It’s a Wrap! Closing Out Your Program Year With Confidence

Closing out your fine arts program can be one of the most stressful parts of your job as an educator or booster leader. Completing this critical administrative work, from reconciling account balances to inventory assignments, can feel nerve-racking for everyone involved.

If you’re a first-time teacher or booster, you may be surprised at all of the tasks that need to be completed for your program. Effectively wrapping up the year means more than just putting away instruments and attire or uniforms. It encompasses several key components, including:

• Communications: Informing students, parents, volunteers, and other stakeholders about end of the year activities, summer performances, camp and clinic plans, and expectations for the next season ahead.
• Financials: Reconciling accounts, addressing outstanding balances, and planning for the next year’s budget.
• Inventory: Accounting for all program-owned items, such as instruments, uniforms, and equipment, and managing their assignments.
• Other areas: Depending on your program, this could include updating student rosters, archiving records, and reflecting on the past year’s successes and challenges.

Navigating these components can present numerous challenges. Educators and boosters often struggle with:

• Keeping track of outstanding payments and credits.
• Ensuring all inventory items are accounted for and in their proper location.
• Communicating effectively with all stakeholders about end-of-year procedures.
• Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks.
• Knowing the optimal order in which to tackle these responsibilities.
• Addressing unexpected issues that always arise.

Each component of the year-end wrap-up has its own nuances. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Advance Planning: Many tasks, such as communicating important dates and deadlines, and reviewing student contact information, can be done in advance.
• Last-Minute Essentials: Some tasks, like final financial reconciliation, will naturally need to occur closer to the end of the year.
• Things to Avoid: Procrastination is a major pitfall. Delaying tasks can lead to a rushed and error-prone closing process. Inconsistent communication can also cause confusion and frustration.

CutTime offers a more streamlined Season Wrap Up workflow designed to make this critical task significantly easier. From advancing members and updating grade levels to handling financial balances and inventory assignments, CutTime helps you navigate the end-of-year process with greater efficiency and accuracy.

The Season Wrap Up Workflow in CutTime - What it is and isn’t

The season wrap-up is a focused workflow within the broader end-of-year procedures. Specifically, this workflow manages the advancement of members to a new season, updates their grade level by one year, handles any remaining inventory assignments from the current season, and addresses any outstanding financial balances.

For those unfamiliar with CutTime's "seasons," think of them as similar to school years, though when they begin and end is entirely up to you. Within CutTime, seasons serve as data containers for year-specific elements such as program memberships, financials, and announcements. Conversely, other areas of CutTime, like inventory, are not season-specific, remaining consistent from year to year. While you typically don't have significant turnover in uniforms or instruments annually, their assignments can change frequently. Therefore, your end-of-year process in CutTime involves managing these different data objects accordingly, with the season wrap-up focusing on the aforementioned season-specific elements.

Set Yourself Up for Success - Recommended Pre Checks

Before getting started with your season wrap-up in CutTime, there are a few things that you can do to set yourself up for a smoother and more simplified experience:

. 1. Making sure that your current season’s member data is up to date:

• Correct grade level is assigned to each student (for the current season, not the upcoming one)
• Verified and complete contact information (student id, date of birth, gender, email and phone number)

It's also a good idea to proactively deactivate any non-graduating students that are not returning to your program next year due. There is no need to take any action on your graduating students; they will be handled automatically as a cohort in the CutTime season wrap-up workflow.

2. Reconcile as much financial information as you can:

• Ensure any outstanding manual payments you have collected are entered into the CutTime Financials payments table. For a quick reminder on how to make these manual entries, view this help article here
• Likewise, if you know some of your members plan to pay their outstanding balances online, send them and their guardians an additional reminder using the “Send payment reminder” button in the student’s membership profile or in the Member Balances table.

Don’t get too concerned about having every dollar in before you plan to close out. Your main goal is to reduce uncertainty around what funds may or may not carry over into your program next year.

3. Get a clear view of your inventory assignments:

• If you have any instruments that are showing as ‘checked out’, but you know have already been returned by a student, make sure to end their assignment in CutTime.
• This is also a great opportunity to reverify that each piece of inventory is listed in the correct Location.

Did you know? We just made it even faster for you and your helpers to check in and end assignments in CutTime. Look for the new ‘Manage Assignments’ toggle option in the top right of your Attire and Instruments dashboards.

Getting Into the CutTime Workflow

For those of you who previously completed the end of year wrap up process through Charms or Classic CutTime, our revamped end-of-year workflow will feel 1000% lighter! If this is your first-time, I’m especially excited for you to experience our guided flow, which is supported by our clever task wizard. Let’s take a little walk through of the flow so you know what to expect:

Step 1 - Launch Workflow and Get Started!

