This page lists some of the recent changes to PICS. We also have a list of known issues being investigated.
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Nothing new to report just yet. Check back soonMonth End
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14th September
Appointments
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Using a links to complete a web form, sign a review, or complete a survey could result in an error about an Invalid Token. Now fixed.
7th September
Month End
Earning Adjustment Statement for 2024 is now available.
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When using the Notification status transition post-action to send an email, any email bounces are now detected and shown on the Recent History tab of the record where the status was changed. The Retry button can be used to resend the email after any changes to the email address has been made.
2nd September
Month End
The FM38 Adult Skills Fund funding calculations were not calculating achievement payments for North East Mayoral Combined Authority (SOF 120) learners recorded with DAM 002. Now fixed.
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DAM code lists have been updated
Document generator for ILR learners could fail to merge ILR specific fields. Now fixed.
Month End
The FM38 Adult Skills funding calculations have been updated to match the latest version of the FIS.
Study Programme Historic Rates are now available for 2024.
Process Warnings have been updated within the calculation process.
Funding Reconciliations are now available for 2024
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Starting a trial licence, such as the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework Dashboard, could take an hour for the trial to kick in. These will now start immediately.
30th August
Month End
When running funding calculations for the 2023 ILR year, the FM36 Apprenticeship Funding Calculation was excluding aims from episodes where the episode originally started before the 2024 ILR year and there exists a restarted programme aim starting in the 2024 ILR year. Now fixed.
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ILR Validation:
LearnDelFAMType_22: The 2023 Full or co-funding indicator (FFI FAM) must not be recorded for aims with 2023 Funding Model 10, is no longer triggered whem the 2023 Funding Model is 10.
LearnDelFAMType_111: The 2023 Full or co-funding indicator (FFI FAM) is required for aims with 2023 Programme Type 32 is now triggered if the 2023 Programme Type is 32 and there is no 2023 FFI value entered.
ILR Export Status is Required is no longer triggered for Destination and Progression records.
The 2022 export status fields are no longer visible in Destination and Progression records.
The Action Plan validation level can now be configured in Configuration > Sections > Learners > Validation. When set to Error, Action Plan documents and WebForms can not be created.
Deleted task records are now hidden when viewing learner components.
When creating a task component using a task template, any UDF answers from the template are now populated against the task.
When adding a learning aim using the Add Learning Aim from Qualification Plan menu item, any aim Provider Monitoring fields specified in the qualification plan will now be populated against the new aim.
Month End
Funding Reconciliation reports were duplicating data across report sheets. Now fixed.
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Files with no file extension or where the extension is .svg, .htm, .py, and .apk can no longer be uploaded.
Month End
ILR Exports conforming to the 2024 ESFA ILR Specification can now be produced. 2022 ILR files can no longer be created, but existing files can be downloaded.
The QAR Reconciler can now read 23/24 QAR data extracts.
Funding calculations have been updated for the 2024 ILR Year, this includes the addition of Adult Skills Fund FM38 funding.
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Using the Add Another feature of provisions with certain types of provision would fail to correctly reload the create page. Now fixed.
29th July
Month End
Funding calculations were failing if there were any learners with a missing residential postcode or aim delivery postcode. Now fixed.
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Target Scope, such as Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours, now support decimal points in their codes.
Month End
The Funding Calculation process has been optimised to increase performance.
The FM36 Apprenticeship funding calculations were incorrectly paying 90 and 365 day payments from the start date of a restarted Programme Aim. Now fixed.
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URL question types would not accept multiple URL parameters in the URL. Now Fixed.
18th July
Month End
The FM36 Apprenticeship funding calculator was incorrectly paying 90 day and 365 day incentive payments based on the start date of any restarted programme aims instead of only the start date of the original programme aim. Now fixed.
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URL questions that contained the & symbol between parameters would not work correctly. Now fixed.
27th June
Month End
The Skills Bootcamp Occupancy funding reconciler was throwing the error “Cannot get a text value from a bool cell”. Now fixed
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Editing the outcome of a vacancy application will pop up a form to edit other applications for the same vacancy. This is now limited to the first 100 other applications.
5th June
Month End
The FM37 Skills Bootcamp Funding Calculations have been updated for HGV Contracts
The FM37 Skills Bootcamp Funding Reconciler has been updated to reconciler HGV Contracts
Funding Forecasting has been updated to handle the changes required for the Skills Bootcamp HGV Contracts
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The ESFA have published new thresholds for the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework - specifically the indicators for Withdrawals, Past Planned End and Break in Learning. These thresholds have now been updated in PICS when generating a new AAF Dashboard - existing dashboards will need to be edited manually or recreated. To facilitate this, the AAF report includes two new fields to identify apprentices who are past their planned end date by more than 180 days, or by 90-180 days.
