Setting up a New Academic Year with The Academic Year Wizard

Step 1 of the Academic Year Wizard will take you through the steps to copy a prior academic year to set up a future school year. This series of steps will help update all of the previous settings for you based on prior-year settings including titles and dates as best it can within each of the below sections. This will make the setup of your new academic year extremely easy and quick and will be done in a snap! 

Before we get started with the specific steps let's do a quick overview of the Academic Year Wizard.

PRO TIP! You may not see the Copy Program Schedules or the Set up Admission & Enrollment Process for the Future School Year steps included if you have not done that step in the school year that you are copying.

Click here to watch the Academic Year Wizard Webinar & Overview. A start to stop webinar on how to use this tool to set up your Academic Year.

1. Go to Favorites > Academic Year Wizard.
   
2.  This will take you to a screen that will show you the two academic years you can configure based on your current academic year settings. You can update the academic years you see by clicking Adjust Current Academic Year, Current Term, Working Term, and Other Settings.
   
   PRO TIP! Some of these options like creating schedules may not apply to your school so remember to disable program schedules (step #2) and/or creating courses and registering students (steps #4 and #5) from Adjust Current Academic Year, Current Term, Working Term, and Other Settings.
   (Right-click and "Open image in new tab" to enlarge)
   
   
3. Click the Configure "XXXX School Year" button. This will take you to a screen that will show each of the seven steps you can use within the Academic Year Wizard.
   
   Click Step 1: Set up "XXXX School Year" button. This will take you to the Set up new Academic Year screen that will help you make an updated copy of the selected school year.
   
   (Right-click and "Open image in new tab" to enlarge)
   

Set up School Year Including Generating School Days

This section will let you update the titles and dates of your academic year. BigSIS will update the title and dates as best it can but might require a little updating based on actual start and end dates. 

This section also allows you to create school days and select the holidays for the given academic year.

1. Start by reviewing the New Academic Year Title and Abbreviation that BigSIS created for you. In most cases, they should be exactly what you need but you may update them now if desired.
2. Review the Work Begin and End Dates. Commonly schools use July 1st  - June 30th for these dates and you may need update them accordingly.
3. Edit the Academic Calendar Begin and Academic Calendar End Dates. These may also need to be updated but BigSIS will add those dates by trying to calculate, based on the prior school year, what the best start and end dates should be.
4. Now, it is time to decide if you want to Generate School Days. This step is recommended and will generate your school days automatically for you based on the begin and end dates you've entered for the academic year above. 
   PRO TIP! This can save you extra steps in the process. The only reason you might not want to do this is if you plan on adjusting the begin and end dates at a later time. 
5. You will also have the option to Edit Holidays before you generate your school days. You will see a list of the holidays that will be generated and you may click Edit Holidays to add or remove any major American or Canadian Holidays.

Create Terms 

This section will let you update the titles and dates of your terms. BigSIS will update the title and dates as best it can but might require a little updating based on actual start and end dates. 

This section also allows you to copy assessment periods from your previous terms.

Copy Program Schedules

This section allows you to copy Program Schedules from your previous academic year.

Set up Admission & Enrollment Process for the Future School Year

This section will let you copy the previous year's admissions process. BigSIS will update the title and dates as best it can but might require a little updating based on the actual application, tuition insurance, enrollment contract, and re-enrollment contract due dates.

Click Create Academic Year

Click Create Academic Year once you have edited the necessary information and you are done creating your academic year and are ready to move on to the next steps.

If you are setting up Schedule Options for Programs click here. 

If you aren't using schedules and are ready for Re-enrollment click below. These instructions will help guide you through Step 3: Process Re-enrollments in your Academic Year Wizard. 

• Quick Instructions for Using the Re-enrollment Tool (Grades)
• Quick Instructions for Using the Re-enrollment Tool (Early Childhood)