Fedena

Effectively using Forms in a school ERP

January 20, 2017

When we talk about the growth of schools and institutions, at most times we stop at just increasing the number of students, quality of education imparted, and improvement of grades. But what we fail to see is that schools just like all other organizations have tremendous opportunities to grow in every aspect. Especially in areas such as Parent-school communications, teacher satisfaction, faculty growth, admin satisfaction, curriculum relevancy etc. Most of these are achieved through strong feedback process cycles and to strengthen these processes a school ERP helps tremendously.

Every school ERP mostly comes with Feedback forms, survey forms in a manner of plugins or features. (If yours doesn’t, we suggest you immediately contact us to help you strengthen your processes and grow) These forms are the best way to setup feedback processes with teachers, admins, parents, students alike to get a better understanding of the people running your institution.

Set smarter goals and track your school’s progress

Sometimes you can only understand what your survey results really mean when you put them in context. You can gain perspective on where your school stands.
For example, you might find 47% of parents are satisfied with the school’s programs. Is that high? Is that low? You won’t know until you compare those results to other schools. Then you can highlight your strengths and define areas that need more focus.

Let’s take the Fedena Forms Plugin and see how it helps you track your school’s progress.

Use Cases:

Forms can measure Teachers and employees satisfaction at school
Forms can also be used for student evaluations, problems, and suggestions
Forms can help learn about teachers overall school experience and find out how they enjoy working at the school
Forms allow schools to get parents’ feedback on utilities in the school.

Let’s take a few example cases as to how we think schools could be using the Forms plugin in our school ERP.

Use Case 1:

The school management has decided to introduce a Teacher’s welfare fund programme with the mutual participation of all teachers and school management. Since the idea came from management, the success of this programme will depend on the decision of both parties, the school as well as its management. Before starting the discussion the school management can collect primary data by creating a survey template in Fedena by including the survey questions to grab the individual interest of such programme. In this, the management can get a tabular form of data in excel/table for the in-depth analysis of faculty involvement.

There is absolutely no need in disrupting class timings just to discuss starting the programme. This makes the complete process hassle free, collects information from teachers at their leisure and provides you a complete analysis of every faculty’s opinion as well as the school’s opinion about the Welfare fund programme.

Data analysis. ✓
Minimum participation time. ✓
Data Collection from the appropriate targeted audience, ✓
Freedom to express every individual’s opinion. ✓

Use Case 2:

The school management and teachers council has decided to give IELTS/TOEFL training programme to the students in order to increase the opportunity to get a better higher education abroad. Even though the idea is really good and acceptable, the management is finding it hard to take the decision without the parents’ consent and cooperation. The final exams are due and time is essential for teachers. They won’t be able to spare a whole day in arranging a parents meeting to initiate the project. If this project gets implemented before the final exams this would give a competitive edge to the students as well as the school. Generally, one would collect the opinions from parents by using some online survey forms or emails etc. But by using these the user participation would be less and due to nonuniformity and unfamiliarity of survey tools, more time would be wasted in making such a survey.

Here is where Fedena forms come in handy for collecting data from parents easily without wasting much of anybody’s time. What’s more, you already have every parent’s details in Fedena already, so all you need to do is make a form and use the internal messaging/notification system to notify them and voila, you have an instant approval rating for your new training programme.

Time management. ✓
Data collection. ✓
Ease of Use. ✓

Each school survey covers a different aspect of education—from parent engagement to student demographics—and can give anybody in your school a way to give feedback that’ll help you make targeted improvements to your school.

You can give students an anonymous, easy way to tell you their troubles. can use to find out whether your school has a problem, gauge its severity, and give victims an option to identify themselves.

For teachers, it can be helpful to understand how parents feel about their child’s education and school. What’s the right teaching style for their children? How often do they help their kids with homework? Are their children fitting in at school?

Find out the answers to these questions and to help teachers and administrators understand parent efficacy and whether or not students’ education continues outside of the classroom.

Get Smart. Get Fedena.

School ERP as hotel management blog image

Expanding A School ERP System To Hostel Management

January 13, 2017

Understand the role and advantages of using a school ERP

Education is no longer provided solely in the confines of a geographical border. Today, the international geopolitical environmental and economic boundaries are getting increasingly blurred and this newly evolved world demands a global education for students.

Consequently, today there are an increasing number of students traveling and seeking an education beyond the confines of their home city. There has emerged a demand for a hostel management system for students that efficiently manages several aspects of the entire residential facility reducing repetitive and manual work. Using a school ERP has proved to be an efficient solution to the day to day challenges in the management of a student hostel.

