Guide for provider admins and staff

Who this guide is for

You run an exam-practice provider on the platform. Your candidates practise past papers from your question bank, and pay through the plans you set.

• Provider admins manage everything in the console: questions, plans, the landing page, and revenue.

• Provider staff work in the same console, but some pages and actions are for provider admins only. See What provider staff can do, below.

Before you start

A provider registers on the registration page. The platform team reviews every registration, and nothing is set up until it is approved. Your account is your Akadesk account, the same one you use across the suite.

Getting started after registration

1. Wait for the approval email. It is sent to the address you registered with, and holds a link to choose your password. If you already have a Akadesk account, the email says so instead, and you sign in with the password you already have.

2. Open the link, choose a password and save it.

3. Open your provider's address, the one named in the email, and sign in as described below.

4. The first time you sign in, your provider is set up from your registration: its name, its address and its country, which sets the currency your plans are priced in. You are its provider admin, and your public landing page is live at once.

If the page says We're still setting up your organisation — please try again in a minute, wait a minute and sign in again. Nothing is lost by trying again. If it keeps saying so, contact the platform team.

Your provider starts with an empty landing page, no plans and no questions of your own. Good first steps are to set up your landing page, create a plan, and add your first questions, each described below.

Sign in

To sign in:

1. Open your provider's app and go to Sign In (on your landing page, select Sign in).

2. Select the single button under the heading. It reads Continue with, followed by the suite's name, and opens the suite's sign-in page.

3. Sign in there. You are brought straight back to the app.

Provider admins land on the Dashboard of the console. Provider staff land on the Question Bank.

Find your way around

The console works in a web browser on a computer, a tablet or a phone. The pages are the same; only where the menu sits changes.

On a computer or tablet, the menu is down the left side, under your provider's name. A provider admin's menu holds Dashboard, Question Bank, Candidates, Plans, Analytics, Revenue, Landing Page and Custom Domain. The language switcher (English or French) and the light and dark theme switch are at the top right. To sign out, select Sign out, the icon beside your name at the bottom of the menu.

Use it on your phone

1. Open your provider's address followed by /app in your phone's browser, and sign in.

2. The browser may offer, once, to put the console on your home screen. Select Install app (on an iPhone, use the Share button, then Add to Home Screen), or Not now to skip it.

3. The top bar shows your provider's name. A bar along the bottom holds four tabs for your role:

1. The fifth tab, More, opens the whole menu, with the pages that have no tab (for an admin: Plans, Analytics, Landing Page and Custom Domain). It also holds Appearance (System, Light or Dark), Language (English or French) and Sign out.

On a phone, the Question Bank, Candidates and Revenue lists show one card per row instead of a table, with the same details and buttons.

Check your dashboard

Open Dashboard for a summary of your provider: Total Candidates, New Signups, Question Coverage, your revenue with one line per currency, and a Top Subjects chart of what candidates practise most.

Browse the question bank

1. Open Question Bank. Each row shows the exam body, year, subject, type, difficulty and status: Draft, Published or Retired.

2. Search, or narrow the list with the Difficulty, Type and Status filters. Select Clear to remove the filters.

3. Use the page controls at the bottom to move through the bank.

The bank holds two kinds of question. The shared bank is maintained by the platform and is the same for every provider; its rows read Shared bank and cannot be changed or deleted from your console. Questions you add or import are your own: only your candidates see them, and only you can change them.

If some shared-bank questions were written by your organisation, the platform team can move them to your provider, after which they are yours to change and only your candidates see them. Contact support with the questions concerned. To report a mistake in a shared question, contact support too: the platform team corrects it for every provider.

To change one of your own questions, select Edit on its row. The editor opens with the question as it is saved, including its correct answer. Change what you need and select Save.

To take a question out of use, select Delete on its row and confirm. The question is not erased: its status becomes Retired, and you can still find it with the Status filter.

Add a question

1. On Question Bank, select Add Question.

2. Choose the Exam Body, then the Subject, and enter the Year of the paper. Add a Topic if it applies.

3. Choose the Type (Multiple Choice, Short Essay, Theory, Fill in the Blank or True / False), the Difficulty and the Status. Leave the status at Draft while you work on a question. Candidates only see Published questions.

4. Write the Question Text. For mathematics, select Insert LaTeX $$ or type $...$ inline and $$...$$ for a block. The Preview beside it shows how it will look.

5. For a multiple-choice question, fill in options A to D and select the radio button next to the correct one. An image address for each option is optional.

6. Add an Explanation of the correct answer, and switch on AI Feedback if you want it.

7. Select Save. You return to the Question Bank.

Import questions from a CSV file

1. On Question Bank, select Import CSV.

2. Select the file. The first row must name the columns. The page lists the columns it found and how many rows the file has. Select Next.

3. Match each column to a field. Every question needs the exam body's name (exam_body), the paper's year (exam_year), the subject's code (subject_slug), the question (question_text), four options (option_a to option_d) and the correct letter (correct_option, A to D). topic, explanation and difficulty are optional; a row with no difficulty is imported as medium. Select Next.

4. The page checks the rows and lists any errors and warnings. Select Confirm Import twice to import.

The result shows how many questions were imported and how many were skipped. A question already on that paper is skipped, and each refused row is listed with its line number and the reason.

Imported questions are drafts. Open each one from the Question Bank and set its status to Published when it is ready for candidates.

