Verifying USI Numbers in Salesforce

Salesforce provides the capability to verify students USI numbers. Verifying a Student's USI number means checking their name and date of birth against the government USI registry to determine if the number they have provided belongs to them. 

Checking a student USI numbers has been incorporated into Salesforce in a number of ways - 

  1. You can validate a students USI number directly from their Student record within Salesforce
  2. When making a booking within Salesforce, you can easily validate the USI number of any student you add to a Course as an attendee
  3. When reviewing a roster for any Course, you have the ability to validate any student's USI number without leaving the rostering page

The following guides detail the steps to validate a USI number for any of these scenarios. 

1. Verifying from a Student Record

You can verify a USI from any student record within Salesforce. Simply select the 'Validate USI' button from the top right of the page.

Once selected, you will be presented with this dialogue.

NOTE - if the Student does not have the First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth and Unique Student Identifier fields completed, the page will show an error message. You are unable to validate a USI number unless these fields are completed.

To validate the USI number, simply press the 'Validate USI' button. This will query the government database and ensure that the provided USI number is the correct one. If the USI is validated successfully, you will receive a success message.

If the USI number does not verify, you will receive an error message. This error message will indicate what the problem may be. 

  •  In this example, we can see that the Date of Birth and Last Name fields match, but not the First Name. This is a common problem with USI verification. Student's will often write their name differently when they registered for their USI number as to when they signed up to take a training course with St John (e.g Matthew and Matt). 

Salesforce makes it easy to manage this issue. You will notice that the First Name and Last Name fields in the USI Validation dialogue can be edited. You can change these fields and select 'Validate USI' again to attempt the verification with a modified name.

Making changes to these fields does not affect the name saved for the Student in Salesforce. Instead, it updates the 'USI First Name' and 'USI Last Name' fields on the Student record. These fields are separate from the standard name fields and provide a way to determine exactly what name was used to validate a student's USI number. You can see these fields in the screenshot below.

NOTE - the USI First Name and USI Last Name fields will only be filled out on the Student record once a USI has been verified successfully, locking them in as the correct credentials.

The 'USI Details' section can be found on any Student record and shows everything you need to know about a student's USI. 

  • Unique Student Identifier - this field stores the student's USI number itself
  • USI Match Status - every time you validate a student's USI number the result will be stored here. It provides visibility of which fields matched or failed to match when the USI number was validated against the government USI registry
  • USI Verification - either 'Y' or 'N', this field shows whether the student has a successfully verified USI number
  • USI Status - this provides some information as to the status of the students USI verification. The possibilities are -
    1. No USI Number - no USI number has been provided for the student
    2. USI Validation Attempted but Unsuccessful - an attempt has been made to validate the USI number, but the validation failed
    3. USI Verified - the USI number has been validated successfully
    4. An error occurred in the USI Integration. Please contact a system administrator to escalate this issue - you will hopefully never see this message. If you do, however, please log it with your st john support team as soon as you can

2. Verifying whilst making a Booking

These guides provide a rundown on how to make a booking within Salesforce - 

1. Making a Public Booking

2. Making a Corporate Booking and Managing Corporate Bookings

When making a booking, whether for an existing attendee or a brand new Student, Salesforce provides the ability to quickly and easily validate their USI number. 

A 'Validate USI' button will be shown for every public attendee added against a Course or a Corporate Booking. 

All you need to do it press the button. The rest of the process is exactly the same as described in step one of this guide.

3. Verifying whilst using the 'Mange Attendees' Page

This one is more pertinent for trainers and the training administration team. 

The 'Mange Attendees' page provides a way to view a complete student roster for any given course. On top of this, it provides the functionality to check student's attendance, mark competencies and ultimately issue a Student's certificate. You can find an in-depth user guide here - Administering a Course

The ability to validate a student's USI number has been built into the Manage Attendees page, making it a great one-stop shop to check a Student's interaction with a particular Course. A 'Validate USI' button will show against each Student, along with a few more columns - 

  1. USI Provided - this check box confirms whether the Student has a USI number saved in the system
  2. USI Verified - this will show either 'Y' or 'N', confirming whether a Student's USI number has been verified or not

You can click on the 'Validate USI' button for any Student and will be presented with a dialogue from which the verify the number. The process is exactly the same step one of this guide. 

Once you have verified a USI number, the Manage Attendees page will refresh, keeping the 'USI Verified' column in sync.