Documentation
How do I…?
A step-by-step guide for every task in School Gradebook. Start typing what you want to do.
0 guides
No guides match that search
Try fewer or different words — or email us and we'll help.
Setting up your school
How do I set up a brand-new school?
On your first sign-in the dashboard shows a Start setup banner. The wizard has seven steps and saves as you go:
- School profile — name, address, timezone.
- Academic year — the year label (e.g. 2026–2027) and optional first/last day.
- Term dates — quarters (4), trimesters (3) or semesters (2). Fill in the terms you use; leave the rest blank.
- Grading scale — the letter-grade cut-offs (a standard scale is filled in for you).
- Grade weights — how much Daily, Quiz and Test each count.
- Subjects & grades — your subjects and which grades take each.
- Event types — the kinds of things on your calendar.
Click Finish on the last step to activate the year.
How do I save setup and finish it later?
Use Save & finish later at the bottom of any wizard step. Your progress is kept, and the dashboard shows a Resume banner so you can pick up where you left off.
How do I change my school's name, address or timezone?
Open Settings from the top menu and edit your school profile — name, address, contact details and timezone — then save.
How do I change the grade weights (Daily / Quiz / Test)?
In the grading settings (part of the setup wizard, and editable any time from Settings), set the three weights — for example Daily 40, Quiz 25, Test 35. They apply school-wide, so every report card uses the same balance.
How do I adjust the letter-grade scale?
In the grading scale settings, edit the threshold for any letter (A, B, C…). A standard scale is provided; change any number to match how your school grades, then save.
How do I set or change term dates?
In term settings, enter the start and end date for each term you use, in order. Leave unused terms blank — that's how you tell the system whether you run two semesters, three trimesters or four quarters.
Teachers & staff
How do I add a teacher?
- From the top menu, click Teachers.
- Click + Add Teacher.
- Enter the first name, last name, email, and phone if you like. There's no password box — the teacher is emailed a setup link.
- Click Save. Glance at the table to confirm the new row appeared.
The teacher clicks the link in their email, chooses their own password, and they're in.
How do I re-send a teacher's setup link?
On the Teachers page, find the teacher's row. While their account is still pending (they haven't set a password), a Resend button shows next to their status. Click it to email the same setup link again.
How do I reset a teacher's password?
Open the teacher's row and choose Edit. The edit form has an optional password field you can set. Alternatively, the teacher can reset it themselves with Forgot password? on the sign-in page.
How do I add a substitute teacher?
Add them the same way as a teacher (Teachers → + Add Teacher) and choose the substitute role on the form. A substitute sees the class they're covering.
How do I deactivate a teacher who has left?
Edit the teacher and set them inactive. Their history (who taught which class when) is kept, so past records stay intact.
Students & the roster
How do I add a student?
- From the top menu, click Students.
- Click + Add Student.
- Fill in the name, grade level, and any other details (student number, date of birth, address, health or special-needs notes).
- Click Save.
There's no parent-email box here — a parent's contact lives on their own portal account, which you invite separately.
How do I change a student's grade level?
Open the student on the Students page, choose Edit, change the grade level and save. (At year-end, promotions happen automatically when you close the year — you don't need to do this by hand for everyone.)
How do I add health or special-needs notes to a student?
Edit the student and fill in the health/special-needs fields, then save. These are kept with the student's record.
How do I find a student on the roster?
On the Students page, use the search box and the grade and status filters to narrow the list.
Parents & invitations
How do I invite a parent to the portal?
- Open Students (admins) or your roster (teachers).
- On the student's row, click Invite Parent (or Invite).
- Enter the parent's name and email, then Send Invite.
The parent gets an email with a link to set their own password. Both the office and the teacher can send invites — often the teacher has the family's email.
How do I invite many parents at once?
On the Students page, use the Bulk Invite option to send portal invitations to many parents together — handy at the start of the year.
How do I re-send a parent invitation?
While a parent hasn't set up their account yet, re-send the invitation from the same row action on the Students page (or your roster). Note the invitation link expires after 48 hours, so generate a fresh one if it's older.
A parent gave me a new email — how do I change it?
A parent's email address is also their login, so treat it carefully. The safe path:
- If the parent hasn't finished setting up, simply send a fresh invite to the new email address.
- If they're already active and just can't reach their old inbox, have them use Forgot password? — but that emails the old address, so it only helps if they can still receive there.