Start by looking for and clicking on the Season card, located in the upper left corner of your CutTime dashboard. This action takes you to a dedicated view of all seasons you’ve previously created as well as currently using within your CutTime account. Depending on your experience, you may have a prior season with the status of ‘wrap-up complete’. You’ll also see the ‘default season’, which indicates the present season for your program. Click on the three dots to open a menu, and select the “wrap up season” option. You will be taken into a dedicated workflow that is a bit detached from the rest of CutTime, meaning the main navigation is replaced by our task wizard. The reason for this approach is to ensure you are free of distractions while working on your wrap-up tasks. Hopefully you have completed some or most of the recommended pre-check items. It’s okay if you haven’t - you’ll have opportunities to manually edit individuals along the way BEFORE you complete the wrap up process :)

Step 2 - Set Up Your Next Season

Depending on your individual case - you may have the following options:

• Suggested Season - preloaded suggested season with an estimated start date (e.g. 2025-2026 Season with start date of June 1, 2025)
• Use Already Created Season - if you’ve already created a season for the next year, you can just select it from the drop down menu
• Add a Season - if no seasons have been created, you can set one up and select it

Feel free to adjust the name and start date to your choosing. Keep in mind that the season name will be displayed on the season card navigation and on the member/guardian dashboards when they log in. It’s best to lead with the years and keep it concise!

Step 3 - Set Grade of Graduation for Members

Next, you’ll need to tell CutTime the highest level that a student can be before “graduating” out of your specific program. Some quick examples of what this might look like:

• High school programs - grade of graduation is typically 12th grade
• Middle school programs - grade of graduation is typically 8th grade
• Junior high school programs - grade of graduation may be 9th or 10th

Setting the graduation grade level tells CutTime NOT to create a new membership for these individuals in the next season you have created. Don’t worry, there is an option to manually override this setting for specific members towards the end of the wrap up workflow. You can also set specific students that are not in the grade of graduation with a ‘non-returning’ status. Keep reading as I’ll come back to this handy feature in the later steps.

Step 4 - Handling for Member Balances

Deciding how to handle your program’s financials going into the next year is one of the most complex and stressful parts of the wrap up process. We spent considerable time studying the complexities and talking with our users on the multiple pitfalls that took out one too many director or booster’s sanity. Our improved workflow will now handle four key scenarios - the first two deal with members that are continuing next season, and the last two deal with members that are graduating or not returning to your program for the next season.

For continuing members that still owe money / balance due - you can:

• Carry balances over into your next season, which will create starting balance due entries for each applicable member.
• Withdraw and cover them with the Angel fund (holding area for student credits), which pulls money out of the Angel fund to cover those specific balances, bringing these individuals into the next season with a blank financial slate.
• Set balances to zero and forgive the debt, which allows these individuals to start the next season with a blank financial slate.

For continuing members that have credits / over-credits - you can:

• Carry credits over into your next season, which will create starting credit balance entries for each applicable member.
• Transfer them to the Angel fund (holding area for student credits), which pulls money from those member balances into the Angel fund, bringing these individuals into the next season with a blank financial slate.
• Set balances to zero and erase the credit, which brings these individuals into the next season with a blank financial slate.

If an individual doesn't return to the program next season, they will not be given a program membership in that season, which means they cannot carry over any financial information.

For graduating members that still owe money / balance due - you can:

• Withdraw and cover them with the Angel fund (holding area for student credits), which pulls money out of the Angel fund to cover those specific balances.
• Set balances to zero and forgive the debt.

For graduating members that have credits / over-credits - you can:

Transfer them to the Angel fund (holding area for student credits), which pulls money from those member balances into the Angel fund.

Set balances to zero and erase the credit.

I recommend having an 80/20 handling rule in mind to apply for each member cohort. It’s important to reconcile your financial data before you start the season wrap-up so you avoid applying a strategy that has you covering ‘ghost amounts’ with your Angel Fund that actually don’t need to be covered and vice versa, you avoid losing valuable credits that could have otherwise gone towards deficits. Also, remember that any inactive members will be treated as ‘graduating’ in this step.

Step 5 - Handling for Member Inventory Assignments

The strategies here are very similar to the options presented in the Member Balances step.

For continuing members that have active inventory assignments:

• Carry assignments over into your next season, which will create new assignment entries in each relevant inventory category for each member.
• Set assignments to end and do not import these entries into the next season.

For graduating members that have active inventory assignments:

• Set assignments to end and do not import these entries into the next season.

The carry assignment option for continuing members is useful for a few situations. For example, you’ve made a specific summer camp assignment or you might allow instrument and uniform checkout during someone’s freshman year and they keep those items into their sophomore year.

Pro Tip: I suggest that you end any applicable inventory assignments before you begin your season wrap up, and begin the wrap up process with only assignments you intend to carry over to the next season. It is easier to track down missing inventory items if you can easily see which ones have not been returned, and conversely, you can avoid some confusion next season if you don’t accidentally carry over assignments that should have been ended.

Step 6 - Review and Finish Your Wrap Up

Ah, the home stretch! You can taste the sweet freedom that awaits you :) The goal here is to review and finish validating the choices you’ve made up to this point in the workflow. You’ll see a beautiful table display of all your program student members, with the following information:

• Progression status - for those advancing a grade level, you will see those listed.
• Member balance strategies - which of these options will be applied - balance carry over, transfer to/from Angel Fund, or reset to zero.
• Inventory assignment strategies - assignment carry over or ended.

