SBS Online Update - In-Year Balances plus more

The latest SBS Online update contains a new in-year row balance for several reports, maximum scales for teacher contracts, and improvements to Excel exports and other commitments in the Budget Monitor.

Reporting: In-year Balances

An in-year balance row has been added to several reports in the 'Planning' menu item, including the Summary and Revenue Reports. This means that there are now two balance rows: the in-year row does not include any brought forward, whilst the overall balance row does include the brought forward. This should help users who want to focus on in-year balances to report more effectively.

Budget Monitor: Other Commitments

Other commitments is a useful function in the Budget Monitor to amend the projected year end if needed. Previously, other commitments had to be updated every month after import. It is now possible to check a tick-box when adding an other commitment to ensure it is used in future months. This will save users from having to add them in repeatedly following an import. To use this functionality, click the 'Add other' option on a row in the Budget Monitor, type in the value as usual and tick the 'Other commitment to future months' option and 'Save'. When importing data into a following month, the other commitment will be included automatically. Please note: that this cannot be done retroactively and will only work for new budget monitor imports.

Teacher Contracts: Maximum Scales

There is now the ability to add a maximum salary scale to teacher contracts in the same way you can for support contracts. To do this, edit a staff contract and select a maximum salary scale from the drop down list in the top section. When auto-incrementing the contract (either manually or in bulk), the contract will not pass the chosen maximum. Please note that UQ6, M6 and UP3 continue to behave as maximum scales as normal.

Excel Exports: Numbers & Formulae

In Excel exports, numbers are now indeed formatted as numbers instead of text. This allows users to add formulae into the spreadsheet. The exports have also been improved by condensing column widths and using proper titles for file names and worksheets.

This release also includes the following:

• Payroll code descriptions added into the Payroll Reconciliation
• Pound signs added to all charts for monetary amounts
• Students menu item hidden if not in use
• Improved prior attainment calculations in the Funding Predictor
• The squishing of some pesky bugs

If you have any suggestions about how to improve the software or if you have any queries about the above, please get in touch via the Service Desk on 0345 222 1551 • Option 8.