This introductory help guide will assist with getting you started with BigSIS. This will break down some of the concepts and basics of BigSIS into several sections so that you can start at the beginning and work your way through, or use any one section as need be. Here is what will be covered in this article.

• Introduction to BigSIS
• Basic Navigation
• People in BigSIS
• Roles and Records
• Relationships
• Managing Person Information

 Overview 1 Training Videos:

Let's get started!

Getting to Know BigSIS

Welcome to BigSIS! We’re excited to get you started. This section is designed to help you navigate BigSIS with ease. Let’s start by covering some basic information about BigSIS.

The first thing you should know is your URL. Your URL is (usually) your school’s domain name + .bigsis.com/admin. So, if your school’s domain is “myschool.org,” then your URLs are as follows:

	Live Site	Test Site
Admin	myschool.bigsis.com/admin	testing-myschool.bigsis.com/admin
Portal	myschool.bigsis.com/portal	testing-myschool.bigsis.com/portal

If you don’t know the differences between live/test and portal/admin, that’s okay! Keep reading to find out.

Live Site vs Test Site

You have two complete BigSIS databases. One is your live site and the other is your test site. The live site is where you do real work, whereas the test site is a sandbox that allows you to test out that work in a safe environment. It’s important to understand a couple of concepts in order to get the most out of these tools:

1. Your live database and your test database are completely independent of each other, making a change in one will not affect the other.
2. To get to your testing database, put the prefix “testing-” in front of your URL. For example, if your URL is myschool.bigsis.com/admin, then your testing URL is testing-myschool.bigsis.com/admin.
3. You can tell if you’re in the testing site by the URL, and also by the banner. If the banner is red, then you’re in your testing site.
   
4. In order to update your test site with data from your live database follow these quick steps Live Site & Test Site Information
5. Though we can copy live data to your test site, we cannot copy test data to your live site. It’s a one-way street from live to test, never test to live.
6. Because we cannot copy your test data to your live site, you should never do any “real” work on your test site. For example, building an enrollment contract can take a lot of time, you don’t want to do that work twice. The most efficient way to accomplish this task is to build the contract on your live site and then copy your live data to your test site. 
7. Once your “real” work is copied to your testing site, you can test it out in a safe environment where you can be certain you won’t accidentally send something out to a parent.
8. Even if you aren’t testing anything, it’s best practice to copy live data to your test site every now and then. This is useful in case you, or someone at your school, ever accidentally deletes or corrupts your data. The test site can function as a historical record.

Portal vs Admin

Another important distinction is the difference between the Portal and the Admin. The Admin is for behind-the-scenes data management for your office’s day-to-day operations. In the Admin, you’ll be doing the crucial work of registering and enrolling students, printing mailing labels, updating demographic information, creating courses--the type of work best left to the professionals. The Admin contains sensitive data, such as health information and student records, therefore only folks with special privileges will have access to it.

The Portal, however, is where all non-admin users go when they log in. Typically there are only a handful of staff who need to use the admin. Guardians and teachers, for example, will be able to access all the information they need through their Portal. The Portal is how people affiliated with your school can access information related to their role at the school. A Person can have multiple roles tied to them, and therefore have access to multiple tabs in their portal, but we’ll go into roles in more detail in the Roles and Records section.

The URL for the Admin is the same as the Portal except it will end with “/portal” instead of “/admin.” So if your school’s Admin URL is myschool.bigsis.com/admin, then the portal is myschool.bigsis.com/portal. You also have a testing portal! If you’re working in your Test site, use testing-myschool.bigsis.com/portal for any testing you need.

Admin users will also have portal access based on their roles, so if you’re a parent and an admin, you’ll be able to hop between portal and admin as needed.

Where to Find Help

For starters, you can refer to this Help Guide for all kinds of information and how-tos. You can also review the videos from your BigSIS training sessions. We record all training sessions. These training videos are great refreshers, and oftentimes we answer questions regarding your specific needs. If you misplaced your training videos, or you’re a new employee looking for additional help, email support@bigsis.com and we’ll send you your training video.

Another way to find help is to click the orange Help buttons   throughout the system. You’ll also find a library of help videos under Favorites in the left menu on the dashboard.  

