User Manual & Setup Guide

Camdera is a school management system that runs on your web browser. It is split into two worlds: the dashboard (staff and administrators — running the school) and the student portal (students — a mobile-first app with their timetable, results, fees, announcements and computer-based exams).

Every account belongs to one or more roles. A role is a bundle of permissions (for example exams.manage). Your effective access is the union of all your roles. A single special permission * means full access and can only exist on system roles.

Your institution starts with seven seeded roles: Super Admin (full access, protected), Admin, Head of Academics / Dean, Accountant, Teacher, Student and Parent. You can edit their permissions and create your own roles.

Permission catalogue (shown when editing a role)

Manage roles

1. 1

   Open System Settings → Roles

   See every role as a card with its permission count and number of assigned users. Click New role to create one.
2. 2

   Name it and tick permissions

   Give the role a name and optional description, then tick the permission boxes grouped by module. Each module header toggles the whole module and shows All / Partial / None. System (protected) roles cannot be deleted and keep full access.
3. 3

   Assign it to people

   Give the role when creating a staff account, or add it later on the Users page under a person's Manage roles.

1. 1

   Quick start with a template (optional but recommended)

   Academics → Templates creates your departments, courses, classes, a session and its terms in one click.
2. 2

   Create a session and its terms

   Academics → Sessions — one academic year holding Term 1, Term 2... and mark it as the current session.
3. 3

   Add departments, courses and classes

   These three define what is taught, in what groups. Courses (Mathematics, English...) and classes (Grade 5A, JSS 2B...) are both referenced by offerings.
4. 4

   Create course offerings

   Academics → Offerings — assign which course is taught to which class in which term, optionally with a teacher and a room. Everything below depends on this step.
5. 5

   Add students and staff

   People → Students (pick a class) and People → Staff (pick a role). Both get portal login credentials shown once.
6. 6

   Build the timetable and mark attendance

   Academics → Timetable schedules class periods per day and time; Operations → Attendance marks the class roster and the staff clock-in kiosk.
7. 7

   Configure results and enter scores

   Academics → Results — pick a grading scale, define assessment components, enter raw scores and publish. Cumulative report cards compute class-wide.
8. 8

   Optional: run CBT exams

   Exams (CBT) → Question Bank → Exams → build, assign candidates, then grade and publish results from the exam results page.
9. 9

   Optional: set up finance

   Finance comes pre-seeded with a chart of accounts. Add fee structures and categories in Finance → Settings, then bill, collect and pay — see the Finance chapter below.

Templates create a starter school structure for you — departments, courses, classes and a full academic session with terms. They are safe to apply any time: existing items with the same name are skipped, and everything created can be edited or removed later.

1. 1

   Open Academics → Templates

   Pick the card closest to your institution — the recommended one carries a star badge.
2. 2

   Click Use this template and confirm

   The confirmation shows exactly what will be created. Click Apply template.
3. 3

   Check the result banner

   You get a summary of created vs skipped items, and the new session is automatically set as the current session.

A session is an academic year (for example 2026/2027) and it contains terms (Term 1, Term 2, Term 3). Offerings, attendance and the results page all default to the current session and its active term, so keeping this accurate is important.

1. 1

   Create a session

   Click New session on the Sessions page. Give it a name, start and end dates, and a status (Planned / Active / Completed). Then Create session.
2. 2

   Add terms inside it

   Inside the session card click Add term, pick a term type (Term / Semester / Trimester / Quarter), set dates and status. Leave the name blank and it auto-names as Term 1, Term 2...
3. 3

   Mark the current session

   Click the gold Set as current star on the session you are operating in (only one can be current). Enrollments and offerings will default to it.

Departments are optional but useful grouping — Sciences, Finance, ICT. Cards show live counts of staff, courses and classes in each department.

1. 1

   Click New department

   Enter a name (required, e.g. Sciences) and an optional description, then Create department.
2. 2

   Use it everywhere else

   Departments can be attached to courses, classes and staff records.

