What’s new in the Facilities Suite

The Follett Software Ops app includes several updates that make it more efficient to use. You can now do the following:

• Log in using single sign-on with SAML for Google, Microsoft, or Okta.
• Edit the Description, Notes, Priority, Complete By, Budget Code, and Project fields on a request's details.
  
• Add purchases, inventory, assets, and files to a request.
  
• View an asset's details and edit the asset, check out or check in, and view the history.
  

Learn more about the Follett Software Ops app.

Event Registration is the newest solution in the Follett Facilities Suites. It connects community education catalogs, real-time facility scheduling, online payments, and audit-ready reporting. This helps districts reduce the administrative burden, and recover operational costs.

Learn more about Event Registration.

Now you can lock annotations to prevent the creation and editing of space polygons. Annotations are unlocked by default.

Find out more about annotations.

Users with the Manage Site Settings permission can now set the heatmap opacity level for space polygons. This defaults to 50%, but you can choose 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%.

Learn more about General Settings.

The Drawing menu has been updated for users with the View Drawing or View Markup Drawing permission. They will now see View Drawing, indicating view-only permission.

Users with the Add Drawing, Edit Drawing Properties, Delete Drawing, and Edit Markup Drawing permissions will still see Edit/Markup.

Users with the Additionally Notified or Manage Site Settings permission can customize email notifications in their profile by selecting which notifications they want to receive.

Learn more about customizing email notifications.

The Manage Classifications page now has a new Admin Only setting.

• Select Yes for the selected classification to be restricted to group classification managers.
• Select No for this classification to appear as an option for all users when they register or add a group.

Learn more about managing classifications.

When you generate an iCal link from a site or space, you can now enter a custom date range.

Learn more about managing sites and spaces.

When an insurance file is uploaded to a group profile, Schedules now sends an automatic confirmation email to the user who uploaded that file. The insurance file is included as an attachment.

Learn more about the uploading insurance information.

You can now choose whether to include pending events when syncing to Google Calendar.

Learn more about integration settings.

You can now export a space rate report as a PDF.

Learn more about space rate reports.

If group contacts were selected to be notified on a request, their names now appear in a new section called Group Contacts under Event Information when the request is printed to PDF. If multiple group contacts are selected, they will all appear.

Learn more about request details.

Users with the Manage Site Settings permission can now leverage the Schedules API.

Contact Follett Software for more information.

More changes have been made to the Dashboard page since its redesign in the 25.6 release. It now includes:

• Service level agreements in the 'Open requests' widget.
• A Requests widget showing the average time to request resolution.
• The option to filter in the 'Open requests' and Requests widgets.
• An interactive Assets widget showing asset status via a pie chart.

Learn more about the Dashboard.

The Manage assets page has several updates, including the following:

• Pagination, number of items, and number of assets now appear at the top and bottom of the table.
  
• The Active column shows Yes or No instead of a checkbox.
• To inactivate an asset, access the asset's details page instead of using an icon on the Manage assets page.
• When you do not select any assets and try to perform Actions > Mass Update, Transfer Assets, QR Report, or Perform Audit, a message informs you to select one or more assets and try again.

Learn more about managing assets.

When you perform an audit, you can now scan asset barcodes. If the assets are part of the audit, they are confirmed. If an asset is not part of the audit, it is added automatically.

When you perform an audit, you will see the following changes related to the Scan Barcode option:

• A new Location drop-down appears below the Scan Barcode field. A selection is required when you scan or enter a barcode.
• When you scan an asset barcode that is part of the audit, if the location is different than the one you selected, the location is updated. If the asset is not part of the audit, it is added to the audit and the location is updated to what was selected.
• If you have a carriage return setting for your scanner, the scan is done automatically. Otherwise, you can click Scan.
• The table now shows a Barcode column instead of ID.
• If a scanned device has a status of In Use, Lost, or Stolen, a message asks if you want to update the status to Available.
• Assets with a status of In Use can be checked in when adding them to the audit.

Learn more about managing asset audits.

The Quick Circulation page has several updates to help you when circulating assets, including the following:

• On both Check Out and Check In, there is text above the Scan Barcode field to remind you to scan a user barcode and then the asset barcode.
• If an asset cannot be checked out, a message appears letting you know the reason, such as the asset is already in use, lost, stolen, or the barcode is not found.
  
