FSDirect FAQs

Yes, click here to view the email addresses and IP ranges that need to be allowed.

FSDirect gives you the ability to quickly see what emails have been sent from the product. If a user reports that they did not receive an email, first check the Sent Messages page to see if the email was generated. To view sent messages:

• Click on the Account Setup tab.
• Hover over the Shortcuts menu and click on Manage E-mail Notifications.
• Click on View Sent Messages.
• Enter the user's email address in the Emailed To field and click Go.

All of the emails sent to that user will populate. If the message in question appears in the list, it sent out correctly from FSDirect and is likely in their Junk or Spam folder. If the message in question does not appear in the list, you will want to check two things:

• Make sure that the user has their email notifications turned on. If they have unsubscribed from FSDirect emails, they will not receive system generated messages. To check this:
  • Click on the Account Setup tab.
  • Click on FSDirect Users.
  • Click on the name of the user in question.
  • On the user's FSDirect Participant Information page, make sure the Receive email notifications box is checked. If it's not, check the box and click Save/Next Step at the bottom of the page to turn on their email notifications.
• If their user email notifications are turned on, make sure that email notifications are turned on for their user role. To check this:
  • Click on the Account Setup tab.
  • Hover over the Shortcuts menu and click on Manage E-mail Notifications.
  • Find the appropriate user role section and verify that email notification options are enabled. *Note: Checking an email notification box on this page will turn on that email notification for all users in that user role.
  • Click Submit to save your changes.

   

For more information about enabling email notifications and for a list of recommended email notifications, click here.

Service Provider emails follow a specific set of parameters. The emails will not be generated until the schedule has been activated and the event is within the time frame established in your Account Settings. To check this time frame:

• Click on the Account Setup tab.
• Click on Account Settings.
• Check what is entered in the Email Event Notifications box. This states how many days prior to the event the task notification will be sent out. For example, if the date in this box is 14 days, the task notification will not go out until the schedule is activated and the event date is 14 days in the future.

If the schedule is activated and the event date falls within the time frame in your Account Settings, walk through the steps under Why aren't my users receiving emails?.

Like schedules, tasks can only be routed to one person at a time. If you have identical routes going to different people, the system will only route the task to one Service Provider. It will sort the Service Providers in the identical routes alphabetically by last name and route the task to the first person in that list. To route your tasks to more than one user:

• Create a generic user, for example, custodial@dudesolutions.com. For instructions on how to add a new user, visit our Adding Users help page.
• Add that generic user to the Service Provider routing. For instructions on setting up Service Provider task routing, visit our Maintenance and IT Service Provider Support help page.
• Work with your IT Department to forward that email address to the appropriate users.

By default, the FSDirect calendar will appear blank. To populate events on the calendar, select one or more options from the filters on the right-hand side of the page. You can filter by Area, Location, Building, Room, Start Time, Event Status, and/or Organization. After you've made your selections, click Refresh Calendar to populate the calendar.

When an event is repeating on the calendar incorrectly, it is likely due to an issue with the Spans Over field. This field should always be "1", unless it is an overnight event. It should be "1" even if there are multiple event dates, as it refers to the 24 hour time period in which the events take place.

• To use the Spans Over field for an overnight event: 
  • Fill out your schedule details as needed. In the Event Date(s) field, select only the event start date. Enter the Start and End Time of the event. Change the Spans Over field so it captures the length of the event (a two day event would have a "2" in the Spans Over field). Your event will then show on the calendar as taking place on more than one day. In the example below, the event starts at 7pm on 6/9/2017, and continues until 12pm on 6/10/2017:

• If you see your event repeating on the calendar too many times, it's because you have entered all of the event dates, as well as changed the Spans Over field.

• To fix the issue if it is not an overnight event, edit the schedule so that the Spans Over field is "1". After you save your changes, the events will appear correctly on the calendar. For steps to edit a schedule, visit our Editing Active Schedules help page.

Canceled events will remain on the calendar with a gray "X" icon next to them. In order to remove an event from the calendar completely, you will need to change the status of the schedule to Canceled, Declined, or Duplicate.

To change the status of the schedule:

• Click on the name of the event on the calendar.
• Click View Event Schedule.
• In the Status drop down at the top of the schedule, select Canceled, Declined, or Duplicate.
• Click Save. *Note: Changing the status of the schedule will remove all events on that schedule from the calendar. If you have other dates on the schedule that need to remain on the calendar, use the Renew feature to create a new schedule without that date. For steps to renew a schedule, visit our Renewing Schedules help page.