The relevance of an ERP system as compared to any other school management can simply be attributed to the efficiency it brings into the job. It helps to pursue mundane operations with accuracy and reliability of the secured data. An ERP based software is also operationally feasible due to its ease of use, as it can be effortlessly operated by any technical or non-technical person.
In schools, processes like fees collection, timetable management, attendance management, data management and other similar functions are done manually which takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. But using an ERP system helps schools and other educational institutions to manage their administrative activities at the click of a button.

A similar school ERP, when applied to a hostel eliminates the stress of manual data management and creates an operative roadmap for school administrators that assures the smooth administration of the hostel in a way that demonstrates efficiency, ingenuity together with cost saving. This form of data management covers hostel attendance, room allocation, mess usage, check in – check out times and many other requirements. It ensures comprehensive control over the entire hostel workflow.

Using a school ERP to manage your hostel data provides manifold benefits and to a variety of audience.

To the Hostel warden and other hostel employees, such a system allows for smooth flow of information and easy access to specific tasks. They can easily manage tasks such as inventory management, room information, room allocation, schedule fee collections, collect hostel fees and track fee defaulters. The addition of custom fields allows for easy recording of additional information if need.

For students, it offers an easy option to choose a room based on their preferences and requirements.

Add intentionally for parents, such a system allows parents and guardian to check the rooms and the fees associated with the room. It allows them to track the various activities of the students remotely and take any disciplinary action if deemed necessary.

In Conclusion, managing a hostel through traditional data management is a tedious task and efficiently leveraging a school ERP software offers a dynamic as well as practical approach. It helps hostels with precise inventory planning, offers a systematic approach and ensures accurate control of administrative processes to ensure that the hostel is able to function at its highest capability.

With Demonetisation, School ERPs are Non-Negotiable

January 10, 2017

How School ERPs like Fedena have made online fee management a breeze,
and why it matters

For students who come from lower-income families, school fee payment can often be a draining endeavor. Interacting with bureaucrats, and the system itself can be a time consuming, humiliating and laborious experience for parents who are already worried about having to make difficult financial decisions to secure their child’s future.

Technology has been a boon in this regard. School ERP systems like Fedena allow parents to plan for their children’s fees in advance, set payment dates that work for them, receive receipt confirmation in a timely fashion. Being able to foresee such expenditures helps parents and administration ensure that their student’s focus remain on what is most important – learning to their full potential.

School ERPs are not just for the privileged few. One can argue that they are, in fact, even more, necessary for lower and middle-income schools. Fedena makes repetitive processes like fee collection more efficient for school administrators, and less anxiety-inducing for parents who might be struggling to plan their financial outlay for the school year. They make economic sense for schools – the financial and temporal expenditure made by the administration on fee collection is drastically reduced after a one-time investment in software like Fedena’s. Parents are able to plan for all contingencies, since Fedena allows for not just school fees, but also the hostel and transportation fees, library fines, and other miscellaneous instant fees to be easily collected.

Efficiency does not come at the cost of personalized attention with Fedena. Its software allows for individual fee particulars to be shared, instant discounts to applied, custom pay dates to be set, and fee receipts to be generated for every student. It enables easy fee refund whenever necessary, even allowing for recurring refund rules to be set by administrators at their discretion. The financial status of every student and parent can be considered while these decisions are being made without the added hassle of getting time-consuming approvals for administrative exceptions and override processes on a case-by-case basis.

Remember the gut-churning anxiety of having to remember to get your parents to sign off and give you a cheque or cash for that school trip you and your friends were excited for? Or how about the science kit your teacher was ordering for the class for that semester’s final project? Fedena allows for the collection of different types of fees through its software, instead of having to rely on students and teachers to manage the task. Payments can be made on-the-go at the convenience of the parent, and expenditures can be tracked through itemized details and easy receipt generation, letting children focus on actually learning from their museum visits and lab experiments.

With the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes, our financial lives have dramatically changed. From how you pay your local grocer to how you manage recurring payments, our increasing reliance on electronic money transfer portals cannot be denied.

What does this mean for the education sector? What School ERPs have already been offering – better planning, increased transparency, and faster transactions. These are seen across the education sector with a decrease in capitation fees, and increased focus on equitable treatment based on merit.

What does this mean for individual schools and students? Whether it is financing a new library allowing students to quickly access the best material to support their learning, building better physical education facilities to produce the next PV Sindhu, or increasing support and salaries for teachers and staff, Fedena enables schools to focus on channeling funds and human resources towards bettering lives of the people who matter the most in the system – their students.

