Glossary

Key terms used across ADAdmin, listed alphabetically.

Active Directory (AD) Microsoft's on-premises directory service. ADAdmin can push user and group data into AD so that school computers, printers, and other network resources automatically recognise the right people.

Audit trail The record of what admins changed — who, what (old value → new value), when and from where. It's under Admin in the sidebar and needs the View logs & audit trail permission. Different from Logs, which show what the sync did to an account. See Admin audit trail.

Beacon Realsmart's helpdesk app for schools and trusts — support tickets, requests, and guidance. It's reached from the apps launcher in the top bar (and the Apps area), not a separate button. Beacon is enabled per trust or school by Realsmart — schools and trusts can't turn it on themselves, so ask Realsmart if you'd like it switched on.

Capability One specific thing an admin can or can't do in the admin area — for example "reset passwords" or "change sync settings". The capabilities are grouped into Users & groups, Sync & platforms, Data & privacy, and School & admin control, each switched on or off per admin from their Access tab. Mentors and other roles don't hold admin capabilities at all, apart from two they can be granted: resetting learners' passwords and giving cover access. See Reduced admin access and Roles and permissions.

Cohort / Group The two words are used interchangeably in ADAdmin. A cohort is a named collection of users (e.g. "Year 7", "10 Maths 1"). Groups are synced to Google Workspace, Entra, and Active Directory so that sharing and permissions update automatically.

Entra (Microsoft Entra ID) Microsoft's cloud identity service (formerly Azure Active Directory). ADAdmin syncs users and groups to Entra for Microsoft 365, Teams, and related services.

Freeze (provisioning window) Each school has a provisioning window — the period each year when sync is active. When the window closes, sync is frozen: changes from your MIS stop flowing through to Realsmart, Google and Entra until the window opens again, which happens automatically on the resume date (1 September if you haven't set one). See The provisioning window and the freeze.

Google Workspace Google's suite of apps (Gmail, Drive, Classroom, etc.). ADAdmin provisions accounts and groups in Google Workspace from the user and group data you manage here.

Holiday pause A way to switch pupils' Realsmart, Google and Microsoft sign-in off for dates you choose, without suspending them — they keep their groups and classes, and their sign-in comes back on its own when the dates end. Paused pupils show a Paused badge. See Holiday pauses.

MAT (Multi-Academy Trust) A group of schools under common governance. When your account has access to more than one school you can use MAT overview mode to see and act across all of them.

MAT overview The cross-school view available to MAT-level admin accounts. Accessed via the school switcher in the top bar (the MAT overview — all schools option). Separate from the per-school view where you work on one school at a time. Mentors and other staff are always scoped to their own school.

MIS ID, Staff code, UPN and Sync ID Four different identifiers on a user's Details tab. MIS ID is the person's record id in your Management Information System (e.g. SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom) — read-only, it comes from the MIS. UPN (for a learner) and Staff code (for staff) share one editable field, labelled by role: a pupil's Unique Pupil Number or a staff member's code, as it appears in your MIS. Sync ID shows which of the person's ids your MIS feed matches on — also read-only.

Merge Combining two user records that represent the same real person (for example, a pupil who has duplicate accounts in different schools) into a single primary record.

Page walkthroughs Short, dismissable tours that point out what's on a page the first time you visit it. Turn them off, or replay every walkthrough from the start, from My profile → Page walkthroughs.

Pending suspension A status flag ADAdmin raises automatically when a user drops out of your MIS import (e.g. they've left the school) while their status is still Active. They're suspended automatically after a 24-hour grace period, so you get a chance to review first. See Users pending suspension.

Preset A ready-made starting point for an admin's capabilities — Full (everything) or Reduced (day-to-day user and group management only: manage and delete users and groups, reset passwords and view sync status, with settings, sync changes, imports, exports, logs and managing other admins switched off). Choosing a preset resets every capability to that baseline; you can then fine-tune individual ones from there. See Reduced admin access.

Protected user A user marked Protected ("Protected (exclude from sync deletion)" on their Details tab) is excluded from automatic sync changes. ADAdmin will not remove them from Google Workspace, Entra, or AD during a routine sync even if they are absent from the MIS data, and the MIS import won't change their group memberships or username either. This is the same thing as turning Smartsync off for them.

Provisioning The scheduled service (realsmart-provisioning) that does the actual syncing: it reads your MIS data and the settings you choose in ADAdmin, and creates, updates and removes accounts and groups in Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra, Apple School Manager and Active Directory. It has no screens of its own — its activity shows in Sync status and Logs. See How the sync engine works.

Reduced admin access An admin whose capabilities have been narrowed below Full — for example, someone who can manage users and groups and reset passwords, but not change settings, run syncs, or view logs. Set per admin, per capability, on their Access tab, starting from a preset and fine-tuning from there. It's enforced by the system itself — a reduced admin who types a restricted URL is refused, not just hidden from the menu. See Reduced admin access.

Smartsync The scheduled process that reads your MIS data and keeps ADAdmin's user and group records up to date. Turning Smartsync off for a user protects them from ADAdmin's automated sync-driven changes without altering their Status (below) — you'll see it as the Smartsync filter (On/Off), the Protected field on a user's Details tab, or the Smartsync on/off bulk actions; some older screens label the "off" state Locked.

Status A user's current state in ADAdmin. The Status dropdown on a user's Details tab offers:

• Active — normal, included in all syncs
• Suspended — account exists but is blocked from logging in to synced platforms
• Locked — a status you can choose; it isn't the same thing as Smartsync off, although some older screens also say "Locked" for that
• Deleted — soft-deleted; the account is deprovisioned, and deleted users are permanently removed at the evening clean-up

Two other things show beside the status, but you don't set them as a status: Pending suspension (below) and Paused (a holiday pause is in force). On the Users list, User status filters by Active, Pending suspension, Suspended or Deleted.

Status is a separate field from Smartsync (above) — a user can be any status and independently have Smartsync on or off. See User statuses.

Two-factor authentication (2FA / MFA) An extra sign-in step beyond a password — a code from an authenticator app, or a passkey. A school can require it school-wide for staff, for students, or both, from School settings → Password, and an individual user's 2FA can be Set up, Enabled, Disabled or Exempt. Admins always need it. See Require MFA for staff and students.

UPN In ADAdmin's Users list and forms, UPN is a pupil's Unique Pupil Number as it appears in your MIS (staff have a Staff code in the same field — see MIS ID above). Elsewhere, in the context of Microsoft, a UPN (User Principal Name) is the Microsoft sign-in name, typically [email protected], which ties an ADAdmin user to their Entra or Active Directory account.

Username The local identifier for a user in ADAdmin. Must be unique within a school. In Google Workspace it forms the @school.domain email address.

Wonde The third-party connector ADAdmin uses to read data from your school's MIS (SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom, and others) — the origin, source-of-truth data that Smartsync then reads to keep ADAdmin up to date. If you think the problem is in the data your MIS is sending, Realsmart support can check exactly what Wonde holds for your school — see User not syncing.