How-to docs | Tototab

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What Tototab is meant to do

Tototab is the daily follow-up workspace between a school and a parent. It is a digital diary, not a full school management system. A parent opens it to know what happened today, what is due tomorrow, whether fees are clear, whether transport has changed, and whether the school needs a reply. A school uses it to keep the important daily layer organized without replacing admissions, payroll, exam engines, accounting, or other systems that already work.

The best way to use Tototab is to keep records simple and current. No new hardware or complicated install is needed. Use the onboarding checklist and sample CSV uploads to create classes, attach teachers, add students, link guardians, set transport and fee information, then let teachers and offices post the small daily updates that parents actually need.

First

Set up classes

Classes are the base of attendance, teacher workspaces, and student organization.

Second

Add people

Create teacher accounts, add students, and link guardians to the right children.

Third

Set transport

Add routes, bus labels, drivers, and pickup details before sending alerts.

Fourth

Track fees

Finance creates fee items, assigns charges, and records payments with references.

Roles

Who does what

Tototab works best when each role stays in its lane. Platform admins run the Tototab business. School admins run the school setup. Finance handles money records. Teachers run the class diary and attendance. Parents follow their children and respond when asked.

Platform admin

Tototab business operator

The platform admin creates schools, chooses the starting student band, activates or suspends schools, reviews invoices, confirms offline payments, manages support contacts, and adjusts business settings. This role should not manage a school's children, classes, transport routes, fee records, or teacher diary posts.

Use the platform dashboard to understand the business: active schools, pending schools, paid invoices, open invoices, support contacts, and term subscription activity. When a school pays outside online checkout, label the payment clearly, such as cash, cheque, bank transfer, or M-Pesa, so later reviews make sense.

School admin

School operator

The school admin sets up the school workspace. This includes classes, subjects, teacher accounts, student records, guardian links, transport routes, pickup details, and school settings. The school admin can also review what teachers post and manage the structure that parents see.

The school admin should start with Classes, then Accounts, then Kids, then Transport. Accounts are role-based, so the same place can create admins, finance users, teachers, and special parent accounts when needed. Guardian links usually belong inside the child account, which keeps the design organized and avoids duplicate people records. After setup, the day-to-day job becomes lighter: approve what needs approval, keep records clean, invite guardians, and make sure every child has the right class, guardian, fee, and transport information.

Finance

Fee records and payments

Finance creates fee items, assigns charges to all students or specific students, records payments, and keeps balances visible to parents. Finance can open a student account to inspect guardians, class, transport, and fee history, but school setup actions stay with the school admin.

Always record the payment method and reference. If a parent pays by cash, cheque, transfer, or mobile money, the reference is what protects the record later. A clean reference makes it easier to answer parent questions and reconcile a term.

Teacher

Class diary workspace

Teachers mark attendance, post assignments, share class notes, attach photos, use templates, and ask parents for acknowledgement or a reply when a post needs follow-up. Teachers should post in clear parent language: what happened, what is needed, and by when.

The teacher workspace is built around the class list, attendance, class diary, templates, and preparation tools. Use urgent mode only for information that truly needs immediate attention, such as safety notices, closures, or transport delays.

Parent or guardian

Child follow-up

Parents sign in with their phone number and see all linked children, even if the children are in different schools. The parent home screen is for today: updates, homework due, attendance, fee balance, transport alerts, results, media, and replies requested by the school.

Parents should tap seen when they have read an important update. If a teacher asks for a text reply or media response, the parent should answer from the update so the school can follow up without calling everyone manually.

School setup

Recommended setup order

A school can technically add records in many orders, but this sequence keeps the workspace clean and reduces rework.

1. Create classes

Go to Classes and add each class group the school wants to manage. Use names that teachers and parents already understand, such as Grade 4 North, PP2 Blue, or Form 1 East. Add level, stream, or room labels if the school uses them.
2. Assign teachers to subjects

After teacher accounts exist, attach a teacher to a class and subject. This controls what appears in the teacher workspace and helps the school see active teacher coverage for a child's class.
3. Add students

Add students one by one or upload a CSV. The useful fields are name, admission number, class, sport, house, and photo URL. If a CSV class name matches an existing class, Tototab links the student to that class automatically.
4. Link guardians

Open a student account and link the guardian by phone number. The phone number becomes the parent login identifier. A parent can be linked to more than one child, and a child can have more than one guardian.
5. Set transport and pickup

Create routes, add bus labels, driver details, matron details, and route times. Then assign each child to school transport, parent pickup, driver pickup, walking, or another method. This makes transport clear before alerts are sent.
6. Add fee structure

Finance should create fee items for the current term, assign charges, and record payments as they arrive. Parents then see balances from the parent app without needing to call the office first.

Daily rhythm

A normal Tototab day

The daily flow should be simple enough that staff can keep it current without feeling like they are doing extra administration.

Morning

Teachers mark attendance. Parents can later see attendance information for their child.

During the day

Teachers and offices post assignments, notices, fees, results, transport notes, or media.

Parent view

Parents open Today, check every child, tap seen, and respond when the school asks.

Follow-up

School staff see who has not opened an important update and follow up only where needed.

Workflows

How to use the main areas

Classes and teacher subjects

Use Classes to create the learning groups and attach teachers to subjects. A class can have multiple teachers because one teacher may handle Mathematics, another English, and another Creative Arts. This assignment makes the teacher workspace clearer and allows the student account to show active teachers for the child's class.

