Hostel looks after your boarding houses: the hostels and their houseparents, the rooms and how many beds each has, which boarder sleeps where, and a log of visitors who come to see boarders.
- Where Operations → Hostel
- Who can use it Anyone whose role includes Hostel.
- Set up first Students; Staff if you want to name a houseparent; Campuses if you have more than one
Add your hostels
The boxes at the top show Total Rooms, Total Capacity (beds), Occupied Beds and Available Beds.
- In the Hostels card, click Add Hostel.
- Enter the Hostel Name, for example Aggrey House.
- Choose a Gender (optional), or leave it on Mixed.
- Pick a Houseparent (optional) from your staff list and add any Notes (optional).
- Save. The hostel appears in the list with its houseparent and gender.
A hostel can’t be deleted while it still has rooms. Move or delete its rooms first.
Add rooms
- In the Rooms card, click Add Room.
- Enter the Room Number, for example A1, and choose its Hostel (optional).
- Set the Capacity, the number of beds, for example 8.
- Choose Gender (optional): Male, Female or Mixed.
- If you have several campuses, choose the Campus (optional).
- Click Save Room.
The Occupancy column shows beds taken against beds in the room, for example 6 / 8. It is green when empty, amber when partly full and red when full. Use the campus drop-down above the table to see one campus’s rooms.
A room can’t be deleted while anyone is still allocated to it. Vacate them first.
Allocate a boarder to a room
- In the Allocations card, click Allocate Student.
- Choose the Room. Each room shows how many beds are free, for example A1 – Aggrey House (2 free).
- Search for the Student by name or admission number. Only active students are found.
- Check the Allocated Date (it starts on today) and click Save Allocation.
The app stops the allocation, with a message, if:
- the student already has a room (This student is already allocated to a room.);
- the room is full (This room is already at full capacity.);
- the room is for boys and the student is a girl, or the other way round.
When a boarder leaves or changes room, click Vacate on their row and confirm. The allocation is kept as Vacated and the bed is free again. To move someone, vacate the old room, then allocate the new one.
Sign visitors in and out
- In the Visitor Log card, click Sign In Visitor.
- Search for the Visiting Student and enter the Visitor Name, for example Ama Mensah.
- Add the Visitor Phone (optional), Relationship (optional) such as Mother, and Purpose of Visit (optional).
- Click Sign In. The visit is stamped with the time and shows Still on site.
- When they leave, click Sign Out on their row and confirm.
Export room and allocation lists
Click Export on the Rooms or Allocations card to download a CSV file you can open in Excel. The rooms export follows the campus you have selected.
Good to know
- Only a room’s gender is checked when you allocate. A hostel’s gender is a label only.
- Changing a room’s capacity doesn’t move anyone out, even if you set it below the number already in it.
- The visitor log shows the 200 most recent visits.
- Vacate is always dated today.
- Hostel fees are not charged from here. Set them up in Fee Types and Class Fees.