A course is a subject (Mathematics, Computer Science). Each course has a code shown on timetables and results, a type (Core or Elective), optional credits, an optional price and a department. Clicking a course name opens its detail page with the classes it is offered in.

1. 1

   Click Add course

   Enter the name, optionally a short code (auto-uppercased, e.g. MTH101), pick Core or Elective, then optional credits (0–30), price, department and description.
2. 2

   Edit or remove

   Use the Edit button to change any field. Removing a course is a soft delete — it can be reactivated later, and existing offerings are kept.

A class is any group students are enrolled in — Grade 5A, JSS 2B, BSc CS 2024. Each class shows its level, section, department, class teacher and how many students and offerings it has.

1. 1

   Click Add class

   Enter the class name, optionally a level (e.g. 5, Year 1) and section (e.g. A, B), a department and a class teacher.
2. 2

   Enrol students into it

   Classes are referenced when you add or edit a student — pick the class and academic year there. The results score grid is populated from students enrolled in the class.

An offering is a concrete instance: course X taught to class Y in term Z, with an optional teacher and room. The page defaults to the current term of the current session.

1. 1

   Click Assign course

   Select the class, the course and the term (all required — the term defaults to the current one; assign per term and repeat for other terms).
2. 2

   Optionally add a teacher and room

   Pick a teacher from staff or leave unassigned, and enter a room such as Room 12 or Lab A.
3. 3

   Repeat for every class × course × term

   Use the filters and search to manage the list, and the pencil to move a teacher or room.

The timetable is a Monday–Sunday grid where each slot shows the time range, course, cohort, teacher and room. Filters let you view one cohort or one teacher at a time. The system prevents double bookings: overlapping slots for the same room or the same offering are rejected.

1. 1

   Click Schedule Period

   Optionally filter by class cohort first, then select the course & class offering (only offerings for the chosen cohort are listed).
2. 2

   Pick day and time

   Choose the day of the week and set start/end times (start must be before end — defaults 08:30–09:30). Enter an optional room or facility (e.g. Lab 2, Zoom 1).
3. 3

   Schedule and repeat

   Click Schedule period. Remove any slot with its trash icon.

You enter raw marks; everything else computes automatically — weighted totals, grades and grade points, class positions (ties share a position), class averages and cumulative report cards. The page works in four tabs: Score Entry, Class Results, Cumulative and Settings, filtered by term (defaults to the active term), class and subject.

A grading scale maps score ranges to grade labels and GPA points, and gives each grade a badge color. Scales are institution-wide; each course offering picks one when its assessment is configured. Four presets create a complete scale in one click.

1. 1

   Open System Settings → Grading

   Click New scale, or one of the preset quick cards.
2. 2

   Define the grade bands

   For each row set a label (e.g. A1), meaning, min and max score, GPA point and a badge color. Bands must not overlap and should cover the whole 0–100 range. A live preview shows the distribution.
3. 3

   Set your default scale

   Check Set as default scale so it is pre-selected when configuring assessments. The default scale and your only scale cannot be deleted.

Step 1 — Configure the assessment

Select an offering. The first time, the Score Entry tab shows a config editor: pick the grading scale and define components — each with a label (First CA Test), a key, the max raw marks and a weight %. Quick-fill buttons load stock templates (e.g. CA1 10% + CA2 10% + CA3 10% + Exam 70%). The total weight indicator must reach 100%. Then Create assessment config.

Step 2 — Enter scores

The grid lists every enrolled student with one input per component; inputs turn red when out of the allowed range. Totals, grade chips and positions update live as you type. Click Save scores for a component to persist — saving recomputes the whole class (totals, grades, class average, positions).

Step 3 — Review and publish

The Class Results tab shows the computed table (position, student, total, grade, grade point, class average) with a Draft/Published status. Publish results makes them official — students see them on their report cards and the class cumulative table updates for the term.

