Tracking and chasing outstanding slips

Once a slip is released, the question becomes: who hasn’t submitted yet? Tracking outstanding slips is where most of the slip workflow’s time goes — chasing parents who haven’t responded so the school has the consent it needs by the deadline.

The slip detail page

Open the slip from Slips → All slips. The detail page shows:

• Total targeted — how many students the slip applies to.
• Submitted — how many parents have completed.
• Outstanding — how many haven’t yet.
• Expired without submission — how many didn’t submit by the expiry date.
• Submission rate — submitted ÷ targeted, as a percentage.

The page also shows a per-student grid: every targeted student with their submission status (Submitted / Outstanding / Expired).

The outstanding-slips view

A school-wide view at Slips → Outstanding. Lists every outstanding slip across all active slips, grouped by parent.

Use this when you need to:

• Find every parent with at least one outstanding slip.
• Bulk-message those parents.
• Print a chase list for office staff to phone through.

Notifications and reminders

Slip notifications are the primary mechanism for chasing parents. They’re scheduled emails sent automatically at configured intervals.

Configuring notifications

Open the slip and choose Manage notifications.

For each notification, set:

• Trigger — when to send relative to release/expiry (e.g. 3 days after release, 5 days before expiry).
• Subject — email subject line.
• Body — message content. Use placeholders for student name, slip title, parent name.
• Recipients — only parents with outstanding submissions, or all targeted parents.

Common reminder schedules

PortalHQ comes with a default reminder schedule applied to new slips — review and customise per slip if needed.

Reminder body content

Reminders should:

• Be polite (most parents who haven’t submitted just forgot, not refused).
• Include the slip title and a direct link to the slip.
• Mention the deadline.
• Mention the consequences if there are any (e.g. Your child can’t attend the excursion without this slip).

Example:

Hi {parent_first_name},

This is a reminder that the {slip_title} slip for {student_first_name} is due by {expiry_date}.

Please complete it at: {slip_url}

Best regards,
{school_name}

Send a one-off reminder

Beyond the scheduled notifications, you can trigger a one-off send manually:

1. Open the slip.
2. Choose Send reminder now.
3. Pick the recipient set (all outstanding, specific parents, etc.).
4. Edit the message if needed.
5. Send.

Useful when something has changed (e.g. urgent date change) and you want to push a message immediately.

Manual chase

For the last few outstanding parents who don’t respond to emails:

1. Export the outstanding list to CSV.
2. Phone or message individually.
3. Record submissions on their behalf (with consent), or note the reason for non-submission.

The phone-then-record pattern is common for excursion slips at primary schools.

Submitting on a parent’s behalf

If a parent gives consent over the phone or via email and can’t access the online slip:

1. Open the slip’s submissions list.
2. Choose Submit on behalf.
3. Fill in the form as the parent would have.
4. The submission is recorded with you as the recorder and a note that it was done on the parent’s behalf.

Use sparingly — the parent’s digital signature is the auditable artifact. Submitting on their behalf reduces audit clarity.

Reporting

The slip detail page has a downloadable report:

• Per-slip CSV — every targeted student with their submission status.
• Combined slips CSV — multiple slips’ outstanding data in one file.

Use for fortnightly reviews of slip completion across the school.

Tips

• Set up notifications when you create the slip. Don’t wait until expiry approaches.
• Personalise the last reminder. A reminder mentioning the student’s name and the imminent expiry date gets more attention.
• Phone the laggards. The last 5% of outstanding slips often don’t respond to emails. A two-minute phone call resolves most.
• Review notifications monthly. Schedules that worked last term may not work this term — adjust based on completion patterns.