A complete guide to every part of StudyPat, written in plain language. Click any topic to jump straight to it.
Click Start free or Register, choose a plan, and pick a subdomain - this becomes your school's web address, e.g. yourschool.studypat.com. Free-plan schools get access immediately; paid plans (Basic, Pro, Enterprise) activate as soon as payment is confirmed via Flutterwave. Your first user is created as the school's Admin.
The moment your school is created, you're walked through a 7-step wizard in this order: Classes & Arms → Subjects → Sessions & Terms → Grading → Score Divisions → Staff → Students. This order matters - grading and score divisions need to exist before you can properly enter results, and classes need to exist before you can add students or staff. Each step shows how many are done with a checkmark. You can click Skip setup at any point and finish later - a banner on your dashboard offers Continue setup and always resumes exactly where you left off, based on what you've actually completed, not a fixed checklist.
Your school always lives at its own subdomain. If you forget it, go to studypat.com/signin and type your school's name or address to be redirected to the right sign-in page.
Go to Academics → Classes. The order you add classes in (or set with the up/down arrows) is the order students get promoted through, so add them from your youngest class to your oldest. Mark your final class (e.g. SS3) with Is final class so Graduation knows where the chain stops.
If a class is split into streams - e.g. SS1 A and SS1 B - type the arm names comma-separated (e.g. A, B) when creating or editing that class. Each arm can have its own class teacher, or leave it blank to use the class's own teacher by default. Once a class has arms, most pages across the app (Subjects, Timetable, Fees, Results, ID Cards) show an extra "Arm" filter automatically.
Go to Academics → Subjects. A subject can apply three different ways:
Assign teachers to a subject right from this screen, or from each teacher's own profile under People → Staff.
Go to Academics → Sessions & Terms. Create your academic session (e.g. 2026/2027) and add its terms. Mark exactly one term as current - this is what every student, fee and result defaults to across the whole school. Switching the current term automatically carries every active student's record forward into it, and if you're genuinely moving forward in time (not just switching back to review an earlier term), any unpaid balance is automatically carried forward as a new "Balance brought forward" fee on the new term.
Go to Academics → Grading. Define grade bands like A = 70-100, remark "Excellent". You can set one scale for the whole school, or a different scale for a specific class if it needs different boundaries. Two grades in the same scale can never overlap - the system checks this and blocks a save that would create ambiguity.
Go to Results → Score Divisions. These are the pieces that add up to a subject's total score for a term - e.g. CA = 40, Exam = 60. Set per class and term. Divisions apply to every arm of a class automatically - you don't need to repeat this per arm.
Go to People → Staff → Add Staff. Choose a role (Teacher, Admin, Accountant, Librarian, Other), and assign subjects per class - for a class with arms, whole-class and arm-specific subjects are shown as separate sections so you always know exactly what you're assigning. Add a photo here too; it's used automatically on their ID Card.
Go to People → Admins → Permissions. A sub-admin only sees and can act on the exact sections you grant them - nothing else appears in their sidebar. Use this to give, say, a bursar access to Finance without giving them access to Results or Staff management.
Go to People → Students → Add Student for one at a time, or Bulk Upload with the provided CSV template for many at once. You can link a parent (create a new one or attach an existing parent for siblings), and if the class has arms, choose the arm too.
A student who's genuinely left the school - not just moved class - should be Archived, never deleted. Archiving keeps their entire result history intact but removes them from active class lists, fee billing and results. Find archived students under People → Students → Archived Students. If they come back, click Restore and choose the class (and arm, if needed) to bring them back into - even into a different session or term than when they left.
At the end of a session, go to Academics → Promotion to move selected students into their next class for the new session. If the destination class has never had students before, tick Copy subjects and/or Copy score divisions so Score Input works immediately for them. Go to Academics → Graduation to mark students in your final class as Graduated - they then appear under Academics → Alumni, searchable by name.
These average a student's results across however many terms they actually have on record that session - so a student who joined late, or was archived and restored mid-session, is still averaged correctly without any manual adjustment.
Go to Academics → Timetable. Set your periods and breaks once (start/end times) - this schedule applies to every class in the school.
Pick a class (and arm, if it has one) to see its weekly grid. Click any cell to assign a subject and teacher. Only subjects that actually belong to that class/arm are offered, so you can't accidentally assign the wrong one. Tick Double period to have one subject span two consecutive slots.
If you try to put a teacher in two places at the same time, the system warns you - it checks across every class, and understands arms correctly: a whole-class period collides with anything already scheduled for that class in any arm, but two different arms of the same class can run completely different subjects at the same time without a false clash.
Use Copy from class to duplicate one class's whole timetable into another - subjects are matched by name into the target class's own subject list (or skipped and reported if there's no match), so you never end up with a period pointing at a subject that class doesn't actually take.
