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Compliance - How to manually export attendance data into EBS4?

← Attendance

If you are NOT a 3PIv4 school, then until the government enables your school as one, you require to export attendance data manually; please follow the steps below. 

Note: This requires Administrator level access to Sentral Attendance to perform these procedures.

This procedure covers 2 steps:

Step 1: exporting data from Sentral (generating the export file)

Step 2: import the Sentral file into EBS4

Step 1: Exporting Attendance data from Sentral

  • Attendance > Setup Attendance > General Settings - ensure that correct Export Type is selected for your school


  • Attendance > Attendance Administration > Export Absences> (define the period)>Export Now
This process needs to be done as often as the DOE requirements specify. 

  • a file named abs_imp.d will be created. Keep a note where this file is saved as you will need to find it. Typically it may default to Downloads folder or your Desktop    

Step 2: Importing Sentral Attendance data into ebs4

  • log into EBS4 - from Home screen > System tab > Imports menu item 

  • once the Imports screen is displayed, select the Import Absence menu item.

  • A pop up windows will display with the details for the import.

  • The Session should be the academic period that encompasses the absences (this is usually the current year).
  • The Start Date and End Date are the boundaries of the dates selected when creating the absence export file in Sentral Attendance.
  • The Import File is the file created via the export procedure in Sentral Attendance in the previous steps (ie abs_imp.d) and click on Open.


  • The Summary File Path and the Reject Records File Path are the directories where information regarding the status of the import will be placed upon completion. New files containing information about the import into ebs4 are created in these directories.
  • Click OK in the Absence Import window once all these values are filled in.
  • The import will then validate all the records in the import file and a pop up window will display and you will be able to see the records validating.


A result set will be displayed showing any errors or anomalies within the import. Scroll through the result set and note down any errors (cells that are marked with a red background). Hovering over these errors will display a more in depth message about the error.


Common issues are:

  •  Absences with the same start and end time (Find these absences in Sentral Attendance and adjust or remove the times)
  • Absences when the students are not enrolled in the school. There is generally a 24 hour delay between a student enrolment change in ERN flowing through into Sentral. Therefore, it is possible for a teacher to create an absence for a student that has unenrolled.  Either the absence should be removed from Sentral or the enrolment dates adjusted)

 Once each error has been resolved in Sentral Attendance, repeat the export process to get a clean data export, and re-run the import process.

 If there are no errors in the import result set, select Select All menu item to select all absences for import.

All of the selected data will be imported into ebs4 when you click the Import Data button.


EBS4 will then finalise the imports for the selected dates.


Once the import is complete a confirmation dialog box will be display showing the details of the process and the location of both the summary and rejection files.



   

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