SACS2015ALL Software: Known Problems/Fixes

Problem: Problem with Interim Form 11I, Adult Education Fund

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts

Problem: When the December 21, 2015 validation table update is released, the following objects will be newly valid in Fund 11, Adult Education Fund, effective 2015–16, to allow local educational agencies (LEAs) that are fiscal agents for adult education consortia to record funding passed through to member LEAs.

Fund 11 x Object 7211, Transfers of Pass-Through Revenues To Districts or Charter Schools
Fund 11 x Object 7212, Transfers of Pass-Through Revenues To County Offices
Fund 11 x Object 8587, Pass-Through Revenues from State Sources

The following revised fundi-b.vts file modifies the county office and district Form 11I, for interim reporting periods only, to include objects 7211, 7212, and 8587. In next year’s software, these objects will be added to Form 11 in the budget and unaudited actual reporting periods.

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised fundi-b.vts template file (VTS; 1 MB; Revised 17-Dec-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Form 01CSI, Criteria and Standards Review Form (District Form)

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts; Interim Reporting Periods Only

Criterion 3, ADA to Enrollment; Step 3A, Calculating the District’s ADA to Enrollment Standard
P-2 ADA Unaudited Actuals column, Third Prior Year row and Second Prior Year row

These two cells correctly allow preloaded values to be overwritten; however, when the exported data file is subsequently imported by another user, such as a county office, the overwritten amounts entered into these two cells are deleted and the values revert to the original preloaded amounts.

Workaround for First Interim Reports: As the county offices review First Interim reports, they may choose to overwrite these two values.

Fix for 2nd Interim Reports: It is recommended the following fix is applied.

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised csi.vts template file (VTS; Revised 17-Dec-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Form 01CSI, Criteria and Standards Review Form (County Office Form)

Users Affected: County Offices; Interim Reporting Periods Only

Criterion 1, Average Daily Attendance, and Criterion 2, Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Revenue
Budget Adoption (First Interim) column, Current Year row.

For these two cells, if budget (First interim) reporting period data does not exist, then key entered amounts do not save when the form is closed and reopened.

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised csi-c.vts template file (VTS; Revised 17-Dec-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Government-wide Report —Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT)

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts, Joint Powers Authority (JPAs), and Charter Schools that use the government-wide reports; Unaudited Actuals Reporting Period only

Problem: An extraction problem has been identified in the Conversion worksheet tab, in the Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT).

The Enterprise Activities expenditures reported in Conversion Entry CE016 were not extracted into the Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT).

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised cnvrt.vts template file (VTS; 2 MB; Revised 30-Oct-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Government-wide Report — Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT)

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts, JPAs, and Charter Schools that use the government-wide reports; Unaudited Actuals Reporting Period only

Problem: An extraction problem has been identified in the Conversion worksheet tab, in the Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT).

The All Other General Administration expenditures reported in Conversion Entry CE015 were not extracted into the Government-wide Conversion Workbook (CNVRT).

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised cnvrt.vts template file (VTS; 2 MB; Revised 30-Oct-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Government-wide Statement of Net Position and Reconciliation of Fund Statements Workbook (GSNP)

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts, JPAs, and Charter Schools that use the government-wide reports; Unaudited Actuals Reporting Period only

Problem: A problem with one of the reconciling items has been identified in the GSNP Reconciliation worksheet tab, in the Government-wide Statement of Net Position and Reconciliation of Fund Statements Workbook (GSNP).

The "Deferred gain or loss on debt refunding" under the Long-term liabilities section: This reconciling item is not computed correctly because no reconciling amounts are pulled in.

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised gsnp.vts template file (VTS; Revised 31-Aug-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Problem with Government-wide Report — Conversion Entries Workbook (ENTRY)

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts, JPAs, and Charter Schools that use the government-wide reports; Unaudited Actuals Reporting Period only

Problem: An extraction problem has been identified in the Detail (Conversion Entry Detail) worksheet tab, in the Conversion Entries Workbook (ENTRY).

