Legacy Grade Import

SeminaryERP uses a single pipeline for both transfer credits from a partner institution and bulk backfill of grades from a legacy system. The model treats "our own pre-SeminaryERP history" as a self-referential Partner Seminary, so the same workflow that ingests a transfer student's transcript also onboards decades of historical data.

The import is a staged, idempotent workflow:

Partner Seminary → Course Equivalences → Transcript Import Batch (Draft → Dry-Run → Submit)

Dry-run resolves every row against the equivalences and conversion policy without touching the student's record. Submit commits each row into the student's Program Enrollment and refreshes degree-audit totals. Re-submitting the same (student, source course code, source term) updates the existing transcript row in place — no duplicates.

1. One-time setup (Internal Legacy)

To import your own institution's historical data, create one self-referential Partner Seminary plus one grade conversion policy. Register only once, reuse forever.

1. Create the Grade Conversion Policy "Identity (Internal)"
   • Source Grading Scale = your internal scale
   • Target Grading Scale = your internal scale (same)
   • Conversion Method = identity
   • Submit it. Submitted policies can be referenced by Partner Seminary records; drafts cannot.
2. Create the Partner Seminary record
   • Name: e.g. ESWA Legacy (pre-2026)
   • Is Internal Legacy: checked (this flag is read-only after creation, prevents deletion, and hides the record from default list views)
   • Counts in GPA: checked (legacy grades ARE your institution's own grades — they should participate in GPA math)
   • Credit Unit Ratio: 1.0
   • Default Grading Scale = your internal scale
   • Default Conversion Policy = Identity (Internal)
3. Bulk-create Course Equivalences
   • Open the Partner Seminary Course Equivalence list view.
   • Click Create Legacy Integration (System Manager only).
   • Pick the legacy Partner Seminary you just created.
   • One submitted legacy_identity equivalence is created per Course in your catalog, self-mapping the course to itself. Already-mapped courses are skipped — the action is idempotent.

After this, the legacy Partner Seminary is ready to receive transcript imports. Skip to step 3 for the actual import flow.

2. One-time setup (External Partner)

For a true external partner (a peer seminary transferring credits in):

1. Create (or reuse) the partner's Grading Scale if different from yours. Submit it.
2. Create the Grade Conversion Policy from the partner's scale to your internal scale:
   • Pick a conversion_method: identity, linear_multiplier, linear_with_offset, interval_map, or manual_per_course.
   • For linear_*, set the multiplier (and offset if applicable). E.g. Francophone 0–20 strong → Internal Percentage = ×5.
   • For interval_map, fill the symbol-by-symbol mapping table. The Source Symbol and Target Symbol dropdowns auto-populate from the respective scales — every source symbol must be mapped (target symbols without a source are allowed).
   • Submit.
3. Create the Partner Seminary record for the institution:
   • Is Internal Legacy: unchecked
   • Counts in GPA: usually unchecked (industry default — transferred credits count toward degree but not GPA)
   • Credit Unit Ratio: internal credit hours per 1 partner credit unit (e.g. 0.5 for ECTS → US semester hours at half weight)
   • Minimum Transferable Grade: grade code on your internal scale below which transfers are blocked at commit time (e.g. C)
   • Default Grading Scale / Default Conversion Policy = what you just created
4. Create Partner Seminary Course Equivalences one at a time from the partner course to your internal course:
   • Fill source_course_code, source_course_name, source_credit_value, and the target internal_course.
   • Optional per-course overrides: credit_override (to force a specific credit count), conversion_policy_override (for a course on a different scale than the partner's default — e.g. a music department on pass/fail).
   • Attach a Supporting Document (director approval, committee minutes, accreditor letter) for audit trail.
   • Submit. Only submitted equivalences are usable during import.

Course equivalences are submittable: to change one, cancel and amend — the old version is retained via amended_from, and existing transcript rows continue to reference the original.