The Cumulative tab computes each student's combined average across subjects. Choose the rule and click Recompute report cards.

The class table shows position (x/total), cumulative, grade, grade point and subjects. Link out to Customize card layout (report card settings) to restyle the card.

Settings → Report Card is a live designer: edit a field and the preview updates immediately, then save. Every student's card reflects the template automatically.

The grading legend colors and remark bands depend on your grading scales, and the subject breakdown on published results.

1. 1

   Click Add staff

   Fill first and last name, their email (this is their login), optional phone, gender, department and employee number, and pick a role (required — roles must exist first).
2. 2

   Share the one-time credentials

   The success panel shows the email and a temporary password with copy buttons — the password is only shown once. They sign in at the login page and should change it in Settings → Active Sessions.
3. 3

   Edit and remove

   Email and role are locked after creation (additional roles are managed on the Users page). Removing a staff member cuts their access immediately; re-adding the same email restores the account.

1. 1

   Click Add student

   Upload an optional photo, then fill first and last name, email (their portal login), phone, gender and date of birth (must be at least 2 years ago). Optionally set an admission number, pick their class and the academic year (defaults to the current one).
2. 2

   Record the student ID and password

   The success modal shows the auto-generated Student ID (e.g. STU-2026-0001 — format is set under Settings → Student IDs) and a one-time temporary password for their portal login. Re-adding a removed student's email restores the account with a fresh password.
3. 3

   Manage from the detail page

   Click any student row to see their full profile, report cards and enrollment history. Super admins can generate a new portal password from there if a student forgets theirs.

The Users page lists staff accounts (students are managed under Students). There is no create button — accounts are created from the Staff page. Use Manage roles on any user to toggle their roles on and off; each toggle applies immediately. Protected system roles are marked with a badge.

Guardian records

People → Guardians lists every parent or guardian with their contact details and the students they are linked to. Create a guardian from the page header, fill in their name, phone, email and address, then link one or more students to them — a guardian can be responsible for any number of children across different classes.

Portal access

1. 1

   Generate credentials

   From a guardian's detail page, generate a portal password. It is shown once — copy it and share it with the guardian through your preferred channel.
2. 2

   The guardian logs in

   The parent portal mirrors what matters to them: each linked child's attendance history, published results, outstanding fees and school announcements — all in one login.

Student class roster

1. 1

   Pick the date

   Open Operations → Attendance. The date defaults to today and drives both tabs.
2. 2

   Mark each student

   Narrow by class cohort if needed, then tap each student's status pill — Present / Absent / Late / Excused. Previously saved records pre-fill.
3. 3

   Save & dispatch alerts

   Click Save & Dispatch Absence Alerts — this bulk-saves the roster and queues automated absence alerts for missing students.

Staff clock-in kiosk (secretary tab)

Search staff by name or employee number, then Clock In, Clock Out (existing entries show as chips), or mark Absent to raise an HR alert.

How it works

Any admin or staff member with communication access can schedule a reminder with a title, message, audience and fire time. At the scheduled moment it is delivered to every recipient's notification bell automatically — no manual sending.

Audience

Repeating schedules

Pick Once, Daily, Weekly or Monthly. Repeating reminders keep firing at the chosen time — e.g. "Staff meeting" every Monday at 08:30. Pause, resume, edit or delete a reminder any time from the Reminders page.

Computer-based testing is a complete pipeline:

1. 1

   Build the question bank

   Create categories and questions of any type, with options, correct answers, explanations and marks.
2. 2

   Build the exam

   The 5-step builder: overview and rules, scheduling and security, sections, questions & pools, then review.
3. 3

   Assign candidates and schedule

   Create assignments targeting classes, courses or departments, with open/close windows.
4. 4

   Students take it in the portal

   Timer, auto-save, question map and anti-cheat monitors with automatic submission on timeout.
5. 5

   Grade and publish

   Objective questions auto-grade on submit; essays are graded manually; then publish each result to the student.