At this point, you also have the opportunity to perform a manual override of any of the bulk handling strategies for grade progression, member balance, or inventory assignment handling. Oh you say, some of these are wrong. Rest easy! Our clever task wizard enables you to modify your selections and make adjustments to any individual member!

For example, you see for Suzie that her default inventory handling strategy is set to carry over an instrument assignment, but she just returned it the night before, so the assignment should end instead. Easy - just click on Suzie in the table and change the selection to ‘end assignment’. Save and you will see the strategy updated.

Or, you see Bobby’s progression indicates advancement to 10th grade level in the next season of your program. But perhaps Bobby is transferring to a new school next year and you didn't mark him as ‘inactive’ before you got to this step. Peace of cake - click on Bobby, set him to graduating, and then select a new member balance strategy since he won’t carry financial information into your next season.

Use the filters or search by an individual member name if you have someone that you need to review more carefully. Tip - you can ‘save’ your work. Then go back to the Seasons page and use the three dots to “Export Members” and print out a copy to do a final check of everybody individually just to make sure you haven't missed anything that may need further adjustment before submission.

If you’re happy, hit that ‘Finish’ button and you'll get a last chance confirmation before it’s final. Once submitted, you can go back to your seasons page, where CutTime will start to process your season wrap-up. Depending on the size of your program, give it a couple seconds to a minute and refresh your web browser. You’ll see that the season's wrap-up is complete, and your new season here is now set to my default ‘active’ season. Congratulations, you’re done! It feels great, doesn’t it?!

Popular Questions We’ve Received from Customers About the End of Year Wrap Up Workflow

Do I have to complete the wrap up workflow in order to not lose my information? What if I need more time?

If you get partway through your season wrap-up process and you need to save and come back later, you can do that! Look for the ‘Save & Exit’ button located in the top right corner of the wrap up flow screen. When you’re ready, just click on your season card to go back to the Seasons area and select wrap up season, and the task wizard will bring you into the next step to be completed.

What if I want to go back to a previously completed step? Can I do that?

Yep! Just click on the ‘back’ hyperlink in green, located in the top center of the screen just above the task header. The task wizard will jump you back to the previous step and show the current selections, which you can alter if desired.

What if I need to start over and clear all of my choices? Can I do that?

Yes, you also have an option to cancel the wrap up workflow, which will clear all of the choices that you made. This action brings you back to step one and begins the process anew.

Can I go back and look at a student member’s previous season data? How do I do that?

The beauty of how ‘Seasons’ are designed in CutTime is that you can toggle seamlessly between them when you need to research a piece of historical information. Just click or tap on the Season card to access the Seasons page, use the three dots to ‘Edit’, ‘Export Members’, or temporarily make it your ‘default’ so the data is displayed and you can navigate it using the main side menu.

When you navigate to the Members dashboard, you’ll see the name of your season has changed in the top left, and see a message indicating the season is in ‘wrapped up’ mode. You will have view-only access to transaction history and previous inventory assignments - no further edits are possible once the season has been wrapped up in CutTime.

What if I need to communicate with my next season’s members BEFORE I actually begin that season?

If you have members that need to begin receiving communication in advance of the next season, you can always create your new season early and begin importing new members there. Once they are added, you can send announcements in the new season before toggling back to your current one. When you’re ready to wrap up your current season, any memberships that already exist in the new season will still be there, and the new memberships coming from the season wrap up will just be added to the list. Alternatively, you can add incoming new members to your current season instead of your new one and simply carry them over during your regular season wrap up - just be aware that they will also see the current season calendar, receive any full-program announcements for the current season, etc.

A word of caution, when you change your default season it will change to this view for EVERYBODY in your program. Be sure to do what you need quickly and then quickly toggle back into the current active season for your program to prevent someone looking at the wrong data for your current program.

I have feeder school kids that I need to export and share. How and when do I do this?

Our development team is hard at work on a new process that will allow you to send members directly to other programs in your district, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks! In the meantime, you can go back to the Seasons page and select ‘Export Members’ from the menu behind the three dots for that specific season. You’ll get an export with all of your members and you can easily filter out the non-graduating student members and share with your colleagues. See more about this process in the article here.

If I add next season's events into this season for my students and guardians, will these be automatically moved into the next season I create for my program?

Not yet. We are working on strategies for handling events in our wrap up workflow. For now, you can create these ‘future entries’ in your current season. We hope to have a solution in place to allow for visibility across seasons to reduce individual creation work. Stay tuned to our Product Update newsletter and Facebook page for updates!

Is there anything else I need to know about wrapping up my season?

Our End of Year help article covers the other aspects of closing out the season that are not included in the Season Wrap Up workflow. And if you have any other questions, you can always reach out to CutTime Support using the chat beacon in the app, emailing support@gocuttime.com, or drop into one of our weekly office hours sessions.