Your office can just ask. ChatGPT or Claude answers from your own records.

For the principal and owner

A principal's questions usually cross modules, which is exactly where asking beats clicking through reports. Typical ones:

• "How much of the October instalment is still pending in Class 10, and who owes the most?"
• "Which Class 10 B students are below 75% attendance this session?"
• "Which Science and Maths sections are behind on the syllabus this term?"
• "Kal school hai ya chhutti? And when is the next PTM on the calendar?"

Each answer comes back as names, classes and figures from Student Fee, attendance, lesson-plan and calendar records. Because the history shows exactly what was looked up, the principal can forward a figure to the chairman knowing where it came from.

For the accountant and office head

The accounts desk answers the same questions every week, often while a parent waits at the counter:

• "How much did we collect this week, and how much came through UPI?"
• "Which cheques bounced this month, and whose were they?"
• "How many parents got a fee reminder this week, and how many paid after it?"
• "How much RTE reimbursement is still due from the government?"
• "Aaj cash box me kitna hai, and has today's cash been closed?"

These read Student Fee and the Money Book, the school's own accounts. If a front-desk connection should not show the school's income totals, switch on amount masking for that connection — the counts still come back.

For coordinators and class teachers

Academic questions are about who did what, and when. Coordinators and class teachers ask things like:

• "Who hasn't submitted yesterday's Maths homework in Class 8 A?"
• "What does Class 7 B's timetable look like on Tuesday, and who teaches period 4?"
• "Which topics in Class 9 Science are past their planned date?"
• "Which students in Class 6 still don't have an ID card?"

A coordinator's connection can be limited to Homework, timetable and lesson plans, so it never touches fees. Teachers who want to log what they taught through ChatGPT or Claude need actions switched on, and even then they can log only periods they actually teach.

For HR, transport and the school store

Staff, buses and the store each have their own daily questions, usually asked by different people:

• "Which teachers came late more than three times last month?"
• "How many staff leave applications are pending, and who is on leave tomorrow?"
• "Which bus insurance, fitness or permit papers expire in the next 30 days?"
• "Route 5 par naye admission ke liye kitni seats khali hain?"
• "Which students still owe money to the store for uniforms and books?"

Staff attendance, transport and the store are separate modules, so the transport in-charge's connection can read buses, routes and trips without any access to the Student Fee module or staff records.

Answers from your records — and how to check them

AI Connect doesn't make an assistant infallible. It changes where the answer comes from: your own records, not the internet or the assistant's memory. Every lookup sits in the history with the filters that were used, so if a total looks wrong you can see whether the assistant asked for Class 10 A instead of all of Class 10, or for a different date range than you meant. The fix is usually a follow-up question, not a support call.

Two habits help in the first week. Ask one question whose answer you already know — yesterday's collection, or one class's attendance — and compare. And when a figure is going to a trustee or an inspection, ask the assistant which class, dates and session it used. Session-based answers use your current academic session unless you name another, such as 2025-26.

What the AI can do, when you allow it

The list is short on purpose and built around everyday office work:

• Homework — create a draft, edit it, publish it to the class, pull it back, or grade one student's submission
• Calendar — add, move or remove an event or exam, and draft or publish a programme such as Annual Day
• Timetable and classes — a one-day substitute, a permanent period change, a new section, a class teacher
• Lesson plans — log what was taught, mark topics covered, set planned dates for chapters
• Letters — draft a letter on the school letterhead, then issue it with its serial number
• Money Book — record an expense or other income voucher
• Students — admit a new student directly into a class

What stays out of reach, by design

Some records matter too much to change from a chat window, whatever the school switches on:

• Collecting fees, giving discounts or editing any fee record
• Marking or changing student or staff attendance
• Issuing TCs, running promotions or approving profile-change requests
• Declaring holidays or off days, which ripple into attendance, transport and payroll
• Changing staff roles and permissions
• Sending broadcasts or messages directly
• Anything in transport, the store, ID cards or achievements
• Voiding a Money Book voucher, or permanently deleting a class

Those stay in the dashboard, where the school's usual checks apply.

The preview: what you see before anything changes

Any action that reaches parents, publishes, cancels or deletes stops first and shows a preview in the chat, before anything changes:

• Publishing homework shows the class, subject, due date, how many students it affects and exactly who gets a WhatsApp notification
• Admitting a student shows the name, the class, and the student ID, admission number and roll number that will be assigned — with a warning if a similar student already exists
• Issuing a letter shows the recipient and the serial number it will take
• Recording a voucher shows the category, account, amount and voucher number, and warns if that day's cash is already closed

The staff member reads it, and only an explicit yes goes ahead.

Approvals that can't be stretched

An approval covers exactly what was previewed, once, for five minutes. If the assistant changes a single detail — another class, a different date — the approval no longer matches and a fresh preview is needed. A retry can never run the same action twice.

A few small, private steps skip the preview because nobody else sees them yet: saving a homework or letter as a draft, logging a period you taught, or grading one student's homework, which sends no notification. Editing something already published goes back to preview-and-approve.

Every action carries a readable label in the history, such as the homework title and class, so the principal can always see what the AI changed and on whose connection.