A new Applicant Payments Report is now available.
A new Officers File Report is now available.
The Learner Files Report has a new optional output: File Officer.
All reports that display Learner ILR data now require the View Learner Programme (ILR/PRaP) user permission.
The Learner Payments Report contains a new option, Include TNP Records, which will include TNP records in the report.
When nested output options were selected for the same entity type, only the options selected for the first nested entity would be respected. Now fixed.
Month End
Historic episodes that have been Archived are now included in the FM36 funding calculations. This is essential for the funding calculations to determine any required adjustments due to previous earnings for an apprentice’s programme.
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Entering new non-levy apprentices starting on or after April 1st, 2024, who are aged below 22 years old, no longer require Employer Contributions to be entered on the Apprenticeship Prices screen.
PICS Validation no longer displays an audit message regarding missing PMR records for non-levy apprentices aged below 22 years old, and who started on or after April 1st, 2024.
Month End
The FM36 Apprenticeship funding calculation now calculates non-levy apprentices aged below 22 years old who started on or after April 1st, 2024, as fully funded by the ESFA.
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A new template, “Funding Forecasting Planned Starts Breakdown Report” has been added. This report will allow reporting on Planned Start forecasted funding and actuals funding for a Planned Starts Profile.
Month End
Funding Forecasting has a new report option under the Planned Starts Profile’s export menu, “Funding Forecasting Planned Starts Breakdown” which will preload the selected Funding Profile and Planned Starts Profile into the Funding Forecasting Planned Starts Breakdown Report within the Reports workspace.
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Added the ability to fire off a WebHook as a Post Transition Action. Both GET and POST calls are supported.
Added a new date function for Post Transition Actions. The Effective Date function will use the date entered into the effective field. This can then be further modified by using the Add Days, Working Days and Date Only options.
Added a new Post Action for creating Learner and Applicant user accounts.
Month End
The funding reconcilers were not working with a “Stream was not readabable” error message. Now fixed.
The Data Match reconciler’s report now includes the column “Apprenticeship Service Status”
The Funding Forecasting export now has an option to split “Split Additional Amounts” which will replace the Additional column with additional rows for each claim type making up the Additional value.
The Create button is no longer available when viewing ILR Exports for 2021 or earlier.
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Filters on calendars with more than one option selected would not work correctly. Now fixed.
Month End
The status labels within the funding calculator and funding reconciler have been updated to be consistent with the rest of PICS.
Planned funding based on Planned Starts within Funding Forecasting was not respecting mid-year rate changes in the LARS. Now fixed.
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New Fields added to Applicant Sign Up Forms:
ILR Sex
Has Driving Licence
Has Own Transport
27th December 2023
Month End
Apprenticeship Funding Calculations have been updated with the new rates for English and maths aims.
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Uploading additional files to a course session could result in a bad request error. Now fixed.
URLs for signup forms to auto enrol applicants onto a course can now be generated from the Course summary screen.
Month End
The FM25 Funding Calculator has been updated with the latest published National Rates.
The T Level Funding Calculator was incorrectly funding Band 6 and above learners as Band 5 if the total planned hours for the learner was set lower than the band’s expected minimum hours. Now fixed.
Skills Bootcamp funding has been updated for 2023.
The Earnings Adjustment Statement data collection has been updated for 2023.
The Projected Funding by Learner, Projected Funding by Learning Delivery, and Projected Funding by Individual Items reports now have an output option of “Funding Line”. This will display the Funding Line as calculated by the Projected Funding calculations.
The QAR reconciler has been improved and shows clearer differences when an aim is excluded from the ESFA QAR report but not PICS, or vice versa. If the aim is excluded from both reports but the reason is different, this is not highlighted as a data difference unless other fields are also different.
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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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Reports for outputting details of files attached to Appointments, Tasks and Communications for Learners and Applicants have been added.
The Claim History Summary report was not fully populating some ILR Learner fields. Now fixed.
The Vacancy Application report was showing records for deleted Applicants. Now fixed.
Month End
Funding Forecasting now allows profiling up to 9,999 planned starts per period per age band per Qualification Plan.
The FM35 AEB Funding Calculations were calculating the wrong Devolved Authority Disadvantage Uplift for the Greater London Authority. Now fixed.
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Funding Forecasting was not forecasting funding for T Level learners. Now fixed.
The FM25 Funding Calculations were not calculating funding for T Level learners if a learner had previously been on another Study Programme. Now fixed.
