ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: April 17, 2024

To plan further ahead or find the latest learning opportunities, as well as notices of cancellation or schedule changes, see the complete calendar at the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).

 

System Environment Updates

Stay up to date on planned maintenance and service outages for ctcLink and related systems: ctcLink Support Page (includes Planned Service Outages)

PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.59.21 Update – April 27

The PeopleTools 8.59.21 upgrade will be implemented in ctcLink on Saturday, April 27, 2024. The ctcLink system will be unavailable from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. During this time, Canvas will not be impacted.

PeopleTools provides the underlying technology for PeopleSoft applications and PeopleSoft applications are built, deployed, and maintained using PeopleTools. 

A supporting document – PeopleTools 8.59.21 Accessibility Update Overview - April 2024 – gives an overview of an accessibility change users will experience once the new version of PeopleTools goes live.

Please reach out to Joey Froehlich, SBCTC Application Services Test Coordinator, if you have any questions or concerns about the functionality described in the document.

PCD Data Refresh – One Week Early!

Ordinarily, the PCD Data Refresh occurs on the first Monday of every month.

This month, to align with the April 27 implementation of the PeopleTools update, the next PCD data refresh will be Monday, April 29, 2024, instead of May 6.

Shut Down Activities for PeopleTools 8.59.21 Upgrade, April 26-27

ctcLink Pillar lists were notified today of system take-down activities in advance of the PeopleTools 8.59.21 upgrade on April 27, 2024.

As part of this upgrade, we will need to have all jobs canceled and all nightly reports in advance of the system take down.  Production (i.e., the live ctcLink site for end-users) will be down Saturday April 27, when Campus Solutions, Finance, and HCM will be taken down and users will not have access to the system until Saturday evening.

Cashier’s offices

• SBCTC will run the Student and Cashiering Fund Balance Jobs at 1 p.m. sharp on Friday afternoon, April 26. This means all Cashier’s Offices need to be closed by noon on Friday, April 26.
• Cashier Offices will be notified directly of this expected shut-down.
• Should they have any questions please have them reach out directly to the SF Support Team.

Scheduled job sets and recurring processes

• Colleges will need to take steps to cancel scheduled job sets and any recurring processes. See the Process Take-Down Instructions QRG to assist with the steps involved.
• If you have a significant number of processes scheduled, you may want to run this query before you start canceling: QCS_PT_PROCESS_IN_STATUS_MAX. This will give you a reference for the-Monday-after as you begin to reschedule.

Below is a list of activities which need to occur in each pillar Friday through Saturday for the full system take down.

Financial Aid

• Cancel all recurring or prescheduled processes and jobs that you have scheduled by Friday, April 26, no later than 3 p.m. 
• Financial Aid users will receive an email on the FA listserv with specific instructions.

Campus Solutions Core

• By noon on Friday, April 26, cancel any recurring or prescheduled processes and jobs that are set to run between 5 p.m. Friday, April 26, through 12 a.m. Sunday, April 28.
• OAAP and HCX (Mobile) will all be offline during the upgrade on Saturday, April 27.
• Integration between CampusCE and ctcLink will be unavailable during the upgrade on Saturday, April 27. Following completion of the upgrade, colleges will need to resubmit any unprocessed orders during the down time.
• Canvas will not be impacted by this upgrade, but users will need to access Canvas directly rather than through ctcLink.

Student Financials

• On Friday, April 26, cancel any recurring or scheduled processes/jobs set to run between 5 p.m. on Friday, April 26 through 12 a.m. on Sunday, April 28.
• On Monday, April 29, please review your scheduled jobs to ensure they are once again active.

General FIN

• All job processes will run as usual the evening of Thursday, April 25.
• Friday, prior to 4 p.m., all job processes will be canceled by Jackie Thoms.
• Sunday, April 28, Jackie Thoms will reschedule the jobs to run overnight Sunday into Monday.

Enhancement Requests (ER) Deployed

The Finance pillar and application support teams have been busy implementing some much-needed enhancement requests in the Finance pillar to maintain alignment with state and federal mandates.