Celebrating Savitribai Phule’s 186th Birthday

January 3, 2017January 3, 2017

January 3rd marks the birth date of one of the greatest Indian social reformers. Savitribai Phule. She played a pivotal role in improving women’s rights in India during the British rule. She founded the first women’s school in Pune, fought against discriminations towards women, untouchables and also founded a care center for pregnant rape victims during her times. Savitribai Phule is a standing beacon of light in the fight against discrimination.

Last year the Pune university was renamed to The Savitribai Phule Pune University in her honor, Namaka, Fedena 3.5.1 was a dedication to her. Let’s celebrate her life today by remembering her contributions to social reforms, thank her for her valiant efforts and contributions, and continue the fight she started for better schools and social reforms.

2016 – Fedena : A Year in Review

December 30, 2016December 30, 2016

2016 has been a long and productive year. Taiwan elected their first female president, the Panama papers stunned the world of finance, Djokovic made history by holding four grand slams concurrently, Brexit, Modi demonetized India, Trump won the U.S elections, and over 200 Indian startups closed down. It’s been a roller-coaster of a year. Among all this madness, we had a few achievements as well. Here’s what kept the team behind the number one school management system busy this year:

We kicked things off with one of the biggest updates to Fedena. Fedena 3.5 released in February.

4,506,763 New Fedena Users were recorded in 2016!

We completed 7 years this April!

2,807,963 New students were admitted in schools running Fedena this year!

Our mid-year release, Namaka, Fedena 3.5.1 came out in July 2016. We dedicated this update to Savitribai Phule.

1,480,168 New Parents were introduced to Fedena to get better informed about their children’s schools, pay fees, and loads of other things!

In August we kicked off Fedena live chat support and haven’t looked back since!

A total of 5429 happy interactions with our customers in 2016!

Fedena servers recorded the highest availablility in 2016 at 99.95% !

And finally our latest release, Fedena 3.5.2, Nix. This was one of the marquee updates to Fedena. Accompanied with a very unique plugin – The Automatic Timetable Generator

Also,

With this, we bid adieu to 2016 and welcome 2017, a year with unlimited possibilities, opportunities, and growth. Here’s wishing everybody a very happy new year!

5 Reasons Why Investing in School Management Software Will Make You Future Ready

December 27, 2016

Why efficiently leveraging school management software is vital for success

Think back to a typical day when you were at school. Specifically, think back to the first five minutes of every class – when our teachers pulled out a massive tome to mark attendance. A time consuming, clunky, and laborious process, it often became an excuse for particularly cheeky students to pull a fast one over a naive teacher by having them mark a missing student as present, or an opportunity to cut into teaching time by dragging the process out for as long as they could.

This issue, along with many others that plague education management, is now obsolete thanks to school management software like Fedena. In an increasingly competitive environment, excellent school management translates directly to student success. It is no longer enough for a student to just have a dedicated teacher, or an involved parent, or a well-administered school. Effectively managing all stakeholders and resources available to parents, teachers, employees, and students leads to an educational experience that can define the next few generations of our country.

Here are 5 reasons using a school management software is no longer just an option, but a necessity:

1. Partnering with Parents to Enable Success: Parents are increasingly involved in the nitty gritty of their child’s schooling. Fedena allows parents to access their child’s grades, attendance, results, and more at any time, enabling them to make educational decisions more efficiently. This empowerment extends out of school too, with features like transport tracking, homework management, and custom reports for each student.

2. Personalising a Student’s Experience: Fedena enables teachers to share comments on specific student actions, communicate with them one on one via SMS or the in built messaging system, and share news and information relevant to students, resulting in the the kind of personalised attention to a student that is key to their success. It’s no longer a one size fits all education plan!

3. Efficient Course Management: Teachers, students, and parents alike are able to track progress for multiple courses and use their in-class and after-class time more efficiently with features like task assignment and library management. Fuss free examinations across levels and school boards are made possible using Fedena’s in built tools. This end to end tracking ensures that no child is left behind at any stage of the school year.

4. Seamless Fee Management: With Fedena the focus where it should be – the student, not inefficient and time-consuming paperwork. Eliminate the need for easily mismanaged and expensive school fee reminders. Instead use Fedena’s powerful engine that automates a cost effective fee collection process segmented according to fee classification. Parents also benefit since this school management software allows them to pay fees online and on the go.

5. Robust School Administration: From admission processes that power the creation of an incoming class that is the best fit for your school, to at a glance access to employee details, and their attendance and leave status, to having access to across the board student records at the click of a button, school administration is markedly more organised with Fedena. Experienced educators know that a strong administration results in a school that runs smoothly – creating an optimum learning environment for the student.

