How to Determine if you Need to Create a new Lead Enrollment Configuration and Which Method to Use

First, be sure you've read Before Setting up a Lead Enrollment Configuration

A new Lead Enrollment Configuration is needed for every year for which you want to accept inquiries (and-or applications). That may mean not only this current year but also the upcoming year and any years beyond that for which you are ready to begin accepting inquiries/applications. Creating new Lead Enrollment Configurations for new years is pretty quick. Setting up your first ever Lead Enrollment Configuration takes a little more work, but we help guide you through it either way.

How to Find out if you Need to Make a new Lead Enrollment Configuration

1. Go to Admissions/Leads > Enrollment & Inquires Setup > Lead Enrollment Configuration
2. The table you see contains one record for every lead enrollment configuration you (or your team) has set up in the past. The table will look like this:
3. Look for the column that lists Academic Years. Check to see if the year you are trying to set up is already listed. If so, you do not need to create a new lead enrollment configuration for that year since it already exists. You should never have more than one lead enrollment configuration for each year. If the year already exists in that table but needs to be tweaked, jump to the article Working with the Lead Enrollment Configuration.
4. If you do not see a lead enrollment configuration listed for the year you are trying to set up, then you will need to create a new one. Proceed to the article Setting up a new Lead Enrollment Configuration From Scratch. Do NOT click the "New" button until you have read through this next section since you may not need to create a new configuration from scratch.

Determine Which Method to Use (From Scratch or Use Copy)

If you've determined you do need a new Lead Enrollment Configuration, we now need to determine if you should start from scratch or make a copy of an existing lead enrollment configuration and tweak it instead. Read through the following three scenarios to find the answer:

1. If your school has never created a lead enrollment configuration, then you will need to start from scratch. If you go to the lead enrollment configuration table and there are no rows listed, that means your school has never created one. We'll definitely need to create one from scratch in that case (jump to the article titled Setting up a New Lead Enrollment Configuration from Scratch).
2. However, even if the table isn't empty (i.e., you see some years listed already) we may still need to start from scratch. Sometimes, during the import process, we have to create some years in order to import your records. If this is the case, then the years listed may either not be correctly set up yet or they may not be good templates to use for future years. If you know that your school recently began using BigSIS (e.g., within the last year or so) then contact support@bigsis.com before you continue so we can help determine if you should start from scratch with your new lead enrollment configuration or not (contact BigSIS before proceeding any further).
3. If the lead enrollment configuration table isn't empty AND your school has been successfully using BigSIS for leads (i.e., the admission process) in the past, then you may use the quick and easy copy method instead that will only take a couple of minutes. This method will copy most of the settings from a prior year (preferably, the most recent year OR a year that you are familiar with that you have used for leads before and has worked quite well for your team throughout the entire process). You'll only have to adjust a few things like dates for the new year and perhaps a few other minor items with this method (jump to the article titled Setting up a new Lead Enrollment Configuration From Scratch).