This page lists some of the recent changes to PICS. We also have a list of known issues being investigated.
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A new Learner Occupancy by Period report is now available. This will show all learners, broken down by period (calendar month or ILR period), and show the number of learners who started, ended or were in-learning in that period. The interactive output of the report will show a table displaying all periods and the total learners included in that period. This can also be published using dashboard widgets via the Saved Report widget type. This report is intended to replace the Officer Caseload report previously available in desktop PICS.
A new Column Analysis Field is now available in Interactive Reports and Dashboard widgets. This can be used with Table reports and when a field is selected, all values from that field will be shown as columns in the report, in addition to a Total column, similar to a pivot table in a spreadsheet. As part of this change, we’ve renamed Analysis Columns to Row Analysis Fields which provides a better description of their function.
WebForms
There was a bug causing Organisation File forms created via a “Create and Send Form” post action to not find the organisation’s email address when it was used to default the signatory address. Now fixed.
Workflows
When using workflows validation or actions where Qualification Plan, Officer or Organisation needed to be selectable from a drop down list, there was a bug causing the drop down to be empty. Now fixed.
8th March
User Management
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The No Planned OTJ Hours recorded and No Actual OTJ Hours recorded at Apprenticeship completion fields in the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework report are now only set for aims with Funding Model 36. This is because these fields are not available in the ILR for other learners.
WebForms
The option lists for the Programme Aim ACT and Apprenticeship Contract Type fields have been updated to clarify that the options are for levy and non-levy employers.
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BKSB_USERNAME and SMARTASSESSOR_ID can now be used as import fields on learner import.
Applicant workflows can now be set via the importer using APP_WORKFLOW.
Workflows
Organisation and Opportunity workflows can now be set to be the default for all new instances of the entity.
Available status transitions are now shown in alphabetical order. The same as on the Transitions configuration page.
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When adding answers to a target scan, it is now possible to view the full description of each scope item by clicking on the Information icon next to the title of the scope.
Web Forms
There are new fields for the officer job title value available on forms that already had the ability to add officer detail fields.
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Two new permissions have been added to allow light users to edit notes for Learners and Applicants.
Workflows
It is now possible to give status transition Post Actions a sequence number. Post actions will run in sequence from the lowest number to the highest.
There was an incorrect officer label on the Applicant Compare Field dropdown. Now fixed.
WebForms
Added the ability to default file attachments for WebForms. Defaulted files can come from the form owner or the entity the form was created from.
Converting to File WebForms could sometimes leave UDF questions locked when they were not meant to be. Now Fixed.
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Appointment Reminders can now include the Learner or Applicants Main Officer name, email and mobile as a merge field in the message
Workflows
Added the ability to give statuses and sub-statuses a colour which will be displayed through out the application. This will help to visually differentiate statuses.
Added the ability re-run failed post transition actions without having to move the entity backwards and then forwards again in the workflow.
It is now possible to display UDF answers when sending emails or SMS via the Send Notification post transition action. UDF questions must have a Unique Field Name to be available. Simply start by typing {{UDF.
WebForms
When copying a WebForm design, it is now possible to change the type of the copied form. Note that any fields not compatible with the new form type will be removed from the copy.
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Sites can now be used to restrict which Learners, Applicants, Officers and Organisations an API user can see and interact with.
Added an end point to Lists and Types that shows what Sites are available to the current user account.
WebForms
There was a bug that rarely caused repeated field information to not display in complete form downloads. Now Fixed.
The LLDD multi select field was only showing the first 10 options on newly created form templates. Now Fixed.
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ID label in URLs will now work in Edit mode as well as View mode.
Workflows
Cloning a workflow will now clone the default status and sub status from that source workflow.
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We can now enable the Advanced Mosaic theme by default for all users upon request
HTML Editors would not allow a link to be added correctly. Now fixed.
Fields that are always required now have a visual * indicator next to their label.
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QAR Reconciler was not using correct report date provided. Now fixed.
21st September 2023
Workflows
When configuring workflow validation and actions, we now offer a drop down of static values when appropriate.
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All required edit fields on regular forms will now have a required field indicator on the label.
