Filling out your district as well as your building-specific level initial settings is one of the first things you should do to ensure messaging defaults are set-up appropriately. You will also activate and deactivate users, including mobile app and standalone site access, from these settings screens.

To get started, go to the Alerting section on the left-hand side of your PowerSchool main panel.  Then, select SwiftReach SwiftK12.

Tip! As your initial settings are building-specific, please ensure that you are signed into the proper building for which you are seeking to set-up initial settings. For example, if you are setting up initial settings at the district office level, ensure your School: listing is District Office.

From the initial SwiftK12 menu, click on the gear icon for Settings:

From this screen, you will be able to set-up Messaging Settings as well as your System Settings.

Let’s review each of these settings options, one by one:

Messaging Defaults: On this screen, you will set-up your basic messaging information and call options, including social media integration:

·        From Email Address: Enter a valid email address that exists on your domain (no “do not reply” type email addresses that do not exist on your domain, for example)

·        From Email Name: Your district or building’s name

 ·      From SMS Name: This is what will appear as an appended name prior to your SMS/TXT message content to identify your district or building. Best practice is to keep your SMS Name to 20 characters or less, as the character limit for SMS/TXT, overall, is 160 characters, maximum.

 ·        From Caller ID: This is the phone number that will display when phone calls are sent via SwiftK12. Best practice is to enter a phone number that should route to a main phone line or phone tree, and not just one person’s phone line.

 ·        Default Language:  The language for which you would like to have as main option for messages that you develop in SwiftK12. To select your default language, choose from the drop-down list activated to the right

 ·        Call Retries: This setting advises how many times a call will be attempted to a busy phone line before it is reported as truly “Busy”. You can increase or decrease the number of call retries using the up and down arrows to the right of this option.

 ·        Call Retry Interval: Tied to call retries, this advises how many minutes should pass between call retry attempts. This is set by default at 3 (minutes). You can increase or decrease the number of minutes between call retries using the up and down arrows to the right of this option.

 ·        Max Ring Seconds: This setting advises for how long the system will ring a phone line before it will report back as “No Answer”. You can increase or decrease the time allotment in seconds using the up and down arrows to the right of this option.

·        Voice Message Replays: This setting advises how many times your message will be replayed for recipients. As the solution answers based on off-hook detection, it is best practice to have your phone call messages replay at least once, if not more.  By default, this is set at “1”. You can increase or decrease the number of replays using the up and down arrows to the right of this option.

When you are satisfied with your Messaging Settings, press Save & Exit.

Facebook Account: If you wish to offer the option of posting your alerts to Facebook, you can configure your account to link to Facebook via this section. 

Click on the Link to Facebook icon on this page.

This will prompt you to sign in to the Facebook account that you would like to post to. Simply type in your Facebook credentials and click the Log In button shown below.

Note: If you are currently signed into your personal Facebook account in the Internet browser, your Facebook credentials will auto-populate in the screen above. Please ensure that you are connecting using the correct Facebook account.

Twitter Account: If you wish to offer the option of posting your alerts to Twitter, you can configure your account to link to Twitter via this section. 

Click on the Add Twitter Account icon on this page.

This will prompt you to sign in to the Twitter account that you would like to post to. Simply type in your Twitter credentials and click the Sign In button shown below.

Note: If you are currently signed into your personal Twitter account in the Internet browser, your Twitter credentials will auto-populate in the screen above. Please ensure you are connecting using the correct Twitter account.

Email Stationery: This option allows you to create new email stationery, set default stationery via on/off switches, edit stationery content (pencil icon), and delete email stationery (via the red ‘x’ option). 

To create a new stationery template, click the Add Stationery Template button to the right of the Manage Email Stationery panel:

Enter in the name of the template, a description, and your template content.

The editing toolbar gives you a lot of flexibility in developing your email stationery.  You can change the font type, size and color; add bullet points, tables and more. 

If you would like to include an image, click the Image icon from the message content box.

Then, select the Upload tab, followed by Choose File under the ‘Send it to the Server’ section. Select the image you would like to upload to include in the message content, and click OK.

To include the uploaded image, select the Link tab, followed by Browse Server. Select the image you would like to include in the message content, and click OK.

When you are satisfied with your email stationery, click Save

System Settings: On these screens, you will configure the settings related to your overall system.  You can create and manage contact field mappings and alert categories from this section, as well.

·        Users: From this section, you can enter search criteria in the wildcard section for All Users, Active Users or Inactive Users, as
aligned with your PowerSchool data. From this screen, you can activate or deactivate PowerSchool users to allow for them to
use SwiftK12.