In the event you need additional help, the best way to receive it is to submit a ticket to support@bigsis.com. This address will send out a company-wide ticket to all BigSIS employees and one of us will be sure to help you as soon as we can. You can also call our support line at 303-569-6663.  

Logging Into BigSIS

Everyone in the Admin will receive a Signup Link with directions on how to setup their username and password. If you have not received a Signup Link, inquire with your administrator. There a couple of quick things we should cover about this screen before continuing.

1. The same login screen appears whether you’re logging into your portal, or the admin on either the live or test sites. You can always tell what you’re logging into by paying close attention to the URL (see the Getting to Know BigSIS section for a breakdown of URLs).
2. BigSIS has Single Sign-on enabled, which means a user can use their Facebook or Google account to authenticate them upon logging in. These options are used only to authenticate, and no information from BigSIS will ever be shared with Facebook or Google. It just makes it a little easier to log in.
3. Users don’t have to use Single Sign-on. If they would rather enter their username and password, they can do that.
4. It is inevitable that a user will forget their username and/or password at some point. It’s best practice if users always change their passwords themselves. It helps keep data secure. When a user forgets their password, direct them to the Trouble Logging In link to change their password.
   
   
   

Basic Navigation

This section will guide you through some basic navigation. For a more complete list of BigSIS terms and icons, please review the Glossary of Terms and Icon Glossary help articles in our Help Center.

The Dashboard is the first thing you’ll see when you log onto BigSIS. The Dashboard view, and options in the left-menu will change based on your permission level. If you don’t see a particular chart or button on your dashboard, check with your system administrator to get access.

Welcome Menu

The Welcome Menu is located in the upper-right corner of the screen. Here you can: change account information, submit a ticket to BigSIS, and even hop to your Portal straight from the Admin!

The Left Menu

The options in the Left Menu will change based on your permission level. In this guide, you may see screenshots of options that aren’t visible on your Dashboard and that’s okay! If you need your permission levels adjusted, talk to your system administrator.

Drop-Downs

Each item on the Left Menu is a drop-down list, and often you can expand additional options in the list. Look for the down-arrow for additional options.

Favorites

The Favorite menu is a couple of common places you may frequently visit in BigSIS. Perhaps one of the most important, and often overlooked, item on that list is Help Videos. This is a library of all the Help Videos currently stored in BigSIS and can provide you with fast tutorials for common tasks.

Search Menu  

In the upper-left corner of BigSIS, notice the Search Menu. If you ever can’t remember where a tool is in BigSIS, try typing a keyword into that box and BigSIS will find it for you!

Tables in BigSIS

BigSIS is contextual, which means your tools will change depending on what table you’re looking at. For example, the People Table is where you’ll be able to export demographic information such as ethnicity, contact information, birth date, and more. The People Table contains everything you need to know about a person. However, if you need to information containing to an enrollment, such as school years attended, you can find that information on the Enrollments Table.

We’ll get more into the specifics of these tables later, but for now let’s look at some basic navigation to get you started.

Expanding a Table

Every Table in BigSIS has a fixed toolbar at the bottom that will allow you to control how many records you see at a time.

You can adjust the view by clicking the drop-down button next to the record count and selecting a different number to display. You can also click the single arrow to go to the next page of records or click the double arrow to proceed to the last page in the list.

If you make changes to a record, on any table, in BigSIS, you can click the Refresh button at the bottom to update the list if you don’t see your change immediately. Do NOT refresh your entire browser. This will cause the entire system to refresh and you’ll lose your place.

Changing Your Password

You can change your password by clicking on your Profile in the upper right corner of the screen and going to My Account. If a user other than yourself forgets their username and/or password, please see the Logging into BigSIS section for guidance.

People in BigSIS

What’s a Person?

At its core, BigSIS is about people. That’s why everyone in BigSIS starts out as a Person. Whether that person is a parent, child, administrator, donor, board member—you name it! Everyone, with a couple of small exceptions we will cover later, gets what’s called a Person Record. A Person Record is where you can find information pertaining to that person: Contact information, birthdate, relations, and more. Once a Person Record is created, you can begin tying other “roles” to that Person.

