FMS - Changes in VAT Rates 2011

With the upcoming change in VAT rates in 2011, new notes have been produced to guide FMS users through the process of making changes in their finance system.

Click the links below to read these notes now, two formats available:

• Word Document
• PDF Document

These and other finance manuals can be found on the Finance Planet of the SIMS Home Page.

School Census Spring - 20th January 2011

The latest Helpline and Department of Education Census notes have been uploaded for the forthcoming Spring Census.

Click on the links below to read these notes now:

Helpline School Census Guidance Spring 2011

Department of Education Preparation and Guidance Spring 2011 notes:

• Primary
• Secondary
• Special
• Nursery
• Pupil Referral Unit (PRU)

These notes may be subject to change, so keep checking the SIMS Home Page regularly for any updates.

New DfE Education Website

N.B. The website to use for DfE guidance has changed. The Teachernet website no longer supplies the most up-to-date guidance. The new web address is:-

www.education.gov.uk/schools

The Preparation and Guidance Notes for School Census 2011 can be downloaded from this website.

School Spring Census 2011

School Spring Census - Thursday 20th January 2011 - 12 noon onwards

The next School Spring Census will be considerably less detailed than in recent years. The Teacher and Support Staff panels have now been removed, this data is no longer collected as a part of this Census, being collected instead by the School Workforce Census.

The Student contacts data is also no longer being collected, as ContactPoint has been shelved the data is no longer required. Extended Services, ICT, In-Care Indicator, Sources of Ethnicity and Service Children have also been dropped.

As always, if student data in SIMS .net is kept up to date and accurate, producing the Spring Census should be straight forward. This Census does collect additional information such as Modes of Travel, Service Families, class activities. Helpline notes are available for download from the Portal, as are DfE Guidance Notes and Capita notes.

Half day courses are available for new users who would like hands on experience of producing the Census. The SIMS .net Autumn Upgrade must have been applied for the Spring Census to become available.

Don’t leave it until Census day to start working on your Census. The Collect Familiarisation website is available for the upload of Dummy Censuses.

Check modes of travel by issuing tick lists to class teachers. Print out Detailed Reports from within the Census and get the relevant members of staff to check details such as SEN, Attendance, FSM, Gifted and Talented.

The Census can be completed in advance, apart from the number of Free School Meals taken on the day. It is then only necessary to authorise and upload the Census on the 20th January.

The web address for Collect is:-
https://data.education.gov.uk/COLLECTPortalLive/login.aspx

N.B. this web address is different from last year.

Also please note Cambridgeshire schools can only upload their files from 12 midday onwards on 20th January.

“Y” Code in Attendance

Schools have recently received communications from Sue Stubbings advising you to add Y code if not present in SIMS .net.

The Y code is already present and can only be applied using the Focus Attendance Exceptional Circumstances route in SIMS.

VAT Changes and Dinner Money 7

Please ensure the new VAT rate and adult meal charges have been entered into SIMS .net before the new 20% VAT rate comes into effect on 4th January.

These changes can be made now - notes were emailed out to schools on 24th November.

Try to ensure that all payments received for adult meals are banked on or before the last day of the Autumn Term. Any payments banked after 4th January will incur the increased VAT rate.

New Features in SIMS .net

Communications Log
This feature was introduced to work with InTouch and/or the Admission Process, but schools may find it useful for recording communications between home and school. Access using Focus Communication. It may be necessary for users to have SIMS Admission Officer Rights to access this feature.

Emergency Alert
Once a recipient has been selected to receive all Emergency Alerts, a new icon will appear at the top of SIMS .net which when clicked by users will send a message that Emergency Assistance is required giving the user and, in secondary schools with timetables, the location.

Monthly Tasks in SIMS .net

Below is a suggested list of tasks that need carrying out on a weekly/monthly or a periodical task we are suggesting is carried out during the coming month that over time will lead to improvements in your school’s data quality.

Helpline guidance notes for these tasks can be found on the SIMS Home Page of the Portal - the index offers an easy way of identifying the guidance you are looking for. Alternatively why not use the Documentation Link from the Home Page in SIMS .net.

Weekly Check Sheet
[] Record Staff absences
[] Check and clear B2B Suspense Processing
[] Check and clear B2B Review Changes
[] Send out Dinner Money Debtor Letters

This Month's Checks Tick Sheet
[] Dinner Money Edit VAT and Meal Charges for new 20% rate
[] Ensure SIMS .net Autumn Upgrade carried out
[] Start preparing for Spring Census
[] Download DfE Preparation and Guidance Notes for 2011
[] Update Modes of Travel Data

FMS - VAT Changes - 4th January 2011

CAPITA may make a patch available to carry out this change with no user involvement. We are currently in discussion and hope to have concrete information shortly.

Failing that notes will be made available for a manual solution to the issue.

Only invoices raised after 4th January will incur the increased VAT so the rate may not be required until the middle of January at the earliest.

Options in SIMS .net - Preparing for 2011-12

Notes are now available on the Portal for schools wishing to start their Options process for 2011-12.

Preparing for 2011-12 (Using Nova-T6 and Options to Prepare the Timetable)

Click here to read these notes now.

Progress with Version 2 of Central Hosting

Earlier in the term, schools were advised to sign up for the upgraded Central Hosting service with the intention tomigrate schools by the end of this term.

Unfortunately, due to the impact of other projects, in particular the transfer of management of central infrastructure to Dell, we have been unable to make the progress we had hoped. However,we do expect to re-start the programme in the New Year after the January Census, at which point we will be in touch withschools as planned originally.

SIMS .net Autumn Upgrade - Version 7.136

We are currently releasing the Autumn upgrade to schools. All schools will need to have performed this upgrade before the School Spring Census 2011 can be generated.

Schools that are piloting Schools Learning Gateway will have to wait for the next upgrade to SIMS Learning Gateway before the Autumn Upgrade can be applied. This is currently expected to be on 18th December. Centrally Hosted schools will be upgraded on the next scheduled downtime - also 18th December 2010.

This upgrade will include an upgrade to the CTF version to Version 10. Any school attempting to import a Version 10 CTF before the autumn upgrade has been performed will receive a warning message. Capita have recommended that schools SHOULD NOT import these CTFs until after the upgrade.

Key Dates 2011

To book on a course listed in Key Dates, telephone 01480 376670

• School Census Training - 10th, 17th Jan (WB)
• School Spring Census - 20th Jan
• SIMS .net for New Users - 31st Jan & 7th Feb
• SIMS .net Reporting - 2nd Feb
• TOPP Reporting - 8th Feb (WB)
• RaiseOnline for Senior Leaders - 15th Feb
• TOPP - 17th Feb
• Fischer Family Trust - 8th Mar (WB)

All courses based at Godmanchester unless otherwise stated. Other venues: (OC) = Oliver Cromwell, March; (ML) = March Library; (CPDC) = Cambridge Professional Development Centre; (WB) = ICT Service Waterbeach; (BMC) = Buckden Millennium Centre; (OV) = Over Community Centre.