Learn how to use Academic Scheduler with the new in-app Help page: build timetables in minutes, manage substitutions and view your whole school at a glance.
How to Use Academic Scheduler: Your In-App Help Guide
Most scheduling questions come up at the worst possible time: the night before term starts, or ten minutes before first period when a teacher calls in sick. That's why we added a Help page directly inside the platform. This guide shows how to use Academic Scheduler with that Help page. It covers where to find it, what each answer covers, and how to go from an empty account to a working, conflict-free timetable.
Why did we build a Help page inside the platform?
Timetabling software is usually set up by one or two people: a coordinator, a vice principal, sometimes an IT lead. When they get stuck, the answer often sits in an onboarding email from months ago, a video they can't find again, or a support inbox that replies tomorrow. A real school day can't wait until tomorrow.
We wanted the most common answers to live one click away from where the work happens. The Help page is short on purpose. It doesn't try to be a full manual. Instead, it answers the questions that actually stop people from getting their timetable done.
🔍 What we learned from onboarding schools
After onboarding 300+ schools, we noticed the same handful of questions again and again. How do I start? What order do I set things up in? How do I find a free teacher right now? The Help page is built around those real questions, not around a list of every button in the app.
Where do you find Help in Academic Scheduler?
Once you're logged in, look at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar, below Dashboard, Periods, Subjects, Teachers, Classes, Schedules, Substitution and Exam Timetable. The Help button is pinned there on every screen. You can also go directly to app.academic-scheduler.com/help once you're signed in.
Here's what the Help page currently covers:
| Help topic | What it answers | Most useful for |
|---|---|---|
| Create a timetable in minutes | The setup order, from periods to finished teacher timetables | New accounts, start of year |
| Substitution | Covering an absent teacher and notifying the substitute | Daily operations, cover coordinators |
| Whole school for a single period | Who's teaching, who's free and which classes are busy in any slot | Quick checks, finding a free teacher |
| Daily Timetable | One full day for the whole school on one screen | Principals, morning briefings |
| More than one branch | Managing every branch from one Organization login | School groups, coaching center chains |
| Other languages | Current languages and how to request a new one | Schools outside English-speaking regions |
How do you create a timetable in minutes?
This is the most important answer on the Help page, because order matters. Each step feeds the next. Set things up once in this sequence, and the platform handles the rest:
⚠ Don't skip teacher availability in step 3
It's tempting to add teachers quickly and fill in availability "later." But availability is what the scheduler uses to keep a part-time or shared teacher out of periods they can't take. Entering it upfront saves you from rebuilding timetables later.
For a deeper walkthrough with examples and planning tips, read our step-by-step timetable builder guide .
How do you handle daily changes once the timetable is live?
A finished timetable is only the start. Three Help topics cover the tools you'll use most once school is running.
Substitution: covering an absent teacher
Open Substitution, select the absent teacher and the day. You'll see every class they were due to teach that day, and for each period a list of teachers who are free at that time. Pick a substitute and send them an email with the class, subject, day and period in one click. There's no need to cross-check a printed timetable or ring round the staffroom.
Whole school for a single period
In the Schedules tab, with Edit Mode off, click any period. A panel opens showing that period across the whole school: which teachers are teaching and which are free, which classes are busy, and every lesson scheduled at that time. It's the fastest way to answer "who's free right now?"
The Daily Timetable
Also in the Schedules tab, the Daily Timetable shows one full day for the whole school on a single screen: every class, period, subject and teacher. Choose a day, then view it by class or by teacher. Use search to find a specific subject, teacher or class quickly.
💡 Pro tip: remember what Edit Mode is for
Turn Edit Mode on when you want to build or change a class timetable. Keep it off when you want to look things up, because clicking a period with Edit Mode off opens the whole-school view. A quick way to remember: on to build, off to look.
What if your school has several branches or needs another language?
For school groups, one Organization account lets head office manage every branch's periods, subjects, teachers, classes and timetables from a single login. To set it up, email us your organization name, the organization email you'll log in with, a phone number, your address, and the login emails of every branch you want to connect. We'll create the account and share the login details. Our guide to managing a multi-branch school timetable covers the planning side.
On languages, the app is currently available in English and French, and more are being added. If your school needs a different language, tell us. Requests directly shape which language we prioritise next.
⚠ An honest note on scope
The Help page covers the most common questions, not every edge case. If your question isn't answered there, email contact@academic-scheduler.com. The questions we receive most often are the ones we add to the Help page next.
Common mistakes new users make
1. Jumping straight to Schedules
Schedules depends on everything before it. If you haven't created periods, subjects, teachers and classes yet, there's nothing to build with. Follow the seven-step order.
2. Forgetting to assign a teacher to each class subject
Step 4 isn't finished until every subject in every class has its teacher. Gaps here show up later as periods you can't fill.
3. Building teacher timetables by hand
Teacher timetables are generated automatically from class timetables. Building them separately duplicates work and can put the two out of sync.
4. Looking for the whole-school view in Edit Mode
The single-period panel opens when Edit Mode is off. If clicking a period isn't showing the whole school, check the Edit Mode toggle first.
Frequently asked questions
The bottom line
Learning how to use Academic Scheduler comes down to a few ideas: set things up in the right order, let the platform prevent conflicts and generate teacher timetables, and use Substitution, the single-period view and the Daily Timetable to run the school day. The Help page keeps all of that one click away.
To see everything the platform can do, visit our features page. Comparing options? See how we stack up on our alternatives page, or check pricing.
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