News and Blog
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Are you one of those lucky employees that gets a laptop? Or do you have master keys to facilities? Obviously, these are important assets for the district to track and manage. And the latest feature in fixed assets makes it a heck of a lot easier to associate these important assets with an employee. Check it out. In the fixed asset record, you can access a lookup of all employees in your district, allowing you to assign an asset to an employee, search for assets by employee, and see assets in the employee record. Both the Employees and Employee Pay Management activities have an Assets tab that lists the assets associated with that employee. |
You can assign fixed assets to employees by adding their employee Id to the fixed asset record.
Once those assets are assigned, you can see them listed in the employee record.
For a more macro approach, you can run the Fixed Assets List (FA01) report which includes an employee filter option and an employee sort option. The sort option (e) shows only assets that are associated with an employee, grouped by location. If you like, you can page break this sort option by employee.
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This week’s “Your Turn” comes from one of our new customers! We received this feedback from Sabrina Meyer after publishing an article about the Santa Rosa Junior College HR Implementation. Sabrina was involved in the decision making process, directly supporting the HR staff, and managing and monitoring any problems that arose. 
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“Carole was so responsive – truly awesome! She made the transition easy and painless — well, almost :). Thank you for assigning her to us. We are very appreciative of her support."
~ Sabrina Meyer, Assistant Director, HR
Santa Rosa Junior College
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One of the best features of the new grid technology is the ability to dynamically control the columns of your list. For example, if you want to see the Rehire flag but not the Pay Cycle for employees on your list, you can easily add the one and remove the other. It is very simple to do! The grid button is available on almost every list in Escape Online. And, we have been adding column selections with each release. (See the end of this article for a comprehensive listing.) |
Like I said, it is super-duper simple. From the list, all you have to do is click the Grid button (or press Ctrl+G) and the grid displays the data from the list in the workspace. Once on the grid, you can add or delete columns from the grid, customizing the layout of the data for your specific needs. To see the list of available columns, right-mouse click on any column heading.
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Check or uncheck any column. The grid updates dynamically, as you check and uncheck. Many activities contain dozens upon dozens of column options. (The Employees activity actually contains 173 columns to choose from. No kidding!!!) I am telling you, this grid feature is so great; I use it all the time to find records for just-the-right screen captures, but don’t just listen to me. Here is a response from an everyday user, just like you:
Once you get just-the-right list, you can group, export or report. Whatever is just right for you! |
Here is a list of activities that have full access to columns. We are still accepting suggestions for v10.05. Call Escape Customer Care today to get in your request.
In 10.03
In 10.04
In 10.05
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Here is the last, but not the least, in the series of articles about SRJC going live. The Finance implementation was led by Kate Jolley, Director of Fiscal Services, and Linda Close, Budget Coordinator from SRJC. Kate also acted as the Project Manager for SRJC so I was personally in contact with her every week for team meetings, prioritizing CRs and discussing general status. Like the HR team, the Finance team worked independently throughout the implementation and proved to be great self-learners! Gayle did spend some time on-site but not as much as we had expected due to the enthusiasm and commitment of the Finance team.
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The same as the other segments of the Escape Online 5 project, the Finance implementation progressed smoothly over the 10-month timeline and didn’t hit any major problems. Everyone truly worked together with the common goal of going live in July.
“I absolutely LOVE the Fixed Assets functionality. It so much easier than our old system.” It’s amazing how sometimes even the small things can make such a big difference!”
~ Kate Jolley, Director of Fiscal Services
Santa Rosa Junior College
Many thanks to Gayle, Kate, Linda and all the others in the background for managing this through to the end.
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This Friday Feature is straight to the point. You can copy from grids! What more needs to be said? Honestly, there is no need to pontificate about the benefits of this, but I will say that I was able to paste (as a table!) into Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word, and as table rows into Excel and Access. AND, no matter where I pasted, the column headings were included. All Search/List/Form activities in Escape Online support grids. Once a list is presented in the workspace, just press Ctrl+G to turn it into a grid. Now you are ready to copy! Use your Shift and Ctrl keys to select rows that you want, then press Ctrl+C to copy. |
Selected rows in an Escape Online Grid
Now, paste (Ctrl+V) into your favorite application, like Microsoft Excel.
