ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: April 2, 2025

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 & Learning Opportunities Registration page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters). 

 

 

Learn about how to register, badging opportunities, and more at the Professional & Personal Development Workshops page.

Registering for the workshops is easy!

1. Visit the SBCTC meetings and events calendar
2. Filter by "CTC Professional Development » Personal & Professional Development Suite"
3. Click "Sign up" button to enroll

Process Alignment Workgroup Update

Jason Hetterle, PAW Team Lead, and Lia Homeister, Travel & Expense PAW Taskforce Lead, gave progress reports during last week’s WACTC Technology and WACTC presidents’ meeting.

PAW update

Jason reminded the presidents that PAW’s emphasis is on developing best practice models and helping colleges align with them.

PAW General Scope Statement

• PAW's job is to create college-approved, best-practice models, and provide mechanisms to support the colleges to align with a given process.
• Responsibility for the alignment status of individual colleges does not fall within PAW's scope. Instead, it rests with the college presidents, who are accountable for alignment.

He outlined the next steps, which include selecting the next process to align on based on results of the systemwide survey. See “ctcLink Process Alignment: What’s Next?” below.

The top five processes from that survey will be presented to the ctcLink College Collaboration Group (cCCG) for consideration and selection of the next focus area.

Travel & Expense Task Force Update

Lia provided an update on the progress of the T&E task force, highlighting the positive engagement and collaboration among members and SBCTC.

Given the workload, the task force members have extended their weekly meetings to 90 minutes.

The task force recently presented its preliminary ideas and recommendations to the ctcLink College Collaboration Group and received positive feedback.

The task force will continue meeting, finalize its travel and expense process recommendations, and wrap up its efforts by the beginning of May.

The colleges will be invited to perform user acceptance testing (UAT) to give users a chance to test-drive the recommended process and provide feedback before cCCG takes an official vote.

After that, the recommended processes will be available for colleges to engage in change management activities to align their business practices or implement features they are not currently using.

ctcLink Process Alignment: What’s Next?

Process alignment involves creating common, agreed-upon business processes that align with our system's goals and strategies. It ensures that ctcLink system processes remain consistent and efficient. 

Process Alignment: College-driven, Agency-supported, Leadership-endorsed  

Travel & Expense, the initial pilot taskforce, will conclude its work by early spring quarter, so it is time to select the next topic for review!  

Which process should be next? 

Your voice matters!

The Process Alignment Workgroup (PAW) leadership wants everyone to have a chance to be heard, but to also keep moving ahead with decisions. 

To submit an idea for a ctcLink business process that could benefit from systemwide alignment, please complete the Process Alignment Nomination Form. 

Initial review of topics will begin in April. PAW leadership will work with the ctcLink College Collaboration Group and SBCTC ctcLink Support teams to review, prioritize, and finalize the selection for the next effort. 

Learn more about PAW 

• Process Alignment Workgroup (PAW) Projectin the ctcLink Reference Center 
• Process Alignment Task Forces
• PAW News, travel & expense update: ctcLink CONNECT, March 12, 2025
• PAW News: travel & expense, bright ideas: ctcLink CONNECT, March 5, 2025
• PAW News: overview: ctcLink CONNECT, Jan. 22, 2025

Contact

Please reach out to Jason Hetterle, PAW Team Lead, Wenatchee, Valley College Director of Technology & Enterprise Solutions, if you have any questions or concerns about the Process Alignment Workgroup activities. 

Onboarding Training Manuals & Staff Training Participation App Available

Whether for yourself or for your staff, the ctcLink Staff Training Participation Application (STP) application and ctcLink Onboarding Training Manuals are available for college and SBCTC staff.

ctcLink Staff Training Participation application features

• Users can view their own course completion information, as well as course completion information for any staff within their chain of supervision. 
• Includes integrated checklists for supervisors to assign required and recommended ctcLink Canvas course training.
• Displays training course completion information extracted from Canvas so supervisors can track online training course completion and progress for their staff.
• Security roles are 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. Depending on the security role, staff can search for active or inactive employees training data by a variety of means including employee ID, supervisor’s name, employee first or last name, department, or training course title. 
• An elevated ctcLink security role provides users with college-level training data, and is assigned to college designated Points of Contact (ctcLink College Leaders). For ongoing role-level access, the individual local security administrators (LSAs) have the ability to update access for maintenance purposes.

Please see the ctcLink Staff Training Participation Application quick reference guide (QRG) for step-by-step user instructions.

Need help?

Any supervisors having issues accessing staff records, please submit a ctcLink Service Ticket to: ctcLink Support > Training > Staff Training Participation application.

