Overview
When a student records a Late Arrival or Early Leave, Custr attempts to immediately write the attendance event back to your MIS.
If the writeback is unsuccessful, the attendance is still recorded within Custr, but your MIS attendance record will not be updated.
Most writeback issues are caused by configuration rather than system faults and can usually be resolved by checking your attendance reasons and MIS settings.
How Attendance Writeback Works
When a student records a Late Arrival or Early Leave, Custr follows this process:
Student records attendance
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Attendance is saved in Custr
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Custr attempts to write the attendance to your MIS
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Writeback is either:
Successful
Failed
Not Required
Writeback attempts are made immediately and are not retried if they fail.
Checking the Writeback Status
You can see the result of every writeback attempt from the attendance record.
To view the status:
Open the student’s attendance record.
Select the Writeback tab from the panel on the right-hand side.
The writeback status will display one of the following:
Successful
The attendance was successfully written back to your MIS.
Failed
Custr attempted to write the attendance but your MIS rejected or could not process the request.
Not Required
No writeback was attempted.
This usually means:
The selected reason was configured as Don’t Writeback
No attendance code was available
The attendance event was not configured to write back
Troubleshooting Checklist
If attendance is not writing back, check the following in order.
1. Does your MIS support attendance writeback?
Not every MIS supports attendance writeback.
For compatibility information, see How Custr Works with Your MIS.
2. Is the attendance reason mapped to an MIS code?
Every reason that should write back must be linked to a valid MIS attendance code.
If a custom reason has not been mapped correctly, the writeback will fail.
3. Is the reason configured as “Don’t Writeback”?
Reasons can intentionally be configured so they do not update your MIS.
If the selected reason is set to Don’t Writeback, the attendance will remain within Custr only.
4. Is Reason Exact Match Required enabled?
If users can freely type attendance reasons, they may enter text that cannot be matched to an MIS attendance code.
Enabling Reason Exact Match Required ensures users must select a valid configured reason, helping prevent writeback failures.
For more information, see Recommended MIS Settings & Configuration.
5. Does the student exist within your MIS?
The student must exist within your MIS before attendance can be written back.
Enabling Student Exact Match Required ensures users must select a student record, helping prevent writeback failures.
If the student has not yet synchronised or cannot be matched, no attendance record can be updated.
6. Is your MIS Integration connected?
Confirm your MIS connection is active and synchronising correctly.
If your student records are not synchronising, attendance writeback may also fail.
7. Are your time-based attendance codes configured correctly?
If you use time-based attendance codes, check that:
The correct attendance codes have been configured.
The time thresholds are correct.
Custr uses the student’s actual check-in time, not the time the device reconnects to the internet.
For example:
Student checks in at 8:55am
iPad reconnects at 10:00am
Custr will still use the attendance code that applies to 8:55am.
8. Was the iPad offline?
If the iPad temporarily loses its internet connection, attendance will still be recorded locally.
As long as the device reconnects on the same day, Custr will attempt the writeback.
If the device does not reconnect until the following day, the attendance will remain within Custr and will not be written back to your MIS.
Understanding Attendance Updates
When writeback is successful, Custr updates the relevant attendance session within your MIS.
For example, if a student records a Late Arrival during the morning session, Custr updates the appropriate AM attendance mark.
If an attendance mark already exists for that session, the writeback will replace it with the configured attendance code.
Before Contacting Support
If you have checked the above and attendance is still not writing back, please include the following information when contacting Support:
School name
Student name
Date and time of attendance
MIS provider
Attendance reason selected
Whether the Writeback status shows Failed or Not Required
Providing this information helps us investigate the issue more quickly.
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Important Notes
Attendance writeback is attempted immediately after a Late Arrival or Early Leave is recorded.
Writeback attempts are not retried if they fail.
Attendance is still recorded within Custr even if writeback is unsuccessful.
The Writeback tab within the attendance record shows whether the attempt was Successful, Failed, or Not Required.
Devices that reconnect on the same day can still complete attendance writeback. If they reconnect on a later day, attendance will remain within Custr but will not be written back to your MIS.
Time-based attendance codes use the student’s actual attendance time rather than the time the device reconnects.