18th September 2023
Web Forms
Attempting to upload file attachments when signing a web form as a guest user would fail with an error “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”. Now fixed.
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ILR Exporter
ILR Exports conforming to the 2023 ESFA ILR Specification can now be produced. 2021 ILR files can no longer be created, but existing files can be downloaded.
ILR Export email notifications for 2023 exports now contain any export warnings.
Funding Forecasting
It is now possible to Add and Delete periods from an existing Funding Profile.
It is now possible to maintain Planned Starts Profiles, including the editing Planned Starts profiled against a Qualification Plan for each Planned Starts Profile.
The process to select a Qualification Plan to profile Planned Starts against has been improved.
From the Overall tab, a new action has been added against each period of the profile: “Qualification Plan Planned Starts Breakdown”. This displays a list of Qualification Plans which have profiled Planned Starts that contribute towards the Planned values in the profile for that period, which can then be loaded into the Planning tab.
A new Export action has been added: “Actual Totals Reporting”. This allows the running of Projected Funding Reports found within the Report section’s Templates list, with the report options pre-filtered to generate reports showing data contributing towards the “Actual” columns in the profile.
When saving Planned Starts, and then switching to the Overall tab of a profile, the newly entered Planned Starts would not be shown unless the profile was reloaded. Now fixed.
QAR Reconciler
The QAR report options are now defaulted correctly when using 2022 QAR extract files.
Funding Calculations
Funding Calculations have been made available for 2023
WebForms
New fields added to Learner and Applicant forms
Expected Days on Programme
Expected Weeks on Programme
Expected Days of Learning
Expected Weeks of Learning
User Defined Fields on Learner File, Applicant File, Organisation File and Learner Change Request forms can now update the User Defined Field on the Learner, Applicant or Organisation. To use this new functionality, you will need to enable it in the general form settings.
Certain forms were failing to auto complete the employer’s email address when set to do so. Now fixed.
Officer details were not auto filling when selecting an Officer on Applicant forms. Now fixed.
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Smart Assessor
There is a new configuration setting to prevent sending the Smart Assessor welcome emails to Learners created via PICS.
Updating Smart Assessor from PICS could cause the “Use Specified Expected Off The Job Hours” to lose its value. Now fixed.
Updating Smart Assessor from PICS and vice versa now updates the Learner phone numbers.
LXP
It is now possible to integrate PICS with Advanced Learning Experience Platform (LXP). When the integration is enabled, any Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours for a new Apprenticeship Standard delivery target will be automatically imported into PICS if the Standard is published in LXP.
WebForms
Added an automation to allow WebForm signature reminders to be sent out automatically at the start of each day.
It is now possible to select a filetype to output a redacted version of a WebForm file. Fields marked as as sensitive will not be displayed in the redacted version.
Workflows
Added the ability to automate workflow status transitions to run at the start of the day on a given schedule. Automated transitions will run all validations and actions.
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Importing qualifications from the LRS PLR no longer fail if the subject title contains an unusual character.
Onefile: Archived qualifications where not meant to be included in base data syncing. Now fixed.
WebForms
Checkboxes for contact methods should now be more reliable.
Added Main Aim Level and Next of Kin fields to Learner Change Request and Learner File forms.
The Qualification Plan control should now be saving the current state correctly regardless of dates or Aim types.
Learner form Officer contact details should now be populating correctly.
Added the ability to download a copy of the template used to create a WebForm design. This should help when the original has been lost.
When Strict Site Mode is enabled, form designs can no longer be saved if no sites are selected.
If Strict Site Mode is enabled and the logged in user account has site restrictions, the user’s sites are automatically defaulted on any new form designs.
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⚠️ Important: In Strict Site Mode vacancies will only be visible to a user if the User has any of the Sites associated with the Employer Organisation linked to the Vacancy.
The Employer Organisation can now be specified when adding a Vacancy.
WebForms
Qualification Plans
Qualification Plan calculations no longer rely on fields existing on the form.
Some redisplayed aim fields were not working. Now fixed.
By default, optional aims will now be marked as Wanted - Optional and will not be included in the Qualification Plan date calculations. Selecting wanted - yes will rerun the calculations with the optional aim included.
