Quick Start — Menchmark

What you'll need

A computer with Chrome or Edge — the one that will sit at the front of your classroom.
Your class list — student names, on paper or in your head.
A printer — for the student QR codes (any printer works).
Optional: a QR scanner — you can start today without one and tap names on screen. See the scanner section when you're ready.

Open the app and name your classroom

~2 min

Go to menchmark.app/app.html and bookmark it — this is your classroom's home from now on. Then click directly on "Sample School" and "Sample Class 1" in the header and type over them — they're editable right in place. Press Enter or click away to save.

Notice the navigation across the top — five tabs, in the order you'll live in them: ⛶ Record· Recognize· Reward· Review· Run

Where things live: everyday teaching happens in Record. Everything you set up — students, activities, settings — lives in Run. When in doubt, it's in Run.

Add your students

~5 min

Go to Run→Students. Three ways to enter your class, fastest first: paste your whole list into the bulk box (one per line, like Yaakov Cohen, 5A) and click Add all; add students one at a time; or import the roster from your Google Sheet if you've set up sync. Each student gets his own QR code automatically the moment he's added — nothing extra to generate.

Teaching more than one class? Add each class and use the class selector (top-right of the header) to switch between them. Each class keeps its own students, points, and history.

Set up what you're rewarding

~3 min

Go to Run→Activities. Activities are the things you award points for, each with its own point value. Three starters are already there — On time, Davening nicely, Learning nicely — so you can scan on day one without adding anything.

Add your own with a name and a point value (use a negative number for a deduction), and change any value right in the list. Start small: three to five activities covering what you praise most — the system grows with you.

Print your QR codes

~5 min

This is where the app meets the physical classroom. Look for the 🖨 print buttons:

Student codes — the "🖨 Print student labels" button sits right at the top of Run→Students (label sheets, Avery-compatible). Or print the seating chart with QR codes so each desk shows its student's code.
Activity codes — the "🖨 Print activity labels" button sits at the top of Run→Activities. Keep this sheet by your desk: scanning an activity code switches what you're awarding.

Tape student codes to desks, or hand out cards — whatever fits your room. Crisp printing matters: a blurry code is a code that won't scan.

Your first scan

~1 min

Go to ⛶ Record. The scan bar runs across the top of the page — it follows you to almost every tab.

Arm an activity. The chip on the left of the scan bar (for example Davening +1 ▾) shows what you're currently awarding. Click it to choose a different activity.
Scan a student. With a scanner: point and pull the trigger. Without one: click into the scan box and type the code, or tap the student on screen.
Watch it land. The award appears instantly in the scan strip with the student's name — and an Undo button, because mis-scans happen.

That's the entire teaching motion. See a good middah → scan → keep teaching. No menus, no interruption.

Show the class

~1 min

Open Recognize→Leaderboard on the board and let them see their names climb. The dashboard in ⛶ Record shows the live class view, and the seating chart pops out to full screen for the smartboard.

Recognition in real time is the whole engine. The moment they see the board respond, the room changes.

A day with Menchmark

Morning: take attendance in Run→Attendance — or just start scanning; the day takes care of itself.

During shiur: stay in ⛶ Record. Arm the activity for what's happening now and scan as you see it. Switch activities by clicking the chip or scanning an activity code from your printed menu.

Bathroom breaks: Run→Passes tracks who used their pass.

Learning time: Review holds the Torah tools — pesukim charts, teach mode, mishnayos, shorashim quizzes.

Erev Shabbos or whenever you like: run a raffle or auction in Reward and let the week's points pay off.

Getting a scanner

Any USB "keyboard-style" (HID) 2D barcode scanner works. We use and recommend the Tera 1300 series (about $40 on Amazon): wireless over a small USB dongle, all-day battery, survives being dropped.

Two ways to connect it

1. Keyboard mode — simplest, works instantly

Plug in the dongle and scan — the scanner "types" the code like a keyboard. No setup, no drivers. The one catch: the scan only lands when the app's scan box has focus (you've clicked into it). Perfect for most rebbeim.

2. Serial / COM mode — advanced, runs in the background

Switch the scanner into USB-COM mode (a setup barcode in its manual), then connect it once inside the app at Run→Settings → "Barcode/QR Scanner — connect directly (Serial/COM)" → 🔌 Connect scanner. Now scans reach the app everywhere, even when it's in the background — no need to keep the scan box focused. Ideal if you run Menchmark behind your normal teaching and don't want to click into it every time.

Serial mode needs Chrome or Edge on a computer (not phones or tablets). You grant permission once with the Connect button; after that it just works.

Scanner beeps but nothing happens? It's probably in USB-COM mode but not yet connected in the app. Either connect it (Run → Settings, above), or switch it back to keyboard mode: find the "USB keyboard / HID" barcode in the scanner's manual, scan it, and unplug/replug the dongle. This is the single most common scanner mystery — now you know both cures.

Protect your data

Your class data lives on your computer, in your browser — not on our servers. That's the privacy promise, and it comes with one responsibility:

Export a backup once a week. In Run→Backup & Sheets, the "Download backup file" button saves a single file with everything — students, points, history. Clearing your browser data without a backup erases your class. One click a week makes that impossible.

Optional — sync to your own Google Sheet. The Backup area also sets up a live sync to a Google Sheet you own, for cross-device access and a running cloud copy. The app walks you through it (paste a code template into the Sheet's Apps Script and deploy it). One gotcha to remember for later: if you ever update that script's code, pasting isn't enough — you must go to Deploy → Manage deployments → New version for the change to take effect.

Using a shared or borrowed computer? Export your backup and remember the data stays in that browser until cleared.

The five tabs at a glance

⛶ Record	The live classroom — dashboard, scanning, seating chart, today's history. Where you spend the day.
Recognize	Leaderboard, trends over time, and contests. Where students see their effort counted.
Reward	Raffle, auction, and store. Where points become prizes.
Review	The Torah learning tools — text, pesukim charts, teach mode, mishnayos, shorashim quizzes. Reviewing the material with the class.
Run	The engine room — students, activities, attendance, homework, tracker, passes, backup, and settings.

Quick fixes

A scan went to the wrong student or activity: Click Undo on that entry in the scan strip. Recent scans stay visible exactly for this.
Scanning does nothing for a student: Check the class selector (top-right) — scans only count for students in the currently selected class.
The scanner beeps but nothing types: It's in USB-COM mode — either connect it in Run → Settings, or switch it back to keyboard mode. Both cures are in the scanner section.
A printed code won't scan: Reprint it larger or at higher quality — blur and tiny sizes are the usual culprits.
Something else is broken or confusing: That's exactly what the beta is for. Tell us — see below.

You're a beta tester. Tell us everything.

Confusing, broken, missing, or "wouldn't it be nice if" — every message gets read and answered, and your feedback shapes what Menchmark becomes.

feedback@menchmark.app beta@menchmark.app

Free during beta · Your data stays on your device and your own Google Sheet