Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
I have a Scout nearing Eagle, so I am doing lots of checking of the status of merit badges and that they are recorded in Scoutbook and IA. I have noticed that when I ask Scoutbook to run the Incomplete Merit Badge report on this Scout that it opens Internet Advancement’s reporting function and will run the report there. However, the information is not correct. When I look at the Scout’s profile on IA, the merit badge listing is not correct. It doesn’t show two merit badges as started, even though he has not only started them but completed them. These were both started a while ago, one completed 4 months ago and one completed 2 weeks ago. Scoutbook shows an accurate representation, but the report generated out of IA (including the profile data) is not accurate. How is this fixed? (And the geek in me wants to know how it happened.) I am concerned as he finishes his project and prepares for Eagle that the reports generated by Council will not be accurate.
They have been marked by the MBC but not by the Leader. However, other merit badges that are in process, and have been for a while - Cooking, do show. These two, Camping and Entrepreneurship show in IA as not even started and the others that are in process show the percent complete, matching Scoutbook.
So it is two merit badges showing as not started at all, when they are in fact complete and signed off by the MBC. The other merit badges that are incomplete, therefore not signed off by anyone yet, are showing as started and have the partial completion noted.
The Leader signing off doesn’t seem to be the issue, since that wouldn’t be present in a partially completed MB. It is the fact they show not even started (when one was started a few years ago).
Camping is version 2018, Entrepreneurship is version 2014.
I am not worried about the Leader approved, unless it will magically make something appear. What I am saying the issue is that they are not showing up as started, when Camping was started a few years ago and Entrepreneurship a year or two ago. The fact that merit badges that were started years ago are showing up in Internet Adv as not even started, when clearly Scoutbook shows them started and monitored progress until completion, is a problem. The Scouts BSA history report shows Camping as completed but waiting Leader approval. It is totally missing Entrepreneurship.
There are clearly synchronization issues between the pieces of software using the database. Something isn’t data mapped correctly or indexed correctly or some other data issue.
There is no sync between SB and IA. They both read from the same DB. I am asking the developers to investigate why these MBs do not appear in IA for this Scout.
Scoutbook and Internet Advancement use the same database, so there isn’t a synchronization issue. It sounds like there might be a difference between the user interfaces and how they determine whether or not a merit badge has been “started” in Scoutbook.
However, the important thing is that the merit badges get marked as approved by a leader in the unit.
Once the MBs are Leader Approved they will appear in the Eagle verification tool used by the registrars. The Scout should also use the Eagle Application from Scoutbook as that is guaranteed to have the same MB dates that the Council will see when they verify the Eagle application.
Thanks, I was using “sync” rather loosely meaning that the information that should be “in sync” between the two because they use the same database.
I think that there is more of a data mapping problem where fields in IA are not mapped correctly to the database and therefore not getting the information as it is updated in Scoutbook into the database.
We used Scoutbook almost exclusively, so I am only now really seeing Internet Adv. I really don’t want to go looking at other Scout’s accounts to see if they are showing the same gaps.
The Eagle Application is also not showing the two merit badges, although I know that is because they wait for leader approval. I figure that it will somehow get fixed, either by sitting with the registrar to fix it or the software will figure out that he has been working these merit badges for a while and now they are completed and approved.
The thing that is concerning me is that they show in his IA profile as not even started when Scoutbook has them started and completed.
That has never really been a question. I assumed they would show up, although I worry about these two merit badges because how can a leader approve something if it hasn’t been started? Why do these two merit badges not show started, even if they don’t show completed, when other merit badges show started and show the progress toward completion?
These are the questions. My assumption is that it will all eventually work out either by manual adjustments or the glitch in the system working itself out. However, it doesn’t change the fact that some merit badges are not showing even as started in IA’s profile and merit badge listing for a Scout, despite diligent recording of progress by the Scout and the MBC.
Just to be clear, they will not “automatically show up” unless a registered leader in the unit marks them as Leader Approved, whether or not they are marked as Counselor Approved. The former is the final step needed to trigger “credit” in the system.
There may be a display issue in IA (as @edavignon has requested the developers to investigate). However, if a merit badge is marked as Completed in the database to which Scoutbook (and IA) interface, then it should appear in the “Needs Approval” report. That would be how a scouter using Scoutbook would see the merit badge requires approval. Similarly, in the IA interface, there is a list of “Pending Items” that appears for scouters whose registered/functional positions permit them to “Leader Approve” things in IA.
The MBs need to be marked leader approved in Scoutbook. I suspect they will then appear in IA too even before whatever bug is preventing them from showing is fixed.
Can you run the Incomplete MB Report again and provide the Ref: ID line at the bottom of the report? This will allow the developers to get information about your specific case.
