Signing in: your password, then a one-time link

Signing in takes two steps — your own password, then a one-time link we email you. How to set it up and what to do when the link breaks.

Opening your dashboard takes two things: your own password, and a one-time link we email you at that moment. Behind the login are guardian phone numbers and enrollment records for real children, so one of them alone is never enough — whoever has only your mailbox can't get in, and neither can whoever has only your password.

Sign in

1. Go to the dashboard login.
2. Enter your work email and your password.
3. Open the email from AskElira and click Sign in to dashboard. That link is the second step.

Your first time (or your first time after being invited)

You won't have a password yet. Leave the password box blank — we'll email you a link, and the dashboard will ask you to choose a password before it shows you anything else. Then it signs you out once, so your next sign-in goes through both steps properly.

Pick something you don't use anywhere else. A few unrelated words is both stronger and easier to remember than one word with symbols in it. Twelve characters minimum.

If the link says expired or invalid

• Links expire in 5 minutes and work once. Sign in again to get a fresh one.
• Open it in the same browser you requested it from.
• Some mail apps wrap long links and break them — use the button in the email, or paste the full link shown under it.
• Make sure you used the email your account was created with. If unsure, open a ticket.

If no email arrives at all

The link is only sent after your password is checked, so nothing arriving usually means the password didn't match. Try again.

Forgot your password

There is deliberately no "reset my password" email. One sent to the same inbox that already receives your sign-in link would put both halves of the sign-in in one place — which is the exact thing the second step exists to prevent. So a reset always involves a second person:

• If you're a colleague (someone added you to the dashboard): ask your account owner. On Settings, next to your name, they click Reset password. Your old one stops working, we email you, and you sign in with the password box blank and choose a new one.
• Two cases go through us instead of the owner: you were added to the dashboard in the last 24 hours, or you also hold an AskElira account of your own. Clearing a password is exactly how someone would take an account over, so it can't be aimed at a colleague who was added moments ago, and it can never reach a sign-in that belongs to a different account. Open a ticket and we'll verify who's asking.
• If you're the account owner: open a ticket. We verify who you are first — that check is what makes it safe — then clear it so you can choose a new one.

What happens when we do it for you

We don't reset anyone off the back of an email or a ticket alone — a message asking for a reset is a claim, not proof of who sent it. We call the school on its published number (the one on your own website or in the charter directory, never a number that arrived with the request) and ask you to confirm two things a stranger wouldn't know. Then we clear it, and you get an email saying so.

Set your new password straight away — ideally while we're still on the phone. Between the moment we clear it and the moment you choose a new one, a one-time link to your inbox is the *only* thing in front of your dashboard, because the step we just cleared is the other one. It takes about a minute to close that gap.

A link you didn't ask for

If a sign-in link arrives and it wasn't you, someone has your password. Nobody can get a link without entering it correctly. Open a ticket and we'll reset it the same day.

Give a colleague access

Your whole front office can have their own sign-in — nobody needs to share a mailbox, a login, or a password. On Settings, under Who can open this dashboard, add their work email. They get an email, choose their own password the first time they sign in, and see the same dashboard you do.

• Colleagues must use an address on your school's email domain. An address outside it is refused, so a typo can't hand your enrollment data to a stranger.
• If your account is registered to a personal address (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud and the like) you can't add colleagues yet — "same domain" would mean anyone with that provider. Move the account to your school domain first: open a ticket and we'll switch it.
• Only the account owner can add or remove people. Colleagues you add can use the dashboard — the applicant roster, attendance uploads, school info, calendars and events, the enrollment season, staff notes, and answering the questions Elira passed to your office — but they can't change the list.
• A few things stay with the account owner because they're about the account rather than the day's work: your subscription and payment, going live, connecting SchoolMint or Google, and your school's phone number and sending domain. Colleagues see those cards; the owner is who can change them.
• Removing someone takes effect immediately — their next sign-in attempt finds nothing.