Set Automation for Activity Reports

Modified on Sat, Jun 27 at 9:39 PM

Set up an automated schedule for classroom activity reports

Summary: You can set classroom activity reports to send automatically on a schedule you choose. Switch to Account Admin and open Automation in the left-side navigation. By default no classroom is scheduled, so nothing sends until you turn it on. For a classroom, click the three dots on the right, choose Edit Schedule, enable the automation, pick Daily or Weekly, choose the days and time, set the Start date, and click Update. You can set each classroom differently, for example daily for younger children and weekly for older ones.

Who can do this

Setting up report automation is an Account Owner / Administrator task done in the Account Admin area. Here is who can do it:

Account Owners and Administrators can set the automation schedule for any classroom.
Teachers manage their classroom only and do not set account-wide automation.

The way to tell is the context switcher in the upper-right corner. If you can switch to Account Admin, you can set up report automation. If you only see your classroom there, you do not have permission, and you will need to ask an administrator for help.

Step-by-step

Switch to Account Admin. Use the context switcher in the upper-right corner and select Account Admin.
Open Automation. In the left-side navigation, click Automation.
Check the current state. By default, every classroom's reports are not scheduled, so nothing sends automatically until you enable it.
Open Edit Schedule. For the classroom you want to automate, click the three dots on the right and choose Edit Schedule.
Enable the automation. Turn the automation on. This is the step that starts the scheduled sending.
Choose the frequency. Select Daily or Weekly.
Choose the days. Pick which days of the week the report should send. For a classroom that meets only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you might choose just those days.
Set the time. Choose the time of day to send. You may want this at the end of the school day, or later to give teachers more time to finish their entries before reports go out.
Set the Start date. The Edit Schedule modal has a Start date field. Activity reports require a 24-hour setup window, so the Start date must be at least 24 hours before the first delivery.
Click Update. When everything looks right, click Update. The classroom's reports are now scheduled to send automatically.
Repeat per classroom. Set up other classrooms the same way, choosing a different frequency or schedule for each if you like.

Daily or weekly, choosing a frequency

You can tailor the frequency to each classroom. A common pattern is daily reports for younger children, where families like frequent updates, and a weekly report for older students who need fewer sends. When you choose Weekly, the schedule defaults to Friday, but you can change it to any day of the week you prefer.

What sending an activity report actually does

Activity reports gather the entries that teachers have marked as Shared with parents. Marking an entry as shared makes it eligible to appear on an activity report, it does not push anything to parents on its own. The automation schedule is what determines when those eligible entries are actually sent out. Setting a later send time is a good way to give teachers time to complete their records before the report goes.

A few things worth knowing

Nothing sends until you enable automation for a classroom, the default state is unscheduled.
Each classroom has its own schedule, so you can mix daily and weekly across your school.
Choosing only the days a classroom meets keeps reports from going out on days with nothing new to share.
Because of the 24-hour setup window, set the Start date at least a day before you want the first report to go out.

User roles and the Account Admin area
Recording a lesson and sharing it with parents
Activity reports: how and when entries reach parents

Watch the video

Here is a short video covering this topic for additional reference.