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Inquiry: Managing First Contact with Prospective Families

Capture, assign, and track inquiry follow-up with SLA visibility, assignment ownership, and conversion into Student Applicant.

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Before You Start (Prerequisites)

  • Configure Admission Settings first so SLA and assignment behaviors are available.
  • Ensure Organization and School master data exist for scoped inquiries.
  • Ensure admissions users are set up before assignment/reassignment workflows begin.

Inquiry is the general inbound intake record for website visitors. It can represent admission interest, general questions, media requests, or any other first-contact message that needs managed follow-up.

What It Solves

  • Centralizes inbound questions from web forms and staff-created records.
  • Assigns ownership to admissions officers and managers when operational follow-up is needed.
  • Tracks first-contact and follow-up deadlines with SLA status.
  • Supports optional conversion to Student Applicant only when the inquiry is admissions-related.
Outcome

Inquiry gives teams visibility on response speed and ownership so no inbound request disappears into email threads.

Workflow States

State Meaning How It Is Reached (Conditions)
New First capture, not yet assigned Set automatically on insert if empty (after_insert).
Assigned Owner set, follow-up deadline active Reached through assignment flows (assign_inquiry / reassign_inquiry -> mark_assigned) with admissions permission and a valid admissions assignee.
Contacted First outreach completed Reached from New or Assigned through mark_contacted with admissions permission. Can also be triggered by ToDo-close automation when the current assignee closes the linked task.
Qualified Confirmed as admissions-ready Reached only from Contacted through mark_qualified with admissions permission.
Archived Closed terminal state Reached from any non-archived state through archive with admissions permission.

Allowed transitions are strictly server-validated:

  • New -> Assigned or Contacted
  • Assigned -> Contacted
  • Contacted -> Qualified
  • Any non-Archived state -> Archived
  • Backward transitions are rejected.

Operational Guardrails

Do

  • Use Assign/Reassign actions so ownership, SLA fields, and ToDo artifacts stay consistent.

  • Move state with named actions (Mark Contacted, Qualify, Archive) so server transition rules and metrics are enforced.

Don't

  • Manually edit workflow fields to skip required transitions.

  • Treat every inquiry as admissions conversion; convert only when it is actually admissions-relevant.

Where Inquiry Is Used Across the ERP

  • Desk form + list view:
    • custom action buttons (Assign, Reassign, Mark Contacted, Qualify, Archive, Invite to Apply)
    • Mark Contacted is available in Assigned state for both Admission Officer and Admission Manager
    • colored list indicators for workflow and SLA status
  • Public web form: /apply/inquiry creates Inquiry records from visitor submissions.
  • Notifications:
    • Notify Admission Manager on new Inquiry
    • Inquiry Assigned on assignee change
  • ToDo integration:
    • assignment/reassignment creates native ToDo tasks
    • closing the related ToDo can auto-mark Inquiry as contacted
  • Staff focus overlay (SPA):
    • assigned inquiries appear in Staff Home "Your Focus"
    • action type inquiry.follow_up.act.first_contact routes to the inquiry follow-up focus action
  • CRM linkage: create_contact_from_inquiry links/creates Contact.
  • Optional admissions conversion:
    • links to Student Applicant
    • Desk invite action calls ifitwala_ed.admission.admission_utils.from_inquiry_invite
    • conversion ensures Inquiry has a Contact anchor and carries it into Student Applicant.applicant_contact when conversion is requested
    • derived applicant email on Student Applicant comes from Contact email rows
    • this conversion step still does not create the portal User; portal invite is a separate button on Student Applicant
  • Analytics surface:
    • staff SPA route: /staff/analytics/inquiry
    • API: ifitwala_ed.api.inquiry.get_dashboard_data and related filter endpoints
  • Scheduler: hourly SLA recomputation (run_hourly_sla_sweep -> check_sla_breaches) with per-doctype column validation, legacy due-date backfill for Inquiry rows, and run summary cache at admissions:sla_sweep:last_run.
  • File routing fallback: attachments routed under Admissions inquiry context in file management utilities.

Lifecycle and Linked Documents

Inquiry Lifecycle
1

Capture

Capture inbound request as New (admission-related or not).

2

Assign

Assign ownership (Assigned) when coordinated follow-up is needed.

3

Contact

Mark as Contacted when first outreach is completed and metrics are stamped.

4

Qualify or Close

If it is admissions-relevant and ready, move to Qualified and optionally invite/create a Student Applicant.

5

Archive

Archive completed/closed paths through Archived (including non-admissions inquiries like general or media requests).

Transition guardrails

Workflow transitions are server-validated. Teams should follow the canonical state path instead of manually editing status fields.

