Audience: System administrators and transportation data managers
Purpose: Learn how to configure, monitor, and optimize your automated nightly SIS import to ensure EZRouting receives accurate and timely student data updates.
Overview
The Nightly SIS Import process automatically updates EZRouting with the latest student data from your district’s Student Information System (SIS). This guide explains setup, scheduling, verification, and troubleshooting so your data stays consistent without manual uploads.
When you first start importing data, it may be important to review many of the records individually to ensure that information is flowing correctly from your SIS. Once you get into the swing of understanding the data coming from your SIS, the process below is the suggested methodology for processing the nightly updates. Remember – if your data is coming from your SIS – such as addresses, school assignment, ridership etc., then that information should be updated in the SIS rather than in the routing system.
For example, if you have a student listed as not a rider and a parent calls and says they need to ride the bus, you should direct them to the appropriate process for updating this in the SIS and let that information come through in the nightly process. Otherwise, if you change it in the routing system and the SIS never gets changed, the nightly file will show a change when the information comes over. So your source of changes should ALWAYS be your SIS data and let it flow over to the routing system.
How the Nightly Import Works
- Trigger: The import runs automatically at a scheduled time (commonly after midnight).
- Source: Data is pulled directly from your SIS or secure SFTP folder.
- Scope: Includes new enrollments, withdrawals, address changes, and status updates.
- Validation: EZRouting validates each record before it’s applied to prevent duplicates or data mismatches.
What types of changes are listed in the report?
Any changes to the student record will flag an updated record. Most of these you will not need to do anything with other than to accept them into the system. Changes in parent phone numbers, contacts etc. are not consequential to the routing process. However, changes in a student’s primary address or school require a transportation review to potentially adjust bus schedules. If a student changes from a rider to a non-rider or vice-versa there are also actions that you will need to take but most of these can be done in batch.
Maintenance & Best Practices
- Run imports outside of routing hours to prevent sync conflicts.
- Regularly verify field mappings when SIS structures change.
- Review log trends weekly for recurring warnings.
- Keep at least 90 days of import logs for audit history.
- Set automated email alerts for failed imports to avoid data delays.
Audit and Compliance
Nightly imports are logged automatically for transparency and compliance. Each log entry includes:
- Import date/time
- File name or connection ID
- Record count (success, skipped, error)
- User or automation ID initiating the import
Export this log for district data audits or IT validation.
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