ctcLink Updates

Dear Campus Community,

As you know, ctcLink is a shared system across all the community and technical colleges in Washington State. As a shared system, it is imperative that employees maintain privacy of student and employee records. There is a new ctcLink Employee Data Privacy and Usage agreement that was developed, tested, and has been approved.A pop-up employee attestation form for the agreement will be implemented into ctcLink on the evening of July 7, 2022, and you will be prompted to agree to the attestation next time you login to ctcLink after that.

HOW THIS IMPACTS EMPLOYEES

The agreement applies to all college and SBCTC agency employees using ctcLink. Employee attestations to the new Data Usage and Privacy Statement will be collected through a pop-up form presented to you upon ctcLink Portal login and annually thereafter displaying the Data Usage and Privacy Agreement.  Note that this does not affect students, they are not shown this agreement pop-up. After you attest that you agree, you will continue the usual ctcLink login process. Agreeing to this statement does not alter access or security in any way.

• If you do not attest to the agreement, you may click “Skip for Now” and continue with the login process;
• You will be allowed a maximum of five skips before the “Skip for Now” functionality is disabled; at which point, you must select “I Agree” to proceed with the login;
• The pop-up form will be presented to you annually on the anniversary of the first agreement.

POP-UP AGREEMENT

The online form will include the text of the ctcLink Employee Data Privacy and Usage Agreement with buttons to click to attest “I Agree” or to “Skip for Now.” Read the entire privacy agreement: ctcLink Employee Data Privacy and Usage Agreement Here is an example of the form in ctcLink:

If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let us know.

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Dear Campus Community,

Please see below for important updates and resources.

CTCLINK OUTAGE NOTICE

ctcLink will experience periodic outages on Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6, followed by a complete outage over the weekend to bring deployment group (DG6C) colleges on to ctcLink. This impacts both student and employee ability to login to ctcLink or activate their account.

• Thursday, May 5, 9:00 pm – Friday, May 6, 5:00 am: The Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management pillars will be unavailable during the maintenance period. Admissions (OAAP) and HighPoint Mobile HCX pages will be unavailable during the maintenance period. Canvas will not be impacted.
• Friday, May 6, 3:00 pm – Monday, May 9, 7:00 am: The entire ctcLink environment will remain offline during the Weekend Conversion dates noted above. Canvas will not be impacted.

This is the last deployment outage, as after May 9, all colleges in our system will now be on ctcLink.  As an enterprise, web-based system we will have regular system outages for functionality and security updates, but most will be much shorter in duration than the deployment outages.

SUMMER AND FALL ENROLLMENT

Reminder that with the upcoming outage this weekend, we have moved back Summer and Fall enrollment to after the outage.  Enrollment dates/times will be available to students in ctcLink on Wednesday May 4.  Continuing student enrollment starts on Monday May 9, and then new advised/applied student enrollment starts on Wednesday May 18.

RESOURCES FOR EMPLOYEES

• To provide clarity across the College, the Process Change Guide was created to outline changes to many common processes that have occurred since ctcLink implementation. Please note: this document will continue to evolve as changes occur, therefore it is recommended that staff save or bookmark this document in place of printing.
• As a reminder, the ctcLink website is the first place you should look for help with ctcLink for both employees and students.  Please contact the IT Help Desk if you are unable to find what you need on the website, they will enter a ticket and escalate it to the correct support person. 

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Welcome to spring quarter! Please see below for important updates and resources.

CTCLINK OUTAGE NOTICE

ctcLink will experience periodic outages on Thursday, April 21 and Friday, April 22, followed by a complete outage over the weekend to bring deployment group (DG6B) colleges on to ctcLink. This impacts both student and employee ability to login to ctcLink or activate their account.

Thursday, April 21, 9:00 pm – Friday, April 22, 4:00 am: The Campus Solutions and Human Capital Management pillars will be unavailable during the maintenance period. Admissions (OAAP) and HighPoint Mobile HCX pages will be unavailable during the maintenance period. Canvas will not be impacted.

