A: The “Sign Up By End Date” is just a renaming of the “Sign Up By” option that was there previously. This lets you set the minimum number of days in advance for a student to sign up for an opportunity. Entering the number “7” would mean that students can sign up for an opportunity no less than 7 days before it is scheduled. Entering a negative number, like “-20”, means that students have to sign up for this opportunity no later than the 20th of the previous month. Entering a specific date, such as “12/15/2015”, means that students must sign up for this opportunity by that specific date.

“Sign Up By Start Date” is a new addition to Platinum Planner. Previously, when an opportunity(or group of opportunities) was set up, students would be able to sign up for them immediately, no matter how far in the future they were scheduled. This would sometimes lead to students signing up for clinical shifts WAY in advance, and long before they knew what their schedules would be like in the future.

To help create a specific window in which students can sign up for a future opportunity, we’ve added the “Sign Up By Start Date”. This would be when they can first see an opportunity listed under “Available Opportunities” and sign up for it. In a similar way to the “Sign Up By End Date”, entering a number like “30” here would mean that students can only begin signing up for this opportunity 30 days before it’s scheduled. A negative number, like “-2”, would mean that students can only start signing up for this opportunity on the 2nd of the previous month. And entering a date means that students can begin signing up for this opportunity on or after the specified date you entered.

With these two options you can now begin setting up specific timeframes where students can sign up for opportunities. For example, entering 60 in the “Sign Up By Start Date” and 7 in the “Sign Up By End Date” would mean that students can begin signing up for this opportunity 60 days before it’s scheduled, and cannot sign up for it less than 7 days before it’s scheduled.

The “Sign Up By Start Date” is also an optional feature. If you enjoy the way you’ve been setting up opportunities, or don’t want to specify when students can begin signing up for an opportunity, you can leave the box blank rather than entering a number or a date. This will cause the word “Any” to appear in the “Sign Up By Start Date” field, and students can view and sign up for this opportunity at any point before the “Sing Up By End Date” is reached.

If you have any additional questions/comments do not hesitate to Contact Customer Support, or via phone at 616-818-7877.