It isn’t enough for a school management software to merely provide the very basic of features needed for efficient functioning. Why stop there when you can go above and beyond? School management is a constantly evolving field, which is why the basic source code of Fedena is open source – customize the software to your school’s need with plugins and modules. Fedena is future ready enabling you to make the most of schooling.

Decoding The Need For An Online School Management System

December 23, 2016

Using an online School Management System to help schools achieve efficiency and competence

Understanding The Challenge

The landscape of education and the role of a school in society in fast changing. From being a basic infrastructural complex where knowledge and academic skills were transmitted to the current scenario where the school has evolved into a complex institution, there is a tectonic shift in the role and responsibilities of a school. Beyond the core skill of imparting education, schools have to undertake numerous activities, teach various life skills, span across locations, connect students, 3rd party vendors, teachers, administrators and other academic staff across time and geographies.

Schools need to put in additional efforts to increase their proficiency and fulfill the needs of various departments and ensure that the educational institution is functioning efficiently. Schools today, face a constant demand for data, which needs to be immediate and accurate. In the midst of this, it is often easy for a school to lose its focus from the student and find itself distracted by constant administrative pressure.

Seeking The Solution

However, an outstanding feature of our society today is that we live in a hyper-connected world, an era driven by technology. Today, many leading schools globally have sought an online school management system as a solution that controls and monitor daily operations as well as meets the needs and wants of every department. Functions such as student database management, multiple campus management, student attendance, online admissions, accounting, finance and even human resources can easily be managed by an online system.

Administrators

An online school management system software enables the administrators to effectively manage their institute, allocating resources where most needed, and ensuring a swift response in all situations – be it an urgent look at a student’s track record, a quick study of the school facilities usage or a glance at the admission trends. In a world, where time and resources are under constant pressure, the usability and functional efficiency associated with cloud-based software systems help schools, colleges, and other education centers to manage the students as well as their administrative activities at the click of a button, from any location. For instance, using an online payment method makes payment of fees for various classes, tuition, transportation, easy and hassle-free. An online admission system allows for easy inquiry and registration for various courses.

Teachers

A school ERP with generous features, easy to use and highly customizable with schools requirements allows schools teachers to have more time to dedicate to their students, instead of continually being bogged down in paperwork.

Parents

The focus on school performance has never been sharper and parents are increasingly vigilant about their child’s performance, ensuring they play an active role in their child’s academic life. Using an online school management system enhances communication between the school and parents. It creates an easy platform for the parents and teachers to be in constant touch with one another, encourages an open dialogue of communication on students’ academic progress and keeps the parents in the loop on all urgent issues.

Students

Students too benefit from using an online system, where they can communicate with their peers, access information on projects, submit assignments or get their doubts resolved by their teacher.

Over the past few years, it has been widely proven that using online tools for data management enhances a school’s operational and academic performance. It not only helps school administrators streamline and simplify operational tasks, but it also boosts the productivity of students and augments a positive parent-school relationship.

Fedena School ERP dedication to Anne Sullivan

Nix : Fedena 3.5.2

December 22, 2016December 22, 2016

Fedena 3.5.2, codenamed Nix has released to our users across the world. From the Automatic Timetable generator to Transfer Certificate generator there are many exciting features to forward to this time. We are also continuing our practise of naming a release after a famous teacher. We often hear about people who went on to do great things and changed the lives of many around them. What we don’t hear often is the story of the people behind them who realized their potential and moulded them from a young age. In this release, we introduce you to such one teacher — Anne Sullivan.

By the age of ten, Helen Keller had become proficient in reading braille and in manual sign language. Now she wished to learn to speak, Anne Sullivan took her to the Horace Mann School for the deaf in Boston. After attending speech classes Helen was still never satisfied with her speech. To help with this Anne adopted the Tad-Oma method where the learner touches the cheek of the teacher to understand the vocal vibrations. Under her guidance, Keller reached new heights and became the first to get a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904.

Watch the video of the famous event from Helen Keller’s life on how Anne Sullivan taught the blind and deaf girl about the existence of language to name items without Helen Keller hearing or seeing it. (Movie – The Miracle Worker (1962))

Anne Sullivan’s life is comparable to many of the teachers who have taught us. While many of their students go on to become famous and achieve great things in life, they continue their work of imparting education without expecting fame or recognition in return. We dedicate this version of Fedena 3.5.2 to Anne and the countless teachers like her who work behind the scenes.

What’s New in Nix?

Automatic Timetable Generator
Transfer Certificate Generator
Advanced Payslips Reports
Payroll Calculation mode
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation ( CCE )
Saving Student Documents
Greek language option

What’s updated in Nix?

