# Setup Guide

Getting started takes a minute: create your account, pick where your school posts assignments, and check your classes. Connecting your school is recommended, but you can skip it, type your classes in, and connect anytime.

Starting on your phone? Sign up and add your classes there. Then open Planner on a laptop to connect your school, and your homework comes in by itself. Send to my laptop, in Settings, then About, sends you the link.

[Get started](https://app.severnplanner.com/#signup)

## 1. Create your account

Go to [app.severnplanner.com](https://app.severnplanner.com/) and create your account with Continue with Google, or with your name, an email and a password. It's free for students.

If you use an email and password, Planner sends a link to confirm your address, so Forgot password can always reach you. Until you press it, a short note on your dashboard can send the link again or fix a mistyped email. Everything works the same in the meantime.

Some school accounts don't allow sign-in to outside apps. If your school email doesn't work, use a personal email or a personal Google account instead. You can still connect your school later.

## 2. Pick where your school posts assignments

On a computer, Planner asks where your school posts its work: Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom, Blackbaud or one of the others listed. Pick yours and Planner brings in your classes and assignments, so you don't type them in. The steps for each platform are below.

Not listed, or rather not connect your school account? Choose Type in your classes and go straight to the next step. On a phone this step is skipped, since connecting your school is done on a computer.

## 3. Check your classes

If your school is connected, the classes it brought in are listed. Add any that are missing. Otherwise, type each class name and press Enter, or paste a list with one class a line. Use the names your school uses, like AP Biology or Honors English 11, so they match if you connect your school later. Planner picks a color and icon for each class and guesses AP or Honors from the name for your weighted GPA. Change anything that's wrong, now or later.

**That's it. You're in.** Add assignments yourself, or connect your school to bring them in automatically. Then tap Plan My Week and Planner books study sessions into the time you actually have.

## Connect your school

Planner can bring in your assignments, and for most platforms your grades, so you don't type anything twice. You sign in to your school as usual, and Planner never sees your password. If you skipped it during setup, open Settings, then School, and choose Connect your school, or use Import from your school in the Finish setting up list on your dashboard. Pick your platform and Planner shows the way that works in your browser:

- **Canvas, Schoology, Google Classroom and Blackbaud:** the free Severn Planner Overlay extension for Chrome on a computer.
- **Canvas from any browser:** a Canvas access token. See [Connect Canvas with an access token](/setup/canvas).
- **Brightspace, Moodle, Blackboard, ManageBac, Toddle, Veracross and Schoology:** a calendar link, which works in any browser, phones included.

Work you already turned in on Canvas, Google Classroom or Schoology comes in marked as done. On Safari or Firefox on a computer, Planner points you to Google Chrome, since the extension runs there. Sign in to the same account in Chrome and what it brings in shows up everywhere.

Some school Google accounts can't add Chrome extensions. If the extension won't add, sign in to Chrome with a personal Google account and try again.

- [Add Severn Planner Overlay to Chrome](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/severn-planner-overlay/adkecoemjjkppanfmbgfhadnkphgndhe) (free; Chrome extensions only install on a computer)
- [Watch: setting up the extension](https://youtu.be/xslwxI4D-Ic), a short video on YouTube

## Blackbaud

1. In Planner, pick Blackbaud and add the extension to Chrome.
2. Open your school's Blackbaud site (myschoolapp.com) and sign in. You don't need to type the address: Planner learns it from there.
3. Planner appears on top of Blackbaud and brings in your assignments and grades.
4. The extension's button switches between Planner and the normal Blackbaud site.

## Canvas

1. In Planner, pick Canvas and add the extension to Chrome. There's no address to type.
2. Open your school's Canvas and sign in.
3. Planner opens on top of Canvas on its own and brings in your classes, assignments and grades.

You can also connect from Canvas itself: with Canvas open, click the Planner extension's button in Chrome's toolbar and choose Connect. If Chrome asks to allow the site, click Allow.