Onboarding Training Manuals

The Onboarding Training Manuals, a companion to STP, help new college staff in their training journey through ctcLink (PeopleSoft). Although learning a new software system can be challenging, so these documents provide new staff with information to locate, understand, and participate in the various ctcLink training and learning opportunities available.

The Onboarding Training Manuals can be found in the ctcLink Reference Center “Intro to ctcLink” section. Onboarding manuals are available for each ctcLink pillar, as well as general staff.

• General Staff Onboarding Training Manual
• Campus Solutions Core Onboarding Training Manual
• Finance Onboarding Training Manual
• Financial Aid Onboarding Training Manual
• Human Capital Management Onboarding Training Manual
• Student Financials Onboarding Training Manual

The ctcLink Training and Support teams look forward to a continued partnership with the colleges and SBCTC agency staff to enhance onboarding and training experiences for new employees. 

Reach out to Gretchen Fulmer, Associate Director of Training, if you have any questions.

Stressed? Overloaded? Replenish Your Resiliency Toolkit

Take a moment to take care of yourself! Professional and Personal Development Suite workshops are open to all Washington state community and technical college employees, whether faculty, staff, or exempt.

This series of soft-skill workshops was initially developed to support SBCTC IT staff. Once the workshops were discovered on the agency calendar by other SBCTC and college employees, they asked if they, too, might participate on a case-by-case basis. 

Learn more about how to register, badging opportunities, college requests for group training, and more at the Professional & Personal Development Workshops page.

The workshops are cross-linked from the SBCTC Professional Development page and the ctcLink Training & Learning Opportunities page.

Questions? Reach out to Corinne Taylor, Professional/Personal Development Trainer.

Upcoming offerings

ctcLink Testing Environment Available for All Staff

Testing directly in Production (the live ctcLink environment) can be dangerous. For this reason, multiple test environments are maintained for testing and development purposes.

ctcLink colleges have an exclusive test environment called Production College Development (PCD). 

If you are new to ctcLink and want to test a process within the system, please see the quick reference guide (QRG) Testing in PCD and Production in the ctcLink Reference Center.

All staff members have access to the PCD test environment.

What can I do in the PCD?

Testing in PCD can include practicing established business processes, developing new business processes, testing security access, developing queries, or researching "What would happen if I did X?" questions. Because PCD is a test environment, any EmplID can be used for testing purposes, including those that belong to real students or staff.

What is a PCD Refresh?

On the first Monday of each month (unless otherwise noted), the PCD test environment is refreshed to match the live ctcLink environment. This means any changes (or mistakes) made in PCD during the month are erased with each refresh.

All staff members have access to the PCD test environment, so you can go wild with testing in PCD, because the slate is wiped clean with each refresh! Users new to PCD can establish their PCD logins by following the "First Time User?" link.

Learn more at Testing in PCD and Production in the ctcLink Reference Center. Please contact your campus ctcLink security administrator if you cannot log in to the PCD test environment.

PCD Refresh and Your Queries: Get Ready!

The PCD (Production College Development) environment will be refreshed from PRD on Monday, April 7, 2025. Beginning Friday, April 4, at noon, PCD will not be available for query development until after the PCD is refreshed.

What you need to do

Make sure any PCD queries you want to keep begin with the prefix DEV_ unless you have submitted a ticket requesting backup of queries that will be used for BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports.

Standard Queries

Any queries in PCD that do not begin with DEV_ will be deleted.

• This applies to all standard Public and Private queries. SBCTC will perform a query backup for in-progress queries (private and public) that meet the DEV_ naming convention.
• This backup will NOT be done by folder. This means if a query is in the DEVELOPMENT folder but doesn’t begin with DEV_ it will be overwritten and lost.

BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, and nVision Queries

Any query used in a BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision report DOES NOT have to follow the DEV_ protocol as it is very time-consuming to change them back when they are ready to migrate.

Instead, please submit a Service Desk ticket under Data Services – Reporting – Other with the title “PCD Refresh Backup Request.”  Provide the name of the query being developed for use in one of the advanced reporting tools in the request.  These queries will be individually backed up on an as-needed basis.

What to expect

• The queries in the backup will be imported back to PCD after the refresh is complete and a notice is received from Application Services.
• Data Services will send a message to you once our work is complete.
• Please do not log back into PCD after Friday, April 4, at noon but wait until you receive a notification from Data Services.
• Queries that do not follow these naming conventions will be lost

Remember! Naming convention for queries

• Being developed in PCD: MUST begin with the prefix DEV_
• Used for training in PCD: MUST begin with QXX_TRAIN
• Being developed for use in BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports in PCD: MUST begin with the appropriate convention based on the reporting tool being used. Do not follow the DEV_ convention. Request must be sent to Data Services via Service Desk ticket.

