Every year, like clockwork, the same questions start arriving in our queue as schools kick off a new academic year. Some are quick fixes. Some point to setup steps that were missed during rollover. All of them are completely avoidable if you know what to look for.

Here are the ten questions we are most reliably asked at the start of every year - and the answers, so you do not have to wait for a ticket response to get moving.

Support desk insight: The majority of new-year support requests are rollover-related. If your rollover was completed cleanly and checked before the first day of school, your ticket volume in the first two weeks drops dramatically. The list below is essentially your rollover QA checklist.

The 10 Questions - and What to Do

1. "Students are in the wrong year level"

This almost always means the student progression step during rollover was incomplete or ran into an error partway through. Go to your student list, filter by year level, and compare against your expected enrolment numbers. Students who did not progress will still be sitting in their previous year level. Correct them individually or transition yeaars for the affected cohort - contact support if you need to do this in bulk.

2. "Teachers cannot see their classes"

Classes exist but teachers are not assigned to them, or teachers are assigned but to last year's class records rather than this year's. Check class assignments under each class record and confirm the teacher assignment is pointing to the current academic year. This is a quick fix but needs to be done for each affected class.

3. "Last year's tasks and units are showing in this year's classes"

Tasks and units from the previous year were carried over during rollover but should have been archived or cleared. Units automatically show for the new academic year, but can be drafted or archived if not needed. Whether tasks should roll over depends on your school's setup preferences - but if they are cluttering current classes, they can be archived in bulk from the class settings. Going forward, decide before rollover whether tasks carry over or not, and document that decision.

4. "Parent accounts are not linked to the right students"

Parent-student links break most commonly when a student record is recreated rather than rolled over, resulting in a new student ID that the existing parent account does not recognise. Check the affected student's profile for family links. If the link is missing, it can be restored manually - but if this is affecting many students, it suggests a rollover process issue worth reviewing with support.

5. "New students are not receiving their login emails"

Two common causes: the welcome email was not triggered after the student record was created, or the email address on file is incorrect. Check the student's profile for a valid email address, then manually resend the welcome email from their account settings. If emails are going to spam, this is an email deliverability issue - check your school's SPF and DKIM records with your IT Manager.

6. "The academic year dates are wrong"

Term dates, academic year start and end, and holiday periods need to be updated every year - they do not update automatically. Go to school settings and confirm all dates for the new academic year are correct before attendance tracking begins. Incorrect dates affect attendance calculations, report periods, and calendar views for all users.

7. "Attendance is not tracking correctly from day one"

Usually linked to question 6 - if academic year dates are wrong, attendance periods will not align. Also check that your timetable is active and that classes have been assigned to the correct periods. Attendance can only be taken against an active timetable slot.

8. "Students can see last year's grades and comments"

Historical data is visible by design in ManageBac+ - students and parents can see previous year records, such as report cards or class data, unless access is explicitly restricted. If your school does not want students to see prior year data, archive classes to restrict their view.

9. "A graduated or leaving student still appears in active lists"

Their status was not updated during rollover. Go to their profile and update the status to graduate or withdrawn as appropriate. Do not delete the record - historical data, report cards, and transcript information will be lost. Deactivating preserves the record while removing them from active views and counts.

10. "IB results or external exam data from last year is missing"

External results such as IB Diploma outcomes are not imported automatically - content such as this would need to be uploaded manually by your school.

One Thing Worth Doing Before the Year Starts

If we could recommend one thing based on everything we see at the start of each year: do a 30-minute walkthrough of ManageBac+ from a test student account, a test parent account, and a teacher account before the first day of school. Log in as each user type and check that what they see matches what they should see. This single check catches the majority of issues on this list before they become support tickets - or worse, before a parent calls the school on day one to say their login does not work.

In Summary

• The majority of new-year support requests are preventable with a thorough rollover QA check before the first day of school.
• The most common issues are: students in the wrong year level, missing teacher-class assignments, incorrect academic year dates, and broken parent-student links.
• Do a user-perspective walkthrough (student, parent, teacher) before school starts - this is the single most effective QA step available to any admin.
• For anything on this list you cannot resolve independently, the ManageBac+ Support Desk is available - include specific student IDs or class names in your ticket to speed up resolution.

The ManageBac+ Support Desk handles rollover queries every year and is well-practised at rapid resolution. Reach out through your FariaSupport plan as early as possible - issues raised before the year starts are significantly faster to fix than those raised after students and parents are already in the system.

Related Articles

• How to Keep Your ManageBac+ Data Clean Across the Academic Year
• Setting Up for a Smooth Academic Year Start
• Why Your ManageBac+ Reports Don't Match