ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: May 22, 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).

 

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

ctcLink Improvement Plan Update

Training Onboarding Manuals

An official communication will be released next week about Onboarding Training Manuals now available to assist new college staff in their training journey through ctcLink (PeopleSoft). Although learning a new software system can be challenging, the hope is that these documents will provide new staff with information to locate, understand and participate in the various training and learning opportunities available from Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC).

These manuals were test-driven by Peninsula College and Wenatchee Valley College. Pauline Marvin-Smith, Peninsula College ctcLink College Leader, shared that their HR team was initially concerned about the additional workload this may require. However, after spending some time diving into the documents, one of her HR team members said the following:

“I have reviewed the documents and the links that support this. This is incredible and will benefit the new employees coming in once this is complete.”

Each manual is broken down into sections highlighting specific topics and information necessary to become more comfortable with our ctcLink system. Section topics may include:

• Onboarding Checklist
• Welcome to ctcLink Training
• ctcLink and each pillar’s place in it
• Prerequisite ctcLink Courses
• Role Based Training Content and Requirements (Required and recommended ctcLink self-paced training courses)
• Onboarding Additional Resources

The goal of the onboarding manuals is for supervisors to work with their staff to provide clarity around the staff member’s roles and functions of their job. Every staff member will be required to complete prerequisite courses to introduce them to the ctcLink system. To enhance understanding of the ctcLink system, each ctcLink module is listed with required and recommended self-paced ctcLink Canvas training courses that directly align to roles and functions performed at the college. The checklist provided allows supervisors to identify which required and recommended courses should be completed by the staff member. Additional training resources are provided to assist new staff in their onboarding activities.

The Onboarding Training Manuals can be accessed through the Reference Center. Currently onboarding manuals are available for Finance staff, Human Capital Management staff, and General Staff:

• General Staff Onboarding Training Manual
• Finance Onboarding Training Manual
• Financial Aid Onboarding Training Manual
• Human Capital Management Onboarding Training Manual

Campus Solutions and Student Financials manuals will be available in July 2024.

Training Tracking App

The colleges have experienced an increased need to track online training course completion and progress for members of their staff. SBCTC has created a web-based application which will display training course completion information extracted from Canvas. This application will work in tandem with the Onboarding Manuals and should be available by early June, if not sooner.

Phase 1 Initial Launch

Users will be able to view their own course completion information, as well as course completion information of any staff within their chain of supervision.

Security roles will be dynamically assigned to all active users in the system to access their own training data, and the training data of any staff in the user’s supervisory hierarchy.

An elevated ctcLink security role which provides users with college-level training data will be assigned to college Points of Contact (ctcLink College Leaders) and other identified individuals. Depending on the security role, staff can search for active or inactive employee training data by a variety of means including employee ID, supervisor name, employee first or last name, department, or training course title.

The Staff Training Participation application is intended to help track progress and completion of ctcLink Canvas course training college staff.

Employees and their supervisors will have access to their information and be able to search by several ways:

• District (College)
• Employee ID
• Employee Status
• Employee First and Last Name
• Course Title
• Current Grade
• Final Grade
• Supervisor

Common Process Initiative

College presidents have asked for uniformity and these common process efforts seek to meet that goal: Unifying the way colleges execute standard business processes in all pillars of ctcLink system to achieve ease of college staff onboarding, transfer between colleges, data integrity, and greater bandwidth in ctcLink support services.

The SBCTC Common Process leadership team has also been working through defining the approach for this work, in collaboration with the Process Alignment Workshops (PAWs) committee members.

The leadership team, chosen to work on this element of the ctcLink Improvement Plan, is focusing on branding this initiative, currently referred to as Common Business Processes. To ensure effective branding, the team will collaborate with Process Advisory Workgroups (PAWs) and seek executive sponsorship from colleges as we move forward with this endeavor.