Why you need to do it

Queries that do not follow this convention will not be backed up and will be lost.

Contact Emily Mullins, Reporting and BI Solutions Analyst for ctcLink, if you have any questions.

Join a ctcLink Support eList (aka LISTSERVs)

Any Washington state community and technical college ctcLink PeopleSoft users — including SBCTC staff, ctcLink, and IT teams — are encouraged to join one or more ctcLink-related Mailman eLists (aka LISTSERVs).

Find a list — or two or three or four — and join today at ctcLink Support eLists.

Connect with your ctcLink peers and colleagues

• ctcLink Customer Support sends updates, outage notices, changes to configuration, training and workshop opportunities, global and cross-pillar communications to colleges.
• College subject matter experts (SMEs), PeopleSoft users/stakeholders can use the lists to ask  their college peers questions about how they do things in ctcLink, best practices, local training plans, and more. 

Are You Receiving ctcLinkAlerts?

SBCTC uses the ctcLinkAlerts eList to send notices about planned downtime for system updates, production alerts, urgent issues, and any unplanned downtime.

Each college maintains a local ctcLinkAlerts email distribution list (e.g., ctclinkalerts@columbiabasin.edu, ctcLinkAlerts@spscc.edu) which your ctcLink College Leader maintains as needed.

These college lists, not individuals, are subscribed to ctcLinkAlerts@lists.ctc.edu.

It’s each college’s choice who to include, but typically colleges include their local ctcLink leadership, local ctcLink committee or taskforce members, key subject matter experts, IT, Help Desk, and PIO.

ctcLink Enhancement Request Highlights

Of 310 total Enhancement Requests submitted since 2018, 81% have been resolved.

ERs by the numbers

• 219 ERs have been deployed
  • 33 canceled (canceled by submitter or due to it being a local decision)
• 20 In-Flight
• 17 Next Up
• 21 Future Work

The latest ERs by pillar

Summary tables below include only approved & deployed formal Enhancement Requests (ERs), January 2025 to March 23, 2025.

Campus Solutions (CS, FA and SF)

Finance (FSCM)

Human Capital Management (HCM)

Cross Pillar

How to Check the Status of an Enhancement Request

The ctcLink Customer Services Teams have documented all Enhancement Request (ER) forms submitted.

The ctcLink Enhancement Request Status lists are updated the first and third Wednesday of each month to align with the ctcLink Working Group calendar.

You can see where each Enhancement Request is in the governance review process, approval status, and/or any other actions taken in a couple of different views.

High-Level Summary At-a-Glance

The Full Enhancement Request List is sorted by status.

Online Admissions Application Portal (OAAP) Demographics Collection Changes

Demographics collection changes are being made to the OAAP.

Compliance review under the Keep Washington Working Act led to the removal of citizenship questions from the admissions application. Residency determination will be based on affidavit and supplementary questions.

The changes are currently in a code freeze due to a PeopleTools update and are expected to be implemented with PeopleTools update on April 26, 2025.

They are working on determining what to do with the data already collected, with a focus on removing it to have consistent data. The team is also considering the potential impact on financial aid and 1098-T tax forms, as well as the need to mitigate confusion for students.

What’s changing?

The following development changes are being implemented to ensure compliance with the Keep Washington Working (KWW) Act and to enhance the OAAP:

• Dynamic Residency Questions: Updating the residency questions to display dynamically using the Residency Affidavit.
• Removal of Citizenship/Visa Information: Removing citizenship and visa information from the application, including from in-progress applications.

Implementation Timeline

• Official communication about the removal of citizenship question from the admissions application will be shared within the next 1-2 weeks.
• Awaiting final legal approval.
• Colleges will conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) on the revised admissions application with citizenship question removed in April 2025.

CS Support Updates

Admissions: Start off Strong!

We’re pleased to announce a new quick reference guide QRG: Maintaining Applications: Program/Plan & Admit Term Updates Before Matriculation.

This new QRG provides a step-by-step guide for making any data changes needed to an Application for Admission that has not yet been matriculated. The QRG covers how to make changes for applications in the current term as well those involving a future term.

It also touches on some options for tracking those changes (comments, actions reasons).

Shared SSNs

Have you reviewed the Duplicate SSN by Term – More Than One EMPLID QARS report recently? 