Two different invite actions

Invite to Apply on Inquiry creates the Student Applicant record in Invited and links Contact anchor fields, but it does not provision applicant portal login credentials. After conversion, open the applicant and use Actions -> Invite Applicant Portal (or Resend Portal Invite) to pick/add a Contact email and trigger invite_applicant(student_applicant, email).

Technical Notes (IT)

Latest Technical Snapshot (2026-02-21)

  • DocType schema file: ifitwala_ed/admission/doctype/inquiry/inquiry.json

  • Controller file: ifitwala_ed/admission/doctype/inquiry/inquiry.py

  • Required fields (reqd=1): none at schema level; controller/workflow rules enforce operational completeness where applicable.

  • Lifecycle hooks in controller: validate, before_insert, after_insert, before_save

  • Operational/public methods: mark_assigned, mark_qualified, archive, invite_to_apply, set_contact_metrics, create_contact_from_inquiry, mark_contacted

  • Workflow-state contract: only canonical Inquiry states are accepted (New, Assigned, Contacted, Qualified, Archived); no legacy state alias normalization in Inquiry controller or Inquiry Desk/list scripts.

  • DocType: Inquiry (ifitwala_ed/admission/doctype/inquiry/)

  • Autoname: INQ-{YYYY}-{MM}-{DD}-{##}

  • Desk surfaces:

    • form actions in ifitwala_ed/admission/doctype/inquiry/inquiry.js
    • list indicators in ifitwala_ed/admission/doctype/inquiry/inquiry_list.js
    • workspace shortcut/card in ifitwala_ed/admission/workspace/admission/admission.json

  • Web form surface:

    • config file ifitwala_ed/admission/web_form/inquiry/inquiry.json
    • route apply/inquiry (public form)
    • scoped shell assets via hooks.py webform_include_css/js for both Inquiry and Registration of Interest, using app public paths: public/css/admissions_webform_shell.css and public/js/admissions_webform_shell.js

  • Staff analytics (SPA):

    • page ifitwala_ed/ui-spa/src/pages/staff/analytics/InquiryAnalytics.vue
    • route /staff/analytics/inquiry via ifitwala_ed/ui-spa/src/router/index.ts
    • service map ifitwala_ed/ui-spa/src/lib/admission.ts calling inquiry analytics APIs

  • Lifecycle hooks:

    • before_insert: stamps submitted_at
    • after_insert: ensures workflow_state = New, notifies managers
    • before_save: computes deadlines and SLA status

  • Validation:

    • Organization/School hierarchy consistency check
    • strict workflow transition guard
    • student_applicant link immutability

  • Whitelisted methods on document:

    • mark_qualified
    • archive
    • invite_to_apply
    • create_contact_from_inquiry
    • mark_contacted

  • Conversion nuance:

    • document method invite_to_apply enforces Qualified state
    • Desk quick action currently uses from_inquiry_invite, available from Contacted and Qualified in client logic
    • Invite payload validation enforces selected School belongs to selected Organization (Organization NestedSet ancestry)

  • Utility endpoints (ifitwala_ed/admission/admission_utils.py):

    • assign_inquiry
    • reassign_inquiry
    • get_admission_officers
    • school_by_organization_scope_query
    • from_inquiry_invite

  • Analytics API endpoints (ifitwala_ed/api/inquiry.py):

    • get_dashboard_data
    • get_inquiry_types
    • get_inquiry_organizations
    • get_inquiry_schools
    • academic_year_link_query
    • admission_user_link_query

  • Focus API endpoints (ifitwala_ed/api/focus.py):

    • list_focus_items (includes Inquiry action items assigned to current user)
    • get_focus_context (returns Inquiry context payload for focus routing)
    • mark_inquiry_contacted (named focus action endpoint delegating to Inquiry.mark_contacted)

Permission Matrix

Role Read Write Create Delete Notes
System Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes Full Desk access
Admission Manager Yes Yes Yes Yes Full Desk access
Admission Officer Yes Yes Yes Yes Full Desk access
Academic Admin Yes No No No Read-only in DocType permissions

Action-level guard in server code: lifecycle and assignment methods enforce admissions-role checks.

Reporting and Analytics

  • No Script/Query Report currently declares Inquiry as ref_doctype.
  • Operational analytics are delivered through API + SPA analytics page, not a classic Desk report object.
Continue With Related Admission Docs

Admission Settings: SLA and Assignment Controls

->
Admission

Configure response SLAs, assignment colors, and background SLA checks for the full admissions pipeline.

Student Applicant: The Admission Record of Truth

->
Admission

Manage applicant lifecycle from invitation to promotion, with readiness checks, governed files, policy acknowledgements, and portal access.