Open Exams (CBT) → Question Bank. Start by creating a category (e.g. Algebra, Grammar) — categories organise questions and power random pools. Then add questions to it.

1. 1

   Create a category

   Click New category, give it a name, and save.
2. 2

   Add questions

   Click New question (or edit an existing one). Choose the type, write the prompt, fill options with the correct answer(s) marked, add an optional explanation, difficulty and marks. Deleting moves a question to the trash — restore it from the archive rather than recreating it.
3. 3

   Filter and search

   Search by prompt, filter by category, type and difficulty. Questions are available to any exam in the same institution.

From the Exams list click New exam (or the pencil to edit an existing draft). The builder has five steps; you can save at any point and return later.

1. 1

   1 · Overview

   Name (required), code, description and instructions shown to students. Optionally link the exam to a course or class group, set the duration (minutes, 0 = no limit), grace period, attempts allowed per student and the passing score. Check password protected to require an exam password at start.
2. 2

   2 · Scheduling & rules

   Set the availability window (starts/ends). Under rules: shuffle questions/options within sections, negative marking (per wrong and per blank answer, with a minimum score floor), result config (show correct answers, explanations, or scores immediately after submit) and security (force fullscreen, prevent copy/paste/right-click, flag tab switches after N minutes).
3. 3

   3 · Sections

   Group questions into sections (e.g. Section A: Objective, Section B: Theory). Each section has a title, optional instructions, a selection mode, per-question marks and optional question count for random drawing.
4. 4

   4 · Questions & pools

   Bind individual questions (choose question, marks, order, section) or create pools that draw randomly — pick a pool type (manual list, category-based or random), filter by category/difficulty, set how many questions to draw and whether to exclude duplicates across pools. Pool questions are drawn fresh for every student, so each student sees their own random set.
5. 5

   5 · Review & save

   Review the summary — total marks, section count, question count — then save. The exam stays in Draft status until you publish it from the Exams list.

From the Exams list open the Candidates action on an exam row. Assignments control who can take the exam and when.

1. 1

   Click New assignment

   Give it an optional title, pick a mode (Scheduled window, Open immediately, Practice, Mock, Take home, Open until closed) and a target: one or more class groups, courses, a whole department, or a custom student list.
2. 2

   Set the window and limits

   For scheduled exams set the opens/closes times. Optionally override the number of attempts per student and tick notify students.
3. 3

   Manage assignments

   Each assignment card shows its target, window and how many attempts have been made. Delete an assignment to remove access — existing attempts are kept.

In the portal Exams tab the student taps Start exam, enters the exam password if required, and confirms — the timer starts immediately.

1. 1

   The question screen

   One question at a time with the exam name, section title and a live countdown timer (turns red under 5 minutes). A progress bar shows how many of the total questions are answered.
2. 2

   Answer and navigate

   Prev/Next buttons move through questions; the question map grid jumps anywhere — dark = current, green = answered, gray = unanswered.
3. 3

   Auto-save

   Answers save automatically every 30 seconds and when leaving the page, so closing the browser does not lose work — reopening resumes the attempt.
4. 4

   Anti-cheat

   If enabled, copy, paste and right-click are blocked, fullscreen is forced, and leaving the window or switching tabs records a violation (warnings are shown; repeated violations may void the exam).
5. 5

   Submit

   Submit from the question map or Finish on the last question, then confirm. If the timer runs out, the exam submits automatically with everything answered so far.
6. 6

   The done screen

   Immediately after submit the student sees their score, percentage, grade and pass/fail — or a note that essays are pending manual grading.

Open the Results action on the Exams list. Each submission becomes a result with status grading → graded → published.

1. 1

   Review the result detail

   Click Grade(or View) on a result row: score, percentage, grade, outcome, started/submitted times and violations. Each answer shows the student's response, marks and whether it was correct.
2. 2

   Grade manual answers

   For essays, enter a score out of the question's marks, mark it correct/wrong (optional) and add a note for the student. The result totals recompute automatically as you save.
3. 3

   Publish

   Once every manual answer is graded the Publish button enables — publishing makes the score visible to the student (their done screen and any later view). It cannot be unpublished.