Ability to cancel classes in the timetable
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation ( CCE )
Batchwise payments of Fees
Partial payments for Hostels & Transports
Option to pay all fees through online portal
CSV export options for Fee Receipts
Print option for student remarks
Footnote in Payslip reports

And a lot of other fixes; Here is the full list of them in our release notes.

Payroll Calculation mode

A new custom mode is added in payroll settings of the HR module. Using this the payroll of an employee can be calculated without knowing the gross salary. The existing method of salary calculation is now known as gross based payroll. The new mode is useful for institutions where the payroll of an employee is directly or indirectly dependent on a couple of payroll categories.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

A new mode to select how co-scholastic remarks appear in the report card. Your institution can select Choose from remarks set which allows the creation of custom remarks for each observation or auto populate remarks which generate the remarks from a list of descriptive indicators of the observation.

New Detailed FA report which shows the marks for each descriptive indicator of the selected FA.

New student wise FA report which gives report cards for each selected FA. The reports can be published and accessed from student and parent profiles.

Transfer Certificate Generator

This new feature allows the institution to create a customized template and generates transfer certificates using this template. The fields for the certificate can be selected from system fields or

custom fields as per the institution’s requirement. Read more about it here

Automatic Timetable Generator

The automatic timetable generator is a new plugin that creates timetables based on the constraints and conditions defined for a batch or subject. Read more about it on our blog.

Here’s a look at it in action:

View post on imgur.com

Saving student documents

The student attachments feature provides a repository to save documents related to a student. These documents can be added to categories. There are two predefined categories – default which is present in all schools and registration documents which are documents saved from applicant registration module.

Fedena is now available in Greek, bringing the total count of languages Fedena is available in, to 23.

Sneak preview of what’s coming up!

Our team is already working on a host of new features that will enhance your experience with Fedena. A mobile application for admins, students and parents is getting rigged in our workshop. The features you have requested will soon be live in Fedena, the number one school management system.

Nix : Fedena 3.5.2 Release Notes

December 22, 2016December 22, 2016

What’s new in Fedena

Here is the list of new features included with this release of Fedena 3.5.2

Feature	Description	User Role	Module

Payroll Calculation Mode	A new custom mode is added in payroll settings of the HR module. Using this the payroll of an employee can be calculated without knowing the gross salary. The existing method of salary calculation is now known as gross based payroll. The new mode is useful for institutions where the payroll of an employee is directly or indirectly dependent on a couple of payroll categories.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Human Resources

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)	New mode to select how co-scholastic remarks appear in the report card. Your institution can select Choose from remarks set which allows to create custom remarks for each observation or Auto populate the remarks which creates the remarks from list of descriptive indicators of the observation. New Detailed FA report which shows the marks for each descriptive indicator of the selected FA. New student wise FA report which gives report cards for each selected FA. The reports can be published and accessed from student and parent profiles.	Administrator, Privileged Employee, Student/Parent (only detailed FA report)	Examination
Transfer Certificate Generator	This new feature allows the institution to create a customized template and generate transfer certificates using this template. The fields for the certificate can be selected from system fields or custom fields as per the institutions requirement.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Transfer Certificate

Feature	Description	User Role	Module
Automatic Timetable Generator	The automatic timetable generator is a new plugin that creates timetables based on the constraints and conditions defined for a batch or subject.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Timetable

Student Documents	The student attachments feature provides a repository to save documents related to a student. These documents can be added to categories. There are two predefined categories – default are documents saved from applicant registration module.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Student

Advanced Payslip Reports	This new feature provides many predefined payslip reports that institutions can use for different purposes. These inbuilt reports can be customized and saved as a template for later use.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Human Resources

Greek Language	Greek language has been added as the 23rd Language in Fedena.	All users	–

What’s enhanced in Fedena

Here is the list of enhanced features included with this release of Fedena 3.5.2

Feature	Description	User Role	Module

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)	FA mark entry page is redesigned now to show all students in a single list. CCE subject wise report has option to show all subjects for the batch in one report.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Examination

Partial payment in hostel and transport	Partial payment in hostel and transport fees.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Hostel, Transport

Pay all fees batchwise	Pay all fees now has a batch selector also along with the existing student search field.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Finance


Partial Payment and Pay all fees in Online Pay	Partial payment and Pay all fees options now available in online payment.	Student, Parent	Online Payment

CSV export in Fee Receipts	The Fee receipts page now has an option to export the result as a CSV file.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Finance

Father and Mother as predefined relations	Father and Mother are predefined relations in the Guardian Addition page. For adding other relations a text field is provided.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Student

