Version 5.03.0 - 07/12/2022 & 08/12/2022

Production Release Date: Dec 7, 2022 & Dec 8, 2022 (postponed from Dec 6, 2022)

Version: 5.03.0

UAT Release Date: Nov 8, 2022

CHANGE LOG - PART 2

EP-3409

RECOMMEND_TRAINING

Change Log - Specific screen/item history

New change log functionality has been added to a variety of screens as listed below. When viewing or editing one of the listed records a new button will be available, if the user has the change log permission, in the top right to view the change log record for the specific entity being viewed.

This is currently available in the following areas:

• Standards

• Gateway Component

• Gateway Specifications

• Grade Profiles

• Assessment Components

• Assessment Schemas

• Contracts

• Assessment Centres

• Support Materials

• Employers

• Providers

• Apprentices

• QAs (user)

• EPAs

• EPA Managers

EP-3529

API - Documentation

Fixed the API documentation where the national insurance number was incorrectly highlighted as being required when creating an apprentice.

EP-3379

NEW_PERMISSIONS

SETUP_REQUIRED

Dropdown Labels - New Page For Managing Dropdowns

Overview

A new page has been added for managing certain dropdowns throughout EPAPro. This page will allow you to add new options and edit existing options for the selected dropdown.

This page can be located in the left-hand navigation menu under: Entity management → Custom Dropdowns.

Usage

On the main Manage Dropdowns screen you will see a list of dropdowns that are currently available for editing.

In order to edit a dropdown, you should find the name of the dropdown you wish to edit and then click the pencil icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

You will now be on the Manage Dropdown Options screen. From here you can add and edit the existing options for the selected dropdown.

Adding an Option

In order to add a dropdown option, you should click the Add Option button in the top right of the screen. This will open a pop-up window showing a set of fields for that dropdown. Once you have entered details for each field on the pop-up window, you can click the Save button in the bottom right of the pop-up window.

Editing an Option

In order to edit a dropdown option, find the name of the option you wish to edit from the list and click the pencil icon on the right and side of the screen. This will open a pop-up window with the fields for this option. When you are done making changes to the option, click the Save button in the bottom right of the pop-up window to save your changes.

Deleting an Option

In order to delete a dropdown option, find the name of the option you wish to delete from the list and click the trash icon on the right-hand side of the screen. A small pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to delete this option.

Permissions

A new set of permissions have been created for managing dropdowns, the list of permissions is as follows:

Read dropdowns and options - This will allow the user to view the various dropdowns in the manage dropdowns screen and also allow them to view the options for each dropdown, however it does not allow you to manage them.

Create dropdown option - This will allow the user to add dropdown options for a given dropdown.

Update dropdown option - This will allow the user to edit a dropdown option.

Delete dropdown option - This will allow the user to delete a dropdown option.

All of these permissions are enabled by default for owner, admin and awarding organisation users.

EP-3376

NEW_PERMISSIONS

Reporting - Contract Report

We have added a new report called Contracts which can be located on the Miscellaneous tab of the Reporting area. This report is controlled by the ‘Contract’ permission under Reporting. This permission has been given to the Owner and Awarding Organisation users by default.

This report gives the details of the contract and any standards that are included within that contract with their associated costs. Filters have been provided for filtering by provider, employer, contract, contract status and date filtering for the contract specific dates.

EP-3211

NEW_PERMISSIONS
SETUP_REQUIREDRECOMMEND_TRAINING

Provider / Employer - User Extensions

More info can also be found here - https://covalenttech.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2584608769

General tweaks to provider/employer screens

We have also tweaked these screens to improve the user experience. The tweaks include:

• Added a confirmation box when navigating away or refreshing if you have unsaved changes

• Added loading icons to the delete and primary user buttons within the user list

• Added a new “Bulk Import” button to the employer and provider user lists. This is shown if the user has permission, further details on this below, and provides a way for sub-users to import apprentice assignments and/or standard assignments

Sub user creation/editing improvements

To accommodate the changes and additions we’re making to sub-users the create. edit and view functions for providers and employers will now be controlled via a new screen, rather than in a small popup. This provides more space for these new features and also improves user flow and performance. On this new screen, we have also added indicators under the page title so you know the user’s current status and the provider or employer name so you can always see the organisation’s name you’re managing the sub-users for.

