Creating Accounts
📋 Two ways to create accounts in bulk: (1) Use Create Accounts when the people are already in your dashboard (synced from SIS or previously imported). Filter by identity type, multi-select, and create accounts for everyone selected in one pass. (2) Use the + Create Accounts for new People form when you need to add people who don't exist in your dashboard yet and create their accounts at the same time. The new-people form also lets you send invitation emails as part of account creation.
⚠️ Accounts created ≠ users invited. Creating accounts via Method 1 (existing people- see below) does NOT automatically send invitation emails — users still need to be invited before they can log in. After Method 1 completes, go to Send / Reset Invitations to send the invitations. (Method 2 has the invitation step built in — pick Send Now or Schedule for Later in Step 4 above.)
Why accounts are separate from person records and invitations
People, accounts, and invitations are three different things that happen at three different times:
Person record — the profile itself: name, contact info, identity, relationships. Created by SIS sync, manual add, or import. A person can sit in your dashboard as a record with no ability to log in — most schools sync their entire population this way, without giving everyone app access.
Account — the login credential attached to a person record. This is what this article covers: turning a person record into something that can log in. Creating the account doesn't notify the person or send them anything yet.
Invitation — the email that actually gets the person their login link or lets them set a password. An account can sit unused for weeks with no invitation sent — nothing changes for the person until you invite them. See Send / Reset Invitations.
They're kept separate on purpose: it lets you manage your full population (via sync or import) without automatically granting or announcing access, and lets you decide exactly who gets invited and when — independently of who's already in the system.
There are two distinct flows for creating accounts in bulk:
Create Accounts for existing people — for people already in your dashboard (most common). Skip to "Method 1" below.
Create Accounts for new People — for people who aren't in your dashboard yet. Skip to "Method 2" below.
If you have a large batch of new people to add, see also Import Parents or Import Staff/Teacher/Administrator Accounts — those use a spreadsheet import for very large batches. If your school syncs from an SIS, check with Edlio Data Integrations first — open a support ticket or email [email protected] before importing manually, since manual imports can duplicate records or disrupt your sync if not done carefully.
Method 1 — Create accounts for existing people
Step 1. From the dashboard home, click People.
Step 2. Click the Create Accounts tile. You'll land on the Create Accounts page with a large "+ Create Accounts for new People" button at the top, followed by a filter section ("Create accounts for existing people records below").
Step 3. Filter to the people you want. The identity filter chips — All, Staff, Student, Family, Community — narrow the list by identity type. You can also filter by Site, Departments, Grade, or by Synced Person checkbox.
💡 About "Identity": Identity defines what the person is in the app context (Administrator, Teacher, Student, Parent, Community) — not their role at the school. A school principal might be set up with a "Staff" identity in the app if that matches the app permissions you want them to have. Match Identity to the app access level the person needs, not their job title.
Step 4. Tick the checkbox on the right side of each person you want to create an account for. (You can use the "Select All" button at the top of the list to select every visible row at once.) Then click Continue at the bottom of the page to provision accounts for the selected people.
Method 2 — Create accounts for new people (with optional invite)
Step 1. From the dashboard home, click People → Create Accounts.
Step 2. Click the blue + Create Accounts for new People button at the top. A multi-row inline form opens.
Step 3. Fill in one row per new person. Required fields: First Name, Last Name. Add Email and Phone if you have them. Use the buttons in each row (Identities, App Access, Account Type, Managed Organizations) to set per-person values, or use the "Set All" links above each column to apply the same value to every row.
Click + Add Account to add another row. You can also use the optional Protected and Do not publish checkboxes at the top.
Step 4 (optional). Pick an invitation behavior at the top of the form:
Send Now — send invitation emails immediately after accounts are created.
Schedule for Later — pick a future date/time to send invitations.
Set Password(s) — set the initial password yourself (no invitation email).
No Invite (default) — create the accounts but don't send anything. You can send invitations later from Send / Reset Invitations.
💡 Invites don't expire, but resending invalidates the old one: Whether sent here or later from Send / Reset Invitations, invitation links don't expire on their own — but sending a new invite to the same person invalidates any earlier invite email, so only the newest one works. Invitation emails come from [email protected].
Step 5. Click the blue Create Accounts button at the bottom to finish.
Related articles
Manage People Overview — where all users live
Send / Reset Invitations — invite users once accounts are created
Adding Accounts for Existing Contacts — add one user at a time
Import Parents for app accounts — bulk import parents from XLSX
Import Staff/Teacher/Administrator Accounts — bulk import staff from XLSX