This collaboration aims to develop an official brand (unique and immediately recognizable identity) that clearly communicates the initiative’s goals to unify and align all colleges to standardized ways of working within ctcLink, rather than simply identifying commonalities in existing processes. The new brand will underscore the commitment to consistency, efficiency, and a cohesive operational framework across the educational network.

Roadmap for Reaching Uniformity

The SBCTC Common Process leadership team, in partnership with the Process Alignment Workshops (PAWs) committee and executive sponsors, aims to establish a clear definition for what constitutes unified processes.

Facilitate Terminology Alignment

Create a “unified language” for the words used to refer to specific tasks, pages, processes in the ctcLink system.

Analyze What Is Being Done and Why

Ask colleges to analyze their current “as is” process as pre-work, to get a sense of how each college is currently handling that process. Ask that they note any workarounds, exceptions or nuances that must be addressed to gain agreement on a single, unified process that the majority can agree on. To gain agreement we must understand the drivers for the college staff doing the work in that process.

Remove Who Is Doing It from What Must Be Done

Shift the focus of business process discussions away from the differences between organizational structures to the uniformity of what must be done for the data to get into the system and the process to function.

Start with Data

Provide clear definition of the Data Owners and Data Accountability; meaning the associated state/federal or SBCTC policy requirements that must be adhered to in entering, processing, and reporting the data stored in the system. There must be a clear expectation set for what the data must be like in our system so every team leveraging the data be confident that the data holds the same value across all colleges.

Pair Data & Business

Data Owners and Business Owners Create a covalent bond of Two Leaders joined together to support unified process steps to achieve higher quality, consistent data within the ctcLink system. Both leaders must work together to solidify policy interpretations in business practices and/or seek guidance as needed to achieve buy-off on single interpretation to apply to Washington Community and Technical College system users.

80% Rule

All colleges are invited to discussion (even asynchronously), regardless of physical participation, all are accountable to agree to the unified processes steps. The 80% rule was used in the Common Process work. Meaning 80% of the colleges needed to agree on the steps in any given business process for it to be considered “Common” for our federated system. 80% acceptance can be achieved by participation in sessions, or asynchronous viewing of information and recordings with a ‘sign-off’ survey process for acceptance.

Internal efforts by the Core Team

• Define outcomes - completed
• Define vision statement – in progress
• Develop decision matrix – in progress
• Draft engagement plan – in progress (team review)
• Build project schedule - in progress (straw schedule drafted)
• Begin stakeholder analysis and RACI – commenced
• PAWs collaboration – in progress

Data Summit 2024: Save the Date!

Monday, Aug. 19 (all day) & Tuesday, Aug. 20 (tentative half-day) at South Puget Sound Community College, Lacey Campus.

Planning for Data Summit 2024 is now underway.

The DataLink Steering Committee (IT Commission & Research and Planning Commission) is in the planning stages for another informative event discussing all things data. Last year, participants heard from several areas about work occurring to set a foundation for growth in this area. 

In 2024, the committee aims to build on that foundation with valuable discussions and a more in-depth look at our system’s data landscape and data needs.

The agenda is under development but will include:

• Hands-on work with the data
• Deep dives on hot topics
• Topic-specific groups, rather than role-specific
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Information on what’s coming down the road

For the Tuesday half-day, the planning team is considering hands-on, deep dives into a couple of topics, but nothing is set.

Get involved

We want to hear from you!

• Got some ideas? Fill out this online form.
• Want to have fun with your colleagues and help plan the Data Summit? Fill out this online form.

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

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.

Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.

This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment. 

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

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

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, 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.

Hodgepodge: A Treasury of Tiny Topics

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

So many topics deserve a spotlight but don’t quite merit an entire session by themselves. So, what to do? We are bundling them up for you in a Very Special Hodgepodge Session!

While we plan to cover some fundamentals, such as understanding effective-dating and best practices in testing, much of this session will be a speed-review of reminders and suggestions about fix-it processes like Synchronize Enrollment Totals and workarounds like Bypassing Clean Address.