• ER 270 – New Project Types needed in Project Costing - Deployed April 4, 2024
• ER 271 – Add missing Fund 573 for AM Funds - Deployed April 2, 2024
• ER 272 – Updated Rules - Deployed April 2, 2024
• ER 273 – Two New Accounts needed for Salaries & Wages - Deployed April 2, 2024

ER Work Underway

• ER 41 - TouchNet Vendor Discussions
  • The Test Environment has been built, waiting on TouchNet configuration build.
  • TouchNet created a Project Plan which PMO asked them to edit to align with our vision.
  • Email was sent out to the BAC/BAR listserv. We are collecting information on Credit Card Contracts and Card readers, to help with defining the Pilot release schedule planning.
• Campus Solutions OAAP ERs 178, 184,169, 183, 212, and 237 - approved by ctcLink Working Group. Work is underway for Priority 1 (Residency & Citizenship) which includes some crossover between ERs 169, 184, and 237.
• Finance ER 204 - Modifications to WAPAY – Reviewing test files and working with US Bank
• Finance ER 189 - Stale Dating Checks - In progress – Working with Accounting and Business Services

ERs Currently in Testing

• ER 244 – LegacyLink Access Query
• ER 166 - CampusCE Search/Match Parameter
• ER 204 – Modifications to WAPAY

CS Core Learning Opportunities

CS Core Training

CS Core Trainings, a valuable learning opportunity, are held on the third Wednesday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. The dates may change, and notifications will be sent in advance. The CS Core training alternates between refreshers and different process approaches. We highly value your participation and welcome all end-users to attend these trainings. You can find details about upcoming meetings on the SBCTC Calendar, CS Core Weeklyish CORErespondence, and CS Core listserv. Please visit the QRG Campus Solutions Learning Opportunities Recordings for a list of previous recordings.

CS Core Training: Graduation Tracking

Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 8:30 – 10 a.m., Read more and join the session

We invite you to join us in reviewing the Graduation Processing process, with a focus on Graduation Tracking and Search functionality. Suppose your college allows students to apply for graduation online through ctcLink. In that case, the Graduation Tracking Search page will be the first resource credential evaluators access when looking for new graduation applications to review. Once accessed, evaluators can use the Graduation Tracking page to update statuses and add Graduation Notes.

Contact Tanjagay Martin, SBCTC Functional CS Core Trainer, with questions.

CS Core Work Sessions

Campus Solutions (CS) Core Work Sessions, open to ALL end users, are held the first Thursday of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m. The CS Functional Support team facilitates, alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with functional team support. Each meeting includes time for colleges to ask questions about other topics or service tickets.

Find details on the SBCTC Calendar and in the CS Core Weeklyish COREspondence (sent on Fridays to the CSSupport listserv).

Core Sessions: College System & SBCTC Calendar

Game, Set, MATCH! Understanding Search/Match

Thursday, May 2, 2024, 1-3 pm., Learn more and join the session

Module/s: Student Admissions, PeopleTools

Primary Audience: Admissions

References: Searching for Records (Using Search/Match)

One of the biggest differences between ctcLink and Legacy is that there is only ONE Person Record, and that one record is shared between pillars and between institutions. Colleges rely on each other to protect, and respect, data integrity. You know that running Search/Match will help prevent duplicates. Want to know more about why and how? This session will explore how Search/Match Rules work, give you insights into our current configuration, and share strategies for avoiding duplicates.

CS COREterly Open Q&A Sessions

• CS Core invites you to attend its quarterly Open Q&A sessions! While these sessions are for learning and problem-solving, we want to emphasize that these are also part of our efforts to support community building. 
• Thursday, May 16, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
• Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
• Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

We want these sessions to provide an opportunity for college users to:

• Get assistance with any functionality they want to better understand or situation they are struggling to make work.
• Seek advice on anything they are trying to solve.
• Share best practices and lessons learned.
• Develop networks and build community.

To support the varied work areas of our users, each session will have a breakout room for each of the following modules:

• Records & Enrollment, which includes Student Program/Plan, Term Activation, Enrollment Appointments, Enrollment, Transfer-In Credit, Transcripts, Graduation and so on.
• Campus Community, which includes 3Cs, BioDemo, Service Indicators and so on.
• Curriculum Management, which includes class building, course catalog management, enrollment requirements and so on

Along with your colleagues who can share their real-life experiences and the solutions they have employed; CS Core team experts will be present in each room. We encourage you to submit your questions before the session (but doing so isn’t required). Enter your questions on the CS COREterly Question Submissions tab. Knowing your questions ahead of time just helps us to be prepared and allows us to help as many people as possible.

We hope you’ll join us even if you don’t have specific questions! We look forward to connecting with you and for you to connect with each other.

Stacking the Deck: Student Program/Plans

Thursday, June 6, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Based on college feedback, this year we are creating more spaces for sharing lived experience.  I’m looking for a couple of colleges to join the party. Before you tell me you can’t because you’re still working things out, that’s fine! We just need folks willing to share what they are doing and how it’s going. If you’re up for it, please contact Michelle Kuwasaki.

