Top 18 School Administration Software

Some years ago, Marc Andreessen wrote his famous essay “Why Software Is Eating the World” and today you can see that almost all organizations of any size use some software. 

In the past several years, just like other industries, the ed-tech industry has evolved considerably. So, if you are the owner of a school or working in a leadership role in any kind of educational organization, you can use multiple software to improve the efficiency of the organization and reach your vision and goals quickly. To do that there are various specialized software avail in the market that can handle one of the functionality very well. Also, there are sophisticated school administration software that combines the functionality of all these software under the same login, and help users in achieving their every targets hassle-free.

Here are Top School Administration Software which simplifies the daily task of institutions:

1. Student Information System

A student information system as the name indicates contain all the information of a student stored in a single database. Earlier days of digitization spreadsheet software was used to store student data. Extensive uses of the spreadsheet as a student information system are limited as a single change will require updating in multiple sheets or the user has to be a power user with intermediate to advanced skills in the spreadsheet. This led to the rise of specialized student information system software also known as SIS.

A student information system will have login access to all the teachers and admins of a school with good privilege management options. Common data stored in SIS will be personal data, attendance data, academic data including exam results, fee details, disciplinary data, teachers’ remarks, etc. The SIS can also generate helpful reports based on these data.

2. Gradebook Creator

Most of the times a student information system will not be enough to generate the grade book reports in a format that is unique to the school. For this purpose, there are software to generate grade-books in the design and layout preferred by the school. These grade books can then be printed out to be distributed to parents or can be shared as PDF through parent-teacher communication platforms. A combination of grade book creators with SIS can be used to track grade book data, student performance, student attendance, teacher performance, and various demographic data to help in the decision making and creating future lesson plans.

3. Library Management Software

A good library is an integral part of any school. In the old days, the library was managed manually with the help of library ledgers. With the advent of digitization software, the library was one of the first functions to use software for daily operations and tracking. A good library management software takes care of cataloging the books, acquisition of new books as per the suggestions and instructions, circulation management of lent books and serial management of magazines and other periodicals. Most of the library management systems also provide barcode generation and management functionality. And it will take care of generating identity cards for library usage(library cards) by the students and faculty of a school.

4. Parent-Teacher Communication Apps

With the widespread usage of smartphones, it is very important to have a mobile app for parent-teacher communication. This was used mainly for sharing important alerts and notifications to parents and the functionality of an SMS is limited as it can’t share photos and other types of files. Through a parent-teacher communication mobile app, the school can share different types of files like grade books, assignments & photos with parents. There will be a two-way communication platform for parents and teachers to talk to each other.

5. Human Resource Management Software

A school needs human resource management software to automate the data management & operations of teachers and non-teaching staff. It is used to store various data like employee information, employee certificates, employee performance, employee appraisal, employee salary, etc. There will be login access to each employee to view their salary slips and appraisal data. Some HRMS also provide communication tools for employees to message each other. An HRMS can save a lot of time on school administration by automating tedious jobs like salary slip creation, tax calculation, etc.

6. Accounting & Finance Software

This is one of the most important software used by all schools, especially in private schools. In private schools, the operations are conducted similar to a business as the primary source of income is from student fees. Accounting is a specialized job requiring a well-trained resource to do the daily accounting of the school. With the help of good accounting software, all the income and expense related documentation can be automated smoothly. It accounts for various incomes like school fees, donations, inventory sales and various expenses like employee salary, stationery, etc. and generates useful reports for the daily overview. At the end of the financial year, the software can generate balance sheet statements required for regulatory purposes.

7. Alumni Management App

Good engagement of alumni(previous students) is an important factor in school and college excellence. There are alumni management apps available to help create the database and communication with alumni. The app will have the functionality to schedule and coordinate reunion meetings and alumni networks in different locations across the globe. Some schools use the app to raise funds from alumni and also to help the students through counseling and job placement.

8. RFID/Biometric Software

School campuses are secured through RFID and Biometric hardware access. But more than the access control, the software associated with RFID & Biometric can help the school to function better by providing attendance data of students and teachers. The attendance details collected by the hardware can be integrated with the student information software with the help of the software installed to manage the hardware. This data can be then communicated in real-time to parents and also to generate different reports for decision making.

