Your Clipboard Environment is made up of all your extra-curricular Activities, grouped together by overarching Departments. To learn about the Clipboard Environment and how the Clipboard terminology and concepts fit together visually, check out this article on The Clipboard Environment.
As an Admin, you’ll need to complete the following setup steps to get your school ready to use Clipboard.
1. Set up your Department(s)
Departments are the overarching categories that group together a set of Activities. Examples include Music, Co-Curricular, or Sport. Only Admin users can create Departments.
Note: Check the existing Departments, as someone may have already created yours!
If you’re the first Admin to log in, we’ve created a Default Department to help you get started. You can choose to start adding Activities within this Default Department and rename it at any time. Alternatively, you can create your own Department.
You will be automatically assigned to any Department you create.
To create a new Department:
Go to Settings and click on Environment
Click on Add a Department
Type a Department Name (E.g. Music, Co-Curricular, or Sport)
Hit Enter or click the tick icon
(Optional) To customise details or rename a Department, click on the Department name.
If you’d like some guidance, you can check out how we recommend schools set up their Departments below:
I am setting up Clipboard for Junior School and Senior School Sport. This is only advised when the two schools are run very separately. Or if Timesheets require different cost codes for JS and SS Activities.
I am setting up Clipboard for Sport.
I am setting up Clipboard for Junior School and Senior School Co-Curricular.
I am setting up Clipboard for Co-Curricular.
I am setting up Clipboard for Music, but it doesn't fall under the Co-Curricular Department.
2. Set up your Activities
Activities are a category that falls within a Department. Examples include Hockey, Choir, or Code Club. Admins can create Activities by default and Managers can edit items within the Activity's settings (when the setting is on to allow them to edit). Admins can only add Activities under a Department they have created and/or are assigned to.
Activity naming conventions
It’s best to keep your Activities quite broad. It's important not to create Activities that are too specific, as your Clipboard Environment becomes very busy and difficult to manage. Instead, you can create more specific Teams within Activities later.
To help you set up correct Activity names, you may notice some warnings if you type things such as:
Dates and numbers (E.g. Tennis 2023)
Names (E.g. Sally’s Netball)
Day of the week (E.g. Monday Netball)
Similar existing Activities e.g. Winter Football and Summer Football, or Term 2 Athletics and Term 3 Athletics. You don't need to split Activities into seasons or terms.
Best practice for naming Activities:
Do | Don’t |
Basketball | Year 7 Basketball Boys Basketball |
Choirs | Junior Choir |
Debating | 1sts Debating |
Rugby | Winter Rugby |
Singing Tuition | Phoebe's Singing Tuition |
To create a new Activity:
Go to Settings and click on Environment
Go to the Department you’d like to create an Activity for, and click on Add an Activity.
Type the Activity Name (E.g. Hockey, Choir, Code Club)
Hit Enter or click the tick icon
(Optional) You can choose to add Manager(s) and other additional details by clicking on the Activity name.
Note: You can drag your Activities between the Departments you are assigned to.
Note: Archiving any Departments or Activities will hide the data associated with them and throughout your Clipboard Environment. So, if you didn’t create it, please don’t archive it!
As an Admin, here is an example of what your Environment may look like.
To customise your Activity:
Go to Settings and click on Environment
Select the Activity
In Basic Details, scroll to Customise your Activity and select Edit
Make your changes to:
Activity colour: This will be visible on your schedule to make it easy to distinguish your Activity. Change this by selecting a colour from the colour picker.
Type: This refers to what this Activity is in general. For example, Netball (Junior) would be of type Netball.
Emoji: The emoji is used in your school’s Clipboard Portal for Activity Selection.
Roll type: Choose to mark your students as present or absent by default for this Activity.
SIS Code: (Optional) This is a text field to enter an optional code that can match the Activity up with data in your SIS.
Income Cost Code: (Optional) Add a code used by Finance Admins in Transaction Item Exports, to pinpoint the source of income from Activity Selection invoices.
Select Save.
Can you delete an Activity?
We allow the Archiving of Activities, Departments, Locations and Staff Users for record-keeping purposes. Archiving is used in place of deleting them.
How to customise an Activity?
These optional extra details can be altered to help you distinguish your activities from one another.
Customising your Activity allows you to choose the colour, Activity type, Emoji, Roll type, and add a SIS code and/or Income Cost Code.
What type of users do we assign a Department to?
Only Admin Users are assigned to Departments, as they oversee the Activities within that Department. Manager Users and Staff Users are assigned to individual Activities.