Added fields for ILR AppStandard Code, ILR AppStandard Title and ILR AppStandard Level. These will auto fill if possible when and Qualification Plan is selected.
Added fields for Qualification Plan Apprenticeship Prices. These will auto fill if possible when and Qualification Plan is selected.
Newly created forms should have all their Qualification Plan details filled in on the answers tab.
Change Request forms
Added a lot more Learner fields. Should now (mostly) have the same fields that were available in the Learner File Forms.
UDF questions on these forms should now populate correctly.
Learner
ILR LSR field are now special selectors.
Added the ability to display Learner aims. Use the “Aims Row“ in the import fields list to display each row.
Organisation File
Organisation Head Office detail fields are now available.
General
It is now possible to select Tags in the form design to be added to a Learner or Applicant on completion of a Learner or Applicant Form.
Locked checkbox fields should no longer cause forms to crash is certain situations.
Non mandatory signatures will now be treated as mandatory once requested. This will prevent an issue where a requested non mandatory signature could cause a form to get perpetually stuck in the remote signing process.
Employer Main Contact fields should now auto populate correctly when an Employer is selected.
Added the ability to set the text, background and border colours of the remote fill fields on the Guest Fill&Sign. The settings can be found under Guest Themes.
It is now possible to display contact details for officers/contacts linked to Learners and Applicants via a custom relationship in WebForms. These fields will appear in the usual field list under the name of the custom relationship.
Adding a single select UDF without any answers to a form should no longer cause an error on trying to open the form.
Completing a form that went through a “Clone to New“ was incorrectly setting the status of the original form after the import. This should now be fixed.
Workflows
Surveys can now be sent out using a post action. Note that the same user restrictions apply for surveys sent out this way.
Workflow Validations and Actions are now available for Opportunity status transitions.
The Send Form post action should now get less confused after a selected form design is Cloned and Retired.
It is now possible to use {{ }} bookmarks in the the Send Notification - Email subject. To use these bookmarks, simply copy them from the message input.
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An “item with the same key has already been added” error no longer occurs when editing ILR aim data.
A “Nullable object must have a value“ error no longer occurs after editing ILR Learner RPL information.
The Apprenticeship Service bulk export now exports RecognisePriorLearning as Yes/No to conform with the upload specification and prevent the error Enter whether prior learning is recognised as ‘true’ or ‘false’.
Filtering the learner list by Status now allows all learners on a status to be shown, regardless of sub-status, without the need to select every sub-status. This change also applies to applicant and organisation lists.
WebForms
The validation for text input fields was misbehaving and occasionally flagging fields as invalid even when they were valid. Now fixed.
Extra blank pages are no longer added to forms.
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A new menu item under Users and Access configuration is available called Visibility Groups, these are used to restrict User Defined Forms to a group of users.
Workflows
UDF answers can now be validated on performing a status transition.
The send notification post action now has the option of sending the notification via SMS if you have the integration enabled.
Officer relationships can now be set as a post action for Learners and Applicants.
Post actions are now logged and will display a success or failure message on the entity's Recent Activity tab.
WebForms
The Has Licence and Sex fields on Applicant forms should now be working as expected.
Learner Change Request forms are now able to be set to auto approve on remote signature completion.
The rejection process for WebForms can now be shorted by rejecting the form directly back to remote signatories.
There is now an option to validate a WebForm on save. This should help with missing mandatory answers for forms that are signed locally. In addition to this new feature is the ability to force all saves to be validated.
The WebForm URL field now supports “mailto“ links.
Defaulted Employer Representative email addresses should now be filled in as expected.
The Prior Qualification fields on WebForms have had a bit of a re-work. Title, Level and Grade are now shown as drop downs and we have added an APL Type dropdown too.
The permissions to create Learner File and Change Request WebForms are now working as intended.
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It is now possible to configure task types.
WebForms
The emails sent out for WebForm signature request/reminder and form completion can now be customised in PICS.
Added a column for Aim Subcontractor to the qualification plan control.
Bug Fix: Help text was not showing for single select.
Bug Fix: URLs will now correctly show in guest Fill & Sign.