Designed to prompt many “Ohhh, RIGHT!” responses and build your muscle memory, this session should be a fun one.

Modules: All

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

OneWA Update

OneWa is the state’s current project focused on modernizing Washington’s core financial system (which is more than 30 years old) to a new system, Workday.

SBCTC is the agency responsible for reporting all college financial information to the Office of Financial Management (OFM). This effort will map from the Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS) Values to FDM (Foundation Data Model) using Oracle EDM (Enterprise Data Management) Tool in collaboration with Oracle Consulting Services (OCS).

General timeline of activities

• Scheduled Test Period with OFM: Completed
• OCS to SBCTC Team Domain/Application Knowledge Transfer- May 7-14: Completed
• Wrap up Session for OCS Team Phase of this work: May 23
• Data Services & Business Operations Team Continue OFM Testing: Coming up
• Production Transition to OFM (Workday) Financial Reporting: Future (July 2025)

PBCS Update

Planning & Budgeting Cloud Solutions (PBCS) is the Budget Development tool selected during the ctcLink implementation project.

On March 19, 2024, an email was sent to the remaining eight schools that have not deployed PBCS (Shoreline, Yakima Valley, Columbia Basin, Lake Washington Tech, Renton Tech, Bates Tech, Clover Park, Whatcom, and Seattle colleges) seeking volunteers for the next deployment group.

Three colleges responded with their request to opt in for the next round of deployments. PBCS configuration work has begun for Shoreline, LWTech, and Yakima Valley, which are expected to deploy in January 2025.

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

FIN Learning Opportunities

FIN Work Sessions

FIN Work Sessions: FY24 Grants & Projects

Please join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for two collaborative support sessions to help troubleshoot, clear-out errors, and reconcile prior Fiscal Year End 2023-2024. This includes ALL Grants, Program Projects, and Capital Projects.

• Session 1: FY24 Grants & Projects - BEFORE 6/30: Thursday, June 27, 2 –3pm, Read more and join the session
• Session 2: FY24 Grants & Projects - AFTER GL Close & BEFORE OBIS Billing Deadline of 7/15: Thursday, July 11, 2 - 3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings above.

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

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

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

As of June 17, sessions will be scheduled DAILY to support colleges in their year-end activities.

FIN Daily Fiscal Year-end (FYE) Work Sessions

Join the SBCTC Business Operations ctcLink Accounting team for Fiscal Year-end 2023-2024 accounting support and guidance. Topics include FYE preparation, reconciliation, and processes.

These focused work sessions will run daily, Monday through Friday (except holidays), 10 to 11 a.m., July 1 through August 2, 2024.

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

FIN Work Session: Grants/Projects Q&A Drop-In

Every second Monday of the month at 11 a.m. join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for a collaborative, interactive and troubleshooting drop-in session on everything Grants/Projects.

Questions? See the contact information listed in the event calendar listings below.

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 ctcLink Finance Customer Support team provides updates on Service Tickets, PeopleSoft enhancements, and open forum time to ask questions or request future topics.

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations 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.

Financial Aid System Integration Testing (SIT) Update

The ctcLink Financial Aid Support team continues its primary charge to test and document FAFSA 2024-25 awarding configuration changes received from Oracle.

Many ctcLink teams are involved in this effort — including Application Services, Testing, Financial Aid, Security, Accessibility, and Support —  to conduct SIT activities on the Financial Aid PeopleSoft Release Patchset (PRP3).

Activities underway include functional testing, including security, technical, unique Washington state configurations, and system configuration documentation for college users.

These are the same teams providing support to the colleges during the contingency awarding activities currently underway, so hats off to our burning-the-candle-at-both-ends, double-duty plate-spinners!

