Initial school setup checklist

After signing in for the first time, follow this checklist to configure your school for full operation. The system provides a Setup Progress assistant that tracks your completion status.

Overview

Makronexus Education requires several foundational elements before you can run day-to-day operations like enrolling students, recording attendance, or collecting payments. This guide covers the recommended setup sequence.

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Setup progress dashboard

The system includes a guided setup assistant that tracks your progress:

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Setup Progress

Or for a specific school: foundation/schools/{schoolId}/setup

Setup stages

The assistant organizes setup into categories:

Stage	Steps included	Estimated time
Basic Info	School profile, Address	15 minutes
Academic Setup	Academic year, Terms, Grade levels, Subjects, Classes	45 minutes
Personnel	Departments, Staff & Teachers	40 minutes
Students	Student enrollment	45+ minutes
Financial	Fee structure	20 minutes
Portal	Portal setup (optional)	10 minutes

Step dependencies

Some steps require others to be completed first:

Basic Info
    └── Address
    └── Academic Year
            └── Terms
            └── Grade Levels
                    └── Subjects
                    └── Classes
                            └── Staff & Teachers
                            └── Students

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Setup checklist

Phase 1: School identity

1.1 Complete school profile

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Directory → Select school → Edit

Field	Required	Description
School name	✅	Official registered name
Display name	Optional	Short name for UI (e.g., "St. Mary's" instead of "St. Mary's Girls High School")
School type	✅	Primary, Secondary, Combined, etc.
Education level	✅	ECD, Primary, Secondary, Tertiary
School code	Optional	Ministry registration code
Contact email	✅	Main school email for communications
Phone number	Recommended	Primary contact number
Website	Optional	School website URL

1.2 Add school address

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Directory → Select school → Address tab

Field	Required	Description
Physical address	✅	Street address, city, province
Postal address	Optional	P.O. Box if different from physical
GPS coordinates	Optional	Latitude/longitude for mapping

Setup assistant shortcut

If you're using the Setup Progress dashboard, click the Start or Continue button next to each step to jump directly to the relevant page with the form pre-opened.

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Phase 2: Academic structure

2.1 Create academic year

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Academic Years

1. Click Create academic year
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "2026 Academic Year"
   • Start date: First day of the academic year
   • End date: Last day of the academic year
3. Save the academic year
4. Click the Set as current action to make it the active year

Critical step

Without a current academic year, most academic and enrollment features will not function. Always mark one year as "current."

2.2 Add terms to the academic year

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Academic Years → Select year → Terms tab

For each term (typically 3 per year in Zimbabwe):

1. Click Add term
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "Term 1", "First Term"
   • Start date: First day of term
   • End date: Last day of term (excluding holidays)
3. Mark one term as the current term

3-term system

Term	Typical dates
Term 1	January – April
Term 2	May – August
Term 3	September – December

2-semester system

Semester	Typical dates
Semester 1	January – June
Semester 2	July – December

2.3 Configure grade levels

Navigation: Academics → Class Structure → Grade Levels

Grade levels define the academic cohorts your school offers. For a secondary school:

1. Click Add grade level or use Seed grade levels for bulk creation
2. For each grade level, configure:
   • Name: e.g., "Form 1", "Grade 8"
   • Short name: e.g., "F1", "G8"
   • Level type: Junior, Senior, etc.
   • Order: Numeric sequence (1, 2, 3...)
   • Enrollment cap: Maximum students (optional)
   • Is exam grade: Whether this grade has national exams
   • Graduation grade: Whether completing this grade results in graduation

Using the Seed feature:

If your school follows a standard Zimbabwe structure:

1. Click Seed grade levels
2. Select the school level (Primary, Secondary, etc.)
3. The system creates the appropriate grade levels automatically
4. You can then customize individual grades

2.4 Configure streams (optional)

Navigation: Academics → Class Structure → Streams

Streams are academic tracks within a grade level (e.g., Sciences, Arts, Commercials):

1. Click Add stream
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "Sciences", "Arts"
   • Code: e.g., "SCI", "ARTS"
   • Grade level: Which grade this stream applies to
   • Capacity: Maximum students

When to use streams

Streams are useful when students in the same grade follow different curricula based on their academic track. If all students take the same subjects, you may not need streams.