Module/s: Records and Enrollment

Primary Audience: Admissions, Student Records

Related QRGs: Student Program and Information Chapter

Because the impact of the Student Program/Plan is wide, it is important to get them right! We’ll warm up with a quick review of the building blocks involved: effective-dating, adding rows, action reasons, and attributes. Then, make connections with term activation, tuition calculation, FA, the AAR and the transcript. Of course, we need to save time for common conundrums like when to start a NEW stack vs adding a change row not to mention everyone’s favorite, those certificates earned “along the way.”

Student Program/Plans also matter to QARS and NSC Reporting. We will cover general best practices for ensuring data accuracy which also conveniently reduces NSC and QARS errors. And we’ll close by strongly advocating for various maintenance activities such as keeping term activation tidy and minimizing the number of open Student Program/Plans.

FIN Learning Opportunities

FIN Training

FIN Training: Budget Overview

Thursday, May 9, 2024, Learn more and attend the session

Whether you are familiar with the Budget Overview function and want learn more or it's brand new to you, please join us for a session on using the Budget Overview functionality in ctcLink PeopleSoft. This session is geared toward new and/or experienced end-users that need a refresher, but all end-users are welcome.

Topics to be covered include:

• Creating multiple Budget Overview Run Controls: frequently used or tracked Budgets
• Customizing the Budget Overview search criteria: like override the max rows limitation
• Explore the Type of Calendar options: Detail Budget Period vs. Summary 
• Scenarios who would benefit using CC_ORG or PROJECT_KK Ledgers
• Find out how to dive into the details with Inquiry Budget Overview & Budget Details

FIN Work Sessions

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m. The next ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting is May 8.

The ctcLink accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related. There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.

See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.

Finance (FSCM) College Users Production Support Meetings

Meetings are held every Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m. These sessions are open to ALL Finance (FSCM) end users. The Finance Functional team provides updates on Service Tickets, PeopleSoft enhancements, and open forum time to ask questions or request future topics.

• The next FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting is April 23, featuring a “DID YOU KNOW?” topic on Asset Management: Excel to CI Template by Jane Wiseman.

ctcLink Accounting Team presents: Chartstring Clean-Up & Special Topics

Join the ctcLink accounting team every Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. for special topics and ChartString clean-up working sessions.

• April 18, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: WorkCenter Review
• May 2, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: G6 Draws and FA Reconciliation
• May 9, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: Year-end Closing Schedule Review
• May 16, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: Internal Cash Reconciliation
• May 23, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: Year-End Closing Schedule Review

A Way Forward

As the FAFSA landscape continues to shift, SBCTC and college financial aid leadership are collaborating to determine the best path forward for students and staff. New details will be shared as soon as possible.

New SBCTC FAFSA Resources Webpage

SBCTC has launched 2024-25 FAFSA Resources web page geared toward our college system. The page includes regularly updated information for college employees and includes updated FAQ templates.

FAFSA in the News

• Keep up with the latest news from the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Web Center

FA Learning Opportunities

Financial Aid Training

New Process Financial Aid Training: Updating Canceled Pell Records in Batch

Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 9 – 10:30 a.m., Learn more and attend the session

Join us to review this new process created to do batch updating to report canceled Pell records from ctcLink to Common Origination and Disbursement (COD).

Objectives

Understand the steps in Updating Canceled Pell Records in Batch Process:

• Update Pell Origination Status to Canceled
• Update Pell Origination Flag to Pending
• Run PELLOUT
• Understand which fields are being updated in this batch processing

Audience: Staff responsible for cleaning up Pell records in ctcLink 

Background

When canceling a Pell award that has already been originated and reported out to COD, users are having to go the Manage Pell Payment page on each individual student and manually select the Update Pell Origination checkbox, change the Pell Origination Status and the Pell Transac Status fields so that the record would pick up as canceled and be picked up in PELLOUT to report out to COD. This work is typically done on hundreds of Pell records throughout and is very time-consuming.

Solution

Now, using the Population Update Process, the Pell Records can be processed in batch in a simple 3-step process to pick up those hundreds of records to update COD that the Pell has been canceled. The benefit to this batch-processing is keeping COD up to date in a timely manner, which also lessens the burden on staff processing time to keep these canceled Pell records in sync with COD.

The newly updated Pell Processing Business Processing Guide with the pop update processes, begins on or around pg. 21-27 of the guide.

Contact Kelly Forsberg, ctcLink Financial Aid Functional Trainer, with questions.

Financial Aid (FA) Work Sessions

Financial Aid (FA) Work Session meetings are on the fourth Thursdays, from 1 to 3 p.m. The FA Functional Support team facilitates alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with the support of the FA functional team. The end of each meeting is open for colleges to ask questions about the topic presented. These sessions are open to ALL end users.