Notice how only the selected columns copied, yet the column headings still copied automatically
And, that is it!! Notice that only the rows highlighted in blue are copied. I don’t have to copy every single row, just what I need! AND, each column comes in separately, with column headings (that were not highlighted) input automatically.
As long as I am talking about grids (expect more Friday Features), let me remind you to wait for the entire list to build before you press Ctrl+G. You want to make sure that all the list data is in the grid. Also, here is another quick tip: use Ctrl+S to close the grid and return to the list. Happy Friday!
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As mentioned in yesterday’s article due to some differences in how community colleges operate, Escape needed to develop a new and very flexible way to accommodate assigning buyers and routing requisitions for approval, which we are calling Workflow. Workflow allows the user to define certain ACTIONS based on EVENTS that take place in the life of a requisition. Most of the events that can trigger actions are status changes like “submit for approval,” “cancel,” that sort of thing. The types of actions that can be taken are: generating an approval path, putting a req on hold, assigning a buyer and notifying user(s). A variety of filters can be employed within the workflow such as document type, dollar values, accounts used and two new fields, Academic Department and Good and Services Categories. |
Escape Online 5’s previous approval routing capability was less flexible, and it was also mostly accomplished with setup in the user records, meaning the maintenance task fell on the system manager. All of the setup for Finance Workflows is available in a couple of setup activities, which can be assigned to the correct user(s) by the system manager.
Since this was a large development effort, we wanted to ensure we had the appropriate buy-in along the way, so we approached this development in a more iterative fashion involving the SRJC Purchasing team throughout the development life cycle. Tim Bosma, Director of Purchasing and Graphic Services, and D’Ann Moore, Senior Buyer, came to the Escape office in Roseville a couple of times during the process to meet with our developers, review work completed and provide input.
Escape developers, Bob Lehman and Jennifer Kenney, were able to provide immediate changes based on the input received during the meetings and were incredibly responsive, making changes within hours – sometimes even minutes! Involving Tim and D’Ann in the process also saved a lot of time and helped set expectations about functionality and timelines.
We also took this opportunity to add new functionality in the Vendor Requisitions area that had been requested by other Customers, like adding manual approvals to an existing requisition and assigning proxy approvers from the home page.
Gayle Lucas was the Project Manager for the Purchasing and Finance portion of the Escape Online 5 implementation and dedicated a large portion of her overall time to Workflow. She spent time onsite reviewing and understanding their current needs and gathering input on the specification and design. Gayle was the liaison for development and ultimately tested all of Workflow! She’s now the Escape resident expert…way to go Gayle!
Finance Workflows were one of our important 2010 Roadmap items and we completed this one on time. For you existing customers that would like to include more sophisticated routing and notification options in Finance, talk with your support representative.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
The SRJC implementation for the purchasing group was a true collaboration. From SRJC, the Purchasing implementation was led by Tim Bosma, Director of Purchasing and Graphic Services and D’Ann Moore, Senior Buyer. Gayle Lucas led the effort from Escape.
From the left, Purchasing staff: Ralph Gause, Monica Gachet, Tim Bosna, D’Ann Moore, Ann Gibbs, and Mario Cerna. Pictured separately, Solomon Ghebretensae, Warehouse.
Since community colleges operate differently than K12s, the purchasing implementation of Escape Online 5 required some new development related to assigning approvals and routing of vendor requisitions, which we are calling Workflow. There is a lot to say about Workflow, so I’ll post a separate article on that tomorrow.
When the project started in September 2009, Tim and D’Ann immediately took responsibility and became very involved in the process so they could better support their team. The Purchasing department has 13 members, four of which are buyers, but across the campus in total there are over 200 departments and nearly 400 site users!
The SRJC team also took responsibility for training their users and now has a portion of those users live, with a plan of bringing the remaining users on in August or early September. Since June they have generated 650 requisitions and printed nearly 400 purchase orders... nothing like hitting the ground running! Of course they did need some help from Escape and Gayle was always there to provide guidance and assistance as needed.
