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Getting started with brightwheel CRM

[For Admins] Learn how to set up CRM by building message templates, forms, and tours.

Written by Audrey

Brightwheel CRM helps you capture and manage prospective families or leads in one place, from their first inquiry to their first day. This guide walks you through setting up your message templates, forms, and tour availability, so you can start adding leads and moving them through your enrollment pipeline right away.

Before you begin

It's helpful to understand how brightwheel CRM works so that setup makes sense.

  • Families move through stages from New inquiry to Toured, Waitlisted, and Enrolled. Each stage has its own actions, like sending a message ("You've been waitlisted"), scheduling a tour, or sending forms.

  • CRM has its own Interest form that adds new leads, plus you can share existing forms or packets.

  • The Leads page is your main view for managing your entire pipeline. From here, you move families between stages and take action on each lead.

This guide walks you through setting up your message templates, forms, and tour availability so your Leads page is fast to use.

Get started

1. Import leads

The first step to getting started is importing your leads. A “lead” is a prospective family who has expressed interest in your childcare center but has not yet enrolled their child. You can add leads manually, by bulk importing, or by migrating if you already have prospective families in brightwheel.

Manually

  1. On the web, go to CRM > Leads

  2. Click Add lead

In bulk

  1. On the web, go to CRM > Leads

  2. Click Import leads

  3. Upload a file with your lead information, such as names, contact info, and child details

Migrating (for existing brightwheel customers)

If you already have prospective students in brightwheel, you can quickly migrate students over to CRM with just a few clicks.

  1. On the web, go to Admissions

  2. In the banner at the top, click Migrate

  3. Select the student(s) you want to migrate and confirm

To learn more about migrating, visit Migrate to brightwheel CRM.

2. Set up your message templates

What are message templates

Message templates are the emails CRM sends as you move families through your pipeline. They also send automatically when a family completes your interest form or books a tour. CRM includes ready-to-use templates, and you can edit the wording and your signature. It’s essential to set up each one so they are ready to go when you add your first lead.

Steps to customize messages

  1. Log in on the web

  2. In the sidebar menu, go to CRM > Setup

  3. Click the Message templates tab

  4. Customize the email for each enrollment stage, plus your tour, form confirmation, and paperwork emails

Once you’ve set up your templates, move on to step 3. You can always return and make edits.

ℹ️ Learn more: Customize and manage CRM message templates.

3. Set up your CRM Interest form

What is the CRM Interest form

Your CRM Interest form is key to using CRM because it's how families first enter your pipeline. When a family completes it, they're added automatically as a lead, so you don't have to enter their information yourself and no one gets lost. Families don't need a brightwheel account to fill it out, which keeps the first step quick and easy for them.

Steps to customize

You can customize your school name, accent color, and whether to ask for a program preference and address. Once your leads are in, you can send any additional enrollment forms and packets.

  1. On the web, click CRM > Setup

  2. Select Interest form

  3. Customize your form and hit Save changes

  4. Select Share to copy the link or embed the form on your website for families to complete

💡 Tip: We recommend waiting to share your form until you've finished setting up the rest of CRM.

ℹ️ Learn more: Set up and share CRM forms.

4. Set up tour availability

Families receive your tour availability automatically when you move them to the Contacted stage.

Before that happens, you'll need to set the times you offer tours, including recurring times, one-time dates, and blocked dates like holidays. Families then choose from the times you set and receive a confirmation automatically.

  1. From CRM > Setup, select Tour availability

  2. Configure the accent color, scheduling window and additional details

  3. Click Save changes when finished

ℹ️ Learn more: Set up CRM tour availability and settings.

Next steps

Once you’ve completed all four steps, you are ready to start using CRM and moving leads through your pipeline 🚀.

We recommend starting with the resource Move leads through your CRM pipeline to begin, then you can visit our brightwheel CRM resource collection to learn about additional features.

FAQs

I’ve already created my own forms. Do I have to use the CRM Interest form?

Yes, we recommend starting with it. The CRM interest form is what creates leads automatically, so it's how new families enter your pipeline.

Forms from the Paperwork tab, like your own application, don't create leads. Once a family is in your pipeline, you can still send your Paperwork forms and packets at any stage.

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