Overall completion of PRP3-related tests

Image: 80% passed, 12% not run, 7% blocked, 1% failed

Test completion tracking

FAFSA milestones ahead

• Saturday, June 8, 2024:  Financial Aid Support and Application Services teams move the PRP3 into production and conduct final readiness tests.
• Monday, June 10, 2024: Colleges get access to the new system.
• June 10 through June 21, 2024: ctcLink Financial Aid Support team will deliver hands-on financial aid support sessions for colleges.

There will continue to be adjustments from the Department of Education (ED) and requisite coding changes from Oracle, so this effort is only the beginning.

SBCTC FAFSA Resources Webpage

Visit the 2024-25 FAFSA Resources web page for regularly updated information for college employees and includes updated FAQ templates including a Q&A center.

FAFSA Simplification Q&A center (for colleges)

Submit questions and ideas about FAFSA simplification efforts to the SBCTC FAFSA Response Team 

FAFSA in the News

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

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

FA-Related Query Freeze Until July 1

The FA Support team has requested a freeze on all migrations for FA related queries. This freeze is to help the FA Support team focus on the upcoming FA changes that are moving into production on June 8.  The freeze began Wednesday, May 8, and goes through Friday, June 28.

We do understand and acknowledge the concerns surrounding the brief pause in FA query migration to production. Typically, we aim to provide advance notice for such activities, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Moving forward, we are committed to improving our communication practices to ensure you are informed well in advance of any similar interruptions. Given the ever-evolving landscape of financial aid regulations, particularly with the Department of Education and Oracle updates, we find it imperative to allocate as much attention as possible to setting up and testing the aid year promptly.

A comprehensive list of queries is available for the financial aid community, along with an additional set tailored to support the preparation and processing of the 2024-2025 aid year. Despite this, we must temporarily pause FA query development for the following reasons:

• Maintaining Global Query Criteria: Ensuring consistency and relevance across all queries is crucial for effective data management, data usage and reporting.
• Minimizing Upstream and Downstream Impacts: We are dedicated to mitigating any potential disruptions to data flow and system functionality.
• Maximizing Data Integrity: Our focus remains on preserving the accuracy and reliability of the information within our system and our global standards.

We want to reassure you we will migrate FA queries currently in the queue into production as scheduled. Additionally, moving forward until early July, our teams will prioritize critical FA query needs, dedicating concerted efforts to create, validate, and deploy them promptly.

Your understanding and support during this period are greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for your continued support and collaboration as we navigate these developments together. If you have any questions or urgent FA queries or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to Ivy Brent, Associate Director of ctcLink Business Intelligence.

FA Learning Opportunities

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.

Find the latest information, including notices of cancellation or schedule changes, on the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

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.

• Wednesday, June 5, 1- 3 p.m., HCM Work Session: W-2 Year-End Preparations - Part 1
• Wednesday, June 12, 1- 3 p.m., HCM Work Session: Payroll Processing Timeline
• Wednesday, June 26, 1- 3 p.m., HCM Work Session: Fiscal Year DRS Calendar Update/Creation

Behind the Integration Broker (IB): Data Synchronization between HCM and CS Pillars

Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Read more and join the session

Seeking clarity about what data moves from HCM to Campus Solutions? And how? We hope to not only satisfy your curiosity but also make it easier for your Student Records and HR offices to stay in sync and achieve your intended outcomes.

This session will be an introduction to what Integration Broker (IB) is, how it works and what it does. We’ll discuss some of the basic consideration points and tips about managing biodemo data, particularly those nuances of being in a multi-pillar, global environment. 

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

SF Learning Opportunities

Please feel free to reach out to SFSupport@sbctc.edu if you have any questions or need further clarification.

SF Work Session: Write-Off Updates

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

During this session, the SF Team will provide insights into the necessary considerations and actions required for confidently writing off student account balances. Additionally, we will discuss the (new) 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.

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.

SF Work Session:  SJS Updates

Thursday, June 20, 2024, 1 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join us for a comprehensive training session on the Second Journal Set (SJS) enhancement, which went live in February. We will review the added benefits of this crucial financial tool to ensure everyone is up to date.

