cDocs is Cialfo's centralized application hub. Counselors use it to manage students' applications, upload and send documents, and track submission status. This guide walks through the full document-sending workflow for the 2026–2027 application cycle, from setup to post-submission tracking.
To open cDocs, log in to your counselor account and click cDocs in the left sidebar. Click any student's name to open their individual cDocs profile page.
The three sending portals
cDocs connects you to universities through three portals. With all three enabled, Cialfo connects you with more than 5,000 universities worldwide.
Portal | Type | How it works |
Common App | One-way | Students apply and pay fees in their own Common App account. Counselors send documents from Cialfo to Common App, and most US universities download them from Common App. |
Parchment | One-way | Used mainly for Canadian universities and the University of California system. Students apply through the university or provincial portal; counselors send documents from Cialfo to Parchment. |
Direct Apply (DA) | Two-way | Cialfo's own portal. Students complete and submit applications in Cialfo, counselors send documents, and offers are updated on the platform automatically. Covers UCAS (UK), Australia, New Zealand, and selected universities in Europe and Asia. |
Part 1: Common App sending
Step 1: Configure Common App settings (Admin counselors only)
Click the blue profile icon in the top-right corner and select Configurations.
Go to Applications, DA & cDocs and select Common App.
Turn on all three sync toggles. This keeps colleges your students add or remove in Common App, along with rounds and deadlines, synced to Cialfo automatically.
Open Recommendations and review the settings: the maximum number of teacher recommendation requests per student, the default needed-by date (shown to teachers as a reminder), and optional survey questions students answer when inviting a recommender.
Step 2: Update school information and school profile (Admin counselors only)
In cDocs, open School Information and confirm details such as the graduation date and GPA range are current. Upload a new school profile PDF if anything has changed. Only one Admin counselor per school needs to do this at the start of each cycle.
Step 3: Students link their Common App account
The student logs in and clicks Applications in the left sidebar.
They click Link Common App and sign in to Common App.
Once linked, a green tick appears next to Common Application. Clicking More shows the Common App ID, email and FERPA status.
Remind students to answer the FERPA release in Common App. The status changes from Unanswered to Completed in Cialfo once they do.
Tip: On the cDocs page, use the filters to find students who have not linked Common App or not answered FERPA yet.
Step 4: Check that syncing is working
A linked student's Common App college list syncs to Cialfo automatically every 4 hours. If a student adds or removes a college close to a deadline, open their cDocs profile and click the sync button in the Common App Account section for an immediate sync. Colleges synced from Common App cannot be edited in Cialfo.
If a student linked the wrong Common App account, use the Link account button in the same section to relink.
Step 5: Assign a Common App Counselor
Universities treat the assigned Common App Counselor as the author of all counselor recommendations, so this step is essential. You can assign one in two ways:
In bulk: Go to Students, filter and select the students, then click Assign Counselor > More > Assign Common App Counselor.
Individually: Open the student's cDocs profile and select the counselor at the bottom of the Common App section.
Step 6: Upload documents
On the student's cDocs profile, the Documents tab lists every document type required across all three portals. Each type shows the logo of the portal that needs it, and types are grouped roughly by when they are needed:
Initial documents: needed before Early Action / Early Decision deadlines.
Mid-year documents: the mid-year transcript and Common App Mid-Year Report, usually in January. Optional Transcript and Optional Report are used to send updates or corrections to documents universities have already downloaded.
Other Transcript and Transfer Transcript: optional, and sent together with the School Report.
Final documents: the final transcript and Common App Final Report, usually in June.
Several Common App documents work as a combo of a PDF and a form. Both parts must be completed before you can send:
Paired form | |
Initial Transcript | Common App School Report |
Counselor Letter of Recommendation | Counselor recommendation questions |
Teacher Letter of Recommendation | Common App Teacher Evaluation |
To upload a document:
Click Upload next to the document type and choose the PDF.
Confirm the document type is correct, and select it manually if not.
Confirm the author is correct, then click Upload. A blue tick appears next to the document type.
Complete the paired form. For the School Report, check that the rank data and date range are current, and select which grades the transcript covers.
Uploaded documents are listed further down the page with the uploader and timestamp. Before sending, use the trash icon to replace a file or the edit icon to update a form.
File requirements: PDFs must be under 2 MB, PDF version 1.4, and not password-protected.
Teacher recommendations
Students invite subject teachers to be recommenders. Teachers log in to their teacher account, see the request and the student's survey answers, then upload their letter and complete the Common App Teacher Evaluation. Status labels on the student's cDocs profile show when this is done.
In the Recommenders section of the student's profile, counselors can remove a recommender or click Add to assign a different teacher.
If a teacher asks you to upload on their behalf, upload the PDF under Letter of Recommendation and set the author to the teacher's name, not your own. When completing the Teacher Evaluation, select the same teacher as the recommender.
Step 7: Send documents
Open the Submission tab on the student's cDocs profile. Common App documents fall into five types:
One-and-done documents: Counselor Recommendation, School Report (including school profile and transcripts), Optional Report and Mid-Year Report. Clicking Send sends them to every Common App college on the student's list at once. They cannot be sent to individual colleges.
