← Admin help

Getting started as a school administrator

Each school in HallTracker has an administrator who sets up the school's environment: its pass types, students, classes and teachers. If you created your school's workspace, you're its administrator automatically. You keep everything you had as a teacher, and gain an Admin Panel link in your menu.

What you can manage

Your school's students, added one at a time or imported from a file.
Sections, so each teacher sees the right students.
Teachers and staff at your school, including approving people who ask to join.
Pass types and infraction types used in your school.
Bell schedules and the school calendar.
Guardians, so families can be contacted.

You only ever see and change your own school's information. Other schools are not visible to you.

Suggested setup order

1. Check your school's details

Open the Admin Panel and confirm the school name, city, state and time zone. The time zone matters: passes and attendance are timed by it.
2. Create your bell schedule first

Enter or import your bell schedule before anything else in this list. Every on-campus section is placed in a period of the bell schedule, so sections can't be created until it exists. Step-by-step guide.
3. Review your pass types and infraction types

Decide which passes your school uses, such as restroom or office, which should require a destination teacher, and which infractions teachers can record. A new school starts with a standard set, so this is a review, not a blank page. Step-by-step guide.
4. Bring in your teachers

Ask teachers to sign up with their school email and choose your school. Approve anyone waiting under Users. Each section needs a teacher, so do this before creating sections.
5. Add your students

Add students individually, or use the student import to load a whole roster from a file.
6. Set up courses and sections

Create each section by choosing its course, bell block (period), teacher and room. Add students to the section so each teacher's tracker shows their own classes.

To load many at once, use the schedule import in the Admin Panel. It reads a CSV of your students' classes, places each one in the right period of your active bell schedule, creates any course or section that doesn't already exist, and can create teacher accounts for you. Step-by-step guide.

Troubleshooting

Sign out and back in. If it still isn't there, your account may not have the School Admin role yet. Contact us and we'll check.

Your school needs a bell schedule first. Create or import one, then try creating the section again.

Teachers see the students in their own sections. Check that the teacher is assigned to a section and that the section has students in it.

Yes. Open the user under Users and update their roles.

Open Users in the Admin Panel, choose your school in the filter, and select Export temporary passwords. You get a CSV of everyone at the school who hasn't chosen their own password, with their username, last sign-in and temporary password. Temporary passwords are kept for 30 days; after that, or if the column is blank, use Reset password on that teacher.

Open the teacher under Users, choose Edit, and use Reset password at the bottom of the page. It shows a one-time temporary password once. Give it to the teacher: they will be asked to choose their own the next time they sign in.

Still stuck? Contact us and we'll help.