Bug Fix: Defaulted email addresses from Officer relationships for Organisation File Forms will now work correctly.
Workflows
Adding Learners and Organisations onto a workflow with a default status will now create a status history record.
Beta: The Applicant send notification post transition action now has a lot more bookmarks available.
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Trainee Assessors are not being included in the Edit Officer OneFile ID form. Now fixed.
Smart Assessor integration now has an option to push changes in qualification status up to Smart Assessor.
Reports
Important: Output of Postcode fields has been separated from general Address fields. We will be upgrading your stored reports to include this field if the Address field has been selected but please check the report outputs to ensure this has happened successfully.
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A new report template, “User Sites Report” has been added which shows the Sites each user is linked to (or not).
Filtering by Status has been added to the User report.
Filtering by Site on the User report has been changed to allow “Any of”, “All of”, “None of” options - this will break existing stored reports that have selections in this filter - please check your reports if you have used this. At the time of writing there is 1 customer with 1 report.
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Session list can now be filtered by Site.
WebForms
Bug Fix: Picklists for DLA, EDF and SEN are now available.
All “File” WebForms not longer require “Applicant/Learner Send to Form Capture” and can now be created by any user with the “FCA Client User” or “Forms Management - Create Forms” permissions.
Bug Fix: When using the Create WebForm button to create an empty instance of a WebForm the link in the email will no longer be broken.
Bug Fix: WebForms can no longer be submitted multiple times by having the same form open in multiple tabs/windows.
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The following form lists can now be edited in Lists and Types: Reason for Rejection, Reason for Deletion and Reason for Reassigning.
WebForms
Failed documents should now be correctly recovered if the retry succeeds.
Illegal XML chars will no longer cause document generation to fail.
Program end date will no longer be reset each time a from with a qualification plan selector but no aim fields is loaded.
Added the ability to save fields and then re-use them in other forms. This will be most useful for single selects with lots of answers.
Added an additional Learner Signature. This is intended for use when the learner needs to sign twice at different stages of the form. E.g. Learner → Officer → Learner → Form Owner.
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The wording of whether a Learner, ILR Aim, Destination & Progression, or Workplace is included in the ILR has been standardised across data entry and reports. The variations of Export Status, Report in ILR etc. are now all referred to as ILR Export Status with options of Include in ILR Export or Withhold from ILR Export. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
Ending a Break-in-Learning will now copy forward the HHS, DAMs, Subcontractor/Partner UKPRN and Learning Start Date Postcode where appropriate.
Actions that change a Learner’s Break-in-Learning status now refresh the whole page to ensure that the correct Start, Cancel, and/or End options are shown.
Learner Sex is now an optional for non-ILR Learners.
Learner Status filtering now includes an option for “In Learning and Last Year Leavers”.
The Learner Reference Number can now be set if there is not already an existing LRN for that learner. This only affects commercial learners who have been stored in PICS for several years, or where a new learning episode has been created for such a learner.
Editing the postcode on the ILR Learner Edit screen will now trigger a background update of postcode information.
Changes have been made to the ILR validation to reflect the ESFA Validation Rules version 5. These include:
New rules LearnDelFamType_108, Fworkcode_07, AchDate_12 and R133.
EmpId_13 (Employer ID cannot be 999999999) has been downgraded to a warning.
Minimum duration rules for Apprenticeship Standards (DateOfBirth_46 and DateOfBirth_47) are now applied.
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Reports will now be aborted if they take more than 2 hours to run.
Reports are now limited to 200 optional fields.
For outputs linked to organisations, the following fields have been added to help report on the geographic spread of linked organisations: Ward, Ward Name, Region, and Local Authority.
Site filters in all reports are now multi select.
New Reports
A new report, Contracts Report, has been added to report against contracts.
A new report, ESF Contracting Report, has been added to report against ESF Supplementary Data.
Learner Report:
Performance improvements have been made to populating fields defined on the base Learner report.
Performance improvements have been made to populating UDF fields.
Filtering by Apprenticeship Service Status has been added.
Output of Age Band has been added to show the current Age Band.
Output of Programme SSA Tier 1 Title has been added.
