Grades, GPA, and the transcript
Grades are optional for younger children and the backbone of the record for a high schooler. What appears depends on the child’s grade level, so a seven-year-old’s record has no GPA machinery in it at all.
Choosing a grading scale
Set it in Settings, under your homeschool. There are three, and the choice applies across your children rather than per child:
Letter. A, B+, C and so on. The default, and the one an admissions office reads without translation.
Percentage. A number from 0 to 100.
Mastery. A short written note instead of a mark. Suited to how many families actually assess, and it lands on the record as words rather than as a number to average.
Changing the scale doesn’t erase grades you already recorded. It changes what the app asks for next.
Recording a grade
Two routes, and they reach the same place. Capture a grade as you go, which needs a subject chosen because it posts to that subject’s gradebook. Or open the child’s record and add one against a subject directly, which is the better route when you’re entering several at once.
Adding from the record also lets you set the date it was assessed, under Add detail. It defaults to today and won’t accept a future date.
What builds itself from that
Each subject shows its grades and its average. For a high schooler, a subject marked as a high-school course with a credit value also feeds the running totals on their record: cumulative GPA, credits, and the number of courses. Those totals are the transcript in miniature, and they are calculated the same way the exported PDF calculates them, so the preview and the document can’t disagree.
Building the transcript
There is no separate transcript builder to fill in. The transcript is assembled from what is already on the record, which is the point of recording as you go. To get a complete one:
1. Set your homeschool name in Settings. It prints at the top of the document as the issuing school.
2. In Planner, mark the subjects that are high-school courses and give each a credit value.
3. Record grades against those courses.
4. Open the child’s record and check the preview beside the export controls. It is the actual document, so what you read there is what prints.
5. Export the transcript PDF.
Several years on one transcript
A transcript covers a high school career rather than a single year, so courses are grouped by the year they were taken and the cumulative GPA runs across all of them. This is the reason a child’s grade level is recorded per school year rather than as one current value.
What this document is
A parent-issued transcript. That is the ordinary and accepted form for a homeschooled applicant, and colleges receive them routinely. It is not an accredited school’s transcript, we are not an accrediting body, and nothing in the document claims otherwise. If a particular college asks for something more, ask them directly what they need.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to grade everything? No. Grades are optional, and for a younger child many families record almost none. They matter most for a high schooler, where courses and credits are what a transcript is assembled from.
Can I change the grading scale later? Yes. Switching between letter, percentage and mastery does not erase what you have already recorded. It changes what the app asks you for next.
Will a college accept a parent-issued transcript? Colleges receive them routinely from homeschooled applicants, and it is the ordinary form for a family that is not enrolled in an accredited program. It is not an accredited school’s transcript and does not claim to be. If a particular college wants something further, ask them directly.
Where to go next
Exporting records covers the other documents and what each one is for.