Sims office User Top Tips and Techniques – Primary

My Reminders

Reminders can be generated by SIMS to advise of impending deadlines before they occur, e.g. free school meal eligibility, medical events, SEN reviews, etc.

Each member of staff can specify which reminders they want to set, together with the number of days prior to the event occurring that the reminder should be sent. The reminders are displayed in the My Reminders panel, as shown in the following graphic.

Reminders are grouped into subjects, such as Part Time Attendance Period, Free School Meal Eligibility, etc. for each day. Where there are more reminders than can be displayed on the panel, a hyperlink entitled More … is displayed. Click this link to view any additional reminders.

When an item is clicked in the My Reminders panel of the Home Page, the dialog displayed depends on the type of reminder selected. If a reminder for a personal task is being viewed, the Edit Personal Task dialog is displayed, which enables its details to be edited. If any other type of reminder is being viewed (i.e. system-defined reminders, as seen in the Setup Reminders dialog via Focus | Alerts | Setup Reminders), the Read Reminder dialog displays its details in read-only format.

Setting Up Reminders

Select Focus | Alerts | Setup Reminders to display the Setup Reminders dialog.


This panel is visible only if you have a Basic or Full Admissions Licence.

Attendance Reminders allow you to specify the frequency of each reminder.

The Days in advance cell appears red until the number of days has been specified for an active reminder.

Shows the number of days prior to the event that a reminder will be generated.

Indicates that a reminder has been set.

Setting a Reminder as Active

Select the Active check box adjacent to the Event Name that you want to be reminded of, e.g. Medical Events. The Days in Advance column becomes red, indicating that the days need to be populated.

Click in the applicable Days in advance cell and enter the required number of days (the cell background changes to white).

Repeat for all the required reminders.

Setting up Personal Tasks

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  Select Focus | Alerts | Personal Tasks to display the Personal Tasks page.
  

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   Click the New button to display the Add Personal Task dialog.
   
   

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  Enter the Description of the task, e.g. Mark history homework this evening.
  
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  The Start Date is the date that you intend to begin the task, and the Due Date is the date that you intend to complete the task. They can be changed by clicking the Calendar button and selecting an alternative date
  
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  Select the Status from the drop-down list e.g. Not Started, Started, In Progress, or Completed. By default this is set to Not Started.
  
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  Select the Reminder check box to set a reminder for this task. Click the Calendar button and set a date for the reminder.
  
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  Select the Add to Personal Diary check box to add this task to your school diary.
  

The new personal task(s) are visible in the My Reminders panel of the Home Page. If you have selected the Add to Personal Diary check box, the personal tasks will also be added to the School Diary panel on your Home Page and will be visible in the school diary itself.

Deleting a Personal Task

Personal tasks can be deleted when they are no longer required.

NOTE: Careful thought should be given to deleting personal tasks, as once deleted they cannot be recovered.

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  Select Focus | Alerts | Personal Tasks to display the Personal Tasks page.
  
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  Highlight the required personal task and click the Delete button. A message dialog prompts for confirmation that you want to delete the task.
  
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  Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion.
  

My Favourite Reports

This enables the user to copy reports to the My Favourites area to make them available from the Home Page.

NOTE: There is also an option to set up and run scheduled reports if required. If you want this option to be set up please contact the Help Desk as work needs to be done on the server.

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  From the Report Designer (Reports | Design), click the Open button on the toolbar to display the Open Report (report browser) dialog.
  

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  Use the Navigation Tree to expand the folders, so that the locations of the report to be copied and the destination folder are visible.
  
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  Click on the folder containing the report to be copied. All reports in this folder are displayed in the right-hand panel.
  
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  Drag the appropriate report from the right-hand panel to the Favourites folder.
  
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  They will now appear on your Home Page.
  

My Messages

Any messages sent to you by other SIMS users are displayed in the My Messages panel.

NOTE: Messages sent to you with a high Priority setting can also be displayed in a pop-up window at the bottom-right hand corner of SIMS, regardless of the page you are currently viewing

Adjusting the Message Options for High Priority Messages

Any messages sent to you by other SIMS users are displayed in the My Messages panel. By default, messages sent to you with a high Priority setting can also be displayed in a pop-up window at the bottom right-hand corner of SIMS, regardless of the page you are currently viewing in SIMS. In addition, an alarm is played when a high priority message is received.

NOTE: Each SIMS user must configure their own pop-up window settings for High priority messages, and these settings apply only to messages received by that user. Therefore, if you send a High priority message, the pop-up window displays on-screen only if the recipient has activated the pop-up display setting.

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  Select Tools | Setup Message Options to display the Setup Message Options page.
  

By default, all options are selected.

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  Deselect the Display an alert when a new message is received check box to deactivate the pop-up display of high priority messages.
  

By default, the Duration pop-up alert should be displayed is set to 30 seconds. This determines the period of time that the pop-up message remains on display at the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

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  To amend the length of time that the pop-up message remains displayed, enter the required time in the Duration pop-up alert should be displayed field.
  
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  Deselect the Play a sound alarm check box to deactivate the sound prompt when the pop-up alert is displayed.