This is one of the most underrated pieces of your student information. This field ultimately sets up the framework for getting your request for transportation processed.
What does Effective Date mean?
To put this into a more thorough explanation, effective date represents "The date you would like this transportation to start." If you are entering a new student, the effective date is when you want us to begin transportation. If you make a change (such as a new address, or a time change), the effective date is when you want us to start transporting with the new conditions. If you are canceling transportation, the effective date represents the day this student's transportation is canceled.
Automatically Added to Requests
As you know, when you add or modify student information on Airtable, a request is automatically created on your behalf in our helpdesk system. In addition, your effective date is also sent over to us. This means that not only do we know you have made a request, but we also know when you want the addition or change to start. This means that when you enter an effective date in the student data...
It's appended on the request as we see it here:
While we may not be able to accommodate the effective date in question (In particular with next day changes), it lets us know how soon we need to set up transportation for you.