Friday, April 22, 3:00 pm – Monday, April 25, 7:00 am: The entire ctcLink environment will remain offline during the Weekend Conversion dates noted above. Canvas will not be impacted.

As an enterprise, web-based system, we will experience additional outages as the last of the colleges (DG6C) are brought on to ctcLink and will have regular system outages for functionality and security updates.

CTCLINK SUMMIT UPDATE

Since our March update, the ctcLink team has continued the significant effort on several items from the ctcLink Summit. Here is an update on items that were still being reviewed from our last update plus status on a few others.

Completed summit items:

• Program coding and admissions for BAS degrees, as well as other student program coding updates;
• Process refinement for course coding/tuition calculations;
• Refining the enrollment cancellation (unpaid drop) process;
• Departmental process changes related to course catalog fees and course list fees;
• Work with SBCTC to resolve known system-wide issues that affect statement reconciliations;
• Accounts payable has completed the backlog of payments and is able to process new payments in a timelier manner;

In progress summit items:

• Staffing capacity to complete transcript rebuilds in ctcLink for students who did not convert or have not attended in many years;
• Student program coding review;
• Supplemental system updates for ctcLInk including TargetX and the Educational Plan system;
• Budget tracking reports;
• The Financial Aid office is continuing their ctcLink conversion process.

SUMMER AND FALL ENROLLMENT

Supporting students for Summer and Fall enrollment remains a top priority for all of us. The 2022-2023 Application Supplement was successfully launched last week! A few notes and reminders regarding this process:

• The 2022-2023 includes Summer 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, and Spring 2023.
• All 2022-2023 applicants can start the intake process which includes the State Application (OAAP), the Application Supplement, completing placement, Cardinal-Take Off Group Advising and setting up their MySVC Account and finally Pre-Flight Orientation.
• Students will be able to sign up for their Cardinal-Take Off Group Advising (CTO), they receive an email once all their steps are complete.
• The annual process for the Application Supplement is based on the academic calendar. This means, any student within the 2021-2022 year who would like to move their application into the 2022-2023 year will need to submit a new application supplement. They can move their application within the academic year without the need to submit a new application supplement.

Enrollment Services staff are working hard to answer questions and guide applicants and the Counseling and Advising team is also working hard to help new students register.

RESOURCES FOR EMPLOYEES

• To provide clarity across the College, the Process Change Guide was created to outline changes to many common processes that have occurred since ctcLink implementation. Please note: this document will continue to evolve as changes occur, therefore it is recommended that staff save or bookmark this document in place of printing.
• As a reminder, the ctcLink website is the first place you should look for help with ctcLink for both employees and students.  Please contact the IT Help Desk if you are unable to find what you need on the website, they will enter a ticket and escalate it to the correct support person.

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Dear Campus Community,

Over the last month, the ctcLink team has worked diligently on items identified post-ctcLink implementation. Tremendous progress has been made resulting in 13 items being completed and numerous in progress. We want to recognize the work that has been completed to date and provide an update on the status of other identified issues.

Completed summit items:

• ctcLink security/access issues for multiple departments;
• Identified Clearinghouse reporting issues and Student Services will be working with Instructional Colleagues to continue to refine the data in ctcLink;
• Updated or replace enrollment requirements (pre-requisites) that did not function properly and other issues that prevent students from registering for Winter;
• Determined process for notifying students of classes that were canceled during winter quarter;
• Resolved incorrect tuition/fees for many students, some are still in process;
• And more!

In progress summit items:

• Program coding and admissions for BAS degrees, as well as other student program coding updates;
• Process refinement for course coding/tuition calculations;
• Creation of resources for managers to ensure smoother pay period processing sent on Tuesday 3/15, contact us if you did not receive the email;
• Staffing capacity to complete transcript rebuilds in ctcLink for students who did not convert or have not attended in many years;
• Refining the enrollment cancellation (unpaid drop) process.

Upcoming summit items:

• Departmental process changes related to course catalog fees and course list fees;
• Work with SBCTC to resolve known system-wide issues that affect statement reconciliations;
• Data migration into TargetX and other auxiliary systems;
• Update the educational plan system for ctcLink data.

