An Introduction to ManageBac

General

What is ManageBac?

Founded in 2006, ManageBac is the leading online planning, assessment and reporting platform for over 3,000 IB World schools and the trusted choice of 4 in 5 IB Diploma students. By providing schools with one unified system on a consistent, modern and mobile-ready interface, ManageBac offers a seamless & integrated experience for coordinators, teachers, students and parents to manage all aspects of the IB programme.

Why should I choose ManageBac?

ManageBac provides coordinators, teachers, students and parents with a more efficient alternative to paper forms, Word docs on shared drives, and Excel spreadsheets. It is designed as a turnkey curriculum-first learning platform to support the effective implementation and management of academic programmes such as the IB, IGCSE, AP, as well as over 600 other standards.

ManageBac’s aim is to enhance efficiency in education globally. This includes providing better curriculum building tools and visible analytics for teachers and administrators, easy access to student work, unit and class calendars and reporting from our parent and student portals, as well as customisable project-based learning and service learning tracking for students.

What do I need to run ManageBac?

ManageBac is a web-based application that is hosted on our servers. All you need is an internet connection and a modern web browser with JavaScript enabled. We would recommend using Google Chrome for the best experience, but the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, and other internet browsers should all work on both Macs & PCs. ManageBac for Mobile is available for students, parents, teachers and coordinators with full equivalency of web functions. You can download ManageBac for your phone or tablet device on the Apple AppStore, Google Play (from April W1 onwards), and five key Chinese AppStores.

How much does ManageBac cost?

ManageBac is provided as an annual subscription service, and the cost varies with the total number of students. For more information and an official quotation, please contact us with your student numbers at sales@managebac.com.

In what languages is ManageBac available?

The ManageBac interface is provided in English, Spanish & Chinese (Simplified) for Students, Teachers & Admins, as well as Arabic, Japanese, French and Chinese (Traditional) for Parents. All text boxes support Unicode (UTF-8) formatting, allowing for input of international characters in all major languages.

Who is behind ManageBac?

ManageBac was founded in 2006 by three former IB students at the University of Pennsylvania. Our new CEO is Oleg Figlin.

What is your relationship with the IB?

We have been granted two licenses by the International Baccalaureate (IB). The first license for the use of forms and curriculum and assessment information, and the second for our integration with IBIS to facilitate automated exam registration. We are not a subsidiary, employee or affiliate of the IB. To ensure a level playing field, the IB does not endorse any software companies, including ours.

Is ManageBac GDPR Compliant? How secure is ManageBac?

ManageBac is committed to keeping your data safe and secure, by using best practices to protect our systems. These range from SSL connections to continuous security review of our source code. We are proudly ISO 27001 certified, as well as GDPR compliant. For further details, refer to our Security and Compliance page.

Setup

What do you need from me to get setup?

We provide a 30 day implementation period upon your school’s purchase of ManageBac. You will be assigned a dedicated Implementation Manager, who will walk you through our set-up process, learn your school’s goals for the upcoming academic year, and tailor your implementation schedule accordingly. They will then be on-call to assist in inputting your school’s data, and providing training for your staff during the implementation period.

How do I sign-up for ManageBac?

You can sign-up directly on our website here. You can also call us at +1 866 297 7022 (or any of the numbers below).

How do users access ManageBac?

Users can be sent welcome emails where they can set their own password. Email Address & Password are used to sign-in. Each ManageBac school is configured with a unique domain, such as yourschool.managebac.com. Once you have submitted your sign-up request, ManageBac Support will grant access to your account and provide your unique domain, so you can get started within 24 hours.

What user types can access ManageBac?

Students, Parents, Teachers/Advisors & Administrators/Coordinators can all access ManageBac, as long as they have been sent welcome emails.

Help & Training

What language is ManageBac built on?

ManageBac was built on Ruby on Rails. It is proudly W3C compliant.

Where is ManageBac hosted?