Print option for Student Remarks	Student remarks can be printed as PDF and CSV reports.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Remarks

Cancel class in Timetable	In swap timetable, this new feature allows your institution to cancel a class if it is not being conducted on a particular day. Institutions using subject wise attendance will have that particular class deducted from the total working days.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Timetable

Footnote in Payslip Report	Payslip settings now has an option to add a footnote. The footnote text can be configured by the institution.	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Human Resources

Miscellaneous	The position due and total columns in the Batch-wise reports and fee collection wise reports have been shifted to the last. Fee defaulters list shows the name of the current batch of the student	Administrator, Privileged Employee	Finance

Issues Fixed

Here is the list of issues fixed in this release of Fedena 3.5.2

Applicant Registration

Additional details in applicant registration form not sorted as per the order it is given
Show first name before last name in applicant view page

Attendance

Unable to mark attendance for elective subject
Unable to mark attendance of swapped subject
Attendance report filter details not showing in CSV report

Custom Import

Unable to edit student attendance using dd-mm-yyyy date format
Unable to upload marks for batch wise grading levels

Custom Report

Custom report CSV with more than one guardian per student is not sortable

Examination

Show only the subjects assigned to a student from the elective group in CCE student wise report card
Order of co-scholastic items in CCE report is incorrect
Remove validation in CCE of having atleast one FA group to be assigned to a batch
Permission issue in ICSE transcript report
ASL marks of summative exam not showing in CCE consolidated report
No Sorting in subject wise report
Rounding off inconsistent in CCE reports
Style issue in CCE consolidated report if there are many subjects
Prevent deletion of descriptive indicators if marks are entered

Fedena Main Account

Uppercase and lowercase domains are treated differently leading to duplicate domains

Finance

Issue when selecting the payment mode ‘others’
Pay all fees taking the latest fee collection slab instead of the one fee collection was created in
Payment failing in pay all fees if receipt number sequence is numeric only
Timezone compatibility problem in expense creation page
Fee submission for each student search does not take spaces in name
Fine getting applied before due date
Fee receipt number search works in the selected date range only, not across all fees
Fee submission: Revert transaction button to be disabled when fees is already refunded in pay all fees page
Back date fine collection not allowed in Batchwise Fee submission page

Forms

Middle name not shown in the list selected recipients of the form

Google Drive

Some file types uploaded are not recognized and saved as archive files

Hostel

No of rooms shown in hostel view page is wrong

Human Resources

Payroll category: Not possible to delete the payroll category
Employee edit: Style breaks on increasing size of experience info textarea

Inventory

Increase previous year range in Inventory to 30 years
Add flash message in supplier PDF report if there is no result to show
After editing/paying an invoice, print button not showing in the flash message
Add star (*) for mandatory field in invoice new and edit pages

Library

Additional field in Library not getting uploaded through Custom Import
Library movement log CSV shows only the details of the first page

Placement

Placements should be sorted in descending order by created date

Reminder

Reminder task aborting when incorrect email settings entered

Settings

Adding emails with extension ‘online’ is not accepted
Different User Interface for students and admin for elective subject selection
Show students name in alphabetical order in batch details page

Students

No sorting in student records
Breadcrumb missing in student recent exam page for user with student view privilege
Student archive is not possible if any finance transactions are reverted for the student

Timetable

Employee association page from timetable does not show selected batches by default
Incorrect start day of week in teacher timetable report
Incorrect start day of week in timetable PDF report

Transport

Transport Fee Collection dates do not get updated with updated route fares

The Rise Of School Management Software In The Indian K-12 Segment

December 20, 2016

School management software helps in implementing strategies for success in the education industry

Just like any other business, the education industry has commenced using technology to its advantage in order to establish their system in place. Education institutes all over are looking at maximizing productivity within the available resource and seeking to fill gaps in the system that can impact the Indian K-12 segment in a big manner. New models have cropped up, allowing us to review, comprehend and prepare the premises for a better school management. With the effective usage of a software for school management in the K-12 segment, implementation while maintaining and managing a school has become equally easy as pie.

The cloud-based software solution has made education a game changer during the time where the cultural fabric of the country in evolving. Efficient administration, structural assistance, rapid enrollment procedures, managing credentials and other lengthy transactions have witnessed a substantial improvement in their functioning. Consistency, productivity, efficiency has structured various challenging procedures, making everything competent.

