SchoolCues

Pros

It offers all the essential features our school needs to efficiently collect tuition and fees—without breaking the bank. The platform is user-friendly and includes helpful video tutorials to make getting acclimated seamless.

Cons

A call-in help line would be fantastic, though I understand that most software support systems are shifting away from that approach.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing SchoolCues

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

UX and UI design is intuitive and easy to use. The cost/value added is exceptional compared to other products. Training is excellent and the on-going, in-person training is top-notch. Tech assistance is responsive, usually within 24 hrs.

Cons

It's not set up to accommodate the selection of specific classes for homeschool co-ops/university model schools.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing SchoolCues

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

As a small school just starting up in the last few years, we relied on several different free or paid services for record-keeping, communications, and payments. SchoolCues has allowed us to replace almost all of that with a single portal for staff, teachers, and parents. The biggest benefit has been streamlining and simplifying our admissions process, student records, and collection of tuition and fees.

Cons

The user interface and the way some of the features work is not always very intuitive, and it took some time to figure out how to adapt the enrollment contracts and payments to fit our processes and needs.

Pros

SchoolCues is easy to use for our teachers and parents! We previewed several programs for our small hybrid school. SchoolCues is not the cheapest option, but it had the items we were looking for (SIS, reports, attendance, admissions/enrollment, gradebook with reporting, a payment portal, parent/teacher conference sign up, school directory, communications, etc).

Cons

The pricing document they shared with us when we first met with them was a little confusing (more complicated than it needed to be). We struggled a little setting up our Gradebook. We are using it, but will do it a little differently next year (our own learning curve).

Pros

The SchoolCues team is very invested in their program and they are constantly listening attentively to customer feedback. They are continuously enhancing the product based on feedback. The team also provides periodic releases to keep their customers informed on upgrades as a result of improvements made.

The video tutorials addressing each section of the program allow for visual demonstrations for setup and use, and they are available 24/7. This is a great help for those who work after hours on data and information systems.

In addition, when questions cannot be answered through tutorials and online support the SchoolCues team members are quick to respond to our needs through email correspondence. Customer Service is excellent. We feel that the SchoolCues team wants our team and school to be successful.

Cons

As mentioned we would rate customer support as the best part of our experience. Our only recommendation would be to increase response time by allowing direct contact to support instead of the delay that comes naturally with written mail requests.

Pros

SchoolCues is a great student management & Student Information platform. It is easy to use and has many great features.

Cons

I wish there were immediate chat support.

Pros

We are a small school, a little less than 150 students. SchoolCues has everything we need and more at an affordable cost. The online inquiry and enrollment process has saved us so much time and reduced mountains of paperwork. The parent communication tools are fantastic. The speed at which we were able to implement was incredible.

Cons

Initially, the user-friendliness of some of the modules was lacking. But SchoolCues listens to suggestions and they have done an amazing job of implementing updates to enhance many of their modules greatly improving the ease of use.

Pros

We're extremely grateful for the all-in-one solution for everything from communications to sign ups to grade books to payments.

Cons

The photo gallery function in the app is very hard to use. We'd hoped that would be a good option for sharing pictures internally, but it's too counter-intuitive and takes too many steps to share photos. We also don't care for the document box as it limits the file size too severely and is inconvenient for our teachers to use.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

I like the database functionality of SchoolCues. We just started using the system for our before and after school care charges.

Cons

SchoolCues has been very easy to work with regarding any "cons".

Pros

SchoolCues is easy to use and has everything you need to manage in one place. The weekly trainings are very helpful.

Cons

The reports are helpful, but not completely flexible (i.e. pick and choose exactly what you want to see in each). It would be great if they created flexible reporting that you could design on the fly.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

Affordable and a wide span of options that you can tailor to your needs.

Cons

Sometimes the billing interface is a bit confusing and difficult to navigate.

Pros

It provides an easy way to keep various information up to date which is needed for our school.

Cons

I would only recommend that the app allow users to access the payment module.

Pros

The streamlining of all admissions/enrollment, grade book, and incident reports.

Cons

The grade book function felt very intuitive when I set it up at the beginning of the year, but when the transition to the second semester didn't happen, it was a confusing process to navigate.

Pros

We most definitely like many features of SchoolCues. Previously, we did not have a digital system for gathering all the student information, so this allows us to streamline many parts of this process.

