How to onboard a new student

From a first enquiry through the entrance test and admission payment to an enrolled, billed student record.

This guide follows one family from their first phone call to a student who is enrolled and being billed. It crosses three modules: Admission, Students, and Accounts.

There are two ways into FEMS, and picking the right one saves rework:

Through Admission, when the applicant sits an entrance test and pays an admission fee. This is the normal route, and it creates the student record for you.
Straight into Students, when you are entering a student who is already at the school, for example when moving records in from another system. See Admitting a student and managing their record.

This guide covers the Admission route.

Before you start

Have these in place first, or the journey stops partway:

The academic year, campus, class, section, and shift the applicant is joining.
Admission fee configuration for that class, academic year, and campus.
Fee configuration and payment cycles in Accounts, otherwise the student is enrolled but never billed.

You need Admission access throughout, and collection access for the payment steps.

The five stages

FEMS tracks each applicant through five stages, shown on their record: Applicant Register, Admission Form, Admit Card, Scoring, and Enrolled. The steps below follow them in order.

Step 1: Record the applicant

Go to Admission > Applicant Management and click New Application. The page itself is headed Applications.

Pick the Application Type:

Enquiry for basic details for follow-up, when a family is only asking.
Admission for a full admission application.

For an enquiry, capture the name, gender, academic year, campus, class, the relationship of the person you spoke to, their mobile number and email, how they heard about the school, and a note.

For a full admission, you also capture date of birth, shift, previous school, siblings, the present address, and guardian details. On each guardian you can mark whether they are the emergency contact and whether they receive the school's text messages. Set those deliberately, because that is the number FEMS will text later.

Click Save application. You'll see Applicant created successfully.

When an enquiry becomes serious, enter a full Admission application with all required details. Do not rely on editing the enquiry to convert it in place until that path is verified end to end.

Step 2: Collect the admission form fee

Open the applicant from the list to reach Applicant Info.

Use Admission Form Payment Collection: choose the payment method, enter the reference for a card payment, enter the form serial number, and check the amount. Submit, then Confirm on the dialog.

Nothing further opens until this is done.

Step 3: Generate the admit card

Still on the applicant's record, use Generate Admit Card. Set the exam campus, venue, date, and time, then generate. Print produces the card for the family.

You'll see Admit card generated successfully.

Step 4: Score the entrance test

After the test, open the applicant and use the Score panel:

Questions Set: the question paper they sat.
Exam Score: their mark.
Status: Eligible or Not Eligible.

Click Save.

This step does more than record a result. Marking an applicant Eligible with a mark is what creates their admission fee. Skip it and the payment step in the next stage refuses to run.

Step 5: Collect the admission payment

This is the step that creates the student.

On the same screen, the Admission Payment Collection panel appears once scoring is done. Choose the payment method, enter the reference, check the amount after any discount, and click Collect Admission Payment.

That single action does all of this at once:

Records the payment.
Creates the student record and their Student ID.
Places them in their class, section, shift, campus, and academic year.
Creates their guardians from the application.
Gives the student a FEMS login for the student portal.
Marks the applicant Enrolled.

You do not fill in a separate student form. There is no wizard to complete afterwards.

Step 6: Check the student and their first bill

Go to Student > Student Record and find the student. Their record should show the right class, section, and guardians.

Then check the Accounts tab for the first installment.

This is the check people skip. The first installment is generated in the background just after the payment, and if it cannot be generated the screen still says the payment succeeded. There is no error for you to see. If the Accounts tab is empty a few minutes later, the student is enrolled but not being billed, and someone has to look at your payment cycles and class fee configuration in Accounts.

Finish the record

The admission application does not carry everything a student record holds. Once the student exists, fill in the rest from their record:

Health details, so a teacher has them in an emergency.
Document uploads, for the birth certificate and previous school papers.
Sibling links, if a brother or sister is already at the school. These go through Sibling verification before any sibling concession applies.
The student's photo, if you want to print an identity card.

When the journey stops

"Payment not collected" You are trying to generate the admit card before the form fee is collected. Do step 2 first.

"Admission fee configuration not found." No admission fee is configured for that class, academic year, and campus, so scoring cannot create the fee. An accountant needs to configure it.

"Admission charge fee record is missing or ambiguous. Please complete the admission scoring step before collecting payment." You reached the payment step without a completed scoring step. Go back to step 4 and save a score with a status of Eligible.

"Form Serial already exists" That form serial number is on another applicant. Use the correct serial.

"Already Paid" The form fee is already collected for this applicant. Move on to the admit card.

"Applicant already enrolled" or "Student already registered with this application ID" This applicant has already become a student. Find them in Student > Student Record rather than collecting again.

A message that the payment amount must match. The admission payment has to match the configured fee after any discount. Check the discount before retrying.

"No guardian mobile number is available to send the SMS. Set a valid mobile number on at least one guardian." You are sending a payment link but no guardian has a usable mobile number. Add one to the application.

The student exists but has no fees. See step 6. Payment cycles or class fee configuration are missing in Accounts.

How to onboard a new student

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