Requesters can submit schedule requests through the MySchoolBuilding portal, which has a different layout than FSDirect. They do not have the Calendar tab, but they can still access the calendar by following these steps:

• Click on the My Requests tab.
• Hover over the Shortcuts menu and click on My Schedule Requests.
• Hover over the Related links menu and click on Month Calendar, Day Calendar, or Week Calendar.
• They will then see the calendar where they can select a filter and click Refresh Calendar to populate the data.

For more detailed instructions and a video on how Requesters can view the calendar, visit our How to View the Calendar help page.

There are two common reasons that a schedule will not route as expected:

• The schedule has been activated. Activation is considered the final approval, so an activated schedule will no longer route through the approval process.

• The next person in the approval process is a Site Administrator I or II who is not assigned to the appropriate Location. Site Administrators are Location specific roles, so they can only approve schedules for their assigned Location(s). If they are not assigned to the correct Location, the schedule will route to the Comptroller. To verify that your Site Administrator is assigned to the correct Location:
  • Click on the Account Setup tab.
  • Click on FSDirect Users.
  • Click on the name of the user in question.
  • Hover over the Shortcuts menu on the FSDirect Participant Information page and click on Assigned Locations.
  • Check the box next to the appropriate Location(s).
  • Click Next Step to save your changes.
  • Existing schedules will need to manually be routed to this user for approval. All new schedules should now route to them as expected.

Using the Renew feature is a quick way to make a copy of an existing schedule. It will copy over all of the information, minus the event dates, from the original schedule. For steps to renew a schedule, visit our Renewing Schedules help page.

Clicking on the binoculars will open a pop-up window with the list of Rooms available to choose from. If the pop-up window does not appear, you may have a pop-up blocker enabled or the window may have appeared behind the browser window. Minimize your browser to see if the pop-up window is hidden behind it. If it is not appearing behind the browser, check your pop-up blocker settings. Contact your IT Department for assistance if needed.

Operating hours, or time available for use, can vary by room. If you are receiving an error that the room is not in operation on the time selected, you need to check the operating hours for the room(s) you selected. To view/edit the operating hours for a room:

• Click on the Home tab.
• Under the Information & Analysis section, click on Rooms.
• Find and click on the name of the room(s) you are trying to book.
• Check the appropriate time boxes next to Operating Hours so the room is available during the time you need, then click Submit to save your changes.

Once you have adjusted the operating hours for all necessary rooms, you should be able to save the schedule.

There's a quick way to turn off a room so that it cannot be seen or selected on a new schedule form. To do this:

• Click on the Home tab.
• Under the Information & Analysis section, click on Rooms.
• Find and click on the name of the room you want to turn off.
• Change Available for use? from Yes to No, then click Submit to save your changes.

The room will no longer appear as an option when users are submitting schedule requests.

Once a Location has been selected on a schedule and the schedule has been activated, you will not be able to disable or delete it. Best practice is to change the name of the Location to include "ZZ Do Not Use" at the beginning of the name. This will move it down to the bottom of the list and will indicate to your users that they should not select this location. To edit the name of a Location:

• Click on the Home tab.
• Under the Information & Analysis section, click on Locations.
• Find and click on the name of the location you want to rename.
• In the Location Description field, add ZZ Do Not Use in front of the existing Location name, then click Add/Update record to save your changes.

• You may also want to turn off all of the rooms under this Location. This will ensure that no one will be able to submit a schedule for this Location; Room is a required field so if no rooms are tied to the Location, they would not be able to proceed with submitting their request. For instructions on how to turn off a room, walk through the steps under How can I turn off a room so that no one can select it on a new schedule?.

The easiest way to track credits or waived fees is to create charge types to represent these fees. For steps to create a charge type, visit our Adding Charge Types help page. When you create an invoice, enter the line items to represent the normal charges. Then, create a new line item and select the appropriate charge type (credit or waived fee) with a negative amount so that it subtracts from the invoice total. For instructions on creating an invoice, visit our Manual Invoicing help page. This will also allow you to run a Charge Type report so that you can see the total credits and waived fees applied to your Organizations. For steps to run a Charge Type report, visit our Recommended Reports help page.

Organization Contacts and Organization Event Coordinators have distinctly different purposes in FSDirect. If you add a user as a contact on an Organization, they are not given any level of user permissions. Their name will appear in the contact drop down menu when that Organization has been selected on a new schedule form, but they cannot log into any part of the system. In order to give them rights to submit requests, they have to be added as an Organization Event Coordinator, also known as a Community User. For instructions on how to add an Organization Event Coordinator, visit our Adding Organization Event Coordinators help page.

We recommend following our troubleshooting guidelines if you are experiencing slow performance.