Admin Help Guide

The admin portal lets you manage the full lifecycle of a school potluck event. The typical workflow looks like this:

Events are created from the dashboard. Each event is independent — it has its own menu, sign-ups, and QA inspectors.

Creating an event

Go to Dashboard → + New Event and fill in:

Event status

Change the status from the event detail page header dropdown:

Edits Locked toggle

The 🔒 Edits Locked / 🔓 Edits Open button controls whether parents can still edit their existing sign-up after submitting. Lock registrations once you are done reviewing sign-ups so parents cannot shuffle slots around.

The Menu Designer tab on each event lets you build the dish list. When you add a dish, the system automatically calculates how many tray slots to create based on the event's expected attendee count.

Loading the full template

If the menu is empty, a green banner appears offering to Load Full Vazhai Ilai Virunthu Menu. This pre-fills all traditional dishes (Sambar, Rasam, Kootu, Payasam, etc.) with sensible slot counts for your event size. You can remove or edit any item after loading.

How slots are calculated

For tray-based items (e.g. Sambar), the system creates:

• Full slots = ceil(attendees ÷ serves_full)
• Half slots = ceil(attendees ÷ serves_half)

For piece-based items (e.g. Poori), a single slot type is created:

• Piece slots = ceil(attendees × pieces_per_person ÷ pieces_per_slot)

Each slot can be claimed by exactly one parent. Once all slots for a dish type are claimed, that option is shown as full on the parent sign-up page.

Signup Rules

Under the menu list you can define dependency rules: If a parent picks item A, they must also sign up for item B. Example: if a parent picks White Rice, they must also bring Banana. This is enforced during sign-up.

Every field on the Add / Edit menu item form controls how slots are calculated and how the dish appears to parents.

The Sign-Ups tab shows every parent who has registered for the event. Each row shows the parent name, the student they signed up for, the dish(es) they claimed, and their party size.

Use the Export CSV button to download the full sign-up list as a spreadsheet.

To share the sign-up link with parents, click the 🔗 Sign-Up Link button on the event header — it opens the parent-facing registration page in a new tab. You can copy that URL and send it via email or WhatsApp.

QA Inspectors are volunteers who check dishes as parents deliver them on event day. Each inspector gets a 6-digit PIN to log in at /qa/login.

Creating an inspector

Inspector actions

On event day, inspectors see each sign-up item and can mark it as QA Approved or QA Rejected. Admins can override any decision from the Live Dashboard.

The Students section lets you view all students in the database, add or edit individual records, and import the school roster from an Excel file.

Importing from Excel

The importer expects these columns (in order): id, student_id, first_name, last_name, grade, section. Additional columns (teacher, room number, etc.) are ignored.

Student IDs can be numeric (52885), teaching-assistant format (TA-01), or gateway format (GW-001).

Editing a student record

Use the Student List tab to search and find a student, then click Edit. You can update the name, grade, and section. If a parent is already linked to the student (they signed up for an event), their name and phone are also shown and editable.

Admin accounts are managed from Manage Admins (SUPER_ADMIN only). Login is code-only — no email or password.

Creating an Event Admin

Managing existing admins