The FM35 AEB Funding Calculations now include Devolved Authority Disadvantage Uplifts to match the funding generated by the FIS.
18th August 2023
Month End
The option to reconcile 2023 funding reports has been made available within Funding Reconciliations.
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The OneFile integration now detects day light saving dates being returned from OneFile and adjusts them correctly.
17th August 2023
Month End
ILR files are no longer rejected by FIS or SLD if the HE Special Fee Indicator and Net Tuition Fee fields are both entered against any aim. This error was due to a mistake in the ESFA ILR schema.
The Funding Band Maximum was not being found for some Apprenticeship Standards. This resulted in process warnings within the Funding Calculator and Funding Forecasting for these Standards. Now fixed.
The Funding Calculator was incorrectly calculating an achievement element for aims with a Category of “Adult Education Budget - Work Placement”. Now fixed.
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Adding a note to a record could result in an error. Now fixed.
12th August 2023
Month End
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
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It is now possible to create surveys to be completed by anonymous users. For these surveys, a dedicated URL will be generated that you can send out to your target audience. All answers recorded will be anonymous from a point of view of being linked to other PICS Records.
Anonymous Answers can be viewed in the survey summary screen.
The new Anonymous Survey Report can be used in conjunction with Saved Interactive Reports to provide visual dashboard summaries of answers.
Month End
Skills Bootcamp calculations have been added to the Funding Calculator and Projected Funding.
It is now possible to reconcile Skills Bootcamp funding.
The Data Match reconciler was not always identifying the correct PICS Episode for a learner. Now fixed.
The App Monthly Payments reconciler’s option to perform Levy adjustments was setting the incorrect Claim Type of “N” for newly created Claim Items. Now Fixed.
Funding Forecasting
The Export now splits the Actual funding column into multiple columns identifying different Actuals funding types.
A new option “Include Optional Aims When Calculating Planned Starts Funding” has been added to the Setting screen to determine if optional Qualification Plan Qualifications are included in the forecasting calculations.
The “Planned In Learning” column was ambiguous as to its meaning, and has been removed from the profile tables. The Details view now shows Planned In Learning for a given period, along with the total Expected In Learning representing the Planned In Learning plus the Actual In Learning figures.
The Export now includes columns for Planned In Learning and Expected In Learning.
When forecasting funding for Qualification Plans the Source Of Funding is now only compulsory for AEB programmes and FM25 Traineeship programmes.
The ILR Exporter will no longer write Prior Attainment records dated after the latest aim start date being exported in that ILR file. This is to prevent PriorAttain_09 errors when future year ILR aims are added before the 2022 year end.
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A custom logo, From name and message can now be added to all emails sent from PICSWeb. Settings can be accessed by database administrators in Configuration > Integrations > Email.
Dropbox Email now supports forwarding emails as attachments that have been sent to users from applicants or learners.
Data change logs writing during scheduled data exchanges now use a specific username for each integration, rather than the username of the user who enabled it.
bksb
The Result value could have resulted in a value < 0 due to a calculation error. Now fixed.
A link to view the learner or applicant in bksb has been added.
Smart Assessor
It is now possible to withhold Sex, Ethnicity and Disability when exchanging data with Smart Assessor. This can be configured in Configuration > Integrations > Smart Assessor.
A link to view the learner in Smart Assessor has been added
Month End
Funding Calculator - It is now possible for users with the DB Admin user permission to select a period to draft or final if periods have not been finalled for a number of months.
Funding Forecasting - It is now possible to export the data shown in the Overall tab and the Planning tab.
Funding Forecasting - A toggle has been added to the Summary page to enable viewing the financial data in a cumulative, profile start to date, mode.
Funding Forecasting - It is now possible to view Periods as a calendar year and month date view. The default view can be set via a new Settings option in the Actions list on the Funding Forecasting profile list page.
Funding Forecasting - The speed at which profiles load have been increased. Controls are now disabled during the loading and saving of profiles to prevent data corruption.
Funding Forecasting - A bug was identified which would cause the Overall tab’s Planned funding amounts to be calculated based on Planned Starts for Qualification Plans that do not generate funding. Now fixed.
A new subcontractor rate type of “Learning Support Funding (LSF) rate” has been added for apprenticeship programmes.
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🆕 A new Document Generation type of “Learner Delivery Plan” has been added to allow generation of “Action Plan” documents based on the new “Learner Delivery Plan” report. Help and guidance will be linked here.
The Planned Hours tab of the ILR now has a clearer display of hours and includes more information on which learning episodes are used to calculate planned hours for the LRN.
