Managing your data

Data issues are areas in your contact data that Schoolcomms has highlighted an issue with. Most commonly this is based around the contact details held in Schoolcomms, but data issues also flag up any other errors the system may have found after an import.

When viewing your data issues, the error column will give details of the data issue. This list can be both filtered and saved.

You can find your data issues in Schoolcomms by going to: Dashboard, Management Report, Import Data Issues.

Data Issues include:

Permanent Bounce – At least three emails to this address have failed to be delivered. This could be because; the email is no longer active, or there is something stopping emails getting through on the contact’s side. Check with the contact that this email is still valid, if so you should ask the contact to add your Schoolcomms email address to their safe senders list on their email account. In order for them to receive emails again you will need to re-enable their contact details from the linked people screen.

SPAM – your contact has marked your email address as SPAM or junk, blocking the email address. Check with the contact that they want to receive your emails – if they do you need to re-enable their email address in the linked people screen. If this happens again, ask your contact to add your Schoolcomms email address to your safe senders list.

Text delivery failure – This means that the last three or more text messages you have sent to this contact failed to be delivered. Most commonly this is because the number is incorrect or invalid. Add the correct number in your MIS, wait an hour then run the Schoolcomms import and then re-enable the contacts mobile number from the linked people screen.

Invalid email/mobile – The email address or mobile number stored in your MIS is in the wrong format. Most commonly too many digits.

Re-enabling Data Issues

Firstly, you must check with contacts that the information you have for them is correct before enabling any emails or numbers.

If the contact information is incorrect, please amend the contact’s MIS record wait an hour and run an import in Schoolcomms to bring over any changes.

If the contact information is correct, you can re-enable their email / mobile number from within Schoolcomms.

To do this:

• Go to Dashboard, School Members
• Search for the Student, click on the Student
• The Linked People window will open, click on the arrow at the end of the contact with a contact method missing
• Under Actions click on Re-enable read the warning and confirm that you want to re-enable the contact
• You will see that the contact method will revert to include the previously blocked contact method
• The email address or mobile number will be unblocked, and you can send messages to them again

Your import settings determine the contacts and data that are imported from your MIS database.

To review your Schoolcomms Import Settings go to Dashboard > Import Management > Edit settings.

Select which contacts you would like to import from your MIS database. By default, the import is set to include Priority 1 parents and all are flagged as prime. If you wish to include other priorities and/or parental responsibility and set another choice for prime/non-prime, click on Edit Priority Settings.

Select whether you wish to import email address and/or mobile numbers.

Tick the Send a text/ email to each new or changed number/address if you do wish to notify each new contact. We advise that the ‘Send a Text message to each new or changed number?’ option is left un-ticked for your first import as this will send a text to each new  contact you import and will use a large amount of your text credits.

Once you are happy with your chosen settings to import members, groups and contact details into Schoolcomms from your MIS click Save. You will now need to run an import, by clicking Run Import.

This data needs to be refreshed regularly to ensure it is up to date, so we advise you run an import every morning when you log in to Schoolcomms.

Scheduled Import Guide – read here

Sometimes you may need to contact people who don’t appear within your MIS database. To add them to Schoolcomms, follow the instructions below.

Click Management > Manage school members > Add member

Enter the details for your new school member and click Save.

This member will be added to your list of members, but they will not have any contact details against them.

Click on Add Linked Person to add the contact details for this new member.

Add the relationship to the school member e.g., Prime Parent/Non-Prime Parent and choose if the parent has Parental Responsibility. Please note without Parental Responsibility they will be unable to give consent or book clubs.

Add the email address and mobile number and choose if you want to send a confirmation email or text to let them know. Click Save.

Editing an Existing Member
You can edit any members created in Schoolcomms by selecting the member then clicking Edit.

Deleting a Member
You can delete any member created in Schoolcomms by selecting the member then clicking Delete.
Note: The member will be permanently deleted and removed from the member list.

Adding a New Group into Schoolcomms
When you have added additional members to Schoolcomms, you may want to add them in to a group, so they are easily contactable. To do this, follow the instructions below.

Click Management > Add group

Enter a group name and the members to your group. Click Save
Your group will appear in your School groups list.

Edit/Delete an Existing Group
Any group that has been created in Schoolcomms can be edited or deleted under school groups.

Select the group you wish to edit/delete and click Edit to change the group or Delete to remove the group permanently from Schoolcomms.