Cons

We find that the instruction sheet to set up a SchoolCues account can be daunting for families, which means they delay the information entry. We would like to simplify these steps.Also, sometimes areas of the system are not intuitive. For example, reporting a student absent as a parent requires going to "Permission Forms" instead of the category called "Attendance."We started using School Cues for almost ALL classroom and school-wide communications. I wonder if parents are seeing the information or if it too much saturating their emails.

Pros

This software is user friendly and makes our school management so much easier. The calendar, text cues, and communications section are the ones we use the most. Administrators and teachers can easily keep in contact with parents. Parents also find the app user friendly.

Cons

The limited characters in text cues. Also when you add images to a Newsletter it often gets stuck. The images randomly upload and when you have many images saved it is time consuming to find. It would be so much easier if we could Drag and Drop pictures in the Newsletter section.

Pros

One of the greatest features of SchoolCues is the customer service. I have met with the [SENSITIVE CONTENT] a number of times via Zoom for hour long sessions. They are responsive and always looking to improve their product.

Cons

Like any system, you must devote some time to understand how the entire system fits together. The newsletter could use some graphics help as well.

Pros

School Cues allows a multi-function platform for ease of handling student information. With the addition of modules, you are able to control attendance, incident reports and more. Whenever I have had a problem, they are extremely prompt in their support, and when I had a special request on the set-up of one of the reports, they were able to change the format for those needs.

Cons

I find that I am not familiar with all the options available, but that has to do with my availability for getting online for instruction. I am the administrator, but we are a small school, so I handle everything myself, leaving very little time to update myself on the modules

Pros

The Daily Health Screening has been a lifesaver in meeting Covid requirements in our state!

Cons

We initially wanted a software program that allowed for photo sharing and are still looking for a solution to this need.

Pros

We love the text feature and that it automatically sends an email along with the text. Living in a town known for hurricanes, it makes communication with our families quick and easy during emergencies. They are constantly updating the program which is great. If there is an issue, they are quick to respond and very helpful with resolving issues.

Cons

Our biggest issue doesn't necessarily fault the program itself, but we do have issues with parents not receiving emails sent through SchoolCues. It sometimes comes through as Spam since it is an automated process. It's more of an issue on the receiving email side, it just makes it hard to tell if parents are receiving our communications or not.

Pros

SchoolCues is reasonably priced, and the leadership is very responsive whenever there are issues (a rarity these days!) Parents like the app--especially the permission slips and the tardy/absence forms. They afford parents a super easy way to communicate with the school. The school appreciates the ability to get messages to families in a targeted manner (e.g., one classroom or everyone.)

Cons

SchoolCues continues to address concerns in a timely manner.

Pros

As a non traditional school, we have trouble centralizing all the applications and required paperwork to run a school. SchoolCues give us that centralization and ease of use allowing us to focus more on the students and less on the administrative burden.

Cons

There are some steps that are redundant, and menu selections that need to be updated but nothing that is a major inconvenience.

Pros

This software meets the needs of our school for communication on so many levels. Basic parent communication to scheduling Parent Teacher Conferences and other community gatherings.

Cons

I have worked with schoolCues for over 15 years and constantly provide feedback regarding additional needs and they are always responsive.

Pros

Communication with staff and parents is very easy. I also like how all of the students information is in one place.

Cons

Report settings. It can be cumbersome to run reports and can't always run the ones I need.

Pros

SchoolCues is a great product for small schools and organizations. It offers all of the essential tools that a school might need with none of the flash or fancy that move expensive companies have.

Cons

It is clear that SchoolCues is a smaller company that is working to keep costs down. It does appear that way, but as far as functionality it has everything we need.

Pros

Easy to access
User-friendly
Simple to navigate

Cons

- need more access to help parents who are unable to signup for events. Unable to do "backend" signups.

Pros

As a Program Administrator & Family Liaison, I definitely recommend the SchoolCues platform to any small school or school interested in transitioning to a digital platform. The transition to a digital platform has been an easy one, this is due to the many different module trainings offered by Schoolcues. Everything is organized in the same digital space, which makes less paperwork for the office space. You can replace many forms and create ones from here and share with your families in one place. You can send communication to one person or the whole class, you can even set up parent teacher conferences, grades, and even collect payments.

Cons

There are some specific forms that can't be change/edited for now. For example, the accident reports, they come in a specific format that might be different from the one your school is currently using.

Pros

I love that SchoolCues is an all-in-one system. I don't really need any other programs to run the admin side of my school.

Cons

Sometimes, simple things can have too many clicks or steps. It makes it hard to remember how to do them.

