The RISC Contact Reports Module

A further module in RISC is the Contact Reports Module (CRM). This product uses the Microsoft Word 2000 or later word processor and mail merge facility as is used by the Form Letters Module to allow for detailed contact reports to be typed up and attached to a contact record.

This module was developed to allow for schools to keep a more thorough record of any serious issues where the Contact Description and Actions fields are not sufficiently large enough to store all the necessary details.

With the report in true word processor form, rather than just raw text as is the case with RISC data fields, users can format text, insert photos, merge data from the RISC contact record, and store pages of details for any one contact. It is suggested that you refer to the previous chapter, the RISC Form Letters Module for more details about how RISC integrates with MS Word.

Once a contact report is saved, it is permanently attached to its contact record. Whenever the contact record is called up via normal searching procedures, its report can be accessed for viewing, updating and printing. This is also the case with Archived databases. When you archive a database it also archives all attached reports so they continue to stay with the specific record. All contact records with attached reports are automatically updated to reflect a "CRM Update: <Date>" in the Contact Action field. It is then a simple task to search for a "CRM" in the Contact Action field to find all contacts with a Contact Report.

The Attach a Report button on the main RISC form accesses the Contact Reports Module.  The Report button only becomes active when there is a saved contact record on the screen.

Starting the Contact Reports Module:

Since Contact Reports are attached to contact records, there must first be a saved contact record on the RISC form before the Attach a Report button becomes active. A saved contact record is one that has been already allocated a Contact Number at the top right of the form.

With a saved contact on the RISC form, click the Attach a Report button (beside the Print Form button).  NOTE: You cannot use the Contact Reports Module if you have Read-only access to RISC.

The Contact Reports Module will load and you will either be shown a new empty report form if no report previously existed for this contact, or the previously saved report will be loaded.

Creating a New Contact Report:

If there was no contact report previously saved for this contact number, the Contact Reports Module will automatically load up a new report template which is already filled in at the top with the Student's Name, RISC Contact Number, Roll Class (Home Room), Home Phone Number, Parent Contact and the Contact Date. A separation line divides this report header information from the body of the report which starts where the prompt "type report here..." is shown. Simply type over this prompt with the content of your report. 

The RISC Controls Toolbox will automatically be opened and will stay on top of MS Word at all times.  You must use these toolbox controls to Save RISC Contact Report and Close MS Word and Return to RISC.

When you save the report, the Contact Action field in RISC will be updated to show that a contact report is attached. You should Save Updated Form to keep this information in the Contact Record. As well as this, the contact itself is tagged with a 4 symbol which is attached to the contact beside the Contact Number field on the RISC form.

Opening an Existing Contact Report:

Whenever you call up a contact record that has the pages symbol (as shown above), beside the Contact Number field, it means an existing Contact Report is attached. Simply clicking the View/Edit Report button will open that Contact Report.

You can view, edit or print this Contact Report as desired. If and when you Save the report with it's changes using the Save RISC Contact Report button, the Contact Action field in RISC will again be written to, to show another CRM update has occurred on the current date. You must Save Updated Form in RISC to store this information. This then keeps track of the dates when modifications to the attached contact report occurred. 

Searching RISC for Contacts with Attached Reports:

Since the Contact Reports Module writes the same string of text to the Contact Action field every time a contact report is saved, it is simply a matter of searching for that string. With a blank form, type in CRM into the Contact Action field and click the Search Using Defined Fields button. RISC will then search the entire database and place all records with this string into the Table View.

You can of course, further restrict this list by searching for CRM in the Contact Action field, and say, Year 8 in the Year field. This will bring up all contacts associated with Year 8 that have a Contact Report attached. 

Modifying the Master Contact Reports Template:

The Contact Reports Module is supplied with a Master Template for new reports which basically comprises a header section containing certain fields from the RISC contact record, followed by a dividing line and space to type in your report (as shown in the screen shot above). This template is loaded automatically when a new contact report is started to give all RISC Contact Reports the same look and feel. The name of the template file is REPTMAST.DOC and it resides in the \RISC\DATA\REPORTS folder.

Some schools may wish to edit this Master Template to insert their own school name, utilize a different base font (Arial, 10 point is the default) or insert different RISC Data Fields. Modifying the Master Template is quite an easy task.  Simply open the REPTMAST.DOC file using MS Word separately and make the desired changes, then save the file.

To verify the Master Template has been changed, click the Attach a Report button in RISC to start a new report. The displayed template should be as you last saved it. 

Quitting Without Saving the Contact Report:

If you accidentally click the Report button and the Contact Reports Module is loaded with a new report template, you can simply exit (Close MS Word and Return to RISC on the RISC Controls toolbar), and you will be returned to RISC with no new report attached. This is also the case when you open an existing report. If you quit without saving, the report will revert to its previous version.

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The Register of Individual Student Contact (RISC) is developed & distributed
by Marillion Designs.

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