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First Step Pages
Discover how to customize and adapt First Step to match your unique requirements with our customization guide.

Customizing First Step

First Step is comprised of a set of pages. Parents progress from on page to the next. Pages cannot be skipped, but parents can go back to a previous page if needed.

First Step Pages

There are several types of pages:

Type Required Description
Sign Up Yes Collects parent and student information. It must appear before campaigns.
Directory No Parents configure how their directory information will be displayed.
Volunteer No Allows parents to sign up for volunteer positions.
Custom No Text, campaigns, and forms appear on custom pages.
Checkout Yes Displays the cart and forms for payment.
Receipt Yes Displays the receipt. This page must come immediately after the Checkout page.

First Step Sections

First Step pages are comprised of multiple sections.

There are three types of sections:

Type Description
Custom Show text, images, videos, and attachments to parents. This is great for creating a welcome page, discussing clubs and activities, or providing access to important documents such as the student handbook.
Form Displays a form to collect additional information during First Step.
Campaign Displays a campaign allowing parents to make purchases and donations.

Best Practices

When configuring First Step, keep the following in mind:

  • Be concise when writing text. Parents tend to skip large amounts of text.
  • Limit First Step to 10 pages. Our systems will support any number of pages, however, too many pages will have lower completion rates.
  • Add a custom page before the sign up page. Use this page to set expectations on how long the process will take, important dates, and information on walk-through First Step (if needed).
  • Include donations first. When adding campaigns to FutureFund, we recommend having donations on a dedicated page before campaigns for yearbooks, PE clothes, spirit wear etc.

First Step Availability

Enabling and Disabling First Step

First Step is accessible to parents when the Allow parents to sign up students setting is enabled. To toggle the setting:

  • In the Admin, navigate to First Step > Setup.
  • Check or uncheck Allow parents to sign up students in the Advanced Section.
  • Click the Update button.

First Step Start and End Times

First Step can have scheduled start and end dates in the First Step Availability section. First Step must be enabled for the availability dates to work as expected.

Restricting a Campaign to a Grade

During First Step, campaigns can be restricted to selected grade levels. By default, they are shown to all grades. This feature is helpful when selling/collecting:

  • School Supply Kits
  • Field Trips
  • School Dances
  • Test Prep Services

To restrict grades, in the Admin, navigate to First Step > Pages:

  1. Select the First Step page where the campaign is displayed by clicking on the View button.
  2. Select the campaign by clicking on the View Section button when hovering over the campaign.
  3. Select Edit Section from the Actions drop-down.
  4. Select the grades to view the campaign.
  5. Click the Update button.

Blank First Step pages occurring between the sign up page and checkout page will not be displayed to parents.

Purchase Settings

Requiring Donation Selection

When a donation campaign is added to a First Step section, the admin can require the purchaser to make a selection of the available amounts. This prevents the purchaser from skipping the campaign, although they are able to select a zero dollar amount. When a zero dollar amount is selected, a zero dollar item will be included in the order receipt.

To require a selection, in the Admin, navigate to Students > Setup, click on the Manage First Step Pages link:

  1. Select the page where the campaign is displayed.
  2. Select the campaign or page section.
  3. Click the Edit Advanced Settings button on the bottom of the page in the Advanced Section.
  4. Click the Require Selection checkbox.
  5. Click the Update First Step Section button.

Automatically Add Campaign to Cart

This feature will automatically add a campaign to the purchaser’s cart during First Step if the following criteria are met:

  1. Campaign is of type: donation, sign up, membership, fundraiser, or multi-level membership
  2. Campaign’s attribution setting is not for teacher
  3. Membership campaigns are not individual memberships

This will not affect store orders.

To enable this feature, in the Admin, navigate to Students > First Step:

  1. Select the page where the campaign is displayed.
  2. Select the campaign or page section.
  3. Click the Edit Advanced Settings button on the bottom of the page in the Advanced Section.
  4. Click the Auto Select Campaign checkbox. If the campaign is a multi-level membership campaign, select the membership.
  5. Click the Update First Step Section button.

Videos

Videos can be displayed when a parent views a custom First Step section. Videos must be hosted in YouTube or Vimeo and be publicly available (although they can be unlisted). To add a video:

  1. View the First Step section.
  2. Click on the Edit Section button.
  3. Select the video service the Video section.
  4. Enter the Video ID in the space provided. For YouTube videos, the video ID is the text that appears after the v=. For example, in the following URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ the video ID is dQw4w9WgXcQ.
  5. Click the Update First Step Section button to save the change.