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Top Tips
Registration
Always use the Create New button before printing your Room Register. This will ensure that any changes or Extra Sessions will be included on your Weekly Register
Only use the Room Register for the current or next week's Register. Running a Register too far in advance will trigger any confirmed Room Moves, and possibly leave children in the wrong rooms when you create the current Register again. Use the Future Registration function in Planning to look ahead.
Use the All Children List if you need to edit several children's records in one batch. Click on Registration on the FirstSteps Menu Bar, then click on Reports, then click on the All Children List icon. The list can be sorted in Name Order, Age Order or you can view the children by Room.
Enquiries
Use the Heard From Count in Enquiries Reports to see where your enquiries are generated from. This can help you to evaluate how successful your different methods of advertising and promotions are.
Planning
Use the Room Moves (Plan) to identify children with a planned Room Move during a specific period. Click on Planning on the Menu Bar, then Reports then click on the Room Moves (Plan) icon. Enter your own Start and End Dates for the report or click on one of the shortcuts, i.e. Next Month. The planned dates can be amended and confirmed all on a single screen, which is much more convenient than updating individual records.
Use the Future Registration report to identify vacancies as well as attendance numbers by clicking on Show Free. Use this in conjunction with your Room Moves (Plan) to process your Room Moves smoothly.
Financial
Did you know the Invoice Summary can now be exported to an Excel spreadsheet. Once it is in Excel the data can be sorted, filtered or formatted to suit your requirements.
You should always take an additional backup before calculating your fees, particularly if you have made any amendments to your Fee Rates or Charging Scheme. It is much easier to restore data than to amend all your accounts individually!
Staff
When you run the Staff Sickness report you can select an option to show all staff with no sickness during the period you are looking at. This can be useful if you have an incentive scheme for staff who do not take time off during a month or year. Click on Staff on the Menu Bar, then Reports and then click on the Staff Sickness icon. When you have entered your Start and End Dates click in the No Sickness Taken box.
Use the Holiday Entitlement Report when you are coming towards the end of your Holiday Year to identify those staff who still have a number of days left to use.
Mail Merge
The Mail Merge function can also be used to print Child Details reports for a group or all of your children. Click on Mail Merge/Export on the main menu, then Mail Merge. Click on the Child/Carer icon then select the status and room of the children you want to print. Then click on Child List and Print Child Details to print out separate sheets for all selected children.
System
Don't forget to update your Term Dates and Nursery Holidays every year. Why not add an entry to the FirstSteps Diary to remind you.