Adding staff

In this tutorial we’re going to cover how to add staff to your Tapestry account either individually or in bulk via a CSV file.

The second tab will walk you through how to do this individually, the third tab will explain how to create a CSV file to upload staff in bulk, and the fourth tab will talk you through how to then upload your CSV file to Tapestry.

Please note, only managers on Tapestry can add, edit or delete staff from an account.

On Tapestry you can add as many staff members as you wish. It’s important that each staff member has their own unique account on Tapestry, for both safeguarding reasons and also for you to be able to tell who has done what and when. It’s also very important that each staff member has a secure password that only they know.

In order to add a staff member to Tapestry, you will need to know their email address. When you are ready to go, head to Tapestry Journal and log in.

Add a new staff member

Staff members can be managed via the Configuration menu on Tapestry. Start by clicking the Configuration button in the bottom left corner, then navigating to Staff > Manage Staff.

You will find yourself on the Manage Staff page. Click + Add Staff Member in the top right to add a new staff member to your account.

There are three types of staff users: Manager, Staff (full account) and Staff (PIN only).

Managers log in using an email address and password, can see and edit everything on the Tapestry account, and manage users. We recommend you have a minimum of two Managers on your Tapestry account.

Staff (full account) users also log in with an email address and password, but can only access features that Managers give them access to.

Staff (PIN only) users require a Manager to log in first, then can log in using their PIN via the ‘Switch User’ function. Once logged in, they have the same level of feature access as Staff (full account) profiles.

You can add a profile photo for the staff member at this stage if you like, but these can always be added in bulk later on. Fill in the details for the staff member, making sure you tell Tapestry what Type of user they are, and have something in the First Name, Last Name and Email address boxes.

The email address will be the staff member’s username, and where their activation email is sent. Double check it is correct before continuing.

Activating the new staff member

Next, it’s time to decide how the staff member will be activated. If the staff member is a Manager or full staff member, the default is Email an activation link to the user. This will let them choose their own password.

The default for PIN-only staff is Manually enter the PIN and make active immediately.

The other options available in the Account Activation drop-down are:

Manually enter the password and make active immediately – this allows you to set a password for them.
Do not activate – if you want to add a staff member ahead of time, say before they start at your setting, you can choose this option.

Assigning any Key Children

The Key Children function allows staff to filter their views and notifications to just the children assigned to them.

To choose which children are linked to this staff member, click Attach new child to begin, then pick the child/children from the drop-down list. They are listed in alphabetical order by first name.

Key Children are different to groups and classes. If the Key Children for this staff member are also part of a class, and they want a quick way to select their class in uploads, a Manager will need to add these children to a Group.

When you’re happy with your entries, you can go ahead and click Save at the bottom of the page.

You can upload staff in bulk onto Tapestry via a CSV file (created in Excel). Below is a quick guide to show you how your CSV file needs to be laid out, and how to save it so that it’s ready to upload.

Don’t have your own CSV file to upload staff yet? Feel free to use our blank staff bulk upload template.

Start by creating a new file, or opening a file you wish to modify, in Excel.

There needs to be 4 fields in your CSV: Forename, Surname, Email and Type.

Ensure that your file is laid out as the screenshot above, with the titles of your fields in the cells at the top. Then fill in the columns with the data you need.

There are three types of staff users: Manager, Staff (full account) and Staff (PIN only).

Staff (full account) users also log in with an email address and password, but can only access features that Managers give them access to.

Before saving your file, please ensure that:

For Managers and Staff (Full) users, all four data fields must be filled in. You can leave the Email field blank for PIN only users.
There are no blank rows in your file.
There is no additional data other than the fields specified.

You will now need to make sure that the file is saved as a CSV. When you’re ready to save, go to File > Save As and ensure the file type you choose is CSV (Comma Delimited) (*csv).

You’re now ready to upload your file! Head over to the next tab for the next steps.

To upload staff members in bulk to Tapestry, you will first need to make sure you have a CSV file containing your data, that follows Tapestry’s specifications. For details on how to format a CSV so that it is ready to use, please see the previous tab.

Uploading your file and mapping your fields

First you will need to navigate to Configuration > Staff > Manage Staff, and scroll down the page to the ‘Import Staff’ section, where you can choose a file to upload.

Once your file is uploaded, you will then need to tell Tapestry which columns it needs to use to add your staff’s details; this is called field mapping.

On the first screen, you will see that there are two columns: Input Name and Tapestry Name. Your columns should match each other, but you can use the Tapestry Name drop down menus to change these. When you’re ready, click ‘Next Step’.

Mapping your fields cont.

You will then need to make sure that the Input value for Type column matches the Tapestry value. Manager should be the same in both columns, then ‘Full’ = ‘Staff (full account)’ and ‘PIN’ = ‘Staff (PIN only)’.

Select staff to upload

On the third screen, you can tell Tapestry which staff you would like to import from your CSV file. You can either select all, or choose the specific ones you need.

Tapestry will tell you if an email address is already in use on your account, or if any email addresses are unsubscribed. You can use the check boxes to untick these, or continue to add them and you can manage them later in the Manage Staff menu.

Activating staff

The last screen will let you choose how you would like to activate these users.

There are three options to choose from:

Activate by email
Generate activation links
Generate random passwords and PINs

We recommend activating by email as this is the simplest option; this will send emails to each of the relative email addresses, and will contain a link that allows them to choose their own password.

Clicking Generate activation links will produce URLs that you will need to send to the users yourself. By visiting that URL, the user will be able to create a password and activate their account.

Generate random passwords and PINs will generate a password and PIN for each user and activate them straight away. Users will not receive a confirmation email if you decide to activate their account this way. You’d have to either send them their password, or let them know that their account is now active and they can request a reset password email by clicking on ‘having trouble logging in?’ on http://www.tapestryjournal.com to gain access to their account.

If you choose either of the last two options, you will need to save a copy of the URLs or PINs/passwords, as once as you have moved on from this page, you will not be able to get them back.

And you’re done!