The attendance day: from the scan to the guardian's notice

What it is for

The attendance day runs across several pages. It starts with the shift under “Absence settings”: when the day starts, when a pupil counts as late, what status a pupil with no mark gets, and when the day closes by itself. Then marks are recorded at the gate or in the daily register, excuses and exit permits are reviewed, the day is closed, and the guardians of absent and late pupils are told.

Step by step

1. Under “Absence settings”, create a shift for each school (or for a stage or certain grades): the start of the day (07:00 by default), “late after” in minutes (15 by default), the default status for a pupil with no mark (present or absent), the school days, an automatic close time if you want one, and the option to send the notice automatically on closing.
2. In the morning a pupil scans their card at the gate (“Gate check-in” or a gate tablet), or their code or identity number is typed, or they are found by name.
3. In “Daily attendance” the marks are completed class by class: present, absent, absent excused, late, late excused, or the school's own status. Each row is saved the moment its status is chosen.
4. Excuses are reviewed under “Attendance review & excuses”: the office enters them (up to 60 days) or a guardian requests one from the portal (up to 30 days), and they are approved or refused. A pupil leaving during the day is recorded under “Exit permits”.
5. At the end of the day, “Finalize the day” is pressed for the class, or the system closes it at the time set in the shift.
6. After closing, “Notify guardians” is pressed, or the notice goes by itself if the shift's option is on. The numbers are then followed on the “Student Affairs dashboard” and in “Reports”.

How it works

Lateness counts from the shift's start of day: a pupil arriving before “late after” has passed is present, one arriving after it is late by the minutes since the start. A second scan of the same pupil on the same day changes nothing. If a pupil was marked absent without an excuse and then scans at the gate before the day is closed, they become late (or present, if on time); a closed day and an excused absence do not change. Closing cannot be undone: every pupil still without a mark takes the shift's default status, the class's day is locked for that shift, and a pupil is not counted on a day before their enrolment date. The automatic close runs within the hour after its time, on school days and inside the academic year only; if it is missed (the system down for that hour, say), the class waits for someone to close it by hand. The notice is for unexcused absence and unexcused lateness only, and goes only after closing: each guardian who “receives messages” and has a primary phone gets one message listing their children, never the same notice twice, and an imported day is never notified. It goes by WhatsApp with an approved template when the group is connected to WhatsApp, otherwise by SMS when it has an account; with neither, it is recorded as “could not be sent” and the records stay un-notified so a later send can cover them. A failure that may clear is retried automatically every quarter of an hour, up to four tries within a day. Approving an excuse applies it to every record in its range, closed days included, and sends no message; revoking it turns those days back into unexcused absence. An exit permit records who took the pupil and why, and does not change their attendance. School days are the academic year's days except the group's weekend (Friday and Saturday by default).

The pages in this flow

1. Absence settings
2. Gate check-in
3. Daily attendance
4. Attendance review & excuses
5. Exit permits
6. Send messages
7. Message templates
8. Student Affairs dashboard
9. Reports

Questions

Why did a guardian not get the notice?

Check that the day is closed, that the absence is unexcused, and that the guardian has a primary phone with “receives messages” on in the pupil's file. The dashboard and the reports give the reason for each message that did not arrive.

I closed the day by mistake. Can I undo it?

Closing cannot be undone, and a closed day is not changed in the register. An approved excuse applies to closed days, and someone granted “Override finalized attendance” corrects the day with a file under “Import” in the register.

Why is a pupil late when they arrived on time?

Lateness counts from the “start of day” and “late after” of the shift for their grade; check both under “Absence settings”.

Who marks, who closes, who notifies?

Marking needs “Mark attendance”, closing “Finalize attendance”, notifying “Notify guardians”. In the built-in roles a teacher marks but neither closes nor notifies; a stage supervisor and a principal do all three.