Setup Foundations
Before anyone can create a requisition or log time, a district needs its foundational reference data in place: fiscal years, sites, holidays, and the classifications and titles that describe positions. This page covers that base layer and the order to build it.
Recommended setup order
Each layer depends on the ones before it, so build them roughly in this order:
- Fiscal year
Create the year and mark it active; point District Options at it.
- Sites
The schools and locations work happens at.
- Accounts
The budget structure. See Accounts.
- Classifications & titles
The kinds of position and their job titles.
- Roles, schedules & workflows
- Requisitions & assignments
Positions and the people in them.
You don't have to enter all of this by hand. The Implementation Template loads roles, workflows, schedules, categories, and types in one pass, and individual templates cover sites, accounts, classifications, titles, and more.
Fiscal years
A fiscal year is the period everything is scoped to. Requisitions, assignments, submissions, and approvals all belong to one, and access is granted within one. In school districts it typically runs July 1 - June 30.
- Start must be before end, and name/start/end are required.
- Mark the year active so it can be selected as the district's current year.
- Set the district's Current Fiscal Year to the active year - new records default to it and year-based views filter by it.
At year-end, create the new fiscal year, then use Carry Forward to bring the existing personnel requisitions and assignments across, and update the Current Fiscal Year option. Records in a closed (inactive) year can't be deleted, preserving history.
More than one active year. A district can run two fiscal years at once - commonly an academic year (roughly September-June) plus a separate Summer year (July-August). Each carries its own requisitions, assignments, and entitlement (which resets at year-end), and every record is scoped to the year it belongs to.
Sites
A site is a school, building, or campus. Sites are central to how work is scoped and routed:
- Requisitions list the sites a position can be worked from; assignments cover one or more of those sites; submissions and hours can be scoped to a site.
- Approval filters use site as a dimension, and visibility is scoped per site.
- Sites link to account locations, which enables the "location via site" filter match.
Rules: a site's name is unique; internal-coverage hours-per-day must be 0-24 and periods-per-day can't be negative.
Excluded dates (holidays & closures)
Excluded dates mark holidays and closures. They matter on timesheets: an hours entry on an excluded date is treated as a holiday, which makes the reason for holiday submission field appear and become required. See logging hours.
Excluded dates belong to a fiscal year - you set them up inside the fiscal-year record, and they apply to that year only. So at year rollover a district sets up the new year's holidays again.
Rules: start must be on or before end; name, start, and end are required.
Classifications & titles
A classification is a category of position; a title is a specific job within a classification. Together they describe what a requisition is for.
| On a classification | Effect |
|---|---|
| Requires Position Control Number | When on, a requisition's PCN is required and its assignments can't be approved without it. |
| Requires PR Approval | Seeded from the district option; combined with it, decides whether this classification's requisitions must be approved. |
| Default submission type | The type new submissions default to - must be one the classification supports. |
| Supported submission types | Limits which submission types requisitions of this classification can use. |
| PR submission type | When this classification's requisitions need approval, the submission type (and workflow) that drives the requisition's own approval - separate from the day-to-day default type above. Shown only when PR approval applies. |
| Active | Only active classifications can be chosen on new requisitions. |
| Notice text | Optional guidance shown on the classification. |
A title isn't just a label beneath a classification - it carries its own settings, so different jobs in one classification can behave differently:
| On a title | Effect |
|---|---|
| Code | A short code for the title, alongside its name. |
| Default / PR submission type | A title can name its own default submission type (and PR submission type), overriding the classification's - so two titles in the same classification can start from different types. |
| Internal-coverage title | Flag the title as an internal-coverage title and choose its coverage type (direct hours, students covered, or periods covered). This is what turns on the internal-coverage fields when someone logs hours against it. |
- Titles belong to a classification - choosing a title on a requisition auto-fills the classification and its default submission type.
- Classification and title names are unique, and a classification's default submission type must be one it actually supports.
What else lives in Setup
Beyond these foundations, the Setup area holds the rest of the configuration, each covered on its own page:
Roles & workflows →
Who approves what, and in what order.
Schedules & windows →
Pay periods and submission windows.
Entitlements →
Absence balances and hours types.
Hours Entry Reasons →
Route hours to the right account per site.
District & System Options →
The settings that change behavior.
The Setup area also holds smaller lists, such as Pay Bases (e.g. hourly vs. salaried, chosen on a requisition) and, for each site, a short Code alongside its name.