Academic sessions and terms: setting up your school year

Sessions vs terms vs the Calendar

School Vault uses three distinct concepts for time:

• Academic Session — the school year as a whole (e.g. "2025/2026 Academic Session"). Sessions group all historical data for a year and anchor the subscription snapshot.
• Term — a subdivision of a session (e.g. "First Term", "Second Term"). Terms drive term-end billing windows and appear in fee invoices, report cards, and observation histories.
• Calendar — a separate module that manages scheduled events (assembly, sports day, holidays, parent open day). The Calendar module does not affect billing or subscriptions.

Always configure sessions and terms first. Without at least one active session containing at least one term, some features (fees, report cards, term-level observations) will have no billing period to attach to.

Finding Academic Sessions

Go to Settings in the main sidebar, then click Academic Sessions in the tab list on the left. The panel shows all sessions, each with a status badge and a list of its terms.

Session status badges

Creating a new session

1. In the Academic Sessions tab, click New Session. A form appears below the button.
2. Enter a Session Name in the text field (e.g. "2026/2027 Academic Session").
3. Select a Start Date using the calendar picker.
4. Select an End Date using the calendar picker. The end date must be after the start date.
5. Click Create Session to save. The new session appears in the list with an upcoming badge if its start date is in the future.

Adding terms to a session

Terms are created inside a session. You must add terms before billing can be configured for that period.

1. Locate the session in the list and click Add Term.
2. An inline form opens within the session card. Enter the term name (e.g. "First Term", "Second Term", "Third Term").
3. Select the term's Start Date and End Date using the calendar pickers.
4. Click Add to save the term. It appears immediately in the session's term grid.

Terms also carry a status badge matching the same active / upcoming / completed logic as sessions, based on today's date relative to the term's date range.

Deleting a term

To delete a term, click the trash icon next to the term in the session card. The term is deleted immediately. There is no confirmation dialog. This action cannot be undone.

Deleting a session

To delete a session, click the trash icon on the session card. A confirmation dialog appears with the session's name and a warning. Click Delete to confirm. Click Cancel to go back.

Like term deletion, this should only be done for sessions that were created in error, before any enrolment, billing, or subscription data has been attached to them.

How sessions connect to the subscription snapshot

School Vault takes a student count snapshot on the first day of each active term. This snapshot determines the subscription charge for that term (₦7,500 per student per term). Students admitted or unenrolled after the snapshot date do not affect the current term's bill — they are counted at the next term's snapshot.

Getting the term start dates right before the first day of school is important. If a term's start date is wrong and the snapshot fires on the wrong day, contact support@schoolvault.ng to request a manual correction.

Common mistakes

• Deleting a term that already has fee invoices or report cards attached. Deleted terms break historical fee records. Only delete a term before any data has been generated against it.
• Forgetting to add terms after creating a session — a session with no terms cannot be used for billing or report cards. Create all three terms immediately when you create the session.
• Entering overlapping term dates (e.g. First Term ends 15 December but Second Term starts 1 December). Overlapping terms can cause students to appear in two active billing periods at once. Make term start dates strictly after the previous term's end date.
• Not creating the next year's session before the current session ends. If there is no upcoming session, there is no place to assign new enrolments at the start of the new year. Create the next year's session and terms in advance.
• Confusing the Academic Sessions tab with the Calendar module. Academic Sessions set billing and record-grouping dates. The Calendar module is for scheduling events visible to parents and staff.