Use this guide when you are adding your team and customers to TuitionFlow for the first time, replacing spreadsheets, or tidying up access after a migration. It explains the difference between records and user access so you can avoid duplicates and accidental invitations.

Make sure your organisation settings, branding, onboarding forms, and email details are ready. Confirm who should have admin access, who should have tutor portal access, and which parents or students should receive portal invitations. Do not invite everyone until you have tested the workflow with one family and one tutor.

A person can exist as a record before they have a login. For example, you can create a tutor profile so the team can schedule lessons, then invite that tutor to the portal later. You can also create a family and student records before inviting a parent. This lets you prepare clean data first, then open access when the experience is ready.

Start with the people who will configure the system and manage live work. Owners and admins can change sensitive settings, billing, integrations, and access. Managers and coordinators should be used where a team member needs operational access without full ownership. Keep admin access tight and review it regularly.

Use Employees to create tutor records. Add their name, email, subjects, rates, status, working modes, and any compliance information that is already known. If tutor onboarding is enabled, the tutor can complete missing items through the portal. Keep inactive or prospective tutors clearly marked so they are not accidentally scheduled.

Use Families to keep parents and students together. A family normally contains one or more parents and one or more students. Add the billing contact, communication preferences, student year groups, subjects, learning needs, and notes that affect teaching. Link the right parents to the right students before sending invitations.

Once tutors and students exist, assign tutors to students where there is an active teaching relationship. These links make scheduling, messaging, context sidebars, reports, and portal visibility easier to manage. If your business uses subject-specific tutors, check each student has the right tutor for the right subject.

Invite users only when you want them to sign in. Tutors should be invited when their profile and onboarding expectations are ready. Parents should be invited when their family record, billing expectations, and student information are correct. Student invitations should follow your safeguarding and age policy, especially for younger learners.

After sending invitations, check whether the user accepted, completed setup, and can see the expected portal. If someone says they cannot see the right child, lesson, invoice, or tutor, check their linked record before resending invites.

If an invite does not arrive, check the email address and ask the user to check spam. If the user lands in the wrong place, confirm their role and linked record. If a duplicate record exists, use the duplicate or merge workflow before creating more sessions, invoices, or messages against the wrong person.

Each real person should have one clean record, the correct role, the correct family or tutor links, and portal access only when the business is ready for them to use it.