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School Profile & Settings Management

Your school profile is the foundation of Zion - it determines how your school appears throughout the platform and affects critical settings like timezone for Goal Check dates and reports. This guide covers all school profile and settings management.

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School Profile Overview

Your school profile includes:

• Basic Information: Name, location, contact details
• Branding: Logo for navigation and reports
• Technical Settings: Timezone for accurate date/time handling
• Academic Structure: Terms for Goal Check data tracking

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Accessing School Settings

Estimated Time: 5 minutes for initial setup, 2 minutes for updates

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School Profile Fields

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Basic Information

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School Name

• Default: Auto-filled from your organization name during signup
• Editable: Yes, change anytime
• Best Practice: Use official school name exactly as it appears on documentation
• Example: “Grace Christian Academy” or “Hope ACE School”
• Appears: Navigation header, all reports, email communications

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Location

• Format: “City, Country” (e.g., “Kampala, Uganda” or “Dallas, United States”)
• Purpose: Appears on reports for context
• Best Practice: Use recognizable city name (not village/suburb)
• Appears: Footer of all generated reports

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Contact Email

• Format: Valid email address
• Purpose: Main school contact email for Zion-related communications
• Best Practice: Use a monitored school email (e.g., admin@yourschool.com), not personal email
• Used For: System notifications, report sharing, support communications

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Phone Number

• Format: Include country code (e.g., “+256 701 234567” or “+1 214-555-0123”)
• Purpose: Contact information for reports and emergencies
• Best Practice: Use main school office number
• Appears: School profile and reports

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Branding: School Logo

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Logo Requirements

Technical Specifications:

• Formats: PNG or JPG
• Max File Size: 2MB
• Recommended Dimensions: 500×500px (square) or 1000×500px (horizontal)
• Background: Transparent PNG recommended for best results

Visual Guidelines:

• Simple, recognizable design works best
• High contrast for visibility on both light and dark backgrounds
• Avoid very detailed logos (they may not scale well)

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Uploading Your Logo

Processing Time: Instant (appears immediately after save)

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Where Your Logo Appears

In Zion Platform:

• Navigation sidebar (top left)
• Login page
• All dashboard pages

In Generated Reports:

• PDF daily centre reports (header)
• PDF weekly school reports (header)
• Printed materials

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Logo Best Practices

Square Logo (500×500px):

• Best for: Schools with circular or square emblems
• Scales well in navigation sidebar
• Works on all report formats

Horizontal Logo (1000×500px or 2:1 ratio):

• Best for: Schools with long school names in logo
• May be cropped in some sidebar views
• Excellent for report headers

Transparent Background:

• Use PNG with transparent background
• Adapts to both light and dark theme in platform
• Looks professional on all backgrounds

High Resolution:

• Use at least 500px minimum dimension
• Prevents pixelation when printed
• Ensures crisp display on high-resolution screens

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Timezone Configuration

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Why Timezone Matters

Critical for:

• Goal Check date accuracy (ensures “today” matches your actual today)
• Report timestamps (all reports show your local time)
• Scheduled operations (if any automated tasks run)
• Audit trail timestamps (track who did what when in your local time)

What Happens with Wrong Timezone:

• Goals set “tomorrow” when you think it’s “today”
• Reports show wrong dates
• Dashboard metrics misaligned with your actual day

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Selecting Your Timezone

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Common Timezones for ACE Schools

Africa:

• East Africa: Africa/Nairobi (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania)
• West Africa: Africa/Lagos (Nigeria)
• South Africa: Africa/Johannesburg

Americas:

• US Eastern: America/New_York
• US Central: America/Chicago
• US Mountain: America/Denver
• US Pacific: America/Los_Angeles

Asia:

• Philippines: Asia/Manila
• Singapore: Asia/Singapore

Oceania:

• Australia Eastern: Australia/Sydney
• New Zealand: Pacific/Auckland

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Timezone Best Practices

1. Set Once, Forget: Configure timezone during initial setup and don’t change it
2. Match Your Location: Use the timezone for your school’s physical location
3. Consider Daylight Saving: Most modern timezones handle DST automatically (e.g., America/New_York switches between EST and EDT)
4. Verify After Saving: Set a test goal and verify the date matches your expectation

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Academic Terms Setup

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Understanding Academic Terms

What Are Terms:

• Time periods for organizing Goal Check data (e.g., “Term 1 2025”, “Fall Semester 2025”)
• Most ACE schools have 3 terms per year
• Each term has start date and end date

Why Terms Matter:

• All Goal Check data is scoped to the active term
• Reports are generated for specific terms
• Allows year-over-year comparison (Term 1 2025 vs Term 1 2024)
• Prevents data mixing across academic years

Active Term:

• Only ONE term can be active at a time
• Active term receives all new Goal Check data
• Dashboard and reports default to active term
• Changing active term DOES NOT delete old term data

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Creating Academic Terms

Estimated Time: 1 minute per term

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Term Details Explained

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Term Name

• Format: Free text (e.g., “Term 1 2025”, “Fall Semester 2025”, “Q1 2025”)
• Best Practice: Include year for clarity
• Recommendation: Follow ACE convention if applicable (“Term 1”, “Term 2”, “Term 3”)
• Character Limit: 50 characters

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Start Date

• Format: Calendar date picker
• Meaning: First day of term when Goal Check data begins
• Best Practice: Use actual first day of classes (not planning/prep days)
• Example: January 8, 2025

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End Date

• Format: Calendar date picker
• Meaning: Last day of term when Goal Check data ends
• Best Practice: Use actual last day of classes (not after-term cleanup days)
• Example: April 12, 2025
• Validation: Must be after start date

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Example Term Schedule

Three-Term Academic Year: Term 1:

• Name: “Term 1 2025”
• Start: January 8, 2025
• End: April 12, 2025
• Duration: ~14 weeks

Term 2:

• Name: “Term 2 2025”
• Start: April 22, 2025
• End: August 2, 2025
• Duration: ~14 weeks

Term 3:

• Name: “Term 3 2025”
• Start: August 19, 2025
• End: December 6, 2025
• Duration: ~14 weeks

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Managing Active Term

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Viewing Active Term

• Active term badge shows “Active” in green
• Dashboard always displays active term data
• All new Goal Check entries go to active term

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Changing Active Term

What Happens:

• Previous active term becomes inactive (data preserved)
• New active term becomes active
• Dashboard switches to new term data
• All new Goal Check entries go to new term

When to Change:

• First day of new term
• AFTER final reports generated for previous term

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Viewing Historical Term Data

Even after a term is inactive, you can still:

• View all Goal Check data from that term
• Generate reports for that term
• Export data from that term
• Reference for year-over-year comparisons

How to Access:

1. Navigate to reports or data export
2. Use term filter to select inactive term
3. View/generate reports as normal

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School Profile Best Practices

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Initial Setup Checklist

During your first Zion setup:

• Verify school name is official name
• Set location (City, Country format)
• Add monitored contact email
• Add main school phone with country code
• Upload high-quality logo (PNG with transparent background)
• Set timezone for your location
• Create all 3 terms for current academic year
• Set current term as active
• Test: Set a goal and verify date is correct

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Annual Maintenance Routine

Start of Each Academic Year:

1. Review school profile information (update if changed)
2. Create next year’s 3 terms
3. On first day of Term 1, set it as active term
4. Generate final reports for previous year before switching

Mid-Year Checks:

• Verify contact email is still monitored
• Ensure logo is still current (some schools update branding)
• Confirm phone number hasn’t changed

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Logo Refresh Timing

When to Update Logo:

• School rebranding
• Logo design refresh
• Better quality version available
• Current logo looks pixelated

When NOT to Update:

• Mid-term (wait until term break)
• During ACE review/accreditation (keep consistency)
• When old reports need to match current branding

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Troubleshooting Common Issues

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”Logo Looks Pixelated”

Cause: Logo file resolution too low Solution: Upload higher resolution logo (minimum 500×500px)

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“Dates Are Off by One Day”

Cause: Wrong timezone selected Solution: Verify timezone matches your location exactly. Remember: changing timezone doesn’t fix historical data.

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”Can’t Change Active Term”

Cause: System validation preventing change Solution: Ensure new term start date has passed. Can’t activate future term.

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”Logo Not Appearing in Reports”

Cause: Logo upload didn’t save properly Solution: Re-upload logo, ensure file size <2MB, verify save was successful

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”Contact Email Not Receiving Notifications”

Cause: Email in spam folder or invalid Solution: Check spam folder, verify email address is correct and receiving other mail

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Related Resources