This returns EMPLIDs that are using an SSN found on another EMPLID.  Sometimes this is a duplicate EMPLID situation, sometimes not.  Either way, it WILL cause reporting issues if it’s not fixed! 

Please review this report for your college and see if there’s a duplicate that needs to be reported or just bad SSN data that needs to be updated. If you have determined that the wrong SSN has been assigned to an individual who is not a student at your institution, please submit a verified SSN ticket and CS Core Support will remove the SSN and document it’s removal on your behalf.

CS Core Learning Opportunities

Running Start Series

SBCTC Dual Credit presents monthly virtual sessions for college Running Start staff. Each session includes SBCTC/OSPI updates and time for Running Start college staff to come together and connect. Participants cover a wide range of topics, including Campus Solutions - Student Financials.

The presentation portion is recorded and posted to the SBCTC Dual Credit YouTube playlist.

Feel free to contact Stephanie Rock, SBCTC Student Services & K12 Alignment Policy Associate, with any questions.

FA/SF/FIN Cross-Pillar Training: End-to-End Reconciliation

Monday, May 5, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join functional trainers from the SBCTC Financial Aid, Student Financials, and Finance teams in this knowledge-sharing session and gain valuable reconciliation resources and tips.

Presenters: Kelly Forsberg, Financial Aid; Alec Risk, Student Financials; Karen Ebert, Finance.

Questions? Contact Alec Risk.

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 training courses. 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: Term Withdrawals

Wednesday, April 9, 2025, 8:30 – 10 a.m., Learn more and join the session

Join us for an essential training session to ensure your college accurately records term withdrawals and maintains compliance with reporting requirements.  Your participation is vital to ensure compliance and seamless reporting.

This training will guide you through the Term Withdrawal process, which is crucial for:

• Accurately recording student withdrawals for Financial Aid offices.
• Meeting National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) reporting requirements.

Key Highlights:

• Understanding the Term Withdrawal process post-census date.
• Learning to record dates for students who withdraw from all classes, resulting in zero units.
• Clarifying that this process applies only to full-term withdrawals and excludes partial course withdrawals.

Module(s): Student Records

Primary Audience: Staff involved with the Term Withdrawal process.

Related QRGs: Processing Term Withdrawals, Processing Term Withdrawals to Recognize 100% Refunds

Prerequisite Course(s): SR102 Beginning of Term Processes

CS Core Training: Processing Deceased Students

Wednesday, May 21, 2025, 8:30 -10 a.m., Learn more and join the session

Join us for a thoughtful and informative training session designed to guide you through the sensitive process of managing records for deceased students with professionalism, empathy, and adherence to institutional policies.

Topics:

• Systematic steps to handle deceased students' records respectfully.
• Best practices for institutional compliance.

This training aims to equip you with the knowledge and tools to navigate this responsibility with care and confidence.

Module(s): Student Records

Primary Audience: Records Staff

Related QRGs: Processing a Deceased Student Record, Entering Decedent Data

CS Core Work Sessions

Campus Solutions (CS) Core Work Sessions, open to ALL end users, are generally held the first Thursday of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m., but may be offered on an alternative schedule (e.g., to accommodate holidays).

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.

In 2025, CS Core Work Sessions will:

• Include community engagement within each session (rather than have a formal, predetermined college panel).  As possible, we will post the anticipated questions ahead of time so that you can be prepared.
• Dedicate at least the last half hour (2:30-3:00 pm) to Open Q&A. 
• If the scheduled session ends early and all related questions have been answered, Open Q&A will begin (i.e., it may begin earlier than 2:30 but will begin no later than 2:30)

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

Coming up next!

Join us for CS Core Work Session:  ctcLink Student Alert on Thursday, April 3.

The Advising and Retention team at Bates Technical College has implemented and successfully engages faculty, staff, and students in the utilization of a student alert system.

We are excited to share their current Student Alert Process, including the research and methods used to develop a responsive alert system that is regularly utilized and accessible by faculty and staff, empowering them to connect our diverse student body with resources to support their success and wellbeing.

Our goal for this session is to provide a foundation for the research-based establishment of an early alert system, strategies for faculty training and engagement, and to discuss strengths and opportunities for growth with the Student Alert Process.

College Community Share Questions (optional college participation)

• What are some barriers or concerns your college is experiencing around engagement with a student alert system?
• Keeping in mind your goals and intentions for your college's student alert system, what would successful implementation and/or utilization look like for your college?
• What are the three most prominent student success and wellbeing concerns that your college is planning to address through the student alert system?

Questions? Contact CS Core Support.