Kids and student accounts

The Kids page is the index of student records. Use it to add students, upload a CSV, check class placement, see guardian count, and open a student workspace. The student workspace is the full account view: profile details, guardians, fees, sports, house, transport, teachers, and diary history.

Keep each child's account clean. Add the class, sport, house, photo if available, guardian phone, and pickup details early. This reduces confusion later when parents ask about fees, teachers ask about class membership, or transport staff need pickup information.

Transport and pickup

Transport is a record area first and a communication area second. Start by adding routes with bus labels, driver names, phone numbers, matron details, pickup time, dropoff time, and notes. Then assign each child to the right pickup method.

Use transport posts for parent-facing messages such as a bus delay, route change, early pickup request, or emergency transport notice. Urgent transport alerts should be rare and clear, because urgent messages teach parents what deserves immediate attention.

Fees and payments

Finance creates fee items by term, assigns the fee to all active students or one selected student, then records payments as they are received. Each payment should include method, amount, date, reference, and optional note.

The parent sees a simple balance, not an accounting system. Internally, finance can open the student account to understand the child's fee position together with the class, guardian, and transport details.

Attendance

Teachers mark attendance from the teacher workspace. The daily register supports present, late, absent, and excused. Parents can see attendance updates, and the school gets a clearer day-by-day record without needing a separate attendance book for parent follow-up.

Posts, seen status, and replies

A post can be for the whole class, the whole school, or one student. Choose the right category: assignment, announcement, fee, result, transport, media, or note. Use the title for the main point and the body for the details parents need.

Teachers can attach images, PDFs, or video files directly into Tototab. For a YouTube video, paste the YouTube link instead of uploading the file. Parents and staff will see a preview in the diary: images display inline, PDFs open in a reader, and videos play inside the app.

When a post matters, ask parents to acknowledge it. When the school needs information back, request a text reply or media response. If media is requested, parents upload the file into Tototab rather than sending a separate link.

Teacher preparation tools

Teachers can use preparation tools to turn rough notes into clearer assignments, rewrite homework instructions, or prepare classroom visuals. This is for preparing teaching material before it is shared with parents. Schools can add their own OpenAI API key in Settings, enable AI mode, allow or block image generation, and keep safe search controls on with extra blocked terms. Schools can also turn access on or off for each teacher account.

Messaging settings

The school can enable text messages, set the Africa's Talking username, API key, sender ID or approved sender IDs, choose quiet hours, and save a default invitation message. When credentials are connected, Tototab shows the live SMS balance in Settings. Normal posts should stay in the app when possible. Use text messages for invitations, urgent alerts, important reminders, and daily summaries where the school chooses to send them.

Integrations

Connect SMS, AI, and other school systems

Settings is the school entry point for integrations. Keep access small: only enable what the school wants to use, and only give external systems the update categories they are allowed to send.

Africa's Talking SMS

Add username, API key, sender ID, and approved sender IDs. Tototab shows balance when the credentials are valid.

School AI mode

Add the school OpenAI key, choose models, allow images only if wanted, and keep safety terms active.

Tototab API keys

Create one access key per external system and choose whether it can send finance, results, transport, assignment, media, note, or announcement updates.

Notification API

External systems send soft diary notifications to Tototab with the school ID and access key created in Settings. Student-specific messages must include the admission number, because that is the shared child identifier between systems. If class_id is sent, Tototab verifies that it matches the child before accepting the update.

POST /api/v1/notifications
Authorization: Bearer tt_live_your_access_key
X-Tototab-School-Id: 12
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "admission_no": "ADM-0042",
  "class_id": 7,
  "category": "fee",
  "title": "Fee balance updated",
  "body": "Your term balance has been refreshed from the school system.",
  "amount_due": 2500,
  "due_date": "2026-07-15"
}

Allowed categories are announcement, assignment, fee, result, transport, media, and note. A successful response includes ok, update_id, student_id, and admission_no.

Good habits

How to keep Tototab useful

Write for parents

Use simple sentences. Say what happened, what the parent should do, and the date or time involved. Avoid internal staff wording.

Keep urgent rare

If everything is urgent, parents stop reacting. Reserve urgent mode for safety, closure, transport delay, and time-sensitive notices.

Use student accounts

Before calling around, open the student workspace. Most follow-up information should be visible there.

Record references

Payments, transport pickup people, and guardian contacts should be saved clearly. Small details prevent big confusion later.

Common questions

Practical answers

Can one parent see children in different schools?

Yes. Link the guardian phone number to each child. When the parent signs in, Tototab shows all linked children in one parent account.

What should a teacher post?

Assignments, homework due dates, class notes, photos, results, reminders, and important parent follow-up. Posts should be short, useful, and tied to a child, class, or school notice.

Who should edit fee records?

Finance should manage fee items, charges, and payments. School admins can see the bigger school picture, but finance should own payment references and term balance accuracy.

What if a child is not on school transport?

Set the pickup type to parent pickup, driver pickup, walks home, or other. Add the pickup person's name and phone where needed so the school has a clear record.

What should platform admin avoid?

Platform admin should avoid managing school records directly. Their job is business setup, school activation, billing visibility, support contacts, and platform-level settings.

How to run a school day in Tototab