Standards and specialisms against providers and employers

We have added the ability to assign standards and specialisms against provider and employer sub-users. The primary user can adjust these for other sub-users, however, an AO user will need to adjust them for a primary user. Sub users are unable to adjust their own standards and specialisms.

If no standards or specialisms are defined against a user then it will default to using what is defined against the provider. We recommend only adding standards or specialisms to sub-users that require a subset of the apprentices, otherwise, it will require regular admin to keep the sub-users in sync with the provider entity.

The standards or specialisms selected for a sub-user will change the visibility of apprentices, and other standard based entities, within EPAPro and reporting. It will also adjust the notifications they receive so that they do not get notifications for apprentices that are on standards they have not been assigned.

Two new permissions have been added to support this Assign Standards and Specialisms under Employer Sub Users and Assign Standards and Specialisms under Provider Sub Users. These two permissions will allow the user to manage the standards and specialisms assigned, providing they also have update permission. Users will not be able to edit their own.

Apprentice assignments to provider and employer sub-users

We have added the ability to assign apprentices to provider and employer sub-users. Once an apprentice has been assigned to them their visibility within EPAPro and reporting will be restricted to just that apprentice. They will also only receive notifications for that apprentice.

If no apprentices have been assigned to a sub-user, they will continue to see all apprentices as they do now.

Please note that assigning an apprentice to a provider or employer sub-user does not affect entities that are tied to standards and not apprentices, for example, news and support materials. Standard assignments should be added in addition to the apprentice assignments to ensure the visibility of these entities are also filtered.

Two new permissions have been added to support this Assign Apprentices under Employer Sub Users and Assign Apprentices under provider Sub Users. These two options will allow the user to manage the apprentices assigned, providing they also have update permission. Users will not be able to edit their own. Both of these permissions have been given to the owner and awardingorganisation roles by default.

Roles that can be assigned by provider/employer users

We have extended the roles functionality by introducing two new flags “Assignable by Provider” and “Assignable by Employer”. These can be toggled on both custom and system roles.

We have also added two new permissions to accommodate this, “Change Role” under the “Provider Sub Users” section and “Change Role” under the “Employer Sub Users” section. Both of these permissions have been given to the owner and awardingorganisation roles by default, although no change will be seen as awarding organisation user types have the ability to do this already.

Users with this role will be able to edit the roles/permissions for the relevant sub-users. If these permissions are given to a provider or employer sub user then the following will happen:

• If providers are given “Change Role” for provider sub-users then they will be able to change the role against their organisation’s users. They will only see roles that have been flagged as “Assignable by Provider”. If the provider is given “Change Role” for employers then they see a similar functionality with employers except they will only see roles that are flagged as “Assignable by Employer”, this is to prevent the provider from assigning provider-level roles to an employer user.

• Employers will work in a similar way.

If the user has been given or is assigned a role that is not on the list, it will show however be greyed out and disabled. This means the provider can change the role, but will be unable to revert it back.

The permissions that the role has granted will be shown to the user, any permissions that have not been granted will not be shown.

Technical expert toggle for provider and employer sub-users

We have added a new toggle for provider and employer users to flag them as being a “Technical Expert”. This new toggle is available on a new “Sub-user details” tab when creating or editing a provider/employer sub-user.

The assessment plan has been updated to show a “Technical Expert” badge under users’ names when adding attendees, clearly highlighting which provider and/or employer sub-users have this new flag toggled.

Reporting

We have added five new reports to accommodate this additional functionality. These reports will only return sub-users that have been specifically assigned something. The new reports are:

• Provider Sub-User Standards - This report will show the standards and specialisms that are assigned to provider sub-users. It will show a row per user, standard, and specialism combination.

• Provider Sub-User Assigned Apprentices - This report will show the apprentices that have been assigned to provider sub-users. It will show a row per apprentice and user combination.

• Employer Sub-User Standards - This report will show the standards and specialisms that are assigned to employer sub-users. It will show a row per user, standard, and specialism combination.