FIN Learning Opportunities

ctcLink Accounting Team Presents

Every first Thursday, these recurring work sessions aim to provide accounting support and guidance regarding, but not limited to, the various reconciliation topics and processes. Each session covers a specific topic(s) and then moves to open Q&A.

FA/SF/FIN Cross-Pillar Training: End-to-End Reconciliation

Monday, May 5, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join functional trainers from the SBCTC Financial Aid, Student Financials, and Finance teams in this knowledge-sharing session and gain valuable reconciliation resources and tips.

Presenters: Kelly Forsberg, Financial Aid; Alec Risk, Student Financials; Karen Ebert, Finance.

Questions? Contact Alec Risk

Travel and Expenses Q&A Drop-In

Recurring every SECOND Monday of the month, 11 a.m. to noon, join us for a collaborative, interactive and troubleshooting drop-in support session on everything Travel and Expenses. This session is not recorded, unless otherwise noted.

• 11 – 11:30 a.m., Training: Come learn or share something new.
• 11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m., Q&A: Please come with your questions or issues and be ready to share your screen.

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

NEW! Recurring 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.

Need help with setting up FY25 grants? Feel free to reach out to Michele Rockwell, MSML, ctcLink Finance Functional Analyst.

You are invited to drop in with any questions related to grants and projects at the open Q&A sessions.

FIN Work Session: Asset Management Q&A

Every third Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon, join the ctcLink Finance Customer Support team for a collaborative, interactive and troubleshooting drop-in session on all things Asset Management.

• 11 – 11:30 a.m., Training: Come learn or share something new.
• 11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m., Q&A: Please come with your questions or issues and be ready to share your screen.

Some examples of topics:

• Tagging Active Assets
• Excel to CI Asset Upload
• Processing issues
• General questions

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.

The ctcLink Finance Subject Matter Experts list received a calendar invitation to Upcoming Finance Users Production Support meetings.

Didn’t get the invitation? Reach out to Shon Dicks-Schlesinger, Associate Director of Finance Functional Support.

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.

 

FA Support Updates

FA Weeklyish Bulletin

Trying to recall that important thing you read in the ctcLink Financial Aid listserv FA Weeklyish Bulletin? Don’t miss a thing! Revisit past editions in the FA Weeklyish Bulletin Archive at the ctcLink Reference Center.

Helpful Reconciliation Reminders

• The Direct Loan 23/24 close out deadline is Friday, July 31, 2025: Direct Loan Closeout Information for 2023–24 Program Year | Knowledge Center
• It is (always) time to load your pgas files!  Pgas files are the Pell Electronic Statement of Accounts which you should be using to reconcile the Federal Pell Grant program.  Note, you may receive multiple pgas files each month to aid you with tracking Net Accepted and Posted Disbursements.

From the FSA Handbook, Vol 4, Ch 5 – Reconciliation in the Pell Grant and Campus-Based Programs, on or around pg 6:

Pell Grant electronic statement of account (ESOA) - The ESOA summarizes the status of a school’s current funding level (CFL) versus the net drawdown for that award year. In addition, the ESOA provides (for the current processing day only) the YTD unduplicated recipient count, the YTD total accepted and posted disbursements, the YTD total administrative cost allowance (ACA) paid to schools, and the net drawdown payments in G6 up to the current processing day. That is, it provides the sum of school-initiated drawdowns, direct payments for obligate/pay accounts, adjustments (+/–) less refunds, and returns.

Known FAFSA Issues QRG

SBCTC continues to update the FAFSA Simplification 2024-2025 Known Issues in ctcLink QRG.

Please check back with this document at least once a week. New bug findings are being added as we find them. This document contains the issue at hand, potential workarounds, and timelines expected to resolve the issues.

FA Learning Opportunities

Financial Aid Training

Fin Aid Training: Intermediate Reconciliation Queries Review

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 9 to 11 a.m., Learn more and join the session

This intermediate level session is a review of the reconciliation queries found in the Fund Management Business Processing Guide.

Objectives

• Understand how to work examples in the reconciliation queries in the Fund Management Business Processing Guide
• Understand how often these should be worked and impacts to not running them in a timely manner 

Audience:  FA Staff responsible for account reconciliation.

Contact Kelly Forsberg, ctcLink Functional Trainer (Financial Aid).

Fin Aid Training: Intermediate WCG Interim Error Report Review

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 9 to 11 a.m., Learn more and join the session

This Fin Aid Training Session is an intermediate review on the Washington College Grant (WCG) Interim Error Report, from examples found in the FA206 Intermediate FA Reporting Canvas course and the Troubleshooting section in the WCG Interim Business Processing Guide.

