PWS Workflow Concepts
- Retrieve and process inquiries and applications
- Retrieve and process recommendations
- Notify families that process status items have been received, using the Action Items in their online application.
Part of your workflow each day will be to retrieve and process the inquiry, application, and recommendation forms that have been submitted online. Processing a form means you are moving data from the PWS form into its related record in PORTAL without data entry.
At the end of the day, after you have retrieved and processed all new data for online inquiries, applications, and recommendations, as well as those that have been submitted by mail or in person, you will notify applicants that items have been received by publishing notifications to their web accounts, using PWS NOTIFICATIONS, UPLOAD DATA button.
When you receive an inquiry or application, your task is to determine:
- if it has been submitted by a new family for a new child;
- if it is for a new-to-you sibling of a family that already exists in PORTAL;
- if it is for a child who is re-inquiring.
In each of these cases you determine whether or not to create new records in PORTAL or merely link to and update existing records. PWS makes it easy to make this determination and take appropriate action.
PWS helps you monitor the status of applicants and keep PORTAL records current.
Inquiry Forms
Inquiry Forms are completed by a family in one sitting. When you Retrieve forms, Inquiries are always 100% complete and submitted. When you process an Inquiry, the Inquiry box in PORTAL is checked off and the AEStatus is set to Inquired.
Online Applications
With PWS, an application may or may not be completed at one sitting. Rather, an applicant family can begin their application, complete only part of it, save it in their secure online account, leave it, and return over time to complete it.
The school can see every application in PWS as soon as the applicant has started his or her application; you can also see how many required fields have been completed (the percentage of required fields completed is displayed in the % column). The school can process application data submitted at any time (no matter the percentage of completeness).
IMPORTANT: Process applications the first time they appear, regardless of their completeness. You want to link the application to a Student record in PORTAL for PWS to function properly.
As you retrieve data each day, any additional information that applicants in process have entered will be available; the New Data checkbox will indicate activity. Once the applicant has been linked to a PORTAL record, it is your choice when to move additional data into PORTAL.
Multi-part Applications
With the release of PWS 3, it is now possible to offer your online application in multiple parts, which can be submitted at different times by inquiring students and families. Parts are page-specific, and you can determine which pages belong to which part.
For instance, “Part One” might comprise application pages 1, 2 and 3 along with the application fee. “Part Two” might be application pages 3 and 4, with questions for the family; “Part Three” could be all the student essays, which might span any number of pages.
A multi-part application is an additional feature and is not standard in PWS 3. Please contact [email protected] for information about adding this feature to your solution.
Please see the following article, Multi-part Applications, for more detail about Multi-Part Applications.
Paper Applications
With PWS 3, you can easily create online accounts for applicants who have applied using a traditional paper application so that the remainder of their process can be managed by the family online. You can scan ancillary documents and add them to the PORTAL record, as well as post notifications to the family as process status items are received. You will also be able to post your decision letters online for these families.
Uploaded Related Documents
Documents and photos that are uploaded via an Upload Widget on the application will display in the Documents tab of PORTAL. Photos can be mapped to fields in PORTAL. Sensitive documents can be assigned to a restricted security class in iR Documents.
REMINDER:
- You can process an application as many times as you’d like while it is In Progress. This will allow you to see exactly what has been filled out on the application at that very moment in time. This may be useful to you if an applicant has a question about the application as they are completing it.
- An application can be 100% completed and not Submitted. This is common as an applicant could have filled out all required fields but is still working on essays or other non-required fields so they have not submitted yet.
Payments
Once an applicant has completed all of the required fields and has clicked the Submit button, that application is no longer editable by the applicant. If you require an application fee, the Submit process will intiate the payment functionality. Or you can provide the applicant with a waiver code to by-pass the online payment.
NOTES:
- PWS 3 can accept payment by EFT or e-check in addition to credit card payments.
- In PWS 3, application fees can be charged based on the applicant’s response to specified questions on the application, such as requesting financial aid, sibling or legacy status, or who will be financially responsible for the applicant.
PWS Record Status
The Retrieved Records List will tell you the status of each online application. This interface has been redesigned to make it considerably easier to determine at a glance the status of each PWS record.
The next article will detail all features on the Retrieved Records List.
Briefly, the new Retrieved Records List interface displays one of three statuses for each record:
- In Progress – The application has been started
- Submitted – The family has completed all required fields in the application (or application Part One) and has clicked Submit; a submitted application is associated with either a payment (PD) or a payment waiver code (WV), as shown by the associated checkbox. Once submitted, a family can no longer edit the form.
- Closed – The application has been submitted, paid, and also processed by the Admissions Office.
You can also see the following information about each PWS record on the Retrieved Records List:
- Record Type: inquiry, application, or extra (data coming from a non-PWS source such as SSATB SAO or Gateway to Prep)
- Date of last activity
- If new data has been added since the record was last processed
- The % of required fields in the application that have been completed
- If the application fee has been paid or a waiver code has been entered (in order to have a status of Submitted, a fee must have been paid)
- If the record has been linked to PORTAL, the Link checkbox to the left of the Name will be checked, and there is a green arrow present that when clicked will take you to the related PORTAL inquiry record
- Inquiry name, apply grade, and DOB
Is the PWS record linked to a PORTAL inquiry record?
If the Link checkbox to the left of the Name is checked, and a green arrow button appears to the left of the Link checkbox on the Retrieved Records List, the PWS record has been linked to a record in PORTAL. Click on the green arrow to open the PORTAL record.