“Gayle has been very helpful, and quick to respond to questions, during our testing and implementation of the Purchasing software.”
~ Tim Bosma, Director of Purchasing
Santa Rosa Junior College
Many thanks to Tim, D’Ann, and the other SRJC team members that made this implementation so successful and enjoyable!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Something unique about the SRJC implementation you may not know is that Escape assigned two Project Managers, Carole Williams for HR/Payroll and Gayle Lucas for Finance and Purchasing. We had a short timeline and were very busy with other implementations so we needed to try something a little different. By now you already know that SRJC did go live in July as scheduled, so our approach of divide and conquer worked!
Lucky for Carole, the entire Human Resources team led by Karen Furukawa, Director of Human Resources, was very self-sufficient during the implementation and required only minimal time from her. They attended trainings as scheduled, went back to their desks and promptly started setup and testing. Their enthusiasm and diligence was a huge help during the implementation. Their positive energy was contagious to others around them! A special thank you to Sabrina Meyer, Assistant Director of Human Resources; Danielle Donica and Linda Jay, Human Resources Technician II’s; Gina Waggoner, Human Resources Specialist, Systems/ Compensation; and Louise Burke, Human Resources Specialist/Benefits. They are all superstars!
From the left: Bridget C. Hodenfield, Brenda Dixon, Linda Jay, Louise Burke, Gina Waggoner, Sarah Hopkins, and Susan Muskar (Not pictured: Sabrina Meyer, Danielle Donica, Karen Furukawa, Tracy Ruelle, Kate Bowman, and Maria Padilla Campos)
“I personally love the new Escape system. We were using three systems to maintain our data and we just turned the other two systems off. It is so nice to have one system that effortlessly handles it all. I love the new data grid feature and all the customizable reports. Every time I look at the Escape system I find something new that makes my job easier. I like the webinars and release notes because they really help me find all the new features quickly. I have also enjoyed working with the Escape staff and I appreciate the “Yes we can” customer service approach.”
~ Gina Waggoner, Human Resources Specialist
Santa Rosa Junior College
Way to go team HR!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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I love the new data grids. I used to run search after search and then sort and re-sort to get just the list I wanted. Now, I run a generic list, open the grid and voila – I can use filtering to quickly generate the perfect list! Check it out. On the grid, there is a drop-down arrow for filtering each column. If you have already filtered a column, you can see that too, by the little funnel icon.
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Once you select the drop-down, you get a list of all the groupings for that column. Here are two examples, from vendor requisitions and employees.
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You just check and uncheck whatever groupings you want. The grid dynamically updates with just those selections, even the number of records and totals. It is magical!
Like I said, I love the new data grids, so stay tuned. I will be doing a lot of Friday Features on this amazing new special attraction.
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Santa Rosa Junior College, SRJC, is special to us in many ways (but in particular) because they are the first community college to use the payroll functionality in Escape Online 5. Unlike Redding and Gateway, SRJC is new to Escape so it was a bigger challenge converting their legacy data and getting them live in a timely fashion. Yet, we still did it, in about nine months. Many thanks to Tom Henzie, Escape Data Technician, and John Mercer, SRJC Senior Programmer Analyst, for working so diligently to get all the legacy data exported, translated and imported into Escape Online 5 so quickly.
Deepa Desai, SRJC Payroll Manager, and her team also did a tremendous job analyzing net pay for every employee, ensuring all of the necessary payroll changes were made in time for them to go live in July. The SRJC team quickly became fans of the Escape Online 5 functionality during the implementation. Here are a few of the items they identified as their favorite features:
Import capabilities for Adjunct, Students, and STNC hourly payrolls. “Saves a lot of manual data entry in the system.” (This feature is in the Additional Pay activity.)
Export reports and data into an excel spreadsheet. “Very helpful.”
Ease of setting up the work calendars for hourly position pay. “It’s nice that we don't have to set up individual calendars for everyone.”
