5.32 Maytas DfE Release Notes

Note regarding submissions

We would like to remind providers to create a submission early and check for any errors using reports from the FIS. After submission to the DfE, providers should check that data has submitted correctly using the available reports. Providers should check that all their expected starts and completions are submitted correctly, and that start and outcome payments correctly match the PFR.

Our support desk gets extremely busy in the days prior to the submission deadlines, and although we try and prioritise submission-related queries, we cannot guarantee assistance if queries are sent late. If you do encounter any issues, please ensure that you contact Maytas Support as soon as possible, as we can only rectify issues of which we are aware. We also recommend checking Maytas Communities regularly for information on any known issues and solutions. Tribal cannot be held responsible for any issues caused by your failure to comply with this advice.

Technical specification

The latest Maytas and Maytas Hub technical specification can be found here.

Once the upgrade has been completed, the version number should be checked to ensure it has been successful.

  1. Start Maytas and go to Support on the toolbar.
  2. Click About.
  3. The version numbers should read 5.32.9710.1. If you have any other version, please ensure you have followed the upgrade instructions correctly. If you require assistance, please contact Maytas Support.

It is the responsibility of customers to ensure that users carry out any required user acceptance testing and sign off on the upgrade.

Data migration

Please note that it is important to ensure that all 2025/26 learners have been entered before the upgrades are applied. This is because the upgrade migrates 2025 data to the 2026 fields, and any 2025 learners entered after the upgrades will not be migrated. As such, if any 2025 learners do need to be entered after the upgrade, both the 2025 and 2026 tabs must be completed to ensure all data is present and correct.

Complete the Upgrade

Check the Contractor Details for the DfE Export

  1. Open Maytas 5 and select Management | Contracts.
  2. Highlight the contractor name (company) you wish to edit.

  3. Right-click and select Edit.

  4. The Company screen will be displayed. The technical upgrade will have copied the UKPRN field to the new 26 box. If necessary, you should amend this value.
  5. Providers need to ensure that these instructions are completed for each company (contractor) used for the DfE export.

Create the 2026/27 DfE Formula-Funded Contract

A 2026/27 DfE formula-funded contract should be set up for each DfE contractor. Without this contract, Maytas is unable to determine the funding rules, schemes and lookup codes to use.

  1. In the Contracts module, left-click the contractor (company) to which you wish to add the new contract.
  2. Click Add Contract on the ribbon.

  3. Make sure that option 1. Existing company is selected then click Next.

  4. Enter a contact description (e.g. DfE 2026/27).
  5. Enter a contract number if required.
  6. Select the SFA/EFA/ESFA Formula Funded Contract option.
  7. Select year 2026/2027.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Amend the schemes you wish to include in the contract and click Next.
  10. Click Finish.

Features Added in the Upgrade

These are the main updates in the upgrade:

Import Funding Information

The process for importing the required funding information into Maytas is as follows:

Import LARS

The LARS should be imported as follows:

  1. Download the latest LARS MDB file. This is currently version 12.
  2. In Maytas, go to Exports on the toolbar.
  3. On the ILR Tools panel of the ribbon, go to Uploads | Upload Funding Information | Upload LARS (Version 12).
  4. Browse to and select the downloaded LARS file and click Open.
  5. The file will now be imported. Click OK on the message which appears.

Progress on the import can be checked by going to Home | Server Tasks | Server Jobs. Typically it will take several minutes.

Import Postcode File

  1. Obtain the postcode uplift factors file - Download the zip file under 2026 to 2027 uplift factors by postcode and LLSOA: CSV files. Note that this file has not been made available at the time of writing but is expected shortly.
  2. In Maytas, go to Exports on the toolbar.
  3. On the ILR Tools panel of the ribbon, go to Uploads | Upload Postcodes| Upload Post Code Data (2026/27).
  4. Browse to and select the postcode uplifts zip file and click Open.
  5. The file will now be imported. Click OK on the message which appears.

Progress on the import can be checked by going to Home | Server Tasks | Server Jobs. Typically this will take several minutes.

Note on the Funding Cache

By default, the funding cache will update overnight so that funding information in Maytas uses the newly-imported FIS and postcode information. Please check with your system administrator if you are unsure if or when the funding cache is updated on your system. You can also manually set the funding cache to update by going to Management | Profiles and clicking the Funding Cache button, though please be aware that this may take a long time and may use a large amount of system resources, which could affect performance for other users on the system.