Below are the key points that show as to how the school management software is playing an important role throughout the education industry:

Effective Communication:
Speedy and efficient communication is a major catalyst connecting parents, teachers, staff, and society to the school on the right note. During time constraints, it is humanly impossible to pass on significant information manually, in such cases the software for school management provides valuable help. Emails and SMS Alert services designed especially for schools helps reach out countless people at all levels. For daily information on academic schedules, syllabus, assignments, and announcements, the school can effectively communicate through online resources like video recordings of classroom sessions, internet sites, and emails.

Error-proof account management:
Managing school finances and resources is in itself a tumultuous task with no room for error. Keeping a track of funds, allowances, donations, and fees on a daily basis calls for heavy paper work and dedicated labor. The automated management system helps regulate the school’s finances smoothly. They keep financial information secure and successful and the school admin does not have to suffer the cost of fraudulent acts or misleading transactions anymore.

Organized Schedule Management:
Software for school management acts as a powerful instrument to help schools meet the needs of its ever-more-diverse student teaching requirement. Planning ahead is essential, and a methodically managed calendar in terms of scheduling of exams and timetables improves competency amongst students, productivity amongst teachers and limited stress amongst parents. An organized schedule allows everyone access to the varied information around. Grading, calculating and preparing student appraisal reports and various other documents become relatively easier.

India is now the largest country after beating US & UK, to have the highest number of schools and students enrolled in the K-12 system. In this ever so tangled environment, schools look out for consistent and efficacious, simple processes to canvas their widespread activities. With the aid of this digital tool, schools have become technologically skilled and better prepared for the contemporary world, enhancing the overall networking between parents, teachers, and students. Apart from improving the administration & management of schools and classrooms, each one of them, now is able to do more complex and creative work with ease; making it integral for every school to have a proper system that lays the foundations of it being the very best.

Digital India Impact : 18,000+ CBSE Schools in India to go Cashless from January 2017

December 15, 2016December 14, 2016

As reported on NDTV, and newspapers all over the country,

Following the Indian Prime Minister’s plan for digitizing the economy, the CBSE board has advised all affiliated schools to go cashless by the next quarter, commencing from January 2017.

What does going cashless mean?

In the letter from the CBSE secretary Joseph Emmanuel, schools have been instructed to carry out online transactions rather than cash exchange, from purchase orders to student fee collections, hostel payments to employee salaries and the CBSE board has brought e-payment facilities for collection of examination fee, affiliation and various activities. Schools have to completely shift their finances to the digital medium following this mandate. What seems to be a positive move forward from the board, some of the concerns this decision brings are problems edtech companies have been helping solve for the CBSE schools.

Pros of going Cashless

Primarily employee payments in CBSE schools in cities and suburban areas are done through bank transfers. Fee collections are done via cheques and cash. Now with the new CBSE cashless mandate, schools will have to setup online payment portals, net-banking, and accept credit/debit cards. This completely removes parents from ever coming to stand in a queue to pay their wards’ fees when the payment can be done via an online portal either provided by the school or their bank. Setting up these procedures are also not that difficult as net-banking is a feature already available with almost all the banks in the country. Setting up online payment portals might be a little tricky but for schools who already have a school management system running, like Fedena, integrating online payment portals is as simple as sending an email.

Online transactions also make it tremendously easy to track and maintain records digitally for schools, school management softwares like Fedena, can easily keep a record of all transactions of a school, including inventory purchases, fee collections, hostel payments, transport fees, employee payslips etc. Schools will have no need to maintain any physical records aligning schools to our Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital India as well as the mandate passed earlier from the CBSE to maintain all records in the digital format.

Cons of going Cashless

One of the major concerns after this mandate is for CBSE schools in rural and remote areas. Most of the students attending these schools are from families who might not have bank accounts, especially for rural areas, the awareness plays a pivotal role. Families living in remote areas will also face this problem as their form of income might not involve digital transactions. Even though this seems like a major block towards digitizing transactions for schools, we should look back to another of the mandates provided by PM Modi, instructing banks to service every rural area to open bank accounts and spread awareness. This mandate has been in action since the time Modi took office, which only means that this hurdle for CBSE schools in rural areas is already getting solved. The secretary himself has asked every affiliated school to start spreading awareness to students, parents and teachers alike.

What this means for Edtech Companies?

It’s December, and Christmas is just around the corner. There couldn’t have been a better time for companies trying to help schools, colleges and other educational institutions in going digital. The only way forward for schools is to digitize or die. In exploring these opportunities, schools will be keenly looking towards all edtech companies to solve their problems. The time is now for school management softwares, learning management systems, online payment portals.

How does Fedena help CBSE schools in going Cashless?

