The Dashboard and Sync centre

5 steps 7 min Updated 6 November 2026

The Dashboard is the top item in the sidebar and the first page you see. For your school it pulls together the things worth knowing at a glance: whether sync is healthy, when your MIS last came in, anything waiting for your attention, and the headline numbers. Every admin can open it, including admins on reduced access.

In MAT overview the Dashboard is a short trust summary instead — see MAT overview.

What's on it, top to bottom

Reminder and attention cards appear only when they apply:

Card	What it means	Where to go next
Set up 2FA for your account (or … by 14 November, or Set up 2FA to keep signing in) with Set up 2FA	Your own admin account has to use two-factor authentication and isn't set up yet. The card shows your deadline	Set up two-factor authentication when you sign in
Get notified when something needs attention with Set up notifications	You haven't chosen yet whether to be emailed when a sync fails or classrooms need review. It goes once you've saved a choice — even "email off"	Notifications
Google group removals are paused (or Microsoft 365 group removals are paused, or a Class Teams card)	Realsmart paused part of the sync to protect your groups	Realsmart paused some changes to keep your groups safe
Sync is frozen for the summer — MIS changes are being held. Resume for the new year when you're ready. — with Go to end of year	Your school is between its final provision date and its resume date	Cloud sync is paused
Did you know?	Suggests features your school isn't using yet; Not for us hides one for you	What's new in the admin
Users pending suspension	People marked as leavers who haven't been suspended yet	Users pending suspension

Then the welcome card (the date, a greeting such as Good morning, Sam, your school's name, a Website button if your school has one, and Add user), the Sync centre (below), four headline numbers, Members by role, Newest members, Connected services and Quick actions.

The "Did you know?" panel

The panel at the top suggests features your school isn't using yet — holiday pauses, the DfE password standard, QR code login and so on — and sometimes carries short news from Realsmart. Use the arrows or dots to move between tips. Each has a main button that goes straight to the setting, Read the guide for the full steps, and Not for us, which hides that tip for you only (other admins still see it). A tip disappears on its own once your school starts using the feature, and you only see tips for settings you're allowed to change. See what's new in ADAdmin opens the changelog on realsmart.co.uk in a new tab. In MAT overview the panel only shows that link. See What's new in the admin.

The Sync centre

The left side tells you how sync is doing:

Health. A dot (green, or gold when something needs a look), the words Sync centre, and a badge: Healthy, or N things to look at (click it to open Sync status). Beside it: N changes applied this week · 98% success. If your school uses Microsoft Entra and the Entra sync has problems, an Entra: N issues badge links to the Entra sync issues page (red when any of them is stopping changes reaching Microsoft 365).
Last provision — when the last whole-school Google sync finished (3 hours ago, or Never). It reads the Google run only, so a school that uses only Microsoft Entra will see Never or an old time here; for Entra look at the Entra Status page's Last successful sync.
Last MIS import — when your MIS data last came in. On a weekday it should be today (imports run at 03:00, 05:00 and 15:00). It's stamped even when an import found nothing to change.
Sync activity · last 14 days — one bar a day: what applied (green) with what didn't stacked on top (gold). Click a bar to open the Logs page for that day's failures.

The right side is where you act. Its buttons need Run syncs & provisioning; without it you see the status and a note saying so.

Sync now — brings in what has changed in your MIS. A line under it says what the last import actually did (see below).
or sync one platform — a Google button and an Entra button, shown only for the platforms your school has switched on. These run the whole-school Google or Entra sync now.
Last manual sync … — how long ago someone last used one of these buttons.

What the line under Sync now says

It's read from the last import's own record (the last 14 days), so you can tell a quiet day from a broken one:

It says	It means
Imported N change(s) from your MIS.	The import found real changes and applied them
Your MIS was checked, and nothing in it had changed.	It ran and found nothing new
Nothing to update — the data we received from your MIS was the same as last time. To re-send what is already in ADAdmin, use the platform buttons instead.	The MIS file and your sync settings were unchanged, so the import stopped early. Pressing Sync now again won't help; Google or Entra will re-send what's already in ADAdmin
Your settings had changed since the last sync, so everyone was updated to match them. The information from your MIS itself had not changed.	You changed a sync setting (a username policy, say), so the import re-ran to apply it

Steps

Step 1: Open the Dashboard

Select Dashboard at the top of the left sidebar. (In MAT overview, pick a school in the switcher to see its Sync centre.)

Step 2: Check the Sync centre

Read the badge (Healthy or N things to look at), Last provision and Last MIS import. If something needs a look, click the badge to open Sync status. See View sync status and logs.

Step 3: Bring in the latest from your MIS

Select Sync now and confirm Queue a full sync for this school now? A message says "Sync queued. It updates people whose details have changed in your MIS, and applies any settings you have changed since the last sync — if neither has changed, nothing here will change either." It doesn't promise changes on purpose: if your MIS data hasn't moved, nothing happens. The import runs in the background; the line under the button updates once it has run.

Step 4: Or sync one platform

To re-send what's already in ADAdmin to Google or Microsoft, select Google or Entra under or sync one platform and confirm Queue a Google sync now? (or Queue an Entra sync now?). A message says "Google sync queued — changes will appear shortly." The Google run covers organisational units, groups, accounts and memberships, and Classroom too if Classroom sync is on.

Step 5: See the result

For the MIS import and Google, open Sync status → Provisioning runs (the import shows as fetch:school). For Entra, open Logs and set Source to Microsoft Entra. See Trigger a manual sync.

The cool-down

Each button has its own 3-hour cool-down per school, shared with Quick run. While it's running, Sync now shows Recently synced (greyed out) with Available again in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and the Google or Entra button is greyed out with a clock. If you try anyway you'll see A sync was triggered recently. Try again in … (or Google was synced recently…).

Headline numbers

Members — everyone in your school who hasn't been purged yet, counting suspended and deleted accounts too (click it for the Users list).
Active — accounts with status Active.
Suspended — suspended and locked accounts.
Groups — your groups, except deleted ones (click it for the Groups list).
Members by role — bars for learners, mentors, admins and so on, leaving out deleted accounts, so its total can be lower than Members.
Connected services — a ticked tile for each of Google provisioning, Google group sync, Active Directory, Microsoft Entra, Apple sync, QR login and Import parents that is switched on.

Troubleshooting

"Sync now says Recently synced" — it was used in the last 3 hours; the button tells you how long is left. Use the Google or Entra buttons if what you need is a platform sync — they have their own cool-downs.
"I pressed Sync now and a message says the sync is frozen for the summer" — your school is between its final provision date and its resume date, so an import would do nothing and wasn't queued. See Cloud sync is paused.
"Last MIS import is old" — imports don't run at weekends, and don't run at all while sync is paused for the summer or MIS sync is switched off. On School settings → Sync services, check the MIS sync card (see Enable or disable sync services), and User not syncing.
"There's no Google or Entra button" — each shows only when that platform is switched on for the school.
"I can't see Let removals go ahead" — the button needs the Change sync, platform & API settings permission; without it the card says an admin who can change sync settings can let it go ahead.

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