Configuration 2.0 is Cialfo’s upgraded settings system, giving schools a streamlined way to manage permissions, workflows, and feature access for all users. It includes controls for university visibility, list-building, Direct Apply, application limits, integrations like Parchment and Common App, and user-specific settings for notifications, recommendations, transcripts, and login options—offering a more flexible and centralized experience.
My School/ Org
School Details
This section displays all your organization’s details, including the logo, email, phone number, CEEB code, country, address, and more.
When you first access the Configurations page, you'll see two highlighted lines in the School Details section, prompting you to activate integrations with Parchment and Common App:
Activate Parchment: Clicking this button will immediately jump you to the Parchment Activation section, where you can configure and enable the integration.
Activate Common App: Clicking this button will navigate you to the Common App Activation section, where you can set up and activate the Common Application integration.
(Please refer to the later section for detailed instructions on configuring Parchment and Common App.)
Post-Activation Behavior
Once the options have been activated, the respective highlighted lines will no longer be visible in the section, indicating that these integrations are now enabled and configured.
This will activate the Common App and Parchment and will be visible under the "Applications - DA & cDocs" field.
When you hover your cursor over the section, the Edit option will appear. Click the Edit button to update the school details. After making your changes, click Save to apply them.
Grades Naming
The Grades Naming section lets you assign custom names to each graduation year according to your school’s conventions (e.g., “Grade 10,” “Class 123”). These names are visible system-wide and apply to all users.
Click the Edit button to modify the naming for any graduation year directly.
When you assign or edit a grade name, the system uses carry forward and carry backward logic:
Carry forward: The name you assign to a graduation year will automatically apply to the years that follow until a new name is set.
Carry backward: Similarly, the system can backfill earlier years with the same naming convention if no unique names are defined for them.
Once completed, the updated grade will be reflected in the student profile under Personal Information > Current Grade.
Student Profile
All settings can be updated using the respective Edit buttons. When an option is enabled (turned on), students will have the permission to update or add information in the corresponding sections of their profile, ensuring they can keep their details current and accurate.
🧑🎓 Allow Students to Add
This section allows admins to enable or disable students' ability to add or modify specific types of information within their profiles. The available options include:
Guardian contacts (with further configuration option):
When enabled, students can add guardian contact details.
Test scores
Turning on this option allows students to input or update their test scores directly within their profiles.
Personal information
Allows students to update their personal details, such as address, phone number, or other relevant data.
Education details
When enabled, students can update their education details in their profile > Personal Information > Education.
Grades
Enables students to input or update their academic grades for various subjects or courses.
👨👩👧 Guardian Contacts
Within the Guardian Contacts section, there are additional options that enable admins to control whether students can manage guardian account functionalities:
Allow students to enable/disable guardian account for a contact:
When this option is turned on, students will have the ability to activate or deactivate the guardian account.
Allow students to enable/disable notifications sent to a guardian:
When enabled, students can control whether notifications are sent to their guardians, allowing them to turn these alerts on or off as needed.
📝 Application Details
This section allows students to manage their application details in their profile. Enabling these options allows students to:
Select their enrollment year
Select their application year
View their assigned group
Edit their own application details
🔧 Grades Section (All Users)
Accessible via the Configurations > Student profile > Grades tab.
You can configure what types of scores are available when adding grades. At least one type is required. All options in the example screenshot below are currently enabled (turned ON), allowing users to see these options directly from the student profile:
Estimated GPA
GPA
Weighted GPA
School’s scoring system
👁️ Display Grades Section
This toggle controls whether the Grades section is visible on the Student Profile page:
Show/Hide the Grades Section:
When enabled (ON), students, guardians, and staff can view academic grades in the profile. When disabled, the grades are hidden from view for privacy or administrative reasons.
Currently, this feature is enabled (ON), making the grades visible on student profiles.
📚 Academic Details
This section captures key academic program information:
Academic System:
Specifies the educational framework or program in use. For example, "IB Integrated Program," with grading scales from 1 to 7.Terms per Grade:
Defines the number of grading periods or terms within a school year. Currently set to 4, meaning there are four grading periods per academic year.
University Section Features Overview
The University section in the platform allows schools to customize and control how university-related information is presented to students, guardians, and counselors. Below is a breakdown of the features:
🌍 Regions
Tailor which university regions are visible and recommended to students and guardians based on selected preferences.
Regions Available: Oceania, Americas, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa.
Region Visibility and Recommendations:
Admins can toggle each region ON or OFF to determine whether it appears in the University search (region filter and search results), and personalized recommendations.
Turning a region ON makes it visible to students and guardians, allowing them to explore universities within that region. For example, if an admin turns off the Americas region, students and guardians will no longer see the United States, including specific universities like NYU, in the region filter or search results. This means that universities located within the Americas will be hidden from the search interface.
🧑🎓 Visibility Settings
Control if Students, Guardians, or Counselors can view university-related data:
For Students & Guardians:
This feature allows admins to manage whether students and guardians can access certain university-specific information when they open a particular university profile.
Application History: When enabled, the Application History section appears within the university profile, providing insights into previous applicant data.
