A little preparation goes a long way. We hear it all the time from centres using Mana. Once everything is set up properly and the team understands how to use it, the time savings are huge.

Educators tell us they feel more confident, less stressed, and genuinely excited about planning again. That's the experience we want for you too.

This guide walks you through the key areas to review and reset so you can head into 2026 feeling confident and in control.

This section is all about closing off last year and creating a clean starting point.

Start by asking your team to close off their journeys. Simply go to Child > Journey > Complete. If anything needs to be added or moved around, do that first. All children should have no active journey when you're done. You can double check from the dashboard and close off any that are still active.

For a full guide see: How to close a journey

You can do this yourself or ask your team to do it for their key rooms. Go to Curricula > Room > Select curriculum > Complete to close off each program.

For a full guide see: How to complete a curriculum

Go to Profile icon > Settings > Key children > Toggle on > Manage key groups > View by educators > Select educator > Clear all > Save changes.

You can leave the toggle on or off at this point depending on whether you'd like to handle allocations yourself or let the team do this step. Alternatively, you can toggle central management off and ask educators to "unstar" their children, then restart fresh in the new year.

For a full guide see: How to clear key child allocations

You have a couple of options here:

Option 1: Same group of children are all moving to a new room together

The easiest way is to simply rename the group. This also retains the program history for that group in your completed curricula section, and you can make any necessary adjustments from there. Go to Curricula > Group name > Profile > Edit name > Save

Option 2: Several changes to the list taking place

Go to Curricula > Group name > Profile > Edit child list and update the list for the new term or year.

For a full guide see: How to update groups/rooms

At this point, your dashboard should show your total child count listed as children needing an educator and no journey, your total room count as rooms needing an educator, and zero for children needing a room, off track, and falling behind.

This is your clean slate.

For a full guide see: How to navigate the home dashboard

Go to Settings > Members and delete anyone who has left or is leaving. Add anyone who's joining and update roles as needed.

For a full guide see: How to update team members

In the Journeys > View all section, update the child list by deleting anyone who has left and adding any new children.

For a full guide see: How to update children

Now that you have a clean slate, it's time to get everything ready for the new year.

In the Settings area, find Team management. Use the Key children section to assign children to educators, and Key groups to assign educators to rooms.

For full guides see: How to set up key children | How to set up key groups

In the Team Learning section, update the writing style, philosophy, framework, and coaching level as needed for your centre.

For a full guide see: How to customise your Mana

In the Team features > Journeys section, set up the stages for your journeys, default views, and any other customisations before your team begins new cycles of planning.

You can also toggle on or off other features like Families and Grow. Contact the Mana team if you'd like more information about these features.

For a full guide see: How to customise journey stages

One final note: journey start dates cannot be adjusted after creation. If you'd like all journeys to reflect the same start date, you can activate them all at once by going to Child > Create journey without setting a goal. This way, every child starts fresh on the same date.

If you'd like some support getting your account ready for 2026, we're running free setup sessions throughout January. These are a great opportunity to work through this checklist with guidance, ask questions, and make sure you're making the most of everything Mana has to offer: Book a setup session

You can also reach out to our team anytime by emailing [email protected] or using the ? icon in the app if you get stuck or have questions along the way.

Here's to a great 2026!