Academic Year | IBEams Help Center

Purpose

The Academic Year must be set up at the beginning of each school year.
Ideally, the dates should match the period during which fees are calculated.

Almost all system data is linked to the Academic Year (such as classes, students, and fees).
For this reason, an Academic Year must be created and set as the current year before the system can be used properly.

Creating the First Academic Year

When setting up the system for the first time, you must create an Academic Year before adding any other data.

Go to Academic Years.
Click Add New Academic Year.
Enter the Year Title.
Set the Year Start Date.
Set the Year End Date.
Save the record.

Once created, set this year as the Current Year so the system knows which academic year is active.

Fields

Year Title

A simple identifier for the academic year.
Examples:

2015/2016
2024/2025
1438

This helps distinguish one academic year from another within the system.

Year Start Date

The full calendar date when the academic year begins.

Example: 01 September 2025

Year End Date

The full calendar date when the academic year ends.

This should be the final day of school, not the first day of the holiday period.

Example: If the last school day is 20 July, then the year end date should be 20 July, not the start of the summer holiday.

Starting a New Academic Year

A new academic year should only be created when you are ready to begin the next school year.

For best results and accurate data management, you should avoid creating the new year while the previous year is still active and in use.

When you are ready to begin the new year:

Create the new Academic Year.
Set it as the Current Year.
Go to the Academic Year page.
Click New Academic Year Wizard.
Migrate each of the four items step by step.
Once completed, the system will be ready for the new academic year.

Creating a New Academic Year and Migrating Data

When a new Academic Year is created, it will initially be empty.
This means there will be:

No classes
No students
No fee adjustments
No fee structures

This is because all of this data was linked to the previous academic year.

You will therefore need to either:

Create the data again manually, or
Migrate the data from the previous academic year using the New Academic Year Wizard.

Step 1 — Set the Current Year

First, set the newly created academic year as the Current Year.

Then navigate to:

Academic Years → New Year Wizard

Step 2 — Migrate Classes

The first step in the wizard is migrating the classes.

You will have two options:

Migrate with timings
Migrate without timings

If you choose with timings, the class schedules will be copied from the previous year.

If you choose without timings, the classes will be created but you will need to enter the timings manually later.

Timings can be added from the Classes page, or you can use the Timetable Templates feature to apply a timetable to multiple classes at once.

Step 3 — Migrate Students

After the classes are created, migrate the students.

Students will be placed into the new classes that were just migrated.

You can review and adjust student placements during this step if necessary.

Step 4 — Migrate Fee Adjustments

Next, migrate any fee adjustments.

Select only the adjustments that are still applicable for the new academic year.

For example, continuing discounts or special arrangements.

Step 5 — Migrate Fee Structure

Finally, migrate the fee structure.

Once migrated, you can modify the fees as required for the new academic year.

Final Notes

At every step of the wizard, you can review and make adjustments before completing the migration.

Simply follow the on-screen instructions provided in each step, and the system will guide you through the process of preparing the new academic year.