If entered, planned learning and EEP Hours for previous year are now displayed on the Planned Hours tab of the ILR.
Entering planned learning and EEP hours for a learning episode now instantly shows the total learner hours.
The ILR learner validation now conforms to version 4 of the ESFA validation rules specification.
Some missing T Level validation rules have been added: ProgType_18, ProgType_19, ProgType_20, AimType_08, AimType_09.
A new Other ESFA Adult (non funded) programme has been added. This can be used to enter learners on programmes with Funding Model 99 aims, such as Multiply.
"Number of Overdue Reviews" and “Number Overdue Components" KPIs have been renamed “Learners with …”
Aims with Funding Model 99 (non funded) can now be added to Community Learning ILR learners.
Number of signatures are now shown on reviews and evidence lists.
Month End
The ILR exporter no longer sends RUI codes 5 and 6 if there are no aims starting before 1st August 2022.
Planned learning and EEP hours are no longer exported for T Level learners.
Programme aim planned hours are now exported for T Level learners.
The Apprenticeship Co-Investment Contributions Funding Reconciler would throw an error if there are blank lines at the end of the report. Now fixed.
The FM36 Funding Calculation was incorrectly using the earliest start date of all of an apprenticeship programme’s aims to determine the apprentice’s age when it should have only looked at programme aims. Now fixed.
The FM36 Funding Calculation was calculating Over Cap payments incorrectly where there are more than one Price Episode within a programme. Now fixed.
The Funding Calculator was still generating a process warning for employers with ID “999999999”. This process warning has been removed for 2022 calculations onwards.
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General
Failed reports can be deleted from the Available Reports list.
Qualification Plan filters now allow multiple selections and include is in selection, is not in selection, is blank and is not blank filtering modes.
Contract filters now allow multiple selections and include is in selection, is not in selection, is blank and is not blank filtering modes.
A new report Output Type is available: Interactive for Dashboard. This will allow the report output to be used in a dashboard widget.
Outputs of Last Workflow Status now have a field outputting just the date.
Interactive report tables now show a Total row for Count and Sum analysis methods.
A “Report has failed to run” email will no longer be sent if the report was run successfully, but the first attempt at sending a success email failed.
Learners
🆕 A Learner Officers report has been added that includes all Officers directly linked to a Learner including those linked by Relationships.
🆕 A Learners Organisations report has been added that includes Organisations linked to the Learner by Placements and Relationships.
🆕 A Learner ILR Employment Statuses report has been added.
🆕 A Learner Session report has been added. This included Attendance details.
🆕 A Learner Review Signatures report has been added.
🆕 A Learners without Review report has been added, allowing reporting of Learners who don’t have a review in the defined dated range. Revew Type and Attendance status can also be used to filter the data.
🆕 A Learner Components report has been added, allowing reporting of Portfolio Components.
🆕 A Learner Target Scan report has been added, allowing reporting of Portfolio Target Scans.
An Episode Status Filter has been added to Learner reports. Options include In Learning, Leavers, and Yet To Start.
A filter by related Officer Tags has been added.
ILR Aims report includes GLH from the Delivery Qualification.
ILR Aims report includes output of the qualification's SSA.
ILR Aims report can now be filtered to aims that have been exported or not in the current and/or previous year.
ILR Learner report can now be filtered to Learner with aims that have been exported or not in the current and/or previous year.
Learner Qualification report includes output of the qualification's SSA.
Assessment report can now be filtered by what the Assessment is of Learner, Qualification, Unit etc.
Learner report includes output of the result of most recent validation.
ILR Learners report includes output of the Episode Planned Learning/EEP Hours.
The Traineeship QAR report no longer fails to run with a TraineeshipFM35WorkExperienceAims error.
The QAR report now includes the Learner Reference Number field by default.
Apprenticeship Level and Title are now available as optional fields in the QAR report.
Output of Expected Months on Programme and Expected Months of Learning has been added.
Enrolment Report is now sorted by Name and Enrolment dates.
Qualification Report now outputs the same Statuses as displayed in the Learner Delivery Plan list of Qualifications.
Output of TNP Totals has been added.
Output of Apprenticeship Standard Government Cap has been added.
Reviews reports can be filtered to exclude Reviews due after a Learner has left.
Funding Age Band has been added to ILR Learner and ILR Aim reports. The calculation takes into account Funding Model, EEF and Programme Start dates as appropriate.
The Timeliness report would fail to run if invalid dates were historically recorded against a learner. Now fixed.
Learner Payment reports can now be filtered for blank dates, including Expected, Paid, Authorised, Invoice and Claimed.
