Admin Handbook

Operate ESMS confidently and safely

Daily workflows, checklists, and incident playbooks for Owners, Admins, and Directors.

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What this includes
  • Role duties and ready-to-run checklists
  • Core flows: attendance, fees, communication, payroll
  • Data protection and incident response steps
  • KPIs to monitor system health
Owners Admins Directors
Audience & scope

Use this handbook when configuring ESMS, onboarding branches, or handling live issues. Pair with the PDF for offline use.

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Table of contents

Roles & responsibilities

Owner
  • Own client-wide configuration (academic year, branding, branches).
  • Approve fee structures, discounts, and payroll policies.
  • Assign admin/director roles and review audit logs monthly.
Admin
  • Manage daily operations: admissions, attendance, communication.
  • Maintain data quality (students, staff, guardians, classes).
  • Monitor dues, payment reminders, and escalations.
Director
  • Oversee branch performance and compliance.
  • Validate payroll runs and approvals.
  • Review KPIs, exceptions, and risk registers.

Daily, weekly, and monthly checklists

Daily
  • Verify attendance exceptions (manual overrides, missed check-ins).
  • Send reminders for unpaid invoices or low wallet balances.
  • Review support tickets and follow SLA cues.
  • Confirm backups/snapshots completed (per infra policy).
Weekly
  • Audit new user accounts and role assignments.
  • Run fee and payroll anomaly checks (sudden spikes or zeroes).
  • Publish calendar updates (events, exams, transport changes).
  • Send broadcast newsletter or important notices.
Monthly
  • Reconcile collections vs. bank deposits and outstanding dues.
  • Export compliance reports (attendance, leaves, payroll).
  • Rotate API keys/integration secrets where applicable.
  • Archive inactive users; validate audit logs for anomalies.

Core operational flows

Admissions & onboarding
  • Capture student and guardian data; attach required documents.
  • Assign classes/sections and transport routes.
  • Issue credentials; verify parent contact channel (SMS/WhatsApp/email).
Attendance
  • Configure check-in rules (GPS/WiFi/QR/manual override policy).
  • Monitor exception queue; approve manual entries with reason codes.
  • Publish daily/weekly attendance summaries to stakeholders.
Communication
  • Use product notification settings for SMS/Email/WhatsApp routing.
  • Template messages for dues, events, and emergency alerts.
  • Respect quiet hours; test with a small audience before bulk send.
Fees & payroll
  • Publish fee schedules; lock past months after reconciliation.
  • Use discounts/waivers with approval trail; export receipts monthly.
  • For payroll, validate attendance sync before processing payouts.

Data safety & access control

  • Principle of least privilege: assign the smallest role needed per user.
  • Use strong passwords and rotate shared accounts out of existence.
  • Export data only when required; store exports in approved locations.
  • Deactivate staff promptly on exit; move classes/ownership before removal.
  • Log reasons for manual overrides or data corrections.

Incident response (first hour)

Stability / outage
  • Check status page/monitoring; capture exact error and timestamp.
  • Communicate ETA and workaround to stakeholders.
  • Avoid bulk retries that may amplify load.
Data issue
  • Identify scope (which branch/user/date range).
  • Pause downstream jobs (billing, payroll) if data is incorrect.
  • Create a backup/export before running fixes.
Security
  • Disable affected accounts; reset tokens/credentials.
  • Review audit logs; capture IP, user, action trail.
  • Notify leadership; follow legal/compliance guidance where required.

KPIs to monitor

Attendance integrity

Exception rate under 2% per week.

Collection coverage

90%+ dues cleared before month-end.

Communication success

Delivery > 95% for planned sends.

Access hygiene

0 stale admins; quarterly role review.