Settings holds the app-wide choices (which screen opens first, outgoing email, daily automations) and your own account security: your signature for report cards and two-factor sign-in. Everyone can open Settings to look after their own signature and sign-in, even if their role doesn’t include the full Settings module.
- Where System → Settings, or the account menu (your name, top right) → Settings
- Who can use it Anyone whose role includes Settings sees every section. Everyone else sees only My signature (if linked to a staff record) and Two-Factor Authentication.
General
- Default module on login: the screen people land on when they open the app, for example Dashboard. If someone’s role doesn’t include that module, they land on the Dashboard instead.
- Low stock threshold: an inventory item counts as low stock when its quantity falls to this number. It only applies to items that don’t have their own reorder level in Inventory.
Click Save Settings. The change takes effect the next time the app loads.
Outbound Email (SMTP)
You don’t need this to send email. Without it, email goes out through your hosting’s own mail server from noreply@ your website’s domain, which works on most hosts, Namecheap included. Add an SMTP account only if you want email to come from a particular mailbox, such as [email protected], or your host blocks server mail. See Email & SMS setup.
- Tick Use SMTP for outbound email.
- Fill in SMTP Host, Port, Username, Password and Encryption. Your email provider (Gmail, SendGrid, Mailgun or your web host) gives you these values; TLS on port 587 is the usual choice.
- Set From Email and, if you like, From Name, for example Asante Memorial School.
- Click Save SMTP Settings.
- Type your own address under Send a test email to and click Send Test Email. Check the inbox (and the spam folder).
Tip: For Gmail, use an app password from your Google account’s security page, not your normal password. Once saved, only the last four characters of the password are shown; leave the box blank to keep it.
Automations
These jobs run by themselves once a day for your school. Each row shows what it does and when it last ran. They include fee due-date and overdue reminders to guardians, library overdue reminders, low stock alerts, reminders about pending leave requests, admissions and purchase orders, and sending messages you scheduled in Communications.
- Untick a job to turn it off for your school. Every job starts switched on.
- Click Run Now to run one straight away, for example to check your SMS set-up works. A message tells you what it did.
Most automations send SMS, so they only reach anyone once an SMS gateway is set up in Integrations.
My signature
If your account is linked to a staff record, a My signature card appears. Your signature is printed above your signature line on report cards, as class teacher or head teacher.
- Click Draw and sign in the box with your finger, a stylus or the mouse, then click Save signature. Clear starts again.
- Or click Upload image and choose a PNG or JPG photo or scan of your signature on plain white paper (up to 2 MB). The white paper is made transparent for you.
Remove deletes it; report cards then print an empty signature line. Only you, the Admin and the head teacher can change your signature.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication adds a second step when you sign in: a 6-digit code from an authenticator app on your phone, such as Google Authenticator, Authy or 1Password. It is strongly recommended for admin and finance accounts.
- Click Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.
- Scan the QR code with your authenticator app (or type in the secret shown under it).
- Type the 6-digit code the app shows and click Confirm & Enable.
- Write down or print the ten recovery codes, then click I’ve saved these codes. They are not shown again.
Next time you sign in, open Have a two-step login code? under the password box and type the code from your app. If you lose your phone, type one of your recovery codes there instead; each works once.
To turn it off, enter a current code or a recovery code and click Disable Two-Factor Authentication.
Important: if the code is rejected, check that the time on your phone is set automatically. A clock that is a few minutes out makes every code fail.
Mandatory Two-Factor Authentication
This card makes 2FA compulsory for chosen roles in your school. Tick the roles, for example Admin and Bursar, and click Save Policy.
Anyone with a ticked role who hasn’t set up 2FA can still sign in, but every screen except Settings shows a message asking them to set it up. As soon as they finish, the rest of the app opens again. Untick a role to stop requiring it.
Live demo for the website
Only a Super Admin sees this card. It lets visitors to your website open the real app with a sample school in one click, from the Try the live demo buttons, as an Admin, a Teacher or a Parent.
- Choose the Demo school. Use a school that holds sample data only, because visitors see everything in it.
- Pick an Admin account, a Teacher account and a Parent account from that school. The lists only show that school’s people.
- Tick Live demo is on and click Save live demo. The card then shows the three links the website buttons use, for example yoursite.com/?elyn_demo=admin.
A demo visit is read-only. Visitors can open every screen, but saving shows This is the èLyn live demo, so changes are switched off, and nothing is sent. The demo school never sends SMS, and email to its sample addresses is not sent either. Demo accounts can’t open Users, Settings, Integrations, Backups, Support or Imports, can’t reset a password, and are signed out after two hours. A bar at the bottom of the screen offers Book a free walkthrough and Leave the demo.
To stop the demo, untick Live demo is on and save. The website buttons then lead to the demo page with a message instead of the app.
Good to know
- Default module, low stock threshold and SMTP are shared by every school on the same account. Where an account has several schools, only a Super Admin sees and changes them; a school’s Admin sees their own signature and sign-in security plus the school’s automations and 2FA policy. Automations and the 2FA policy are per school.
- The 2FA policy doesn’t apply to parent and student portal accounts.
- Roles and what they can open are managed in Users; SMS and payments are in Integrations.