• After checking out or in an asset, the table at the bottom of the page shows both the user name and barcode, along with the asset name and barcode.
  
• Administrators can now require a due date when checking out assets. If this option is set to yes, a due date is required wherever you check out assets, except Mass Circulate.
  

Learn more about Quick Circulation and General Settings.

You can now create a Work Orders request anywhere on a drawing with a Work Orders stamp. The request does not have to be tied to an asset.

Learn more about adding work orders.

Users with the Manage Site Settings permission can now create heat maps. This lets you set colors as visual priorities for defined space polygons. Colors appear automatically based the number of open requests in each area.

Based on the screenshot above, if you have five open requests within a defined space polygon, that area will appear in yellow, indicating Medium priority.

Learn more about general settings.

Users with the Space Approver user permission can mass approve all requests on the Awaiting My Approval page.

Learn more about mass approving requests.

Users with the Manage District Settings user permission can now set up the Work Orders integration to create one work order per field. This allows multiple work orders to be created per request. For example, if you have a field asking for the number of tables needed, and another field asking if microphones are needed, two work orders will be created: one for tables, and one for microphones.

Learn more about integrating with Work Orders.

Users with the Manage District Settings user permission can now add sections to the request form. You can also drag and drop sections into a new order.

Learn more about managing request forms.

You can now export a custom report as a PDF.

Learn more about custom reports.

When you save an edited request, all 'Send Update e-mail to' checkboxes are now selected by default.

Learn more about notifications after editing a request.

Users with the Manage District Settings user permission can bulk update approval paths by classification for all spaces within a site.

Learn more about managing sites.

You can now see external events on the Request Summary Report and Request Details Report. External events are events brought into (Undefined variable: MyVariables.ML Schedules) from an integration, such as Google Calendar or EventLink.

Learn more about the Request Summary Report and Request Details Report.

You can now include canceled events on contracts.

Learn more about contract settings.

The Import Wizard has a new, updated look.

Learn more about the Import Wizard.

Users with the Manage District Settings user permission can now see the change history of a blocked date.

Learn more about managing blocked dates.

When you print a request's details, the creator's name now appears, if it is different from the requestor's name.

Learn more about the Request Details page.

The Payments Dashboard now has a widget with the dollar amount of payments received by group, instead of the number of payments received by group.

Learn more about the Payments Dashboard.

The newest Follett Software product is IT Asset Manager. Use it to manage all your technology devices. Students and staff can create support requests, while IT staff can assign and track them. Administrators can run reports to view the number of requests, labor costs, purchase costs, inventory, request response times, and more.

Learn more about IT Asset Manager.

The new Follett Software Ops app lets you create and view requests on the go. Based on your permissions in the web app, you can also change a request status, view assets, add notes and labor, and scan assets.

Learn more about the Work Orders Ops mobile app.

The redesigned Dashboard gives you a comprehensive view of your requests and assets at a glance:

• See open requests organized by priority and assignment.
• View recent notifications with improved formatting.
• Access quick actions for common tasks.
• Track request trends with visual charts.

Learn more about the Dashboard.

Two new columns make it easier to manage users.

Create Date column

When a user is created, whether manually or through a sync, a Create Date is stored in (Undefined variable: General.ML Work Orders). Create Date is now an available optional column on the Manage Users page. The date and time appears in the column when selected.

Create Method column

To make troubleshooting easier, when a user is added to (Undefined variable: General.ML Work Orders), how the user was created is logged. You can add Create Method as a column to the Manage Users page.

The column will log when a user is created in any of the following ways:

• Manually on the Manage Users page and the Check-Out Assets page, using the + Add User button
• Via a custom form, email, or import
• Google SSO or Destiny SSO
• Active Directory
• SAML Azure, SAML Classlink, SAML Google, or SAML Okta
• OneRoster
• A user is created in FacilitiesDrawings and synced

You can sort and filter on both the Create Date and Create Method columns.

Learn more about managing users.

There are many new fields on the Manage Users page. You can't add these fields as columns to the Manage Users page, and they won't appear on a user's details page.

New fields on the Manage Users page include: 

• Middle Name
• Mobile Phone Number
• Name Suffix
• Secondary Phone
• Secondary Mobile Phone
• Secondary E-Mail
• Alt ID
• State ID
• District ID
• Grade Level
• Graduation Year
• Birthdate
• Locker

Address is in a separate collapsible section. You can add primary and secondary addresses. Address fields include:

• Address 1
• Address 2
• City
• State
• Zip

Learn more about managing users.