IMPORTANT UPDATES FOR EMPLOYEES

• The Financial Aid office will be closed Tuesday, March 22 for satisfactory academic progress review and on Wednesday, March 23, and Thursday, March 24 for their own “ctcLink go-live” experience beginning with processing for the 2022/2023 aid year. To support this significant new workload and to give financial aid staff an opportunity to train together, the Financial Aid office will be closed for two days of training during the spring break. The training will also impact student aid disbursement, which will not take place next week.

Signage outlining the closure dates has been posted at both campuses, and these dates are also noted on the website.

• Post ctcLink implementation there have been numerous changes, and not just with systems we use regularly. Many processes and procedures have shifted to other staff or departments. To provide clarity across the College, the Process Change Guide was created to outline changes to many common processes and points of contact available by each department.
  
  Please note: this document will continue to evolve as changes occur, therefore it is recommended that staff save or bookmark this document in place of printing.
• This week marks the end of the quarter, as such we would like to remind faculty of the help guides available on the Resources for Faculty page on the ctcLink website.

• Also a reminder that the ctcLink website is the first place you should look for help with ctcLink for both employee and students.  If what you need help with is not listed on the website, then please contact the IT Help Desk and they will enter a ticket and escalate it to the correct support person. 

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Dear Campus Community,

On January 21, 2022, the SVC President, ctcLink Executive Sponsor, ctcLink Project Manager, along with pillar leads and key subject matter experts attended the inaugural SVC ctcLink Summit. There were 73 items discussed during the summit brought forward by all areas of the college. Over the course of the day, attendees reviewed post-implementation concerns, identified resolutions, and assigned leads for each of the items identified.

Themes discussed during the summit included:

• Resume communication to all employees with updates regarding what is going well, what will be coming online soon, functions that are not yet online, and more;
• Student group assignments and enrollment requirement rules (prerequisites) related to enrollment and tuition;
• Process changes due to ctcLink functionality related to tuition, fees, and reimbursements for students;
• Access/permissions to various areas related to admissions, registration, records, and advising process within ctcLink have been particularly challenging;
• Increase in work/time required for payroll processing, hiring, and other functionality;
• Process changes and challenges with vendor payment processing, departmental and other balances.

The ctcLink team is working through resolutions on these items now. In a future email, employees will be provided resources to reference which will include information on process changes that have occurred, changes to staff and department duties, and designated subject matter experts available for support, questions, and best practices.

UPCOMING CTCLINK OUTAGE

Thursday, Feb. 24, 9 p.m.- Friday, Feb. 25 at 4 a.m.: the Campus Solutions (CS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) pillars will be unavailable in ctcLink in preparation for deployment group 6A (DG6) go-live.

Friday, Feb. 25, 3 p.m. – Monday, Feb. 28, 7 a.m.: Beginning Friday afternoon there is a full weekend conversion for DG6A and ctcLink will be completely unavailable for all pillars. The weekend conversion window will prevent employees from accessing all pillars for job duties and self-service, and students will not be able to access self-service, online admissions application (OAAP), and the mobile app/site until maintenance is complete. Canvas will not be impacted.

Additional outages will occur as the remaining DG6 colleges come on to ctcLink. Prior to those outages, there will be advanced notice to the SVC college community.

IMPORTANT UPDATES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

Human Resources/Payroll
Holiday
The holiday pay reporting procedure has changed starting with the President’s Day holiday, February 21, for classified and exempt employees who are overtime eligible who report their work hours in a timesheet. These employees should now report their holiday hours on their timesheet and will no longer leave the holiday blank. Step-by-step instructions were sent via email on Tuesday.

2021 W2’s
Employees have access to their 2021 W-2 within Employee Self-Service should they need an additional copy or replacement. If employees would prefer to only receive their W-2 electronically in the future and no longer have the paper document mailed to them, they can elect that option in Employee Self-Service as well.