Maytas 5 Version 5.32.9570.1 Release Notes

2026/27 Contract Year Updates

New Contract Year Tabs

New Maytas tabs for 2026/27 have been produced for the ILR and LLWR as per specifications from the Data Service and DfE. These will have been imported automatically in the upgrade. Please note that while both ILR and LLWR tabs are imported, the relevant tabs will only show for the relevant learners – i.e. ILR tabs will only show to learners on English schemes and LLWR tabs will only show to learners on Welsh schemes. Details of the tabs can be found below.

Please note that user permissions will need to be set for the new tabs, as by default they are available to all users. Also please note that if you have changed the field type for any ILR fields (e.g. to or from a lookup), these will need to be changed from the default field type in the screen designer.

ILR Changes for 2026/27

These are the main ILR changes for 2026/27 which have been implemented in Maytas:

New Tabs for 2026/27

There are eight new ILR tabs for 2026/27:

As in previous years, the tabs have been designed so that only the appropriate tabs appear for each scheme. However, we are aware that many providers have bespoke or non-standard scheme groups. In these cases, it is possible that the tabs may not appear on certain schemes. This can be rectified in the following way:

  1. Check the group type of the scheme (SCHEME.GROUPTYPE).
  2. In Maytas 5, go to Tools on the toolbar and click New / Load on the Screens panel.
  3. Double-click the ILR tab which is not appearing. The tabs for 2026/27 are:
    • ILR 2026 App Starter Info
    • ILR 2026 App Leaver Info
    • ILR 2026 16-19 Starter Info
    • ILR 2026 16-19 Leaver Info
    • ILR 2026 Other Starter Info
    • ILR 2026 Other Leaver Info
    • HE 2026/27
    • ILR 2026 Export Flags

  4. Alter the Scheme group as required. Each group should be separated with a comma (no spaces). For example, if the App tab is not showing for scheme 3, and the group type for scheme 3 is called MY_GROUP, the tab should be set as in the screenshot.

  5. Click Apply to save the changes.
  6. Go to Home on the toolbar and click the Sync button.
New fields
Removed fields
Notes on Continuing Learners and Migration

As part of the upgrade, data for continuing learners is migrated from the 2025/26 fields to the 2026/27 fields. Any changes to continuing learners and any late-notified learners entered after the upgrade should be completed on both the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tabs. This is because certain ILR fields are recorded in different fields in the database from year to year, and therefore it is important to ensure that all data is completed and correct on both tabs.

Since planned hours, actual hours and additional delivery hours have been removed from the ILR and replaced with the Hours entity, data from the old fields may be migrated to the Hours entity in some circumstances. Please refer to the migration specification for more information.

The following fields are NOT migrated from 2025/26 to 2026/27:

It is important to ensure these fields are completed on the 2026/27 tabs where required.

ILR Reports for 2026/27

The ILR reports have been created using the available ILR guidance for 2026/27. Providers should check with the DfE that they are happy for the current reports to be used and that it is compliant for audit purposes. As this has been the case for the reports in previous years, we do not expect any issues in this regard.

There are reports available for apprenticeship, 16-19 (excluding apprenticeships) and non-16-19 learners.

The ILR reports are automatically imported in the upgrade and can be found in the ILR folder of the Reports Library.

There are two ways to run the reports:

ILR Export 2026/27

The ILR export for 2026/27 is now available in Maytas. To view the ILR export screen for 2026/27:

  1. Click Exports on the toolbar.
  2. Click ILR Export on the ribbon.

  3. Click the button.

  4. Choose 2026 from the Survey Year dropdown box.
  5. Choose the Notional Return period.
  6. Amend the UKPRN as required.
  7. Choose the required contractors, or tick Select all contractors.

  8. Once ready, click OK.

  9. Locate the submission by expanding the contract year and period using the arrows to the left. Click the submission to select it. The status will say Generate pending until the export data has been generated. It will then say File preparation finished. Please note that this may take a while, depending on the amount of data being exported.

