Appearance
The academic session
The school year everything else is filed under. 5 minutes to create, and one decision a year after that.
The session is the single most important record in the system. Attendance, fee collection, exam marks, promotions and reports are all filed under the session they happened in. Get this wrong and every report is wrong.
Sidebar → Academics → Classes & Sections, then the Sessions tab.
Creating a session
Add New Session
| Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Session Name (required) | What your school calls the year | 2026-2027 |
| Start date | The first day of the school year | 01 Apr 2026 |
| End date | The last day | 31 Mar 2027 |
| Set as Current Active Session | Switch on only when this is the year you are working in now |
Then Save. You should now see the session listed with its period and student count.
Pick one naming style and never change it
2026-2027 throughout, or 2026-27 throughout — not both. The name appears on report cards, receipts and every year dropdown in the system, and a mixed list is permanently confusing to whoever inherits your job.
Dates are optional but worth adding
Without them the list shows "— not set —" and nothing breaks. With them, the system can stop you creating two sessions that overlap, which is the mistake that silently splits a year's data in two.
The current session
Exactly one session is Current at any time. That is the year the whole school is working in — new admissions, today's attendance, this month's fee collection all land there.
The very first session you create is made current automatically. After that, changing it is a deliberate act:
Set Current on the row you want. You will be asked to confirm, because it "switches the whole school into this academic year."
Switch the current session only when the year actually changes
Every screen follows the current session. Switch it in the middle of a term and today's attendance, today's fee receipts and today's marks are filed under the wrong year — and nothing warns you.
The right moment is when the new school year officially begins, usually as part of a year-end rollover.
You cannot un-tick Current on the current session. To move it, mark a different session current instead — the system swaps them for you.
Looking at a past year without switching
There is a session indicator in the topbar. Click it and pick any session to view that year — a viewing badge appears next to it while you are in that mode.
This is the safe way to check last year's numbers. It:
- changes only what you see, not the school
- leaves the current session exactly where it is
- can be undone with Back to current session
Two people in the same school can be looking at different years at the same time without affecting each other.
A closed year is read-only, and that is the point
When you view an archived or locked session, the system tells you "This session is read-only." Last year's records should not change after the fact.
Statuses
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being set up, not in use |
| Upcoming | Next year, created in advance |
| Active | In normal use. The current session is always active |
| Locked | Finished and frozen — no further edits |
| Archived | Finished, kept for history, read-only |
Archive on a finished session marks it as history without deleting anything. You cannot archive the current session — make another session current first.
Year-end rollover
At the end of the year, one screen moves everyone up: Year-End Rollover, on the Sessions tab.
- It lists every class and section with students in the current year
- For each one, choose Promote (and where to), Graduate, or leave it on hold
- Preview shows exactly how many students each line would move, before anything happens
- Commit, and optionally make the new session current in the same action
You should now see a summary: how many were promoted and how many graduated.
Preview is not decoration
It is a dry run against your real data. A class mapped to the wrong destination shows up there as an obviously wrong number. Read it before committing.
Anything you leave on hold is untouched, so you can roll over in stages — the senior classes first, the rest later.
Deleting a session
Rarely a good idea, and the system mostly refuses:
- The current session cannot be deleted
- A session with any student record attached cannot be deleted — including students who were promoted out of it or have left
That leaves only genuinely empty sessions, such as one created by mistake. Everything else should be archived instead.
Common problems
| What you see | Cause |
|---|---|
| "These dates overlap an existing session" | Two years cannot cover the same days. Fix the dates on one of them |
| "A current session is always required" | You tried to un-tick Current. Mark a different session current instead |
| "Cannot delete this session — N student record(s) are linked to it" | Promoted and past students count too. Archive it instead |
| "You cannot archive the current session" | Make another session current first |
| Attendance or fees appear under the wrong year | The current session was switched mid-year. Switch it back and check the affected dates |
| Reports show nothing for a year you know had data | You are viewing a different session. Check the topbar indicator, and use Back to current session |
| "Create and set a current session before running a rollover" | There is no current session — set one on the Sessions tab |