HomebookDirector guide

Running the school from one screen.

You have every part of Homebook. This is what each area is for, and the handful of things worth setting up once so they run themselves.

Your day-to-day
Dashboard

Attendance so far, balances, messages waiting, and anything overdue.

Students

Every record: family, health, documents, support plans.

Attendance

Whole-school view. A teacher's roll and a parent's absence report both land here.

Grades

Enter grades for a class, import scores, print report cards and transcripts.

Lunch & fees

Under Money. Mark who ate, add fees, see every family balance.

Tuition

Under Money. Who owes what, and online payment if you turn it on.

Calendar

Under ⚙ School setup. Closures, breaks, events, and your EFA deadlines.

Staff

Under ⚙ School setup. Invite teachers, set roles, approve time off.

Set these once
1
SettingsUnder ⚙ School setup. School days, lunch prices, and which parts of Homebook your school uses. Anything switched off simply disappears from the menu — nothing is deleted.
2
Invite your teachers⚙ School setup → Staff has an invite link. Send it once; each teacher sets their own password and only ever sees their own classes.
3
Turn on the weekly emailsA Monday email puts the whole school in your inbox. Families get their child's week every Friday. Both are one switch.
Every school is walled off in the database itself.

Not in app code — in the database. No other school on Homebook can see your records, and we never collect Social Security numbers.

Homebook · gethomebook.com · questions? sam@gethomebook.comDirector · 1 of 2
HomebookDirector guide

Setting up classes, and the front desk.

Two features worth ten minutes of your time before the year starts.

Build a term of classes in one pass

⚙ School setup → Classes → Set up many classes. Pick the grades, tap the subjects, choose a teacher, and Homebook creates every class and puts the right students in each one.

How each class is graded

Every class has a grading scale. Academic subjects use numbers or letters and count toward GPA. Specials — Art, Music, PE, Library, Bible, Spanish — are usually O / S / N / U, which does not affect GPA. Set it when you create the class and teachers get the right screen automatically.

The front desk sign-in screen

⚙ School setup → Settings → Front-desk sign in / out. Set a staff PIN, then start it on a tablet or Chromebook at the office. Families sign their own child in late or out early: they pick the student, pick their name from that child's approved list, and add their initials.

What gets recorded

Student, date and time, the adult's name, and their initials — the four things an attendance record is normally asked for.

Why the PIN

That device is signed in as you. The PIN is what stops a parent tapping out of the sign-in screen and into student records.

Only approved adults should appear.

Parents manage their own child's pickup list from their portal, and you can add or remove anyone yourself. Ask families to fill theirs in before the first day.

Questions
A teacher or parent forgot their password.
They fix it themselves — Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen emails them a reset link. Nothing for you to do.
I forgot the front-desk PIN.
On the sign-in screen tap Staff exit, then Forgot the PIN? Sign out of this device. You log back in with your own email and password and set a new PIN in Settings. You can never be locked out of the device.
Can I undo a bad import?
Yes. Imported scores are grouped as one batch with an Undo that removes exactly that run and puts the grades back.
What happens at the end of the year?
Students promote a grade automatically; seniors graduate. You can hold a student back with one checkbox on their record.
Can we get our data out?
Any time, as CSV, free. It is your school's data.
Homebook · gethomebook.com · questions? sam@gethomebook.comDirector · 2 of 2