• Employer Sub-User Assigned Apprentices - This report will show the apprentices that have been assigned to employer sub-users. It will show a row per apprentice and user combination.

• Employer Standards - This report will show the standards that have been assigned to employers at the organisation level. It will show a row per standard and employer combination.

To help with organising, these new reports we have created two new reporting categories; “Providers” and “Employers”. The existing provider and employer reports, which were originally under “Miscellaneous” have been moved to the respective categories:

• “Provider Details” and “Provider Standards” have both been moved to the new Provider category

• “Employer Details” has been moved to the Employer category

Bulk Upload

We have added a number of new bulk upload imports for mass assigning apprentices and standards to provider/employer sub-users.

New Permissions

To accommodate sub users being able to bulk assign apprentices/standards to other sub users, when they have permission to do so, we have introduced two new permissions that controls the bulk upload/import for providers and employers:

• Employers > Bulk Import

• Providers > Bulk Import

If a user is granted these new permissions they will be given visibility of the “Import Employers” and/or “Import Provider” buttons along with the relevant tabs on the bulk upload screen. Note that his does not grant them all bulk import actions, these are still controlled via their respective permissions. For example, following these changes if you wanted to allow a provider sub-user to bulk import apprentice assignments for other provider sub users they should be granted the following permissions:

• Providers > Bulk Import - So that they can see and interact with the provider import screen

• Provider Sub Users > Assign Apprentices - So that they can assign apprentices to other provider sub users

The new permissions have been given to the following roles by default, this is based on the current access and functionality these roles already have:

• Providers > Bulk Import - owner, awardingorganisation

• Employers > Bulk Import - owner, awardingorganisation, provider

New Provider Import Tab

We have added a new “Import Providers” button to the provider listing screen and also a new “Provider” tab within the bulk upload screen. This is to accommodate the two new bulk upload imports for provider sub-users. The user requires the Providers < Bulk Import permission to see this button, along with the relevant permissions for each import.

Bulk Assign Standards

We have added two new imports for assigning standards to employer sub-users and provider sub-users. The new import is called “Assign Standards to Sub-Users” and can be found under the “Employer” and “Provider” imports. This import has the following columns:

Employer Sub-Users

This requires the Assign Standards and Specialisms permission for employers.

• employer_id - This is the ID of the employer the sub-user belongs to and is required

• user_id_username - This is the user ID or username of the employer sub-user, this must be a sub-user of the employer_id given and is required

• external_standard_id - This is the external standard ID of the standard you would like to assign to the sub-user and is required

• specialism_ids - This is a comma-separated list of specialism IDs that should be assigned, these specialisms must be part of the given external_standard_id and should be left blank if no specialisms should be assigned or exist for the standard

Provider Sub-Users

This requires the Assign Standards and Specialisms permission for providers.

• user_id_username - This is the user ID or username of the provider sub-user, this must be a sub-user of the provider selected on the screen or logged in and is required

• external_standard_id - This is the external standard ID of the standard you would like to assign to the sub-user and is required

• specialism_ids - This is a comma-separated list of specialism IDs that should be assigned, these specialisms must be part of the given external_standard_id and should be left blank if no specialisms should be assigned or exist for the standard

Bulk Assign Apprentices

We have added two new imports for assigning apprentices to employer sub-users and provider sub-users. The new import is called “Assign Apprentices to Sub-Users” and can be found under the “Employer” and “Provider” imports. This import has the following columns:

Employer Sub-Users

This requires the Assign Apprentices permission for employers.

• employer_id - This is the ID of the employer the sub-user belongs to and is required

• user_id_username - This is the user ID or username of the employer sub-user, this must be a sub-user of the employer_id given and is required

• apprentice_id - The ID of the apprentice to assign to the sub-user. Required if apprentice_uln is not provided

• apprentice_uln - The ULN of the apprentice to assign to the sub-user. Required if apprentice_id is not provided

Provider Sub-Users

This requires the Assign Apprentices permission for providers.

