Move your school to Qalamora in one day

Most schools put off new software because they imagine weeks of typing. In practice the work is mostly deciding a few things and copying lists you already have. This article is a plan for doing it in one working day, the way a school office actually works. It assumes one person who knows the school (usually the principal or the accountant) and one helper who is comfortable with Excel.

The night before: collect what you already have

You do not need anything new. Gather:

• The student register or Excel sheet: name, father's name, GR number, class, section, date of birth, B-Form number if you keep it, and at least one guardian mobile number.
• Your fee structure: the monthly tuition for each class, and the other charges you use (admission, annual, exam, transport).
• Your current concessions: which students pay less, by how much, and why.
• Bank details for the challan: bank name, branch and collection account.
• Your school logo as an image, and the address and phone as printed on your letterhead.

If students are spread over several sheets, that is fine. The import understands common headings such as S/O, GR No and Mobile, so you do not have to rename columns first.

Morning, part 1: the school itself (about one hour)

1. Sign in and secure the owner account. Set up two-step sign-in on the owner's phone and save the recovery codes. See Two-step sign-in.
2. School profile. Add the logo, address and contacts. They appear on every challan, receipt and form. See School profile and branding.
3. Session, classes and sections. Create the current session and your classes with their sections, then the subjects. Use the same class names as in your Excel sheet, because the import matches by name. See Set up sessions, classes and subjects.
4. Numbering. Decide how GR, challan and receipt numbers should look before the first student is added. See Set admission, challan and receipt numbers.

Morning, part 2: students (about one to two hours)

Open Students > Import students, download the template or use your own sheet, and click Check file. The review shows which rows are ready and which need attention, class by class. Typical problems are a class name spelled differently, a missing father's name or a date in an unusual format. Fix them in the review or in your sheet and check again.

Two tips save time here:

• Do not chase perfection. Add the ready students first. The rest can be fixed and added in a second file later the same day.
• Keep your old GR numbers if parents and the board know them. Leave the column empty only if you want Qalamora to number students from scratch.

Brothers and sisters are linked automatically when their guardian has the same CNIC or mobile number. That matters later for sibling discounts and for parent logins. See Import students from Excel.

After lunch: fees (about one hour)

1. Fee heads. Add your charges: tuition, admission, annual, exam and so on.
2. Class fee plans. Create one plan per class and click Apply to class. Every student of the class is on the plan in one step. See Set up fee heads and class fee plans.
3. Concessions and sibling discount. Enter the concessions from your list, each with its reason, and set the sibling rule if you have one. See Concessions and sibling discounts.
4. Challan layout. Enter the bank details and choose your paper, for example A4 landscape with three copies. See Challan layouts and paper sizes.
5. Generate this month's challans and check the preview. If totals look right for three or four students you know well, print the class. See Generate monthly fee challans.

Late afternoon: people (about one hour)

• Staff logins. Add staff and give each person the role that matches their work: accountant, teacher, front desk. Everyone gets their own login; nobody shares one at the counter. See Roles, permissions and users.
• Teachers and subjects. Assign class and subject teachers so teachers can mark attendance and post homework from the next morning. See Assign class and subject teachers.
• Parent logins. Create logins for one class first and print the slips. Hand them out with the challans. See Create parent and student logins.

What to leave for next week

You do not need everything on day one. Old fee history, the timetable, exam setup, library books and transport routes can follow when you need them. A sensible order is: attendance from day two, the timetable within the first week, and exam setup a few weeks before the first exam.

A realistic check at the end of the day

By evening you should be able to answer yes to these:

• Can the counter find any student by name or GR number and take a fee?
• Are this month's challans printed for at least one class?
• Can the principal see students and dues on the dashboard?
• Does every staff member have their own login?

If yes, you have moved. Everything else is improvement, not migration.

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If you would rather not do the import yourself, send us your Excel sheet from the contact page and we will help set up your data.

Related

• Import students from Excel
• First day checklist
• Generate monthly fee challans