Teachers use Results → Score Input (or their own dashboard's Score Input if they're a subject/class teacher). Only the subjects and arms a teacher is actually assigned to are shown, so there's no risk of entering scores for the wrong class.
Results → Principal Comments and Results → Cognitive Ratings let you add a principal's remark and behaviour/skill ratings per student per term - these appear on the printed report card alongside the scores.
Results → Checker shows a class's full result sheet with averages, grades and positions - all calculated automatically as scores are entered, no manual ranking needed.
Go to Results → Publish Management and publish a class/term once everything is final. Publishing locks Score Input and the broadsheet for everyone, including admins - to correct a mistake afterwards, unpublish first, fix it, then republish. You can also require fees to be cleared, and/or a valid scratch card, before a parent can view a published report card - both are optional toggles.
Scratch cards are optional PIN codes a parent must enter to view a published report card - useful if you want an extra layer of control (and, for many schools, a small extra revenue stream) on top of fee-clearance. Turn this requirement on or off any time from Results → Scratch Cards.
Each card costs ₦200 on Basic, paid up front via Flutterwave before the batch is created - you'll see the total cost calculated live as you set the quantity, and the cards are generated automatically the instant payment is confirmed. Pro and Enterprise schools generate cards for free, with no payment step at all.
A parent enters their code alongside the student, session and term on the report card page - each code works exactly once. An unused code can be revoked from the list (a used one cannot). Export unused codes as a CSV to print onto physical cards.
StudyPat's CBT software installs on a computer in your school and lets students sit objective exams on networked computers in your exam hall - fully offline, so a weak internet connection on exam day is never a problem. It connects to the same StudyPat account you already use: class lists and exam slips come from here, and objective scores sync straight back into your broadsheet. During the exam each student also has an on-screen scientific calculator that can be dragged around the page and minimised.
Go to Results → CBT. The Overview tab shows a checklist of everything to do, tells you the one thing to do next, and shows whether the exam computer has connected. Each step has a button that takes you straight to the right place. In short: choose which score division(s) - CA or Exam - are fed by CBT (and whether each also has a manually-marked theory part), create the connection key, install the exam software and paste in the key and Portal address (both have a Copy button), then pay the term's CBT fee (₦150 per student on Basic; Pro and Enterprise schools skip this - CBT is already included) and download your signed license file.
Install the CBT software on one computer - it becomes the exam server for the room. Upload the license file you downloaded, paste in your API key, then use Import Roster to pull the class list, subjects, student photos and printable exam slips (registration number + password per student) straight from StudyPat - nothing to type by hand. Pull one class at a time, or choose All Classes to bring in the whole school in one go. In the software's Portal Settings the address is https://studypat.com/api/cbt/v1 (typing just studypat.com also works). Distribute the slips, run the exam offline, then upload the results once you're back online; they land automatically in your StudyPat broadsheet.
Only Active students are included. Each term starts with your students Inactive until you activate them, so activate the students who will sit the exam first - from Subscription → Activate students by class, or People → Students → Activate selected - then pull the roster.
A handwritten theory paper is unrelated to the CBT software. The subject teacher types each student's theory score from their dashboard (CBT exams → Enter theory scores); it saves as they go and is added automatically to the CBT objective score for any division set up that way. The page shows how many marks the theory part is out of and will not accept a higher score. An admin can also see or fill these in under Results → CBT → Theory Entry.
Teachers can write their CBT questions on StudyPat instead of typing them on the exam computer. From the teacher dashboard open CBT exams → Write questions, then:
A set can be changed freely until it is submitted. If it is sent back, fix what the note asks and submit it again.
₦150 per student, per term on Basic (charged for the students in your school), and free, every term, on Pro and Enterprise - Enterprise also comes with free installation support. CBT is not part of the Free plan. See the CBT page for the full walkthrough.
Go to Finance → Fee Setup, choose a session, term and class, and enter the amount - it's billed automatically to every active student in that class. New fee names are automatically tagged with their term/session (e.g. "Tuition - 2nd Term 2026/2027") so the same fee name is never confused across terms.
Finance → Student Fees lets you open a student and record a payment against a specific fee. If a payment is more than what's owed on that fee, the extra automatically applies to the student's other outstanding fees, or - if nothing else is owed - is banked as credit that's automatically deducted from their very next new fee.
Finance → Outstanding Fees shows who still owes, by class (and arm, where relevant). Finance → Payment History lists every payment, searchable by student, class, session or term.
When the school moves forward to a new term (or session), every student with an unpaid balance automatically gets a line on the new term called "Balance brought forward from First Term 2026/2027" (or whichever term it came from), so it is always clear where the debt began. The old term is not changed: it still shows its own fees, payments and balance, with a note that the balance was carried forward, and switching back to it changes nothing. School totals and the dashboard count the debt once, and what the family pays afterwards is recorded against the brought-forward line on the new term.
