Update Prior Attainment – populate from Exams

The Update Prior Attainment panel was introduced in the Summer 2015 release as it is mandatory to collect prior attainment in Maths and English at GCSE for Post 16 students in the Autumn 2015 census.   Tools / Statutory Return Tools / Update Prior Attainment The criteria used when populating the Prior Attainment grid with data…

Sending an Immediate B2B task

In order to create an Immediate task within SIMS you will need to do the following: 1. Go to Routines – Data Exchange – Manage Tasks   2. Click on Search and select Immediate Task              3. Once within the Immediate task you will need to alter the configuration.  …

Hosted Connector Gateway Override

From version v5.20 of the Scomis Hosted connector, it is possible for an administrator to set a Gateway Override setting that will force the connection method to always use the specified connection.  This is done by setting a registry key in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key. How to set the Gateway override Administrators will need to…

Unknown Username when logging into Encryption (Duplicate Machine Name)

If there is not a duplicated machine name please follow this FAQ instead – http://faq.scomis.org/kb12760/.   A customer will have created a new user to log onto encryption for a laptop. They then get an error when logging on which says “0xE0010020 unknown user name”. This can be caused by an error in the installation of…

Key Stage – How do I amend an incorrect grade in a marksheet?

Locate the relevant Marksheet via Tools>Performance>Assessment>Wizard Manager. Open the Marksheet and right click on the cell with the incorrect grade. This will allow you to view/edit the result history as per the screenshot below (Click on the image for a larger version). Highlight the grade to be removed and click the delete icon (red cross)…

How to use the Assessment Mapping Tool

SIMS has introduced a new utility enabling users to map Aspect and Result Sets that have been defined in school with those defined by Capita SIMS. This is known as the Mapping Tool. Once a school has mapped their assessment aspects and result sets to those provided by Capita, the associated assessment results will become…

FPS Web Companion Software – Hosted Applications Customers Instructions

FPS Web companion is a piece of software (provided by HCSS/Capita) that allows users to perform budget planning tasks. The software has two components that extract data from a SIMS or FMS database. These components are known as the FMS link and the P7 link software. This software is now available to all of our Hosted Application customers. If you wish…

How to import Early Year Progress Grids

If you want to use the Progress Grids for Early Years Assessment you will need to import the Templates file. To do this go to: Routines – Data In – Assessment – Import Click the browse button and go to the following location: Hosted Schools: F:\Public\AMPA\[REGION]\Assessing Pupil Progress\Grid Templates Non-Hosted Schools: C:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS.net\AMPA\[REGION]\Assessing Pupil Progress\Grid…

Exporting Attendance or Lesson Monitor reports to Excel

The inbuilt Attendance and Lesson Monitor reports are designed to output to a web browser such as Internet Explorer. It is possible to export the data from the web browser to Microsoft Excel. After running your report it will open a new window and you will see your information. If you right click on the…

Supplier Payee – LEA Reference warning message

When adding PAYEE details in the ‘Payment To’ section on a supplier in FMS, when saving after adding the LEA Reference you may get a warning that the reference is being used on another supplier. If this is true, just click OK. It is common for multiple suppliers to use the same Payee. If this is not true, further…

Abolition of Employer National Insurance for Under 21s

The Government announced their intention to abolish National Insurance contributions for under-21s for the 2015-16 tax year, providing a significant financial incentive for businesses of all sizes to employ young people.  Under-21 employees earning more than £42,285 per annum are considered above the Upper Earnings Limit and employer NIC will be liable as normal, however this will affect…

FMS – Error Exception in Module Finance.exe at 001870fd

When trying to open FMS the following message appears: Error Exception in Module Finance.exe at 001870fd. Stack level exceeded in finfunc.p_HandelRedirect This is related to the FMSSQL folder in Program Files and seems to be a corruption in the registry. At this time the only solution is  do a System Restore to the last known date FMS was working….

