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Creating your first school
Adding a school and its administrator. 10 minutes, and the system does most of it for you.
Before you start
| Needed | Why |
|---|---|
| At least one plan | The system refuses to create a school without one |
| An onboarding template | Optional, but without it the school starts completely empty |
| Platform settings done | Your name and logo appear in the admin's first email |
| The school admin's real email address | It becomes their login, and cannot already exist |
Creating it
Sidebar → Schools → Add
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| School name | The school's full name as it should appear everywhere |
| Admin name | The person who will run this school |
| Admin email | Their login. Must not already exist on the platform |
| Admin phone | Optional |
| Plan | Which plan they are on |
| Subscription type | Monthly or yearly |
| Custom end date | Optional — overrides the plan's normal period |
| Onboarding template | Optional — pre-fills classes, subjects, grades and fee heads |
The password is shown once and never again
When the school is created, the screen shows the admin's email and a generated password, with a Copy button.
Copy it before you navigate away. It is not stored in readable form and cannot be shown again. If you lose it, the admin has to reset their password by email.
The admin email must be completely new
It is checked against both existing users and existing schools. A person who is already a parent, a teacher, or the admin of another school cannot reuse that address.
Use a role address such as principal@theschool.edu rather than someone's personal one — it survives staff changes.
What happens automatically
You do not have to do any of this:
| Done for you | Detail |
|---|---|
| A web address is generated | From the school's name — "St Mary's School" becomes st-marys-school. Duplicates get a number |
| The admin account is created | As a school admin, with the right role |
| Their email is pre-verified | So they can log straight in, with no verification link to chase |
| A fee receipt template is set up | Receipts print correctly from day one |
| The default dashboard theme is applied | Whatever you set as the platform default |
| The subscription end date is set | One month or one year out, or your custom date |
If you chose an onboarding template, you will also see what it created — how many classes, subjects, grades and fee types.
What a new school starts with switched off
New schools are deliberately cautious. Check these against what the school has paid for:
| Setting | Default | Turn on when |
|---|---|---|
| Online fee payment | Off | Their payment gateway is connected |
| SMS notifications | Off | They have credit, or their own SMS account |
| Email notifications | On | Already on — nothing to do |
The school's web address matters
The generated address becomes part of the school's public admission link, which looks like /apply/st-marys-school. Schools put that link on posters, websites and WhatsApp.
Changing it later breaks every link already shared
Parents may already have the admission link. Change the address and every copy of it stops working — silently, with no redirect.
Get it right when you create the school.
Give the admin their details
Send the admin:
- The web address to log in at — your platform address, or their own domain if you set one up
- Their email
- The password you copied
Tell them to change the password immediately after logging in.
What the school must do next
The school is created but not yet usable. Its admin is dropped straight into the setup wizard and has to complete two required steps:
- Create the academic session — the year they are working in. Nothing else can be created before this exists
- Set up classes and sections — students cannot be added without them
Then, when they are ready: subjects, grading scale, fee heads, students and staff. Those are not blocking, but a school cannot collect money without fee heads or run exams without a grading scale.
An onboarding template does most of step 2 for you
If you picked one, the classes, subjects, grades and fee heads already exist. The admin only needs to create the academic session and check the classes match their school.
Common problems
| What you see | Cause |
|---|---|
| "Please create a subscription plan before adding a school" | No plans exist — create one first |
| Email rejected as taken | That address is already a user or another school's contact |
| "School created, but onboarding preseed failed" | The school is fine — its admin can run the onboarding wizard manually |
| Admin cannot log in | Wrong password copied, or they are using your platform address when the school has a custom domain |
| Admin stuck on a verification screen | Should not happen — accounts made here are pre-verified. If it does, the account was created another way |