Pros

The patience and cooperation of the SchoolCues Staff and the very affordable cost of the program. Legacy Christian Academy is not even a year old. We are learning as we go. We had to change personnel, which included a change in who is assigned to use the program on a daily basis. I am sure the delays and confusion on our part had to be frustrating to the SchoolCuse Staff. However, they stuck with us through the whole process.

Cons

I wish that we could have onsite help from SchoolCues personnel. However, I realize that the logistics makes that a very slim possibility.

Pros

I love the comprehensive nature of SchoolCues and the possibilities this program offers to us as a small school that has the same administrative burdens that a larger school has. You've managed to collect all the functions that we need to manage our school effectively in one web-based program with the potential to automate even more tasks than we expected! In addition, the "small business" model you utilize makes customers feel like they have input into the program itself... the support teams are very helpful and responsive, and when improvements are recommended, they are seriously considered. We also like that minor bug fixes and enhancements are continually released instead of being held for major releases/upgrades.

Cons

Under "Health Information", we lack the ability to list multiple, specific individual physical, medical, and mental conditions for our students - critical pieces of information for our population, and we thought that would be very helpful to typical schools as well. When I brought this to the attention of the SchoolCues development team, they listened carefully and jumped on my suggestions and are in the process of developing an excellent solution to what was missing. So excited to see how it turns out!

Pros

It helps us maintain a lot of information for the students that we need for the school files.

Cons

We finally are comfortable with it but it took awhile to get used to it. I suppose that's true for anything you have never used before.

Pros

School Cues is very intuitive and easy to use. They have online and vis Zoom training which is very helpful. The staff is very responsive as well. It has all the pieces we need in school management, enrollment, and communications.

Cons

Nothing, once you do the training it is very easy to use.

Pros

Payment module and student management where you are able to import and export

Cons

few details which is normal because every business is different,

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

Schoolcues is perfectly positioned to help the small school. I really appreciate how the team there are consistently asking for feedback and improving the product.

Cons

Some features cover the basics but need a few more bells and whistles. But what I do appreciate is that I am confident that Schoolcues is going to do the work to improve the experience. This makes them a great partner for the long haul.

Pros

I love the sign up feature and how everything is in one place! Our administrator loves the paying tuition feature.

Cons

Customer service and getting questions answered takes awhile due to high volume inquiries.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

School Cues has helped us streamline all of our information. Everything is located in one location without a million different google docs. It has made so many of the processes so much easier

Cons

I am still learning a lot of the systems. I don't really have any complaints. we are still getting fully set up and right now it has simplified a lot of things for us as a school.

Pros

This program has all the features that I needed. Easy to use and learn.

Cons

Setting up some of the features is a little tricky at first. I anticipate this to be the case will all these types of programs.

Pros

I love that everything we use is on one platform

Cons

They are still working out kinks here and there but seem to be eager to fix any issues.

Pros

I loved how quickly support was available to us if we needed help. The training videos are also always available on the teacher/staff screen which is so incredibly helpful when training new teachers to use the system.

Cons

I wish parents could message us through there

Pros

When we went looking for a School management product, School Cues was one of the only products on the market that cover everything. Instead of using five different apps, we could get it down to one, which the parent very much like. They were also one of the only online registration software that allowed the School Administration to lock the student’s personal information. Gartering that family’s personal information is not changed without the knowledge of the school. They listen to the customer on what they want and need, try to meet those needs. School Cues was on top of it when COVID-19 began to affect schools. They had a COVID-19 screener ready to go before school started for the 2020-2021 school year. Allowing the parents to start the school year off on the right foot. They listen to their customer on what we needed from our different health departments. . They have one of the best support systems around, some response in less than twenty-four hours with helpful solutions to the problem. I highly recommend School Cues.

Cons

Our disappointment with School Cues is the ability to use photos. They are developing all-new photo galleries, using photos in newsletters, and getting them to families is culms. Also, teachers wish they could do more on the app vs. the website.

Pros

As a very small Academy, we needed something intuitive and simple. This is our first year to open and we do not have an admin staff, so we needed something easy to learn and implement for the staff that would be using it. We found just what we needed in SchoolCues!

SchoolCues is intuitive and just makes sense. It does everything we need and then some. It is a full admissions package from inquiry to enrollment as well as a full communications system for staff and parents. We can charge and accept payments and they are adding new features all the time.

I am not a techie person and I use this system the most. If I find that I need help, their support staff is very helpful. They have built in training modules as well as being able to schedule a personal training at anytime.

