The things schools ask us first
Straight answers about starting, about working in your own country, about your records, and about what happens when the free months are over. If yours is not here, ask it and we will answer it the same way.
Before you begin
What the first fortnight looks like, and how little of it lands on your staff.
How long does it take to start?
Days, not months. The first job is your students, and you probably have them in a spreadsheet already. Upload that list and the rest of the system has something to work from on the same day.
Fee heads, the timetable and the staff follow as the office needs them. Nothing has to be complete on day one.
Can we import the students we already have?
Yes, in bulk, from an Excel or CSV file. Every row is checked before anything is saved: a missing name, a class the school does not have, a date that cannot be read or a duplicate admission number is pointed out by row number, and only the rows you confirm are admitted.
The usual column headings, such as "Student Name" or "Date of Birth", are recognised as they are. The school chooses how its dates are written — day-first, month-first or year-first — and the file is read that way, so 04/05 is never quietly taken as the wrong month.
Is there anything to install?
No. It runs in a web browser, so the office computer, a laptop at home and a teacher's phone all open the same screens, with nothing to install and nothing to keep updated.
Your school gets its own web address. Staff and parents go to that address and sign in. There is no server to buy, and no single machine in the office that everything depends on.
We already use another system. Can we move?
Keep it running while you decide. Start with the students and one or two jobs — attendance and fees are the usual pair — and move the rest once the office is comfortable.
If your present system can export to Excel or CSV, that list uploads as it is. Nothing forces a switch in the middle of the year over one weekend: bring classes across one at a time.
Do you train our staff?
Yes. We set the school up with you and walk each group through the screens they actually use: the office through admissions, fees and receipts, teachers through attendance and marks.
It is a walkthrough rather than a course. Most teachers need two or three screens, and we stay reachable while everyone settles in.
A school in any country
Currency, timezone, dates and language — the questions a school outside our home market asks first.
Is it only for schools in one country?
No. Nothing in it assumes a country, a curriculum or an exam board. Your classes, sections, subjects and exams are the ones you set up, named the way your school names them.
The settings that do differ from place to place — currency, timezone and how dates are written — are chosen by each school, not fixed for everyone.
Can we work in our own currency and timezone?
Yes. Each school sets its own currency, and fees, receipts, payroll and reports all use it. That includes three-decimal currencies such as the Kuwaiti dinar, so amounts are kept to the fils rather than rounded.
Each school also sets its own timezone, so today's attendance, a receipt's date and the activity log all follow the school's own clock, wherever our servers happen to be.
What language is it in?
English, for every school in every country: the screens your staff use, the parent portal and this website.
If your staff or parents need another language day to day, ask us before you commit, and we will tell you plainly what is available today and what is not.
Where your data sits, and who can reach it
The questions a head teacher is right to ask before handing over a register.
Where does our data live?
Your school gets its own database — not a shared table with a school column beside another school's students. Two schools cannot see each other's records because they are not in the same place to begin with.
How your data is keptWho inside the school can see what?
You decide who may sign in and what each role is allowed to open, so people see what their job needs and not the rest.
Parents get their own sign-in and see only their own children — attendance, marks, fees, homework and notices. Never another family's.
Can we get our data out?
Yes, and without asking us. The school can take a backup of its own database and download it, and the lists you work with day to day — students, fees, attendance, marks — export from the screens they appear on.
It is your data. If you ever leave, you leave with it.
Is there a record of who changed what?
Yes. Changes are written to an activity log, so a mark or a receipt that was altered can be traced back to who did it and when, without anybody having to remember to note it down.
Living with it, and after the free months
How it behaves once the novelty has worn off, and what you are asked to commit to.
What about parents without smartphones?
The parent portal is a web page, so it works in any browser — an older phone, a shared computer, a relative's laptop. There is no app to download and nothing to keep updated.
For parents who would rather not use it at all, nothing changes: the office can still print the receipt, the report card or the attendance statement and hand it over.
Can we use our own school branding?
Yes. The branding settings carry your school name, logo and colours through the screens and onto what you print — receipts, report cards, certificates and notices.
What happens after the free months?
Two months free. Pricing only once you are satisfied. At the end of the two months you decide whether the office is better off. If it is, we agree the plan that fits the size of your school and start billing from there.
If it is not, you walk away owing nothing — and you take your data with you, using the same backup and export you would use anyway.
What does a plan cost?
The plans are on the pricing page, with what each one includes and the number of students it covers. Where the price depends on the size of the school, tell us your numbers and we will put one in writing.
See plans and pricingAsk us the one that is not here
16 answers cover most of it, but not your school. Tell us how your office runs today and we will tell you plainly what this does and does not do — including where the answer is no.