have been removed.

EFIN-100628

Access to W2 in New Employee Access Center (EAC)

On the Defined Window 31001 EAC Print Option Screen, if the Print W2 field is blank then it will be treated the same as Y with regard to printing the employee W2. In the EAC Administration Profile for Other Setup, profiles that hide W2 from employees that have W2 printed, including 2901 to hide all and 2900 to hide a specific year, will impact employees if the Defined Window 31001 is blank or Y in the same manner.

EFIN-100514

Fund Accounting Locked by Another User Reported in Error

Corrected the issue where a user received the message: Fund Accounting is currently locked by another user, even though no one had locked Fund Accounting.

Corrected issues with the locking code in Fund Accounting and Budget Preparation modules.

Changed the locking routine to prevent a false negative setting by only reducing the number if it is positive in the first place.

Changed the clear option within the lock to capture when someone runs this in the lockout.log as this could result in negative users when someone correctly logs out after being cleared.

Changed the lock option to capture when someone runs the lock in the lockout.log as this will help us identify if someone really is locking a package.

Changed the program that runs the nightly job to clear out users in the cron_fixlocks.log so that it will be clear what time this is running. If this process is happening while users are working, it could also result in a negative number of users.

EFIN-100379

Billing and Receipts: Add Favorites Issue

On multiple Billing and Receipts pages, an issue occurred when attempting to add the page to a Favorites Group by using the Add to Favorites icon in the toolbar. The Favorites group names did not appear in the drop-down list unless the user exited and reloaded the pages. This has been resolved across all Billing & Receipts menu options.

EFIN-99939

Integration: Absences and Substitute Payments Rules Setup Sort Order for Job Class Code

On the System Administration, Integrations, Absences and Substitute Payment Rules page for Smartfind Express (SFE) integration, when creating a new rule the sort order for Job Class is alphanumeric for the job class code, beginning with numbers, then letters. Previously the order seemed random.

EFIN-99858

New Employee Access Center (EAC) Password Change Email Notifications Sent Only to Intended Recipients

When an employee changed the password in new EAC, in addition to the employee who made the change, some other employees were receiving the password change email notification because the email addresses were entered in administration profile identifiers. This has been fixed. Now only the employee and the person whose email address is set in identifier 2048: Failed-Send will receive the emails.

Identifiers that were receiving the notices in error were:

• 2150: Employee Info Notify Email

• 2047: Human Resources Email Address

EFIN-99845

Update to Invoice Optio Forms to Prevent Attachment Issue when Printing Invoices

Fixed both standard and z-fold invoice Optio forms so they create a PDF copy of the invoices being printed and the PDFs are attached to the invoice records and available and accessible through the software.

EFIN-99594

New Employee Access Center Always Allows Update of Preferred Name

In new EAC, identifier 2154: Demographic - Allow Update of Name was preventing an update to the Preferred Name field when set to No. Now the Preferred Name field will be open for edit at all times.

EFIN-99561

New Employee Access Center (EAC): Allowing Update of Phone Numbers

In New EAC, employees will be able to update the phone number when not allowed to update the address if the Profile category Employee Information is set up with the identifiers:

• 2506: Allow change of phone if change address is N = Yes

• 2167: Demo - Allow Update of Employee Info (Global) = Yes

• 2155: Demographic - Allow update of Address and Phone = No

Previously, employees could not update the phone number with these settings.

EFIN-99492

New Employee Access Center (EAC) Preferences Option Removed for Single Sign-on (SSO)-enabled Profile

In new EAC, the Preferences menu does not appear in the user menu for active employees when clicking the user initials if SSO is enabled on the profile. The Preferences menu appears for terminated employees who use login credentials and it will appear if SSO is disabled on the profile by an administrator.

This is consistent with legacy EAC. The Preferences menu does not appear when SSO is enabled.

EFIN-98520

Extended Check With Rate on Legacy Employee Access Center (EAC)

Changed legacy EAC and check printing so that if you print the extended format with rate and a pay code is listed multiple times because of different rates, it only displays the YTD value once per pay code. Previously, the pay code would list YTD for each rate, causing duplicated YTD values.

EFIN-98516

 Employee Information SSO Identifier Update SQL Error

A SQL statement duplicate key error was occurring when performing a bulk update of the SSO Identifier field on employee records using an Excel import. The issue has been resolved so that existing records are updated and new records are added during a bulk update.

EFIN-96898

Employee Timesheets (ETS): Apostrophe in the Notes Field

Using an apostrophe in the Clock-in or Clock-out timesheet notes entry screen caused a fatal error. This issue has been resolved.

EFIN-96891

Integration: Error for Smartfind Express (SFE) Classification Code 

On the System Administration, Integration, SFE Classification Codes Mapping page, when creating a new mapping the SmartFind Express Classification Code field has a maximum of 16 characters.

EFIN-96719

Single Sign-on (SSO)-enabled Employee Timesheets (ETS) Menu Access

The user will not have to go through the security questions page when they log in to ETS in the following ways:

• Using SSO for Employee Access Center (EAC)/ETS

• Using System IDP login

EFIN-96476

Integration: Changes to Activity History

On an employee record, when demographic changes from Records were integrated, a false item was created in Activity History indicating that the SSO Identifier was removed and the new value was blank. The SSO Identifier was still entered on the employee record. This issue has been resolved.

EFIN-94740

Fixed Check Register Report Printed Asterisks

On the Check Register report, fixed an issue causing asterisks to appear instead of the total number of checks when the count exceeded 9999.

EFIN-93573

On Premise New Employee Access Center (EAC) Single Sign-on (SSO) Login After SSO Session Expires

On Premise customers using new EAC with SSO will be redirected to the SSO login page when the session expires for the SSO login account. Previously, they were being directed to the legacy EAC page and prompted for a username and password.

EFIN-92368

Integration: Smartfind Express (SFE) Employee and Substitute Identifier Menus

On the SFE Employees and Substitute Identifier page, the Job Class and Pay Code drop-down menus were displaying the description but not the code. This has been fixed so that the code and description appear in the menus.

EFIN-92367

Integration Status Logs: Outbound Logs Include Employee ID

For integrations with Applicant Tracking (ATS) and Smartfind Express (SFE), the inbound status logs included the Employee ID, but the outbound status logs from PowerSchool ERP did not. Employee ID has been added to outbound status logs to assist with troubleshooting issues.

EFIN-101586

941 Quarterly Federal Tax Report Report Reformatted to Include Schedule B

The IRS 941 Quarterly Federal Tax Report has been reformatted to closely match the official IRS form. It also includes Schedule B data.

EFIN-97165

Changes for Create Employee W2 File

In Human Resources W2 Processing, when Create Employee W2 File is selected, if the wages and taxes boxes contain zero amounts, the state name box is blank.

EFIN-100822

Affordable Care Act (ACA) Installation

Corrected the ACA installation to prevent a fatal error from occurring: The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "fk_search_keys_systb_tables_tabname".

EFIN-100821

W2C: Ability to Change Box 12 Code Added

Modified the functionality on the W2C Processing - W2C Employee File Update page to allow users to change the reported code in Box 12 lines. This will work as if creating a new line for the new Box 12 code to report a corrected amount and setting the original Box 12 code amount to zero.