You can now bulk assign charges to users on the Manage Users page. This will help you quickly assign charges, such as for insurance or tech fees, to many users at once.

Learn more about managing users.

There is a new option in General Settings to show a warning when checking out assets to a student who has unpaid charges. With this option turned on, you will see a pop-up that lets you cancel, override, or complete the checkout. The pop-up will appear in all areas of the system where you can check out assets, except for bulk circulation.

Learn more about General Settings.

You can now use an Add Charge button to assess a fee or fine for an asset upon check-in on the following pages:

• Assets > Check-In Assets. Search for the asset to check in, and then click Check-In & Add Charge.
• Assets > View All Assets. After the asset's Details page is accessed, click Check-In. On the pop-up, make updates and click Check-In & Add Charge.
  
• Assets > Quick Circulation. After scanning an item, click Add Charge.
  

When you click to add charges, an Add Charge page appears with the Asset and User fields pre-populated.

Learn more about checking in assets.

There have been a couple of charge-related enhancements

Charge Type categorization

The Manage Charge Type page now includes a Category field to group charges as fees or fines.

Charges Report

Category is also an available column on the Charges Report.

Another update: When you group this report by any field (except the dollar amount), you will see subtotals for the dollar amount fields.

Learn more about managing charge types and the Charges Report.

Before seeing data on the View All Requests and View All Assets pages, you now need to search or apply a filter. This update will load data quicker.

In addition, the following updates were made to buttons and links on all request and asset pages:

• If you filter on a column, a filter icon appears in the column header. To sort a filtered column, click the filter icon to see the sort icon.
• Clear filters sets the page back to showing no data.
• The Columns button is now a link called Add, re-order, or remove table columns.
• The delete icon is red.
• Inactive requests or assets are now gray instead of red.

When filters are set, the next time you access that page, the filters will continue to be applied.

Funding Source and Instructional Classification are now single-select drop-down fields that can be added to asset records of a specific type. Users with the Manage Site Settings permission can customize these fields, creating unique category names and linking them to specific asset types. For example, maybe you want the PTO funding source linked to iPads.

There are also new EFR standard fields in asset records:

• Condition: Track if an asset is new, good, fair, poor, usable, damaged, or unusable.
• Date Last Accounted For: Manually enter the date you accounted for an asset.
• Depreciation Convention: Determine how much an asset depreciates over the course of its life. This is based on IRS depreciation conventions of annual, half-year, mid-month, and mid-quarter.

Learn more about managing custom fields.

Administrators can enable a new 'Auto Generate Barcode for New Assets' field in General Settings > Assets tab. When an asset is created – either manually or via an asset import – Work Orders will automatically generate a barcode if that field is blank.

Barcodes will use Code 39 Generic format. They will be 10 characters, start with a 5, and can contain numbers, uppercase letters, and the following characters: minus (-), plus (+), period (.), dollar sign ($), slash (/), and percent (%).

Learn more about general settings and managing assets.

There has been an enhancement to barcode scanning when you scan an asset that doesn't exist or can't be circulated. If the 'No results found' message appears and you backspace on the barcode to delete it, a drop-down of assets you can circulate appears – with the top one selected. Previously, when you scanned another asset, it would select the top asset in the drop-down, along with the scanned asset. Now, when you scan another barcode, only the scanned asset is selected.

Duplicate barcodes are now supported in (Undefined variable: General.ML Work Orders). When duplicate barcodes are found, you are required to select the correct asset from a pop-up. This pop-up will appear on pages where you can search for assets, such as Check In, Check Out, Quick Circulation, when adding an asset to a request, and when creating a request.

During mass circulation, the checkout is not completed and a note is added to the error log.

Learn more about assets.

Previously, if an asset had a status of In Use and was checked out in (Undefined variable: General.ML Work Orders) and then synced with Google, the status changed to Available. Now, when an asset is checked out, the status is not updated to Available until the asset is checked in.

Learn more about status of synced assets.

You can now create a work orders stamp in Facilities Drawings. This lets you create a request from anywhere on a drawing. You must set up this integration in Work Orders.

Learn more about integrating with Facilities Drawings.

The LDAP Authentication option when adding a new user has been removed.

Learn more about adding a new user.