Getting started

Last updated: Jun 28, 2025

Your first timetable in a few steps

Whether you want to test Horarium or generate a real school timetable, we've made the process simple and intuitive.
It's easy to get lost in the details, so we recommend starting with a basic setup for your first timetable.
Once you’ve created your account, you’re ready to go. Enter the wizard and let’s get started!

1. School name & buildings

In the first step, you’ll be asked to enter the school name and define the school’s buildings (if there is more than one).
We recommend starting simple and using the default single-building configuration.
Click Next to continue.

2. School periods

In this step, you'll configure the school periods. Think of these as the overall time frame for all daily activities.

Start by selecting the active school days. The default is Monday to Friday, but you can easily choose more or fewer days.

Then click Configure periods. You’ll be prompted to enter the following information:

School start time – the hour at which the first activity begins
Number of periods per day – a period typically represents the duration of a single lesson, although some lessons may extend over multiple periods
Period duration (in minutes)
Breaks – whether breaks occur after periods, and if so, how long they last (in minutes)

Once you click Generate periods, an initial schedule will be created. Review it and adjust any periods if needed.

Click Next to continue.

3. Classes

In this section, you’ll configure the time ranges during which each class is available. To save time, you can configure multiple classes at once.

Click New configuration and select all the classes that share the same activity settings:

Start time
End time
Minimum/maximum number of lessons per day

If some classes don’t share this configuration, create a separate configuration for them.

Tip: We provide a predefined list of common class names (e.g., 5A, 5B, 9C). If your school uses different names, you can easily add them by clicking Add more classes.

You've completed half of the steps. Let’s move on to the next one.

Important: You must configure at least two classes.

4. Subjects

Quickly add the subjects taught at your school.
Click Quick add and enter at least two subjects.

Click Next to proceed.

5. Teachers

Click Quick add and enter at least two teachers by name.
At this point, we recommend keeping things simple and not configuring any constraints.

Tip: You can edit a teacher’s profile to add constraints, but we suggest avoiding strict constraints unless you’re certain of their preferences.
On the teacher edit page, you’ll find a variety of constraint options you can freely explore.

Click Next to proceed.

6. Lessons

Now it’s time to add lessons. You’ve configured your classes, subjects, and teachers — now let’s connect them.

You must add at least one lesson to be able to generate a timetable.

Tip: If you just want to test the app, you can add one lesson and generate the timetable.

Click Add lessons. On the add page, let’s say you want to configure four math lessons for class 5A:

In the Teacher field, select the math teacher
In the Subject field, select Math
In the Class(es) field, select 5A
In the Frequency field, enter 4 (for four weekly lessons)
In the Importance field, select Very Important (important lessons are scheduled earlier)

Tip: If you need to add more lessons for the same teacher, don't leave the page. Click Add in the bottom-right corner to quickly enter the rest of the lessons.

Save the lessons and move on to the final step.

7. Timetable constraints

This is the final step. Here you can see a list of rules that define how the timetable should be generated.
We’ve already added some default rules. If you’re not sure how to modify them, we recommend keeping the defaults.

Click Generate timetable and you're done!

Tip: If you encounter any errors, don’t worry — it usually means some input data is incomplete or incorrect.
Check out the common errors & fixes section for guidance.

What to do next

Once your timetable is generated, you can:

Download
Manually edit
Regenerate
Share with your colleagues

Important: Some features may require a paid subscription.