Output Programme SSA Title has been renamed to Programme SSA Tier 2 Title. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
Output of Source Applicant ID has been added.
Output of ILR EPA Organisation ID and Location have been added.
Output of the “Current LSF” field has been fixed. It was previously showing “Any LSF”.
Output of Start / End Reported Period fields has been added.
Learner Assessment Report
There were 2 fields name Title - for the Learner honorific and the Assessment Title - which could cause errors. The Assessment Title field has been renamed “Assessment Title”. This will need updating in existing reports and documents that use this field.
ILR Learner Report
Non ILR Funding Organisation can be included in this report - you must specify the Funding Organisations to include in the report options.
Filtering by ILR Employment Status has been added. This will return Learners that have any Employment records with the selected Statuses
Filtering by ILR Employment Monitoring has been added. This will return Learners that have any Employment Monitoring with any of the selected values.
Learner ILR Aims Report
Non ILR Funding Organisation can be included in this report - you must specify the Funding Organisations to include in the report options.
Non ILR Aims can be included in this report - you must specify the Aim Types to include in the report options.
Filtering by “Aim records added between dates” has been added.
Filtering by “Aim records with completion fields changed between dates” has been added. The fields are End Date, Completion Status, Learning Outcome, and Employment Outcome. Achieve date is also included on Programme Aims.
Output of EPA Organisation Location has been added.
Output of HE fields has been added.
Reviews Report
Output of Count of Attached Files has been added.
Change Request Report
Filtering by the Date the request was rejected has been added.
Output of the Date the request was rejected has been added.
Output of the User who rejected the request was has been added.
QAR Report
A new report type has been added: Apprenticeship Component Aims. This allows you to report across all apprenticeship component aims instead of just the programme aims. This is the equivalent of the “Report on comp aims (not prog aims)” option in desktop reports.
Completion, Retention and Pass totals and charts are now available for all report types, not just Education and Training reports. A new menu to select the type of table you wish to display has been added to allow this to be selected.
Achievement Rate forecasting (minimum and maximum rates) has been added to the QAR report. This will calculate a maximum learner total based on learners who are still in learning and could potentially still achieve, this is added to the existing achievement rate. Maximum rates assume that all of these learner will achieve, minimum rates assume that none of them will. A new menu to select the type of table you wish to display has been added to allow this to be selected. Any existing reports must be re-run to calculate the forecasting data.
New QAR reports will default to use the Interactive output mode. Existing saved reports are unaffected.
Output of Outcome Grade has been added. This is taken from the Main Aim for reports based on Programme Aims.
The QAR report can now be filtered by Site, Contract, UKPRN, or ILR Export Status for learners and aims.
The QAR dataset now includes a QAR Notes output which provides helpful notes when the overall year is modified due to events such as overdue planned breaks, or programme aims at EPA.
Learner Timeliness report. This is a new report which shows the time taken to enter key dates on a learner or aim, such as start, end, or achievement. It also includes changes to key dates to allow better monitoring of when these changes occur.
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There was an issue with fields in documents not doing a case insensitive search. Now fixed.
WebForms
Attachments now properly lock when the user they are assigned to has signed the form. This is indicated by a padlock symbol in front of the attachment name.
Attachments now show when they have failed validation. This is indicated by an “X” symbol in front of the attachment name.
Users with the DB Admin and Form Builder permissions can create test forms - these forms will auto fill with test data and are intended to help testing the placement of fields on the output signed document.
Added the ability to set the minimum and maximum length of answers for text and long text fields.
After a form is submitted, the system takes a bit of time to generate the signed document. While this is happening, the form’s status will now indicate that this is happening. You will need to wait until it has finished generating the document before the form can be approved.
Check boxes for users that have already signed the form will no longer be reset when the form is saved again.
Added a new section for all users that have FCA. This section will show all WebForms that you have been assigned as a signatory on. You will be able to navigate directly to these forms once they are ready to sign.
Added a new workspace tile that shows how many WebForms are ready for your signature. Click on the tile to view these forms.
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It is now possible to customise more fields on the Forms list.
A field for Head Office User has been added to the Forms list.
