Events
Overview
The Events module is where Excursions and Camps are managed for your school.
Staff can create an event to include all the applicable information including arrangements, costings and risk management; it can then go through an approval process, parents can provide consent/payment and attendance data can also be recorded at the time of the activity.
Events can be used for compulsory single session excursions or camps and compulsory multi-session excursions or camps.
For schools using CompassPay with the Events Online feature enabled, additional features such as Opt-in events, Risk Management, Additional Questions in Events, Event Payment Plans (this also requires the Payment Instalment module) and the Action Centre in the parent portal are accessible.
Permissions
To access the Events page and create an Event, staff will require the EventsBase permission. This permission is part of a number of the Compass Permission Role Groups that staff are part of. For further information on Role Groups, please refer to the
from our Knowledge Base.
For staff who will be setting up the range of Event templates for staff to use, the Risk Management bank or the Questions bank, they will require the EventsAdmin permission. For information on how to allocate staff permissions, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base or speak with your school's Compass Sponsor.
For staff who will be setting up the range of Event templates for staff to use, the Risk Management bank or the Questions bank, they will require the EventsAdmin permission. For information on how to allocate staff permissions, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base or speak with your school's Compass Sponsor.
Staff who need to administrate basic aspects of all events can be assigned the EventsPower permission which will allow them to to add/remove attendees to the event, update the status of attendees, contact attendees/parents/staff in relation to the event and also to download any exports available to the event organiser for the event.
Settings
Staff with the EventsAdmin permission will have access to the 'Settings' button on the Events page. Clicking this will load a pop-up in which you can set aspects of the event functionality for Event Organisers at your school.
If the 'Event organiser can edit student list after event is fully published' option is ticked, staff who are set as the Event Organiser will be able to make edits on the attendee tab of their event while the event is in either Draft or Published mode as opposed to only when in Draft.
If the 'Event organiser can edit staff list after event is fully published' option is ticked, the Event Organiser will be able to make edits to the staff tab of their event while the event is in either Draft or Published mode as opposed to only when in Draft.
The Events Page
To access Events, go to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and select 'Events'.
This will take you to the Events page with a series of tabs that provide you with information on all events across the school..
Dashboard Tab
This tab gives you an overview of any events requiring your approval, any upcoming events that you are involved in and any events on today at your school. There is also the option to create a new event.
You can click the name of an event in any of the sections to open the Event to access the details.
You can also click the tool icon to access an Actions menu for that specific event.
Actions Menu:
| Open Event in New Window | This will open this event's details in a new window/tab on your device |
| Mark the Roll | This opens the Roll screen for this event. In the case of multi-session events, it will open the Roll for the upcoming session of that event. |
| Delete Event | Staff with the EventsAdmin permission will be able to access the Delete Event option. Choosing this will fully delete the Event and all related consent/payment/attendance data so extreme caution is recommended. |
| Duplicate Event | This option allows you to duplicate the event. Please refer to the 'Duplicating Events' section of this article for more details. |
| Email Attendees | This will take you to the email screen with the Event Attendees pre-loaded as the recipients. |
| Printable Consent/Payment Forms | This will allow you to download a pdf file of Consent/Payment forms for this Event if you need to print them to manually distribute to the attendees. This option is only accessible once the Event has been fully approved and provided the Event has not passed. |
| Report:Grid Roll | If you want to print a grid roll for the Event to be manually marked you can use this option. |
| Report:Event Summary | This will give you a report outlining the date/time of the Event and the Attendees. |
Schedule Tab
On the Schedule tab you can scroll through to view a week or a month to see any approved Events at your school. It can assist with planning when to potentially schedule an event. You can click on an event and it will take you into that Event's page.
Note: For schools with the Event Categories option enabled, you can filter the Schedule, Upcoming Events and Past Events by Event category.
Past Events Tab
Click here to view any past events at your school. From this tab you can filter by date or by name to access a past event. Clicking the column headers will sort the list of events by that column.
Clicking into the event will let you see the details, the attendees, consent/payment information, staffing etc.
You can click the tool icon to open the Actions menu. You can also click the 'Export Events Data' to download a summary file of all your school's events.
Upcoming Events Tab
Here you can view all Upcoming Events for your school. You can see the status of an event, filter to look at a specific event by date or by name, access the Actions menu (tool icon) for an event or click into an event for the full details. Clicking the column headers will sort the list of events by that column.
You can also click the 'Export Events Data' to download a summary file of all your school's events.