Data Change Reports now has an “Exclude Extra Keys” filter.
Learning Start, Learning Expected End and Learning End fields are now taken from latest Main ILR Aim when there is no programme aim, otherwise taken from the Episode.
Applicants
🆕 A Learner Officers report has been added that includes all Officers directly linked to a Learner including those linked by Relationships.
🆕 A Learner Organisations report has been added that includes all Organisations directly linked to a Learner including those linked by Relationships.
Filtering by System Status allow output of Deleted and Archived record.
Age Bands output has been added.
Officers
Appointment reports can now be filtered to include Appointments the Officer is the Organiser for.
Appointment report now can output what roles the officer plays in the appointment.
Filtering to a specific Officer or Superior has been added to all Officer reports.
Courses
Output of number of Enrolments.
Attendance summary by Course has been added.
Output of Course Notes has been added.
Output of the number of session linked to a Course has been added.
Output of the Course Site has been added.
Opportunities
Output of the Quantity for Qualification Plans
Output of the linked Organisation’s Sites has been added.
Vacancies
Output of Qualification codes and title has been added.
Output of Qualification Plan codes and title has been added.
Output of the linked Organisation’s Sites has been added.
Forms
The Field and Value filters now support space separated values - allowing search where the value is X or Y etc.
Users
🆕 A User Officers Restrictions report has been added.
The User Sites report has been relabelled User Site Restrictions.
Output if 2FA is enabled.
Projected Funding
The Projected Funding By Learning Delivery report now has an option to show LSF as a separate row.
Month End
Funding Calculator
There was a bug which prevented funding periods from being updated once the funding calculations had completed when the Last Year had been set against a Funding Organisation. Now fixed.
The FM35 funding calculation was incorrectly applying funding caps to apprenticeship component aims. Now fixed.
The FM35 funding calculation was incorrectly paying achievement payments for apprenticeship knowledge and competency aims that had ended but not achieved. Now fixed.
The FM36 funding calculation was not calculating balancing payments when there is a change of negotiated prices (TNPs) during the End Point Assessment period. Now fixed.
The FM36 funding calculation was not applying the “Funding Spent at Previous Provider” value correctly to programmes with more than one Price Episode. Now fixed.
The Process Warning “Aim [reference] is not valid in the LARS for this funding year” was incorrectly being triggered for FM36 Apprenticeships and ESF programmes. Now fixed.
Where subcontractor rates have been configured to split FM36 programme rates by training and assessment, this was always returning a 50% split. Now fixed.
The Funding Details report generated by the funding calculator has two new sheets: Occupancy and Out Of Funding.
Funding Reconciliation
Learner Tags were missing from some of the reports generated by the reconciliation process. Now fixed.
It is now possible to upload .XLSX files to the reconciler. Care should be taken that only original, unedited files are used in the reconciliation process.
Earnings Adjustment Statement
🆕 EAS Data collection and export is now available for the 2022/23 ILR Year.
ESF Contracting
Deliverables now show the Deliverable Code as part of the description to help identify each deliverable.
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Organisations can now be removed from a workflow with the option to clear the current status and status history. This option functionality is only available to users with the DB Admin permission.
The Description field will now populate correctly when editing Additional Details.
Month End
The ILR Exporter is now capable of exporting ILR files which conform to the 2022 ESFA ILR Specification.
The ILR exporter no longer sends any aims which start in a future year.
It is no longer possible to create 2020 ILR files.
Funding calculations have been updated and are now available for the 2022-23 ILR year.
FM81 Funding Calculations were calculating reimbursement values incorrectly. Now fixed.
The Funding Calculations were assigning loan payment derived claims to the wrong aim when there were more that one loan funded episode in year. Now fixed.
Funding Reconciliations have been enabled for the 2022-23 ILR year.
The QAR Reconciler would fail to match on some aims where the SW Supplier ID in PICS is different to that in the QAR. Now fixed.
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The “Quick Session Dates” filter now includes “This week”, “Next week”, “Last Week” - where this week is from the Monday on or before the current day to the Sunday on or after the current day.
The Day of a Session is now include in the Export To Excel.
Month End
The Funding Calculation was producing a Process Error for Devolved AEB level 4 aims when DAM ‘023’ was recorded. Now fixed.
The Funding Calculation’s Funding Details report would not show learner Tags if the learner finished more than two years ago. Now fixed.
The ESF Contracting list of items now displays the “Learning Delivery” associated with each item where applicable.