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Dear Campus Community,

We’ve made it to the end of Fall Quarter, and we continue to see refinement and progress in ctcLink. Below are important reminders and training opportunities.

ctcLink Outage

On Saturday, Dec. 18, 7 a.m.-1 p.m. the ctcLink Campus Solutions (CS) pillar will undergo maintenance to deploy an update to the system. The maintenance window will prevent staff from accessing the CS pillar, and students will not be able to access the admissions (OAAP) and HighPoint HCX pages until maintenance is complete. The Portal, HCM and Finance pillars will not be impacted and will remain online. Canvas will not be impacted. Note that the ctcLink class and course search maintenance will extend beyond this window and may not be available again until Monday Dec. 20.

On Tuesday, Dec. 21, 7-10 p.m. the ctcLink Human Capital Management (HCM) pillar will undergo maintenance to deploy a tax update. The Portal, Campus Solutions, and Finance pillars will not be impacted and will remain online. The HCM maintenance window will not impact Canvas.

Training Opportunities 

Travel expenses, Purchasing, and Accounts Payable Training: Basic information about the new purchasing, accounts payable, and travel processes. The sessions will take place on Zoom: (Email us for the link)
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2-3 p.m. 

Budget Chartstring and Purchase Requisitions Training: The purchasing process (from request and approval to Purchase Order and vendor selection) is new with ctcLink. The sessions will take place on Zoom: (Email us for the link)
Monday, Dec. 20, 2-3 p.m.

Step-by-step guides and additional resources for staff can be found on the ctcLink training website https://ctclink.skagit.edu/training/ctclink-how-will-i under “Business Office Self-Service”. 

Support Sessions for Students 

Support sessions are underway for all students 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Dec. 13-Jan. 7, except Dec. 24 and Dec. 31. This a combined effort between Student Services and IT to provide student assistance in a single location. Please encourage any students you are in contact with to utilize these sessions if they need assistance. Students may attend in person on the Mount Vernon Campus in Lewis Hall 205 (L205) or by Zoom. (Email us for the link) 

Available services for drop-in assistance during these sessions includes: 

• ctcLink Account Activation and Activation trouble shooting  
• Support completing the COVID-19 attestation/exemption or online Declaration process  
• Support with how to register for classes in ctcLink  
• Support with completing the online admission process, including registering for the Accuplacer placement exam  

Our Back to School Guide has information on registration, drop-in help sessions, financial aid, updates and alerts, resources, and more: skagit.edu/winter2022  

Faculty Contracts and Rosters 

Accessing Winter Quarter 2022 waitlists, rosters, and contract information will all be done in ctcLink.

• Class rosters and waitlists can be located under Faculty Center in ctcLink. For a step-by-step guide click here. Additional resources and frequently asked questions can be located on the ctcLink website ctcLink Training and Resources for Faculty.  
• Contracts will be posted on ctcLink and a message will be sent to your SVC email account alerting you that the contract is available (likely in mid to late December). Here is a guide to accessing your contracts.

If you have any other ctcLink questions or needs, please let us know.

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Dear Campus Community,

Employees across the college are now using ctcLink which is fantastic! It also means there are questions about how to do tasks in the new system.

Save the date for upcoming training in the following areas:

Financial Reports Training: Basic information on the new account structure, how to access the reports in ctcLink, and a sample of key budget management reports (overview, expense details, payroll, etc). The session will take place using Zoom (Email us for the link). These sessions are the same, choose one:

• Thursday, December 9th from 1-2pm
• Tuesday, December 14th from 11am-12pm

Travel expenses, Purchasing, and Accounts Payable Training: Basic information about the new purchasing, accounts payable, and travel processes. The sessions will take place using Zoom (Email us for the link). These sessions are the same, choose one:

• Monday, December 6^th from 1-2pm
• Thursday, December 16^th 11am-12pm
• Tuesday, December 21^st 2-3pm

Budget Chartstring and Purchase Requisitions Training: The purchasing process (from request and approval to Purchase Order and vendor selection) is new with ctcLink.  The sessions will take place using Zoom (Email us for the link). These sessions are the same, choose one:

• Tuesday, December 7^th from 1-2pm
• Wednesday, December 15^th 11am-12pm
• Monday, December 20^th 2-3pm

Step-by-step guides and additional resources for staff can be found on the ctcLink training website under “Business Office Self-Service”.

