Your installation keeps working permanently with zero feature lockout. The only change:

• An API Key reminder overlay appears on each admin click until renewal
• Software updates and new features are paused
• Security patches are not delivered
• Priority support access is suspended

We strongly recommend renewing to keep your system updated, secure, and free of the reminder. But the choice is yours — the software never stops working.

Absolutely — zero per-user charges. Ever. Unlike SaaS competitors that bill per student per month, we don't meter your usage at all.

The only limits are campus count:

• Basic: 1 campus
• Professional: Up to 3 campuses
• Enterprise: Unlimited campuses

Within your campus limit, add as many students and staff as your server can handle. Your hardware is the only real constraint.

Yes — you only pay the difference. No penalty for upgrading later:

• Basic → Professional: Pay only PKR 50,000 (not the full PKR 75,000)
• Professional → Enterprise: Pay only PKR 75,000 (not the full PKR 150,000)

Upgrading is instant and seamless — all your data stays intact, no migration needed, new features unlock immediately.

InstitutionKit runs on any server that supports WordPress:

• WordPress: 5.8 or higher
• PHP: 7.4 minimum (8.1+ recommended for performance)
• MySQL: 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.4+
• RAM: 256MB+ recommended for multi-campus deployments
• PHP Extensions: mysqli, curl, dom, mbstring, gd

Also runs on local servers (XAMPP, WAMP, MAMP), corporate intranets, and offline networks. Internet is only needed for license activation and updates.

You own 100% of your data. InstitutionKit runs entirely on your server. Zero data is transmitted to us or any third party.

Our 7-layer security model:

• WordPress Authentication → Role Verification → Capability Enforcement → Campus Boundary → Nonce Protection → Input Sanitization → SQL Escaping

Plus: 62 granular capabilities ensure every user sees only what they're authorized to access. Campus-level data isolation is enforced at the SQL query level — not just UI cosmetics.

Yes — fully offline capable. Runs perfectly on:

• Local servers (XAMPP, WAMP, MAMP, Laragon)
• Corporate intranets behind firewalls
• Offline networks in remote areas
• VPN-connected multi-branch networks

Internet is only required for three things: initial license activation, annual renewal, and downloading updates. Daily operations — attendance, gradebook, fee management, payroll — all work 100% offline.

No — and that's a game-changer. Teachers work exclusively from your website's frontend via simple shortcodes:

• Mark attendance: `[ik_frontend_attendance]` — zero backend exposure
• Enter grades: Frontend gradebook with keyboard navigation
• Manage invoices: Record payments from the website
• Campus-aware: Teachers see only students from their assigned campus

Eliminates risk of staff changing WordPress settings and reduces training to near zero.

The Parent Portal provides:

• Real-time grades — weekly, monthly, yearly (auto-detected by date)
• Attendance records with percentage tracking
• Homework assignments with due dates and attachments
• Fee invoices — view status and payment history
• Two-way teacher communication — read and respond to comments
• Online meeting booking — pick time slots and topics
• Multi-child support — switch between siblings from a dropdown

Parents log in once. No admin access. No training needed.

The payroll module is fully automated and attendance-driven:

• 3 contract types: Monthly Fixed, Hourly Rate, Per Lecture
• Attendance integration: Absent days auto-deducted from payroll
• Progressive income tax: 0% (≤50k) to 27.5% (>300k)
• Flexible components: Unlimited earnings (allowances, bonuses) and deductions (provident fund, insurance)
• Loan management: Interest calculation, auto-EMI, automatic monthly deduction
• PDF payslips: Professional payslips with full breakdown

Our invoicing system automatically carries forward unpaid balances:

• Monthly fees: Only fees with "Monthly" in their name are auto-generated
• Previous balance: All unpaid invoices are consolidated into the new month's invoice as line items (e.g., "Outstanding April Fee")
• Transferred status: Old unpaid invoices are marked "transferred" to prevent duplicate tracking
• Example: May invoice ($500) unpaid → June invoice shows "June Tuition: $500" + "Outstanding May: $500" = $1,000 total

Parents always see exactly what they owe — current month plus any arrears — in a single invoice.

