IMPORTANT! In the coming months, we will be phasing out this version of the Tuition Management module. If you are looking for how to work with Contracts in the next generation of the Tuition Management module (which is where all 2023-2024 Contracts were built and sent from), go to the Tuition Management section of our Help Center.

This article will cover the following topics about how to build your BigSIS contract.

Part One: About Contracts

What is a Contract
Widgets (aka: Page Items)

Part Two: Building Contracts 

Building a New Contract
Adding Pages 
Adding Widgets 
Adding Alerts to your Contract 

Additional Resources: Managing, Releasing and Tracking Contracts

Part One

Part One of this article will cover contract basics. This can be used as a reference for anyone experienced with building contracts or can serve as an out of the box guide for anyone learning to build these for the first time. 

What is a Contract?

Contracts, or what some schools refer to as enrollment agreements, are formal and legally binding documents the parents/guardians fill out to attend school. In BigSIS, contracts may consist of enrollment information as well as serve as a platform to collect tuition, fees, deposits and/or tuition insurance payments. Contracts are easy to create for both new and re-enrollment students and will be released to parents in their personal, secure portal for ease of access and submission. 

IMPORTANT: It is important to note that BigSIS will not help create the text for the body of your contract. Although we may provide examples for schools to review it is the responsibility of the school to provide the body of the contract (including terms and conditions) and is incumbent upon the school to clear this with their legal team when necessary.

Widgets (aka: Page Items)

Widgets are what you will place on each page to customize your contract. There are a wide variety of widgets to choose from and will range from widgets that can manage payment schedules, optional line items, contract previews, household information, health information, and more. You may also use custom form widgets to gather and store custom data when necessary. This can be very powerful to ensure you can gather whatever information you need as well as filter for it when needed. You can even store custom data Part Two below will discuss how to add widgets and will also discuss what widget options you have. 

Part Two

Building a Contract

1. Go to Admissions/Leads > Online Contracts > View/Edit Contract Forms
2. Click New button to create a new contract.
3. Give your contract a new Title such as “2020/2021 Grades Online Contract,” "2020/2021 EC Contract" or “2020/2021 High School Re-enrollment Contract.”
4. Select if this form should require a Signature.
5. Select the Signatures Allowed.
   • You will have the choice of eSignature, Offline, or Any.
6.  Select Payments Allowed.
   • Depending on if you have an Authorize.net account set up with BigSIS and what those account options are you will have the choice of Credit Card, eCheck, Offline Check, Credit Card or Offline Check, eCheck or Offline Check, Online Only (Credit Card or eCheck) or Any. 
     Tip: If you do not use Authorize.Net with BigSIS you will only be able to select Check as your payment method. This will be required so leave this option selected even if you don't plan to take any online payment through BigSIS. To explore more information about signing up for Authorize.net and using tuition management with BigSIS Click Here
7. Select if you would like to Show Logo in the upper left when printing contract: None (no pages), First Page Only, or Every Page 
8. Select if you would like to Show Address in the upper right when printing contract: None (no pages), First Page Only, or Every Page  
9. Select if you would like to Show Page Numbers
10. Select if you would like to Include Watermark
11. Enable 'Help Us Cover Costs' Option (see help bubble for more information)
    • Click Save and Continue.

Adding Pages 

To start building your contract you are going to add pages. You will add pages first and then after you add pages, you will be able to add widgets based on the needs for your contract. Each contract can be as many pages as you need them to be.

1. Click the New button to add a new page.
2. Add a Title for this page, such as “Terms and Conditions,” “Payment Schedule Selection,” or “Verify Health Information,” etc.
3. Click Save and Continue to add more pages to your contract.
4. Click Save and Back when you have added the pages you need.

Adding Widgets

After you add pages to your contract you will add widgets to customize it. This section will discuss the steps to start adding widgets and the different widget options you will have. 

1. Start by editing the page you want to add widgets to.
2. Click New to add a new page item. You will have several widgets to select from. This is a brief explanation about each widget but testing your contracts will allow you to see what the widget looks like. For steps on how to test your contracts Click Here.
   