The Apps Monthly Payment Reconciler’s option to “Perform Levy Adjustments” was incorrectly making adjustments where the Apps Monthly Payment report showed a clawback against co-investment payments for Levy funded apprentices. Now fixed.
Editing an ESF Supplementary Item generated by the funding calculator within ESF Contracting would disassociate the linked Learning Delivery from the item. This would result in the funding calculation process resetting any changes made to the item. Now fixed.
The Funding Calculator’s Funding Details report’s “Funding Details” sheet has been renamed to “Current Period Funding Details” to better describe the details included on the sheet.
The FM81 Apprenticeship Trailblazer calculation was incorrectly calculating 90 and 365 day incentive payments from the start date of each aim after a restart. Now fixed.
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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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Optional Field searching now works better with expandable fields, such as officers and organisations.
Enrolment reports can now be filtered by the Course Start and End dates.
Claim History report performance has been improved.
Opportunities report now has output of Qualification Plans and linked Learner and Applicant counts.
Applicant Report now has output of ILR Prior Attainment.
Bug Fix: Communications reports were incorrectly reporting the Type.
Learner Qualification report can now be filtered by Registration Number.
Learner Qualification report can now be filtered to include Deleted and Archived Learners.
Learner ILR Aims report can now be filtered to include Deleted and Archived Learners.
Learner ILR Aims report now has output of Delivery Qualification Status.
Learner Units report can be now be filtered by Unit Reference and Linked Qualification.
Form History report can now be filtered by the History Status.
Added Notes reports for Learners, Applicants, Officers and Organisations.
The Projected Funding reports now includes learner ILR output fields.
Added Status History report for Learners
Learner report now has an optional output for Workflow
The Projected Funding By Learner, and Projected Funding By Learning Delivery reports now have an output option of “Total Overdue”, which is the sum of funding which has been projected into the next unfinalled period because they are overdue.
The Projected Funding Individual Items report now has an output option of “Overdue Projected Item” to identify funding items that have been projected into the next unfinalled period because they are overdue.
The “Projected End Period” output in the Projected Funding reports was showing the next unfinalled period at the time the report was run. It now shows what the next unfinalled period was at the time the projected funding was calculated.
The data change reports for learners, applicants, organisations and officers can now be filtered by old and new values.
A new System Logs Report is now available.
Month End
The Funding Calculator’s Funding Details report’s Summary sheet now separates out PMR totals from the FM36 totals as an additional row.
The QAR Reconciler no longer shows a “Value cannot be null” error when reconciling an Education & Training report.
The Projected Funding Calculator now produces a downloadable report against each year that summarises the funding calculated and highlights any process warnings encountered.
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Learner validation now includes an audit check for FM25 Condition Of Funding.
Reviews: A new attended option “By Video” has been added
It is no longer possible to record Planned Learning Hours multiple times when creating a learner and moving back from the Additional page to the Programme page.
When the ILR Export Status of a ILR learner is changed, the learner-level Planned Learning and EEP Hours values are recalculated.
The Planned Learning and EEP Hours values are no longer removed when the hours are edited on a Withheld learner.
Learner change logs for payment records (table pcTrnPay) now include an extra key showing the Expected Date, Actual Date and unique ID for the payment record to assist in identifying which record has been changed.
Entering payment records (including automatically generated loan payments) no longer result in a “Maximum key has been reached” error.
Deleting a learner placement that was a custom relationship type would result in a “Placement not found” error. Now fixed.
The Status field is now displayed in the Learner Assessments list.
The Grade and Cross Reference fields are now displayed in the Learner Assessments list if there is data to display.
Learner Validation now includes Audit warnings for conditions reported in the OfS HE data credibility quality report.
Evidence: It is now possible to clear the IQA and EQA date on an evidence file for users who have the Database Administrator permission.
Qualifications: It is now possible to clear the IQA and EQA date on a qualification for users who have the Database Administrator permission.
Month End
Funding Calculations:
The funding calculator was excluding learners that have validation errors. They are now included.
FM36 Apprentices eligible for “National Skills Fund: Level 3 Adult Offer” were being assigned the wrong disadvantage uplift. Now fixed.
Balancing payments were not being paid for some Apprenticeship Standards on completion of their End Point Assessment. Now fixed.
The FM36 funding calculation was sometimes calculating framework uplifts incorrectly where residual TNPs had been added. Now fixed.
The FM36 funding calculation was withholding employer incentives for apprentices aged under 19 when they were recorded as a care leaver. Now fixed.
The projected funding calculation for FM36 apprentices was setting the effective date of overdue unpaid PMR derived claims to the PMR record’s expected date. This was resulting in the items not appearing in the Projected Funding reports. The effective date is now projected to be in the next unfinalled period.