    • Edit opens the export and allows you to view and edit the export settings. Please note that not all settings can be changed once an export has been created.
    • Generate processes the export and produces a text file showing any errors for each learner. This allows you to correct any errors and re-generate before the batch file is created. The generation progress is shown with the circular progress bar to the right.
    • View Log shows any errors in the export. These should be investigated and resolved and the data re-generated before outputting the XML.
    • Output XML creates the actual batch file. The file will be created at C:\Temp on the Maytas server.
    • Get File lets you download the batch file once it has been created.

The 2026/27 ILR export has been tested and validated against the latest version of the online ILR specification as of the time of this release, as well as other accompanying documents. The 2026/27 FIS is still in a beta stage at the time of writing, and so further testing will be done as new versions of the FIS become available.

While we have tested the ILR export to the best of our ability with the available specifications, there may be further issues which have not yet been identified. It is also possible that future versions of the FIS and the ILR specification may require the export and/or FIS import to be changed to meet any new criteria. Any changes that are required will be implemented in a follow-up release of Maytas.

Additionally, the validation rules are currently based on version 2 of the specification, although we anticipate that there will be further updates required to validation rules as and when the FIS is updated.

Migration of ILR export override flags

The following details whether ILR export flags are migrated from 2025/26 to 2026/27. For information on setting these flags, please contact Maytas support.

Force Export Flag

The 2025/26 force export flag is not copied to the 2026/27 force export flag. To override the ILR export and include a POT that does not meet the 2026/27 ILR export criteria, the 2026/27 export flag must be set.

Blocking Flags

The 2025/26 blocking flags are copied to the 2026/27 blocking flags. Aims blocked from the 2025/26 export will continue to be blocked in the 2026/27 export.

Funding Information

The funding information for 2026/27 in this upgrade is based on the funding rules for 2025/26, since full specifications were not available at the time of development. The 2026/27 funding information in this upgrade should be considered a beta version and is subject to change once future specifications have been published.

Completion Status and Outcome

Updated versions of the ILR 2025/26 tabs are included with this release which use new fields for outcome and completion status. These are referred to as the R14 fields. Data from the existing fields are migrated to them during the upgrade, and in most cases these values do not need to be altered. The R14 fields are what will be used for the 2025/26 ILR export and the existing fields will continue to be used from 2026/27 onwards.

The purpose of this change is to allow different values for 25/26 and 26/27 to be recorded, so that learners who completed in 25/26 who were on a break in learning or had an unknown outcome can be correctly included by the 26/27 ILR export. As with any other continuing learner, you should ensure that data is correct on the tabs for each contract year.

For late-notified leavers where the learner left in 25/26 but the data is entered during 26/27, it is important that you complete the above fields on both the 25/26 and 26/27 tabs, even though the learner has not continued into 26/27. This is to ensure the data is recorded in the existing / ongoing fields so that the correct data for these learners is included on reports.

Note on new Hours Entity

The ILR has a new entity called the Hours Record, which is used to record planned and actual hours. This effectively replaces the planned hours, actual hours and additional delivery hours fields, which have been removed from the ILR. Data from the old fields may be migrated to the Hours entity in some circumstances. Please refer to the migration specification for more information.

As such, any training plans, agreements, templates or bespoke tabs and reports that use the old fields must be updated to use the Hours entity instead.

Hours data is stored in the TRAINEE_ILR_HOURS table:

Field Details
TRAINEEID The learner's ID
POT The learner's POT
AIMNO The aim number (null = programme aim, 0 = main aim, all other numbers refer to the aim number for any other aims)
HOURSID The ID number of the hours record (this is unique per learner, not unique within the table)
HRSTYPE The hours type (currently there is only one possible value: HRS)
HRSCODE The hours code (takes a value from 1 to 6, which are set as lookups in Maytas)
HRSAMOUNT The number of hours that apply to the record

Cognassist Integration

Maytas 5 is now able to connect to Cognassist so that users can be created in Cognassist from Maytas and users can be imported to Maytas.

A new licence is required for the Cognassist integration - please contact your account manager for more information.

Setup

First, three values must be obtained from Cognassist:

Once you have received these, they must be entered in the Maytas configuration options:

  1. In Maytas 5, click the M5 button at the top-left and select Options.

  2. Go to Other on the left (under the Maytas 5 header).

  3. Locate the Cognassist section on the right and enter the relevant values into the options for API URL, Client Id and Client Secret.

  4. You can also optionally configure email settings for new Cognassist users:

    • Welcome Email From Address - The email address used in the From field for the welcome email. If the config is not set, the default of noreply@maytas.com will be used.

