A program's settings can be managed or altered by program Administrators from the web or mobile app. These settings control how admins, staff and student contacts interact with the program in brightwheel and can be modified at any time to best fit the program's needs!

This resource provides an overview of the available Check-in Kiosk, Learning, Parent Access, Staff attendance, and Payroll settings that are accessible on the web and on the app.

Administrators have the ability to set up their check-in settings in whatever way works best for the program. These settings are split into two distinct categories, Check-in Kiosk Settings and Attendance Settings.

Learn more about the options for check-in settings that are available in our Manage School Check-in Settings resource.

Administrators can set up learning frameworks or state standards to be utilized when logging learning observations in the app.

Learn more about managing this setting from the web or app in our Setup Your Learning Standard or Framework resource.

These settings will influence how parents will interact with brightwheel in their account. It is beneficial to understand what these settings affect and how they can drive parent engagement!

Some administrators prefer to approve staff-logged activities before sharing them with student contacts, which can be helpful when first using brightwheel. When this setting is ON, newly logged activities will default to 'Staff Only' and be visible only to internal personnel until an administrator has approved them.

However, when logging activities on the web, the 'Staff Only' option is not selected by default, regardless of this setting. It's recommended to guide staff on using this option to ensure they're following the program's procedures.

Allowing contacts with parent-level access to maintain, add, or edit information on their student's profiles can be a great way to keep the information up to date. This includes all information in the student’s profile under Personal Information, Address, and Student Contacts.

Some schools prefer to know when records are changing and would prefer to keep this privilege available to school staff only. It's up to program administrators to determine if this privilege is toggled on or off.

This setting can only be managed from the web and is toggled OFF by default. If desired, toggle this ON to allow parents to share and view contact information in a directory of all other parents of active students. Once enabled, parents will be able to view this directory of other brightwheel parents in the program in their account on the web and mobile app. Parents can also choose to opt out of sharing their information if desired

Student contacts that have been added as a Parent contact type may have the ability to add a photo of a student to the student’s feed using the mobile app. This allows contacts to share photos of activities, projects, milestones, and more! Once the photo is added, it will be viewable by school administrators, staff, and other student contacts.

Learn more about how parents can add, edit, and delete photos on their child's feed on the mobile app by viewing our Uploading Photos as a Parent resource

Payroll settings are only available to be modified by administrators on the web. These settings are primarily useful to administrators who are using brightwheel's staff check-in/out options to track payroll.

This setting is how timecards on the Time tracking page and timecards visible to staff on the mobile app will be grouped by default. If this setting is not turned on, timecards can be filtered using one of the existing options (Custom, Month, Week, All Time).

Manage this setting from the web by following the steps below.

This setting determines whether staff can check in or out remotely. When enabled, staff can check in from any device logged into their staff account, including personal accounts. If disabled, remote check-in/out is not allowed, and staff must use a Check-in Kiosk or Quick Scan method if available.

Even if this setting is turned off, Admins and Managers will retain the ability to use Attendance mode for check-in/out.

To manage this setting, follow the steps below:

The Auto Check Out Staff setting allows administrators to choose to auto-checkout staff that have accidentally stayed checked in. If the setting is toggled ON then these open time cards will automatically be closed with a Time Out set to midnight. This setting will help to prevent errors and confusion during staff check-in, and makes it easier to spot timecards that need updating.

Programs can customize overtime rules to accommodate when their work week starts and select if they calculate daily, double, or weekly overtime. Overtime is automatically calculated for staff on the mobile app.

Below are the different overtime types programs can customize in brightwheel:

Room Settings are available to be modified on the app as an administrator or staff. Every classroom is different and brightwheel knows that preferences vary by teacher. That's why we have empowered staff to set their Room Settings based on the preferences of those assigned to that room. Administrators will see all options available in the screenshot below and staff will see all besides the Student to Staff Ratio and Room Capacity options.

Learn more about the various options available to manage rooms at a program by viewing our Room Settings resource.
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