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Release 1.16 — Release Notes

This release focuses on giving managers finer control over who can be assigned to an opening, expanded invitation tools, and more flexible payroll configuration — along with a broad set of usability fixes. The notes are organized by audience so you can jump straight to what's relevant to you.

General Features

  • Open SmartSub links directly in the mobile app. SmartSub links (for example, links in a notification email) now open automatically in the SmartSub app on Android and iOS when the app is installed, instead of prompting you to choose a browser.
  • Stronger protection on sign-in screens. The sign-in, registration, and forgot-password screens are now protected by a CAPTCHA challenge and rate limiting to guard against automated abuse.
  • More consistent pop-up windows. Pop-up dialogs across the application now behave the same way: they all have a close button, close with the Escape key, and can be moved and resized on desktop. On phones and tablets, drag and resize are turned off for a steadier touch experience.
  • Refreshed look and feel. Screen layouts, spacing, and styling have been standardized across the application, with continued improvements for tablets and small displays.
  • "My Assignments" navigation label. The Assignments menu item is now labeled My Assignments to make clear that it shows your own assignments.
  • Sign in with Microsoft on iOS. Microsoft single sign-on now works correctly from the iOS app.
  • Profile image uploads. Uploading a profile image through the mobile app now accepts the full set of supported image formats.
  • Updated user documentation. The documentation has been reorganized and rewritten for clarity — including a new All Users section, documentation of the News feature, expanded Payroll instructions, and consistent use of the term Substitute Management Unit (SMU) throughout.

For Administrators & Managers

New features

  • Block a substitute from a single opening. A new Blocked Subs tab on an opening lets you block specific substitutes from being considered for that opening only. Blocked substitutes are excluded from the candidate list and won't be notified about the opening. Blocks can be removed at any time, and the candidate list shows why a substitute was excluded.
  • Deactivate and reactivate unit relationships. Users are no longer removed outright from a Substitute Management Unit (SMU) or Regular Staff Management Unit (RMU). Instead, each relationship now has a status of Active, Inactive, or Terminated that you can change and change back, preserving history. User grids include a status filter so you can see active members by default, or include inactive and terminated ones when you need to. Removing regular staff is blocked while they still have active openings or pending leave requests.
  • Simplified role management on user grids. The Promote and Demote buttons on user grids have been replaced by a role selector that shows all of a user's roles at once and lets you add or remove them directly. Core roles such as Member are always shown and can't be removed by accident. Additional roles will be added in the future.
  • Ranking weights for candidate quality. Locations can now assign a weight (as a percentage) to each candidate quality factor used in ranking, so you can tune how much each factor influences the order in which substitutes appear and are notified. The candidate detail view shows the effect each factor had on a substitute's rank.
  • Require one substitute for multi-day openings. Locations can set a continuity threshold: when an opening has more than one of time slots and the first slot is far enough out, a substitute must accept all of the slots rather than cherry-picking individual days. The same rule applies to cancellations, so a substitute can't leave partial coverage behind. Once the opening start date is within the threshold, the opening reverts to normal behavior and substitutes can accept or cancel individual slots.
  • Optionally prevent staff from blocking substitutes. A new RMU preference controls whether individual regular staff members may block substitutes. When it's turned off, staff-level blocks are ignored by the matching rules. Staff see a message explaining this on their preferences screen.

Invitations

  • Locations and categories on invitations. Regular staff user invitations now include location and assignment-category selection through a multi-level tree, so invited users arrive with the right access already in place. Mass invitations via an import file support a single location.
  • Share an invitation link. Pending invitations now have a Share action that produces a short link you can send through any channel — handy when an invitation email doesn't reach someone due to email delays.
  • See what happened to an invitation. Expanding a pending invitation now shows its delivery history. You can see if a message was undeliverable or deferred by the recipient's mail provider. You can use the Share action to resend via other means if necessary.
  • Invitation form fixes. Several problems on the with the "Save and Next" button were discovered. The button has been removed for this release and expect to make a come back on a future release.
  • Invitation import validation When using the invitation import feature, the system now validates the file and displays invalid columns in the preview grid. You can update the data directly in the grid, or update the import file and re-import. The system will not send any invitations containing errors. The import also prevents duplicate invitations from being sent to the same email address.

Payroll & timesheets

  • New STS payroll system. STS (Substitute Teacher Service)is now available as a payroll system option.
  • Default export for the Generic and ST payroll systems. Payroll systems without a vendor-specific format now produce a standard JSON export, so timesheet data can be exported from any configured system.
  • Half-day and full-day rates on mapping rules. Timesheet mapping rules that round to half or full days can now specify the amount paid for a half day and for a full day, overriding the substitute's daily rate when needed.
  • Criteria from related units. When an SMU is related to more than one RMU, mapping-rule criteria now offer the RMUs, locations, and departments from all of those related units instead of just one.

Openings & assignments

  • Overlapping time slots after "Not Attended". Time slots marked Not Attended no longer block you from creating a new time slot covering the same period in that opening.
  • Preferred substitutes list shows only eligible subs. The staff preferred-substitutes list now shows only substitutes the staff member is actually authorized to work with, based on unit authorization and assignment categories.

For Regular Staff

  • Blocking substitutes may be turned off. Your management unit(s) can now choose whether individual staff members may block substitutes. If this is turned off for your unit, the option is disabled and a message explains why; any blocks you previously set are no longer applied.
  • A cleaner preferred-substitutes list. The list of substitutes you can mark as preferred now shows only substitutes you're authorized to work with, matched to your assignment categories.

For Substitutes

  • Decline an opening you're not interested in. You can now decline an available opening. Declined openings move out of your available list and stop generating reminders for that opening. If you change your mind, you can undo the decline from your unavailable openings list.
  • Multi-day openings may require full coverage. For some openings, your location may require a single substitute to cover every day. When that applies, you'll accept all of the time slots together rather than individually, and the same applies if you need to cancel — you can't hand back only part of the assignment. As the date of the opening approaches, the opening reverts to normal behavior and you can accept or cancel individual slots.

For Reseller and Support Administrators

  • Support email address. Resellers can now provide a support email address in addition to a support phone number and web address. Whatever you configure is shown to the users you support under the Support menu, and options you leave blank are hidden.