Yes — with intelligent batching to avoid server overload:

• 10 or fewer invoices: All sent immediately
• More than 10: First 10 sent now, remaining queued for cron (10 every 4 minutes)
• Queue monitoring: "Check Status" button shows pending count, sent today, and recent email logs
• Parent email lookup: Checks 4 sources — student meta, guardian email, parent email, linked user account
• Email logging: Every email logged in institutionkit_email_log with type, recipient, and timestamp

A class of 100 students takes ~40 minutes to fully process. Don't click "Send" multiple times — the cron handles the queue.

Yes — both print and PDF with professional design:

• Professional layout: School logo, header bar with address/phone, three-column header, fee breakdown table, payment summary cards (Total/Paid/Balance)
• Print-optimized CSS: Hides navigation, sidebars, and buttons. Shows only invoice content on A4 with proper margins
• Watermarks: Diagonal "PAID" (green) or "DUE" (red) watermark for instant status recognition
• PDF download: Uses Dompdf library, DejaVu Sans font for Unicode support, A4 portrait
• Custom logo: Replace assets/images/logo1.png with your school logo

Invoices look professional enough for corporate reimbursement and tax filing purposes.

Yes — via a simple shortcode: [ik_frontend_attendance]

• Campus-locked: Teachers automatically see only their assigned campus and classes
• Section support: Filter by class section before marking
• Parent contacts: Each student row shows father's and mother's phone numbers for quick follow-up
• Dynamic remarks: Remarks field appears only when "Late" or "Leave" is selected
• Read-only after save: Once saved, attendance is locked from frontend. Shows who marked it and when
• Audit trail: Every attendance record tracks marked_by (user ID) and marked_at (timestamp)

Teachers never touch the WordPress dashboard. Attendance is saved with full campus context and nonce verification.

Staff attendance directly drives payroll with different rules per contract type:

• Monthly Fixed: Perfect attendance = +1 day bonus. 1 absence = full salary. 2+ absences = deduction for (absent_days - 1)
• Hourly: Pay = hours_worked × hourly_rate (from check-in/check-out times)
• Per Lecture: Pay = lectures_delivered × lecture_rate
• Leave types: Sick, Casual, Annual, Maternity, Unpaid — each affects pay differently

Payroll pulls attendance from institutionkit_staff_attendance table. All calculations are automatic — no manual entry needed.

Yes — InstitutionKit is built for extensibility.

• Custom modules: We develop bespoke features on request (Enterprise clients receive priority)
• Hooks & Filters: WordPress-standard action and filter hooks throughout the codebase
• Custom fields: Add extra data fields to students, staff, or any entity via post meta
• Frontend styling: All modules use scoped .ik- CSS classes — easy to override
• Full source code: You receive complete, unencrypted PHP source. No obfuscation. No locked files.

Enterprise clients can commission custom modules tailored to their institution's specific workflows.

InstitutionKit implements true multi-tenancy — every database table includes a campus_id column as a partition key:

• Independent per campus: Fee structures, expense heads, grade scales, staff assignments
• Aggregated view: Super Admins toggle between single-campus and "All Campuses" — consolidated reports, cross-campus P&L
• Campus Switcher: Admin bar dropdown, dashboard selector, or URL parameter (?campus_id=3)
• Student/Staff transfers: Move between campuses with full audit trail in institutionkit_campus_transfers
• Roving staff: Assign staff to multiple campuses with percentage-based salary splitting

Campus Admins are restricted at the SQL query level — they literally cannot retrieve data from other campuses.

Yes — data migration is available. We can import your existing records from:

• Excel / CSV spreadsheets (students, staff, fee structures)
• Other school management systems and legacy ERPs
• Manual paper records — we'll guide you through structured bulk entry

Enterprise plan includes complimentary data migration. For Basic and Professional plans, migration is available as an add-on service. Contact us with details about your current system.

No — Campus Admins are strictly limited to their assigned campus:

• SQL-level isolation: All queries automatically append AND campus_id = [their_campus]
• No switcher: Campus Admins don't see the campus switcher — they're locked to their campus
• Limited menu: "All Campuses" and "Campus Management" are hidden from their menu
• Capability inheritance: Campus Admins have full capabilities but only within their campus scope
• User assignment: Stored in institutionkit_campus_users table with role and assigned date

This makes InstitutionKit ideal for franchise schools, branch networks, and multi-location institutions where each branch needs independent management.