Students sign in at the same login page with the email and temporary password issued at creation. The portal is mobile-first with six tabs.

Finance is built around documents, not journals. Every money event — billing a student, paying a vendor, transferring cash — is a document with a number, a date, a party and a status. When you publish a document, the system writes the double-entry ledger automatically. You never touch debits and credits unless you want to (via journals).

Finance is ready the moment your institution is created — the default chart of accounts is seeded automatically. You only add accounts that are specific to your school.

1. 1

   Review your accounts

   Finance → Accounts lists every account. The seeded set covers the common cases: cash, bank, petty-cash, tuition fees, salary expense, other income and other expenses. Create extra income/expense accounts you need (e.g. "Library fee", "Sports fee") — the slug is generated from the name.
2. 2

   Set your currency

   Finance → Settings → currency (NGN by default). It is used everywhere amounts are displayed.
3. 3

   Create categories (optional)

   Finance → Settings → Categories lets you tag expenses (e.g. Utilities, Rent, Maintenance) for tidy reporting.
4. 4

   Create fee structures

   Finance → Settings → Fee structures is the catalogue of billable items — name, amount and the income account they post to. You can target a fee to an academic year, term, class group or department so invoices can pull from it with one click.

1. 1

   Start a document

   Finance → Documents → New document → choose Invoice.
2. 2

   Pick the party

   Start typing a student's name (or any party name) to select or create the party being billed. Linked parties update with the person's details automatically.
3. 3

   Add lines

   Each line is a description and an amount, optionally pinned to an income account (defaults to tuition fees). You can also pick a fee structure item and its details fill in for you.
4. 4

   Split into installments (optional)

   Pick Equal split and set the number of parts, the first due date and the gap between them — the amounts are calculated for you (the last part absorbs rounding). Or pick Custom installments to type each part and due date yourself, e.g. a term fee split 50% now and 50% in a month. Each installment shows its own paid status on the document.
5. 5

   Bill a whole class at once (optional)

   Tick Bill a whole class and pick the class group (and optionally the session) — one invoice with the same lines and installments is created for every active student in the class, all in a single transaction.
6. 6

   Publish

   Publishing posts Dr receivables (ar:party) / Cr income and marks the invoice posted — the party now owes it.

1. 1

   Start a receipt

   Finance → Documents → New document → Receipt.
2. 2

   Who paid and where the money went

   Pick the party (e.g. the student paying), the amount, and the cash or bank account the money landed in.
3. 3

   Allocate to open invoices

   Choose one or more of the party's open invoices and split the amount across them — the remaining balance of each invoice is shown so you cannot over-allocate. The allocations must add up to the receipt amount.
4. 4

   Publish

   Publishing posts Dr cash/bank / Cr receivables (ar:party) and updates each allocated invoice automatically: posted → partially paid → paid.

1. 1

   Create a bill

   Finance → Documents → New document → Bill. Pick the vendor (or type a new company name), add expense lines with optional due dates, and publish — that posts Dr expense / Cr payables (ap:vendor).
2. 2

   Pay it later

   New document → Payment — same party, amount, cash/bank account, and allocate to the open bill(s). Publishing posts Dr payables (ap:vendor) / Cr cash/bank and marks the bill paid.
3. 3

   Or pay on the spot

   When creating a bill, tick pay now and pick the cash/bank account — the payment is created and posted in the same run as the bill.

1. 1

   Transfer between your accounts

   New document → Transfer: from account, to account, amount. Publishing posts Dr destination / Cr source — e.g. moving money from cash into the bank.
2. 2

   Journal for manual entries

   New document → Journal: add entries (account, debit or credit, amount) until it balances, then publish. Journals are the only place you work with debits and credits directly — useful for corrections and opening balances.

