The Settings page controls school-wide defaults and reminders used across homestay management.
Who can do this: Homestay Coordinators and Institutional Admins.
Users without these roles can view settings but cannot edit them.
Open Settings
1. Select Settings from the left-hand menu.
2. Review or update the sections on the page.
3. Click Save settings to apply changes.
The Save settings button only enables after you make a change.
What each section controls
General
School address: Used to help calculate provider distance to school.
Payments
Default weekly rate: Fallback weekly homestay payment (NZD).
Leave blank if you do not want a school default.
Must be zero or higher.
If your school is using Xero for payment runs, you may also select account codes for the payments and expenses/adjustments.
Application Form
Enable application form: Turns the public homestay application form on or off for your school.
Renewal Periods
Safety check renewal (months): how long safety checks remain valid.
Appropriate check renewal (months): how long household-member checks remain valid.
Allowed range for both fields: 12 to 120 months
Reminders
Renewal reminder lead days: how many days before expiry the system treats a check as upcoming.
Placement ending warning days: how many days before placement end date to trigger warnings/alerts.
Allowed ranges:
Renewal reminder lead days: 7 to 365
Placement ending warning days: 1 to 90
Notifications
Email notifications: turns school-level email notifications on/off.
Notification recipients: select which staff members receive those notifications.
Written Agreement Template
Upload and manage the school template provided to homestay providers.
File type: PDF only
Max file size: 10 MB
Available actions: Upload, Replace, Remove
Things to know
Changes apply immediately after saving.
Updating renewal periods does not retroactively recalculate existing check expiry dates; it affects new/updated records moving forward.
Written agreement template updates are school-wide.
If you are preparing families for activation after changing settings, use Getting a Homestay Family Ready to Accept Students
If you are creating placements and relying on payment defaults/reminders, see Placing a Student with a Homestay Family