ManageBac is hosted in the cloud across Amazon Web Services data centers in Canada, the US and China. Your hosting location is dependent on the location of your school and local data protection laws.

Are my files backed up?

Yes, files are backed up in real-time on redundant RAID storage locally, and disk images are backed up daily at the data center. Records are also encrypted, and backed up off-site at a separate facility three times each week.

Can I export my information from ManageBac once it is in the system?

You can export student information directly using a series of PDF forms from the Handbook of Procedures, which we have licensed from the IB, or you can export individual data fields in Excel CSV format. You can also download all files submitted by your students.

How secure is ManageBac?

ManageBac is committed to keeping your data safe and secure, by using best practices to protect our systems. These range from SSL connections to continuous security review of our source code. We are proudly ISO 27001 certified, as well as GDPR compliant.

As a condition of our license with the IB, we undergo an annual security audit. For further details, refer to our Security and Compliance page.

Technical

Where can I get additional help?

As a ManageBac customer, if you have support related questions, you can visit the Online Support section. If you have additional questions, please email us at support@managebac.com, or call us at +1 866 297 7022 (or any of the numbers below).

What support do you offer?

Our first-class Customer Success team is situated globally to ensure fast and comprehensive responses to inquiries. We guarantee a response by phone or email within a maximum of 24 hours, 365 days a year; and during normal business hours we normally respond within several hours. Our phone numbers are monitored 24 hours a day, Monday – Friday, and are always answered by a member of our Customer Success team. If a representative is unavailable, all voicemails are called back during working hours within a couple hours, and within 24 hours on weekends. We offer free webinars and are running several on using ManageBac to upload to IB eCoursework, which you can register for at events.managebac.com.

Billing

When are invoices raised and due?

Invoices are raised annually based on your renewal month. For most schools, in the northern hemisphere renewal occurs in the fall and in the southern hemisphere during the winter.
Invoices are issued to your school’s designated Billing Contact by e-mail at minimum 30 days before your renewal date. For instance, if your account renews on November 15, your school’s Billing Contact will receive a PDF invoice via e-mail before or on October 15. Our standard payment terms are net 30, which means that invoices are due within 30 days from the date of issue.
If you require an early invoice, please feel free to contact us at invoice@managebac.com and include your student count by programme.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept payment by credit card, cheque and bank transfer. Any administrator on your ManageBac account can pay via credit card by navigating to Settings > Billing. When a credit card is updated or entered in the presence of an outstanding invoice, payment will be processed immediately. Credit cards already stored on the system will be charged on the account’s renewal date.
Instructions for paying by wire transfer or cheque can be found directly on the invoice. Please note that it can take up to six weeks before your invoice is marked as paid if paying by foreign US$ check. For domestic US$ checks, reconciliation normally occurs within three to five working days.
We only accept payment by bank transfer for schools in China currently, but we are working to offer more payment options to schools in China.

How do I submit my purchase order?

A purchase order can be submitted directly through your ManageBac account by navigating to Settings > Billing > enter PO number and upload the file > Save Changes.
If you do not have access to your school’s ManageBac account, please email the purchase order to invoice@managebac.com.
Once we receive the purchase order, we will generate a new invoice that includes the purchase order number and send it to the Billing contact we have on file. This will then need to be processed by the school or district in order to provide final payment via cheque, credit card, or bank transfer.

The student count on my invoice is incorrect. How do I adjust this?

If you notice a discrepancy, please contact us at invoice@managebac.com. If the invoiced student count is too high, please ensure that any non-active users are archived before contacting us.
Please feel free to contact us at support@managebac.com if you have any issues archiving your non-active users. Please note, your invoiced student count is subject to the minimum student count in your written agreement.

I see two student counts on my Billing tab: “Actual” and “Adjusted.” What is the difference?