    • Welcome Email Body - The email body for the welcome email. The parameters {FirstName}, {LastName}, {Email} and {NewLine} can be used to insert the user's name and email address or add a line break. e.g.:

      Welcome to Cognassist, {FirstName} {LastName}. Your email address is {Email}.

      If the config is not set, a default email body is used.

  5. Click OK.

Permissions must also be set to access the Cognassist features in Maytas:

  1. Go to Tools | Edit Permissions.

  2. Select the user or group that requires permission.

  3. On the Modules tab, set the Cognassist Integration permission to Visible.

  4. Go to the Commands tab and expand the Cognassist section.

  5. Set the Cognassist Access permission to Visible.

  6. Click Apply to save changes, then restart Maytas for the permission to take effect.

Finally, the Cognassist Data tab should be published:

  1. Go to Tools | Publish / Unpublish.

  2. The Publish Tab Wizard will appear. Locate the entry for the Cognassist Data tab.

  3. Double-click the Published checkbox so it is ticked.

  4. Click Finish.

  5. Go to Home on the toolbar and click the Sync button.

Send a Maytas learner record to Cognassist

Maytas learners can be sent to Cognassist to generate a Cognassist user for them. There are several prerequisites:

To send a learner to Cognassist (or update data for a learner already linked to a Cognassist user):

  1. Open the learner's record in Maytas.

  2. Click Cognassist on the ribbon and select Send To Cognassist.

  3. If no matching record can be found for the learner, a user will be created in Cognassist associated with the learner and you will be asked if you wish to send an assessment request (click Yes or No as required). The learner will also be emailed with their user details.

    If the learner already exists in Cognassist, their Cognassist user will be updated with any relevant data changes from Maytas.

The learner's Cognassist data can be viewed in Maytas on the Cognassist Data tab.

Link a Maytas learner record to a Cognassist user

To link a Maytas learner to an existing user in Cognassist:

  1. Open the learner's record in Maytas 5.

  2. Click Cognassist on the ribbon and click Link Learner.

  3. A window will appear with a list of Cognassist learners. The Find box can be used to locate the required record.

  4. Select the record to link the Maytas learner to and click OK.

  5. A message will appear confirming that the Maytas learner is now linked to the selected record in Cognassist. Click OK.

If you wish to unlink a Maytas learner to a Cognassist user:

  1. Open the learner's record in Maytas 5.

  2. Click Cognassist on the ribbon and click Unlink Learner.

  3. Click Yes to confirm. A message will appear confirming that the Maytas learner is no longer linked to a Cognassist record. Click OK.

Get Cognassist assessment data for a Maytas learner

Once a learner is associated with a Cognassist user, their Cognassist assessment data can be downloaded to Maytas:

  1. Open the learner's record in Maytas 5.

  2. Click Cognassist on the ribbon and click Get Assessment.

  3. A message will appear with a summary of the available data that has been downloaded. Click OK.

  4. The data can be viewed on the learner's Cognassist Data tab.

Bulk create Cognassist users from Maytas learners

If you wish to generate Cognassist users for a bulk group of Maytas learners, this can be done as follows:

  1. Go into the learner record for each learner you wish to create a Cognassist user for, go to the Cognassist Data tab and tick the Create User checkbox.

    Alternatively, you can update the field TRAINEEINFO.COGNASSIST_CREATEUSER with a value of Y using the Global Updater.

  2. Go to Management on the toolbar, click the Cognassist button and select Create Users.

  3. You will be asked to confirm creation - click Yes to continue.

  4. You will then be asked whether to send an assessment invite to each learner - click Yes or No as required.

    Assessment invites can be sent manually from a learner's record by going to Cognassist | Send Assessment Invite.

  5. The accounts will now be created (this may take a while, depending on the number of learners being sent). When finished, the results will be displayed, along with the reasons for any failures (e.g. email address not supplied). Click OK.

Download bulk data from Cognassist

To download assessment data in bulk from Cognassist:

  1. Go to Management on the toolbar, click the Cognassist button and select Get Data (Bulk).

  2. You will be asked to confirm - click Yes to proceed.

  3. The data will now be downloaded (this may take a while, depending on the number of learners and the amount of data). When finished, the results will be displayed. Click OK.

