Setting Up a New Institute

Almost every screen in EduConnect depends on something configured on another screen. Doing this in order takes an afternoon; doing it out of order means redoing parts of it.

Each step links to its own tutorial.

1. The calendar

Administration → Settings, then Administration → Holidays.

Working days, term dates, holidays and term breaks. Everything attendance-related is a percentage of these, so getting them in first means your figures are right from day one instead of being corrected in week three.

→ Set Holidays, Terms and Working Days

2. People and places

1. Classes — → Add a Class
2. Teachers, with the subjects each one teaches — → Add a Teacher
3. Students, into their classes — → Add a Student or Import from Excel
4. Set the class teacher on each class.

Teachers before students, because a class with a teacher on it is one less thing to revisit.

3. Logins

Administration → Users, then Administration → Access Control.

A teacher record is not a login. Create the accounts, then decide what each role can open.

→ Add a User and Grant Access

4. The timetable chain

Strictly in this order — each step is the input to the next:

1. Bell Schedule — → Set Up the Bell Schedule
2. Subjects & Rules, Subject Groups, Classrooms, Teacher Constraints — the rest of Timetable → Configuration
3. Grade Curriculum (saving it applies it to the grade's classes) — → Create or Edit a Grade Curriculum
4. Class Subjects, assigning a teacher to each — → Assign Subjects and Teachers
5. Generate — → Generate the Timetable

Generating with an incomplete chain is the single most common source of "the timetable doesn't work". The generator can only place what steps 1–4 have told it about.

5. Money

1. Fee Setup — the fee types and their instalments → Set Up Fees
2. Discounts — scholarships, sibling and staff reductions → Set Up and Grant Discounts
3. Portal Access Rules — what unpaid fees do to a parent's portal access
4. Online payments, in Administration → Settings, if you take card payments

Fees before students start paying, obviously — but also before the term starts, since due dates are what make a charge overdue.

6. Cards

Add blank cards to the pool, upload the card design, and make sure every student and teacher record has an RFID. A record without one can never register attendance.

→ Issue and Replace ID Cards

7. What parents see

1. Handbook — → Write and Publish the Student Handbook
2. Prospectus, if you take admissions through the portal
3. Institute branding and terminology in Administration → Settings — why the wording changes

8. Then, in term

• Attendance daily — as a teacher
• Exams and results as they happen
• Day close each evening
• Progress reports at the end of term