2.5 Create class divisions

Navigation: Academics → Class Structure → Class Divisions

Class divisions are the actual classroom groups where students are enrolled:

1. Click Add class division
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "Form 1A", "Form 1B"
   • Grade level: The grade this class belongs to
   • Stream: (If using streams) The academic track
   • Class teacher: Assign a teacher (if staff added)
   • Capacity: Maximum students
   • Room: Physical classroom (optional)

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Phase 3: Personnel

3.1 Create departments (optional)

Navigation: Foundation → Schools → Departments

Departments organize staff and subjects:

1. Click Add department
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "Mathematics", "Sciences", "Languages"
   • Head of department: Assign a staff member (after adding staff)
   • Budget code: For financial tracking (optional)

3.2 Add staff and teachers

Navigation: People → Staff or People → Teachers

Add manually

1. Click Add staff or Add teacher
2. Enter personal details:
   • Full name
   • Email address (creates user account)
   • Phone number
   • Employee ID (optional)
3. Assign to school and department
4. Set employment details (start date, contract type)
5. Save

Bulk import

1. Go to People → Import People
2. Download the CSV template
3. Fill in staff details following the template format
4. Upload the completed CSV
5. Review the import preview
6. Confirm the import

User accounts

When you add staff with an email address, the system can automatically create a user account for them. They'll receive an activation email to set their password.

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Phase 4: Students

4.1 Add students

Navigation: People → Students

Add manually

1. Click Add student
2. Enter:
   • Basic info: First name, surname, date of birth, gender
   • Identity: National ID or birth certificate number
   • Contact: Phone, email (for older students)
   • Class assignment: Grade level and class division
3. Save the student record

Bulk import

1. Go to People → Import People
2. Select Students as the import type
3. Download the CSV template
4. Required columns:
   • firstName, surname
   • dateOfBirth (YYYY-MM-DD)
   • gender (MALE/FEMALE)
   • gradeLevelCode or gradeLevelName
   • classDivisionCode or classDivisionName
5. Upload and preview the import
6. Resolve any validation errors
7. Confirm import

Via admissions

If using the full admissions workflow:

1. Go to Admissions → Applications
2. Create applications for new students
3. Move through the pipeline: Application → Decision → Offer → Acceptance
4. Convert accepted students to enrolled status
5. Assign to class divisions

See the Admit a student guide for details.

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Phase 5: Finance

5.1 Configure fee structure

Navigation: Finance → Fees

1. Click Add fee
2. Enter:
   • Name: e.g., "Tuition Fee", "Registration Fee"
   • Fee type: Tuition, Registration, Exam, Activity, etc.
   • Amount: Fee amount
   • Currency: ZWL, USD, etc.
   • Frequency: Per term, per year, once-off
   • Applies to: Which grade levels or streams
3. Create fees for each category your school charges

Common fee structure:

Fee name	Type	Frequency	Notes
Tuition	Tuition	Per term	Main school fee
Registration	Registration	Once-off	New students only
Exam levy	Exam	Per term	For exam grades
Sports levy	Activity	Per term	Optional
Computer levy	Activity	Per term	Optional

5.2 Test the billing flow

1. Go to Finance → Billing Runs
2. Create a test billing run for a small group of students
3. Verify invoices are generated correctly
4. Check Finance → Invoices to see the created invoices

5.3 Set up payment recording

Navigation: Finance → Payments

1. Familiarize yourself with the Record payment workflow
2. Test recording a payment against a student invoice
3. Verify the receipt is generated in Finance → Receipts
4. Check the student's balance updates correctly

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Verification checklist

After completing setup, verify each area works:

Area	Test	Expected result
Dashboard	Open Executive → Dashboard	See metrics and charts
Students	Open People → Students	See student list with class assignments
Classes	Open Academics → Class Divisions	See classes with enrolled students
Teachers	Open People → Teachers	See teacher list with assignments
Fees	Open Finance → Fees	See configured fee items
Invoices	Run a test billing	Invoices generated for students
Payments	Record a test payment	Payment appears, balance updates
Receipts	View Finance → Receipts	Receipt generated for payment

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Setup completion

When all required steps are complete:

1. The Setup Progress dashboard shows 100% completion
2. The setup stage changes to Completed
3. You can begin normal school operations

Ready for operations

Once setup is complete, your school can:

• Enroll and manage students
• Record attendance
• Process payments and issue receipts
• Generate reports
• Send communications

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If modules are missing

Some modules appear only when:

1. School is selected — Use the school switcher in the top bar
2. Permission is granted — Contact your administrator
3. Feature is enabled — Some features are tenant-level configurations

Common permission requirements:

Module	Required permission
Finance	finance:view or payments:view
Attendance	attendance:view
Academics	academics:view
People	students:view, teachers:view, staff:view
Foundation	Usually requires admin or exec role

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Related topics

• Onboard a school — Detailed school onboarding guide
• Bulk import students — CSV import workflow
• Fee setup and invoicing — Complete finance setup
• Create academic year and term — Detailed academic year guide