Report Generator - Maytas API Updates

Publish view to Maytas 6 Query Builder

When publishing a report in Report Generator as a Maytas API view (see here), this can now be made available in the Maytas 6 Query Builder:

  1. Go to Home on the toolbar and click Edit on the Reports panel of the ribbon.

  2. Open the report you wish to use or create a new report.

  3. On the Actions toolbar, go to Views | Create API view.

  4. Enter a name for the view (this cannot include any spaces) and the display name.

  5. Tick the M6 Query Builder checkbox.

  6. Click OK.

  7. Click Apply. You will be notified that there is a Maytas API view associated with the report - click Yes to update the view.

Include functions in API views

When publishing a report in Report Generator as a Maytas API view (see here), this will now include any functions that exist within the report.

Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) Beta Tab

The RPL features included in this release should be considered a beta version and so please be aware that issues may be encountered. RPL features are also subject to change in future releases.

The RPL beta tab is now available when viewing a learner record. The tab is used to calculate the maximum funding to be received for each of a learner's base modules, versus the total delivery cost.

As this is driven by Maytas Hub, the full details of the RPL features can be found in the Maytas Hub release notes.

DfE Service Update

Maytas now includes the following new attributes when downloading NPQ data:

Report Scheduler - Active Checkbox

When scheduling reports, there is now a Schedule is active checkbox on the Schedule screen which determines whether the schedule will run or not. The checkbox is enabled by default.

This is primarily intended for cases where testing a report schedule has resulted in it being disabled, in which case re-ticking the Schedule is active checkbox will re-enable the schedule.

Reports Library 1.0.5.4

Upgrade the Reports Library

How to Upgrade the Reports Library

The Reports Library upgrade should be performed by an admin user, which will upgrade the reports for all users.

To enable to the Upgrade reports button for an admin user:

  1. Go to Tools | Edit Permissions.
  2. Select the user or group which requires permission.
  3. Go to the Commands tab.
  4. Expand the Support section.
  5. Set the Report SQL Upgrade permission to Visible.
  6. Click Apply and restart Maytas for the change to take effect.

For customers who manage their own systems on-premise, it is strongly advised to take a database backup before performing the upgrade. This is not necessary for hosted customers as backups are taken regularly.

To upgrade the Reports Library:

  1. Go to Support on the toolbar.

  2. Click Upgrade reports.

  3. You will asked to confirm that you wish to perform the reports upgrade SQL. Click OK to continue.
  4. A message will appear saying that a task has been created. Click OK.

  5. You can check that the upgrade was successful by going to Home on the toolbar and then selecting Server Tasks | View Jobs.

    If the Status indicates that the upgrade has failed, please do not continue with importing the reports package and raise an incident on the Self Service Portal for assistance.

  6. Next, the reports package must be imported. Go to Home on the toolbar and click Import on the Reports panel on the ribbon.
  7. This will display the Report Import wizard. Click +Add Files.
  8. Browse to the Maytas 5\Extras\Reports Library folder of the upgrade, select Reports Library 1.0.5.4 updates only.m5rep and click Open:
  9. Click Finish to import the reports. This process may take a long time (potentially upwards of 30 minutes) depending on the size of the reports package.

  10. When the reports have finished importing, click Finish.

    The import log may display various warning messages, which are generally a result of report formatting and other factors which do not impact how a report runs (e.g. The text box ‘textbox3’ extends beyond the bottom edge of its container.). Unless a message indicates that the import has failed, these warnings can safely be ignored.

Updates for 2026/27

The reports library has been updated to use fields from 2026/27 where appropriate and to include the 2026/27 report year on certain parameters.

Apprenticeship Accountability Framework - Threshold Parameters

The threshold values used to determine the criteria for On Track, At Risk and Needs Improvement can now be changed in the report's parameters. The parameters default to the threshold values set in the specification at the time of this release, and the default values will be updated as per any specification changes for each subsequent Reports Library release.

This means that if there is a specification update between releases where the thresholds are changed, you can continue to use the report with the new thresholds by changing the parameters.

You can also test your own thresholds to see how they would impact your results.

Each indicator in the report has a threshold for At Risk and one for Needs Improvement, which is reflected in their criteria descriptions when the report is run.

For example, the default achievement rates At Risk threshold is 50% and the Needs Improvement threshold is 60%, which results in the following criteria:

If the parameters were changed to 45 and 65, the new criteria would be: