HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
March key dates and reporting deadlines
Date
Key Date or deadline
31 March
Final date to report your VET Student Submissions and VET Student
Revision Submissions
Remember this is the final transfer of 2014 data (including revisions to
students’ debts) to the Australian Taxation Office.
Remember you can submit any time before the due date. Plan well!
Please don’t leave your submissions until the last day.
The key dates and reporting deadlines calendar lists all the dates
you need to remember.
HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
Survey Outcomes
Thanks to everyone who completed our HEIMS Data Collections survey. What did we learn?
Our survey has given us a great opportunity to better understand what works best for you
and how we can continue to improve our support and resources.
Every year we look for new and better ways to assist you in meeting your reporting
obligations. 2014 was a big year for improvements to the HEIMSHELP website and our
training.
The improved HEIMSHELP site search, powered by Google, has been a great success with a
67% increase in use of the search box in 2014.
Our webinars have been incredibly popular with 37 training sessions on 13 topics with a
total of 1,896 attendees.
We have already commenced work in response to your comments and suggestions in our
survey.
Many people use their phones to manage both personal and professional schedules. We
have created a public Google calendar that you can access through your Google account and
iCal. Subscribing to our calendars will allow you to receive notices through your calendar app
of choice. We have also created .ICS files for import to Outlook. You can access these
calendars via links on the HEIMSHELP Key Dates and Reporting Deadlines Calendars page.
We will be providing departmental, government and training calendars soon. We’ll let you
know on the HEIMSHELP front page when they’re ready.
In response to your comments about downloading Scopes and Structures you may now
download a package with all documents for each collection.
While our training webinars have proved very popular and convenient, many of you have
requested that we increase group training in your states. We are currently looking for
opportunities to provide more of these training sessions.
We have provided the results of the 2014 survey in a PowerPoint presentation. The
presentation can be downloaded at the link below.
2014 HEIMS Client Support Services Survey Results
If you do not have MS PowerPoint available you may download a viewer from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=13
Microsoft doesn’t provide a PowerPoint viewer for the current Mac operating system. If you
use Mac then you may either install the viewer on the same machine as HEPCAT or view the
2014 Client Services Support Survey PDF.
http://heimshelp.education.gov.au
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HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
Final 2014 submission
Don't miss your last chance to send 2014 student debts and revisions to the ATO before tax
time!
The final 2014 VET Student and revisions submissions are due on 31 March. Planning ahead
and organising these submissions across the next couple of weeks may help reduce the last
minute workload for you at the end of the month.
This is also your last opportunity to report all students HELP debts
and revisions to debts for 2014! In April we commence the final
transfer of data to the ATO prior to the ATO’s issuing of notices of
assessment for 2014-15.
Check out our new Reporting to the ATO page for all the
timeframes and information you need on the reporting of HELP
data to the ATO.
Remember the ATO no longer has an urgent manual revision
process if you have late data to report.
Don’t forget that the VET unit of study completions and VET course completions data are
also due in April. If you can report these submissions before you commence the verification
of your 2014 data on 15 April you may also help to simplify your workload over the coming
two months.
Training - what's on in March?
Check out our training sessions for March and April. Do you need more? Contact us!
Regular training on all reporting topics is available throughout the year. Check our training
dates in March and April to see what sessions will most suit your needs.
We have organised our core training around each of the quarterly reporting dates so that all
the information you need to meet each deadline will be readily available for you well before
the due dates.
Our Getting Started sessions for new providers are available in the
first week of each month throughout the year.
6 weeks before each reporting date you can attend our sessions on
how to report your data using HEPCAT
Our sessions on understanding validations and simple strategies to
resolve validation errors occur 4 weeks before each reporting date.
http://heimshelp.education.gov.au
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HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
Looking for something extra?
We also offer individual training sessions, giving you an opportunity to work directly with our
team. We plan these sessions around your needs; you can travel to Canberra and work with
our team or we can set up a customised webinar for you if this is more convenient. You
decide what works best for your organisation.
If you would like to organise a customised training session please contact us.
During the year we also provide special interest training sessions to address particular issues
or to notify you of any impending changes or new functionality. Details of these training
sessions are provided in our newsletters and will also be available from our training
calendar.
The table below lists the training sessions planned for March and April. If you would like to
attend any of these sessions you will need to click on the link to register.
Date and Time
Webinar
3 March - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEDT
Register now
Validating your data
10 March - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEDT
Register now
Reporting – Getting Started
12 March - 2.00 to 2.45pm AEDT
Register now
New Student Concordance submission
1 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEDT
Register now
Reporting Completions data
7 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Reviewing your reported data
9 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Revising your data
14 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Reporting - Getting Started
15 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Simplifying Verification
http://heimshelp.education.gov.au
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HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
Date and Time
Webinar
20 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Reporting with HEPCAT Part 1
22 April - 2.00 to 3.00pm AEST
Register now
Reporting with HEPCAT Part 2
New version of HEPCAT
A new version of HEPCAT will be available on 5 March 2015. What's changed this time?
Please note that all HEIMS systems will be unavailable on 4 March
for the new release to be migrated to production.
The key change in this release is the introduction of the Student Concordance submission.
The Student Concordance submission will enable you to link two Student Identification
codes (element 313) you have previously reported to HEIMS for the same student. Prior to
this release student concordances could only be processed with assistance of the
department.
You may notice some slight delays when opening HEPCAT for the first time after installing
the new version, as your latest course data is copied from HEIMS to HEPCAT.
Other changes in this release
The other key HEPCAT changes in this release include:
1. Validation 1314 on the Enrolment (EN) and VET Enrolment (VEN) files has been
modified to correct a fault.
2. Validation 7037 on the Load/Liability (LL) and Revised Load/Liability (RL) has been
introduced to prevent domestic students being reported against overseas Student
Status codes (element 490)
Full details of all new HEPCAT and HEIMS functionality and a list of all new and updated
validations, is in the release notes available on the Reporting with HEPCAT toolkit page.
Are you having difficulties installing the latest version of HEPCAT? Our common issues page
may help you resolve these issues. If you find that the issues are still occurring please
contact our team for further assistance.
http://heimshelp.education.gov.au
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HEIMS Data Collections
VET FEE-HELP eNews
- printer friendly version March 2015
Back up your database
When a new version of HEPCAT is released we invariably receive calls from distressed
providers who didn't back up their database prior to installation. Please remember:

the department cannot replace your database if it is lost, deleted or corrupted. As we do
not have access to your version of HEPCAT or the database on your computer we cannot
replicate this for you.

your data management processes should include regular back-ups of your HEPCAT
database to protect against loss of data or system failure.
For information on backing up your database see part three of the HEPCAT user guide.
Have you changed your Student Management System?
If you have a new student management system you need to let us know.
Take a look at our Changes to Student Administration systems on HEIMSHELP for more
information.
http://heimshelp.education.gov.au
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