Dinner Money and UIFSM Enhancements

From the SIMS 2014 Autumn release, Dinner Money will identify pupils who belong to National Curriculum Year R, 1 or 2 and automatically charge them £0.00. Where a pupil belongs to National Curriculum Year X, Dinner Money will use the age as at 31/08 to calculate if they are eligible for a universal infant free…

SIMS Service Manager

SIMS Services Manager (SSM) is a new product that manages the link between SIMS and cloud-based products such as the SIMS Teacher App, Agora and InTouch. It has been designed with the intention that it will replace other, older methods of data exchange (such as using VPNs), and unify them into a single technology. It…

How to change a room name within Examinations Organiser

To change a room name within Examinations Organiser you actually need to make the change within SIMS first. To make the changes you will need to follow this path within SIMS: Focus | School | Rooms. Once you are in the rooms section you will be able to edit previously created rooms by browsing for…

SWC – Vacancies missing from the Summary

Vacancies missing from the summary and all are temporarily filled.   Change one of the vacancies to NO. Create and Validate Check the vacancies are appearing in the Summary Change it back to YES Create and Validate Check the summary – they should now all be showing in the Vacancy section of the Summary Report.

How to enable/disable icons at the top of SIMS

To enable the icons for Pupils Staff etc along the top of SIMS you need to look in the Tools menu. Click Tools Then Setups – User Options Under 3. Visual Settings put a tick in Display the Focus Bar to enable the icons or remove the tick to disable.   Reviewed: 06/03/18

Changing the Room in Equipment Register

Rooms are brought across from SIMS when you open FMS Equipment Register. To Change or Update the rooms in Equipment Register you must open SIMS: In SIMS Click Focus -> School – Rooms Browse to the Room you wish to update Change the name or details which are wrong Click Save Open FMS Equipment Register and it will…

Running reports for a User Defined Group

Before starting the report, make sure you make a note of the Short Name of your User Defined Group as this will be required. After selecting the data fields that you require for your report press Next, this will take you to the Define Filter screen. Click on New, a screen will pop up which…

Which permissions are needed to edit User Defined Fields

This is not included in the Class Teacher permissions group but many schools want class teachers to be able to add comments into user defined fields not just view them. The permission required is Student>Basic Details>Edit (All) which is included in the following groups:- Administration Assistant Admission Officer Attendance Manager Partnership Server Manager Returns Manager…

How to restrict access to Sims .net

This will mainly apply to anyone using the scomis hosted applications service who require staff to access linked software such as FMS, DCC Applications, Scamp, PS Financials etc but who do not require access to the Sims .net database. There is a permissions group which gives no access to any of the student or personnel data…

Report output exceeds maximum width

Error: This exceeds the maximum width when running a report in SIMS.     This is because the report is running as a Word List Report. It would need to be changed to a Form Report (RTF)  output on the Define Presentations screen. Ensure that Form Report (RTF) is selected. Sometimes it will show as…

Generating a list of provisioned users for SIMS Learning Gateway

To create a simple report to generate a list of Usernames and passwords for SIMS Learning Gateway: Reports | Design Report | Create a new report Click on Contact, click next Click on the + Contact Information, select Addressee, AddressBlock of the home address [AddressBlock], Salutation Double click on the Students subreport, click on +…

Scomis Backup Utility – SIMS DB Expected backup file not found

SIMS Database failing to backup and the following shows in the log file: 12-11-2016 10:47:47 Starting backup of database: sims UAC OS Detected Backing Up database using DBAttach Method Exception attempting to create backup. Expected backup file not found. Backup not completed. To resolve this you will need to recreate the backup entry in the Scomis…

I am being asked for a password when accessing network drives

When trying to access the network drives (eg. F drive & G drive) I am being asked for a username and password.                 The main reason for the above issue occurring is that a windows network password has been changed or expired. In order to resolve this issue…

How Do I Re-print FMS PDF orders

1)Select Focus, Accounts Payable, Purchase order. 2)Double click the required purchase order and select order. 3) Click the icon as shown by the red arrow, labelled pdf preview, this will open the purchase order, in Adobe reader, enabling you to reprint the order.   kb13156 Last reviewed 21/12/2017      

Scomis Training – How to Access and Use it

This page contains all the links required to enable you to access the new Scomis Training Provision – VMware View:   Scomis Training Room – if you are in the Scomis Training room, using the Scomis Training Laptops, please use the following FAQ: http://faq.scomis.org/kb13118/   SWGfL School – if you are wishing to connect from…