HCM Learning Opportunities

HCM Work Session Meetings

Human Capital Management (HCM) meetings are held every other Wednesday, from 1 to 3 p.m. The HCM Functional team along with the training team offers Work Sessions and Training Sessions around the different functionality in HCM.

HCM Work Session: TAM Demonstration

Monday, April 22, 2024, 1 p.m., Read more and join the session

Recruiters, hiring managers, staff responsible for identifying and placing newly hired employees, or anyone else interested in seeing how the Talent Acquisition Module (TAM) is used at one of our colleges is welcome to this session.

HCM Work session: Process Pre-Payments

Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 1 p.m., Read more and join the session

The topic is Process Prepayments presented by Agnieszka Pederson, HCM Support. This work session investigates the one-time lump sum deduction for employees who are entitled to health benefits coverage for a full year, but only receive a paycheck for part of the year. Pre-Pay Deductions are taken based on the Pre-Pay Calendar setup schedule.

Transactions referenced in this work session include:

• Pre-Pay Calendars
• Verify Pre-Pay Deduction Mapping
• Pre-Pay Deduction Setup

SF Learning Opportunities

SF Training Sessions

Charge Priority List (CPLs) Part III

Thursday, April 18, 2024, 1- 3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

This charge priority list (CPL) training session will cover setting up and managing item type CPLs. We'll go over functionality and queries to identify and address many issues. By the end of the training, attendees will have the knowledge and skills to maintain CPLs effectively.

SF Training: SF Reconciliation

Monday, May 20, 2024, 9-11 a.m., Learn more and join the session

In this session, we will cover Student Financials reconciliation tips which may include:

• Third-Party
• Outstanding Credits
• Second Journal Set
• Item Types
• Over/Shorts
• And more...

SF Work Session: Write-Off Updates

Thursday, May 23, 2024, 1 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Enhance your understanding and proficiency in managing bad debt write-offs in this comprehensive training session. Join us to ensure your institution is well-equipped to handle these important financial processes in ctcLink:

• Review how past due student account balances end up being written off and explore all the standard ctcLink functional processes that occur before the Write-Off stage
• Get insights into the necessary considerations and actions required for confidently writing off student account balances
• Discuss the proper item type to use for this crucial step in the bad debt allowance process, a decision reached in collaboration with the Business Operations division
• Learn possible clean-up and validation practices from the Business Operation team to ensure your General Ledger bad debt allowances remain up to date

Query Code Freeze Underway

The ctcLink Production Support team is in the process of testing the next upgrade to PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.59.21 which will migrate to production on Saturday, April 27, 2024. As of Tuesday, April 9, 2024, the code freeze impacts query migrations and there will be no query migrations until after Saturday, April 27.

Please see the outline below.

• Wednesday, April 3 – Last day to submit query migration request before query freeze
• Tuesday, April 9 – Query code freeze begins
• Saturday, April 27 – PeopleTools migration to production
• Monday, April 29 – Query code freeze ends
• Monday, April 29 – Back to normal query migration request schedule.

In the case of an emergency, we will evaluate the issue and determine if a migration or emergency fix to a production query needs to occur.

Contact Ivy Brent, Associate Director of ctcLink Business Intelligence, if you have any questions

Query Developer Learning Opportunities

Step Up your Query Game

Learn more about the Designated Query Developer Training series and start your journey to becoming your college’s query guru.

Upcoming courses include:

• Tuesday, April 23, 8:45 a.m., PS Query Training 102 - Query Security
• Tuesday, May 7, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 1
• Wednesday, May 8, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 2
• Tuesday, May 21, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 1
• Wednesday, May 22, 9 a.m.,PS Query Training 301 Advanced - Part 2

Plan ahead for 2024

The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with 2024 instructor-led query-related training. To clear filter settings, select None. Then select ctcLink Learning Opportunities > Reporting Training.

How to Sign Up for Query Developer Courses

The process to enroll in Query Developer Canvas courses has been streamlined. Now, instead of emailing Data Services, simply:

• Visit the ctcLink Training Registration page,
• Select the class(es) from the Designated Query Developer Training section,
• Follow the sign-up process.

More for PeopleSoft Query Developers

Find more ctcLink PeopleSoft Query Development resources including forms, documentation, and tools at the ctcLink PeopleSoft Reporting web page.

ctcLink Accessibility Monthly Open Forum

Join us! The ctcLink Accessibility monthly forums engage Washington's community and technical college system in discussions around ctcLink accessibility and technology. We aim to improve communication and transparency while providing space for productive and solution-focused dialog. Our main objective is to deliver accessible technology for all our students, staff, and the larger community.

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, 11 a.m. to noon.

The next ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend via Zoom.

In case you missed a meeting, please see materials from past Open Forums.