Overview

This article will guide the key steps to set up Orah as the primary attendance system where end users of the school like teachers, dorm parents, advisors etc. would use Orah to take attendance, while records are synced back to Blackbaud as the primary system of record.

After integration, any updates made within Orah will be reflected back in Blackbaud upon your next automatic or manual sync. This will help ensure, your data is consistent and accurate across the board.

☝🏽Note - Attendance sync requires initial Blackbaud integration setup - if you don't have Blackbaud integration, GO back to the previous step ⏮️ to continue moving forward.

To take Attendance on Orah, check off the following :

Integration with Orah
Sync Staff with Blackbaud
Sync Attendance with Blackbaud - this page

Syncing Attendance

Settings below will allow staff to take attendance within Orah while writing attendance records back to Blackbaud. Within Blackbaud Attendance > Attendance Setup, you will find number of different 'Attendance categories' that your school is currently using as shown below. Recreate those codes on Orah.

Recreating Blackbaud Roll Categories in Orah

Follow the step below to recreate Blackbaud categories (in the image above as example) within Orah Roll Check settings and map them back to Blackbaud.

🧭 Navigate : Admin Console > Under Supervise click on Rolls

Step 01 Navigate and click Rolls in the Admin Console
Step 02 Under Rolls, all the roll types created in Orah will be listed out. Click on 'New Roll Type' to the top right hand corner or select an existing roll type to configure for class attendance
Step 03 After selecting 'New Roll Type' above, click 'Class Attendance'
Step 04 -Name the roll -Under 'Codes' create similar roll codes/categories which the staff user will use to assign students while taking attendance on Orah. -Set whether or not passes can be ending during this roll type. -Set 'Default Options' to update student location when a student is marked present as per roll type. -Set 'Automation' to auto-assign roll codes based on students active passes and locations. -Set Alerts to notify students when they are marked with a specific code type.
Step 04 - Codes -To use similar roll codes as per Blackbaud create a new code by clicking '+New Code' at the bottom of Codes setting or Edit an existing roll codes All roll codes (apart from unmarked) will have a code type. The code type is only used within orah and will not affect the Blackbaud integration Default code can be set which will be assigned to all students by default when the roll starts. A code can also be locked. Don't forget to Save !

☝🏽 Note :
-In Blackbaud attendance categories would mean roll codes in Orah.

-Having similar roll codes/categories as to Blackbuad will help staff users to align and take attendance on Orah easily.
-Marking attendance can be made faster by adding more automations within your Roll Settings to automatically code students based on their passes or location.

More information on setting up Class Attendance roll types can be found in the article below.

Mapping Orah Roll Codes back to Blackbaud

After creating the roll code/category in Orah as per above, follow the steps below to map them back to Blackbaud. This will PUSH data roll records to Backbaud.

🧭 Navigate : App Directory (left side menu bar) > under the SIS Partners tab > Blackbaud > Find and click on Roll Records

Step 1 -Navigate to Roll Records in App Directory
Step 2 -Under the 'Settings' tab, within Push data to Blackbaud, select 'Map specific rolls' to Map the Orah roll codes on the left to the corresponding Blackbaud attendance categories on the right. This will define what attendance category Blackbaud will use when a roll call / attendance is taken via Orah Below is the option to set the default roll when starting a roll check from 'My Schedule' is to tick all the group types - Academics, Activities, Advisories, Athletics
Success ! After Mapping the codes as above, staff member can take attendance on Orah from under the 'My Schedule' page and then click on Start Roll Check'	My Schedule Synced From Blackbaud Taking Attendance from My Schedule on Orah

How to check records in Blackbaud

While records will be queued for sending from Orah to Blackbaud straight away, it may take 5-10mins for records in Blackbaud to be updated during busy periods.

Due to limitations in how attendance records are synced to Blackbaud, not all attendance views in Blackbaud will accurately display the fact that a roll has been recorded or a student is on a pass.

This can happen in the following situations:

The student is on a pass that was activated before the current day
A student is on a pass that covers multiple days (not anymore we do sync pass covering multiple days it)
The student is on a pass without a scheduled end time (not anymore we do sync pass without end time)

We are working on resolving these issues and hope to have them addressed soon.

In these scenarios, the only place to accurately check that attendance records have been sent from Orah to Blackbaud is the "Student Attendance" view:

We hope this was helpful. If you have any further questions, just click the blue chat icon at the bottom right corner of this page or email us at Support email - support@orah.com, we will help you navigate through it. Cheers !

How to upgrade to the new API and enable Blackbaud integration?

Setting up Blackbaud Integration

Syncing Passes with Blackbaud

All records synced to/from Blackbaud

Veracross attendance sync