Excel and Word grid export changes

Grids in ontrack have been updated to use the more modern Open XML formats for Excel and Word exports (XLSX and DOCX) rather than the Legacy formats (XLS and DOC).

Not applicable

Learning agreements in ebs: ontrack Hub and ebs: ontrack Learner Hub

This release delivers a complete learning agreement process, enabling staff to trigger, manage, and version learning agreements directly from Concierge, while also allowing learners to securely review and acknowledge their agreements within ebs: ontrack Learner Hub.

This feature collection introduces the following key capabilities:

• Staff can trigger learning agreements from the new Enrolment Overview screen in Concierge.
• Learners receive email notifications when a learning agreement is available for review.
• A new Learning Agreement page in ebs: ontrack Learner Hub allows learners to view, acknowledge, and re-sign agreements when updated.

The new features can be accessed as follows:

Staff Hub - Learning Agreements in Enrolment Overview

Staff can trigger the generation and sending of an up-to-date Learning Agreement based on the latest enrolment data. Initiates the workflow that creates the learner-facing document and triggers an email notification. The new Learning Agreement page is shown in the image below.

Learner Hub - Learning Agreement screen

Provide learners with a dedicated interface where they can review, acknowledge, and confirm their Learning Agreement. Learners can open and preview the document, and digitally acknowledge their agreement.

Staff can also resend updated Learning Agreements whenever enrolment changes occur. Upon resend, learners receive a new email notification and can view the latest version in the Learner Hub.

The new Learning Agreement page is shown in the image below.

Concierge

Learning Agreement

This release introduces several enhancements across Interviews and Offers within Concierge, aimed at improving user control, flexibility, and efficiency in managing applications and enrolments.

The changes are as follows:

Interviews – Add Learner to Interview

Staff can now add learners directly to interviews within Concierge, replicating the functionality of ebs: ontrack Learner Hub without requiring navigation to ebs: central.

Offers – New Ontrack Role for Convert to Enrolment

Roles and permissions have been updated to provide more granular control over who can convert applications to enrolments. The Convert to Enrolment permission has been separated from the Edit Offers role. This allows administrators to grant conversion rights independently, without giving users full offer editing rights.

Offers – Create Offer Record

Staff with the Edit Offers role can now create new offer records directly from the Application Details Offers screen, as shown in the image below.

Concierge

Create Applications

ebs: ontrack Concierge Manager

Manage Fees and Waivers – Evidence Validation and Configuration

This feature enables staff and administrators to:

• Configure waiver types that require evidence validation.

• Prompt staff to confirm that evidence has been witnessed before a waiver is applied.

• Record staff confirmations directly in the Fees and Waivers screen and Enrolment Flow within Concierge.

The new features are as follows:

Fee Waivers Reference Data - Check for evidence option

A new Check for Evidence option, defaulted to N, has been added to the Fee Waivers reference data. Admin users can enable this checkbox for each waiver type to indicate that supporting evidence is mandatory. When selected, this flag enforces a confirmation requirement for staff during the enrolment process on ebs: ontrack Hub.

Enrolment Flow - Evidence Check Integration for Waivers

When enrolling a learner, if the chosen waiver type requires evidence, the system will require staff to confirm that the evidence criteria have been verified or met by selecting a checkbox. This confirmation is mandatory before proceeding with the enrolment. If the waiver type does not require evidence, the staff can choose to select this waiver and enrolment process continues without any interruption. The image below shows the new evidence option on the enrolment flow.

Create Enrolments

Fee Waivers

Enrolment Management in Concierge

This release introduces a comprehensive Enrolment Overview module within Concierge, designed to provide staff with full control over the enrolment lifecycle, from reviewing and updating enrolments to managing associated courses, fees, and sending learning agreements.

A new Enrolment Overview screen has been implemented, providing staff with the ability to:

• View parent and child enrolments and update enrolment status
• Manage child and elective courses
• Add and manage a learner photo
• View and manage fees and waivers
• Generate and send a Learning Agreement

The new features are as follows:

Enrolment Overview Screen & Progress Code Update

Allows staff to review a learner's enrolment and progress them by updating the enrolment status (Progress Code).