Objectives: Understand how to work error examples in the WCG Interim Error Report

Audience:   FA Staff responsible for account WCG Reporting and reconciliation.

Contact Kelly Forsberg, ctcLink Functional Trainer (Financial Aid).

Fin Aid Training for Header Colleges Only: Loan Set Up for Schema 5.0c and 25/26 Loan Processing

Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join this hands-on workshop to set up/adjust your Run Controls for the 2025-2026 AY in preparation for sending out your Direct Loan files for the Summer Term. 

Audience:  Header College Financial Aid Staff responsible for Direct Loan Origination and Outbounding

Agenda

• Updating/checking Loan Fee Set Up
• Updating/checking Loan Fee in Item Types Set Up
• Updating/checking the Loan Fee in Create Loan Types pg
• Updating the Process Loans Run Control ID parameters to 2025 AY
• 10:30 to 10:45 a.m.: Break
• Updating the EY Summer Include & Summer Exclude Run Control ID parameters to 2025/2026 dates and AY.
• Updating the EY Process Loan Dates Run Control ID to 2025 AY.
• Updating the Schema to 5.0b on the EY Generate Direct Loan Data pg.
• Updating and/or creating EY Run Control IDs for your Direct Loan Reports

Contact Kelly Forsberg, ctcLink Functional Trainer (Financial Aid).

Financial Aid Work Sessions

FA/SF/FIN Cross-Pillar Work Session Reconciliation Show & Tell

Thursday, June 5, 2025, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join us for a cross-pillar work session as SBCTC hosts esteemed colleagues from Bellevue College in a Webex on the hot topic of reconciliation!

Guest speakers Christine Taylor, Financial Aid Director; Jennifer Fetters, Associate Director of Student Center-Financial Aid; and Jennifer McMillan, Finance Manager, will walk through their local business process on reconciliation for Pell, Direct Loan, and state funds. 

This session emphasizes the importance of interdepartmental communication during monthly reconciliation processes and reviews key steps unique to Bellevue College in their local reconciliation business process.

Audience:  FA, SF and FIN staff responsible for reconciling federal and state funding

HCM Support Updates

HCM Users Group Monthly Virtual Meet-Up

Thursday, April 10, 2025, 9-11 a.m., Learn more and join the session

Join this open-format, virtual meeting to discuss HCM processing, changes, and more. Watch for future meet-ups on the HCM Users Group page calendar.

Questions? Contact Annie Butler, HCM Users Group Chair.

HCM Learning Opportunities

HCM Work Sessions

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.

For calendar details, search the ctcLink Learning Opportunities calendar at SBCTC meetings and events and apply Human Capital Management filter.

Questions? Contact HCM Customer Support.

SF Learning Opportunities

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

• The Student Financials Learning Opportunities Recordings QRG is a comprehensive list of all previous SF-related recordings.
• Previous SF DL Blasts can be found within Student Financials Resources.

FA/SF/FIN Cross-Pillar Training: End-to-End Reconciliation

Monday, May 5, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Join functional trainers from the SBCTC Financial Aid, Student Financials, and Finance teams in this knowledge-sharing session and gain valuable reconciliation resources and tips.

Presenters: Kelly Forsberg, Financial Aid; Alec Risk, Student Financials; Karen Ebert, Finance.

Questions? Contact Alec Risk

Running Start Series

SBCTC Dual Credit presents monthly virtual sessions for college Running Start staff. Each session includes SBCTC/OSPI updates and time for Running Start college staff to come together and connect. Participants cover a wide range of topics, including Campus Solutions - Student Financials.

The presentation portion is recorded and posted to the SBCTC Dual Credit YouTube playlist.

Feel free to contact Stephanie Rock, SBCTC Student Services & K12 Alignment Policy Associate, with any questions.

SF Training

SF Training: Item Types 101

Monday, April 14, 2025, 1 to 3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

This is an introduction-level class to Item Types and Student Financials Configuration. This training is designed for new employees and individuals who would like a refresher on Item Type basics. We will discuss the foundational aspects of Item Types including configuration and flow.

In this session, we may cover:

• Item Type Numbering and Configuration
• Refund Indicators
• Priority - Charge Priority List/Payment Priorities/ Overall Priority
• How to create new Item Types

Primary Audience: College staff who deal with Student accounts and want a better understanding of how Item Types work.

Related QRG: Understanding Item Types

Prerequisite Course: SF100 - Student Financials Fundamentals

SF Training: Item Types 102

Monday, April 21, 2025, 1 to 3 p.m., Learn more and join session

This is a moderate-level class for Item Types and Student Financials Configuration. This training is designed for new employees and individuals who would like a refresher on Item Type basics. We will discuss the practical application of Item Types.

