Dear Customer,

Welcome to the May issue of InTouch Online!

The month of May is refreshing to the senses. Spring is in full bloom (or about to bloom for most), days grow warmer with cool nights, and you can almost feel summer approaching! Many school districts are getting the summer itch as the school year dwindles to an end, and libraries are seeing many of their members relaxing with a book outside instead of in.

There is much to celebrate in the month of May. In the United States and Canada, many of us observe Memorial Day in honor of our war heroes; and in parts of Canada, many celebrate Victoria Day for Queen Victoria's birthday and the current reigning Canadian sovereign's birthday, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. And let us not forget Cinco de Mayo, and of course, Happy Mother’s Day to all moms! (whew!)

Customer Highlight: Gloucester County Public Schools; Virginia

What SubFinder Does For Me; Operator vs. Administrator

Interview by: Corinne Everett, Marketing Coordinator
Interview with: Nicky Cox, SubFinder Operator and Craig Smith, Assistant Director of Human Resource

Gloucester County, Virginia is located in the southeastern tip on what is called the Middle Peninsula, surrounded by both the Yellow and Rappahannock Rivers, as well as the Chesapeake Bay. Roughly 75 miles from Richmond and a jump from colonial Williamsburg, Gloucester County is filled with history that dates back to the mid-1600s, when it was founded by George Washington’s great-grandfather. As an early English settlement, Gloucester County became a home and often travelled area by many famous colonial leaders such as: Thomas Jefferson, John Buckner, John Clayton, Dr. Walter Reed, and many more. Gloucester County has also long earned the title as the Daffodil Capital of America because early English settlers brought bulbs to America and shared them with neighbors. Since the early 20^th century, daffodils can be found growing wild throughout the county.

The Gloucester County Public School has a history of its own through continual achievement of academic excellence through proactive standards of accreditation, programs, and strategies. Having 5,924 students in a community of 37,262 residents, Gloucester County Public Schools has six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school within its 217 square miles. Staying true to the Gloucester County mission in achieving academic excellence, it is imperative to the school system that their teachers and staff be covered by qualified substitutes to ensure that daily education and routines are not disrupted. A CRS customer for almost 10 years, Gloucester finds SubFinder to be the industry standard for them in sourcing qualified substitutes for both teachers and staff. I recently had the pleasure to speak with Gloucester County’s SubFinder Operator (Nicky Cox) and Assistant Director of Human Resource (Craig Smith) to get their opinions on how SubFinder’s features and functions have assisted them in achieving their mission of academic excellence for the past ten years.

Corinne:     How long has Gloucester County been utilizing SubFinder?

Craig:          Our school division has been utilizing SubFinder since the 2000 – 2001 school year and has been pleased with it since its inception.

Corinne:     What features within the SubFinder system do your employees and substitutes find most useful?

Nicky:         Our substitutes really enjoy SubFinder’s “job shopping” feature. It gives them the ability to go onto our SubFinder website and search for available jobs, specific to their qualifications.

Craig:          Both our employees and substitutes [for both teachers and staff members] appreciate the cross-functionality of SubFinder. Besides the job shopping feature, our substitutes also like the Do Not Disturb (DND)/Unavailable calendar feature which enables them to let SubFinder know whether or not they are available to work. They simply love being able to manage their own work schedules; and now many of our substitutes have Internet functionality on their cell phones which provides them with a tri-portal approach to SubFinder! With their cell phone, they can receive an incoming call from SubFinder, they can dial into SubFinder, and they can access SubFinder via the Internet!

Corinne:     Gloucester has upgraded from SubFinder as Box-on-Site solution to SubFinder as an ASP solution. How do you feel this has helped productivity at Gloucester?

Craig:          A great analogy I like to use when comparing SubFinder as a Box-on-Site to SubFinder as an ASP would be like comparing analog TV to digital TV; get the picture? (Pun intended!) Both our technology and human resource departments greatly appreciate the investment we made in ASP because it is one application that does not have to be supported in-house. Any organization would agree; that alone is a big cost savings, which has proven to be true here at Gloucester.

Corinne:     How was the process from converting as a Box-on-Site solution to an ASP solution?

Craig:          I can answer that in one word – seamless!

Corinne:     How often are SubCast reports sent, and who receives them?

Craig:          Our SubCast reports are sent out twice daily; once at 7:00 am and again at 2:00 pm. The site level administrators (principals and assistant principals) receive their site specific reports, and Nicky (SubFinder Operator) receives all SubCast reports.

Nicky:         Once I receive the daily Absence By Site report, I forward a copy of this information to the Director of Human Resources.

Corinne:     Do you find that SubCast reports help improve site management? If so, how?

Nicky:         Yes. I utilize the reports to observe substitute activity, how many times a substitute has been called, how many times a substitute has worked, etc. The daily reports are very easy to use, follow, and they have a wide variety of useful information for us.

Craig:          The SubCast reports are a great visual management tool. In the morning, the SubCast reports provide us with information on which jobs are unfilled, filled, fail-to-fill, or cancelled. And in the afternoon, these reports provide us with a snapshot of what our reasonable attendance forecast will be for the following day.