Faculty End of Term Training: Fall 2021 final grades will be entered in ctcLink. Attend a Zoom support session for assistance with final grade submittal, assistance entering an incomplete, grade changes, and how to view faculty contracts for the next term. The session will take place using Zoom (Email us for the link).

• Thursday, December 2^nd from 1-3pm
• Wednesday, December 8^th from 11-2pm
• Friday, December 10^th from 10-3pm

Videos, step-by-step guides and additional resources for faculty can be found on the ctcLink training website, under “Resources for Faculty”.

Additional training opportunities will be available during winter quarter also.

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Dear College Community,

We need employees and supervisors to be aware of the new deadlines related to time and absence submission and approval dates. Please pay special attention to the information below.

IMPORTANT TIMESHEET AND ABSENCE APPROVAL PROCESS

Employee Timesheet Submission

Employees are required to have all their work hours (timesheet) and absence requests submitted for manager approval by 12:00 pm (noon) on the last business day of each pay period. For pay periods that end on a Saturday or Sunday, the preceding business day will be the deadline for employees. For example, if the pay period ends on Sunday, then the preceding Friday will be the due date.

• Employees scheduled to work on Saturday or Sunday should try to submit time and absence requests on the last business day of the pay period.

Manager Approvals

Managers are required to approve all work hours (timesheet) and absence requests by 5:00 pm on the last business day of each pay period. On the last business day of the pay period, the nightly process that moves submitted time and absence requests to managers will be run manually at 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm. Any time and absence requests submitted by employees on the last business day of the pay period will be moved over for managers to approve at these times.

• Time and absence submitted by employees on other days during the pay period will not be available for manager approval until the next day.  The process that moves time and absence from employee to manager runs nightly.

In ctcLink, employees are able to submit their work hours (timesheet) and absence requests on a daily basis. The time and absence is processed overnight and is available the next day for managers to approve. We encourage employees and managers to submit and approve time and absence early and often so that questions and issues that may arise can be addressed before the time and absence system get locked for processing after the pay period ends.

Assistance

Employees and managers who need assistance with time reporting and absence requests should contact HR@skagit.edu. Some troubleshooting may take up to 24-48 hours. Please submit and approve time and absence early and often so that issues can be resolved before the end of the pay period.

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We’re nearing the mid-way point of week three since Skagit Valley College went live with our new ctcLink system after years of planning and preparation. To say these three weeks have been busy is an understatement, but we are finding our way day by day. Please take a few moments to review important dates and deadlines for this week.

Timecard Early Submission Today – October 28, 2021

This week we have another early payroll deadline. All timesheets need to be submitted by Employees, today, Thursday, Oct 28^th by 3:00 p.m. Supervisors need to approve all timesheets by Friday, Oct. 29^th at 5pm. To ensure that all timecards are approved, supervisors, please check your Manager Self Service throughout the day Friday and one last time late Saturday morning.

Emails generated from ctcLink have intermittently landed in recipients’ junk mail folders. Please don’t rely on these emails to remind you about timecards.  As noted above, we suggest you check your Manager Self Service over the weekend for pending approvals.

If you do receive any in ctcLink emails in your junk folder, please mark them as not junk to help “train” Outlook to deliver to your inbox.  Contact the IT Helpdesk if you need help.

Students Activate their ctcLink Accounts this Week

Students were invited to activate their ctcLink accounts on Monday, October 25. It is imperative that students complete this step so that they are able to begin registering for classes next week! If you interact with students, please spend a few minutes to ensure they’ve completed this step. How-to guides for students are available on the student pages of the ctcLink website. 

The IT Helpdesk is standing by to help with account activation. We also have open drop-in help sessions via Zoom this week for those who have questions during the activation process. 

When registration opens for returning students, Student Services will have registration support sessions available in-person for those who need assistance. Additional details will be shared in a future email.

What’s Happening the Week of November 1-5

• Returning students will be invited to begin registering on Wednesday, Nov. 3.
• Continue to support employees and students with ctcLink account activation.