1. 1

   Open the salary tab

   Finance → Salary → New salary run.
2. 2

   Describe the run

   Give it a period (e.g. "August 2026"), a date, and add the staff members being paid with their amounts.
3. 3

   Decide how to pay

   Leave pay now off to create the salary documents only (payables to staff, settle them later with payments) — or tick it and pick a cash/bank account to pay everyone immediately.
4. 4

   Run it

   One salary document per staff member is created and posted in a single transaction — Dr salary expense / Cr payables (ap:staff), plus a payment per person when pay now is on.

Fixing mistakes

The pipeline

1. 1

   Capture enquiries

   Log every prospective family in the Enquiries tab — name, contact, intended class and source. Convert an enquiry into a full application with one click once they decide to apply.
2. 2

   Run applications through stages

   The Applications tab tracks each applicant through your admission workflow stages — submitted, under review, interview scheduled and so on. Approve or reject at the decision point; every transition is recorded.
3. 3

   Enroll

   An approved applicant becomes a real student in one action — the enroll flow creates the student record, places them in the chosen class group for the current session, and hands them a student ID automatically.

Configuration

Under Admissions → Configure you define the building blocks: admission cycles(e.g. “2026/27 September Intake”) that group applications per year, application forms families fill in, and workflows that name the stages an application moves through. Each stage gate can be reviewed by different staff — reviewers, deciders and enrolments each have their own permission, so a teacher can screen applications without being able to accept them.

Structure

Learning organises teaching material into units (a topic block like “Algebra I”) containing lessons built from rich blocks — text, headings, images, code, math (KaTeX) and links. Units are tied to courses and class groups so students only see what is meant for them. Learning paths then chain units across subjects into a guided sequence.

Publishing model

1. 1

   Draft freely

   Build and edit lessons as long as you like — drafts are invisible to students.
2. 2

   Publish the lesson

   One button flips a lesson live for every student in its audience. Edits after publishing update what students see.
3. 3

   Students follow along

   In their portal, students see published lessons for their offerings and can work through assigned learning paths in order.

Announcements

Write school-wide notices targeted by audience — staff, students, guardians or everyone. Pin an announcement to hold it at the top of every feed until you unpin it, edit it in place, or delete it when it expires. Announcements surface on the dashboard and inside both portals.

Notifications

The bell icon is each user's personal inbox: attendance alerts, fee reminders, exam windows opening, result publications and workflow events arrive here automatically. Filter by type (absences, alerts, info), mark single items or everything read, and delete noise. Unread count follows you across pages.

Workflow builder

Automations lets you compose if-this-then-that rules over your school data: pick a trigger (an attendance mark, a fee falling overdue, a result publishing…), add conditions, and attach actions such as notifying a guardian or creating a reminder. Build from scratch or start from the template gallery, test-run before going live, pause and resume any time, and inspect the run history to see exactly what fired and when.

What it does

The Assistant lives in the sidebar and answers questions about your institution — enrollment counts, fee collection status, attendance patterns, upcoming exams — drawing on the same data you see in the dashboard, filtered by what you are allowed to see. It can also draft content: announcement copy, reminder wording, lesson outlines.

Student ID format

Every student gets an ID automatically. The default format is {prefix}-{year}-{seq:4} with the prefix derived from your school name. You can customize the prefix (max 10 letters/numbers) and the format tokens — {prefix}, {year} and {seq:n} (padded sequence). A live example shows the next ID. Changes only affect new IDs.

Attendance & Timing

Set staff and student arrival times (24-hour format). A staff clock-in after the staff arrival time is automatically recorded as late, and students marked presenton today's register after the student arrival time are recorded as late too — no manual flagging. Leaving a time empty disables auto-late for that group, and past-dated registers keep the status you choose.

Subscription

The Subscription page shows your current plan, limits and the available plans for comparison. Only the organization owner (and super admins) can see it — details in section 18 above.