3. Importing transcripts

Partner Transcript Import Batch drives both the manual single-student case and the CSV bulk case. Every batch carries:

• Partner Seminary: which partner's data this batch represents
• Target Program: the internal program the credits apply toward
• Target Academic Term: the internal term these rows are anchored to (typically the student's current term for external transfer, or a designated legacy term for backfill)

Manual entry (one student)

1. Create a new Partner Transcript Import Batch.
2. Pick Partner Seminary, Target Program, Target Academic Term. Save. (Autocompletes activate only after the first save.)
3. In the Rows table, add one row per course:
   • Student (Link) OR Student Email — either identifies the student. If only email is provided, dry-run resolves it to the Student record via Student.user.
   • Source Course Code — dropdown populated from submitted equivalences for this partner. Selecting a code auto-fills Source Course Name and Source Credit Value from the equivalence.
   • Source Term — free-text (partner terms aren't tracked as Academic Term records here).
   • Source Grade — dropdown populated from the partner's default grading scale grade codes.
   • External Reference — optional source-system ID; takes precedence over the natural idempotency key.
4. Save, then click Run Dry-Run.
5. If dry-run is clean, the status advances to Dry-Run Clean. Click Submit.

CSV bulk entry

1. Use Frappe's built-in Data Import tool (use the seach bar) --> Add Data Import

2. Document type: Partner Transcript Import Batch Import Import Type: Insert New records The only checkbox marked should be Don't send emails. Save

3. You can download a CSV template from the tool to upload your data. Note that you do not need to repeat the initial fields (parent seminary, target program, and target academic term)

   Partner Seminary,Target Program,Target Academic Term,Source Course Code (Rows),Source Grade (Rows),Source Term (Rows),Student email (Rows)
   T-LINK,Master of Divinity,2025-2026 (SP26),SFD-101,A,1S 24,modest@gmail.com
   ,,,THM-201,A,1S24,modest@gmail.com

4. Upon successful import, Open the Batch — all rows should be in the grid with Student blank and Student Email populated.

5. Click Run Dry-Run. Each row resolves:

   • Email → Student Link
   • Source course → Internal course via the equivalence
   • Source credit → Internal credit (via credit_override, the equivalence's source_credit_value, or the row's own value × credit_unit_ratio)
   • Source grade → Target grade via the conversion policy

6. Fix any warnings (see reference below), then Submit.

4. Dry-run warning reference

Warning	Meaning	Fix
unknown_student_email	No Student record has a user field matching the email.	Correct the email in the row, or update the Student's User link.
no_submitted_equivalence	No submitted Course Equivalence for this partner + source code.	Create and submit the equivalence, or correct the source code.
zero_credits	The row's source credit is blank and the equivalence has no source_credit_value / credit_override.	Fill the row's source_credit_value, or edit the equivalence to carry a default.
below_minimum_transferable	The converted grade is below the partner's Minimum Transferable Grade.	Registrar judgment — either skip the row or add an Override Note to accept it.
clamped_high / clamped_low	The linear conversion produced a value outside the target scale; result was clamped.	Usually acceptable; informational. Review the policy multiplier if the clamp is frequent.
no_mapping	An interval_map conversion had no row for this source symbol, or the grade wasn't found on the target scale.	Amend the policy's map to cover the missing symbol.
unparseable_source	Linear conversion couldn't parse the source grade as a number.	Correct the source grade, or switch the policy to interval_map / manual_per_course.

A row with a warning blocks Dry-Run Clean unless the registrar fills Override Note on that row. Commit is additionally guarded: every row must have a resolved Student before Submit succeeds.

5. Submit

On submit:

• Each row becomes a transferred Program Enrollment Course entry on the student's Program Enrollment for (Target Program, Target Academic Term). Is Transfer is checked; Partner Seminary, Mapping Type, Course Equivalence, Conversion Policy Applied, Source Course Code, Source Term, Source Grade, External Reference are all stamped for audit.
• The Program Enrollment's Total Credits is recalculated from the SUM of passing rows.
• Emphasis track credits are recalculated; auto-grant emphases are checked.
• The student-facing transcript view shows the transferred courses alongside internal ones.

6. Re-running and amending

The batch is idempotent. Re-submitting a batch with the same rows updates existing transcript entries in place (matched on partner_seminary + source_course_code + source_term, or external_reference when present). To correct data:

• Same-term correction — Create a new batch with the corrected rows; the existing PEC rows update. Totals refresh.
• Wrong term selected — Cancel the original batch (supervised; blocked if transcript rows still exist), create a new batch with the correct Target Academic Term.
• Policy correction — Amend the Grade Conversion Policy (Frappe's built-in amendment creates amended_from lineage). Existing transcripts keep referencing the original policy ID; new imports use the amended version. This preserves historical reproducibility.

Related

• Initial Setup — the full first-install sequence
• Frappe Data Import