Form owners will now be able to see all their own forms regardless of Site. Note that FCA Users will still not be able to see forms after they have been submitted.
WebForms
A form type of “Applicant File” has been added
Many Applicant fields were included in a form when editing an Applicant which could overwrite changes made - we now only include fields that are wanted on the template to prevent this.
WebForm Designs now support multiple sites.
Date and Checkbox defaults answers should now be working correctly.
Long text fields will now properly display new lines in the downloaded word document.
Added an ability to select the Authorising officer when approving a Learner Change Request form where the Change Request type requires authorisation.
Added the ability for Applicant, Applicant File, Organisation File and Learner File forms to be automatically approved and imported on completion.
Non mandatory signatures are no longer being treated as mandatory.
A field has been added for ILR Learner Support Funding (LSF) to Learner forms.
Learning Expected End Date will now be correctly calculated after switching to a different qualification plan.
Learning Expected End Date will no longer show as 01/01/1970 if there are no aim fields on the form.
Fields that end up off the page during the design process will be moved back onto the page.
Locked Organisation Details fields will now save correctly instead of becoming blank.
WebForm Designs can now be retired without creating a new version.
Redisplaying a Qualification plan field will now show both the reference and title instead of just the reference on the redisplay.
The left side page navigation is now visible on screens down to 1200 pixels wide. We now also show the page number on hovering over these.
The “Submit Form“/”Send for Remote Signature(s)” button should now more reliably show the right text.
Guest Fill & Sign is now much more resilient to timeouts caused by filling in long forms.
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The User permissions for Form Management have been split to include individual permissions for View, Edit, Reassign, Delete, Rejected and Approve.
User Site filtering is now respected.
There is now an option to include forms created from a previous version of a form template in the filtering options.
Signature images can now be viewed on the Signatures tab of the the Forms Summary.
WebForms
Where a signature email has failed to reach the recipient (bounced, blocked or error) it is now possible to see more details by clicking on the email status.
More fields have been added to Learner File Forms including UDFs, UKPRN, Site Organisation, ILR Prior Attainment, Programme Name, Learning Expected End, Apprenticeship Standard and TNPs.
The codes behind picklist fields can be seen in the field editor.
WebForm templates can now be exported from, and imported into PICS.
Improvements to Fill and Sign validation that will allow for more flexibility when the form owner signs.
Aim level column for the qualification plan control.
Officer contact details display fields for Learners and Applicants.
Date fields can now do fixed or rolling max/min/defaults.
The Subcontractor field on Learner and Applicant forms is now working.
Fixed a bug that prevented Employer details showing on forms if the Employer selector was not on the form.
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Applicant list can now be filtered by ULN.
Applicant list now has optional fields for ULN, Provider Assigned ID, Mentor, Assess
Qualification Plan, Available to Start and Expected End Dates can now be bulk edited.
The LRS “Ability to Share” field has been renamed to “Privacy Notice Seen” to align with the LRS portal.
WebForms
When using the SEM (Small Employer) monitoring field in WebForms, the code list now shows the correct SEM codes. Previously it was showing the code for SEI (Self Employed).
ILR RUI picklists no longer include Death and Illness options.
ILR DAM fields are now included.
ILR ACT picklist now includes an option for “ACT 1 Non Levy”
The source of form signatory emails and the order they get sent out in can now be defaulted at form design time.
New form type: Learner File Form. It’s like the Organisation File Form, but for Learners.
New display only fields for:
Learner/Applicant
Full Name
Age at Start (used in conjunction with the Qualification Plan)
Current Age (used in conjunction with the Date of Birth the field)
Form Owner
Full Name
Form owners will now have a little more control over their own forms until they are submitted. This means that issues like forms being sent out to incorrect email addresses can now be fixed directly by the form owner.
Improvements to single and multi-line field display on the Answers tab.
Form templates can once again be permanently deleted.
Change Request Forms will now properly attach to the change request regardless of the number of additional attachments on the form itself.
Added the ability to Clone an instance of a form to a new form instance using the latest version of the form template.
URL fields will now show in the downloaded word document.
Improvements to repeat fields which were not working in some instances.
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