Have a great weekend!

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Dear College Community,

We are mid-week of the second week in ctcLink. As with any new system, we’ve encountered successes, but we also experienced unanticipated issues and challenges—some of which have been out of our control.

The important thing is that everyone has approached these issues and challenges with a collaborative, problem-solving attitude, and we are making progress. People are becoming more familiar with the new ctcLink environment, using the ctcLink web pages for reference and resources, and issues are being successfully addressed.

EMPLOYEE ACTIVATION

Special thanks to everyone who directly supported the activation of ctcLink accounts and answered the multitude of questions related to timesheet submissions. Our IT Helpdesk, HR and Payroll teams were amazing! Your dedication, professionalism, and resilience make us proud.

For employees and supervisors, you did a great job submitting and approving the first timesheet submission last Friday, Oct. 15! We already have lessons learned, and the IT Helpdesk and project teams are drafting notes to share about ways to improve for future timecard submissions.

1^st PAYROLL SUCCESS!

We have great news, last night Payroll reported that they have successfully completed and submitted Skagit’s first payroll. Please help me in congratulating the Payroll and HR teams on completing this gargantuan task.

CtcLink PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT SERVICE DISRUPTION

Later this week, we will have two system outages as the DG5B schools start their Go-Live process. ctcLink will be offline:

• Thursday, October 21, from 9:00 p.m. – Friday, October 22 at 4:00 a.m.
• Friday, October 22 from 3:00 p.m. – Monday morning, October 25^th

As an enterprise, web-based system, we will have regular system outages for functionality and security updates.

BUSINESS OFFICE

Next week many of the Business Office functions will start to Go-Live.  The Business Office team is working diligently to prepare a FAQ document to answer many of the questions they anticipate about purchasing, payables, and travel.  Prior to submitting any of these items, please review the FAQ page located under the heading Business Office on the web page employee self-service tutorials and help resources. This same FAQ document can also be found on the Business Office Portal, under ctcLink Documents & Information.

WHAT’S HAPPENING THE WEEK OF OCT. 25-OCT. 29

Students

Students can begin activating their ctcLink accounts on Oct. 25.

Zoom information sessions will be available for students; more details will be made available next week.

Students can still access some of their information in legacy at these links:

• Unofficial Transcript
• Progress Tracker (Degree Audit)
• SID Lookup

Employees

Timecard deadlines: For the October 16-31 pay period, we have another early timesheet deadline due to the conversion activities happening at other colleges. Employees must submit time by 3:00 pm on Thursday, October 28. Managers have until 5:00 pm on Friday, October 29, to approve.

Employee and Job Changes: Beginning October 25, Human Resources will begin accepting employee and job changes. Job changes cannot occur in the middle of a pay period and will be processed for a November 1 effective date, when possible. Changes not processed for November 1 will be processed for a November 16 effective date.

New Hires: New hires can no longer begin work in the middle of a pay period. Hourly, student and associate faculty new hires can begin working on November 1 if they have been approved by Human Resources. Individuals who have not yet been approved cannot begin working until approved by Human Resources, and their start date will be the beginning of the next pay period (1^st or 16^th of the month).

Still Need Help?

Don’t forget to access the ctcLink How Will I… ? section of the website. We’ve developed a web page with employee self-service tutorials and help resources. Topics range from updating your personal employee information to time and leave reporting. Please visit the web page for step-by-step tutorials and guides.

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We’re nearing the end of our first week using our new ctcLink system. This has been the culmination of years of work preparing and training for go-live. Now that it’s here, everyone is troubleshooting, exploring, and becoming more familiar with ctcLink.

The good news is that things appear to be working correctly overall. Where there are issues, they are being reported and addressed with our SBCTC partners. We appreciate how everyone has approached this transition with patience and a generous attitude focused on problem-solving. We hope you see the potential in ctcLink and how it is a step forward even if it is different than our legacy systems.

ctcLink TO DO LIST

• Important Timeline: Supervisors should review and approve all employee time and absence requests by 3pm TODAY (10/15). To ensure that all timecards are approved, please check your Manager Self Service throughout the day Friday and one last time late Saturday afternoon.
• Visit the IT Helpdesk open Zoom room on Friday (9 am to 4 pm) with any last-minute questions.
• Go beyond the Tiles: Not all the tools in ctcLink have their own Tile. Some need to be reached through the NavBar.

