School Technology Associates, inc.

Disinfecting your Devices

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Now more than ever, it is important to keep your devices clean, especially high contact devices such as time clocks and keypads. We wanted to provide you with a brief guide on the recommended methods and products to use to clean your devices from School Technology Associates.

Time Clocks 

With a soft cloth use one of the following solvents to wipe your clock clean:

  • 1:1 mixture of Isopropanol and distilled water
  • Industrial Cleaner Sabesto
  • Sidolin proNature
  • Top Glasschaum
  • Isopropanol
  • 1:1 mixture of Sidolin and Isopropanol
  • 3M Cleaner

Lysol or Clorox wipes can be used as well.

Additional options to help lower the amount of contamination is to mount Purell hand sanitizer dispenser by the clock or by having employees use a stylus when touching the screen.

Biometric Readers

With a soft cloth, using any of the solutions mentioned above, dampen the cloth to wipe the sensor clean. Make sure the cloth is not wet, if the sensor becomes saturated it will get damaged. It is important to use a soft cloth as well to ensure the sensor is not scratched.

Biometric readers only require the finger to touch one small area that is easily wiped down. To ensure it stays clean wipe it down frequently and have Purell hand sanitizer available next to the device.

Keypads

For Tardy Kiosk, Positive Attendance, and Food Service keypads, with a soft cloth or paper towel use 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol to wipe your device clean. Lysol or Clorox disinfectant wipes can be used as well.

 

If you have any questions in regards to the cleaning of your devices, reach out to support@k12sta.com

Tracking Employee Time on Campus

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Still using paper timesheets to track your employee payroll?  That is how Salem SD in Wisconsin tracked its employee time, up until 2016. Four years ago, it started using Skyward SMS 2.0 TrueTime with School Technology Associates time clocks. The time clocks come with up to two reader types, with the options of a swipe barcode reader, a proximity reader, or a biometric reader. Salem SD was already using proximity key fobs for access to doors and other areas in its school, so for its time clocks it was an easy decision to choose the proximity fob reader. Looking at the set up of the clocks, Tony, IT Specialist at Salem SD says, “They’re very secure with a nice case that attaches to the wall mount. They are also easy to troubleshoot and the access to admin settings are ‘hidden in plain sight’ which is a really nice feature from an IT perspective.”

Touch Clock running Skyward SMS 2.0 interface

After setting up and giving the employees a run through on how the time clocks work, everyone picked it up quickly. “I like that it’s convenient for staff,” said Susan, Business Manager at Salem SD. “We have three time clocks by the main entrances where people come and go. It took a little time for everyone to remember to clock in, but soon it became a routine that the first thing you do when you arrive is place your fob on the reader and clock in.” Crystal, Bookkeeper at Salem SD says, “The time clocks have taken away a lot of manual error. Now, we don’t need to manually add up everyone’s timesheets. It also holds staff more accountable to clock in and out everyday, instead of every Friday employees quickly filling out their Monday to Friday schedule on the paper timesheet.”

Algoma SD, another school in Wisconsin, has a similar story. “We were doing a ton of manual paper timesheets and it got to the point where we had to look over the timesheets. Some employees would add up their time wrong, or add the minutes wrong, forget to put a lunch in there; it became very cumbersome. So we reached out to Skyward and found out about TrueTime and School Technology Associates time clocks,” said Jason, Director of Business Services at Algoma SD. 

Last November, Algoma migrated from Skyward SMS 2.0 to Skyward Qmlativ. “At first I didn’t think about if the time clocks need to be upgraded to work with Qmlativ, then I reached out to School Technology Associates and found out, yes they do,” said Jason. Luckily, the conversion was easy and after a software upgrade to the clocks, Algoma was able to have them up and running again with the new Skyward Qmlativ. “The conversion went great, and the new user interface for the clocks is really good. Employees can quickly look at their timesheets and see if they are good, or if they forgot to punch out a day. It’s a really great improvement.”

Touch Clock running Skyward Qmlativ Interface

When looking at how the time clocks have helped improve its processes, Susan at Salem SD says the biggest benefit is time. “It’s so much quicker than it was before. A lot of time was spent filling out the timesheets, locating them, submitting them, having them approved. Being able to get it all done electronically has saved so much time.”

For Algoma SD, Jason says, “The main benefit for our employees is that the time clocks are so simple. You clock in, you clock out, and at the end of the week you hit submit. It’s really been beneficial to employees, due to the fact it’s so simple. On the business side, it has streamlined payroll, cutting down the pre-work by two-to-three hours.”

 

Preparing for Skyward Qmlativ

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At School Technology Associates, we are always working to improve our products, helping schools automate and simplify their day-to-day processes. We understand a majority of Skyward schools are still using SMS 2.0, but will look to converting to Qmlativ in the future. We want to let you know that, in addition to our products for SMS 2.0, we are preparing exciting new integrations to automate your daily tasks with Skyward Qmlativ.

Automate and Track Student Tardies and Attendance with Qmlativ

We are excited to announce SchoolTRAK™, our new web app, available fall 2019! With SchoolTRAK™, schools can use the same Tardy Kiosk Hardware as our SMS 2.0 version, but also be able to set your own thresholds for tardies and absences and utilize kiosks for check in and out. All of the information is recorded in SchoolTRAK™ and tardy and attendance types are synced back into Skyward; allowing for more customized reporting that can be exported directly from SchoolTRAK™. We also have new hardware options for mobile kiosks and the option to run the kiosk on a tablet.

Positive Attendance with SchoolTRAK™ for tracking student attendance is in the works and is slated to be available Spring 2020.

Employee Time Tracking with Qmlativ

Keep track of employee time reporting with our new Time Clock interface that directly integrates with Skyward Qmlativ Finance! The clock features are the same as SMS 2.0, allowing customization of your clocks. You can choose up to two employee input methods to be built into the time clock: biometric, proximity, or barcode.

Creating Custom ID Badges with Qmlativ

Our ID Badging software for Qmlativ offers the same functionality as our SMS 2.0 version, allowing custom ID badges to be easily created for students, staff, and volunteers with your Skyward data.

Speed up your Food Service Lines with Qmlativ

Streamline your cafeteria with All-in-One Point of Sale Systems, Touch Screens, Biometric Finger Readers, Keypads, Scanners, and cash drawers. Most of the same products offered for SMS 2.0 but with some variations in functionality.

With these exciting announcements for new products for Qmlativ, we will also continue to carry, support, and improve our products for SMS 2.0. If you would like additional information on what products work with your Skyward version contact us at sales@k12sta.com or call (877) 436-4657.

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