Please Note: Staff with the EventsAdmin permission will have an additional tab called Administration. For details on the Administration tab please refer to the Events Administration article in our Knowledge Base.Creating an Event
For information on creating a single or multi session event, please refer to the 'Creating an Event' article from our Knowledge Base.
For information on creating and managing Opt In type events, please refer to the 'Opt In Events' article from our Knowledge Base.
Viewing/Managing Events
For information on viewing/managing an Event, please refer to the 'Managing Events' article from our Knowledge Base.
Approving Events
When an event is submitted for approval, the Notification Chain is activated and the first person on the list who is required to approve the event will receive a notification advising them that there is a new event in Compass requiring their approval. They can either click on the link in the email, or the link in the notification on their Compass homepage. Clicking on this link will take you to the Events module dashboard.
Click on the title of the event to open the event's details.
Click on to each tab of the event to review details of the event, including costs or attendees.
Approvers who also have the EventsAdmin permission will have access to edit all details of the event. Approvers without the EventsAdmin permission can only edit information on the Attendee and the Staffing tabs.
The Resources tab can be used to attach any flyers or other documentation to the Event as required. This information can be attached by the staff member creating the event prior to the event being fully Published, or by staff with the EventsAdmin permission.
Example: Students in Year 10 are going on a camp. Activities will include snowboarding and/or skiing and the school wants to ensure that the parents are aware of what items students need to bring versus what will be provided. A supplementary information sheet (PDF file or Word document etc.) can be uploaded to the Resources tab.When you have reviewed all the submitted event details and are ready to Approve the event, locate the green button in the lower right of the Event's Dashboard tab that will say 'Approve'.
When you have approved, it will proceed to the next approving staff member in the notification chain.
If the green button says 'Approve and Publish', this indicates that you are the only or the final approver for the event and once this is clicked the event will be accessible to the attending students and their families. You will also be prompted at this point with the option to issue an email to the parents of the event attendees to advise them of the event and any consent/payment action required of them.
When an event is fully approved, the Event Organiser will receive an email advising the event is fully approved and published.
For staff who have the EventsAdmin permission, they will see an additional black approval button 'Fully Approve and Publish'.
For staff who have the EventsAdmin permission, they will see an additional black approval button 'Fully Approve and Publish'.
Clicking this will skip all other approving staff and fully approve and publish the event (making it accessible to the attending students and their families).
We generally recommend staff who have this additional permission still adhere to the set notification chain for the event and click the green approval option however there may at times be circumstances when you need to use the alternate option and click 'Fully Approve and Publish'.
If there is an issue with aspects of the event you can choose to decline the event by clicking the red 'Decline' button. Type your reasons for declining in the pop-up and click 'OK'. This will trigger a notification to the event organiser that their request has been declined for the reasons you provided. They can then make the necessary adjustments to the event and re-submit for approval if needed.
We generally recommend staff who have this additional permission still adhere to the set notification chain for the event and click the green approval option however there may at times be circumstances when you need to use the alternate option and click 'Fully Approve and Publish'.
If there is an issue with aspects of the event you can choose to decline the event by clicking the red 'Decline' button. Type your reasons for declining in the pop-up and click 'OK'. This will trigger a notification to the event organiser that their request has been declined for the reasons you provided. They can then make the necessary adjustments to the event and re-submit for approval if needed.
Event Notification Chains
The Notification Chain for an event is the list of staff that are going to be notified of the event and when applicable, staff who will be required to approve the event.
The chain is set at the Template level and cannot be edited by staff creating an event. The templates available for you to choose from when creating an event are set up by the event administrator at your school.
Staff listed in the notification chain with an envelope icon (on the right) are staff who will be notified of the event once it is fully approved and published.
Staff listed with the person icon will be required to approve the event. The approval process will work through the approving staff members in the order they appear on the notification chain.
When staff are yet to be notified of an event or yet to approve an event, they will show with a red x next to their name.
When staff have approved the event or have been notified of the event, they will have a green tick next to their name.
When there is more than one staff member required to give approval for the event, you can ascertain which staff member the event is currently waiting on for approval as they will be the first approving staff member in the list still with a red cross by their name.
Duplicating an Event
Duplicating an event allows you to use an existing or past event as the foundation for your new event. This is a great feature for use with recurring events at your school such as Athletic carnivals, annual camps etc.
To duplicate an event, go to the Organisation menu (grid icon) and click on 'Events'.
Locate the event you would like to duplicate on either the Past Events tab or the Upcoming Events tab.
