Someone has to own casual staffing at your school, and if that’s you, you may have inherited a system held together by a spreadsheet, a few sticky notes, and a phone with the same ten numbers on speed dial. Setting up a proper platform can feel like one more thing on an already long list.
It isn’t, if you do it right. Getting your school fully set up on ClassCover, from account creation to your first confirmed booking, takes less time than you might think. This guide walks through the process end to end, in the order that actually works, so you’re not backtracking later.
Before You Start: Gather What You Need
Before you touch the platform, pull together three things:
- Your existing casual list. Names, contact details, and ideally which year levels or subjects each casual usually covers.
- A list of staff who’ll need access. Front office, admin, and anyone who currently has a hand in booking relief coverage.
- Your school’s general preferences. Which year levels or campuses you cover, your usual booking lead times, and who signs off on relief spend.
Having this ready before you start account setup means you’re not hunting for information halfway through.
Step 1: Creating Your Account
Creating your school account on ClassCover starts with a 30-day free trial. This gives you full access to explore the platform without any commitment. To get started, you’ll enter some basic info like your school profile, name, location, sector (government, Catholic, independent), and the primary contact for the account. This is also where you’ll confirm the basic details that appear on every booking request sent to casuals, so it’s worth getting them right the first time rather than fixing them later.
Tip: If your school is part of a broader system (e.g. Education Queensland, New South Wales Department of Education or South Australia Department for Education) or diocese, check whether your system already has an existing arrangement in place before creating a standalone account. It can save you a step.
Step 2: Importing Your Existing Casual List
This is the step that makes ClassCover work in your school from day one, rather than starting from an empty roster.
- Add your existing casuals individually, or in bulk if you have their details in a spreadsheet.
- For each casual, include their contact details and, where known, their preferred year levels or subjects.
- Casuals you add will need to accept the connection request before they’re fully active on your list, so it’s worth sending these invitations early rather than the morning you need them.
Tip: Don’t wait for a “complete” list before importing. Add the casuals you have now, and use ClassCover’s Find New feature to fill gaps over the following weeks as casuals request to connect with your school.
Step 3: Setting School Preferences
This is where you configure how your school actually wants to use the platform day to day:
- Booking defaults: typical start and end times, standard break periods, and any recurring patterns specific to your timetable.
- Approval settings: who at your school needs to sign off on bookings, particularly relevant if you have multiple staff with booking access.
- Preferred list management: how casuals move from “connected” to genuinely “preferred” at your school, based on however your school judges reliability and fit.
Getting these right up front means the people booking day to day aren’t second-guessing settings every time they use the platform.
Step 4: Inviting Staff
If more than one person handles relief bookings at your school, front office staff, an assistant principal, a business manager, they each need their own access rather than sharing a single login.
- Add each staff member with the level of access appropriate to their role.
- Send the invitation. Each staff member sets up their own login.
- Confirm everyone can see the same school-wide casual list and booking history, so there’s no confusion about who’s already been contacted for a given absence.
Tip: Even in schools with one dedicated relief coordinator, it’s worth giving at least one other staff member access. Coordinators take leave too, and a 6am sick call doesn’t wait for the right person to be back at their desk.
Step 5: Configuring Notifications
Notifications are what make the whole system work in practice, both for your staff and for the casuals you’re booking.
- Set how your booking staff want to be notified when a casual accepts, declines, or a booking needs attention.
- Casuals themselves receive booking requests via push notification, backed up by SMS and email, so even a casual who’s missed the app notification still gets the request.
- Review your own notification settings periodically. As different staff take on the booking role, their preferences (app-only versus email versus SMS) may differ from whoever set the account up originally.
Step 6: Making Your First Booking
With your list imported, preferences set, and staff onboarded, you’re ready for a real booking. Start with something low-stakes if you can, a planned professional development day or known leave, rather than your first booking being a 6am emergency.
- Choose the date, time, and class or role needing coverage.
- Select a casual individually, broadcast the request to several available casuals at once, or let auto-fill match the booking automatically.
- Confirm the booking once a casual accepts, and check it appears correctly in your school’s schedule.
Running through this once, deliberately, before you need it under pressure, means the first real emergency isn’t also the first time anyone’s used the system.
Ongoing: Keeping Your Setup Healthy
Setup isn’t a one-off task. A few habits keep the system working well long after the initial rollout:
- Review your casual list each term. Remove casuals who’ve moved on, and use the platform’s connection features to keep growing your list rather than relying on the same handful of names.
- Revisit preferences as your needs change. A new timetable, a new campus, or a change in who approves bookings all warrant a quick settings check.
- Check staff access when roles change. When a coordinator moves on or a new staff member takes over relief bookings, update access promptly rather than leaving old logins active.
You’re Set Up. Now Make It a Habit
The platform does the heavy lifting, but it only works as well as the list and preferences behind it. Get the setup right once, and every booking after that, individual, broadcast, or auto-fill, is close to instant rather than another thing to manage.
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Get free trialFAQs: Setting up your school on ClassCover
Both work. Under the My List tab, Add New lets you add casuals individually by email address, or upload multiple casuals at once using the bulk upload template. If your current list already lives in a spreadsheet, the bulk upload is the fastest route.
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Yes. Casuals you add receive a connection request and become fully active on your list once they accept. Send these invitations early in your setup. If you’ve already agreed a booking with a casual verbally, a Pre-Confirmed Booking locks it in without waiting for confirmation.
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Your school can have unlimited users with access levels matched to their role. Invite them from Manage Team, under Members and Permissions. Limited access lets a staff member log in and send booking requests while keeping them out of Find New, Pending Requests and Admin Settings. Classroom teachers don’t get a login by default.
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This depends on the size of your school, your needs, and the availability of the casuals on your list. Aiming for between 20-50 to start with is a good goal.
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Start with the casuals you have and grow from there. Find New searches local casuals already active on ClassCover, filtered by subject, year level, role type and availability. Casuals can also request to join your list, and you approve those from the Requests page. You can post a call out via ClassCover Jobs to attract more.
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No. You set your own list of absence reasons so they match your internal codes, and you can customise the payroll field headings. The Payroll Report exports as an Excel file with casual names, hours, classes covered and absence reasons for the period you select.
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