Before we get into roles though, let’s go over some basics like how to add a new person.

Quick Add New Person

Follow these steps to create a new Person Record for just one person.

From the Dashboard,

1. Click People.
2. From the People table click the New button.
3. Select Quick Add New Person.
4. Complete the New Person form.
5. Click Save and Continue to go straight to the newly created Person Record, or the Save and Back button to return to the People Table.

Quick Add New Student

The Quick Add New Student option allows you to create a Person Record for a child and up to two guardians, while simultaneously giving that Student a Student Role.

From the Dashboard,

1. Click People
2. From the People table click the New button
3. Select Quick Add New Student

You’ll notice now that the entry form looks a little different than the Quick Add New Person form. That’s because we’re adding a student + their guardian(s). To do that, we need to generate a Person Record for the student while simultaneously giving them a student role. Plus, we’ll be creating Person Record(s) for the student’s guardian(s).

1. First, complete the Student Information section. This is data that will go into the student’s Person Record.
2. Then, complete the Admission and Enrollment section. Don’t worry, we’ll go through these fields with you if you’re unfamiliar with this form.
   
   
   1. The difference between Admission and Enrollment is an Admission is when the student was accepted to the school, Enrollment is when they start school. The two aren’t always necessarily the same.
1. Has the student been accepted to your school? Then leave the Admit this student? Checkbox selected. It’s very uncommon that you would create a student record for a student yet to be admitted.
2. Class Of is a required field. It’s asking you: When will this child leave your school? Maybe it’s the year the graduate high school, or eighth grade. If you don’t have this information, you’re welcome to use “unknown” or “na,” but we recommend putting the correct year in there for reporting purposes.
3. The Admit to Term field will usually be the term in which the student was accepted into. The term options will change based on how your school is setup. For many schools, a term might be a school year such as “School Year 2016/2017,” or “Fall 2016.” Some schools might have something completely different.
4. In the Admit to Program field, put the program the student was admitted into (e.g. Kindergarten, 4th grade, 12th grade etc).
5. The Admitted Date refers to the day the student was accepted into the school. In many cases, it will be today’s date.
6. More than likely, the Admit Now radio button will remain selected, especially if you opted to admit this student right now. However, you can defer admission to a later date. Sometimes schools will defer admission if the know the student was accepted, but not until the following year.
7. If you want to enroll the student now, leave the Check this box to make the student’s first enrollment the same as the admission term and program selected above. If you don’t want to enroll the student now, uncheck that box and continue.
3. Now complete the Primary Parent/Guardian Information and Physical Address sections. Whatever address you include for the Primary Guardian will become the student’s primary household.
1. IMPORTANT: This form will automatically make the parent the guardian as well. To understand the difference between the guardian/parent distinction, please read the Guardians vs Parents subsection under Roles, Records, and Tables Overview.
4. Then complete the Secondary Parent/Guardian Information and Physical Address sections.
1. NOTE: Selecting Use Primary Guardian’s Address will put both guardians in the same household with the student. Do not check this box if guardians live at separate addresses.

Click Save and Continue to go straight to the newly created Student Record, or the Save and Back button to return to the People Table. Save and New will open a new Student Quick Add form.

Roles and Records

Overview

Okay, so if everyone in BigSIS starts out as a person, with their own Person Record, then how does BigSIS know when someone is a student, teacher, alumni—how does it distinguish people between each other?

Great question! The answer is by assigning roles to people. There are lots of different roles you can give someone in BigSIS:

• Advisor
• Alumnus
• Donor
• Employee
• Extended Care Administrator
• Guardian
• Student
• Teacher
• Volunteer

Each of these roles governs what tabs portal users see when they log in to BigSIS. For example, let’s say a parent at your school is also a teacher. That person would have multiple roles tied to their Person Record: Guardian, Teacher, Employee, and because they have these roles assigned to them in BigSIS, they would have access to these tabs when logging into their portal.

Let’s go over one of the most common and important roles in BigSIS: Guardians.