How do I email a student's parent?
On the student's row (Students page or teacher roster), use the Email action to reach the parent. From the teacher side this starts a message thread the parent can reply to in their portal.
Classes & subjects
How do I create a classroom?
- From the top menu, click Classes, then + Add Class.
- Give it a name and pick the teacher.
- Under Grade Levels, check every grade the room covers — a single room can span several (for example K, 1, 2, 3).
- Click Save.
How do I enroll students into a class?
On the Classes page, use the Enroll Students action on a class row. Tick the students from the searchable list and save. For the big enrollment night, use the enrollment wizard instead (see below).
How do I change a class's teacher?
Use Edit Class and choose a new teacher. This keeps the history of who taught the class when. To add a co-teacher or substitute with their own start/end dates, use the Manage Teachers option on the class.
How do I add a subject?
- From the top menu, click Subjects, then + Add Subject.
- Type the subject name.
- Under Grade Levels, check only the grades that take it — so a grade-7 subject never appears for a kindergartner.
- Click Save.
Grading & attendance
How do I enter grades?
- Click Gradebook in the top menu.
- Choose the subject from the dropdown (only your class's subjects appear).
- Use the week navigation to reach the week you want.
- Type a score into a cell — Daily, Quiz or Test — like a spreadsheet.
- Click Save all grades.
How do I take attendance?
- Click Attendance in the top menu.
- For each student and day, choose Present, Absent, Half-day or Excused.
- Click Save all attendance.
The totals feed the report card's attendance summary and the parent's attendance calendar.
How do I correct a grade I already saved?
Type the corrected number over the old one and save. To change a score, overwrite it rather than trying to blank the cell out — overwriting is the reliable path.
How do I log a behaviour note about a student?
From your student's record you can log a behaviour report — positive, negative or neutral — with a category, a description and any action taken. You can also keep private teacher notes about a student that only you see.
Calendar & events
How do I add an event to the calendar?
- Click Events in the top menu.
- Click + Add Event.
- Enter a title, pick a date, and choose the event type. Add a location or description if you like.
- Click Save.
The event appears on the shared calendar — in list or month view — and is visible to staff and to parents (for their child's grades). Teachers can add their own class events and edit the ones they created.
How do I create a new event type?
Open Event Types (in Settings), click + Add Event Type, give it a display name and pick a colour, then save. Events of that type show in that colour on the calendar.
How do I edit or delete an event?
Open the event and use Edit or Delete. Administrators can change any event; teachers can change only the events they created (others show as view-only). Student birthdays are added automatically and can't be edited.
Messages & permission slips
How do I create and send a permission slip?
Create a permission slip (field trip, technology use, media release, medical or other), choose whether it goes to the whole class or specific students, and set a due date.
To see whose hasn't come back: open the slip's View responses — the ones still outstanding are listed first, under a heading like 3 still to come back. Your Students roster also carries a dot per child: green once it's returned, red if it hasn't (hover to see which slip and when it's due), and a red ✗ if the parent declined. The parent's phone and email are on the same row, so you can chase them there and then.
How do I approve or decline a permission slip? (parent)
In the parent portal, open Permission Slips (or the reminder on your dashboard). Each slip awaiting a response shows an approve/decline form with a signature line and an optional note. Submit it for the right child — no paper to return.
Parent–teacher conferences
How do I set up a parent–teacher conference night?
- Open More ▾ → Conferences and click + New conference night.
- Choose the date, the evening's start and end time, and how long each slot runs.
- You get a scheduling board — one column per class, lowest grade on the left, with the time slots stacked down each column.
- Drag a family into a slot, or let the board fill itself (next question).
The scheduler never puts the same family in two places at once — even across different teachers — so a parent with three children still gets a sensible run of back-to-back times.
How does auto-scheduling fill the board?
Click Auto-schedule and the board fills itself. It places the hardest-to-fit families first — the ones with the most children or the fewest workable times — then arranges everyone else around them, keeping each family's evening tight and never double-booking. You can still drag any conference afterward to fine-tune it.
How do I send families their conference times?
When the board looks right, click Send schedules. Each household gets one email listing every child's time and teacher, plus a private link to confirm and note any topics they'd like to raise. The times also appear on the parent's portal dashboard. The evening before, everyone is sent an automatic reminder — you don't have to do anything.
