System Fundamentals
FileMaker
FileMaker is a professional database platform made by Claris, an Apple company.
Music Monitor
Music Monitor is a database built on the FileMaker platform by a former music administrator, specifically to meet the complex administrative needs of music administrators.
Licence
To use FileMaker, you need to have a current licence for the software. Your Music Monitor subscription includes your FileMaker licence. Each customer has one licence.
Seat
A licence specifies a number of seats, which limits the number of users who can be logged onto the system simultaneously. A seat is essentially a user, but customers don’t need to have a separate seat for every listed user; they need a separate seat for each concurrent user at any one time.
Privilege Set
A Privilege Set in Music Monitor is a user type, with access and permissions that differ from users with other Privilege Sets.
File
Music Monitor is a set of files that work together to make up the database system. Each file contains the data and scripts for a module in the Music Monitor system. When you have a file open, the file name is shown in the title bar.
Layout
A layout is a screen that is built in Music Monitor to display data. There are layouts for viewing and working with records, and there are separate layouts for reports.
Portal
A portal is a window in a layout that displays records from another file. The Students file has portals that show records from all the different Student Activity files relating to the student.
Structure Terms
Tuition
In Music Monitor, Tuition is the term for enrolments in which each student is scheduled individually. This includes one-to-one lessons and can also include lessons shared among small groups if the school chooses to structure them that way.
Key points about Tuition enrolments:
Scheduling is connected to the enrolment record.
Students’ names appear on the staff roll.
Enrolments have only one teacher.
Payroll information is calculated for each student.
Therefore, typically, the cost charged to students varies depending on how many students are in the group.
Ensemble
Ensembles in Music Monitor are all large group enrolments including bands and other ensembles, as well as classes.
Key points about ensemble enrolments:
Scheduling is connected to the Ensemble setup, not the student enrolments.
Ensemble names appear on the staff roll.
There is a separate ensemble roll to mark student attendance.
Ensembles can be allocated to multiple teachers.
Payroll information is calculated for each rehearsal.
Therefore, typically, the cost charged to students (if any) is independent of the number of students enrolled.
Debtor
In Music Monitor, a Debtor is a type of contact who can be sent invoices or billing statements. It does not mean (as it may in other contexts) someone who currently has an amount outstanding.
Many schools have no use for the Debtors table and don’t have it visible. Those who need to use it must have the following setting:
Home > Settings > General Settings > Student Accounts > Student Accounts: “NECOM”
Venue
In Music Monitor, the term Venue is interchangeable with Room. It is a place where lessons and other activities can be booked into.
In the Resources file, the records are listed as Rooms, but in a scheduling context, it may be labelled as Venue. Any other venues that are not rooms should nonetheless be set up as Rooms in the Resources file.
Campus
A Campus is a physically distinct location from any other campus. Multi-campus schools can, if relevant, assign a Campus to their students and also to their Rooms. A student cannot be scheduled into an activity at a Campus other than their own.
If no Campus is assigned to Student records, the Campus field can be used more freely to categorise Venues.
Location
The Location field in Music Monitor is broader and more flexible than Campus. It was introduced to allow the NSW regional conservatoriums to group their In-Schools work separately from their other work, to help meet reporting requirements.
For all other users, it is available for flexible uses if desired.
Pay Category
The Pay Category field in Music Monitor denotes the employment arrangement relating to the work in question. It can be set to “Sessional” for employees on casual hours, or “Salaried” for employees on regular hours. This field appears in Enrolment records and also in Attendance records.
In Enrolment records, it defaults to reflecting the (essentially identical) Employment Type field from the Staff record of the relevant teacher. It can be changed manually if required.
In Attendance records, it defaults to reflecting the Pay Category field from the Enrolment record. It can be changed manually if required.
When Attendance records are imported into the Salaries module to calculate payroll information, only those with “Sessional” in this field are imported. That is the field’s only function, though it is available to include in exports if desired for analysis.
Lesson Type
A Lesson Type in Music Monitor is an entry in the Tuition Fees table. It holds a few key pieces of information:
The Description, which normally specifies whether it is an individual or shared lesson.
The Lesson Length.
The staff pay information, chiefly the Staff Load and the Pay Amount.
Subject
A Subject in Music Monitor is an option for a student to be allocated to when enrolling into a Tuition enrolment.
It is typically an instrument but may sometimes be broader or narrower than that. For example, a school will not always separate Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone and Baritone Saxophone, but may list them all as “Saxophone”. Conversely, they may separate Guitar into “Classical Guitar”, “Contemporary Guitar”, and so on.
Our recommendation is that your list of Subjects should largely mirror the options you display to students when they are applying to enrol.
Staff Code
Staff Code is a field used internally in Music Monitor to connect a Staff record with other records in the system such as enrolments, rolls, and so on. It need not match the value used in other systems, but you are free to use matching values if you wish.
Employee Pay Code
Distinct from the Staff Code above, the Employee Pay Code is a field in the Staff record that is provided solely to allow you to match your records in Music Monitor with those in another system. It is not used for any processes within Music Monitor but can be included in exports to help you match records.