• Please use a quick-reference-guide to check the navigation path before requesting a security change.
• ctcLink Security Change Requests: please contact the IT Helpdesk at IT.HelpDesk@skagit.edu or by phone: 360-416-7766.

CTCLINK EMAIL and JUNK MAIL FOLDERS

• Emails generated from ctcLink have intermittently landed in recipients’ junk mail folders. Please don’t rely on these emails to remind you about timecards. As noted above, we suggest you check your Manager Self Service over the weekend for pending approvals.
• If you do receive any in ctcLink emails in your junk folder, please mark them as not junk to help “train” Outlook to deliver to your inbox. Contact the IT Helpdesk if you need help.

CTCLINK BUDGET INFORMATION

Please see the Business Office Portal, CtcLink Documents & Information, for the crosswalk of our Legacy Budget Account Codes to the new ctcLink chart string. We will continue to update this document over the next few weeks as we finalize the setup of our Grants into ctcLink.

• Budgets – The Budgeting Office is working to get our 2021-22 Budget uploaded into ctcLink. We hope to have this completed in the next week.
• We are also working on developing easy to use reporting tools to replace the functionality in FMSQuery. More information to come from the Budgeting Office.

HERE’S WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH CTCLINK NEXT WEEK, OCTOBER 18-22

Payroll Processing
Our payroll team will process the first payroll in ctcLink.

Winter Course Schedule
Review of Winter Course Schedule and enrollment requirements (aka prerequisites) in preparation for Winter Quarter registration.

Grades
The project team will continue to review information in preparation of processing end of term grades.

HELP GUIDES & RESOURCES

• Employee How-Tos: We’ve developed a web page with employee self-service tutorials and help resources. Topics range from updating your personal employee information to time and leave reporting. Please visit the Employee Self-Service Tutorials and Help Resources web page for step-by-step tutorials and guides.
• Archive of Emails, Updates, and Messages about ctcLink: the various emails, updates, and messages about ctcLink are archived on the ctcLink Updates web page. Messages to students are also included. If you want to make sure you haven’t missed something or you don’t want to go searching through your email, this web page may be helpful to you.

THE NEXT BIG STEP

On Monday, October 25, our students begin activating their accounts and preparing for registration, which is planned to begin on November 3.

WEEK ONE GRADITUDE

Thanks to everyone involved in the preparations for bringing our students on board. We know this week has been challenging, exhilarating, and maybe a bit draining. Please take some time this weekend to recharge as the novelty of the new system and the initial adrenaline rush begins to wane. It will be important to approach next few weeks with our best positive energy in order to help our students make the transition to ctcLink.

The ctcLink Cardinal has landed. Now we need to learn how to fly!

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EMPLOYEE & SUPERVISOR TIME & LEAVE INFO

OPEN TIME & LEAVE DROP-IN HELP
On October 14, and 15 you can join the IT Helpdesk open Zoom room (9 am to 4 pm). The IT Helpdesk will be closed over the weekend of October 16 and 17.

• Instructions for how to report time worked, request vacation, or approve time and leave are available on the ctcLink website

MANAGERS TO DO LIST
You will need to approve timesheets and absence requests by Friday, October 15, by 3:00 p.m.  Time and absence submitted by employees is not immediately available to you to approve in Manager Self-Service.  There is a process that needs to run that moves submitted time to the manager to be approved.  This typically happens overnight, but can happen during the day when HR and Payroll run the necessary process manually.  Be sure to check Manager Self-Service often for any needed approvals.

• Instructions for timesheet approval are available on the ctcLink website, under Manager/Supervisor – Approve Time and Assign Schedules.
• Instructions for absence approvals are available on the ctcLink Reference Center, under 9.2 Approving or denying an absence request.

