Your desk in Tandem is a workspace you build yourself. You build it out of Desk Tools. Each Desk Tool is a card that does one job, like listing your students or tracking deadlines. You choose which Desk Tools you want, where they sit, and what they are called.
Desk Tools can live on your own desk (My Desk) or on a student's desk. To learn more about Student Desk, click here.
My Desk is your personal space. Use it to keep track of your entire caseload and your own to-dos, with cards that bring all your students together in one view. To open it, select My Desk at the top of the left sidebar.
Desk Tools
In Tandem, the cards you add to your desk are called Desk Tools. So when you see "Desk Tool," think of it as a card.
Here are the Desk Tools available on My Desk:
This guide walks through every Desk Tool on My Desk, what it shows, and what you can do with it. It starts with the basics of working with Desk Tools, then covers each one in detail.
Students
The Students card is your caseload in a table, with one row per student you have access to. Administrators can use the toggle at the top to switch between All Students (everyone at the schools or districts you administer) and My Caseload (only students assigned to you).
What it shows: Student Name, Grade, Services, Disability Category, BIP, LRE, IEP Start Date, IEP End Date, and Re-eval Date. School and Provider columns are available but hidden by default. You can also add your own columns.
What you can do:
Search by student name, disability category, or IEP provisions.
Filter to show only the students you need, like everyone with an IEP ending in the next 45 days. You can filter by any column, including custom ones, or by Last Logged to find students without recent sessions. Active filters appear as chips below the toolbar.
Sort by clicking any column heading.
Columns lets you show, hide, or add columns.
Click a student's name to open their desk, or click Log to log a session.
Export downloads the table as a CSV, matching your current search, filters, sort, and visible columns.
Custom columns: Add your own from the Columns menu as a Date, Yes/No, Text, or dropdown (Custom Select) column. Fill them in directly in the table. They work in filters and sorting, and they belong to you. Deleting a custom column also deletes everything entered in it.
Saved views: Changes to the Main Table tab save automatically. To keep a different setup, click +, set up the table, and click Save as New Tab. Saved tabs are yours alone and follow you to every Students card you add.
The table updates on its own as your caseload changes. You can edit your own custom columns here, but not student records. If a student record needs to be updated, please have an administrator of your school contact us.
Task Tracker
Task Tracker keeps your deadlines and to-dos in one place, with due dates and the students they relate to. It is only available on My Desk.
What it shows: Each task has a name, due date, task type, and any students attached to it. Tasks are labeled by urgency, so overdue and due-this-week items stand out.
Tandem also creates some tasks automatically from your students' records, such as an upcoming IEP or re-evaluation. These close on their own when they are no longer needed.
You can create your own tasks for anything with a due date or related students, like progress notes, evaluation sections, assessments, or lesson prep.
What you can do:
Click New task to create a task. Give it a name, due date, and type, and optionally add a reminder, instructions, or students.
Use the filter chips to view all, overdue, due this week, future, or completed tasks.
Filter by task type, like only Meetings or only Evaluations.
Expand a task to see its instructions and students.
Tick Mark task as complete when you are done. You can reopen it later if needed.
Use the task menu to edit, duplicate, or delete a task.
If you manage other providers, you will also see a Provider Tasks view alongside My Tasks. You can assign tasks to yourself, all providers, or specific people.
Sticky Note
A Sticky Note is the quickest way to jot something down. Click into it and start typing. It saves as you go.
Use the gear icon to change the color. Many teachers color-code their notes, for example one color for reminders and another for things to bring up at a meeting.
Table
The Table card is a free-form grid. There are no fixed columns, so you decide what goes in it. It suits things like a weekly schedule, a data-collection sheet, or a simple tracker.
What you can do:
Click any cell and type. Cells support rich text.
Click Add column or Add row to grow the table.
Hover a row or column and click the trash icon to remove it.
Drag a row or column edge to resize it.
Note: Tables can be edited on a computer. On a phone they are view-only.
To Do List
A To Do List is a checklist. It works well for things that have steps, because each item can have sub-items. You can have as many To Do lists as you want.
What you can do:
Click the title to rename the card.
Click Add new list item to add an item, then type directly into it.
Click the plus on an item to add a sub-item underneath it.
Check an item off. Checking a parent item checks all of its sub-items, and checking every sub-item completes the parent.
Remove an item with the trash icon.
Personalize Your Desk
There is no wrong way to set up My Desk. Start with the Desk Tools you will use every day, like Students and Task Tracker, then add others as you find a need for them. You can rename, move, or remove a Desk Tool at any time, so feel free to experiment until your desk fits the way you work.
To learn about the Desk Tools built around a single student's record and IEP, see the Student Desk guide.
Questions or ideas for a new Desk Tool? Reach out to our support team through the chat in Tandem. We'd love to hear from you.