In this session, we may cover:

• Understanding View Customer Accounts
• Tuition Calculation
• Term Fees
• Posting a Charge

Primary Audience: College Staff who deal with Student accounts and want a better understanding of how Item Types work.

Related QRG: Understanding Item Types

Prerequisite Course: SF100 - Student Financials Fundamentals

Presenter/Facilitator: Alec Risk, SBCTC Student Financials Functional Trainer

SF Work Sessions

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.

 

PCD Refresh and Your Queries: Get Ready!

The PCD (Production College Development) environment will be refreshed from PRD on Monday, April 7, 2025. Beginning Friday, April 4, at noon, PCD will not be available for query development until after the PCD is refreshed.

What you need to do

Make sure any PCD queries you want to keep begin with the prefix DEV_ unless you have submitted a ticket requesting backup of queries that will be used for BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports.

Standard Queries

Any queries in PCD that do not begin with DEV_ will be deleted.

• This applies to all standard Public and Private queries. SBCTC will perform a query backup for in-progress queries (private and public) that meet the DEV_ naming convention.
• This backup will NOT be done by folder. This means if a query is in the DEVELOPMENT folder but doesn’t begin with DEV_ it will be overwritten and lost.

BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, and nVision Queries

Any query used in a BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision report DOES NOT have to follow the DEV_ protocol as it is very time-consuming to change them back when they are ready to migrate.

Instead, please submit a Service Desk ticket under Data Services – Reporting – Other with the title “PCD Refresh Backup Request.”  Provide the name of the query being developed for use in one of the advanced reporting tools in the request.  These queries will be individually backed up on an as-needed basis.

What to expect

• The queries in the backup will be imported back to PCD after the refresh is complete and a notice is received from Application Services.
• Data Services will send a message to you once our work is complete.
• Please do not log back into PCD after Friday, April 4, at noon but wait until you receive a notification from Data Services.
• Queries that do not follow these naming conventions will be lost

Remember! Naming convention for queries

• Being developed in PCD: MUST begin with the prefix DEV_
• Used for training in PCD: MUST begin with QXX_TRAIN
• Being developed for use in BI Publisher, Pivot Grid, or nVision reports in PCD: MUST begin with the appropriate convention based on the reporting tool being used. Do not follow the DEV_ convention. Request must be sent to Data Services via Service Desk ticket.

Why you need to do it

Queries that do not follow this convention will not be backed up and will be lost.

Contact Emily Mullins, Reporting and BI Solutions Analyst for ctcLink, if you have any questions.

Query Developer Learning Opportunities

How to Enroll in Query Developer Courses

It’s easy to enroll in Query Developer Courses.

• 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.

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.

Please join us for the next ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend via Zoom.

• Zoom meeting link: ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum 2024 and beyond

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

Security Updates

The fix for Offboarding Automation emails going to former employees was released into ctcLink production.

The ctcLink Security team is keeping busy with the PeopleTools 8.61 update, Offboarding Automation Phase 2, Finance Data Masking, data scrubbing, Item Type audit, and starting the cleanup of internal Jobs Accounts.

Keeping the Lights On

In a ctcLink world populated with acronyms and mysterious jargon, the Application Services teams are the “pillar behind the pillars” for Washington’s community and technical colleges 24/7 by supporting ctcLink pillars, systemwide IT applications, environments, accessibility improvements, testing, and managing the network data load behind-the-scenes.

While you may never meet them directly or understand what they do, they support you every single day.

Completed/Wins

• Development deployed to production this week
• Create API load to replicate IB issues in non-Prod environment. This is to support ongoing investigation on IB server issues. Managed services captured logs after creating API load on Integration Broker through automated scripts.
• Data fixes and bug fixes in HCM, CS, and FSCM
• PeopleTools 8.61 Functional System Integration Testing (SIT)
• Test Coordinator Training

