Configuration Requirements
To enable sync between existing ManageBac+ and OpenApply accounts, the following conditions must be met:
Checklist
- 1. The Year Levels configured in ManageBac+ and OpenApply must match in number and sequence.
- 2. All enrolled students must have unique e-mail addresses in both systems.
- 3. All enrolled students must have unique Student IDs in both systems.
- 4. Parent accounts in OpenApply must be activated. (Parents of enrolled students.) This ensures their e-mail addresses are unique.
- 5. Both ManageBac+ and OpenApply accounts must be on the same (current) academic year.
- 6. ManageBac+ Support will provide complimentary data quality analysis.
Timeline
On average, we recommend allocating 1-2 weeks to confirm all six steps and go live with synchronization between both systems. This time is significantly shortened if one or both systems are new accounts.
Years Mapping
Schools can enable up to 16 year levels on ManageBac+ and OpenApply. The number of years enabled and the sequence of years must be identical on both OpenApply and ManageBac+ before activating sync.
We do not support multi-year sync (e.g. Having three of your Pre-K year levels on OpenApply sync to one grade level on ManageBac+).
ManageBac
To review your enabled years on ManageBac+, please navigate to Settings > School Settings > Grades & Levels
Note that as part of our commitment to supporting the full range of international and national curricula, schools may enable grade levels for multiple programmes, e.g. if the MYP is offered alongside a national curriculum.
For synchronization purposes, we need only the number and sequence of years to match.
OpenApply
To review your enabled years on OpenApply, please navigate to Settings > Admissions.
Important Note: There must be a 1 to 1 correlation between your year levels in order to enable sync. We cannot currently support a partial sync (e.g. It is not possible to have 10 year levels enabled on OpenApply, and sync only 2 year levels to ManageBac+.
E-mail Addresses
Students and parents with blank or duplicated e-mail addresses will not sync between the two systems. As a best practice before enabling sync, we ask schools to review the e-mail addresses on their systems.
On OpenApply
Because ManageBac+ requires a unique e-mail in order to create a new user, please confirm that the Student E-mail field has been added to your OpenApply forms.
- Navigate to Settings > Forms and select your application form.
- Search for Email under the Fields section on the left-hand navigation.
- Select the field under Applicant Form & Fee, and click Edit Field.
- Please confirm:
- The field label
- If the field is required
- Any instructions
- If the field is Office-use Only (recommended)
Remember to Save Changes for the field.
- Drag the field into the preferred place on your form.
- Save Changes for the form.
Verifying E-mail Addresses on OpenApply
Navigate to Settings > Import & Export to export all students with status Enrolled, Graduated & Withdrawn.
Include these Export Fields:
- Student Fields
- OpenApply ID
- First Name
- Last Name
- Student ID
Important Note: Users with blank or duplicated e-mail addresses will be excluded from sync.
Please make sure to include Archived students.
Our Support Team can assist you with:
- Creating dummy e-mail addresses
- Bulk updating blank e-mail addresses
- Checking for duplicate e-mail addresses
We ask that student e-mail addresses match precisely across both systems prior to enabling sync.
Student IDs
Student IDs must be unique. As a best practice before enabling sync, we ask schools to review the Student IDs on their systems.
Important Note: For schools that do not use the Student ID field, our Support Team can help generate unique IDs and update your systems directly.
We ask that student IDs match precisely across both systems prior to enabling sync.
Activating Parent Accounts
As ManageBac+ requires each parent to hold a unique e-mail address, only activated parents from OpenApply will sync to ManageBac+.
Checking for Activated Parents
Navigate to Families to see a full list of your parents. (We recommend also using the Filter to look at only parents with enrolled children.)
All parents with a key symbol next to their name have activated accounts.
This key symbol also appears next to the parent names on the student profile.
An activated account effectively means that the record is login-able, i.e. parents can login to the system. You can re-send a welcome e-mail to any activated account.
But what happens if you need to activate accounts without giving parents access? (Please see the next section.)
Bulk Activating Parent Accounts
Activating a parent account typically means that the parent will receive a welcome e-mail inviting them to login to OpenApply for the first time.
For most schools enabling ManageBac+ – OpenApply sync, they do not need parents to login to OpenApply. In this case, you can de-activate the welcome e-mail before activating accounts.
1. Navigate to Settings > Admissions > Status & Notification.
Scroll down to Applicant & Family Welcome, then disable the Parent Welcome Email (remember to Save Changes) .
Please note that when you have finished activating the parent accounts; to turn this back on. This will enable new applicants and families to receive their Welcome Email.
2. Navigate back to the Families tab.
Filter for Enrolled students, then select all families by clicking the box in the top left.
3. Click Activate Parent Accounts.
A key symbol will appear next to the names of activated parents.
Remember to turn your parent welcome e-mails back on! (Reverse the steps in Step 1.)
Current Academic Year
If you are currently at the start or end of an academic year, please ensure that both ManageBac+ and OpenApply systems have been transitioned to the new academic year.
Tutorials are available in our online support centre and linked below:
- Transitioning to a new academic year in ManageBac+
- Transitioning to a new academic year in OpenApply
In other words, student grade levels should be identical in both systems. (e.g. Chloe is in Grade 12 in both OpenApply and ManageBac+.)
Data Quality Analysis
Please contact ManageBac+ Support when you are ready for a Data Quality Analysis of your systems.
Please write “MB-OA Data Quality Analysis” in your description line, and include:
- School Name
- ManageBac+ subdomain
- OpenApply subdomain
Our Support Team will verify that:
- The enabled year levels on ManageBac+ & OpenApply match in number and sequence
- Student E-mails and IDs match in both systems
- Parent accounts have been activated
- Both systems are on the current academic year
Please allow 1-2 business days for us to complete our review.
We strongly recommend at this stage scheduling a complimentary personal walkthrough of sync, to ensure any questions are answered.