Welcome to Arbor! We’re delighted to have you onboard. Over the next 8 weeks, we will guide you through setting up Arbor so it’s ready to use as your new school MIS.
How Onboarding Works
You'll need to set your Arbor MIS up from scratch if you're a Manual Migration school. For more information on Manual Migrations, click here.
Most of the instructions on how to set up Arbor are delivered in your Arbor MIS, so keep an eye out for our friendly virtual assistant, Arby, who will direct you to the relevant training and site setup information each week of your onboarding journey. Click here for more information about how to use Arby.
As well as instructions in Arbor, and access to site setup videos on The Arbor Training Hub, we have provided an overview of what you need to do each week, broken down into two sections - Before Go Live and Post Go Live. Please scroll down all the way to see each week.
Before Go Live (Weeks 1 - 6)
1. Log into Arbor, as this is where you’ll be provided with step-by-step instructions on how to set up your new MIS!
2. Watch your “Welcome to Onboarding” Kick Off video, which introduces you to the onboarding team and gives you an overview of the journey, including the training you need to complete, Arbor setup and data entry, how to manage 3rd party applications, and the process for contacting support.
3. Log into Arbor Training Hub to complete your Manual Migration Training. The training course is designed to guide you through the site setup process, showing you how to enter all of your data into Arbor ready to go live and start taking attendance.
4. In the Training Hub, head to the course Manual Migration and complete Module: Week 1. This will show you how to add School Details and Pastoral Structure to your blank Arbor site.
5. Following on from the training video, you should add School Details and Pastoral Structure to your blank Arbor site.
6. We’d also recommend creating staff profiles for any additional staff who will be helping with site setup.
7. Communicate your move to Arbor with your wider team. See our guide on Getting your Team Ready for Change.
Top Tip: The Data Entry Checklist is another tool you can use to ensure you are on track with the key onboarding tasks, training, and data entry each week as you set up your Arbor MIS! You can download this from the bottom of the page or click here to read more.
2. Complete Manual Migration Training Module Week 2 in the Arbor Training Hub, this module will show you how to use the entity importers, as well as how to use them to import all of your staff profiles in bulk into Arbor.
3. Download all Entity Importer spreadsheets you want to use from your Arbor MIS (School > Data > Import > Entity Importers). Start adding your data to them, from the previous and current academic year.
4. Test importing the 'Staff Template' importer with 2 staff members into your Arbor site so you feel comfortable with the process.
5. Continue to enter data to entity importer spreadsheets, utilise your 'Data Entry Checklist' to track your progress.
6. Appoint a change controller to document any changes made in your current MIS as these will need to be reflected in your entity importer spreadsheets too, as when you upload them to Arbor they need to contain the most up-to-date information.
7. Contact any 3rd party apps and inform them of your move to Arbor.
8. Start to book onboarding training via the Arbor Training Hub, including any training for setting up modules like Meals, Payments, and Parent App (if you intend to use these areas of Arbor).
2. Complete Manual Migration Training Module Week 3 - The staff profile. This covers how to navigate around the staff profile, how to manage business roles and permissions in Arbor, working periods, absences, and more.
3. Continue your onboarding training, which will help you hit the ground running on your Go Live day with the basics of Arbor, such as how to take attendance. You can see all of your onboarding training in the Arbor Training Hub, and we also have some guidance on which sessions to book when here.
4. Continue entering your data into your Entity Importer Spreadsheets that you’ve downloaded from Arbor.
5. Ensure your change controller documents any changes made in your current MIS as these will need to be reflected in your entity importer spreadsheets.
2. Head to the Arbor Training Hub Manual Migration course and watch the training module Week 4 - The Student Profile and CTFs. This module will show you how to add and enroll your students into Arbor via CTF, and how to navigate the student profile.
3. After watching the video, create an intake season in your Arbor MIS - you should do this first before moving on to the next tasks as this will help you easily manage your student enrolment in bulk. Once you've added your intake seasons into Arbor, try importing 2 student CTFs and enrolling those students. Important: When adding your CTF be sure to link them to an Intake Season - this is so the students will automatically be added to Arbor as applicants.
4. When you've added and enrolled your first 2 students into the site, complete the process by importing all Student CTFs from your previous and current academic years (including any students that left mid-year, then enroll all of them.
Important: Once you have completed the upload of all student CTFs, please contact the onboarding team to let them know. They will be able to correct all start dates for students who started prior to September of this academic year. Contact the team at myonboarding@arbor-education.com
2. Head to the Arbor Training Hub, navigate to the “Manual Migration” course, and watch the training module “Week 5 - Attendance data import”.
3. Request attendance data from your current MIS provider, so that you have this to add into Arbor ahead of the next census. Attendance data should be taken on the last day of term, after your final register in your current MIS before you move to Arbor.
4. This week, you can also start importing any completed entity importer spreadsheets into your new Arbor MIS!
5. You may also be thinking about other modules you might want to use in Arbor, such as meal management or taking payments through Arbor. These are modules in Arbor that are customisable and need some setup. We have a guide here to help you.
6. You should also have contacted your 3rd party applications now (these are other systems that you use alongside your MIS), to advise them you are moving to Arbor. We have some more information on how to manage 3rd party applications here.
2. Head to the Arbor Training Hub, navigate to the “Manual Migration” course, watch the training module “Week 6 - Final steps before go-live” for guidance.
3. Ensure you have imported all the information for Students, Guardians, and Staff into your new Arbor MIS. Remember, you can use this Data Entry Checklist to track your progress and make sure all of the data you require is now in your Arbor MIS!
4. Make sure that you'll be able to take registers by going to Students > Attendance > Registers By Date then change the date to the first day you plan to take attendance, this will show you all the registers scheduled for that day.
5. When you know that your registers are all set up, make sure your Teaching staff knows how to take them. Share this guide with them before your go-live date - this will get them ready for next week or act as a refresher course on how to take registers and more.
6. Share your Arbor URL with your wider team (this is the Arbor link, to enable them to log into Arbor!) They’ll need to use the 'First Time Logging In' option. Click here for guidance on how to get your wider team logged in.
Post Go Live (Weeks 7 & 8)
2. This week, you should also connect any 3rd party application you want to use to Arbor. You can do this now by going to System > Partner Apps (API Users) - for more guidance on this, take a look here.
3. Another important thing you need to check this week is that your teaching staff are taking the registers. Click this link to watch a video that will show you how to check that all registers are being taken.
2. Now that your onboarding is complete, it’s time to meet your Account Management Team! The Account Management team will reach out to you via email and will work alongside you to help you reach your long-term goals. They’ll check in with you to review how you’re using Arbor in your school, looking at usage, adoption, and staff satisfaction, and how to get the most out of Arbor.
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