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Roles & Statuses Explained

Josh
  • Updated

Overview

Different types of contacts are defined within the system through roles and statuses. In this article, we will explore the various roles and statuses that you will see in Finalsite Enrollment, as well as explain how they affect the Parent Portal view.

In this Article

Roles

The Role within Finalsite Enrollment defines the type of contact record you are viewing - for example, if the record is for a student in admissions or a parent.

The most common roles are set automatically by the system as a contact moves through the workflow. Roles in the system are categorized into In Workflow roles and Out of Workflow roles.

A record can have more than one role. For example, a Student who is also in Enrollment.

In Workflow Roles

In Workflow includes all of the roles within the Admissions Funnel, from the Inquiry stage up to Enrollment. In workflow roles include:

  • Inquiry: A contact with a status of Inquiry or Inquiry Completed.
  • Applicant: A contact with a status of Application, Application Complete, Accepted, or an active custom applicant status.
  • Enrollment: A contact with a status of Enrollment in Progress, Enrolled, or an active custom enrollment status.
  • Student: A student currently enrolled at your school.
  • Legacy: The Legacy Role is used to flag children in admissions or enrollment (except returning enrolled students) that have an alumni parent, a sibling that is currently enrolled at the school, or a sibling that previously attended the school. Read more about the Legacy role within this article: Legacy Role.

Out of Workflow Roles

Out of Workflow includes anyone outside of the Admissions Funnel, such as prospects, parents, and alumni. Out of workflow roles include:

  • Former Student: A formerly enrolled student who did not graduate from your school. Those marked as Former students will no longer be visible in a Parent's portal/checklist.
  • Alumni: A graduate of your school. Graduating students will be marked as Alumni (unless otherwise noted within Settings - General - Grades). Graduates who are marked as alumni will no longer be visible in a Parent's portal/checklist.
  • Parent: A parent of any student contact in the system.
  • Lead: A parent of a prospect. This is auto-assigned to parents when they are imported through a CMS Leadflow form. Read more about these in our Finalsite Leadflow article.
  • Consultant: A representative/agent for a family applying or enrolling at your school, most commonly for international students.
  • Prospect: A student that you may not have a relationship with yet, but is a potential candidate such as a church feeder school list, a public school list, or a younger sibling of a current student.

What's the difference between a Lead and a Prospect?

Leads and Parents are both considered Roles in Finalsite Enrollment. A role defines the type of contact in the system. For example, the role of "Parent" identifies anyone in the system who is a parent. 

The main difference between a Lead and a Prospect is that a Lead is a Parent while a Prospect is a Student.

Statuses

The Status within Finalsite Enrollment is the relative position within the role. Only in-workflow contacts can be assigned a status.

A Note on Status Automation:

Some statuses are automatically assigned, either by a form being submitted or all required items on a checklist being completed. These statuses have been marked with an asterisk* below. Any other statuses must be manually set.

Custom Statuses

Custom statuses can be created for both the Admissions and Enrollment processes. Please note: Custom enrollment statuses will not be displayed in the Enrollment Report; however, they will be included in your counts and the respective stages in the Admissions Funnel and Admissions Report. Custom statuses are also admin-facing only and not viewable in the Parent Portal. Click here to learn more, including how to create your own custom statuses.

Below is a list of each role and the statuses that fall within each role. We recommend you use them as described.

Inquiry

Inquiry statuses are admin-facing only, as parents have not created a Parent Portal Account yet at this stage. This means that the associated inquiry checklist is also admin-facing only. Inquiry statuses include:

  • Inquiry*: A contact who has submitted an inquiry form. Viewable by: Admin only.

  • Inquiry Completed*: A contact who has all required inquiry checklist items marked as complete. This status change happens automatically once the last required checklist item is marked complete. As a reminder, families do not have access to the Inquiry checklist so these items that are marked as complete are from the Admin side of things. Viewable by: Admin only.

  • Inactive Inquiry: This is not an automatic status. It has to be manually applied to a student. Using a status like 'Inactive Inquiry' will enable you to focus outreach on genuinely interested prospective students, rather than maintaining a large pool of inactive inquiries who might not have been interested initially. This approach ensures cleaner data and prevents unnecessary inflation of your sales funnel.

Applicant

Some applicant statuses are parent-facing, while others are admin-facing only. Within the applicant stage, parents will have a Parent Portal Account created and be able to access their student's checklist. Applicant statuses include:

  • Applicant*: A contact who has submitted an application form, but has not yet completed their application checklist. Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. The following type of message will display underneath the student's name in the Portal: "Applying for X Grade in [Term]".