Integration of health benefits. “Avoids manual calculations and updates in the system for all changes.”
Ability to verify STRS/PERS reporting data prior to sending it to the County. “Saves time.”
Ease of working with existing reports and requesting minor changes to accommodate our needs. “Quick turnaround.”
Ability to print messages on paycheck stubs for everyone and individually.
Details on the paystubs more user friendly to employees.
”Carole has been exceptionally helpful and great to work with. Without her, we probably wouldn't have been able to go LIVE in July.”
~ Deepa Desai, Payroll Manager
Santa Rosa Junior College
Of course, the same can be said for the Payroll team at SRJC: Deepa Desai, Payroll Manager; Jacqueline DeLap and Lisa Hotchkiss, Payroll Specialists; Glynis Nojima and Katherine Raines, Payroll Technicians; and Casandra Plymale, Payroll Assistant.
From the left: Deepa Desai, Casandra Plymale, Glynis Nojima, Kathryn Raines, Jacqueline DeLap, (not pictured, Lisa Hotchkiss)
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Another day and another customer (or set of customers) live on Escape Online 5!
Redding School District and its three partnering districts are another set of districts that went live on Escape Online 5 during the month of July. Similar to Gateway, they also did it in record time! It took a little less than six months, from beginning the project to processing their first payroll. Such a tight timeline couldn’t have been possible without Kathy Carlson, the Escape Project Manager, and RoseAnn Adams, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services. RoseAnn’s team did an excellent job managing and completing all the necessary tasks and staying focused on the July deadline.
Even with their eight years of Escape Classic experience, there was some trepidation though…According to RoseAnn, “While our team was apprehensive and anxious about the conversion, the Escape team balanced it with calm and steadfast progression. The Escape Online 5 software is so user friendly, for the end user, that the RSD staff was able to quickly grasp most of their duty functions in the new program! There are absolutely no regrets of the decision to move forward with the new Escape Online 5.”
During our project meeting this week, RoseAnn relayed a story that made us all smile…
”Kelli (Roberts from Shasta COE) was asking for a report on contributions and deductions and their descriptions. I didn’t know if there was a report or not and since she was in my office I thought it would be a good opportunity for her to see how user friendly the system can be. Together we went through the activity tree: selected the HR/Payroll activity, then started searching for what we thought we wanted. Within one minute we found our way to Setup, then within Setup we found Payroll, within Payroll was a list and we selected the Contribution and hit go…..there was the list with what she needed, so I exported that to Excel. I did the same for Deductions. I then e-mailed the Excel docs to her; done in less than two minutes flat!”
~ RoseAnn Adams, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services
Redding School District
You’ve just got to love stories like that. Many thanks and congratulations to the whole team for such an accomplishment!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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As my article yesterday indicated, July was a big month for Escape with three customers going live on Escape Online 5. Gateway Unified School District was the first of the three to actually be live in July. Charlene Essig, Director of Business Services, and her team did an amazing job staying organized and on task in order to complete their implementation in record time…less than 6 months! |
Trainings were scheduled well in advance, and were well attended. Testing tasks were completed thoroughly and quickly. Of course, they had the help of Kathy Carlson, a seasoned Escape Project Manager, to guide them along the way. Charlene felt the implementation went very well.
“It was a pleasure to work with Kathy Carlson for our implementation. It was especially helpful to have her on site working with us to make sure all of the processes were being completed accurately. The one-on-one assistance was greatly appreciated. The system is very user friendly and we are discovering new things we can implement every day. The change from Escape Classic to Escape Online 5 has gone very well.”
~ Charlene Essig, Director of Business Services
Gateway Unified School District
A customer since 2002, Gateway is always great to work with. Way to go team!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
The summer months are busy for all of us, but July was exceptionally busy for Escape as we added three new customers to the Escape Online 5 family! Two customers, Redding School District and Gateway Unified School District, converted from our Escape Classic legacy system. Santa Rosa Junior College came to us from another system AND is the first community college utilizing the payroll functionality in Escape Online 5.
Stay tuned, because over the next week I’ll be writing separate articles on each of these implementations!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
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