Guardians Vs. Parents

In BigSIS, parents are not automatically assumed to be guardians. This is because parents are not always guardians of their children, and guardians are not always parents. We make this distinction because families are complicated! Only people who are assigned a guardian role will have a Parent Tab in the portal (you choose your own naming convention whether it’s Parent, Guardian, Super Rad Person etc).

This tab allows parents and guardians to view important information pertaining to that student, and allows you to communicate important information to them regarding the student. Any forms, or documentation, you send to parents/guardians will come through this tab in the portal so it’s important that the Guardian Role be assigned to the right person.

Tying a Guardian Role to Person

With the exception of the Quick Add New Student form, which will allow you to simultaneously assign guardianship to a person, all guardians need to be given guardianship in order to access the Parent Portal. You can edit any relation pertaining to a specific person from the Person’s Record. In the example below, Lilac Diner’s mother, Darcy, is related to Lilac as “Mother,” however she isn’t listed as Lilac’s guardian. If Darcy logs into her portal, she won’t be able to see the parent tab, or any of Lilac’s information.

To give Lilac’s Mother guardianship over her:

1. Select the mother from the list.
2. Click the Edit Relation button.
3. Then, click the Guardian of Lilac Diner radio button.
4. Finish by clicking the Save and Back button.

Now that you’ve assigned Guardianship, the Mother will be able to see their daughter’s information in the portal.

Tying a Student, Alumnus, Teacher, and/or Employee Role to a Person

Let’s look at some other types of roles. We’ll start with the most common ones: Student, Alumnus, Teacher, and/or Employee.

1. Go to the Person’s Record.
2. Notice the General related tab, which will be selected by default.
3. Select the Roles subtab.
4. Notice there are four types of records, or roles, you can tie to this person. In the example, below, Dolly is already a student so that record is highlighted yellow. The other three options: Alumnus, Teacher, and Employer are green. This is because Dolly doesn’t have these roles tied to her.
5. A Person can have multiple roles. For example, a teacher might have a teacher role and an employee role, or a former student might have a student role and an alumnus role. Select the appropriate roles for that person.

After you’ve selected a role, you’ll be routed to a different screen prompting you for information specific to that role. Complete all necessary fields and click the Save button.

Relationships in BigSIS

Relationships in BigSIS tie families and friends together so you can get the BIG picture. There are many types of relationships to choose from.

• Applicant
• Aunt, Uncle, Aunt/Uncle
• Cousin
• Daughter, Son, Child
• Daughter-in-Law, Son-in-Law, Child-in-Law
• Exchange Student
• Ex-Wife, Ex-Husband, Ex-Spouse
• Friend
• Goddaughter, Godson, Godchild
• Godmother, Godfather, Godparent
• Grandmother, Grandfather, Grandparent
• Great-Granddaughter, Great-Grandson, Great-Grandchild
• Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Great-Grandparent
• Guardian
• Half-Sister, Half-Brother, Half-Sibling
• Host Mother, Host Father, Host Parent
• Mother, Father, Parent
• Mother-in-Law, Father-in-Law, Parent-in-Law
• Niece, Nephew, Niece/Nephew
• Partner
• Sister, Brother, Sibling
• Sister-in-Law, Brother-in-Law, Sibling-in-Law
• Stepdaughter, Stepson, Stepchild
• Stepmother, Stepfather, Stepparent
• Ward
• Wife, Husband, Spouse

Relationships are based on whether the person identifies as non-binary, female, or male. Whenever you set one relationship, its reciprocal will be assigned to the person to which they are being tied. For example, in the screenshot below, Debbie, the mother, is female, but her child is non-binary, therefore her relationship is “child” as opposed to “daughter” or “son.”

Setting up Relationships

From the Person’s Record:

1. Click the General tab.
2. Click the Related People subtab.

• Under the Related People section, click the New button.

1. Enter the person’s name into the Related Person field.
1. NOTE: The person must already have a Person Record before you will be able to establish the relationship. You can create a new Person Record from this screen by clicking the Combo Box icon.
2. Then establish how the two people are related to each other by selecting an option from the Related Person drop-down menu. In the example below, Frank is Dolly’s grandfather so “Grandfather” is selected.
   