Important Note about Applicants who also Inquired: In some cases, you may have Application forms in your inbox that need to be merged or imported as new contacts. This often happens when a family first inquires with your school via the Inquiry Form, through a public calendar sign-up, or from an Admin-entered Inquiry Form and then later applies to your school. Depending on the information provided in both forms, you may be asked to confirm if these contacts are a match so that you don't have duplicate records in the system. If an Application Form is waiting to be imported into your Forms Inbox (indicated by the red number in your Username menu), the checklist within the Parent Portal will display the following message:

This means you need to locate the form within the Admissions tab--Forms--Forms Inbox and confirm or deny the potential match. This will import the form and build the checklist within the Parent Portal.

  • Application Withdrawn: A contact who has contacted the school to withdraw their application. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message.

  • Deferred: A contact who has decided to wait until a future year to complete the application process. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message.

Application Complete

Application Complete statuses should be used for students who have completed all required items on their admissions checklist. Application Complete statuses include:

  • Application Complete*: A contact who has all required admissions checklist items marked as complete. Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. The parent will see the following message in the Parent Portal: "Thank you! Your application process is complete!" They still have access to their checklist and any uploaded forms.

Please Note: Application Complete

  • If a student is manually assigned to the 'Application Complete' status but still has pending checklist items, the parent/guardian will not encounter the thank-you message. Instead, they will continue to see the 'Applying for X Grade in [Term]' message.
  • If a required checklist item is added or removed after the student has already transitioned to the Applicant status, the system will not automatically update their status to Application Complete. In such instances, you will need to manually change their status to Application Completed. This is because the system looks for the required items at the time the student becomes an applicant to establish the Application Complete status

  • Review in Progress*: A contact who is currently being reviewed for admission by your reader committee. The change to Review in Progress will happen automatically once at least one reader is assigned to the student. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message.

  • Waitlisted: A contact who has completed all required admissions checklist items, but is on the waitlist to be offered a spot at your school. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message.

  • Denied: A contact who has completed all required admissions checklist items, but to whom you will not be offering admission. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents still see the checklist and the "Applying for X Grade in [Term]" message.

Accepted

Accepted statuses should be used for students to whom you have extended an offer (or plan to extend an offer) of admission to your school. Accepted statuses are NOT visible to parents through the Parent Portal. Accepted statuses include:

  • Accepted: A contact who has completed the application and review process, and has been accepted to your school. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents see the application complete message and can still access their admissions checklist.

  • Did Not Enroll: A contact who was accepted to your school, but you could not reconnect with to enroll. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents see the application complete message and can still access their admissions checklist.

  • Parent Declined: A contact who was accepted to your school, but whose parents declined to enroll. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents see the application complete message and can still access their admissions checklist.

Enrollment

Enrollment statuses are used for both new students enrolling for the first time in your school, as well as returning students enrolling for a new school year. Enrollment statuses include:

  • Enrollment in Progress: A contact who is in the process of enrolling in your school (either for the first time or for a new year). Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. Once new and returning students have a status of enrollment in progress, the enrollment checklist becomes visible on the Parent Portal, although contracts will not be viewable until you generate them. Parents will see the following message: "Enrolling for X Grade in [Term]".

Please note: For returning students, the change to Enrollment in Progress is automatic after you complete the rollover process. For new students, this status change will require manually moving accepted students to enrollment (which can be done in bulk).

  • Academic Hold: A contact whose enrollment process is on hold for academic reasons. Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. This status is displayed within the Parent Portal with the following message: "Account is on hold. Please contact us for details." The type of hold is not indicated to the parent. The parent will not be able to access the student's checklist or complete items until the hold is removed.

  • Financial Hold: A contact whose enrollment process is on hold for financial reasons. Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. This status is displayed within the Parent Portal with the following message: "Account is on hold. Please contact us for details." The type of hold is not indicated to the parent. The parent will not be able to access the student's checklist or complete items until the hold is removed.

  • Not Enrolling: A contact who determined during the enrollment process that they are no longer enrolling. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents/Guardians will no longer see the student in the portal and the checklist is no longer available. The role of 'Former Student' is automatically assigned to the contact when they are placed in this status.

Enrolled

  • Enrolled*: A contact who has all required enrollment checklist items marked as complete and is considered enrolled at your school. This status change happens automatically once the last required enrollment checklist item is marked complete. Viewable by: Parent/Guardian. The parent will see the following message in the Parent Portal: "Thank you! Your enrollment process is complete." They still have access to their checklist and any uploaded forms.

Please note: If the student is manually placed in Enrolled but still has pending checklist items to complete, the parent/guardian will not see the thank you message, and will instead still see the "Enrolling for X Grade in [Term]" message.

  • Mid-Year Withdrawal: A contact who enrolled at your school, but decided partway through to withdraw their enrollment. Viewable by: Admin only. Parents/Guardians will no longer see the student in the portal and the checklist is no longer available. The role of 'Former Student' is automatically assigned to the contact when they are placed in this status.

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