End of Year / Start of School Tasks

Log in to MSA Client Software

Open MSA Client by clicking the icon on your Desktop.

Select the blue banner to Login with MySchoolBucks.

Note: The first time accessing MSAClient you will have to log in with the previous information of MCS Username: Firstname.lastname Password: Admin123! and tie your Admin portal to your MySchoolBucks Account. Please contact Support if you need assistance with this step. Additionally see MySchoolBucks 2 Step Login Verification

MSAClient > Utilities > Application Reports > Application Details > Leave the date range unchecked to show all apps > Print to PDF

Note: Prior year applications are also always accessible in MSAClient > Utilities > Miscellaneous > Prior-Year Database > login as usual

Note: Districts with application numbers over 5k should be patient and let the full Application Details report run in the background or consider chunking the report by setting reasonable date ranges. For example we can run the report once from 7/1 to 9/1 and again from 9/2 to 6/30.

Run MSAClient End of Year

Alert:

A prior-year backup is created at the end of these steps. The system can appear frozen for the duration of the backup process. Please be patient and let it run. It usually completes in about 10 minutes and will show a completion message. Large districts should plan to let the backup run in the background for longer. Avoid canceling if possible. If the completion message doesn’t show after a day, or the action was canceled, please contact Support

Click Utilities > Advanced > End of Year from the drop-down menu.

Select the check box to indicate you have read the end-of-year instructions, then select Ok.

Close User Session Monitors

If prompted close SQL Server Connection Monitors to Connect Exclusively

Alert:

Please note the progress bar does not update while making a prior year database copy and the system can appear frozen for up to several hours. Please be patient and let it run. It usually completes in about 10 minutes. Districts with application numbers over 5k should plan to let the system run in the background for several hours. Avoid canceling if possible. If the completion message doesn’t show after a day or the action was canceled please contact Support

The system will exit when pressing OK at the end. Next login to MSAClient will be pointing to the new year. You can check this in MSAClient > Admin & Maintenance > System Settings > Misc Tab > Current Year (Note: do not change this date manually. If it did not update properly, contact support).

Another way to check for success is to make sure there are no applications in the system. MSAClient > Home > Application Review > Find > Refresh > if nothing shows the apps have been cleared and the database EOY is complete.

If there are any errors or questions please call POS Support or email msasupport@e-hps.com.

On Premise Only - Update your MSAClient Application

If you are using MSA Cloud, you do not need to worry about updating your client. This will be done automatically for you.

If you are using MSA On-Premise (you have your MSA database on a local server at your school), you will need to update your program before completing End of Year, or whenever you see a yellow star in the bottom right corner of the program.

Click Upgrade Available and follow the instructions. If you have questions please reach out to Support.

Access Prior Year Data

Prior year data can be accessed in two ways.

MSAClient > Utilities > Miscellaneous > Prior Year Database > login as usual

or

www2.myshoolapps.com/admin will direct you to the most recent prior year. The developers migrate data to the www2 position during the first few weeks in June.

Go to: http://www.myschoolapps.com/admin .
Sign in using the Login with MySchoolBucks button

Note: The first time accessing the Admin Portal you will have to log in with the previous information of MCS Username: Firstname.lastname Password: Admin123!, and tie your Admin portal to your MySchoolBucks Account. Please contact Support if you need assistance with this step

Click Setup, then select Application Settings from the drop-down menu.

Click Misc Setup from the left navigation, then scroll down to District Miscellaneous Setup

Auto Start Date – Enter the future date when your parents can begin accessing the application. This must be set for at least one day in the future and no earlier than July 1st.

Example: Today is 09/01/20XX and you want to go live 09/02/20XX. You will put 09/02/20XX and will go live at midnight on the 2nd.
Example 2: Today is 08/20/20XX and you want to go live 09/01/20XX. You will put 09/01/20XX, and will go live at midnight on September 1st.

End of Year Date – Enter the future date when your MSA application will be closed.

Note: The default date is set to close the application on June 1 of each year. You can extend this application window through June 30th by changing the End of year date listed.

Note: This End of Year Date setting will only allow a date during April-June. If you need to close the application outside of that window please contact Support

Meal Prices

If your Meal prices changed from the previous school year, you will want to update them.

Number of meal prices to display – How many of the rows do you want to display?
Meal Price – Row #1-5: Each row shows a price point you charge at a specific site.

Some schools have the same price at all buildings and will only show 1 Row. Some schools have a different price at certain buildings, and will show 2-5 rows which are labeled accordingly.

Example: Number of Meal Prices to Display set to 3

Example: Number of Meal Prices to Display set to 1

The USDA guidelines use July 1st as the division between application years. During June it's often convenient to get a head start on next years application settings while keeping this years app open for parents. The MSA development team has provided us a way to accomplish this by using a separate web browser URL to distinguish your current application from the previous years application. 

The admin URL is automatically updated on approximately June 6th of each year.

This management technique allows for year round acceptance of applications. It also offers a way to look back at the previous years applications by simply changing the admin login url. 

Note: The URL change will only be evident when logging into the admin web portal and will not affect how parents access the current application. If your district is accepting applications in June the new apps will be routed appropriately so they show up in the www2 instance until July 1.

Note: The www2 instance will retain previous year application data for the duration of the following year until June when it will be replaced.

Note: If you've had the MSA system for at least two years you can see this in action now. Otherwise you'll need to wait until June 1st to try it. 

Note: Be mindful of the URL that's showing in the browser. After visiting http://www2.myschoolapps.com/admin some browsers will remember this and direct you there if not careful.

Import Student Data

Complete this after your POS Start of Year is complete.

Select Utilities > Miscellaneous > Import Student Data

Click Ok and wait for the import to run. It will bring up a box asking you to confirm the changes. Click Ok when you see Confirm Student Update.

If a “Suspicious number of changes error” appears, select Yes.

Note: If the program asks for authentication or an override, please call Support to assist you in overriding the import.