   • Agree To - provides a message to the user and includes an "Agree To" checkbox
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Contract - allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the student record
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Lead - allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the lfead record
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Person - allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the parent's person record
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Request  - allows you to use a custom form ONLY and data is not tied to any other record (this option is NOT recommended)
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Student - allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the student record
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Student’s Admission Record - allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the student's admission record
   • Custom Form w/ Field Data tied to the Student’s Person Record- allows you to use a custom form and tie the data to the student's person record
   • Discount - provides a discount field to offer optional or required discounts along with a message to the user (this widget directly connects with the below Fee widget and is a discount of that fee) 
   • Emergency Contacts for Enrollment - provides a widget with pre-set fields to add emergency and pickup contacts
   • Enrollee Can Leave Campus - provides a message to user with a yes or no question "Can enrollee leave campus?"
   • Fee - provides a field to offer an optional or required fee (the discount widget can be used in conjunction with this widget)
   • Fee with Discount - provides a field for an optional or required field for both fee's and discounts
   • Generic Text Area for gathering large text - allows you to add a message to the user and the user will be provided with a multi-line text box to type into
   • Health: Allergies and Health Conditions - provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input allergies and/or health conditions (the list of allergies and health conditions are customizable - go to System > Health Setup)
   • Health: General Health Information - provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input health insurance information, including Health Insurance Company,  Health Insurance Policy Number,  Health Insurance Policy Expiration, and blood type (optional) 
   • Health: Health Care Providers- provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input doctors, dentists, hospitals, and other providers 
   • Health: Medications - provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input medications (the list of medications are customizable - go to System > Health Setup)
   • Health: Releases and Permissions - provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input releases and permissions (the list of releases and permissions are customizable - go to System > Health Setup)
   • Health: Vaccinations -  provides a pre-built widget to allow users to input vaccinations (the list of vaccinations are customizable - go to System > Health Setup)
   • Html Test Message to User - allows you to provide a formattable message for users to read
   • Lead Contract: Preview - shows an itemized, line item detail of the contract 
   • Lead Contract: Select Optional Line Items - shows all line items that you have selected to be optional and allows the user to select, or not, their preferred options (How to Add Lead Contract Line Item Templates or How to Add/Edit Contract Line Items from the Leads and Re-enrollment Leads tables)
   • Lead Contract: Select Payment Schedules - allows the users to select from all payment schedules you have added for the school year the contract is for (How to Create or Copy Lead Contract Payment Schedules)
   • Lead Household Management - a widget that shows the parents their household information and allows them to add guardian or additional household information
   • Lead Summary - shows information about the lead including name, grade level contract is for, academic year the contract is for, gender, and date of birth (this information is not editable by the parent)
   • Upload Document tied to the Request - provides an upload option for users and allows you to download the document from the contract preview
   • Upload Lead Image -
   • Yes or No (not None) Choice - allows you to provide a message to the user; the user will be able to select yes or no
   • Yes or No Choice - allows you to provide a message to the user; the user will be able to select yes or no AND none
3. Once you have added all of the Widgets to your MPF click Save and Back to go back to your list of pages. 
4. Edit each additional page with these same steps to customize each page to your liking. Once you have added customized your MPF it is time to add alerts and test your form. For steps on how to test your contracts Click Here.

Adding Alerts to your Contract

After you create your contract we recommend you set up email alerts to be notified when the MPF is completed. These alerts will be set up just like any other alert, with the exception that you set up the alert from the MPF, NOT from the alerts table. Follow these quick steps to add an alert to your MPF.

1. From the left menu go to Admissions/Leads > Online Contracts > View/Edit Contract Forms.
2. Edit the Contract you want to add an alert to.
3. Click New to add a new alert.
   (Click to enlarge image)
   
4. Select a Distribution List (How to Set up a Distribution List) and an Email Account (Setting up New Email Accounts to Send From BigSIS) to send the alert from (you will only see Email Accounts that your user is tied to here). Click Save and Back and you are done!
   
5. You are done setting up the alert for this contract!