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DataCenter End of Year Instructions - 2012-2013 School Year

The following document will guide you through the End of Year procedure for MCS DataCenter.

Please read the following document in its entirety before attempting the End of Year procedure.

MCS Software highly recommends disabling ALL scheduled jobs in the Microsoft Task Scheduler, especially enrollment system updates, prior to running the End of Year process. Please confirm this is complete prior to proceeding further. You should consider re-enabling scheduled jobs when you initiate the Beginning of Year process. For more information, refer to the Beginning of Year documentation.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

You must be logged in as a user with sufficient privileges for creating a database on the SQL Server. The user admin has this level of permission by default (unless the user was modified by your SQL Server Administrator).

When should I run my End of Year process?
Running the DataCenter End of Year process is recommended once you are finished retrieving payments from your Online Payment System (such as SchoolPaymentSolutions.com) and are ready to begin performing End of Year procedures in supporting applications such as Newton Cafeteria Management or WinFSCM. 

Do I need to be running a particular version to perform an End of Year?
Version 4.7.0 or higher is required to run the End of Year process. The current version number can be located by looking in the upper left of the application. 

Are there any changes I should know about in the latest version of DataCenter?
Yes. There are two new changes in the latest version of DataCenter for Newton and Franklin users.
1) You now have the ability to mark Schools as inactive. This causes the school record to be inactivated in other modules and then permanently deleted during End-of-Year procedures.
2) You now have the ability to mark Grades and Tracks as inactive. This causes all grades and tracks to be inactivated in other modules and then permanently deleted during End-of-Year procedures. 

Are there other considerations for running an End of Year?
Once the End of Year process has been run, all other applications that communicate with DataCenter will continue to communicate with the previous year's database until each End of Year process is performed. If any upgrades or setting changes need to be pushed out to these applications, you will need to login to the prior year's DataCenter database to affect these changes. 

What should I do if I am unsure how to proceed?
In the event you have any questions or are unsure how to proceed before or during this process, it is recommended that you contact MCS Support for assistance.  

Please note the following steps do not apply to everyone. The steps stating "Required" applies to all users. WinFSCM and WinFSFR users have more steps to perform and must do so in the order listed. If you are not a WinFSCM user or a WinFSFR user, you do not need to perform the steps denoted to those users.

Upgrade WinFSCM (WinFSCM users)

Skip this section if your District does not use WinFSCM as it is the only application that currently utilizes DataCenter for program upgrades. All other application upgrades are managed through the MCS Application Admin Console.

Step 1 - Login

Login to DataCenter using the system manager's user name and password.

Step 2 - Launch the Program Upgrades

Locate and click on the WinFSCM tab, then select Program Upgrades.

Step 3 - Download the upgrade
 
  • WinFSCM should already have a check next to it indicating you wish to upgrade it.  If it does not, click on the box so a check mark appears.

  • Next, click Check the Web. This will download any available upgrades.
  • Once downloads have run, if they are available, you should receive a "success" window. Click OK. 
  • Finally, click Cancel to close the Program Upgrades window.

Inactivate Schools, Grades, and/or Tracks (Optional - Newton and Franklin users)

Inactivating Schools, Grades, and/or Tracks will cause records to be inactivated and then permanently deleted during End of Year processes.

Open the Maintenance section

Locate and click on the Admin tab, then select the Maintenance option.

Disable inactive Schools (if applicable)

Locate and click on the School Maintenance option.

 

For each school that is no longer active, click in the Inactive box. Then, click Ok.

Disable inactive Grades (if applicable)

Locate and click on the Grade Maintenance option.

For each grade that is no longer active, click in the Inactive box. Then, click Ok.

Disable inactive Tracks (if applicable)

Locate and click on the Tracks option.

For each track that is no longer active, click in the Inactive box. Then, click Ok.

Disable Auto-Synchronization with WinFSFR (WinFSFR users)

Step 1 - Open the System Functionality section

Locate and click on the Admin tab, then select the System Functionality option.

Step 2 - Disable auto-synchronization with WinFSFR

Deselect the Enable real-time auto-synchronization with WinFSFR option. Then, click Ok to save the changes.

 

Enable End of Year process (Required)

Step 1 - Open the District Setup section

Locate and click the Admin tab, then select the District Setup option.


Step 2 - Enable the End of Year process
 
  • Your District should have an arrow pointing at the name and be shown highlighted in a different color. If you do not see it upon the window opening, use the scroll bar to locate it.  If your District is not checked, click on it to select it.
  • Next, select the Enable End-of-Year Process option. Then, click Ok.