9. Data Visualization Software

With a lot of data being collected through different school administrative software, it is more important than ever to generate rich reports and data visualization to help with decision making. The data visualization software connects all incoming data streams and provided rich dashboards for the authorities to understand the data intuitively in a single glance. The smart dashboards generated from the software can be shared within the team or even with parents to improve impact.

10. CRM for Marketing & Admission 

A CRM tool is used by businesses with a dedicated sales team focusing on acquiring more customers. With the increasing competition between private schools, a good CRM can do miracles in admission numbers by attracting more parents and students to join the school. This starts with multiple marketing campaigns planned with the help of CRM. Then all advertisements and promotions are tracked and all inquiries are stored in a database. The admission office uses the software to better track the inquiries and improves the admission numbers. The software allows mass emailing to the enquired parents to keep them updated about the activities regarding the admission process.

11. Project & Task Management Software

The productivity of teaching and non-teaching staff is an important focus for school management. There are simple todo list software as well as sophisticated project management software available to improve the productivity in school operations. The vision of the school can be broken down into academic year goals and then mapped to projects. A project will be further broken down into tasks with date and staff in charge of the task. Notifications and reminder alerts regarding the task will be circulated to the users of the software to keep track of their productivity. 

12. Visitor Management Software

In a big school campus, visitor management is often a difficult task. There will be multiple gates with securities and front desk to handle visitors. A good visitor management software helps to coordinate the visitors while taking care of the security and safety of the school campus. Other than a simple in and out register of visitor data, this software takes photographs and provides temporary ID cards for visitors. And a second-time visitor is recognized easily from their phone number. Different reports can be generated from this software to analyze visitor behavior and trends.

13. Helpdesk Software

Helpdesk software is a must for all schools with thousands of students and parents interacting with the staff during peak seasons like admission, fee payments, exam results, etc.. The helpdesk software helps to manage queries from customers(parents) in a single place and all conversations are managed coherently. This software can be used by front-desk and admin staff and management can set SLA(Service Level Agreement) measurements to analyze the performance of the staff. By using helpdesk software instead of simple email or phone calls, all incoming queries can be ticketed and stored in a single place to analyze for future decision making.

14. Office Suite Software

No school can function without a spreadsheet and word editor software. There are many free as well as premium software available in the form of office suites. LibreOffice and MS Office are two popular office suites used by schools. Teachers use the office suite to prepare notes, lesson plans, activity sheets, etc. The spreadsheet and simple database apps available in the office suite can be used as a simple student information system for individual classrooms.

15. Timetable Software

Timetable software is used to organize all the academic operations of a school and provide predictable routines for students and teachers. A timetable software generates timetable connecting the four elements of students, teachers, classrooms, and time slots.

Three types of timetables are mainly generated by software named 

(a)Master timetable, 

(b)Class-wise timetable and 

(c)Teacher’s timetable. 

16. Payment Gateway Software

As all of us prefer online payments instead of traveling and waiting in long queues to pay fees, school fees are collected better through a payment gateway integrated with the school portal. The parent can choose to make the payment from his/her bank account or debit/credit cards. To provide this feature, schools use a payment gateway software provided by the bank of the school or a payment gateway solution provider. This can be integrated with the student information system to transfer student data seamlessly between both tools.

17. Learning Management Software

Learning management software(LMS) helps schools and universities to retain learning outside the classrooms. LMS are a critical component in the school and university operations. With the help of LMS students can learn from anywhere anytime. They can view the syllabus and lesson plans to prepare for the upcoming class. The LMS also provides assignments and assessments to practice for the examinations. Some LMS provide online examination features for entire students to participate in examinations from their laptop and the grades can be generated instantly after the examination.

18. Transportation Management with live School bus tracking

There are good software available to help with the transportation management of schools. A big school will have hundreds of buses and the coordination of all these buses and the drivers is a tiring and demanding task. With the help of transportation management software, the bus and the bus routes can be managed efficiently. The bus drivers will get intimation about the time and route for the bus. Nowadays GPS is connected in all the school buses to improve the safety of children. The GPS data from a bus can be delivered to parents via mobile app. This will show the live location of the bus so that parents can save time by planning the perfect time to pick up and drop off children.

If you are looking for free guidance on choosing any kind of software for your school administration, get in touch with our experts now.