What We Shipped: Staff Permissions, In-App Notifications, Badges, And More...

Earlier this year we promised to publish regular updates on the improvements we made to Boardingware, so here are the latest updates so far.

In this update we've made it possible for you to control how your staff members use Boardingware.  We added notifications so you are immediately alerted when you receive a new leave request or message.  We also made our native iPad app even better by simplifying the navigation and improving the watchlist badges.  To top things off, we made Boardingware even easier for your students to use.

1. Staff Permissions

This is the one you've all been waiting for.  Finally with Staff Permissions you can control which features and student information other staff members are allowed to access. This will allow you to tailor each staff member's Boardingware account based on their role within your school.

Restricting access to your school management page and specific features

Administrators have the ability to assign houses and permissions to other staff members.  The following set of rules can be applied to any staff member:

• Editing Student Information - Controlling who can add, edit or delete students
• Leave Requests - The ability to approve and decline leave requests
• Manage Leave - Being able to create and edit new leave types
• Sensitive Pastoral - Being able to see pastoral information marked as sensitive
• Contact Permissions - Ability to invite parents and guardians to Boardingware

2. In-App Notifications

Leave request notifications

With all new in app notifications you will immediately be notified when a parent or student applies for leave.  This will help you stay on top of your leave requests and save you from having to continually check for new request.

New message notifications

A part of our strategy is to make it easier for staff members to communicate within boarding schools.  In addition to re-inventing the message board in our last update we have also set up notifications for new messages.  This means that you will be alerted as soon as a staff member posts a new message on the message board.

3. User Interface Improvements To The iPad App

Simplified menu & better navigation for Home Board

With some UI improvements we've made it super easy to navigate through the Boardingware native iPad app.  Now you can be more productive and navigate your way through Boardingware without thinking.

New Home Board Navigation

The Home Board navigation lets you flick between all your students, your students in house, and your students on leave.

New Menu

With a simpler menu you can easily navigate between features and switch houses.

4. Sensitive Pastoral & Staff Tagging

Saving pastoral information only certain staff members view

Sometimes you may want to save a pastoral note to a student's profile but you don't want all your staff members to see it.  In this latest update you can simply mark any pastoral event as sensitive and only members who are able to view sensitive pastoral will be able to see it.

Tagging who created or edited pastoral and leave events

With staff tagging you can see exactly who did any particular leave or pastoral action.  For example if you wanted to know who added a certain pastoral note, the staff member will be tagged at the bottom of the record.  This increases accountability and lets you know exactly who you need to follow up regarding any event.

5. Improved Watchlist Badges

Simply click watchlist badges to view more details

Watchlist badges let you know which students to keep an eye on and why.  We've made watchlist badges more interactive so you can simply tap on a badge to view or edit the details.

6. Student Saved Leave

Saved leaves so students don't have to keep filing out the same leave forms

If students are regularly applying for the same type of leave they can simply fill out the details once and save it in their Saved Leaves section.  This means that whenever the student applies for that particular leave they can simply click their saved leave and all the details will be auto-filled for them.That's it for now!  We hope you enjoy these latest updates and we're looking forward to bringing you more great updates throughout 2015.  We'd love to hear any feedback you have on what you would like to see from Boardingware in future releases, feel free to send an email to support@boardingware.com or leave a comment below.[marketo-fat form="1107"]