From: Paolo Donà

If you run a language school or are in charge of its administration and planning, you know how daunting paperwork can be. You need to register new students and keep track of attendance, payments, documents, and so on. This can waste a huge amount of time.

We have partnered with one of the best language schools in London to come up with a new management tool that is slick, easy to use, secure, and affordable. Say goodbye to complex Excel spreadsheets and tons of paper lying around your office.

This is not an expensive solution requiring constant maintenance and crazy setup fees. NiftySchool is a Web-based application. You don't need to download any software; all you need is an Internet connection and a Web browser, just as you would need to access your email. With NiftySchool you can easily manage your students' attendance, class registers, payments, documents, and much more!

What can NiftySchool do for me?

• Store student information: Keep track of all student details, from telephone numbers and addresses to emergency contacts. Using this comprehensive database, you will be able to store more detailed information about your students and thereby offer them a better learning experience.
• Organise classes: Create and manage your classes, enrol students according to their level, print daily class registers, and allow teachers to keep progress notes about their classes.
• Register attendance: The attendance module allows you to update daily attendance records in a matter of seconds. Easily check the attendance percentage and discover students whose attendance rate drops below a given threshold.
• Manage Teachers Schedule: Assign teachers to classes on a daily basis and track how many hours they work a month. Supports teachers rotation & multiple teachers per class (Callan method).
• Record payments: Payments are stored so you can easily reconcile them against your accounting records.
• Documents: Never miss a document again! Documents are stored and backed up automatically in a server off site, so that they can't be lost even if your computer falls apart.
• Statistics: Assess how your school is performing by seeing how many students have joined or left in a given period. Discover which marketing method has driven more enrolments.

Why is this software different?

• Pay as you go: Most school software costs a fortune up front and there's no guarantee that you'll even like it. With NiftySchool, no initial investment is required. You simply pay a monthly fee. If you stop using it, you stop paying.
• Easy to use: No training is needed to use NiftySchool. Using it is as easy as browsing the Web. Thanks to its intuitive design, you'll complete your daily tasks in no time.
• Keep your employees under control: Each employee has a personal username and password. You can track who has done what in the system, so you always have full oversight and control.
• Role-based access: Not all employees are equal. You can specify who can see what and set different permission levels so that, for example, only administrators can clear the payments taken by the receptionists.
• Powerful business stats: Which agency is sending you the most students? Should you invest more in online or offline advertising? With the comprehensive statistics that NiftySchool presents via its clean interface, it's easier to take action to improve your business.
• We get you started: We import all your existing data into NiftySchool for free, so that you can start using it straight away. Only have paper files? No problem. We can help you extract and import the data to help you get started.

Sign Up For a Free Trial »

The free trial allows you to manage up to two classes with unlimited students.
Try it in parallel with your current software, and decide if it's the right fit for you later on.

What does it look like? A screenshot tour:

1. See the latest changes in the dashboard

The dashboard is the main administrative screen. It lists the students whose details have been most recently added or updated, the latest payments received by your school, and the documents most recently issued to students.
Colour tags show the status of each student. Quick links help you browse recently edited data.

2. Student's snapshot of the most important things

3. In-depth student profile

You can see and edit each student's details, including the tests they have taken, payments they have made, and documents that have been issued to them.

4. Class registers

5. Student attendance calendar

6. Teachers Schedule

You can manage the teachers schedule online, assigning different teachers on different days of the week.

In the monthly summary you can see how many hours each teacher has done, along with a weekly breakdown.

7. Manage payments

The payment screen displays each payment alongside the name of the employee who took it.
Payments can be generic or student-specific. NiftySchool admins can clear the payments.

8. Manage documents and store them online

You can track all the documents issued by your school.
Documents can be uploaded and stored for future reference.

9. Staff management and configuration

Your employees can also use NiftySchool. By assigning them different roles, you can control what information they can access and edit or what functions they can perform.
Receptionists can register students and accept payments. Teachers can update their classes. Testers can update prova tests. Admins can access everything and can change the configuration of NiftySchool.

10. Statistics

The stats screen displays a real-time snapshot of the core data for your school.
By default, it displays data relating to student status, student nationality, top payments, and how students heard about your school.

Why is Web-based software better for my business?

Web-based software is software you use over the Internet with a Web browser. You don’t have to install any CDs, download any software, or worry about upgrades. If you use an online bank or Web-based email program like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail then you’ve already used Web-based software before.

When you use Web-based software, you don't have to worry about anything technical — you can just do your work. We handle all the security, up-time, backups, upgrades, and “IT guy” stuff. You can stay focused on what you're good at and we'll handle the rest.

But is it safe?

Statistics show that Web-based software is 76% safer than traditional software. With the latter, employees save data on their laptops, USB drives, or portable hard drives, but this is not as safe as it sounds. Laptops can be stolen, computers can crash and are rarely backed up properly, and it’s unlikely that all machines are up-to-date with the latest security patches.

When you use NiftySchool, your data is stored on servers in a state-of-the-art, highly secure data centre that is always updated and backed up daily.

Consider the following advantages:

• Nothing to download: Unlike traditional software that requires you to download and install updates yourself, NiftySchool is updated automatically. Whenever you access it, you’re using the latest and greatest version.
• Ultra-safe: Your data is stored in a completely secure data centre and backed-up daily. If your computer breaks or you switch to a new one, you can access your data from any computer at any time. All you ever need to use your account at NiftySchool is your username, password and a Web browser.
• Access from anywhere at anytime: You can access your files from anywhere at anytime. This means you can work from your office, your home, or your laptop.
• Works on a PC, Mac, or Linux: NiftySchool works on any platform with a Web browser and Internet connection. Mac, Windows, and Linux are all supported.

What if my school teaches using the Callan method?

NiftySchool natively supports the Callan method of teaching. For example, the student and class levels are tracked using the book and paragraph reached, all of which are pre-configured for ease of use.

The payments module includes all of the Callan books and the class registers allow you to specify if a student attended the first hour, the second hour, or both. And don't worry - you can switch back to a standard configuration with a simple mouse click.

How much does it cost?

NiftySchool requires no setup costs; you will just pay a monthly fee.
You can try it out free for up to two classes and see if you like it without a significant initial investment.

You can try it in parallel with your current software, without migrating all of your data.

The trial account is fully functional, but limited to two classes as it is intended for evaluation purposes only. Once you are ready to manage more than two classes you can upgrade to:

$ Dollars   € Euros   £ British Pounds   Other currencies are configurable inside the software

You will also get:

• Data import: We can import both your electronic and paper files. During the trial period, you can send us your files and we will populate the database for you.
• Free email support: We're are here to help you in any way we can. Our support team will respond to your emails quickly, so you can get back to your tasks.
• Automatic updates: We constantly improve our existing features, implement new features, and refine our user interface to ensure that the solution we offer is state-of-the-art. You'll always have the latest and greatest version available.

Remember:

• You don't need to specify your payment details in order to use the trial
• We offer a data import service for your existing electronic files
• We create a custom NiftySchool URL, to protect your privacy
• You can unsubscribe at anytime, free of charge, no strings attached
• If you have any questions, please contact us