• user_id_username - This is the user ID or username of the provider sub-user, this must be a sub-user of the provider selected on the screen or logged in and is required

• external_standard_id - This is the external standard ID of the standard you would like to assign to the sub-user and is required

• apprentice_id - The ID of the apprentice to assign to the sub-user. Required if apprentice_uln is not provided

• apprentice_uln - The ULN of the apprentice to assign to the sub-user. Required if apprentice_id is not provided

EP-2536

NEW_PERMISSIONS RECOMMEND_TRAINING screen_changes

QA Extension and Rework

More Info can be seen here - https://covalenttech.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KB/pages/2584346625 including a Powerpoint guide.

The QA screen has been re-written to provide additional functionality to both EPA and QA users. Aside from the visual design changes, the following functionality has been introduced:

QA Question Templates

A new screen has been added to the “Entity Management” screen, entitled “QA Question Templates” - this new screen allows the creation, reading, updating, and deleting of a new QA Question Template entity type. These entities hold a list of questions that should be asked as part of the QA process, which can then be assigned against a QA record.

Questions follow the same structure as other existing question style inputs, meaning that text, text area, and checkbox are available. There is also a toggle to enable whether the question is mandatory.

Questions are editable once they are created, but any questions that are assigned against a QA will be automatically archived to preserve the history of existing data.

Please note that the original “QA feedback” and “EPA feedback” fields have been moved to a new QA Question Template called “Default Template” - this template is assigned to all pre-existing QA records to maintain legacy data.

Separated QA updates

The QA creation stage has been simplified to only request a small amount of information in the first instance. Once created, the rest of the QA information can be applied via smaller, individual updates - for example, QA Question Template answers, file uploads, comments, and tasks are all applied via separate save buttons.

QA Comments

The existing chat-style system from the Appeals process has been ported into the QA process - this allows QAs and the EPA to communicate together via a chat system in app, keeping all of the information within EPAPro. Comments can be created, updated and deleted depending on new permissions. Posting a comment also offers the ability to update the QA status, to indicate that the QA is now awaiting an assessor/EPA.

QA Tasks

QA users are now able to create tasks against a QA record for the EPA to complete. This makes the feedback more structured than free-text fields that were previous used within the legacy system. The tasks are assigned a Task Type which can help break down the type of feedback that is being provided. These codes are configurable in the new Custom Dropdowns entity management screen (details of this screen can be found against the corresponding release notes). EPA users can then mark tasks as complete as the work is completed, providing greater granularity to the progress against the QA.

Tasks that are marked as complete can then be re-checked by the QA user and can be “Resolved” once the work has been confirmed complete. Like the Task Types, these resolution types can be configured within the Custom Dropdowns entity management screen.

If a QA user creates a task for an EPA to complete, the system can be configured to create a summary custom task within the EPA’s To-do list within EPAPro. This feature can be enabled against each individual QA record, by toggling the “QA Tasks Trigger EPA Custom Task Entries” within the create/edit QA section. Note that the To-do entry is a summary for the QA record - it does not contain task specific data.

A new report has been introduced to allow reporting on QA tasks and their corresponding outcomes, to help keep track of the type of feedback that is being raised, and how they’re being addressed.

QA Activity

The activity functionality from the appeals screen has been added to the QA record screen, to help keep track of what progress is being made against the QA. Changes to the QA, such as comments, tasks, file uploads, QA Question Template answers, are all shown within an audit trail - this audit trail shows a brief description of the change, including who did the change and when.

EPA Developmental Feedback

We have implemented an area with QA that allows specific points regarding EPA developmental feedback to be created. This can be located on the Developmental Feedback tab on the QA screen.

Any EPA developmental feedback items can be seen within the profile screen for that EPA, only after the QA has been published. An EPA will be able to 'Acknowledge' any feedback that they have been given. There are no restrictions on when the EPA developmental feedback can be seen within the QA screen itself. A QA user will have the ability to sign-off, edit and delete EPA developmental feedback they create. They will only have the delete functionality before the QA is published. Dates can be entered for when the QA user would like the feedback to be acknowledged by and a date for a QA user to review the developmental feedback item. Custom categories can be set from the Custom Dropdowns screen, and we have provided some generic ones that can be deleted if they are not suitable.

