First Setup

This guide walks through the first production-ready configuration of Smooth LMS on your Smooth HRMS account (Smooth HR already enabled). You will enable portal navigation, create categories, publish a pilot course, link employees to users, and validate HR onboarding enrollment for mandatory training.

Help URL: smoothhiring.com/help/lms/getting-started/first-setup

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Install and migrate
3. Configure LMS Settings
4. Categories and portal branding
5. Service roles and test users
6. Publish a pilot course
7. HR employee linkage
8. Mandatory training smoke test
9. Desk paths
10. Step-by-step checklist
11. Tips
12. Troubleshooting
13. Related guides
14. HRMS integration

Prerequisites

• A Smooth HRMS account with Smooth HR enabled.
• Smooth LMS enabled on your account.
• SMTP or email queue working for cohort confirmations and training reminders.
• HR has created at least one Company and Employee with company email.

Optional: test quiz/certificate PDF download from the desk.

Confirm Smooth LMS is enabled

1. Confirm Smooth LMS appears in your app switcher after login (contact Smooth support if it is missing).
3. After a platform update, sign out and back in; contact Smooth support if menus look outdated.
4. If the learning portal looks broken after an update, hard-refresh the browser or contact Smooth support.
5. Confirm Workspace "Learning" exists and app icon opens /desk/learning.

Default LMS roles and certificate templates are created automatically when Smooth LMS is enabled on your account.

Configure LMS Settings

Open /app/lms-settings/LMS%20Settings (single record).

General tab

• Allow Guest Access — off for internal HRMS sites.
• Prevent Skipping Videos — enable for compliance video lessons.
• Default Home — portal landing experience.

Notifications

• Enable Send notification for published courses when rolling out new libraries.
• Enable batch notifications if using cohorts.

Sidebar tab

Turn on items employees need:

• Courses, Batches (cohorts), Statistics (admins), Certifications as appropriate.
• Disable Jobs/Programming if not used to reduce noise.

Signup

• Disable Signup on private employee-only sites.
• Map User Category options for corporate personas.

Save settings before user acceptance testing.

Categories and portal branding

1. Open /app/lms-category — create folders: Safety, Leadership, IT, Onboarding.
2. Sample categories may already exist; rename them to match your taxonomy.
3. Upload Meta Image and SEO fields in LMS Settings for external-facing sites.
4. Optional: configure Web Page home linked from Learning workspace.

Assign every course to a category for catalog filters on /lms/courses.

Service roles and test users

Create three test users:

Verify author can open /lms/courses/new/edit while learner cannot.

Publish a pilot course

1. As author, create Workplace Safety Orientation course.
2. Add trainer row (Course Instructor) with author user.
3. Add one Module (Course Chapter) and two lessons (markdown + quiz).
4. Set Short Introduction and Description (required fields).
5. Enable Completion Certificate if testing certificates.
6. Check Published; set Published On date.
7. Browse /lms/courses as learner; complete content.

Monitor /app/lms-enrollment for progress.

HR employee linkage

For each employee who must train:

1. Open Employee record.
2. Set User ID to company email user.
3. Save—integration adds LMS Student if missing.
4. Invite user to set password if new account.

Without user_id, onboarding training assignment will not run.

Mandatory training smoke test

1. Edit pilot course: enable Mandatory Training, set Validity Period (Days) e.g. 365.
2. Create Employee Onboarding for a test hire linked to employee with user.
3. Submit onboarding—verify LMS Enrollment and LMS Training Assignment created (30-day default due).
4. Learner portal home shows mandatory widget with due date.
5. Complete course; assignment status moves to Completed.

Alternatively call assign mandatory training API as Moderator with employee user list + due date.

Desk paths

Step-by-step checklist

• Smooth LMS is available on your account
• LMS Settings sidebar configured
• LMS Category masters created
• Roles assigned to L&D team
• Pilot course published on portal
• Employee users linked
• Mandatory enrollment tested via onboarding
• Quiz submission PDF prints from desk
• Certificate generated (if enabled)
• Documentation shared with managers (/lms/courses link)

Tips

• Run through the learner and author smoke tests on a test account after seed scripts.
• Keep production disable_signup on to prevent public accounts.
• Document canonical URL {site}/lms/courses in employee handbook.
• Schedule quarterly review of unpublished draft courses in /app/lms-course.

Troubleshooting

Related guides

• Smooth LMS overview
• Desk vs portal
• Create a course
• Mandatory training and validity

HRMS integration

First setup succeeds when HR master data is reliable—see Employee records. Align onboarding templates with LMS mandatory courses per Employee Onboarding overview. Plan how completion evidence flows into Employee Compliance before go-live.

Post-setup validation script

Manually verify: (1) learner login → portal home, (2) author login → editor, (3) moderator assign training, (4) desk quiz PDF print, (5) onboarding creates enrollment. Record results in internal QA doc. After each Smooth LMS release, sign out and back in; contact support if anything looks wrong to re-run v16 desk patches.

Governance, auditing, and data retention

Training data in Smooth LMS is standard Frappe JSON in MariaDB plus files in public/files and public/scorm. HR audits typically require evidence of who completed what by when. Export desk lists (LMS Enrollment, LMS Quiz Submission, LMS Training Assignment, LMS Certificate) to CSV for sampling. Quiz submission print formats provide question-level detail suitable for safety investigations or harassment prevention audits.

Retention policy should align with HR document retention: keep LMS submissions at least as long as related Employee Compliance records. When employees depart, disable User accounts but retain enrollment history unless legal counsel approves purging. Version course content via amended records or annual duplicated courses so historical completions still reference the correct curriculum year.

System Managers should restrict Moderator role membership and enable login activity review on sensitive cohorts (executive leadership programs). Pair LMS reports with HR onboarding status from Employee Onboarding overview to prove training preceded start date when required.

Frequently asked questions

Do employees need desk access? No. LMS Student is portal-only by default; send {site}/lms/courses links.

Can one user be both Course Creator and Moderator? Yes on small teams; larger orgs should separate author vs publish duties.

How do we handle contractors? Create User + optional HR employee record; assign training like employees via Employee records linkage or direct enrollment.

What breaks if HRMS is down? LMS continues serving published content; new hire auto-enrollment pauses until Employee/Onboarding APIs succeed.

Are certificates legally equivalent to HR compliance rows? Not automatically—store PDFs on compliance or document types when statute requires.

Performance and scale notes

Large enrollments (5,000+ users) should batch assign overnight via assign_mandatory_training rather than manual enrollment rows. Rebuild website cache after bulk publish. Monitor background workers if email notifications queue heavily. SCORM packages should be optimized zip exports to reduce disk usage during large uploads.

Additional troubleshooting

Operations calendar (recommended)

Integration smoke tests with HRMS

1. Create test Employee with user — confirm LMS Student role.
2. Submit test Employee Onboarding — confirm enrollments when courses mandatory.
3. Complete course — attach quiz PDF to test Employee Compliance row.
4. Archive evidence in document compliance SOP.

Support runbook (L1)

Collect: user email, course/cohort name, screenshot of error, timestamp. Check enrollment exists, course published, role present. Escalate to System Manager if SCORM extract failed or permission hooks deny batch access. Reference Employee records to fix missing user_id before reassigning training.

Last updated: May 2026