Once parents have submitted, the data needs to land somewhere useful — the teacher organising the excursion needs a list of who’s consented, the compliance team needs evidence, finance needs payment information if the slip captured it.
Where to view submissions
Open the slip and choose Submissions. The list shows every submission with:
- Student name.
- Submission timestamp.
- Submitting parent.
- Signature thumbnail (link to full image).
- Status (Active or Withdrawn).
Click a submission to see the full form response.
Reviewing individual submissions
The submission detail page shows:
- All form fields with the parent’s responses.
- Any attached files.
- The signature (full-size).
- Submission audit trail (timestamp, IP address, browser).
If a parent ticked a box requiring follow-up (e.g. My child has a medical condition), the response is visible here.
Acting on submissions
For most slips, the submission is the action — the school has the consent and proceeds. For some, follow-up is needed:
- Medical responses — flag for the nurse or medical team to action.
- Special requirements — flag for the trip organiser to accommodate.
- Anomalies — parent ticked no but the child is expected to attend — needs a phone call.
Use the per-submission notes field for staff comments. Comments aren’t visible to parents.
Exporting submissions
The submissions list supports CSV export:
- Open the slip.
- Choose Export submissions.
- CSV downloads with one row per submission and one column per form field.
Use the export to:
- Hand to the trip organiser as a participants list.
- Reconcile with payment records (if the slip captured payment data).
- Feed into a spreadsheet for ad-hoc analysis.
Per-student PDF
For schools that need to print or archive each submission individually:
- From the submission detail page, choose Download PDF.
- PortalHQ generates a PDF with the slip title, student name, parent name, form responses and signature.
Useful for compliance audits or for handing a paper copy to staff who don’t use PortalHQ.
Bulk PDF export
For multiple submissions:
- From the submissions list, select the submissions.
- Choose Bulk export PDFs.
- PortalHQ generates a ZIP with one PDF per submission.
Use for trip-prep packs — every student’s signed consent in one file.
Reporting across slips
For higher-level reporting:
- Slips dashboard — see submission rates across active slips.
- Per-parent report — every slip a specific parent has or hasn’t submitted.
- Per-student report — every slip applicable to a student, with status.
Useful for identifying:
- Parents with chronically low slip completion (worth a personal conversation).
- Students missing critical consent for upcoming activities.
- Overall completion benchmarks term-over-term.
Submission privacy
Slip submissions are personal data — names, signatures, sometimes medical information. Apply standard data care:
- Restrict access to staff who need it.
- Don’t email or export submissions externally without considering privacy.
- Set a retention policy — most schools delete slip submissions after the relevant event has passed and any audit window has closed.
The slip module doesn’t auto-delete — schedule a manual review periodically.
Deleting submissions
If a submission needs removal:
- Soft delete — mark as withdrawn. Submission stays but is excluded from active counts.
- Hard delete — removes the submission record.
For privacy requests (right to erasure), hard delete is the right action.
For corrections (parent re-submitted with a different answer), soft-delete the original and treat the new one as authoritative.
Withdrawals by parents
Parents can withdraw their submission if the slip allows it (typically until the slip’s expiry date):
- They open the slip from their dashboard.
- They choose Withdraw.
The submission is marked withdrawn. The parent is treated as outstanding again — they can re-submit or leave it.
Schools differ on whether to allow withdrawals. Configure per-slip based on the consent type.
Tips
- Review submissions promptly. Don’t let the medical-condition responses sit unread.
- Reconcile with attendance if the slip is for an event — confirm everyone who turned up had submitted.
- Archive when done. After the event, mark the slip as archived to clean up your active-slip list while keeping the records.
- Audit annually. Confirm your retention policy is being followed and that older submissions are deleted appropriately.