Building a term’s calendar means creating, moving and deleting a lot of lessons. Without a guard, every one of those changes is a notification to a family who hasn’t even been told you’re switching systems yet.
Setup mode is that guard.
Where it lives
Settings → Communications → Parent notifications (setup mode). Owners and admins can change it — the card says so if you’re not one.
What it does
Turn it on and the card reads Setup mode is on: Schedule emails and lesson reminders to families are paused. Invoices, receipts and direct messages still send.
So you keep working normally — build the timetable, shuffle lessons, fix mistakes — and nobody’s inbox fills up. What still goes out is the stuff you’d never want silently swallowed: invoices, receipts, and any message you deliberately send a family.
Going live
Switch it off when you’re ready and the card reads Notifications are live: Families receive schedule changes and lesson reminders as normal. There’s also a banner shortcut so you can go live from wherever you are.
Worth doing in this order Turn setup mode on → import or add your students → build the calendar → check it over → go live → then invite families to the portal. That way the first thing a parent hears from LessonLoop is a finished schedule, not twenty edits to a draft one.
Was this out of date or unclear? Tell us — we keep these guides matched to the live app.