We love SchoolCues!

Cons

At this time, there is no LMS option within the system. I asked about this feature and they said they are planning to add this feature but it is not an option at this time.

At this time, the admissions and payment are not connected, so we have to manually input charges.

Pros

The system is easy to set up. It has great features for contacting parents in groups and individually.The newsletter communication is wonderful.

Cons

The system will work our existing QuickBooks, but we have not merged the two so far. I am anxious to have our bookkeeper set this up and stat using it. I like the looks of it.

Pros

The integration, change to Schoolcues last year was very easy and quick.
Customer support is fantastic. The SIS (School Information System) module is very user friendly, so are the other modules: alumni managament, communications, ...

Cons

The only critique I have is that the online registration forms in the SIS are not fully customizable, which creates issues. School/User should have the option to create their own forms, choose their own language/verbage and layout.

Pros

These are the pros of SchoolCues:
1) Extremely easy to deploy. Adding users and families is simple if you follow the instructions provided.
2) Easy to manage payments. Again, using the instructions provided is essential to be successful.
3) Great training available. Take advantage of the training online and live training sessions. You get trained by people that really know the software.
4) Super-responsive customer support. If you see a problem, report it, and the team will usually fix the problem really fast.
5) The system is very comprehensive to do almost everything you need to get done. Even though the system is purposefully built not to be very "customizable", it pretty much does everything you need or can imagine.
6) Best value for the money!!

Cons

These are the cons of SchoolCues:
1) User interface is developed by the software engineering team. The good thing about this is that once you understand how the software is designed, then it makes sense. The bad thing is that you need to think like a software engineer to make sense of it.
2) In many places, lists do not sort correctly. These are a few of the annoying minor bugs that the team is correcting. So, you need to be careful when looking at lists of things, because they are usually not sorted in a sensical way.
3) It is not "customizable" by design. This is a good thing because it helps keep the cost and price down, and you learn to us it quickly without having to make a ton of decisions for everything. The bad part of this is that if you need to do something different from what the software does, you are out of luck.

Pros

This software keeps everything neat and tidy in one place. It has streamlined many of our processes, especially enrolment. The ease of this process this year was game changer for staff. It was easier to track potential students, who was moving ahead with enrolment and those who were returning for another year.

Cons

Overall this product works for most of what we do. A few more personalization aspects would be nice to allow it to be more in line with our Ministry standards, but for the most part we have been able to find work arounds to these.

Pros

We love that this product offers everything we need and nothing we don't. We appreciate that we can add functionality as our school grows. The software was relatively easy to implement and has been easy to learn and navigate.

Cons

Sometimes class updates are difficult to save or format. Our teachers who are less comfortable with technology struggle a bit, but do so with all technology applications. We wish there was more functionality through the Admin/Teacher app.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing SchoolCues

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

School Cues decreased the demand of my Administrative time by at least 30%. It set a standard for parent communication and offered our parents a resource of information on their phone and at their fingertips.

I also love the professionalism that it presents to our users.

Cons

I have absolutely no complaints or concerns with this software. Any blip we have experienced was dealt with immediately by the staff of School Cues on the same day.

Pros

I like how easy attendance is to utilize. I also like that the student directory is on the mobile version so that you can just call a parent from there.

Cons

Whatever it is I am having a problem with they are very quick to answer and help.

Pros

I most liked the admissions management components and student information system. Onboarding students was easy with this system and I like that it keeps all this information in a digital format that is easy to access in SchoolCues. I also like that their payment system allows me to submit scholarship discounts.

Cons

I least like the parent communication tools. I did not find that they were easy to use or useful for parents and teachers. We really wanted more simplicity around sharing daily updates with photos and videos, and also with sending quick announcements, and group chat. We had to onboard another app to handle all of this. We also had hoped that GradeBooks would work for our needs but in the end it didn't easily handle skills-based grading for an annual term so we needed to go with a different software for that too.

Pros

This software is incredibly easy to customize and is extremely user friendly. The staff at SchoolCues is professional and available to assist in any way needed.

Cons

I have to send text messages from my computer instead of phone because sometimes the word sequencing gets jumbled from the phone.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing SchoolCues

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to SchoolCues

Pros

It was easy to get started. They provide training by video conference calls, and also have short training videos on the modules which are always available. They respond quickly to support questions.

Cons

In Gradebook, courses have to be renamed (course identification) and set up individually each year. This is not a deal-breaker though.