This page shows both parent and child enrolments. Any change in Progress Code cascades automatically to all child enrolments associated with the parent.

Manage Children Screen

Allows staff to view, attach, or detach child courses, such as Maths or English, linked to a parent enrolment.

Staff can also add elective courses attached to an enrolment, offering flexibility in customising each learner’s academic plan.

Note that this requires the Manage Children and Electives role.

Fees & Waivers Screen

Provides visibility and management capability for financial aspects of an enrolment, including fees, balances, receipts, and waivers.

It allows staff to apply waivers to eligible enrolments and requires staff to confirm viewing of evidence for waivers that require such.

Learner Photo screen

Allows staff to capture or upload a learner’s photograph within the enrolment overview.

Learning Agreement screen

Allows staff to generate and send a learner’s Learning Agreement for digital review and signature within Learner Hub.

Concierge

Search results to use all/active records and all/current year header flags if selected

Concierge search results now respect the Current Year and Active Records flags in the Ontrack header. This enhancement ensures staff can filter results more effectively, returning only relevant records based on the selected filters.

Not applicable

Allow Staff to Delete Learner Qualifications

Staff members with the Edit Qualifications permission can now edit and delete learner qualifications directly from the Application Details – Qualifications page, regardless of who originally entered them.

Not applicable

Selection Control in Designer to Turn Pop-up Feature On/Off

A new configuration option has been introduced in Designer for the Add Grid control, allowing designers to choose whether a success pop-up message appears when a row is added.

This provides greater flexibility for page design, ensuring that designers can configure the experience depending on the context of the page. The default setting is enabled to maintain existing behaviour across Ontrack.

Not applicable

Completed Application and Enrolment Navigation Options

After successfully submitting an application or enrolment, Ontrack Hub Concierge users are now presented with navigation options that provide a smoother user experience.

Not applicable

Improved search

The search functionality has been extended and improved as follows:

Phone number and email address search options

Concierge users can now search for applicants and enrollees using phone number and email address to better identify existing learners and reduce duplication errors.

Concierge users also receive a notification when a phone number already exists in the system. This helps prevent the creation of duplicate learner records.

Unlike email duplicate checks, which block record creation, phone number duplicates trigger a warning message. Users can then choose whether to continue or cancel the action.

Offer Status

Concierge users can now search for applications by Offer Status.

 

Find Applications

Find Learners

Allow applications against courses that have either Authorised or Incomplete statuses

Staff can now apply for courses on behalf of learners in Concierge where the course status is Authorised or Incomplete, in addition to those with Active status.

The Course List in Concierge has been updated to include courses with Authorised and Incomplete statuses for applications.

Not applicable

Withdraw Learner Applications Feature

New functionality has been introduced to enable staff to withdraw learner applications in ebs: ontrack Hub.

This functionality is available on the Learner Applications page, where a Withdraw button is now displayed for eligible applications.

Learner Links Pane

Staff can now send correspondence to a single learner directly from ebs: ontrack Hub

Staff can now send correspondence to a single learner directly from supported modules in ebs: ontrack Hub. The supported modules are Learners, Enquiries, Enrolments, Applications, Interviews, Offers, and Staff.

On selecting a record, staff can select the type of correspondence to send as follows:

• Email

• Letter

• SMS

Depending on the type of correspondence being sent, staff may have various options to customise the template, update recipient addresses, and so on.

Note that the following ebs: Ontrack Correspondence Manager roles are requires to send correspondence:

• Send single correspondence - applications

• Send single correspondence - enquiries

• Send single correspondence - enrolments

• Send single correspondence - interviews

• Send single correspondence - learners

• Send single correspondence - offers

• Send single correspondence - staff

Correspondence Manager

ebs: Ontrack Correspondence Manager

Staff MOTO Payments in ontrack Hub

Staff can now take MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) payments from learners in the Learner Fees page in ebs: ontrack Hub.

Access to this functionality is limited by the new institution setting and role. If enabled, a checkbox will show next to any fees that are not fully paid, enabling the staff member to initiate an ePayment.

This functionality re-uses the existing ePayment Provider settings in the staff area of institution settings that are used to configure staff payments in ebs: central.