Note: the Finance module (and everything in it) is not available on the Free plan.
Go to Transport and add each vehicle with its plate number, driver's name and phone, and seating capacity.
Pick a class and term, and you'll see every active student in that class with a checkbox - tick only the ones who ride the bus. Choose the vehicle and set the fee, then submit: only the ticked students are billed, and their classmates who walk or are dropped off are never touched. Re-running the same assignment for the same students never bills them twice.
The current term's roster (who's on which bus) is shown right on the Transport page, with a one-click way to remove a student (this only removes them from the roster - it never deletes an existing fee record, so nothing gets silently un-billed by accident). Transport → Fee report shows exactly who's paid and who owes, filterable by vehicle - and because it's billed through the same system as every other fee, it also shows up automatically in your normal Outstanding Fees and Payment History pages.
Go to Hostel and add each hostel (name, gender, and an optional warden chosen from your Staff list), then add rooms to it with a bed capacity for each room.
Same selective approach as Transport: pick a class and term, tick only the students who actually board, choose a room and set the fee. Beds are handed out automatically in order, and the system will refuse to over-fill a room - if you try to assign more students than there are free beds this term, you'll get a clear error telling you exactly how many spaces are actually left.
The current term's room-by-room roster is shown on the Hostel page. Hostel → Fee report shows paid/owing status per boarder, filterable by hostel - and like Transport, it flows into your existing Outstanding Fees and Payment History automatically.
Go to ID Cards. Choose a class (and arm, if it has one) to print every student's card as one PDF - 8 cards per A4 sheet with dashed cut-guide lines, ready for cardstock. Do the same for staff, optionally filtered by role. You can also print a single card straight from a row in the Students or Staff list.
Photo, name, class/arm (or role for staff), admission number (or phone for staff), your school's logo and colours, and a subtle diagonal watermark of your school's name. If a staff member's card has no photo, add one from People → Staff → Edit - photo upload wasn't always available there, so older staff records may need one added.
Go to Announcements to send a message to one class's parents, all parents, all teachers, or sub-admins. It shows up as a dashboard banner for the recipient and is also emailed to them.
Go to Finance → WhatsApp Reminders (not available on the Free plan). Pick a class with outstanding fees, select which students to remind, and send - each selected student's parent gets a WhatsApp message stating their outstanding balance. This is limited to 3 reminder batches per academic term, and the page always shows how many you have left. Only parents with a phone number on file can be reached - add or fix a parent's number from People → Parents → Edit if a reminder can't reach them.
Teachers add lessons with notes under E-Class → Lessons for their assigned classes and subjects. E-Class → Assignments lets a teacher post a task with a due date; students read it on their dashboard and hand the work to the teacher, because StudyPat does not collect submissions. E-Class → Quizzes posts a quiz notice (topic, date and instructions) that students can see; the quiz itself is given in class. For tests marked automatically on a computer, use CBT. Nothing shows to students until you tick Publish.
Schedule a live session under E-Class → Live Classes - students see the join link on their own dashboard once it starts. E-Class → Attendance tracks daily class attendance separately from academic results.
Every school - including the Free plan - gets a public website at yourschool.studypat.com automatically. Edit your logo, colours, about text, news, photo gallery and online admission form from Settings → School Profile.
If you already own a domain (e.g. www.yourschool.com), or would like StudyPat to register one for you, go to Billing → Custom Domain. There's a one-time setup fee on Free, Basic and Pro; once paid, our team connects it and your site becomes reachable at your own address as well as your StudyPat subdomain. On Enterprise, this is free - a domain of your choice, connected at no charge.
Settings → Subscription shows your current plan and renewal date, and lets you renew for a new term or upgrade at any time. Only the school administrator can see this page and its prices.
Every term is paid for. When you switch to a new term, all your students become Inactive until you activate them - the portal stays open, but anything that needs students (results, report cards, finance, CBT) shows none until then. Activate everyone at once, or choose classes from Subscription → Activate students by class (or individual students from People → Students). Switching a term never moves students to another class or session - only Promotion does that. Teachers, students and parents who open a term your school has not activated see "Not activated" and no prices.
You don't have to pay for the whole school at once. On Subscription → Activate students by class, use Pay for a number of students: enter how many students you want active this term, and the page shows the total (that number × your plan's per-student price). Pay with Flutterwave and that number becomes your school's student credit for the term.
Only the school administrator can buy or use student credit; teachers and other staff never see prices.
See the full side-by-side comparison on the Pricing section of the homepage - it always reflects your exact plan's features.
Give staff scoped access without a second full admin account - see Staff & Permissions above.
Contact our support team at support@studypat.com or call +234 706 379 9994, or use our contact form. You can also check the FAQ for quick answers.