 

WinFSCM End of Year Settings (WinFSCM users)

Skip this section if your District does not use WinFSCM.

Please read this section carefully. This procedure affects the entire District's End of Year process.

Step 1 - Open the WinFSCM School/Parameter setup section

Locate and click on the WinFSCM tab, then select the System Setup Parameters option.
 

Step 2 - Choose schools to set the End of Year Parameters

Select a school and click Edit Parameters. 

 

Step 3 - Set End of Year Parameters
 
    • Locate the End of Year section of the Parameters list.
    • Select the functions you wish to perform by checking the appropriate box. *If you choose to select the parameters here, you can skip the "Check the End of Year Setting" step in the WinFSCM End of Year instructions.
    • Note that the backup path seen below is for documentation purposes only. Your path should point to your server. Do not change the location. If you do not see a path, contact your system administrator.
    • *You MUST set a date for the upcoming school year in the line Temporary Categories Expire. It is recommended you select the same month and year as the previous year.


  • You have a few options at this point. You may click Ok to save the changes only to the default school or you can click Apply to save the changes to multiple schools.
  • In the Apply window, you can also choose to save changes to the current school, all schools, or a particular school type.

 

  • Click OK once you have completed all parameter updates.
  • You should now see the Setup Remote WinFSCM Parameters window. Click the red X  to close. Then, click Close again.
  • You have completed updating parameters and should see the primary MCS DataCenter window.

 

Select All Schools to ensure the changes are applied to all schools within the District. It is recommended at this point the District considers which parameter values to push down to the school sites. If the District chooses to push out every parameter set up in Step 2 with this process, the Apply only parameters that have changed should be unchecked. If this is not done, the system will only communicate the values that have been updated in this session.

Running the End of Year Process (Required)

Step 1 - Start the End-of-Year Process

Locate and click on the Admin tab, then select the End of Year Process option.
 

Step 2 - Read the Warning Message

A warning message will pop up stating the following message.

The end of year process will create a new datacenter database after backing up the old database.

All other MCS Software packages will then communicate to the OLD database until they perform an end of year process; at which time they will begin communicating with the NEW database.

You must be certain that you want to start a new school year before proceeding. Press <OK> to proceed with the end of year process; or, <CANCEL> to quit this screen without taking any action.

 Read the warning and check the box declaring that you understand the procedure. Then, click Ok.

 

Step 3 - Run the Process
  • Click Ok to run the End of Year process.
  • A window will appear stating the process has been successfully completed. Click Ok to finish.

Exit out of DataCenter.

Creating a New School Year (Required)

Step 1 - Open the School Year Maintenance section

Login to DataCenter. Locate and click the Admin tab, mouse over the Maintenance option to expand the choices and select the School-Year Maintenance option.

Step 2 - Insert a new record for the upcoming school year
  • Select the blank bottom row in the spreadsheet.
  • In the column titled Description, enter information for the upcoming school year (e.g. 2013-2014 School Year).
  • Enter the actual Start and End dates for the upcoming year in the cells provided. You should enter the days and months as two digits and the year as four digits (e.g. 08/01/2013).
  • In the SchoolYear column, click on the cell to drop down choices and select the appropriate year. In the 2013-2014 school year, you would select SY2013_2014.
  • You need to Attach to Database. Click on the cell to drop down choices and select  MCS_DATACENTER.
  • Click Ok to save the changes.

End of Year Information for Other MCS Modules (WinFSCM users)

Skip this section if your District does not use WinFSCM.

  • WinFSCM End of Year - The next time WinFSCM is launched from any computer, it will download the latest upgrade from DataCenter updating the parameters and settings that you set for the DataCenter End of Year process. After this process has completed, the End of Year process for WinFSCM can be executed.

  • Locking the prior year database - Choosing this option will prevent WinFSCM from updating a database from a previous year by disabling communication. If you need to prevent WinFSCM from updating a past database (e.g. 2012-2013 DataCenter database), you can lock the database by clicking on the Admin tab and selecting Previous Year Databases.

  • Select the Locked option by clicking in the box of the database for the MCS_DATACENTER_2011_2012 database. Click Ok to save the changes.

Enabling Communication with WinFSFR - Free & Reduced (WinFSCM users)

 

Skip this section if your district does not use WinFSCM.

Step 1 - Open the System Functionality section

Locate and click the Admin tab, then select the System Functionality option.

Step 2 - Enable auto-synchronization with WinFSFR
    • Select the Enable real-time auto-synchronization with WinFSFR option.
    • Click Apply and then Ok to save the changes.

You have successfully completed End of Year processes for DataCenter.

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