EMPLOYEES TO DO LIST
As this is the first pay period in ctcLink, please submit your timesheets early, by Thursday, October 14, by 3:00 p.m.

PAYROLL REMINDER
Time worked for Hourly, Student Employees, Classified, and overtime-eligible Exempt employees, since October 1st, needs to be approved by 3:00 pm on Friday, October 15.  Late timesheets and absence requests cannot be processed for this payroll.

EMPLOYEE IMMUNIZATION RECORDS
Please do not enter your vaccination data into ctcLink.  Attestation and verification information from the Legacy system will be converted to ctcLink on Friday.  All verifications from Thursday, October 7 to present are being manually tracked and will be entered once the Legacy data has been converted. 

BUDGET INFO AND FINANCE PROCESSES

Keep Using FMSQuery for Data through September: The September accounting month was closed in the FMS system. FMSQuery remains your best current source of information for your current budget, expenditures, and revenue information through September. (Sidenote: FMSQuery information is being retained, and archived, and will not disappear).

Credit Cards: Credit Card purchases can tentatively resume on October 25.

Purchasing Requisitions: Purchasing requisitions can resume on October 25^th.  Please do not submit these early.  Your patience is appreciated.  How To guidesfor submitting Purchase Requisitions into the new system can be found on the ctcLink Employee How-To Page and on the Business Office Portal, under ctcLink Documents & Information.  This guide also includes directions on how Budget Managers approve those requisitions in the new system.

Travel & Expense Reimbursements:  The Business Office will begin to review travel and expense reimbursement submissions starting October 25^th.   Again, Directions on creating these documents and Supervisor and Budget Manager approval of these documents, is available on the ctcLink Employee How-To Page and on the Business Office Portal, under ctcLink Documents & Information.

PLEASE HAVE PATIENCE
Staff across the colleges are working intensely on critical activities for getting out our first payroll in ctcLink, and getting ready to resume normal financial activities. If it’s not a critical need, we continue to appreciate your patience over the next few weeks.

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Skagit Valley College employees have a limited amount of time to have timesheets submitted and approved for the Oct. 1 – Oct. 15 pay period. Timesheets are due for overtime-eligible exempt, classified, hourly, and student workers by Friday, Oct. 15. Any absence requests for this period are also due for all employees. Therefore, it is critical that timesheets are submitted early in case there are questions.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

• Classified, hourly, and student employees: make sure you’ve activated your account, and have a plan for submitting timesheets by Friday, Oct. 15.
• Managers: check in with your overtime-eligible exempt, classified, hourly, and student employees regarding account activation and timesheets.  Approve timesheets and absence requests by Friday, Oct. 15.
• Faculty are invited to activate their ctcLink accounts for absence reporting.
• Exempt employees that had to enter time worked in TLR (overtime eligible) will continue to do so in ctcLink.  If you did not have to enter time worked in TLR, you don’t have to in ctcLink, either. All exempt employees will still need to submit absences they have taken.

Timesheet Step-by-Step Guides for Employees

• How to Report Time for Hourly Employees
• How to Report Time Worked for Student Employees
• How to Report Time Worked for Classified Employees
• Time Reporting Troubleshooting, Tips, and Tricks

Student Employees May Activate Their Accounts Now
Supervisors of student employees are asked to encourage their student workers to activate their ctcLink account this week. They will want to submit any time worked between Oct. 1 – Oct. 15 so that they can get paid in the next payroll. The account activation process is the same for student employees as all employees. 

Note: Student employees who activate their accounts this week as employees will also see (and activate) their student self-service. This is normal. All other students will be invited to activate their ctcLink account starting Monday, October 25.

How To Get Help
If you encounter technical problems while trying to activate your account or submit your timesheet, please contact the IT Helpdesk at IT.HelpDesk@skagit.edu or by phone: 360-416-7766. We have an open drop-in help session Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9am – 4pm via Zoom.

Additional Note
Anyone working under a “Volunteer” status was not converted in ctcLink and won’t have access to ctcLink right now. Volunteers that need access to ctcLink to do their job can be added next week. Any other volunteers that need access to ctcLink but is not critical at this time will be added at future date to be determined.

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