Fedena has always come prepared for schools being cashless, in fact we have always encouraged schools to go cashless and paperless. Integrations of payment gateways were part of the earliest versions of Fedena and now in the latest version you can pay school fees through your mobile. Also if you are wondering about adopting an online payment gateway, let us tell you why it’s such a good idea. For any further inquiries, just click on the banner below.

integrate technology in classroom blog image

The need to integrate technology in classrooms

December 3, 2016December 3, 2016

Schools know why they do what they do. The Directors, HODs and the Principals know why they do what they do. It’s the teachers and students who need inspiration and leadership. Why integrate technology in classrooms and schools? Why is it essential? These are relevant questions a lot of Indian schools fail to ask themselves before they decide on purchasing and integrating technology in classrooms.

We all know the story about the first controlled flight. The Wright brothers inventing the first controlled flying plane is not quite a complete picture. Nobody talks about all the others who were trying to do the same. Designing the first controlled plane wasn’t just a project the Wright brothers had taken up. It was a game-changing idea and everybody at that time wanted to do it. But what is it that made the difference? Why couldn’t Samuel Pierpont Langley achieve this before the Wright Brothers did? After all, he was the one with the right education and financial backing at that time. The Wright Brothers were just self-taught engineers from the suburbs. The difference is that they knew why they were doing it. They believed that controlled flight was possible and did all that they could to build one.

As an institution, you have to make sure that technology isn’t just a tool to maintain the status quo. But a tool to enhance your force of teachers and students. To take your enthusiasm in educational technology and turn it into results for your teachers and students is the true goal. You begin with

Why do I want my teachers and staff to learn this technology?

You aren’t asking what technology should I purchase to enhance my school. You already know the technology available, the school ERPs, the LMSs, studying guide apps the list is endless. The need for purchase must stem out of the why and not the what. For example, we develop a school ERP, Fedena, often we ask ourselves why we do what we do? Is it just because we live in a digital age and schools and institutions need a school management software? Fedena comes with 50+ essential modules. We are rolling out an automatic timetable generator as a new module this December. It keeps a record of every student, teacher, and staff. Helps you with finances, automates hostel allocations, and a whole lot of other stuff. Why do we want schools and Institutions to buy Fedena? Is it because Fedena is a better product?

We believe that every school and institution should have the power to lead and inspire generations of students. Give them the ability to think for themselves. In order for them to do that, the administration of their resources is paramount. Schools should be in a position to stop worrying about maintaining records. Start worrying about how better to connect with students to enhance their learning. We want to help schools understand the difference technology can make in the lives of admins, teachers, and students.

Once we pass the stage of the “Why”, only one question rises up from the teachers and staff,

Why do we need this change? Is this going to be a constant process, changing from one software to another? Why aren’t we just sticking to our traditional ways?

Reform or change is always an ongoing process. It is only with reform and change that anything becomes great. Helping them understand the results of adapting to technology in this digital age is just the first step. Schools will have to show them these results once technology is successfully integrated in classrooms. Which brings us to the next question

How do I want my teachers and students to experience technology in the classroom?

In a diverse country like India, it is critical to understand the penetration technology has and how people experience it. In a study done by Gartner last year and insights provided by Huffingtonpost. There is a stark difference on how a PC is seen by students in Tier 1 cities and the rest of the country.

“PCs are a one-stop information source for 80 percent youth in Tier 1 cities. Students in Delhi (83 percent), Mumbai (70 percent) and Bengaluru (70 percent) are highly dependent on their personal computing devices, compared to the country average of 41 percent.(sic)”

The post also goes on to say that students in Tier 4 cities take the PC seriously and see it as an educational tool. The students in Tier 1 cities have a more relaxed approach to the PC. East Indians prefer to experience the internet as well as technology only via cybercafes rather than owning one of their own. This study provides us with a lot of insights on how teachers and students experience technology across India.

Teachers in Tier 1 are more likely to have access to PCs at home as well as schools. While teachers in Tier 4 are not likely to know how to operate a PC. This gives us a good idea of how students and teachers are experiencing technology. On the basis of this data, Indian schools and institutions can develop strategies to integrate technology in classrooms.

Once schools are done designing the right experience for teachers and students with technology, truly enhancing the learning process gets ever closer. This is also the time when teachers, staff, and students would be asking schools

What technology are you getting next? Is it really going to enhance learning? How is it going to make the process more efficient?

As the head of an institution or the principal of a school, it is important to ask yourself these questions. This exercise helps you reach answers to the problems and obstacles you are facing while integrating technology in your classrooms. Almost always you will realize the transformation you are looking for in your school. This is what we believe. We engage all our customers in a similar fashion helping them bring transformations and enhancements with ease.