Funding Reconciliation:
The “Price Episode Actual End Date” column has been added to the report generated by the Apprenticeship Data Match reconciler.
Additional filtering options have been added to ESF Contracting.
The QAR Reconciler is now available. This allows an ESFA QAR data extract to be uploaded and a report is produced showing any differences between the ESFA data and the PICS QAR data. A new QAR Reconciler permission has been created to restrict its use - this will need to be assigned by a database administrator before it will become visible.
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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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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.
Month End
Funding Calculator
The Funding Details report’s Process Warnings sheet now shows where a learner’s episode has ILR validation warnings or errors.
Projected Funding Calculations
Where an apprentice is in EPA, the calculation would forecast completion only in the next unfinalled period. It now forecasts completion on the expected end date if this is in the future.
ESF Contracting
It is now possible to bulk update the Payment Claimed, Payment Received, Subcontractor Claimed and Subcontractor Paid fields.
The ability to copy a single Supplementary Data Item, and the ability to copy forward multiple Supplementary Data Items has been added.
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Reports spreadsheets now have filters on the title row.
Optional Fields may now have
symbol to explain more about the data shown in the fieldSuperior Code and Name has been added to Officer outputs.
Reports can now be Re-run if they are not the result of a scheduled report.
“Database Administrator” users can now access all saved reports.
Report now have “Full Name” and “Surname, First Names” fields.
New Reports
have been added for Qualification Plans and Qualification Plan Elements.
reports on Communications (Call, Email, SMS) has been added for Learners, Applicants, Organisations and Officers.
have been added for Officer Tasks.
Learner Reports
filtering by Provider Destination & End Codes has been added.
filtering by Has ever had a Break-in-Learning has been added.
output of Learner Title has been added.
output of Programme Aim Planned Hours has been added.
output of Site Parent has been added.
output of User who Entered the Leaner has been added.
output of Beyond Expected End flag has been added.
output of Expected Days of Learning and Elapsed Days of Learning have been added. These are derived from the episode dates if there are no ILR Programme Aims.
output of Learning Actual End has been added. This is derived from the episode dates if there are no ILR Programme Aims.
output of Learning Start Date has been added. This is derived from the episode dates if there are no ILR Programme Aims.
output of ILR Programme Planned Hours Progress has been added. This is logged Actual OTJ Hours / ILR Programme Planned Hours.
output of ILR Programme Planned Hours To Date has been added. ILR Programme Planned Hours * (Elapsed Days of Learning / Expected Days of Learning).
output of ILR Completion, Outcome and Withdrawal Reason ahs been added.
output of PICS Portfolio Type has been added.
output of Current LSF status has been added.
output of Has ever had a Break-in-Learning has been added.
ILR Learner Aim Report
can now be filtered by “originally starting between” and “ending or expected to end between”.
can now be filtered by Only Main Aim and First/Latest version of Aims.
filtering by Provider Destination & End Codes has been added.
Learner Qualification Report
can now be filtered by “ending or expected to end between”.
can now be filtered by Only Main Aim.
filtering by Provider Destination & End Codes has been added.
Session Attendance Report
outputs of LRN and ULN for Attendees have been added
output of Main Tag for Attendees has been added
Organisation Report
can now be filtered by System Status.
Officer Report
can now be filtered by DBS Date and Last Modified.
Vacancy Report
can now be filtered by Created, Opens, Closes and Expected Start dates.
Projected Funding Reports
these would throw an error when UDF (User Defined Form) values are selected as optional outputs. Now fixed.
Forms Reports
output of Form Owner Signature has been added.
User Reports
can now be filtered by Permission.
output of SaaS User Type added.
Month End
The FM36 funding reports now only show funding up to the period being reported - not the complete year.
ILR Exports
The exports list now shows the user who created the export. This field will only be populated for exports created after this version of PICS has been released.
The exports list now shows ILR years on individual tabs and files created in 2017-19 are available for download.
There is now a “No Site” option sites filter when creating a new export - this is visible if the user does not have site restrictions preventing them accessing learners with no site code.
The Projected Funding calculation was not limiting the number of years into the future calculations were run for which would result in a very long runtime if a learner had an incorrect start date far into the future. Now fixed.
The ESF Contract Managager is now available within PICS.
The ESF FM70 Funding Calculation process was causing the Funding Calculator Finalling process to take a long time for some users. Now fixed.
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The Claim History report would fail if optional fields containing information from the latest Programme Aim were selected. This is now fixed.
A report for Learner Contact and Learning Hours has been added.
A report for Learner Units has been added.