What stays inside Inkwelly

Most of what a school holds never leaves Inkwelly through AI Connect, whatever is asked:

• Your full student, staff, fee and attendance records, on AWS Mumbai
• Student and staff photos, and every uploaded document — Aadhaar copies, birth certificates, TCs
• Each connection's key, which Inkwelly shows once and stores only as a scrambled fingerprint
• The AI Connect history, which the school reads and filters, including blocked attempts
• Everything a connection was never given access to

When a question needs only a count or a short list, only that count or list is sent. A connection given only transport cannot, however a question is worded, reach a student's fee ledger.

What goes to ChatGPT or Claude

Three things are on the AI company's side of the line, and a school should plan for all three:

• The question the staff member typed, exactly as they typed it
• The answer Inkwelly returned for that question — names, classes, figures and dates within that connection's access
• The chat itself, which lives in the staff member's ChatGPT or Claude account, not in Inkwelly

That is why AI Connect is per person. Give connections to the people whose questions justify them, and ask them to use a work account on a plan that supports connectors. If someone leaves, revoke their connection that day: past chats may stay in their AI account, but their assistant can no longer ask Inkwelly anything.

DPDP-minded habits for AI access

The Act's ideas translate into a few plain habits. Give each connection one purpose. Give it the fewest modules that purpose needs. Hide rupee totals where money isn't the job. Set an end date on temporary access. Read the history once a month. And keep student-level modules for staff who already handle those records every day.

None of this is legal advice, and no single setting makes a school compliant. But together these habits show that the school took reasonable care with children's and staff data — which is the spirit of what the Act asks of anyone handling personal data.

A one-page AI policy your school can adopt this week

1. Who may hold a connection — name the roles: principal, accountant, office head, transport in-charge.
2. What each role reads — write the modules next to each role, and issue connections to match.
3. Actions stay off for the first month, then switch on only for named jobs such as substitutions.
4. Which AI accounts are allowed — work accounts on a plan that supports connectors.
5. A monthly review — the principal reads the history and removes access nobody uses.
6. An exit rule — revoke a connection the day its holder leaves or changes role.
7. Tell families — consider mentioning AI-assisted administration in your privacy notice.

One meeting with the AI Connect screen open is enough.

When a staff member leaves

A connection is a key the school handed out, so the school takes it back — it doesn't lapse on its own when someone resigns or changes role. Make revoking AI Connect part of your exit checklist, next to the staff login and the attendance device. Revoking is permanent and immediate; if the person returns, issue a fresh connection.

If a key was pasted in the wrong place or shared by mistake, replace it: the old key stops working at once and the connection keeps its access and its history. For temporary staff, set an end date when you issue the connection, and the overview will remind you before it runs out.

Questions a group office asks

A group office wants one table across campuses, not eight separate reports:

• "How much fee did each school collect this month, and which one is behind?"
• "Across all our schools, where are dues highest right now?"
• "Student attendance in every campus today — which school is lowest?"
• "How many teachers are present in each school this morning?"
• "How many new admissions has each school made this session?"
• "Which school sent the most WhatsApp and SMS messages this month?"

Each is a single group summary that lines the schools up in one table. The same connection can also give a group snapshot — students, staff, fee position, payroll and transport — ahead of a Monday review.

Controls built for a trust

An organisation connection follows the same rules as a school one. The trust chooses which group summaries and school modules it may read, can hide rupee totals, and can switch actions on only where it wants them. For school-level questions the assistant must say which school it means, and if a name could match two campuses it has to ask.

A few actions are designed for teachers and do not work from an organisation admin's connection — homework and lesson-plan entries need a teacher of that school — while calendar events and day plans work across campuses. Every lookup is recorded against the school it touched, and the organisation dashboard shows which schools the AI is asked about most.

Issue a connection in three steps

The AI Connect screen walks through three short steps, and nothing goes live until the last one.

Who. Search for the staff member by name or employee ID. The connection will belong to them, and everything their assistant asks will be recorded under their name.

Access. Name the connection so it still makes sense in six months — "Principal's office", "Fee desk", "Transport office" — then tick what it may read: whole modules, parts of a module or single lookups. Actions, if any, are ticked in their own section.

Review. Set the per-minute limits, an optional end date, whether rupee totals are hidden and whether actions are allowed, then issue it. The key appears once, with a copy button and connection steps for ChatGPT, Claude and other assistants.

Then connect

In ChatGPT or Claude, add Inkwelly as a custom connector using the server address shown on the AI Connect screen. A secure Inkwelly page asks for the key once, and after that the assistant stays connected without asking again. If it says it can't see something, that connection probably wasn't given the module — add it on the AI Connect screen and ask again. The change applies to the very next question. Menus and plan names in AI apps change often, so keep your provider's help page handy while you set up the first connection. Each staff member connects from their own account.

If your school uses another ERP today

Ask your current vendor two questions. Can a staff member connect their own ChatGPT or Claude to the school's records? And can the school see a history of what that assistant looked up? If either answer is no, AI Connect belongs in your case for switching.

After you move, start small. Issue the principal's connection once the current session's student and fee records are in Inkwelly, and compare a few answers with the old system before relying on them. Add the accountant next, then attendance and transport, one connection at a time, reading the history as you go.

If your office runs on Excel and WhatsApp

Many schools in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns still run fees on Excel sheets and circulars on WhatsApp groups. For them, AI Connect isn't the first reason to switch — getting fees, attendance and records into one system is. But it changes what that system is worth. The accountant with a separate sheet for cheques, the transport in-charge with a diary of permit dates and the principal who asks for "the list" every Monday can all simply ask. Existing Excel files come in as part of the ₹0 migration, so nobody retypes a year of records to get started.