Case study · AK-01
Our work
Akshara: one system for Nepal’s schools, built and run by us
Schools in Nepal were juggling registers, fee ledgers, spreadsheets and software made for somewhere else. We built Akshara to replace all of it — and we still host it, support it and keep improving it.
- 01DiscoverHow Nepal’s schools really run: registers, ledgers, terminal exams and Bikram Sambat.
- 02DesignOne system, two ways in: a website for the office, a phone app for families and teachers.
- 03BuildA part at a time: academics, fees, payroll, messages, school life.
- 04TestHundreds of automated checks before every release.
- 05DeployIn our cloud, or on a school’s own server.
- 06SupportTodayStill hosted, supported and improved by us.
The same six steps as for every clientOngoing
The problem
Four systems that didn’t talk, and none made for Nepal
A typical school kept attendance in a register, fees in a ledger and results in a spreadsheet passed round every term. Parents rang the office because reminders never reached them, and someone spent the end of every month matching receipts to payments by hand.
The software on offer was rarely made for Nepal: no Bikram Sambat, no terminal exams or GPA the Nepali way, no way to pay with the e-wallets and bank accounts Nepali families use.
What we built
A website for the office, an app for families and teachers
One system, two ways in: the office runs the school from the website, and the phone app shows parents and teachers exactly what the office sees.
Academics and exams
Classes, timetables, attendance, homework, exams with theory and practical parts, report cards, online class tests and entrance exams.
Fees and accounting
Monthly invoices, discounts, late fines, online payments, receipts and a full ledger.
Staff and payroll
Fingerprint attendance, shifts, leave, overtime and payroll by each school’s own rules, with payslips on the phone.
Messages
Notices, email, text messages, the app’s bell and phone notifications, and conversations between families and teachers.
School life
Activities, merit cards and house points, gate and exit passes, the school bus live, libraries and ID cards.
The phone app
One app for parents and teachers, in each school’s own name, crest and colours.
What it changed
What a school day looks like now
The point was never the software. It was the morning register, the fee queue and the end-of-month payroll — each made simpler for the people who do them.
Attendance the same morning
Teachers take the roll on their phones, and parents see it the same morning — not at the end of the term.
Results without the spreadsheet
Marks go in once; grades, GPA and report cards follow by the school’s own rules, and reach families the day they are published.
Fees paid from the phone
Families pay online and get the receipt at once, and the payment is in the school’s books straight away.
Payroll from the attendance device
Staff punch in on the fingerprint device, and the month’s pay is worked out from it — not from a printout.
Messages that arrive
Notices and reminders go by the app, email and text message, with a record of whom each one reached.
Made for Nepal
Bikram Sambat dates, terminal exams and Nepali text throughout — nothing to translate or convert.
Why schools can rely on it
The care behind it
- 01
Each school kept apart
Every school’s information is kept entirely separate from every other’s — in our cloud, or on the school’s own server.
- 02
Payments that check themselves
Every online payment is confirmed with the payment provider before it is marked paid, so no fee is lost between the bank and the books.
- 03
Safe on a phone
The app opens with a fingerprint or face, and a lost phone is signed out from the office at once.
- 04
Checked before every release
Hundreds of automated checks run before a new version reaches a school, so what worked yesterday still works today.
Have something that needs to work this well?
Tell us what you are trying to build or fix. We will tell you honestly how we would approach it — and whether we are the right people to do it.