You do.  During onboarding you will create copies of our template spreadsheets so you are the owner, then you give us editing permissions through Google Workspace to add our formulas and scripts.  Once set up, you can remove our access completely so nobody outside of your school/district has access to confidential student data.  At all times you are in full control of your spreadsheets and the data contained therein.  

We teach you how to import your data from your Student Information System (SIS) into the spreadsheets.  This short demo video shows how easy it is.

Understandably, for security reasons district IT Directors do not allow third party access to their Student Information Systems, so our spreadsheets will not connect directly with your SIS.  Instead, you will run reports from your SIS and import them into the spreadsheets.

There is one Master Data spreadsheet with standard information about your students, such as names, ID numbers, classroom schedules, and parent email addresses.  Each application pulls the specific data it needs from this Master Data spreadsheet, that way you only import this standard data once instead of importing into each separate application that you use.  You will update this Master Data spreadsheet more frequently at the beginning of the semester when there are more new enrollments and schedule changes, but less often thereafter.

Each application has its own separate spreadsheet.  For example, as often as you want to process tardies records, you will run a tardies report from your SIS then import that report into the Tardies application.  Some applications, like Electronic Hall Passes or Student Involvement, use handheld scanners to input students’ IDs into the spreadsheets instead of running reports through your SIS.  

This short demo video shows some scanner options.  Handheld scanners are inexpensive and provide a fast way to enter students’ ID numbers into spreadsheets that collect data from students (like Electronic Hall Passes or Student Involvement) instead of through SIS reports (like Tardies or Period Truancies).  If entry time is not an issue, then students can manually type their ID numbers instead.  

We recommend a scanner model based on your needs, but you can purchase whichever scanners you want.  Scanners are not included in the fee we charge for our applications.

• • Versatile:  https://a.co/d/5tYdSFk ($35).  Wired or wireless, QR codes or barcodes, instant or delayed upload, includes stand.

  • Basic:  https://a.co/d/0AzQrKG ($24).  Wired to computer via USB, QR codes or barcodes.

Be informed when shopping for scanners.  Less expensive models may not scan your particular encoding protocol, or may scan only barcodes (1D) but not QR codes (2D),  among other differences.  Look for free returns so you can exchange the scanner for a different model if it cannot read your particular barcodes.

A free basic Google Workspace account is sufficient for applications that merely process data.  For our applications that also send emails, such as parent notification emails for student tardies, we can disable the email functionality and instead generate a Microsoft Excel file containing the contents of each email to be sent, then you can use your Microsoft email client to send the Mail Merge emails from the Excel file.

Each subscription application comes with a free trial for one semester.  With no upfront expense, we work with you to create the data pulls from your SIS, teach you how to use each application, and provide customizations to meet your unique needs.  If you like the application, pay the annual subscription fee to retain use of the scripts, with no large up-front purchase costs and no long term contracts.  Ongoing support is included in the annual subscription fee.

If you do not like an application, then keep or delete the spreadsheets, that’s up to you - we merely disable the scripts that process the data in each spreadsheet.