No Chrome, or on an iPhone, iPad or Safari? [Connect Canvas with an access token](/setup/canvas) instead. It works in any browser, no extension needed, and you can use it alongside the extension.

## Schoology

1. In Planner, pick Schoology and add the extension to Chrome. There's no address to type.
2. Open your school's Schoology and sign in.
3. Planner opens on top of Schoology on its own and brings in your classes, assignments and grades.

The extension's button in Chrome's toolbar can connect it from Schoology too. In a browser without the extension, Schoology connects with a calendar link instead, which brings in assignments and due dates but not grades.

## Google Classroom

1. Install the extension. If you already have it, make sure it's up to date.
2. In Planner, pick Google Classroom.
3. In the tab that opens, click Allow access, then Allow when Chrome asks.
4. Open classroom.google.com and sign in, or refresh it if it's already open. Planner only reads your work. It never posts, turns in or changes anything.

## Calendar link platforms

For Brightspace, Moodle, Blackboard, ManageBac, Toddle or Veracross:

1. In Planner, open Settings and choose Connect with a calendar link, under School sync.
2. Pick your school platform. Planner shows where to find its calendar link.
3. Copy the link from your school platform, paste it into Planner, and click Connect.
4. Check the assignments Planner found, then click Import Selected.

No extension needed, and it works in any browser, phones too. A calendar link brings in assignment titles, classes and due dates, not grades. Schoology works this way too. See [Connect your school with a calendar link](/setup/calendar-link) for each platform, step by step.

## More than one school platform

Open Settings, then School, to add another platform or manage the connections you have. Adding a platform doesn't remove or change your existing classes, assignments or grades. If the same class ends up listed twice, open its ⋯ menu and choose Merge into another class. Its assignments, notes, reminders and study time move over.

## Help a classmate set up

Once your school is connected, Settings, then School, has Copy a setup link. Send it to a classmate and their setup starts with your school's platform already picked.

## Finish setting up

After your first assignment, your dashboard keeps a short Finish setting up list. Do these whenever you like, or dismiss the ones you don't need.

- **Import from your school**, if you skipped it during setup.
- **Protect your planner with a passphrase**, from your account's third day. It encrypts your planner on your device before it's saved, and you get a recovery code too. It's always in Settings, then Privacy & data, as well.

Everything else has a sensible default and lives in Settings: study hours and commitments in Calendar settings, reminders in Notifications, and your GPA scale in GPA, where you can search for your school or pick your state.

## Planner on your iPhone or iPad

There's no App Store app to download. Put Planner on your Home Screen instead: it opens full screen like an app, with its own icon. iPhones and iPads also only send a website's reminders once it's on the Home Screen.

1. Open [app.severnplanner.com](https://app.severnplanner.com/) in Safari.
2. Tap the **Share** button, at the bottom of Safari on iPhone or the top on iPad. If you don't see it, tap the menu button next to the address bar first.
3. Choose **Add to Home Screen**. You may need to scroll down to find it.
4. Tap **Add**.

Then open Planner from your Home Screen and sign in. The Home Screen app keeps its own sign-in, so you sign in once more, but it's the same planner. To get reminders, turn them on in Settings, then Notifications (this needs iOS 16.4 or later). Planner's icon then shows how many things are due today.

On a phone, swipe an assignment right to finish it or left to move it to tomorrow, press and hold anything for more options, and pull down to check for changes.

On a computer, Settings, then About, has Show the code: scan it with your phone and Planner opens there. On Windows and Chromebooks, the same place can install Planner so it opens in its own window from your taskbar or shelf.

## Planner for Mac

Planner for Mac puts Planner in its own window and adds a study timer in the menu bar, widgets, quick add from any app, and Siri and Shortcuts actions. It signs in to the same account. Its own options, like keyboard shortcuts, notifications and blocking distracting apps and sites, are in Settings, under This Mac, then Mac Settings. See [Planner for Mac](/mac) to download it.

## Having trouble?

If your assignments aren't coming in, or Canvas or Schoology won't connect, see [Troubleshooting](/guide/troubleshooting).