CEDARWOOD Module Descriptions

Overview

CEDARWOOD was designed, at its core, as a registration system designed to meet the specific needs of continuing education providers.  We refer to these fully-developed modules as Core Modules.  A few other modules have been added for the optional management of related data.  We refer to these as Bonus Modules, as their use is not critical to the core functionality of the system.  The third type of module is a Supporting Module, which allows you to control the values in various fields.  Below is a list of the modules provided.

Core Modules

Organizations

For ESA's, organizations are most often schools, districts, cooperatives, and related agencies.  These are the organizations for whom you provide services and are the employers of your workshop registrants.  CEDARWOOD allows each organization to have a "parent organization" for sorting and billing purposes - such as a district office would be for a school.

People

The People Module contains a record for each person who gives or receives services to your organization.  This includes your own staff, the presenters that you hire, and your participants.  In this module, you can maintain each person's contact information, review each person's registration history, see what workshops each person has presented, and perform a variety of tasks.

Registrations

At its simplest, a registration record is the joining of a person with a workshop.  The registration record also contains information about the rate being charged, the payments received, attendance, credit awarded, and records the organization for which the participant worked at the time of the registration (as some participants may work in several school districts over the course of their careers.)

Workshops

Any training for which credit is being awarded or for which you want participants to register becomes a "workshop" and has a record in the Workshops Module.  In this workshop, you will detail information about the course content, select a presenter, schedule rooms through a portal to the Calendar Module, set options for if and how the workshop will appear on the Online Registration System, set costs, indicate catering requests, and specify room setup and equipment needs.

Calendar

Maintaining a room usage calendar in isolation from your registration database would require the double-entry and double-updating of information.  So, we decided to build a calendaring system right into CEDARWOOD.  Workshop records are automatically added to the calendar.  You may also add other non-workshop events onto the calendar.  Overnight entries (such as blocking a room for temporary storage) are supported.  A variety of calendar filters can be used to quickly view scheduling conflicts, catering needs, technology needs, and off-site events.

Finances

The Finances area consists of 4 related modules:

• Contracts - Manage contracts for those you hire to present workshops, contracts with schools to provide services, or any other contract you can imagine.  Contracts link directly to related records in other modules, when appropriate.  For example, a contract for a presenter of a specific workshop can be reached with the click of a button from the workshop record.  Or, you can look at the presenter's record within the People Module and access any contracts with that person.
• Payables (Optional) - Create Purchase Orders that are tied to contracts or that stand alone, with the benefit of being able to tie directly to the Organizations and People data that you already have on file.  Note that not all CEDARWOOD clients choose to utilize this functionality.  The decision usually relies upon the extent to which your bookkeeping software handles PO's and the need to have non-bookkeeping staff creating PO's.
• Receivables (Optional) - CEDARWOOD can be used to create and manage two types of invoices:
  • Registration Invoices - You can ask the system to generate invoices for registrations with non-zero balances for a given time period (for example, to do a monthly billing) or for a specific workshop.  All registrations matching the criteria you specify will be grouped by Parent Organization (school district, etc.) and grouped into one invoice.
  • Non-Registration Invoices - You can create invoices that are not tied to the Registrations module.  These invoices can be tied to a contract or stand alone.  One contract may have several invoices associated with it, if appropriate.  Note that not all CEDARWOOD clients choose to utilize this functionality.  The decision usually relies upon the extent to which your bookkeeping software handles invoices and the need to have non-bookkeeping staff generate invoices.

Bonus Modules

Certificates and Degrees

In addition to issuing CEU's or other forms of credit, some continuing education providers issue special certificates for the completion of a series of workshops or for fulfilling state or industry requirements.  These can be tracked within CEDARWOOD.

Inventory Items

For those who use the Purchase Order abilities within CEDARWOOD, we offer a basic inventory tracking module.  Inventory items can be tied to the PO's used to purchase them.  Reports can be generated to show items that are still on inventory and their current locations.

Vendors

This module allows those who utilize the Purchase Order abilities within CEDARWOOD to maintain a database of vendors that are separate from the organizations served.  For example, your office supply vendor can be accessed through this module, rather than mixing in with the schools and districts in your Organizations module.

Supporting Modules

Supporting modules allow each CEDARWOOD client to manage the lists and options given to their users within the database, without the need for contacting a programmer.  Clients can manage:

• Budget Codes (3 sections)
• Catering Options
• Cohorts
• Company Credit Cards
• Contract Types
• Counties/Parishes
• Credit Types (including options to allow for partial credit and rounding)
• Delivery Routes
• Departments (Academic or Industry Departments)
• Grants
• Inventory Locations
• Meeting Spaces / Locations
• Organization Types and Subtypes
• Position Classifications and Titles
• Programs for Organizations
• Regions
• Room Setup: Seating Arrangements
• Room Setup: Supplies
• Room Setup: Technology Requests
• Workshop Target Audiences
• Workshop Types