   
3. From this screen, you can also establish if the relation Can Pickup the person, and whether or not the relation Is an Emergency contact.
4. If the relation is the guardian of the person (e.g. the parent), click the Guardian of… radio button. If the relation is the ward of the person (e.g. the child) click the Ward of… radio button. If the relation is neither the guardian or the ward of the person, click the Is neither a Ward of Guardian of… radio button.  
5. When you’ve completed filling out the form, click the Save and Back button.

Additional Contacts/Emergency Contacts

Remember when we said everyone in BigSIS gets a Person Record? Well, that’s not entirely true. There are a couple of small exceptions and Additional Contacts/Emergency Contacts are one of those exceptions. The reason being is that there are some folks whose information you may want to include in a Person’s Record, but they aren’t exactly people associated with your school. For example, if Dolly is a student, and her neighbor, Ed, is listed as an emergency contact, you may not want to create a Person Record for Ed since he’s only tied to your school because he’s Dolly’s emergency contact. You would only ever need Ed’s information if something happened to Dolly.

In BigSIS we call those who have a Person Record Permanent Contacts because you can list whomever you’d like as an Additional Contact whether they are Emergency Contacts or not. You can have as many Additional Contacts as you want. Here’s how you enter Additional Contacts into a Person Record.

From the Person’s Record:

1. Click the General tab.
2. Click the Additional Contacts subtab.
3. Click the New button.
4. Complete the form on the Add Contact screen.
1. You can choose to add this new contact to just this Person Record, or to All Individuals in the Household. This is useful if you’re adding an emergency contact for a child, but don’t want to re-enter it for their sibling.
2. Select whether the Emergency Contact is a New Person or Existing Person.

• If a new person: Then a person record will not be created for that contact; however, the contact will be added to the Person’s Record you’re working with as an Additional Contact.
• If an existing person: Then you can type the person’s name and use their pre-existing Person Record to populate those fields.

1. Select the person’s Relation Type. Whereas relationships in a Person Record cannot be manipulated, here you can add whatever relationship you want. Just type it into the list.

Complete all other fields as necessary and then click the Save and Back button.

Managing Person Information

Adding Documents to a Person Record

You may want to attach certain documents to a Person’s Record. For example, maybe you want to store a pdf of a hand-signed consent form, or historical documents like past forms that were completed by hand. These are documents that are not public, they are for admin use only.

From the Person’s Record:

1. Click the General tab.
2. Click the Documents subtab.
3. Click the New button.
4. Select a Document Type from the drop-down menu.
1. You can create a new Document Type by clicking the Combo Box icon.
5. Enter a Title for your document.
6. Click Upload File to select the file you wish to upload.
7. Click the Only Visible to Me checkbox if you are the only admin who should have access to this document.
8. Click the Save and Back button.

Updating a Person’s Information

All of a person’s contact information is housed in the Person’s Record. Updating this information in BigSIS is easy and can all be done in the same place.

This section will cover how to:

• Change a person’s basic Demographics (Name, DOB, etc)
• Address and Household Information
• Phone Number Information
• Email Address Information

Changing a Person’s Basic Demographics (Name, DOB, etc)

From the Person’s Record:

1. Click the Edit This Record (Click Here) [+] fieldset to expand the section.
2. All available built-in fields will display, edit the fields as needed.
3. Once you’ve made your changes, click the Save button.

Address and Household Information 

Address and household information are found in the Person Record under the General tab, subtab Addresses. At this point, you might be asking "What is the difference between an address and a household?" Well, technically, they are both referring to a physical address but it is in how we use the address that makes the difference. To explain further, an address is something that can be tied to a Person Record and indicates a physical location, whereas a household is referred to as all of the people that are tied to that address. The address itself is just an address but when referring to all of the people that live at an address we are referring to the household. Simply put, an address is what is tied to a Person Record and indicates where they live, and the household indicates ALL of the people that live at that address.

This is an important detail since we sometimes refer to households when doing certain actions. Mailing labels are a good example of this. When selecting mailing labels you have several options to choose from including one titled "Mailing Labels - Per Household." When using this option the salutation on the label will include all of the guardians that live at a household. We will talk about salutations in more detail later but the important aspect to take away, for now, is that when using an option that indicates "household" you will be including everyone that lives at the address or, as with mailing labels, all of the guardians that live at that household. 

