Virtual Update 2022 Q&A

Question	TASS Comment
Love the new roadmap - saw it last week and was super helpful!	Glad you like it!
Are we officially changing the name to "Staff Kiosk"?	For a long time, the Staff Portal was referred to as Teacher Kiosk. As the functionality in this portal extends beyond purely teaching functions, yes, the portal has been officially renamed to Staff Kiosk. The TASS team is busy updating references to this portal within the product and associated documentation.
Will there be a way to comment on where email templates are going to be implemented?	The Forum is the best place to collaboratively discuss topics such as these. We will also look at publishing a poll for users to share their priorities.
Do you have to register to be a friendly school every new release? Or once a friendly school always a friendly school?	Once registered as a Friendly School, you'll continue to be on the list until you opt out.
Follow-up: can a Friendly School pick and choose which releases to take early and which not to? i.e. does the TASS Updater program allow picking between versions?	Friendly schools can choose if and when to take a release. If a friendly school chooses not to take a particular early release, please just communicate this with the Customer Care team and wait for the General Release version to be pushed out.
Does TASS limit the number of Friendly Schools (like with the old Beta process)?	No.
With the implementation of orbit - will the web portal of parent lounge be accessible?	Parent Lounge will continue to work as normal, including the existing mobile responsive pages. TASS Orbit is an additional product to the Parent Lounge portal.
Do the teacher signatures go anywhere yet?	Part 1 was to provide a way to capture signatures for each teacher/employee. Part 2 to this (not yet complete) is to add runtime options for the display of these signatures on Academic Reports.
Any development for Community Plus on the horizon? Seems desperately in need of some love 😅	Agreed! We will flag this to discuss in a Software Planning Meeting.
Who do we contact about reviewing the new Markbook?	If you're interested in reviewing the new Markbook functionality, please raise a ticket through the Customer Hub and someone will get in contact with you to discuss making it available. TASS will also aim to conduct a dedicated webinar on the new Markbook and the Academic Reporting Overhaul project in the New Year.
With the email updates, will it be possible for internal email to teachers be able to be filed in the communication section for each student e.g. in the Learning Support tab/communication?	This is a forum request that has already been raised and is being actively discussed by the Software Planning Committee. Include Teacher to Teacher emails in Student Communication Log
Is there a limit on the number of signatures able to be stored in TASS for use on reports?	There is currently support for 8 signatures. As part of the Academic Reporting Overhaul project however, it was identified that this needed to be expanded, particularly for classroom teachers. Part 1 of this change was to provide a way to capture signatures for each teacher/employee. Part 2 to this (not yet complete) is to add runtime options for the display of these signatures on Academic Reports.
Are attachments in the HR module encrypted, similar to financial data?	Select fields within the database are encrypted (i.e Payroll data) however physical files are not.
Will we get more UD fields in Student Records?	On each 'entity' record within TASS there is a default set of 25 User Definable fields. In addition to that, for students and employees there are an additional 25,000 customisable fields available through User Definable Areas. Each school can create up to 500 User Definable Areas (or mini databases), each containing a possible 50 User Definable fields across Flag, Text, Picklist, Date and Attachment types. Considering the scale of User Definable fields already available, this is not an area that we are looking to expand on in the near future.
Keen to see reduced steps for teachers to mark Rubric's, ISMG, no double handling :) Can't wait for A TASS Conference... Gold Coast Hilton is free :)	The management of Rubrics was discussed as a topic with the LMS Advisory Group which was active several years ago. At that time the group (representing 8 schools), almost unanimously agreed that Rubrics be supported through PDF annotation, which was then implemented within the product. There are currently no plans to revisit this area.
Is there a place I can find information on the Edstart Integration and the deposit refund integration?	We are currently working through building up some more material on the integration with Edstart. We will be sure to share it once complete!
Hi, is there an option to be a friendly school on just our test environment?	Yes, you can take a Friendly Release on your school's Test Server.
Any development for the Fundraising module on the roadmap?	Not currently.
Is there any plan to add the ability to create rolling timetables for music lessons? That is, for lessons that are on the same day each week, but at different times of the day. This is the standard way of scheduling music lessons in schools. At the moment, we have to enter each lesson manually (we have over 400 music lessons each week) which is extremely time consuming. If this functionality is to be introduced, please include the ability to upload a .csv file to create the lessons.	As per the currently published Roadmap, the next phase of development for Extra Curricular, in conjunction with the active Advisory Group, is flagged for 2023. As part of this we can flag to discuss an option to upload Sessions.