How to check your migrated data in Arbor for Secondaries moving from SIMs

This guide is designed for schools moving from SIMs to Arbor on the Secondary Onboarding Journey, and explains how to check your migrated data on both your Arbor Dummy site and final Live site. 

The Data Checking Process

To make sure the data migration is accurate, we give secondary schools one dummy data run - once migration is complete you will be able to log in to your Dummy site to see how your schools' data looks in Arbor.

You'll need to thoroughly check the migrated data ahead of your final migration to ensure everything transfers as expected, and continue to cleanse the data in your current MIS. 

You will also need to complete these checks again after your final migration has happened. 

You should record your data checks in tab 4 of your Onboarding Workbook, so you can keep track of the work still to be done. The Current MIS Counts should be completed in SIMs on your booked migration date. 

How to perform your Counts and Checks in Arbor

Data Counts

• Obtain your data counts from SIMS on your booked migration date. These dates will be highlighted in your onboarding checklist.
• Once you receive your Arbor site, you will check your overall student enrolment on the homepage.
• For the rest of the data counts, you'll need to import this report into your Arbor site to get a quick overview of these figures.

Importing the Data Counts Report

• Download the report from tab 4 of your Onboarding Workbook, or here: Demographic Counts, Attendance Counts
• In Arbor, go to School > Custom Report Writer.
• Click the Create a New Report button, then select Import a report.
• Choose the file you just downloaded and import it.
• Click the Edit button to adjust the report's dates to match your booked migration date in SIMS.
• Click Save and View Report to see the figures that have migrated into Arbor.
• Compare these figures with the data you pulled from SIMS.

Completing your Data Checks

Below the Data Counts, you'll see a list of areas we recommend you check in your Arbor site. The status column in your workbook allows you to keep track of your progress by marking items as completed, in progress, or not applicable. You can also add an owner to each check and leave comments.

Just like with data counts, you'll find downloadable reports in your onboarding workbook for specific checks, such as student and staff profiles. You don't need to import a report for every data check, and instructions for each check are detailed in your workbook.

Available Data Check Reports:

Student Checks

Staff Checks

• Once imported, you can edit the report to match your migration date and add additional columns if needed.
• The report will display a detailed list of students and their data points. You can expand sections and use the search function to look for specific students.
• You can also click on a student's name to pull out a section with more in-depth information, including their profile.
• We suggest selecting a random sample of 10 students from different year groups to ensure the data is representative.

Handling Discrepancies

Please review our Common Migration FAQs for more information on how data is expected to migrate:

Common Migrations FAQs

What data is migrated via the SIMs API?

If you find any discrepancies between Arbor and SIMs that you cannot account for, please report these directly to your Arbor Support team. If you are Partner Supported, you will need to raise discrepancies with your Support Partner directly.

When raising data discrepancy issues, please include as much information as possible on the ticket including examples from both Arbor and your previous MIS. You can see how to do this here: How can I report migration issues?