Entry CE024, Employer Pension Contributions Made Subsequent to Measurement Date: In the Function 7700 line, the extraction should include the entire object range 3100–3299, but is incorrectly excluding objects 3200–3299. Entry CE024 data extractions relating to employer pension contributions are for funds 01–57, all resources (except 7690), all goals, functions 1000–8999 (except 8500), and objects 3100–3299. The user guide is incorrect and will be fixed next year.

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised entry.vts template file (VTS; 2 MB; Revised 19-Aug-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Known Display Problem with Form 01 — General Fund/County School Service Fund

Users Affected: County Offices, Districts, and Charter Schools; Budget and Unaudited Actuals Reporting Periods

Problem: A display problem has been identified in Form 01 — General Fund/County School Service Fund.

Expenditures by Object worksheet tab: Each time it is opened, the form displays beginning with the 2015–16 Budget columns. To view the 2014–15 Actuals columns (columns A-C), the horizontal scroll bar must be moved to the far left. This is a display problem only; the data extracts into all columns for both the actual and budget data, and all columns are viewable.

Workaround:  Each time the form is opened, move the horizontal scroll bar to the far left. (Although the scroll bar appears that it cannot be moved any further to the left, it can and must be moved to see the Actuals columns.)

Fix: Save (do not open) the revised fund-a.vts template file (VTS; 3 MB; Revised 21-Jul-2015) to a temporary folder such as C:\SACS2015ALL\Temporary. Once saved, copy the file from the Temporary folder into your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder. Upon copying the file to the Templates folder, a message may display that the file already exists; select Yes to overwrite the existing template file with the revised file. To verify that you have replaced the old file, the date of the new template file in your C:\SACS2015ALL\Templates folder should be the date downloaded.

Problem: Known Printing Issues Relating to Windows 7

After the Standardized Account Code Structure (SACS) software was modified to mitigate the worst of its incompatibilities with Windows 7, many software testers encountered a remaining printing problem where a fund form, supplemental form, or report is sent to the printer, and the SACS software print status window freezes.  (This is not an issue when printing the Technical Review Checklist (TRC), the import log, or from the User Data Input/Review screen.)

Workaround: Anticipating this problem for all Windows 7 users, the California Department of Education's (CDE’s) workaround is to print first to Microsoft XPS Document Writer or Adobe PDF, then send the document to the printer. 

Possible Fix: After extensive testing within CDE’s test environment, we are able to send forms and reports directly to printers by using the following print drivers (which are specific to our model printers), and by changing a particular printer setting specifically for Hewlett-Packard (HP) printers.  CDE does not advocate the purchase or use of any specific printer brand or model and provides this information only as a basis for LEAs to test with different print drivers and/or settings if desired.

• For Samsung printers: Samsung Universal Print Driver 2 PS
• For HP printers: HP Universal Printing PS or HP Universal Printing printer command language (PCL) 6 print drivers
• Additional printer settings required for some HP printers:
  • Notes: 
    • For some users, these printer settings must be changed outside of the SACS Software (e.g., changed through the Control Panel) or else the printer settings are lost each time the SACS Software is closed.
    • Some users need to reset these printer settings each time they install the SACS software.
    • Some users need to intermittently change these printer settings within the SACS software (i.e., changed through the print prompt) as well.
  • Specific steps CDE uses for HP printer settings: 
    • Open SACS software form
    • File menu, Print… option
    • Properties [button]
    • Effects [tab]
    • Click on the radial button “Print Document on:”
    • Then it should default to "Letter" right underneath it.
    • It should also add a checkmark next to "Scale to Fit"
    • Click Apply
    • Then OK to print

Problem: Run-time Error 429

Periodically, the required Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) file is not properly installed, causing a run-time error 429 upon opening the SACS software.

Fix: Be sure all other applications are closed, then download this MDAC file: mdactyp (EXE; 7MB). Once downloaded, double-click on the file to begin installation (be sure to read the prompts thoroughly). When the installation is completed, the SACS software should open properly.