Product guides
Principal’s demo checklist — 15 questions for school software vendors
Use this checklist in every ERP walkthrough: data handoffs, publish gates, parent portal scope, and what your teams will feel in week one.
6 min read
Before the demo
Send vendors your top three pain points and insist they demo those flows first — not a generic homepage tour.
Questions that reveal integration depth
- Show me an accepted admission becoming a billable student record.
- What happens to fee balances when a child changes section mid-year?
- How do you prevent families seeing exam marks before approval?
- Where does attendance data come from for parent summaries?
- Can finance export defaulter lists without asking IT for a custom report?
Questions about people and rollout
- Which roles ship on day one vs phase two?
- How do substitutes see timetable changes on mobile?
- What training format do you provide for front office staff?
- Who owns data migration from our current sheets?
After the demo
Ask for a written rollout order matched to your academic calendar — admissions season, fee cycles, and exam windows included.