In Progress

• In Development, SIT, UAT, and Completed
• Add new leave codes to CTC_ABSBL_AE and Crosswalk. Ticket 193709. HCM-1538. Development complete. Waiting for code freeze to end.
• App Engine for Yearly Updates to CS and ST Salary Plans. Ticket 207571. We are developing an app engine to automate a complex process that the HCM functional has had to do manually every year with Excel to CI. Development is complete. Waiting on code freeze.
• On 3/5/25, Robert completed archiving HR_ACCTG_LINE through Pay End Date 12/31/2018. This archived 9,240,416 rows. The rows in HR_ACCTG_LINE are down from 119,810,348 to 110,569,932. Working with Data Services team on testing query performance after archiving in PCD. Working with Daniel and Managed Services to see how Managed Services and Oracle has automated the running of stats on the DB.
• Automatically Resubmit Asynchronous IB Errors. Ticket 200430. In progress. Interrupted by PeopleTools SIT tickets, so there will be some delay on this.
• CampusCE NOR response Bug Fix. CS-2338. Ticket 199915. Currently in SIT.
• CampusCE Search/Match results transaction suspend. CS-2343. Ticket 198632. Currently in SIT.
• Code Freeze underway
• Enhancement FWL Employee Record Look Up. Ticket 148615. Waiting for the code freeze.
• Enter time, report time, and other time pages working on implementing new functionality with configurable headers. We are working on a customization to replace the drop zone and use the now accessible configurable headers to display information about the job the person is entering time for. The HCM functional team requested the salary rate be effective-dated, so we can no longer only use Oracle's delivered functionality for configurable headers. Ticket 124980.
• ER 219 - Automation of adjustments to vacation / sick time donations for Shared Leave. Ticket 168718. Currently in development.
• ER 232 - Adding Custom Self-Service Questions in Campus Solutions. Bhuvana is working on development while Neel is out.
• ER 253 - Make a Payment Page Classic to Fluid. Development is complete. Ticket 181828. Waiting on code freeze.
• ER 285 - Purchase of EPM tool from Oracle for use to do Book to Bank reconciliation. Waiting on new ER and requirements.
• ER-171 TAM Enhancements. Ticket 163606 and HCM-1292. Waiting for the code freeze.
• ER-266 Student Financial Responsibility Agreement College User Review
• GL_EXCL_BATC in FSPRD. Ticket 204146. New Service Request opened. The problem can be replicated in SUP and we're working with Oracle to determine if there is a bug. Budget checking is failing on batch uploads.
• Inbound and Outbound Processes. Ticket 212669. Initial work completed.
• Institution Set Override Problem. Ticket 190595. Josh is investigating.
• OAAP - Project CTC_OAA_KT_INTEGRATION_I1168, query, and config migrated to PTS. CS-2367, ticket 199673. Currently in SIT.
• Ticket 206057 - New table for 'transaction log' to see person/date/ whether or not integration to Okta was successful. Ticket 206055 - Dynamic Role integration with Okta Fix.
• PeopleTools 8.61 Functional SIT - Bug Fix & Retest
• PeopleTools 8.61. Finishing up the last SIT tickets. No showstoppers have been found; ready to go to PQA.
• Portal homepage logos keep disappearing in production every two to four weeks. Josh manually fixes them as we investigate the root cause. It cannot be replicated in any other environment except production.
• PT 8.61 User can access other institutions pages. Mark is working on securing 10 pages by institution. He ran into issues and had to open a Service Request with Oracle. This is in progress.
• Support CampusCE test site connections with PTS for PeopleTools Update project.
• Support PeopleTools Update project
• Support tickets related to integrations
• Understand SFRA requirements for third-party applications
• Work on SDT 213040 - Timeout error in Submitted Applications page for Admins
• Work with Oracle on Service Request 3-40147231641 : PTUN_LANDING_PAGE service operation resulting in error on CS.
• Working with Nelnet, the CS SF team, and Managed Services for the Nelnet SBCTC Campus Solution Connector Install upgrade project. Ticket 195128. CS-2181 and CS-2182. It was in UAT, but will trail 8.61.

Upcoming

• Continue working on redesigning OAAP submitted applications API to improve performance
• Discuss SFRA requirements for CampusCE
• Enhancement_FWL_Employee Record Look Up - Ticket 148615
• ER 245 - Extension for Student Group Mass Assign. Ticket 178457. Carmen would like development to begin in April 2025.
• ER 289 Security Account Reset Capabilities
• ER 999 - OAAP Work Package 1 - Residency and Citizenship UAT - TBD
• I-021 CEMLI Update/Bug Fix. Ticket 213369.
• Investigate PTUN_LANDING_PAGE errors on Integration Broker
• Nelnet PeopleSoft Connector Upgrade Project Go-Live - scheduled for June 17
• PeopleTools 8.61 PQA install, April 4
• PT 8.61 Sanity Testing
• Support and monitor third-party integrations
• Support OAAP, CampusCE, HCX and Okta integration enhancements, bug fixes
• Support PeopleTools 8.61 upgrade effort
• Support testing of ER 999 OAAP Work Package 1 (Residency/Citizenship) Timeline w/People
• Support tickets related to PeopleSoft integrations