Click the spanner tool icon for the event and choose 'Duplicate Event' from the list of options.
A pop-up will show on screen for you to set aspects to be included in the new event.
| Event Name | Type in the name of the new Event you are creating. |
| Template | Choose the applicable template you want to use for the new event. This will determine the approval chain of the event and populate that information in the 'Approval Process of Selected Template' section on the right. |
| Copy Attendees | This will bring across the attendees that were in the original event that you are duplicating. Please note this will not bring across students who are no longer active at your school. |
| Copy Staffing | This will bring across the staff that were in the original event that you are duplicating. Please note this will not bring across staff who are no longer active at your school. |
| Copy Resources | This will include any event resources that were added to the original event's Resource tab in your newly created event. |
| Copy Risks | This will bring any risks from the original event's Risk tab into your newly created event. |
Once you have made your selections and named the event, click 'Duplicate' to create your new event.
The new event will be created and you will be taken into that event screen to complete the process.
Accessing Events Online as the Parent/Student
The information in this section pertains to standard single or multi session events.
For information on the parent/student perspective for Opt In events, please refer to the 'Opt In Events' article from our Knowledge Base.
For information on the parent volunteer process for events, please refer to the 'Event Parent Volunteers' article.
Parent Access
When an event that has online consent/payment enabled is published, parents will see a notification on their dashboard.
When they click the notification, they will be taken to their Action Centre page. Here they will see events awaiting their consent/payment on the Action Centre tab.
They can also click to the 'Events' tab to view either Upcoming Events or Past Event information.
To consent/pay online for an event, they need to click the 'Awaiting consent and payment' button for that event.
This will take them into that specific event. They will see an option to download a manual form if needed.
They will then need to work through the aspects of the event.
If the student has any medical information currently on file, it will display in the 'Medical Information' section.
The parent can review what is on file, including the current Action Plan (or plans) on file if applicable for their child, and add any updated medical information into the field if required.
For parents with a child who has a current Action Plan, the parent can be asked to acknowledge the plan as still current before proceeding.
Any information they add will cause an email to be triggered to the designated email address set by your school to alert staff of this new medical information.
The recipient staff member can then follow your school's guidelines for updating this information in your school SIS (CASES, MAZE, SAS etc).
Please contact our Support Team via support@compass.edu.au if you need to update your preferred email address for this process.
Any information included in this field by parents will also be included in the event handbook for this event as a reference for attending staff.
The next section of the online form is the Parent/Guardian Contact Details.
This will show the contact information currently on file. If there is to be a different arrangement on the day of the event or if the details are no longer current, the parent can provide information in the associated field.
Again, any time a parent adds information in this section, an email will be sent to the designated email address for your school. The recipient staff member can then update the information where required in your school's SIS (CASES, MAZE, SAS etc).
Information provided by the parent will also be included in the event's handbook.
If there are Questions associated with the event, the parent will be prompted to respond.
When the event requires consent, there will be a consent section in which the parent can enter their name to provide consent.
When all the required information is entered by the parent, if payment is required for this event they can select their payment option from the drop-down and then click 'Process'.
Depending on how the event was set up, parents may also see the option to select to pay via CSEF (Victorian Schools only) or pay via a Payment Plan.
Please Note: If both the CSEF and Payment Plan options are present, parents will only be able to select one or the other.
When the parent has completed the consent/payment for an event, it will show the status 'Attending'. They can click the event to see details pertaining to the event.
Example Consent Form:
Please note, for events where consent only is required (no payment), the payment section of the consent form would not be included.
For events that are not enabled for online consent/payments, parents can download the consent form from their screen although they will not have received a notification about that event on their dashboard (dashboard notifications pertain to online consent/payment). They would need to click the Organisation menu (grid menu icon) and choose 'Events' from the list of options.
Student Access
Students can view Events requiring consent/payment via their Compass portal and can also download a consent form. They can choose to opt-in or decline opt in events they are invited to.
Online consent or payment for an event cannot be managed via the student portal, only within the parent portal.
To access their event screen, they need to click the Organisation menu (grid icon) and click 'Events'.
They will see any upcoming events.
They can click on an event to view the details. They will also have the option to download the manual consent form.
Events Calendar Layer
All published events will be shown on the Events Calendar layer for your school.
This layer is visible to staff, students and parents via their Compass portals.
To view the school's upcoming events, click the Calendar icon at the top of your Compass screen.
Click the Events layer from the list of Calendar layers on the right to have the events display.
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