Actual refers to the number of active student accounts on the system for a given service. Adjusted refers to the number of enrolled students reported to us by the school in a given service.
Since some schools do not upload all of their students, particularly in cases where they are using ManageBac for curriculum management. In these cases, we bill on the basis of the reported “Adjusted” count of enrolled students in a given programme.
Please make sure your account administrators have archived all of your graduated and withdrawn students at the start of each school year to prevent being invoiced for too many students. Please note, your Adjusted student count cannot go below the minimum student count in your written agreement.

I need a quotation before I can pay the actual invoice. Whom can I contact?

Quotation requests can be sent to invoice@managebac.com. Please allow 1-2 business days for the quotation request to be processed.

I have documentation (e.g. W-9, sole source letter, vendor forms, etc) that I need ManageBac t5 complete before I can issue payment. Whom can I contact?

Documentation requests can be sent to invoice@managebac.com.

How do I obtain a receipt for the invoice payment?

A receipt will be generated automatically within 3-5 business days of receiving payment. Receipts will be emailed automatically to the school’s Billing Contact and will also post to your Billing page.
For schools in China, we will provide Fapiao upon receiving payment. Schools need to provide an official name in Chinese , Tax ID and mailing address for sending the official tax receipt.

How do I update our school’s Billing Contact?

Schools can modify their Billing Contact by logging into their account and navigating to Settings > Billing.
Please note that one Billing Contact is allowed per account and that this person will receive the initial invoice as well as any correspondence about that invoice.

Are there penalties for late payment?

Invoices that are more than thirty days outstanding incur a late payment interest rate of 2% per month until payment is made.
In the very rare case that a school is more than sixty days past due, ManageBac reserves the right to suspend an account. We do everything possible to avoid this situation, and so long as the school remains communicative and provides an anticipated date of payment within 10 business days, we will not suspend the account.

I would like to add or remove modules on my ManageBac account. Whom should I contact?

Any requests to modify your subscription can be sent to us at sales@managebac.com.

Are there any multi-year plans or discounts available?

Yes, schools that subscribe for multi-year plans and pay two years up front will receive a 5% discount; schools that subscribe for three years and pay three years up front will receive a 10% discount. Please note that the full payment is due at the time of the subscription’s commencement.
To learn more, browse our multi-year FAQs
If you would like to subscribe to a multi-year plan, please contact us at invoice@managebac.com.

I would like to discuss my invoice by phone.

Please feel free to contact us at any of the following numbers:
US: +1 866 297 7022
UK: +44 208 133 7489
HK: +852 8175 8152
Australia: +61 2 8006 2335

Multi-year Agreements

How large of a discount can I get for subscribing to a multi-year plan?

We provide a discount of 5% of total fees for a 2-year subscription and 10% of total fees for a 3-year subscription.

When I need to make payment for a multi-year plan?

2-year or 3-year services fee payments must be received on or before the subscription start date to enjoy the discount.

What if my student numbers increase in Year 2 or Year 3?

ManageBac’s services fees are based on the number of enrolled students. If your total number of students in Year 2 or Year 3 increases, a supplementary invoice will be issued with the same discounted rate applied until the end of the subscription period.

Can I select a partial service for multi-year plan with the remaining services billed annually?

Yes, we offer this option. If you only want to subscribe for a multi-year plan for a given programme, but keep other services under an annual renewal, we can accommodate this.

I have already paid my current academic year subscription fees recently, but would like to subscribe t5 a multi-year plan for the next 2-3 years, can I do it now?

Yes. We can issue an early invoice to cover the next 2 or 3 academic years. Please contact invoice@managebac.com for assistance.

How does this multi-year plan benefit my school?

The multi-year plan saves schools money on the annual renewal of existing services and provides more stability by locking in the current pricing structure for existing services, meaning the school would be exempt from any pricing adjustments (besides changes in student numbers) for the duration of the multi-year subscription.

How can I sign up for multi-year plan?

You can confirm your multi-year plan via email to invoice@managebac.com or contact our Sales and Support team to confirm. Our finance team will send you an invoice of total subscription fee.

Can I have a refund if I cancel my subscription before expiry?

Based on our terms of service, ManageBac’s services fees are non-refundable.