A teacher needs to move a conference — how does that work?
Teachers open their own More ▾ → Conferences page to see their schedule and can request a change to a slot. The request goes to the office to approve or decline; if one sits too long, an administrator can step in and settle it. Nothing moves on a family's schedule until the change is approved.
Volunteer scheduling
How do I set up a volunteer roster (hot lunch, devotions…)?
- Open More ▾ → Volunteers and create a roster — Hot Lunch, Devotions, recess duty, whatever your school runs (the names are yours).
- Set how often it repeats and on which day.
- Add your volunteers — grandparents and church helpers included; they don't need accounts.
- Click Populate to lay the duties across the calendar.
Each duty date also appears on the school calendar (marked read-only, since it's managed here on the Volunteers page).
How does it split the work fairly?
Every volunteer has a yearly target and a cap. When you populate, duties are spread evenly toward those targets and the leftover shifts are leveled so nobody serves far more than their share. A coverage banner at the top does the math for you — it flags any gaps and tells you exactly how many more helpers or shifts you need. It only ever suggests; it never emails anyone on its own. Reminder emails to volunteers include the phone numbers of whoever else is serving that day, so they can arrange swaps themselves.
How do I organize field-trip drivers or a one-time sign-up?
Not everything repeats. Make a one-time roster for something like Field Trip Drivers — a single date you fill by hand as families offer to help (adding a driver puts them straight on that date). You can also have the roster count seats instead of people, to track vehicle capacity — "7 of 22 seats" — and tie it to the field-trip event on your calendar.
What happens when a volunteer can't make their day?
Every reminder email carries a no-login "I can't make it" link. When a volunteer taps it, they see a short, ranked list of substitutes to ask — the people with the most room left on their own targets — and the office is notified so the slot doesn't quietly go uncovered.
Enrollment & the school year
How do I print take-home enrollment forms?
Go to Settings → Enrollment Form → Preview / print. You choose which fields appear and edit the consent paragraph parents sign. Print blank forms for new families, or forms pre-filled with what you already know so families only correct what's changed.
How do I run enrollment night?
- From the dashboard, open the Enrollment card (or go to the enrollment wizard).
- Pick a classroom to see its incoming list.
- Click a student to check their details against their form and correct anything that's changed.
- Optionally invite their parent to the portal right there.
- Click Enroll — the student moves to the enrolled column. There's an Undo if you need it.
Everything saves as you go, so enrollment can span several evenings. You can add a brand-new family from inside the wizard too.
How do I prepare next year?
When the final term begins, the dashboard shows Prepare Next Year. The wizard clones this year's classes, subjects and terms as a draft. Reassign teachers who've changed, rename, split or merge classrooms, and confirm subjects and grade settings. Your current year is untouched.
How do I close out the school year?
On the dashboard in the final term, click Close Out the Year. The wizard walks four steps:
- Download a backup and confirm you have it (the close button stays locked until you do).
- Optionally export grades to CSV.
- Open report cards for the whole school — one page per student.
- Review & close — see how many students promote and which grade graduates, then confirm.
Closing promotes everyone a grade and graduates the top class. The year is archived, never deleted. Only an administrator can close a year.
Reports & printables
How do I print a report card?
- One student: a teacher opens Reports, picks the student, and clicks Print.
- A whole class: same page — Print whole class, one page per student.
- The whole school: the office opens More ▾ → Reports → Report cards and chooses Whole school.
Parents can print or save their own child's card as a PDF from the parent portal. Teacher comments print on the card, and you can put them under each subject or in a right-hand column.
Report cards are included on every plan, including homeschool.
How do I generate the whole-school year report?
From the dashboard, open Year Reports and pick a year. The report shows total enrollment, a breakdown by grade and class, the school's average, averages by grade and subject, an attendance breakdown and an honor roll. Use Print for the board.
How do I add my comments to a report card?
- Open Reports and generate the student's report card.
- Scroll to Report card notes. There's a box for each subject, plus an overall comment.
- Choose whether the note is for a single term or the whole year, type it, and Save notes.
The comment prints on the report card and appears in the parent portal. Clearing a box removes the comment.
How do I print a class list for a field trip or a fire drill?
A teacher prints their own room from Students → Print roster.
The office gets the full version from More ▾ → Reports → Class & trip roster:
- Tick the classrooms that are going — the others stay behind.
