CMS and EMS Forms: A Guided Approach for Schools Using both Finalsite Products

Overview

Using Finalsite’s Content Management System (CMS) together with our Enrollment Management System (EMS) provides the optimal experience for parents and school administrators alike. This combination gives you the tools to streamline communications and nurture leads in a more dynamic way. In this article, you'll learn the benefits and important points to consider when managing communications across both the CMS and EMS platforms.

Terms Used in This Article

You will see the following terms used to refer to Finalsite’s two systems:

• CMS (Content Management System) refers to Finalsite’s website, marketing, and communication tools (which includes Forms, Composer, Messages, and Automated Email Workflows).
• EMS (Enrollment Management System) refers to Finalsite’s admissions and enrollment platform (formerly SchoolAdmin).

Best Practices

• Enable the Finalsite Leadflow feature to use data from forms created in CMS to automatically create Lead and Prospect records in EMS. Then, market to the prospective families, encouraging them to inquire or apply. You can learn more about this in our article: Finalsite Leadflow.
• Use forms in your EMS for admissions- and enrollment-related items.
• The EMS inquiry form should be embedded on your CMS site for easy access and to create an Inquiry record in your EMS system.
• Place a link to your EMS application form on your CMS site with a call to action.

Questions to Consider

• Do you need to collect a fee upon form submission? Fee collection is not available in your EMS until after the applicant phase. All fee collection prior to the student becoming an applicant will need to take place in your CMS site.
• Does the collected information tie to a contract fee, or trigger an Admissions/Enrollment Checklist item or internal reminder? If so, this form should be hosted in your EMS.
• Who needs access to the collected data? Are they an admin, user, or reviewer in the intended platform? Each platform has a unique set of users. While all admissions and enrollment forms should be collected in EMS and visible to all of your admissions and enrollment staff, you may need other information collected for a different audience. For example, a coach or teacher may like to collect T-shirt orders with a sporting event form. The coach is likely not an EMS user, and this is not related to admissions or enrollment. In that case, the form should be hosted in your CMS.
• What stage in the admissions cycle will the parent/student be presented with this form? Prospects do not have access to complete forms outside of the inquiry form itself in the EMS platform.
• Would you like to auto-import form data from CMS to automatically create Lead and Prospect records in EMS?
  If so, you'll need to start by reaching out to support in order to enable the Leadflow feature within your EMS site. Then, you'll be able to set up CMS forms to send parent and student data over to your EMS site where they will be automatically created as Leads (parents) and Prospects (Students). You can learn more about Leadflow Forms in this article: Finalsite Leadflow.

• Will you manually import data collected on a CMS form into your EMS?
  If you're planning to use contact information collected with a form from the Finalsite CMS within the EMS, it's important to note that the EMS requires certain pieces of information to create a new prospect.

  • To successfully import the data into EMS, make sure that you collect the following on your CMS form:

    • prospect_entry_grade
    • prospect_entry_year

    Note: Student email (on the Prospect Import Template as CHILD.email) is only required if you do not have parent contact information on the import file. You must have one or the other to import the prospects into the EMS.

Key Features and Benefits of CMS and EMS

Workflows

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Prospect form(s)	YES		Forms in your EMS are only available from Inquiry--> Enrollment but you can enable Leadflow within your CMS prospects forms to auto-create Leads and Prospects in EMS.
Embeddable forms	YES	YES (Inquiry Form only)
Custom appointment forms	YES	YES
Inquiry, Application and Enrollment contract/forms		YES
Ad-hoc admissions and enrollment forms		YES
Event registration hosted on forms	YES	YES	EMS forms are intended for admissions and enrollment events only. CMS forms should be used for community events (if needed).
Teacher recommendation forms		YES (Applicant stage)
Document request forms		YES (Applicant-->Enrollment only)
Internal-facing forms		YES	For example, Interview Notes Form

Setup and Customization

Feature	CMS	EMS	Notes
Customizable field display	YES	YES	CMS refers to this as conditional fields, while EMS refers to this feature as dynamic forms
Collect fees	YES	YES (Applicant-->Enrollment only)
Signature fields	YES	YES
Default field values	YES	YES	Single, Multiple Choice, and Dropdown fields
Required fields	YES	YES

Additional Features

Feature	CMS	EMS
Prefill fields	YES (Name, Email, and Short Answer fields. Only with portal login.)	YES (Applicant→Enrollment)
Add file attachments to CMS	YES
Conditional notifications/Automated Communication Plans	YES	YES

Additional resources

CMS Content

• Build a form
• Collect payments with a form
• Create conditional form fields
• Collect and manage form results
• All Forms articles

EMS Content

• Office Hours & Past Session Recordings
• Finalsite Leadflow
• Creating New Online Forms and Pages
• Form Types & States
• Form Fields & Options
• Field Dependencies & Filters on Forms
• Editing Online Forms
• Custom Appointment Forms
• Public Calendar Links
• Finalsite Enrollment Support: How to Submit Form Requests