Data Quality

Spreadsheet report cards often depend on copied marks, hidden formulas, manual grade lookups, and one person who knows which file is current. The process may work for years—until a row shifts, a formula misses a learner, or an outdated version is published. Reliable report cards come from a controlled workflow with visible checks and approvals. Separate the five stages Data: collect complete, authorised marks and required student information. Calculate: apply approved totals, weightage, grades, and rounding rules. Review: surface missing values, exceptions, and unusual outcomes. Approve: give authorised academic roles a final controlled sign-off. Publish: release the approved version to the correct family or student. Do not collapse these into one “generate” button. Each stage protects a different kind of accuracy. ...

Moving from registers and spreadsheets to a school ERP is not a single import. It is a controlled decision about which records are authoritative, how inconsistent data will be cleaned, what history must remain accessible, and how the school will verify the result before daily work depends on it. A careful migration is usually faster than repeatedly repairing rushed data after launch. Use a six-stage process Inventory: find the relevant registers, files, applications, owners, formats, and date ranges. Clean: remove duplicates, resolve inconsistent names, and flag incomplete records. Map: define how each source field becomes a destination field or controlled value. Test: import a representative sample into a safe environment. Validate: reconcile totals, samples, relationships, permissions, and reports. Launch: freeze or control legacy changes, import the approved set, and monitor exceptions. Create a data inventory List student profiles, guardians, admissions, classes, attendance, fees, assessments, staff, transport, library, inventory, and any other in-scope data. Record the owner, current source, coverage period, sensitivity, quality, and migration priority. ...