Follow your candidates

Open Candidates to see everyone registered with your provider. The total at the top counts every candidate the list matches. Each row shows the candidate's photo (or their initials), their name — the one on their account, shown once they have signed in to register or open their dashboard; until then, their email — their exam and exam year, subscription status, account status, when they were last active, and how many sessions they have taken.

• Search finds a candidate by name, email or phone.

• Filter by Exam Target, Exam year, Subscription (including Never subscribed) and Account (active, suspended or inactive). On a phone, tap Filters; the button shows how many are on. Clear filters turns them all off.

• Sort by orders the list by last active (the default), name, date joined or exam year; the ⇅ button reverses the order.

• The list shows 20 candidates at a time. The search, filters, sort and page are part of the page's address, so you can bookmark a list or share it, and Back from a candidate returns to the same list.

Select a candidate to open their record: their photo, contact details and the date they joined; what they are preparing for (exam, exam year, level and subjects); their current subscription (plan, status, period and price); and their practice (sessions taken and finished, average score, overall accuracy, questions answered, readiness and last activity). Payments and revenue opens the Revenue page.

To add a photo, select Upload photo (or Replace photo) on the record and choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP image of 3 MB or less; any other kind of file, SVG included, is refused. Remove photo, then Remove, takes it off. The photo is private: only your provider's administrators see it, through a link that expires after a few minutes.

Performance appears here only as totals. A single candidate's scores and history are visible to that candidate alone.

Set up your plans

Candidates need an active subscription or a free trial to start a practice paper, so set up at least one plan.

1. Open Plans. The page is headed Plans & Pricing.

2. Select New Plan, or Edit on an existing plan.

3. Fill in the Plan Name, Price (in the currency's smallest unit) and Billing Cycle (Monthly, Quarterly or Annually). The price's label names your currency, and the line under it shows the price as candidates will see it. Plans are always priced in your organisation's currency.

4. Set a Subject Limit and Mock Exam Limit, or leave them empty for unlimited. See What the plan limits count, below. Set any Free Trial Days.

5. Tick the Examination boards the plan covers, and list its Features (one per line). Each line becomes a bullet on the plan card. A candidate on the plan can open papers from the ticked exam bodies only; tick none to cover them all.

6. Switch on Highlight Plan to mark it Most Popular, then select Save.

What the plan limits count

Both limits count within each candidate's current subscription period: from the day their plan started or last renewed to the date it renews or ends. It is not the calendar month, and a renewal starts the count again.

An empty field, saved as 0, is unlimited. When a candidate reaches a limit, starting another mock or a new subject is refused with a message saying how much they have used and when the period renews; they can keep practising within the limit. Candidates see their usage under Your plan this period on their Dashboard and Subscription pages. Provider admins and staff are not limited.

Every mock has a time limit on the server, whatever the screen shows: the time recorded for its exam body, or an hour for a timed mock and three hours for a full mock when none is recorded. Answers sent after the time is up are refused.

Edit your landing page

Your landing page is the public page candidates see before they sign up. It is the home page of your provider's own address — the address itself, with nothing after it; your console is at the same address followed by /app. View your public page, at the top of the editor, opens it.

1. Open Landing Page.

2. Under Hero section, set the Hero heading and Tagline, and pick your Brand primary colour. The colour is used as the accent on your landing page.

3. Under Testimonials, select Add for each quote: a name, a role, the quote itself and an optional photo address. Select Remove to take one out.

4. Under FAQ, select Add for each question and its answer.

5. Select Publish. Saved successfully! confirms the change.

Testimonial quotes and FAQ answers each have an English and a French version in the editor.

Connect a custom domain

Your console and landing page can also be reached at a web address of your own.

1. Open Custom Domain from the menu (on a phone, it is in More, or the Domain tab for provider staff).

2. Enter the address in Domain and select Add domain.

3. At your DNS provider, add a TXT record with the Record name and Record value shown. Use Copy to copy each one.

4. Select Check DNS. The status changes from Awaiting DNS to Verified once ownership is confirmed, and to Live once the address is being served. Anything still to do is listed under Still to do before this address works.

Your original address keeps working. To detach the domain, select Remove, then Remove again to confirm. It stops serving at once, and to add it back you have to prove ownership again.

Read your analytics

Open Analytics for your Churn Rate, Total Candidates and New Signups, a Top Subjects chart counting practice by subject, and a Question Coverage chart.

Track your revenue

Open Revenue to see your takings, one block per currency: Gross revenue, Platform fee and Net earnings. Below them, each payment is listed with the candidate, plan, gross amount, platform fee, net amount, date and status. Until a candidate pays, the page says No successful payments yet.

The platform fee follows the commercial terms agreed when your provider was set up.

What provider staff can do

Provider staff use the same console. Their menu holds Question Bank, Plans, Landing Page and Custom Domain, and they can look through each of them. Changing anything is for provider admins:

To have something changed, ask your provider admin.

Tips and common questions

• Why can a candidate not start a paper? Starting a paper needs an active subscription or a trial. Check that you have a plan in Plans. A candidate who has one may have reached the plan's Mock Exam Limit or Subject Limit for the period, or be opening an exam body the plan does not cover.

• Why do I see a notice instead of the practice area? The practice area is for candidates. A staff account sees a notice there, with a link back to the console.

• Where do candidates pay? Under Subscription in their own area. Payment is handled for you, and each payment appears in Revenue.

Getting help

Select the help button at the bottom right of any page. It shows the support email address, and a phone number where there is one: select Email us to write a message, answered by email, or Call us. You can also use the contact page.

To explore the console first, try the demo.