====== Introduction ======

This section describes concepts and the functionality that SchoolDrive provides for the school staff.

===== Course administration =====

The system manages the course and related data like students, teachers and corporate customers. Course administration is on course session level, thus the system knows for each session where it takes place (on room level), who was teaching and for what rate, who is the customer, which students were present and what happened during the session. Course sessions can be postponed, cancelled or late-cancelled. For further information go to the [[en:staff:courses|Courses]], [[en:staff:students|Students]], [[en:staff:customers|Customers]] and [[en:staff:customers|Rooms]] sections.

===== Inbox =====

The //Inbox// is the place were issues are listed that the school staff has to deal with. The issues are categorized. The school staff's task is to resolve the issues in the //Inbox//, thus optimally there are as few open issues left as possible. It is a good practice to start your work in the //Inbox// and check what still needs to be done. For further information go to the [[en:staff:inbox|Inbox]] section.

===== Finance =====

The system contains an invoicing system. If a course is invoiced then also the course and the student / customer has to be specified as part of the invoice items. This way the system has the information who has paid what and what is still due. The system supports registration of teacher invoices based on their registered activities. Customer invoices can be automatically issued on monthly basis or based on a schedule. These invoices can be shared with the customers via their interface.

===== Sales =====

The system supports tracking your leads from the first steps until the contract is signed. Planned courses, requirements, course expenses and a to-do list can be assigned. Documents like the sent offers or contract drafts can be stored.
Next to the leads a financial overview of your company's performance is graphically visualized. The historic revenue, expense and profit (also on hourly rate level) and lesson count is shown in a chart and can be filtered by many categories (customer, course type, course subject).
===== Surveys =====

SchoolDrive provides a survey designer for surveys that are used in placement tests, lesson observations, student feedback and for customer and course requirements registration. The surveys consist of pages and questions. The answer types include multiple choice, combo boxes, check boxes, free text, scales, fill-in-the-gap plus image and video answers. The surveys are automatically evaluated.
===== Document templates =====

SchoolDrive has a visual template designer for the documents it can create and print. Over 20 document types are currently supported (like student contract, teacher framework agreement, teacher course contract, customer contract, certificates, application responses).
===== Data export =====

The system supports export of the stored data on most pages to CSV, Excel 97 and Excel 2007 format. In addition to the data stored also predefined reports can be generated and exported.
===== Further information =====

The user interface is built from the following tabs: [[en:staff:courses|Courses]], [[en:staff:teachers|Teachers]], [[en:staff:students|Students]], [[en:staff:rooms|Rooms]], [[en:staff:waiting list|Waiting list]], [[en:staff:customers|Customers]], [[en:staff:inbox|Inbox]], [[en:staff:finance|Finance]], [[en:staff:sales|Sales]] and [[en:staff:settings|Settings]].

A step-by-step description of common procedures can be found here: [[en:staff:start_course|starting a new course]], [[en:staff:reschedule|rescheduling course sessions]], [[en:staff:student_application|student applications]], [[en:staff:add_student|adding new students]], [[en:staff:add_teacher|adding new teachers]], [[en:staff:new_customer|adding new customers]], [[en:staff:new_invoice|issuing an invoice]], [[en:staff:set_break|add breaks]] and [[en:staff:change_rates|change customer or teacher rates]].