Populi is not consistent on how it does an alphabetical order of student names. Usually it is by last name but there are lists that can be alphabetized by first name. Sometimes the column is called "Name" and sometimes it is called "Student" There are many examples of this but here is one: in Financial>Billing>By Term a list of the tuition schedules is alphabetized by last name and the column is called "Student" But if I go to Financial>Billing>Recurring Payments the list is alphabetized by first name and the column is still called "Student" How does Populi decide if a name is going to be alphabetized by first name or by last name. Is it random? I suggest that every list\report has the ability to sort by first name or by last name. This is how you do list for Financial>Billing>Reporting>Refunds. There is a column for "Student" and it is by last name and a column for "Payee Name" and that is by first name
5 comments
-
Jessi Harper It would also be nice if it was consistent on showing the student's full name or preferred name. Even better if we could set that ourselves, as is appropriate for our task.
-
Adam Sentz Steve Ward - The one place you mentioned where Student name is alphabetized by first name is, I believe, a mistake. I've opened an internal ticket to check into that. Sorting should be by last name everywhere that's a list of people names only. Payee name isn't alphabetized by last name because it can be a mix of people names and organization names so it just has to be alphabetized as a raw string of text. That might look awkward if it's all a list of names, but since it could be a mixed list that's how it has to work.
Jessi Harper - The Populi Name field is displayed pretty much everywhere and can be set to whatever you want. There are some exceptions; places where it makes more sense to have the legal name, and you can toggle between "full name" and Populi Name on profiles if you have the necessary permissions. If there's anywhere in particular that looks off let us know in a support request and we'll check it out.
-
Steve Ward Adam Sentz, I suggest that before you claim that I am mistaken you first go to Financial>Billing>Recurring Payments and confirm that the list is alphabetized by first name and the column is still called "Student" If you send me your email address i can send you a screen shot. I disagree with you that "sorting should be by last name everywhere" if you are saying that should be the only choice. What I am suggesting is that there be both. Two columns for names: one that is sorted by last name and another column that can be sorted by first name. As I reported previously, this is how its done for Financial>Billing>Reporting>Refunds. There is a column for "Student" and it is by last name and a column for "Payee Name" and that is by first name. Please check it out and confirm and let me know if you can't find that.
-
Adam Sentz Steve Ward - I didn't claim that you were mistaken. I said I believe it's a mistake [with the system] and said that we'll look into to. Stating that, "Sorting should be by last name..." was a statement supporting my previous sentence. As in: if it's not working like that it's probably a mistake.
I understand that you are requesting separate first and last name columns everywhere with sorting. I'm not sure what the utility of ubiquitous first name sort would be, but maybe this will got a lot of upvotes. We'll see!
I already explained why Payee Name works as it does. Please reread my previous comment. I also looked at all of your examples on your instance of Populi before responding. -
Steve Ward Adam Sentz sorry Adam I misread your comment and thought you were saying I was mistaken. The utility of being able to sort by first name is that many of the excel sheets, financial aid reports and bank ach payee database etc use one field for the name so the only way to sort the field is by first name. If there is no separate field for last name then the sorting must be by first name and if Populi only sorts by last name it is hard to integrate the two reports but obviously the list in Populi can be downloaded to excel and a sort can be run using first name but my objective is to have the display in Populi offer first name sorting so I can do a quick visual on the two lists and see if anyone is missing