Teacher recommendations: sent per college. Each college shows how many teacher recommendations it requires, and you choose which teacher's letter to send.
Early Decision agreement: appears under the college if the student selected ED in Common App. Click View, review, confirm your name and click Send agreement. This cannot be undone, so confirm with the student first.
Fee waiver: available to sign only after the student indicates fee waiver eligibility in their Common App account.
Final Report: sent to the college the student will attend. Sending the Final Report finalizes the student's Common App application, and no further documents can be sent through Common App afterwards. Check the PDF is complete before sending.
Common App FAQs
How do I see Common App status for all my students?
In cDocs, open the Submissions tab, filter by delivery method Common App and Class of 2027. You can send directly from this view by hovering over a document. The Submission Date column shows a green tick when the student has submitted their application in Common App.
Can I recall a document I've sent?
An Undo button appears next to the send timestamp while no college has downloaded or viewed the document. Use it to recall the document, replace it and send again. If the button is grey, at least one college has downloaded the document; use Optional Transcript or Optional Report to send a correction instead.
Why is the Send button greyed out?
Check the following:
The paired Common App form (School Report, counselor questions or Teacher Evaluation) has not been completed.
The student has not linked their Common App account to Cialfo.
The student has not answered FERPA in Common App.
The college is not on the student's Common App list or has not synced yet. Try a manual sync.
Part 2: Parchment sending
Step 1: Configure Parchment (Admin counselors only)
In cDocs, click Edit next to Parchment Sending, or go to Configurations > Applications > Parchment.
Under My School / Organization Details, confirm your school's CEEB code and the current graduation day and month are correct.
Step 2: Add the university to the student's applying list
The student (or a counselor on their behalf) searches for the university under Universities, checks that Parchment is listed as a supported portal, and clicks Add to List. The university then appears under Parchment Sending on the student's Submission tab.
Step 3: Upload and send
Upload PDFs against any document type showing the Parchment logo. Parchment only requires PDFs, with no paired forms. You can also use the bulk Upload button (above the sync button) to upload up to 10 PDFs at once.
On the Submission tab, find the university under Parchment Sending and click Send.
The status changes from purple (Processing) to green (Received), with a timestamp and a Document ID.
The Document ID links to Parchment, where you can see whether and when the university downloaded the document. If a university says it hasn't received a document, share the Document ID so they can match it to the application.
Parchment FAQs
How do I see all Parchment submissions?
In the cDocs Submissions tab, filter by delivery method Parchment and Class of 2027.
How do I check which universities a student is applying to?
On the Students page, click Add a Column and select Colleges Applying.
Part 3: Direct Apply (DA) sending
Step 1: Configure Direct Apply (Admin counselors only)
Go to Configurations > Applications > DA.
Turn on the regions you want available to your students, turn off any you don't, and click Save.
If your school applies to UCAS through Cialfo, set up the UCAS General Statement under the cDocs All Documents tab. This becomes the first paragraph of every UCAS reference, so you don't need to add it to each letter.
Step 2: Students add DA programs and complete the application
Under Universities, the student filters for Direct Apply courses, chooses a region, opens a course with View details, reviews the requirements and adds it to their DA applications.
For UK applications, students can add up to five UCAS programs. Cialfo creates a UCAS ID (shown within 24 hours) and an application email inbox for messages from universities.
The student completes the application form in Cialfo. The UK form uses the same questions as UCAS. They then click Review your application and Submit for counselor and school review.
Step 3: Review and approve
You'll receive an email when an application is waiting for review. Open it from the DA Funnel card on your dashboard or from the student's cDocs page, then click Review. Send it back for revision if anything needs correcting, or click Approve. The Cialfo DA team does a final check and confirms with you before submitting to the university.
Step 4: Upload and send documents
Upload documents against any document type with the DA logo.
For UCAS, complete the UCAS reference and predicted grades.
On the Submission tab, click Prepare or Send under DA UK, or Send for other DA regions.
Step 5: Offers and responses
DA results update on the platform automatically and appear in the Application Results card on your dashboard, so you don't need to chase students for them. Students click Respond to offer on their Applications page to accept (firm) or decline.
Tracking status after submission
In cDocs, use the tabs and filters to view documents and submissions across all students by class, delivery method and status. Status colors are:
Orange: uploaded but not yet sent.
Purple: sending is in progress.
Green: sent successfully.
Recording application results
For Common App and Parchment, results are not synced automatically. Students (or counselors on their behalf) update results such as accepted or deferred under Applications > Submissions.
Exporting data
Quick Reports: available to all counselors under More > Quick Reports in the left sidebar. Download real-time data for further analysis.
Insights: available to schools with advanced reporting, for application and matriculation data.
Need more help?
Contact your Client Partner, or click the blue profile icon and choose Chat with Cialfo to reach the support team, available 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. You can also search the Help Center for feature guides.