Schedule (or Timetable)
In Music Monitor, the terms Schedule and Timetable are used interchangeably. The Timetabling menu item takes you to the Schedule tab on the Staff records.
The Schedule is a generic, weekly plan for a teacher’s allocated enrolments. It has days and times, but not specific dates. It serves as the template from which to generate each week’s lesson times.
Booking
A Booking in Music Monitor is an entry in the Schedule (see above). It has a day and time, and a venue, but not a specific date.
Bookings are visible in the Schedule tab of the Staff records, and also in the Regular Bookings tab of the Room records.
Calendar Entry
A Calendar Entry in Music Monitor is a specific instance, with a venue, a date, a start time, and a duration (and hence a finish time).
Music Monitor has the capacity to generate Calendar Entries from Bookings and Schedules (see above) but can also hold one-off Calendar Entries that are created directly in the Calendar.
Process Terms
Send to Accounts
Music Monitor has a Student Accounts file that houses all the billing records. There are several Send to Accounts scripts which all pick up data from different Student Activity records and create Student Accounts records in that file.
Taking the data out of Music Monitor to give to your finance department is a separate process of finalising and exporting these billing lines.
RP
In Music Monitor, “RP” stands for Reconciliation Period, which is the period after which the school intends to reconcile the amounts billed against the lessons given.
The term is usually found in the field name “No. Of Lessons RP”, which is the Number of Lessons Per Reconciliation Period. This field has two uses:
It appears on the rolls, visible to teachers and music administrators, letting them know how many lessons they are expected to give that student.
It is used in a script that calculates any credits owed or additional amounts to bill to students after comparing lessons billed against lessons given.
Key points about this figure:
The default value is set in the Fees table as part of the Lesson Type record.
If billing is usually in arrears, it would be set to zero.
It is initially set on the presumption that the student will be billed for the standard number of lessons in the reconciliation period and will receive all the lessons.
If the billing is adjusted to differ from that, the RP value must be adjusted to match.
If the student is a late enrolment, the value will be adjusted to reflect the remaining lessons in the period.
If a one-off billing adjustment is made to grant credit for cancelled lessons, the RP value must be reduced by the corresponding amount; otherwise, a later reconciliation process will calculate the credit amount again for the same student.
BP
In Music Monitor, “BP” stands for Billing Period, which is the length of the cycle in which billing amounts are calculated for student enrolments.
The term is usually found in the field name “No. Of Lessons BP”, which is the Number of Lessons Per Billing Period.
Key points about this figure:
The default value is set in the Fees table as part of the Lesson Type record.
It determines how much the student is billed for this enrolment.
We recommend it only be adjusted when you are about to calculate billing for the enrolment.
It will thereby also record what amount was last billed for that enrolment, until you adjust it.
It can be set to a negative amount to generate credit amounts.
Common Tasks
Common Tasks in Music Monitor is a directory of scripts and navigation shortcuts that you will need. Access is via an icon on the Home Screen or a link at the bottom of many other layouts. It is divided into Categories that you select from a drop-down at the top.
Super Users
When you open a Student Activity file or a Setup file in Music Monitor, it usually opens in List View, which is a layout that displays the most commonly-needed fields and includes buttons to run processes on the records displayed.
Super Users is an alternative layout that includes more fields and gives you the option to add and remove fields to suit your needs. Access is via a link at the bottom of the List View screen.
Troubleshooting
Most files in Music Monitor have another layout available that shows even more fields than Super Users. It is called the Troubleshooting view or “Show All Fields”.
Access is via the Troubleshooting window. To get there from the Home Screen, you go to Settings > Troubleshooting. From almost any other screen, you go to the very top bar and select Scripts > Troubleshooting. If you already have the file open that you wish to view in the Troubleshooting view, it will display the same records you already have displayed.
Users should take great care in this view, as not all the restrictions to avoid user error are in place in this layout, so it is possible to make unwanted changes in your data.
Calendar Exclusion
A Calendar Exclusion in Music Monitor is a special type of Calendar Entry that is not displayed on the Calendar but causes conflicting Calendar Entries to register a clash. Its purpose is to list activities that will make students unavailable for their scheduled music lessons, so teachers and music administrators have an opportunity to reschedule the lesson if necessary.
Dashboard
The Dashboard in Music Monitor is a small table of statistical information that is gathered daily by an automated script. Access is via an icon in the middle of the Home Screen.
Billing in Advance
In Music Monitor, Billing in Advance refers to billing that is calculated based on the lessons you expect to be delivered. It is usually calculated and invoiced before the period of lessons commences, but it is still called Billing in Advance even if calculated after the period has started.
Billing in Arrears
In Music Monitor, Billing in Arrears refers to billing that is calculated based on the billable lesson count derived from Attendance records.
Proof
A Proof in Music Monitor is a report that gathers data from current records showing what the output would be if you were to process these records as they currently stand.
Proofs can be used to review a set of records, for example billing line items, before finally committing them in the system. But they also come in handy as general summary reports and printouts.
Teacher View
Users who log into Music Monitor with one of the Privilege Sets that are designed for teachers will see a different, simpler Home Screen than the one that music administrators see. This simpler Home Screen is called Teacher View.