To Activate a user, click on the Activate term, and it will turn the on/off switch to “on”.

To Deactivate a user, click on the Deactivate term, and it will turn the on/off switch to “off”.

To grant access to the SwiftK12 PS mobile app, as well as to the SwiftK12 standalone site (https://k12.swiftreach.com) via Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, you must follow these steps:

·        Under each activated user, you will see a plus sign under the column marked “Mobile App”.  Click on the plus sign.

·        This will open the Enable Mobile App Access screen.

·        On this screen, make a note of your specific Customer Code, as you will need to provide this to end users.  You will also need to enter in the 10-digit mobile phone number of the user. This phone number will be used for sending a temporary password, which can be used for initial sign-in to the mobile app, as well as for the standalone site.  Click Enable

Click here for resources on introducing the mobile app and standalone site to approved users.

To reset a user’s mobile app and standalone site password, click on the Reset Mobile Pass button under the Mobile App section, and confirm the resetting of the password by clicking on the Reset Password option

To revoke access to the mobile app and standalone site, click on the red minus icon and confirm revocation by clicking on the Revoke Mobile option.

Do-Not-Contact List: From this section, you can add to as well as manage contacts for your do-not-contact list. You can add someone tied to phone numbers and/or email addresses.

Simply select Email or Phone from the drop-down menu and then type in the Name, Phone Number

or Email Address and select either ‘Add Email’ or ‘Add Phone’.

To remove a contact from the Do-Not-Contact List, select the red ‘x’ under the Action column.

Contact Field Mappings: On this screen, you can Add Contact Fields, edit to categories to which the mapped field(s) are associated, delete contact field mapping, and rebuild the SwiftK12 plugin.

To add a new contact field, select the Add Contact Field button to the right of the Contact Fields panel.

Select an Entity Type, a Source Table, a Source Field and Contact Method (Landline – Phone, Mobile – Phone, or Email). Finally, enter a Label Name that you can easily recall for the field.

Click the Save button.

To assign alert categories to a contact field, select the Edit button in the Contact Fields panel.

Select the categories to associate to the field name by placing checkmarks into the associated checkboxes.

Click the Save button.

Important: When you make any changes to contact field mappings, you must rebuild the plugin and replace the plugin in PowerSchool. To do so, click on the Rebuild Plugin link in the Contact Fields panel.  Save the plugin and reload the plugin within your PowerSchool Setup via the System menu and then selecting Plugin Management Configuration, replacing your previous plugin.

To delete a contact field, click on the red “trash can” icon and confirm deletion.

Language Mappings: From this section, you can add or delete additional language mapping for automatic translation of email and phone call messages (SMS/TXT is not available). To add a new language to your mapping, click on the Add Language Mapping button in the Language Mappings panel.

Enter the PowerSchool language code for the language you wish to map, and then select from the drop-down menu the language that you wish to map to.  For a list of supported languages for which text to text and text to speech translation is available, contact your Account Manager.

Click the Save button.

Important: When you make any changes to contact field mappings, you must rebuild the plugin and replace the plugin in PowerSchool. To do so, click on the Rebuild Plugin link in the Contact Fields panel.  Save the plugin and reload the plugin within your PowerSchool Setup via the System menu and then selecting Plugin Management Configuration, replacing your previous plugin.

Alert Categories: From this section, you can add new message categories, edit message categories, set a message category as default,  allow preference override by parents and guardians, set categories to be selected by users, lock a category from being edited, and delete a message category, altogether.

 To add a new alert category, click on the Add Alert Category button on the Alert Categories panel.

From this screen, you will need to enter a required category name, description, select the option for recipients to override alert category preference or not (field will be locked if this box is not checked), as well as to determine if the category should be visible in category selections, and whether the category should be visible in the parent portal.

Note: It is best practice to place a check mark in Allow Preference Override for all categories outside of Emergency (which is a locked category by default), so that parents/ guardians can determine on their own if they wish to update their recipient preference on the parent portal.

Click the Save button.

To prevent others from editing the alert category, click on the “lock” icon found under the Actions sub-panel.

To edit the alert category, select the blue pencil icon.

To delete the alert category, select the red “trash can” icon. Then, confirm deletion of the category.

Now your initial settings are complete.  Remember to set these at both the district as well as at the applicable building level(s) to ensure messaging defaults are set-up appropriately throughout.

You can come back and change these at any time!