School-level feature — managed within your school portal at
yourschool.deandesk.com. For managing institution-level staff, see Institutions & Schools.Video walkthrough
This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
Navigate to User Creation
From the Admin Dashboard, open User Management → Create Users. Use the same form for staff, students, applicants, and child accounts.Understanding roles
Every DeanDesk account has one or more roles that control what the user can see and do.Most users need two roles: Member plus one of Student, Teacher, or Admin. Member access is included automatically when you use Create Users. Account status and account locking are separate controls from roles.
Find school accounts
Use Search Users to combine name, account, role, enrollment, and purchase filters, then open a matching User or export the results.
Northstar demo — User Management — Search Users
Browse all accounts
Use All Users for the school account list and its profile-management actions.
Northstar demo — User Management — All Users
Create accounts
1
Choose the account type
Keep standard mode for adults, or enable Create child accounts. Child mode adds date of birth, grade, and parent linking. Children under 13 remain parent-managed; older children may receive their own activation link.
2
Enter or import user data
Under User data, choose Manual and click Add row, or use Upload CSV or Paste CSV. Click a row’s Details button to open Profile details for address and custom metadata. Child rows also support separate parent profile fields. Adult accounts need an email address; a child’s own email is optional, while date of birth and parent email are required.
3
Choose roles and destinations
Under Roles and destinations, pick roles for the whole batch from Select roles, such as Student or Teacher. Member is always included; child accounts use Student and Member. Turn on Enroll in courses, Enroll in projects, Add to rosters, or Assign forms to add users to those destinations. When you assign forms, you can also turn on Restrict access until completed.When creating applicants in cycle-based admissions, choose the Cycle, Track, and Initial status for the batch. Course selections can include inactive courses; check their status before assigning enrollments.
4
Choose activation delivery
In Activation emails, leave Send now on to send setup links, or turn it off to create accounts silently. When it’s off, an Emails deferred notice confirms that the accounts stay inactive until you send activation emails later. Customize the subject and body; child mode has separate Child welcome and Parent activation templates.
5
Review and create
Click Review and create. The confirmation dialog (for example, Create 1 user?) summarizes the account type, roles, and activation delivery. Click Create users to confirm. Inspect the results for created accounts, existing accounts updated, new parent accounts, deferred emails, and failed rows.
Northstar demo — User Management — Create Users
Bulk creation via CSV upload
CSV headers can use your existing names. Imports always stop at a mapping and review step before users are created.1
Upload or paste the CSV
Include a header row. You can download a template for standard or child mode as a starting point.
2
Map columns
Map each source column to one DeanDesk field or choose Ignore this column. Child mode separates child and parent destinations, including their custom metadata.
3
Review rows
Resolve missing required mappings and validation errors. Preview the mapped rows, then import them into the editable user table.
4
Finish account creation
Check roles, destinations, and activation delivery, click Review and create, then confirm with Create users. Importing rows into the table is not the final account-creation step.
Separate child and parent welcome emails
Each template supports its own subject and body. Parent templates include placeholders such as{{firstName}}, {{childNames}}, and {{resetUrl}}. Preview the message before creation. When activation emails are deferred, no activation token or email is generated until you use Resend activation emails.
Admin user spreadsheet
For high-volume edits, the Admin User Spreadsheet provides a familiar grid-style editor for users.1
Open the spreadsheet
Go to Admin Dashboard → User Management → Bulk Edit.
2
Edit cells inline
Edit profile fields and metadata directly in the grid. Use the Email column to change or clear a user’s school contact email. Changed cells are highlighted. Roles are shown for reference; change them from Roles & Enrollments on the user’s details page.
3
Save
Auto-save is on by default and saves committed cell edits. To review several changes before saving, turn off Auto-save, make your edits, then click Save Changes. Only changed rows are sent to the server. Check Save Results and any error message, correct failed rows, and save again.
Bulk email changes affect this school’s contact email only. They do not change the shared institution login email or accounts in other schools. To edit one user or delete an account, see Student records.