A report for Learner Evidence has been added.
A report for Course Session Attendance has been added. This offers output of both recorded Attendance and Expected Attendance.
A report for Opportunity Provisions has been added.
A report for Learner Enrolments has been added this includes per Enrolment and pre Learner Attendance analysis.
An Age Band at Start field has been added to Learner Reports: The following bands are used 0-15, 16-18, 19-24, 25+.
A “Learning Expected End” Date field has been added to Learner Reports. This is taken from the latest programme end if there is one. Otherwise it is the same as the Episode Expected End.
Learner Export status filtering has been added to the Learner Reviews Report.
Filters have been added to the Learner ILR Aims report to show there "Aim not Ended but Delivery Aim is Ended" and "Aim End Different To Delivery Aim End".
ILR Aim Report now includes filters for “Export in Current Year” and fields for Export in Current and Prior years.
A Learner Self Assessed Disability filter has been added to appropriate Learner reports.
ESF Contract Actual records are now included in the Learner Claims History report.
Opportunity Report now includes Date of Latest Status Change and Status Change Notes.
Learner Report includes Delivery Target and Delivery Model descriptions.
Learner and Officer reports include PICS Username & Last Login fields.
Officer Report now includes fields for Current Learner Caseloads.
The QAR Report no longer excludes aims which are at End Point Assessment if they ended before 1st August 2019.
Deleting saved reports which were sent to multiple users no longer results in an error.
The Projected Funding By Learners report and Projected Funding By Learning Delivery report now have “Projected End Period” and “Projected End Status” columns to help identify learners/aims that are in learning beyond their planned end date.
The Forms and Form Status History reports now includes more information about each signatory including email address and status.
The Forms and Form Status History reports now include fields for data fields Site, Qualification Plan Code and Start Date.
Learner Reports now include Latest Placement, Delivery Location, School and College and their Start and End Dates.
Learner Reports now have a filter for “Leaver or Expected End” in the date range.
User Report now has Site filtering options.
Course Reports now include the Qualification Plan the course is linked too and any Qualification Plans the Enrolees are linked too.
Learner Reports now have a calculated Age Band field - 16-18, 19-24 & 25+.
The learner progress fields now output as percentages formatted to 2 decimal places.
Actual and Planned Contact Hours fields are now formatted to two decimal places.
A filter on “Has Files of Type” has been added to the Learner, Applicant, Organisation and Officer reports.
More output fields for Opportunities linked to Applicants and Learners have been added to Applicant and Learner reports.
Head Office Feedback, Site, Qualification Plan, Start Date and many signature related fields have been added to Forms reports.
Month End
The Month End Funding Calculator now includes the FM70 calculations for ESF ILR derived items.
The user interface has been improved to allow easier switching between financial years.
Earnings Adjustment Statement Funding Lines starting “16 to 18” and “19 to 24” have been updated to “16-18” and “19-24”.
The Projected Funding calculations were not projecting Apprenticeship Achievements if the Programme Aim ended in the previous ILR Year.
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Organisation information in Reports has been brought into line with how we show Officer information. This may effect some saved reports and/or document generation templates as we have has to change some field names.
ILR Learner Report now includes output of Next Year and Prior Year Learning and EEP Hours fields
ILR Learner Report now includes output of Has Aims with LSF.
ILR Learner Report now includes output of Latest TNPs.
New Report Template for Learner Review Summary. This report will be a row per learner showing last and next review fields, gap between last and next reviews, summary of total reviews attended/missed, and review history.
Appointment type has been added as a filter for appointment based report templates.
The interactive QAR report has been improved and now offers a summary table and several charts. Any existing saved interactive reports will need to be recreated to be compatible with the new format.
Apprenticeship Standard aims at EPA with Completion Status = 1 and Outcome = 8 are now excluded from the Apprenticeship Achievement Rates Overall report.
Organisations report now has filters for “Has Head Office”, “Has Branches“, and fields for “Branch Count“.
New: Learner Files Report. Produces a filtered report of learners and their associated files.
New: Applicant Files Report. Produces a filtered report of applicants and their associated files.
Month End
The ILR Exporter will no longer export prior attainment and aim FAM records which are exact duplicates of another for that learner or aim.
Earnings Adjustment Statement has been updated with Funding Lines and Adjustment Types for 2021.
Projected Funding now has it’s own page and now has a setting to run the Projected Funding automatically each evening.
The Funding Reconciler now has the option to store uploaded files for re-use when updating reconciliations.
The Funding Calculator now has the option for users with the Database Administrator permission to delete the most recently finalled period in each year.
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