MIS integration can give cover teams the teaching context behind an absence: the staff member, affected lesson, subject, class, room and period. Cover Manager uses Wonde as its MIS connection route. The information available depends on the school's MIS, approved permissions and the data supplied; a connection alone does not establish complete timetable coverage.
Which data helps a cover manager?
Staff identity and reliable lesson timing are the foundation. Subject, group and room information help a replacement understand what they are covering. Department and year-group context can support the school's allocation rules where those fields are available.
Check the relationships between datasets as well as the counts. A system may have imported staff and classes but still lack lessons linked to the right teacher. Seeing a large import total is not sufficient evidence that a particular absence will produce the right cover requirements.
| Data | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Staff | An active school user matches the intended MIS person |
| Lessons | Dates, teachers and periods match a known timetable |
| Context | Subject, group and room values are present where expected |
| Coverage | The imported date range includes the school days being planned |
| Freshness | The last successful sync and any warnings are understood |
Does Wonde mean every MIS field is available?
No. Wonde is the connection route, but dataset availability still depends on the provider and the permissions granted for the school. Cover Manager can support Wonde-connected systems such as SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom, iSAMS and IRIS, subject to onboarding and the data available.
Confirm the required datasets during setup and inspect any permission warnings. Do not describe this as a direct native connector to each MIS or assume that the availability of one dataset implies another is accessible. Agree how updates will be run and checked for that installation.
How should missing timetable information be handled?
Treat missing information as an unresolved data question. A blank room, a missing lesson or an unmatched staff account should trigger a check of permissions, linking, dates and sync results before anyone concludes that the period is free.
Use a known school day for validation. Holiday dates or the wrong teaching cycle can produce a misleadingly empty result. Compare a small set of actual timetable entries with the system and resolve differences before expanding the rollout.
What should be checked before staff sign in?
Check that staff accounts are prepared, active and linked to the correct school identities. In Cover Manager's shared Microsoft sign-in architecture, Microsoft authenticates the person; normal staff accounts must already exist and be linked. A successful Microsoft login is not a replacement for staff provisioning.
Decide who owns MIS changes, who checks sync warnings and who corrects a mismatch. Keeping these responsibilities explicit helps prevent school office and IT teams from assuming the other has resolved an issue.
Read next: The school onboarding checklist
Can supervision rotas work without MIS data?
Yes. Duty Manager's recurring duty periods, locations and staffing requirements are maintained locally and work independently of Wonde sync. That lets a school organise supervision duties while the MIS connection is being prepared. It does not remove the need to verify lesson data before relying on timetable-aware cover planning.