Northstar demo — User Management — Bulk Edit
Course Distribution canvas
To enroll many students into many courses at once, use the Course Distribution canvas — a drag-and-drop workspace for bulk enrollments.1
Open Distribution
Go to Admin Dashboard → Bulk Enrollment and open the Distribution tab.
2
Pick courses
In Step 1: Pick Courses, select the courses you want to distribute students into, or select a course group. Click Next: Pick Students.
3
Pick students
In Step 2: Pick Students, filter by name, grade, or status and select the students you want to place. Click Open Canvas.
4
Drag to enroll
Drag students from Students To Place into a course to enroll them. Drag them back out to unenroll. Use the zoom controls, fullscreen, and Search remaining students to navigate large rosters.
Resend activation emails
If a user did not receive their welcome email, the activation link expired, or you deferred activation emails during creation, you can send a fresh link.1
Open the resend tool
Go to Admin Dashboard → User Management → Create Users and click Resend activation emails at the top of the page.
2
Select inactive users
The dialog lists accounts that are not yet activated. Use Search inactive users… to find someone, then select the users to email. Accounts without an email address can’t be selected.
3
Send
Review the Subject and Message, then click the send button (for example, Send 3 emails). Each selected user receives a fresh setup link that’s valid for seven days.
Review family groups
Open Families to review linked parents and children. Open the relevant User to manage a relationship.
Northstar demo — User Management — Families
Configure account metadata
Use Metadata Schema to add and order custom sections and fields, set their type and audience, and save the schema. See Profile forms and metadata.
Northstar demo — User Management — Metadata Schema
Manage volunteers
The Volunteers tab opens the volunteer application, approved-volunteer, and project-assignment views. See Volunteers for those workflows.
Northstar demo — User Management — Volunteers
Manage and change roles
To update access after creation, open the user in User Management → Roles & Enrollments. Click Save roles after changing roles. Review the Courses, Rosters, and Programs & events tabs for enrollments. Search or filter enrollments there before making changes.Account status
Every user account has a status of Active or Inactive.- User Management shows a sortable Status column, and the status filter defaults to Any Status so inactive users appear in search results.
- A user’s profile shows an Account status field with an Active or Inactive chip. In edit mode, a dropdown lets you activate or deactivate the account manually.
Account status is separate from account locking — activating or deactivating an account does not lock or unlock it.
Accepted tracks
Users who came through admissions carry a list of accepted tracks — the admissions track(s) they were accepted into. Tracks are stamped on the account automatically when an applicant is accepted.- Filter by track — the admin user search has an Accepted tracks multi-select filter. Options are listed as ” — ”.
- Assign tracks manually — a user’s profile has a Tracks autocomplete for assigning accepted admission tracks. This field is visible to admins only.
- Downstream filtering — the user export and the Scholarship & Aid Rates screen can also filter by enrolled track.
Export users
To download a CSV of your users, open the Export users dialog from User Management. It exports all users matching the current search filters — not just the page of results currently loaded — so set your filters first, then export. The dialog lets you choose the columns to include:- User columns — a checkbox grid of profile columns (name, email, username, created date, grade, type, roles, status, and more), with a Select all option.
- Include parent information — for children, adds the linked parents’ names, emails, phones, and usernames.
- User metadata — any custom field from your school’s user metadata schema, grouped by whether it applies to adults, children, or both. Selected fields are blank for user types they do not apply to.
users-export-YYYY-MM-DD.csv.
Next steps
To remove an existing account, see Delete a user. For email changes and other account actions, see Student records.Create courses
Build courses and assign them to your instructors.
Configure payments
Set up Stripe and create billing plans for your students.
User Management tabs
Export course enrollments
1
Choose the enrollment view
Open Course Enrollments. Select courses or leave All courses selected, then set the enrollment-status and user filters.
2
Inspect matching rows
Each row is one enrollment, including its course, enrollment status/date, and User details. A User can appear in several rows.
3
Export
Click Export and choose the relevant columns. Exports include every matching result, not just the visible page. Review the downloaded file before sharing it.
Northstar demo — User Management — Course Enrollments
