The challenge
The school was running healthy enrollment, but the administrative load to keep it that way was breaking the operations team. Three full-time admin staff were spending the majority of their time on tasks that shouldn't have required human intervention.
The audit documented the specific friction points:
- Disconnected systems: The student information system (SIS), learning management system (LMS), and billing platform were three separate databases. Every new enrollment required manual entry in all three. Updates to family contact information had to be made three times — which meant they usually weren't, and the data quietly drifted apart.
- Manual re-enrollment workflow: Each spring's re-enrollment campaign was an eight-week ordeal of mail-merging contracts, tracking signatures in a spreadsheet, manually flagging non-renewing families, and chasing late paperwork via individual emails. The Head of School's office spent the entire month of April on it.
- No real-time operational visibility: Enrollment counts, tuition collection status, and active families were tracked in three different systems and reconciled monthly in a spreadsheet. Leadership made decisions on data that was, on average, three weeks out of date.
- Tuition reminder workflow: A staff member ran a manual report each Monday to identify late tuition, then individually emailed each family. The work was tedious, easy to skip during busy weeks, and resulted in inconsistent follow-through.
The approach
The free operations audit took four weeks. The school engaged us for implementation on the day they received the report — the cost-benefit math was that clear. Implementation took eight weeks across two phases.
What we built
1. SIS as the source of truth. We rebuilt the data architecture so the SIS became the authoritative system for family and student records. The LMS and billing system now pull from the SIS automatically — a change in the SIS propagates within five minutes. Staff enter data once, in one place, and it lands everywhere.
2. Automated re-enrollment pipeline. The April re-enrollment campaign is now a workflow: re-enrollment contracts auto-generate from SIS family records, get delivered to parents via email with an e-signature link, payment of the re-enrollment deposit auto-records back in billing, and the SIS automatically flags families who haven't responded by the reminder thresholds. The Head of School's office reviews exceptions instead of running the whole campaign.
3. Live admin dashboard. We built a custom dashboard pulling from all three systems in near-real-time. It shows current enrollment by grade, tuition collection status, families with outstanding balances, and re-enrollment progress during campaign season. Leadership opens it once a day instead of waiting for monthly reconciliation.
4. Tuition reminder automation. Late tuition triggers an automatic reminder sequence — gentle first reminder at 3 days, firmer at 7, and an alert to the business office at 14 days. The staff member who used to run the manual process now handles only the escalations that need a phone call.
Tools and technology
All integration work uses the schools existing platforms' APIs. The dashboard is built on lightweight cloud infrastructure costing roughly $25/month. The middleware code is documented and owned by the school — if they ever switch one of the platforms, the integration layer adapts. No vendor lock-in.
Results — measured at the 120-day mark
- 18 hours per week recovered across enrollment management, billing follow-up, and ad-hoc reporting
- Re-enrollment campaign compressed from 8 weeks to 3 weeks and required dramatically less staff time
- 100% real-time enrollment visibility — leadership opens the dashboard daily
- $4,200 in annual savings by canceling a redundant reporting tool the SIS already covered
- Late tuition payment rate dropped 60% due to consistent automated reminders
Timeline
- Free operations audit: 4 weeks
- Phase 1 — SIS as source of truth + integrations: 5 weeks
- Phase 2 — Re-enrollment automation + dashboard + reminders: 3 weeks
- Total time from kickoff to fully operational: 12 weeks
- Currently on monthly retainer for ongoing optimization and new feature builds
What the team said
"The biggest unexpected benefit was the dashboard. We thought we were buying back time — and we did — but the live data has changed how leadership makes decisions. We're not waiting for the monthly numbers anymore."
— Head of School, anonymized at client request