Learner Links Pane

Concierge

New role to control access to ontrack Hub MOTO payments

A new role Staff MOTO Payment Access has been added to the ebs: ontrack Hub section. This role is required for a staff member to be able to take MOTO payments in ontrack Hub.

ebs: ontrack Hub Role Group

Fund Manager in ebs: ontrack Hub

Fund Manager in ebs: ontrack Hub helps staff manage support funding for learners in further education.

With Fund Manager, you can:

• Set up and manage multiple types of support funding tailored to learner needs and institutional criteria.
• Attach learners to specific funds and build personalised support plans that evolve over time.
• Record assessment documents, notes, and evidence directly against learners linked to a fund, ensuring a complete audit trail.
• Track planned and delivered support items for reporting to the Individualised Learner Record (ILR).
• Automate recurring support plan items to reduce admin time and ensure consistent delivery.

Create Funds

Assign Learners to Funds

Log Assessments

Create Plan Items

Editable grid

Records on the Funds, Learners, Assessments, Plan Items, and Delivered Plan Items tabs can be edited directly on the grid by selecting the Enable Editable Grid. Flood-fill functionality is also available on most tabs.

Not applicable

My Learning Support and Learner Support - Planned Support

New Planned Support and Delivered Support tabs is now available on the My Learning Support and Learner Support screen in ebs: ontrack Learner Hub.

The page is enabled by the institution setting Ontrack Learner > Display My Learning Support and Learner Support in Ontrack Learner.

The grid displays both planned and delivered plan items for funds where the Learner Can View flag in Fund Manager on ebs: ontrack Hub is set to Y.

Integration APIs for Fund Manager

Various new APIs have been added to enable integrations with the new Fund Manager in ebs: ontrack Hub. The new APIs can be found in the Fund Manager section of the ebs REST documentation. Note that additional APIs have been added to various other sections to support Fund Manager, such as Learners, Reference Data, and so on.

For more information on the REST services, go to ebs REST Documentation.

Not applicable

New IDP fields

The following fields have been added or updated on the IDP:

Section 1A

Consent Details

Section 2A

Description field is now mandatory.

Section 2D

Name of any particular school or other institution which must be secured.

Board and lodging provision which must be secured.

Section 3B

Name of previous institution

One Page Profile and Notes sections are no longer included in the IDP report.

One Page Profile and Notes sections are no longer included in the IDP report. These sections remain available within the main IDP but will not be included in the report. The final section of the IDP Report will now be Travel Arrangements.

Not applicable

Simplified ALN section to display only ALN Type and ALN Description fields.

Simplified ALN section to display only ALN Type and ALN Description fields. Other fields from Section 2A are no longer displayed in the report.

Not applicable

Added full Learner Details section to the top of the IDP report.

Previously, only the learner’s name, person code, and Section 1A consent/capacity fields were displayed. The IDP report now includes all fields from the Learner Details tab at the top of the IDP report.

Not applicable

Added Name of Previous Institution field in Establishments section of IDP Report

The Establishments section of the IDP report now includes the Name of Previous Institution, alongside the existing Local Authority Number and Establishment Number.

Not applicable

The Outcome Name in ALP section of the report has been replaced with Intended Outcome

In the ALP section of the IDP report, the Outcome Name field has been replaced with Intended Outcome to provide more detail. Staff can now share reports with more context, since Intended Outcome supports a larger character count.

Not applicable

Forecast grades and actual grades columns

Two new columns, Exam Sync - Forecast and Exam Sync - Actual, have been added to enable the recording of predicted grades and actual grades.

Once saved, these grades are then synced with the Exams Manager module of ebs: central.

Markbook Verification

New user role for exams sync

To give institutions control over who can sync exam grades from Markbook Verification, a new user role has been added.

The role, Sync grades to Exams, is available in the ebs: ontrack Markbook section of User Management. Users must have this role to see the Save to Exams button in Markbook Verification.

If the role is not assigned, the button will not appear, even if the Sync Grades to Exams in Markbook Verification Grid institution setting is enabled.

ebs: ontrack Markbook Role Group