Make-up Class Balance / Bookings - Troubleshooting

The attached files have been created for you to print and keep handy as a quick reference guide to troubleshoot the most common reasons:

- why a make-up was not awarded to a student when they or you marked them as absent, or 

- why a student is not able to book a make-up through the customer portal.

If you have gone through the common reasons but are still having trouble determining why a make-up was not awarded or was not able to be booked when you believe it should have been, Contact Support, providing as much detail as possible including what you have checked.

**The very first thing to make sure of is - does the student have a Student Level set? If not, set them a level. The system searches for make-ups based on Student Level.**

No Student Level set, no classes will show as available:

With Student Level set correctly if there are classes available they will display:

A note about Make-up Balances

A student's make-up balance is a dynamic figure. It is affected each time an attendance is changed to award, remove, book or change a make-up, or each time a make-up is expired. There can be circumstances that cause a make-up balance to go into the negative and this may be something that neither you or the family notice until they notify of a new non-attendance and wonder why their make-up balance is 0. 

Refer to this article for further information on negative make-up balances: 

Negative Make-up Balances Explained

A Student did not receive a make-up for a reason that should have given one

Scenario: A student was away and their attendance marked with a reason that awards a make-up (either through the portal or by a staff member). But it looks like they didn't get a make-up. Why? 

A simple check can reveal what happened, whether the make-up was blocked due to your system settings or if they did in fact receive a make-up but it just looks like they didn't because their balance is 0 or a negative number.

TO CHECK, go to the Student's screen click on "View all" in Attendance (bottom left of the Student screen).

If there is a green tick with the words "Makeup Given" in the "Makeup Status" column for that non-attendance, then a make-up was in fact awarded to the student. The "Audit Log" for that Attendance will also then show "MakeupGiven" : "Y". This means the make-up was given.

If their make-up balance is 0 or negative, it means that their make-up balance was in the negative before a make-up was awarded for this class non-attendance. You will need to look further down the screen to see where a discrepancy may have occurred. See the example below.

A 0 or negative balance generally happens when a class is non-attended with a reason that awards a make-up (making a balance of 1 if they started at 0) --> then that make-up is booked (bringing the balance back to 0) --> and then the original attendance is changed back to something that takes that make-up back (bringing the balance to -1) (e.g. maybe they originally said they'd be away so were given a make-up but then decided later they actually could make it and attended the class; or, maybe a staff member changed the attendance to issue a credit instead so they received a make-up and a credit).   

You can follow the bold prompts where the original attendance may have been changed and audit logging to help you track these instances.

EXAMPLE

Cindy Smith has a make-up balance of -1.

Looking at "View All" in her Attendance, there is a red X with a bold prompt "Original Attendance does not allow Makeup".

If you click on "Audit log" next to this bold prompt, you can trace what happened. The top section under "INSERT" shows the original attendance details. This was the creation of the original attendance record when billing was run or when the student was enrolled into this class (insert date of 27/04/2023). It shows the original class date was 10/05/2023.

Any updates to this attendance show beneath this - when a class is marked as Attended or Non-Attended and any changes to this are shown under UPDATE, followed by the date and time. If there is a Username in the next box, this was completed by a member of staff through the SimplySwim application. If it is blank, the source was through the customer portal by the family.

In this example:

1. On 9/5/23 a staff member marked the student's 10/5/23 lesson with a non-attendance reason that awarded a make-up. This added a make-up to the student.

2. The make-up was then booked through the portal by the family for the 15/5/23. This removed the make-up from the student.

3. The original 10/5/23 attendance was then changed back to "Not recorded/Blank" (null) by a staff member on 9/5/23. This action removed the originally awarded make-up. Because the make-up had already been booked, this created the negative 1 balance.

4. The original attendance was then marked as Attended by a staff member on 11/5/23.  

The make-up lesson in this case has still not been attended so it could potentially be caught and fixed, but you can see how in this scenario a negative balance happens.

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If you have checked the above and a make-up was not awarded, common reasons / things to check are:

- does the non-attendance reason used award a make-up to a student?

- do you have a limit on make-ups set, and has the student reached this limit?

- did they notify outside of the cut-off time to earn a make-up?

- was the absence for their regular lesson or a make-up lesson? Do you award a make-up for non-attendance of a make-up?

The majority of the above can be checked from the Student screen by clicking on "View all" in their Attendance (bottom left).

This will show if a make-up was awarded for a non-attendance, or if a make-up was blocked along with the reason for the block.

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Why are no make-ups available when there is space in the class?

Reasons that make-ups may be showing as none currently available through the Customer Portal OR SimplySwim:

-  Do you have a cut-off time before a class start time to block a make-up booking configured in your system settings? To check, go to Configuration --> System setup --> Scheduling --> "Prevent Make-up Bookings x Minutes before Class Start Time". Is there a number of minutes entered in this field? Was a booking attempted after this cut-off time?

- Do you have your settings correctly filled out? To check, go to Configuration --> System setup --> Scheduling and check the fields "Makeup weeks in advance" and "Makeup Days in advance". This determines how far in advance the system looks for vacancies to use as make-ups. We recommend you limit this, reason being you are more likely to overbook a class if a make-up can be booked too far in advance. Our recommendation is for 1 week and 8 days, or 2 weeks and 15 days (one day each more so that it looks for a full week or a full fortnight). If you make any changes, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page and save changes.

Reasons that make-ups may be showing as none currently available through the Customer Portal:

The reasons listed below will only stop make-ups being booked through the Customer Portal. Staff will still be able to book make-up lessons through SimplySwim.

- Do you have a make-up booking block on the current date range? To check, go to Configuration --> Block Make-up Booking Date Ranges.

- Are they trying to book a make-up into their regular class? This is not possible through the portal.

- Do you have a make-up booking block on the Class Level? To check, go to Configuration --> Class Assessment Levels and click on the class level you wish to check. A tick means the level is blocked for make-up bookings through the Customer Portal. If you do not want the level blocked, untick the box and click "Modify Level" to save the change.

- Do you have a make-up booking block on any classes? Hover over the classes to check is make-ups are blocked.

- Have you blocked this particular family from the portal? From the Family screen, click on "Edit Customer Portal Options". Is the "Customer Portal Access DENIED" box or the "Block Portal Makeup Class Bookings" box ticked? This will not stop a family earning a make-up for their student/s but will prevent them booking a make-up.

- Do you have your system configured to block make-ups if an account is not in good standing? To check, go to Configuration --> System setup --> Customer Portal --> check the makeup booking balance options. This will not stop a family earning a make-up for their student/s but will prevent them booking a make-up.

- Have you billed for the date range to make classes visible? This will not stop a family earning a make-up for their student/s but will prevent them booking a make-up.

- Is your system only looking for vacancies calculated with non-attended places only (not accounting for vacant permanent enrolment places)? To check, go to Configuration --> System Setup  --> Customer Portal --> "Calculate Makeup Availability using Non-attended places only". If this is ticked, the system will only see a vacancy for a make-up if someone has been marked with a non-attend reason, not just if there is space in the class because of a vacancy in enrolments. This will not stop a family earning a make-up for their student/s but may prevent them booking a make-up.

Last updated 14 November 2023