- Give the sheet a title, e.g. Zoo field trip.
- Type your checkpoints, separated by commas: Leaving school, Leaving the park, Leaving the museum, Back at school. Each becomes a tick column, so a child is counted at every stop.
- If parents are driving, ask for blank car sheets — a page per car with a driver line and numbered spaces the driver fills in at the kerb.
How do I print attendance?
A teacher prints their own class register from Attendance → Print register — the month currently on screen, weekdays only, already filled in with what's been recorded. It doubles as the paper backup if the system is ever down.
The office opens More ▾ → Reports → Attendance summary, picks a date range and (optionally) some grades, and gets one row per student with their totals and an attendance rate.
How do I print a transcript?
More ▾ → Reports → Transcript, then choose the student. It lists every year they attended, the subjects and averages for each, and a signature line for the administrator.
How do I see how a whole grade is doing, and export it to Excel?
Open More ▾ → Reports → Grade averages (teachers reach it from their own Reports page). Each subject shows the class average for every quarter. Click a subject and each student's own numbers unfold underneath.
Export to Excel gives you a flat table you can pivot — one row per student, subject and quarter, with the class and teacher on each row so you can slice by them. The workbook has a How to tab that walks you through building a PivotTable with slicers.
How do I print a certificate of thanks for a teacher?
More ▾ → Reports → Teacher certificate of thanks, then pick the teacher and the year. It names the grades they taught, the subjects, and how many students they carried. It prints landscape onto your own bordered stock, like the graduation certificates. You don't have to wait for the year to close — preview or test-print at any time.
How do I print the whole-school conference schedule?
More ▾ → Reports → Conference schedule and pick the evening. You get the master sheet — every room, in time order — for the office door. Teachers print their own evening from their Conferences page.
How do I print the volunteer roster?
More ▾ → Reports → Volunteer roster and pick the roster — it prints for the notice board, with a blank column to note who actually served. If the volunteers are driving a field trip, add car sheets and your checkpoints, and each driver gets a page to tick their carload off at every stop.
How do I print graduation certificates?
From the year report or dashboard, follow the link to Graduation certificates for that year — one per graduate, ready to print onto your own bordered certificate stock. An accolades toggle can add years attended and overall average, or leave the certificate plain.
Using the parent portal
How do I set up my parent account?
Open the invitation email from your school and click Set Up My Password. Choose a password, and you're signed in to the portal. If the link has expired (they last 48 hours), ask the school to re-send it.
How do I switch between my children?
If you have more than one child at the school, a student selector sits at the top of the portal. Choose a child to view their grades, attendance and messages.
How do I see my child's grades and report card?
In the parent portal, open Grades for the full report card — grades by subject and term with the year average and an attendance summary — and Attendance for a calendar with monthly stats. You can print the report card.
How do I see and confirm my conference times?
Once your school sends the schedule, you'll get an email and a Your Conference Times card on your portal dashboard — each child's time and teacher in one place. Use the confirm link to let the school know you're coming and to jot any topics you'd like to discuss; the card shows whether you've confirmed yet.
Accounts & passwords
How do I reset my forgotten password?
- On your sign-in page, click Forgot password?
- Enter your account email and submit — you'll see a reassuring confirmation either way.
- Open the reset email and click Reset My Password (the link points at your own school's address).
- Choose a new password. The link works for about 48 hours.
This works for every role — administrators, teachers and parents.
How do I sign in for the first time?
Open the account-setup email you were sent and click the link to choose your own password. You'll land on your school's own web address, signed in. If you were given a temporary password, you'll be asked to set your own before continuing.
Platform administration
How do I provision a new school?
- Sign in to the super-admin portal and click Schools.
- Click + Add School.
- Enter the school name, its subdomain (which becomes the school's web address) and address.
- Click Save.
Then add the school's first administrator on the School Admins page — they're emailed a link to set their own password.
How do I add a school's first administrator?
On the super-admin School Admins page, choose the school in the filter, click + Add Administrator, and enter their name and email. They're emailed a setup link — no password is typed.
How do I download a backup?
In the super-admin Backups page, use Download System Backup for a full snapshot of every school, or download a single school on its own. Backups also run automatically every night.
Didn't find it?
More step-by-step videos are on the way, and we're always happy to help directly.