University Representatives: Enable it to show rep details for student and guardian reference.
Prompts: Display the Prompts section to show any writing prompts associated with universities.
For Counselors:
Applicants: Enable this setting to allow counselors to view the Applicants section on the university profile.
🔗 Connections
Empower students to receive updates directly from universities.
Allow opt-in for direct updates: Currently OFF by default.
When enabled, students can choose to connect with universities for updates.
🏅 Rankings
Provide credible university data to all users:
Display QS Rankings for universities: Enable the option to display the QS rankings to all users.
Uni-Fit Score: Show the match score between student profiles and universities.
📊 Scattergram
This feature provides a visual representation of admissions trends and student compatibility:
Default Axes Options: You can choose which metrics to display on the axes of the scattergrams, including ACT, SAT, GPA, School GPA, Weighted GPA, IELTS, TOEFL, IB, ACT&SAT Converted to ACT Scale, and ACT&SAT Converted to SAT Scale.
Default X-axis: School GPA
You can customize the axis based on your preferred metrics for analysis.Default Y-axis: ACT
You can customize the axis based on your preferred metrics for analysis.
Data Years: Allow admins to set the year range that is accessible for Counselors and Students/Guardians.
Counselors: 2022–2027
Students/Guardians: 2022–2027
Scattergrams are only shown when 3 or more data points are available.
Cialfo Network Data (CND)
Uses anonymized data from participating schools for richer insights.
Enable Scattergram display based on CND: When this option is enabled, Cialfo Network GPA 4.0 will appear as an available choice in the Axis options.
Note: Enabling this shares your school's data anonymously with Cialfo’s network.
Visibility:
For Counselors: Enable/Disable the use of CND data for counselors to enhance visualizations. In the example here, it's turned on.
For Students/Guardians: Enable/Disable the use of CND data for students/guardians to enhance visualizations. This option is OFF by default.
🧮 Score Mapping
Standardize academic data for consistency in scattergrams:
Set minimum and maximum scores for your school.
Use uniform mapping to align your school’s grading scale (1–5) to Cialfo’s 0–4.0 GPA scale.
🔑 List Permissions
Students
Admins can control the ability of students to manage their university lists with the following permissions:
Add to Longlist:
ON — Students can add universities to their longlist for initial consideration.Rearrange and Remove from Longlist:
ON — Students can reorder and remove universities from their longlist as needed.Add to Shortlist:
ON — Students can select universities from their longlist to move to their shortlist for more focused consideration.Rearrange and Remove from Shortlist:
ON — Students can reorder and remove universities from their shortlist.Add to Applying List:
ON — Students can move universities from their shortlist to their applying list when they decide to proceed with applications.Rearrange and Remove from Applying List:
ON — Students can reorder and remove universities from their applying list.
✅ All student permissions are currently enabled.
Guardians
Guardian permissions can be viewed by clicking “See guardian permissions”.
⚙️ Miscellaneous Settings
Students
Max. number of applications per student: 10
Show "Cialfo likelihood" in lists: ON
This displays the likelihood of student admission to each university.Feature: My top choices – OFF
When enabled, this feature allows students to mark their top choice universities within the Applying list based on their preferences.Applications — DA & cDocs: Configuration Overview
This section allows school administrators to manage application pathways, counselor and teacher involvement, document handling, and integration with platforms like Direct Apply (DA), Common App, and Parchment.
📝 Direct Apply (DA) Configuration
The Direct Apply section allows administrators to control access to Cialfo’s Direct Apply feature, enabling students to apply to over 124,000+ global programs using a single application form, with admission decisions in as little as 2 weeks.
✏️To configure Direct Apply:
Click the Edit button at the top-right corner of the Direct Apply section.
Use the toggles to turn ON or OFF Direct Apply access for your desired regions.
🌍 Enable DA for Specific Regions
You can enable Direct Apply access for:
🌐 All Regions
🇺🇸 United States
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇦🇺 Australia & New Zealand
🇪🇺 Europe
🇨🇦 Canada
🇮🇳 India
🌍 Rest of the Regions
✅ Choose to enable DA for all regions or customize based on your school’s priorities and student destinations.
Enable DA Pathway Programs: Allow access to specialized pathway options.
Counselors Can Approve DA Applications: If enabled, each DA application will be reviewed and approved by a counselor before submission.
Apply approval setting separately for:
UK Applications
Non-UK Applications
Counselor Support: Let Cialfo know if your school assists students with DA applications, including document handling.
UK Buzzword Consent (Required): Confirm your understanding that Cialfo’s buzzword will be used for your students’ UK DA applications.
✅ Click
Saveonce you're done configuring your Direct Apply settings.📄 Parchment Integration
Status: ✅ Active
Activation Date
Parchment allows secure electronic delivery of academic credentials. Once activated, your school can send transcripts and other documents through Parchment directly from Cialfo.
📝 Common App Settings on Cialfo
To configure your school's Common App settings in Cialfo:
Click the pencil (edit) icon in the CommonApp section.
Adjust the toggles as needed (see details below).
Click
Saveonce you're done to apply the changes.