Another important aspect of addresses to keep in mind is a Person can have one address or multiple addresses and, therefore, can be part of one or more households. For example, a child with separated parents might have more than one address listed in their Person Record. This means they are part of more than one household, one for each parent. This is important to keep in mind because BigSIS doesn't limit you to just one address per person. We understand that family and living situations can be varied and BigSIS gives you the flexibility to help manage this.

Managing Addresses

Managing addresses is not difficult but it is good to learn some best practices now while you are getting to know the system so that you can make sure addresses, and thus households, are correct at all times. Below are some helpful instructions for managing addresses and we will get started by looking at the options you have when editing a Person Record as shown by the below image. 

Adding a New Address

Use this option anytime you need to add a new address to a Person record. This includes new addresses that are not yet in the system and also includes adding an address to a Person record if that address is already in the system. This last statement is extremely important! If an address is already in the system you don't need to add it again. If you add the same address more than once you will be doing just that, creating another address with the same information. In step 2 below you will see that you can select from a list of existing addresses. So, if you want to add an existing address to a person record you will choose it from a list not add it again. Let's look at an example: you have one student from a family attending the school and a sibling will be attending as well. When the new student is added into the system you will select the existing families address and tie it to the sibling's record. This will ensure they are all tied to the same address and, therefore, are part of the same household.

From the Person’s Record:

1. When editing a Person Record the Addresses sub-tab will be open by default. Click the green Add New Address For This Person action button.
2. Choose the Existing Household Address radio button to add an existing address to this person's record. 
   1. For this option, start typing the address into the Start typing address field and locate the existing address. 
   2. TIP: this is a very helpful step to use to identify if an address is already in your system!
3. Choose the New Household Address radio button and fill out the required fields for any new address that IS NOT in your BigSIS system yet.
4. Click the green Save and Back Button to save the new address.

Removing a Person from an Address

Use this option anytime you need to remove a single person from an address. This does not delete the address from the system, it will only remove this single person from the address.

From the Person’s Record:

1. When editing a Person Record the Addresses sub-tab will be open by default.
2. Select the address you want to remove this person from and click the Remove This Person From Selected Address button. 
3. A confirmation screen will appear and click OK to complete removing this person from the address. 

Editing an Address

Use this option anytime you need to edit an address. This will edit the address for anyone that is tied to it.

From the Person’s Record:

1. The Addresses subtab will be shown by default. Select and edit the address in question as necessary.
2. Click one of the green Save buttons to save your changes.

Edit Bridge

Use this option to edit a person's relationship to an address. This option helps you control the settings any individual person has with an address. For example, is this their default address, is this their home address, etc.

From the Person’s Record:

1. The Addresses subtab will be shown by default.
2. Select the address and click Edit Bridge.
3. This will take you to the Edit relationship with Address screen where you can edit what type of address this is and other options including if this is their default address or "receive mail" at that address. 
4. Once you are done editing, click Save and Back. 

Recalc Salutations

Use this option when you need to update the salutations for an address. The system will automatically calculate the salutations based on the guardians at that address. 

From the Person’s Record:

1. The Addresses subtab will be shown by default.
2. Select the address and click Recalc Salutations.
3. The system will show a confirmation message that states "Salutations were recalculated."

Phone Number Information

Adding a New Phone Number

From the Person’s Record:

1. When editing a Person Record the General related tab will be open by default. Open the Phone Numbers subtab.
2. Click the green New action button.
3. Type the new phone number you want to add into the field where it says “Start typing phone number…”.
4. Select the correct phone number type in the Phone Number Type field.
5. Click the green Save and Back button to save the new number.

Email Address Information

Adding a New Email Address

From the Person’s Record:

1. When editing a Person Record the General related tab will be open by default. Open the Email Addresses subtab.
2. Click the green New action button.
3. Type the new email address you want to add into the field labeled Email Address.
4. Select the correct email address type in the Email Type field.
5. Click the green Save and Back button to save the new email address.