Corinne:     How often do you utilize the Data Exchange Pro (DxPro) feature; and why do you use it?

Craig:          Presently, we are getting ready to interface our HRIS platform (Pentamation) with SubFinder; once interfaced, we believe the possibilities will be endless! Especially with EVEN MORE reports SubFinder will be providing in near future! We believe this interface will enable us to realize near- and long-range efficiency improvements, as well as cost improvements.

Corinne:     Do your employees find SubFinder a comfort in knowing that their classroom will be filled with the most qualified substitutes?

Nicky:         We strive to have the best possible training program for our substitutes, and SubFinder is a huge part in making our Substitute Program so successful. Our teachers are very comforted knowing they will have a qualified substitute in their room in the event of an absence.

Craig:          I agree! We are committed to the recruitment, training, and development of our substitutes. It makes good business sense, and provides for superior internal and external customer service.

Corinne:     By utilizing the SubFinder system, do you feel this attracts substitutes to your district?

Craig:          Because SubFinder is (in our opinion) the industry standard for sourcing substitutes, many substitute candidates are attracted to Gloucester Public Schools because we utilize SubFinder. SubFinder is user-friendly at all levels; that is the best kept secret of SubFinder!

Nicky:         Once teachers or substitutes start using SubFinder, they all are very impressed and attracted to using it!

We would like to send a huge thank you to Craig and Nicky from Gloucester County, Virginia. They are wonderful customers and we look forward to growing together for many years to come!

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End of the Year Rollovers Approaching

What is it…what do I have to do?

By: Pam Breon, Account Specialist

Some of you are very familiar with the words: SubFinder Rollover; others might get a little nervous and wonder what it is, what you have to do, how long does it take, etc. Every year these are just a few of the questions we receive, and I am here to get you ready by explaining what needs to be done prior to performing a SubFinder Rollover.

Let’s start from the beginning!

What is a purge?

A purge is a process that is done at the end of the school year by a CRS staff member whereby any inactive employees, substitutes, sites, job positions, etc. will be removed from SubFinder.

Why purge?

The reason for a purge would be to eliminate the employee, substitute, sites, etc. from the database to enhance the performance of the system for the upcoming school year or year.

How do we get started?

The SubFinder Operator will need to contact the organization’s account specialist to schedule a rollover. Scheduling a rollover guarantees that your account specialist will be available to perform your rollover on time, with minimal down-time.

How long does a purge take?

A purge will take up to two hours to perform, starting from the initial phone contact, to your account specialist asking general questions on what we are purging, and then the last phone call telling you that your system is back up and taking calls again.

What do I need to do to get ready for the purge?

By clicking here, you can download and print out the Rollover checklist to ensure that you have everything taken care of before the day of the scheduled purge. Below, I have also listed some helpful tips to get started.

Helpful tips to getting started with your Year End Rollover:

·         In SubFinder, mark the employees or substitutes, sites, etc. who are inactive. Each record has an inactive option under general information.

·         Are you purging all your jobs from SubFinder, or do you want to purge up to a certain date?  Purging all jobs will remove all of the jobs from SubFinder and start you back at job count 1 once purging is complete. Purging the jobs up to a certain date will eliminate your jobs up to the date you specify, and SubFinder will continue with the next job number.

·         Setup a new 2010 calendar track for each calendar track you have created within SubFinder.

·         If you are using SubPay, create the new school year configuration.

·         For organizations using Leave Control, you will want to make sure that you run an accrual for your leave control reasons. If you have any questions, you can contact your account specialist.

·         Organizations using tape drives, our recommendation is to purchase new tapes for the upcoming school year/year. Mark them Monday – Friday, but also have an extra tape on hand to copy data prior to your purge.

If you need to access the data after the purge has taken place, we have already taken care of this for you. Prior to the purge, there will be a copy of the data made called 2008-2009 data; a shortcut will be created for your convenience in the event you need access to the past year’s information.

To schedule your Year End Rollover, or if you have further questions, please contact your account specialist at 800.782.3463. Schedule today; and don't forget to print your Rollover checklist!

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Make Substitute Pay Simple

Compensate Substitutes Effortlessly with SubPay

Does your payroll office struggle with managing substitute pay? Accurately compensating substitutes is a time consuming process that can also become very complex when factoring in defined pay rates or incentive pay. Why stress every pay period when this process can be automatically completed using your existing SubFinder data?

Meet SubPay.

SubPay is the first and only application of its kind that works in conjunction with SubFinder to automatically calculate substitute pay based on your organization’s defined pay rates and incentives such as: escalating, retroactive, and long-term pay. SubPay gives you the power to offer these incentives without the effort and hassle of extra paperwork. SubPay will also save your payroll office many hours of manual calculation tasks, thus eliminating payment mistakes.

SubPay is an advanced application that also supports accurate fund accounting practices by creating and assigning budgets codes to substitute time worked. This unique functionality ensures expenses are being billed to the proper accounts. SubPay can also be exported to a variety of payroll applications, and includes extensive reporting features.

Now that you have met SubPay, do you want to learn more? For additional information, please contact your account specialist at 800.782.3463.

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