We have also added a report called EPA Developmental Feedback that can be located on the EPA tab of the reporting area. This report provides information about the developmental feedback that has been created. The following filters have been provided: Standard, EPA, Component Name, Feedback Category and QA Type (Result or Certification).

New Permissions

The following new permissions have been introduced as part of this work:

• QA → Update comments

  • Enables who can update comments against a QA. Note that users can only edit their own comments, not comments from other users.

• QA Question Templates → Create

  • Enables the creation of new QA Question Templates.

• QA Question Templates → Delete

  • Enables the deletion of existing QA Question Templates.

    • Note that deleting a QA Question Template that is in use will not remove historical data.

• QA Question Templates → Read

  • Enables the reading of existing QA Question Templates.

• QA Question Templates → Update

  • Enables the updating of existing QA Question Templates.

EP-3524

Support Materials - duplicate entries on multiple clicks

We have fixed a bug where it was possible to save duplicate Support Materials by clicking the Save Support Material button multiple times. This button is now disabled after the first click to prevent it from being triggered additional times by accident.

EP-3521

Assessment Component - milestone save error visibility

We have fixed a bug where validation errors triggered when saving milestone information was not visually displaying the source of the error with the usual red border around the entry field.

EP-3519

Essentials - Permission checks not working properly

We have fixed a bug in essentials where permission checks were not working properly causing users to sometimes have access to functionality they should not.

EP-3504

Reporting - Gateway Submission Billing: Search field failing

Fixed a bug where the search field for the Gateway Submission Billing report wasn’t working.

EP-3497

Provider user listing - view icon misalignment

We have fixed a bug where the view icon on the provider user listing screen was not centrally aligned.

EP-3494

Specialism Filter - Bug Fix

Specialism filter:
A bug was fixed in which an error would occur when refreshing the page with either a specialism filter or QA specialism filter applied. The page will now refresh as expected.

EP-3486

Communication settings - Restricted and allowed methods removed for Subject Type

Communication Settings:

The Restricted and allowed methods fields have been removed from the subject user type in communication settings. These fields were not used and could be safely removed to simplify the process.

EP-3482

Conflict of Interest - employer users that were previously missing from the search should now appear.

Fixed a bug that prevents some employer records from appearing within the conflict of interest’s user search function.

EP-3477

Microsoft 365 - Bookings not being added to calendars via the organisation integration

We have fixed a bug where non Teams and Zoom meetings and elements were not being added to the EPAs calendar if they were part of the EPAO’s organisation and had not linked their own account via their profile.

Following this fix the events will now be added to calendars for both organisation-based accounts, for example, employees of the EPAO when the Microsoft 365 integration has been enabled and individually linked 365 calendars via the user’s profile.

EP-3439

Assessment Profile - Clicking on grey circle for a pending booking now returns a more helpful error.

Within the assessment profile screen, clicking on the grey progress circle for a component that is pending booking will now return a more helpful error within the element side drawer.

EP-3295

Gateway - Re-submitting a completed gateway has an updated success message.

The message displayed when saving an approved gateway has been updated to remove the mention of requiring approval, as this has already happened.

EP-3288

Notifications - Meeting Booking Rejected Reason

Notifications:
Fixed a bug in which the meeting booking rejected reason would not be shown for a planning meeting booking notification. The meeting booking rejected reason will now show as expected.

EP-3282

QA - Deleting QA user now redirects to the listing page on success.

The QA code has been updated to return the user to the QA user listing screen when the delete of a user is successful.

EP-3254

Assign EPAs to elements - deleted apprentices

We have fixed a bug where deleted apprentices were not being filtered out from the ‘Assign EPAs to Elements’ listing screen and the bulk assign option within that screen.

EP-3080

Assessment Profile - Manage Component

Assessment Profile:
Fixed a bug in which alerts would not display correctly when clicking the manage component button. The alerts will now display with a clickable link that will take you to the area of Epa Pro in which the alert can be fixed.

EP-3638

bug

Surpass - Unable to book if the apprentice's schema has been changed

We’ve fixed a bug where it was not possible to book a Surpass test if the apprentice’s assessment schema had been changed to one that is on a different standard version.