🔄 Sync Settings (All Users)
These control how Common App data syncs between Cialfo and the Common App platform:
✅ Enable counselors to sync their students’ CommonApp college list with the applying list on Cialfo
Allows counselors to match or import colleges from Common App into the student’s list on Cialfo.✅ Automatically remove universities from the applying list on Cialfo when they are removed from the CommonApp college list
Keeps the Cialfo list clean by removing colleges a student deletes from Common App.✅ Allow syncing of CommonApp round and deadline with the application record in Cialfo
Ensures application deadlines and rounds (e.g., Early Decision, Regular Decision) stay updated automatically in Cialfo.
🧾 School Report Forms (Teachers)
These settings let teachers manage and submit different types of report forms through Cialfo:
✅ Allow teachers to create school report forms
Enables teachers to generate official school reports via Cialfo for Common App submissions.✅ Allow teachers to create mid year report forms
Lets teachers submit mid-year academic updates.✅ Allow teachers to create final year report forms
Allows teachers to send final grades and reports after the school year ends.✅ Allow teachers to create optional report forms
Enables submission of non-mandatory but helpful documents (e.g., updates or corrections).
🔒 Don’t forget to click
Saveonce you’ve made your changes!🔸 Note: When configuring for the first time, setup details are saved under Admin Panel > Integration > Parchment and Common App.
After filling in the required information, activate by selecting
“Activate Parchment Request” and “Activate CommonApp Request” from the Applications – DA & cDocs menu.🧾 Recommendations
Click the edit icon to make changes.
Turn on or adjust the following options:
Allow students to request letters of recommendation.
Limit how many teachers students can request from (e.g., 4).
Allow counselors to view/add recommendations on behalf of teachers.
Display needed-by date to teachers in request notifications.
Set a default needed-by date.
Allow teachers to create counselor recommendation forms.
Customize Survey Questions for Recommendations to guide students when requesting.
Click Save once done.
📚 Transcripts
Students can request transcripts
Transcript request status auto-updates
Counselors can preview student transcripts
📌 Application Portal Order
Application portals appear in the following order for students:
Others
UK DA
Common App
UCAS
Direct Apply
🏷️ Custom Application Flags
Used by counselors to organize and track applications:
Flags can be created and assigned
Example:
Flag name:
bnmvjhbvhjbm– 1 applicationFlag name
kbdfvjn– 0 applications
🗂️ Other cDocs Settings
Teachers can view student applying lists
Notify counselor if a document fails to send – ON
Counselors can download all student documents in a bundle – ON
Notifications Settings Overview
The Notifications section in Cialfo allows schools to manage how users are informed about events and important updates via email.
📧 Emails from Cialfo
Applies to: All Users
Sender Name
Reply-To Email
These details appear in email communications sent from the Cialfo platform.
📅 Cialfo Event Notifications
Applies to: Students & Guardians
Cialfo partners with top universities and organizations to host events. Notifications for these events can be enabled to keep users informed.Notify students about upcoming events: ON
Notify guardians about upcoming events: ON
🔔 Other Notifications
Applies to: Counselors
Notify counselors when a new student is assigned: ON
This ensures counselors stay updated when new students are linked to their caseload.
Others: Configuration Settings Overview
The Others tab in Cialfo's configuration panel manages user defaults, login options, task permissions, and various visibility and access settings for students, counselors, and guardians.
🌐 User Default Settings
Timezone: Mumbai (UTC +05:30)
Default Residence: Spain
These are the default values applied to new users unless customized individually.
🔐 Login Settings
Applies to: Students
Allow login with Google: ON
If turned ON, students can log in using their Google account.
You can turn this off by clicking on edit and then save to update the changes.
✅ Tasks Permissions
Applies to: Students
Click on Edit to turn it Off or On
If turned ON, students can view archived tasks.
If turned ON, students can archive their tasks.
If turned ON, students can view approved tasks.
These settings allow students to manage and review past and approved tasks effectively.
👩🎓 Miscellaneous Student Permissions
Make the required changes by clicking on Edit button to-
Setting | ON | OFF |
View counselor’s email | Students can see their counselor’s email address. | Students cannot see their counselor’s email. |
View counselor’s mobile number | Students can view the counselor’s phone number. | Students cannot see the counselor’s phone number. |
Schedule meetings | Students can schedule meetings with counselors via the platform. | Students cannot schedule meetings. |
View application flags | Students can see flags tagged to their applications. | Application flags are hidden from students. |
👩🏫 Miscellaneous Counselor Permissions
Make the required changes by clicking on Edit button to-
Setting | ON | OFF |
View reports | Counselors have access to platform data reports. | Counselors cannot view any reports. |
Access People page | Counselors can view and manage users via the People tab. | Counselors cannot access the People tab. |
👨👩👧 Miscellaneous Guardian Permissions
Control if the -
Guardians can see the groups their student is a part of by turning it On or Off
🎉 Congratulations! 🎉
You have completed the Account Configure setup!
Please use the Chat with Cialfo function if you have any immediate questions or reach out to your Customer Success Manager directly for additional support.