PARS's oldest and most-used area is attendance. The features are described in brief below, with a link to a wiki page that goes into more detail about each feature. Each link that you can click is coloured and emboldened like this (you can't click on this one).

Configuration

Configuration done in PARS

New to PARS?

If you have recently purchased PARS, the first thing to do is intall it. Follow our Installing PARS Connect guide for this.

You should then read the getting started page. This gives an overview of what should be done before users begin logging in to the system.

General use

You will need to configure the proxy server in order for PARS to communicate with other websites. This is important for your licencing and for sending emails or SMS messages through PARS.

You may need to do some configuration at the beginning of each academic year. See our preparing for September page for considerations you should make before pupils arrive in September.

The automation module should be configured as it performs various important housekeeping jobs for PARS. Follow the link to be taken to the automation category.

If our technical team have provided you with an SQL statement and password, you can execute the statement via the repair console. This is rarely needed.

The fire module can be used to keep a record of up-to-date attendance data for use in case of a fire. If you plan to do this, you should read the fire module page as there are important considerations to make regarding hardware.

If you are any other users have encountered an error message in PARS, it will be logged in the helpdesk tickets feature in PARS.

You can also access a number of management reports which will show some technical information such as table speed tests, login times and attachment reports.

Configuration done in SIMS

Applying the academic timetable is a job that will need to be done in SIMS, not PARS.

If you want staff to automatically login to PARS once they have logged in to the school network, see our automatic login page.

Many schools take pupils' PM mark from a lesson, e.g. the PM mark comes from lesson 5. You must set this up in SIMS - see (our FAQ) for instructions.

Other

If you have any queries or need any support using PARS, you can contact us via our Online Helpdesk.

If you are changing to a new server, you should read our server migration page for instructions about moving your database.

Information pages

These pages offer information about some of the technical aspects of PARS:

The All Years group is a group in PARS that contains all of the pupils who are on roll.

The connect.ini file is an important SIMS file that is used by both SIMS and PARS.

the SIMS.ini, like the connect.ini is an important file used by both PARS and SIMS.

Our dangerous files page will show you a list of potentially dangerous file types.

Most documents that are stored in your database will be held on the SIMS file server - follow the link for more information about this.

Some members of staff may need to send us an OUTPUT.XML file which is generated by PARS and stored in a local TEMP folder.

You may also find some technical issues on our FAQ.