As part of our annual updates, we will demonstrate how to update SJS item type project/activity information. We are planning to streamline access so you can make these updates at your convenience without the need to submit a ticket.

Our session will cover:

• Locating, updating, and validating your SJS item types to ensure proper configuration.
• SBCTC Business Operations Division will provide guidance on reviewing and manually posting SJS-generated journals
• The option to automate the generation process.

Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your understanding and efficiency with the SJS system. Join us and stay ahead with these important updates.

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger SF/GL Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m., the SBCTC Business Operations 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.

Next PCD Refresh updated to July 1

In support of the Financial Aid community's contingency awarding efforts currently underway, the next PCD refresh date will be Monday, July 1, 2024. The environment will not be updated June 10.

This has been updated on the ctcLink Support webpage: Environment/Pillar Updates and Outages.

Why this change?

There was concern among the colleges and the FA Support team that SAIs from the Department of Education uploaded to PCD might get lost, so they want to wait until they’re confident ISIRs loaded into Production are working as designed, so colleges are assured a record to compare what they see in PROD vs. PCD.

To best support the Financial Aid community's activities, PCD needs to be stood up 24/7. In particular, FA Support will be intently working with college clients June 10-12 to load ISIRs into PROD.

Data Summit 2024: Save the Date!

Monday, Aug. 19 (all day) & Tuesday, Aug. 20 (tentative half-day) at South Puget Sound Community College, Lacey Campus.

Planning for Data Summit 2024 is now underway.

The DataLink Steering Committee (IT Commission & Research and Planning Commission) is in the planning stages for another informative event discussing all things data. Last year, participants heard from several areas about work occurring to set a foundation for growth in this area. 

In 2024, the committee aims to build on that foundation with valuable discussions and a more in-depth look at our system’s data landscape and data needs.

The agenda is under development but will include:

• Hands-on work with the data
• Deep dives on hot topics
• Topic-specific groups, rather than role-specific
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Information on what’s coming down the road

For the Tuesday half-day, the planning team is considering hands-on, deep dives into a couple of topics, but nothing is set.

Get involved

We want to hear from you!

• Got some ideas? Fill out this online form.
• Want to have fun with your colleagues and help plan the Data Summit? Fill out this online form.

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 very own query guru! Or query wizard, if you prefer. Or maestro. Maybe a goddess, crackerjack, wizard, or maven. It’s up to you!

Upcoming courses include:

• Tuesday, June 11, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- Part 1
• Wednesday, June 12, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 401 Expert- 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 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 Registrationpage,
• 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.

Recertification BI Publisher Reports per Pillar Now Available

New BI (Business Intelligence) Publisher reports can be run to assist institutions in recertifying user access per pillar. This is a huge step for audit compliance!

These reports do not contain Base security role access for employees, but will show other roles assigned to users that need to be recertified at least twice a year for all users in ctcLink.

Thank you to Kael Godwin, Highline College, and Tami Morrill, SBCTC Data Services, for getting these reports out there and to the Security team to test and document. Laurel Anderson and Bill Ramirez were instrumental in getting these released.

See the Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) for more information:

• HCM/FSCM/CS 9.2 Security-How to Set Up and Conduct a ctcLink Supervisee Access Recertification or Supervisee Access ctcLink Audit
• CS 9.2 Security-How to Read BCS_SEC_CERT
• FSCM 9.2 Security-How to Read BFS_SEC_CERT
• HCM 9.2 Security-How to Read BHC_SEC_CERT

Please feel free to email Shelia Sloan, Application Security Associate Director, if you have any questions.

Accessibility Activity Update

A new Highpoint Campus Experience (HCX) VPAT has been posted for release version 24.1.3 which came out April 20. There was only one exception in ‘partially supports’ conformance level (Page 8). That one exception has been fixed in version 21.1.4 released by Highpoint on May 10. An updated VPAT is pending.

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, June 11, 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.