SchoolSphereFrequently asked
Answers,
before you ask.
The questions a careful head of school always asks. If something isn't here, raise it on your demo call. We'd rather over-explain.
Who owns the data, and where is it stored?
Your school owns every record, document, and image you create on the platform. Think of it as: we host it, you own it. You choose the hosting region at onboarding (EU, US, Africa, or APAC); data does not leave that region. We can produce a full SQL export of your tenant on request, in 24 hours, no charge.
How is student and guardian data protected?
All sensitive fields are encrypted at rest. Photos are served from signed URLs scoped to the requesting role: parents never see other students, and the public site never indexes private headshots. Audit log captures every read and write of regulated fields.
Can we migrate from QuickBooks, Pastel, or a spreadsheet?
Yes. The onboarding includes a guided migration: chart of accounts mapping, opening balances, historical transactions, and the student roster from CSV or Excel. Most schools come online with three years of clean history in week one.
What does onboarding actually look like?
Week 1: tenant provisioning, chart of accounts, opening balances. Weeks 2–3: roster import and role assignments, public website draft. Week 4: cutover. A named onboarding lead stays with you through your first term close.
How do you handle term calendars and non-standard year structures?
Terms are first-class. You define your own academic year (three terms, four terms, semesters, even the British boarding-school Michaelmas/Lent/Trinity rhythm), and every report, invoice run, and analytics view respects it. We do not assume September-to-June.
What currencies and tax setups are supported?
Any ISO currency, with multi-currency accounts and per-invoice currency override. VAT, GST, and per-line tax rates are configurable; we work with your accountant to set up the jurisdiction's specifics during onboarding.
What about security & access control?
Six role tiers with module- and record-level scoping. SSO via Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Mandatory 2FA for any role that touches the ledger. All actions are audit-logged with actor, timestamp, IP, and reason where applicable.
Can we use our own domain for the public site?
Yes, that's the default. We provision and renew TLS, manage DNS if you delegate it to us, and set up email forwarding. If you don't have a domain yet, we'll register one as part of onboarding.
What does support look like once we're live?
A named onboarding lead through the first term, then shared support over email and chat, staffed during your school's working hours, not ours. Response time SLA in writing on every plan. No outsourced first-tier nonsense.
What does it cost?
We don't list public tiers because every school is genuinely different: modules in play, enrolment size, hosting region. On your demo call we walk through the platform together, you tell us what you need, and we send a written quote within one business day. No surprises.
Ready when you are
Let's see if SchoolSphere
fits your school.
Half an hour, a real conversation, a quote in writing the next day. No sales-deck choreography.