Most schools' boards meet quarterly. The head walks in with a 4-page pack covering enrollment, operations, and what changed. The pack takes 60-90 minutes to compile properly; rushed versions read as rushed.
This playbook is the structure that works for that pack — what to include, where to pull each piece from in the platform, what to compile manually, and what the platform deliberately doesn't give you.
The framing — read this first
The platform is not a board-reporting tool. It's an operational system. It has the raw data (inquiries, bookings, applications, analytics) and lets you export most of it as CSV, but the compilation into board-grade output is your work.
This is the right architectural choice — board reports are too varied across schools to bake into a one-click export. What works for a 200-pupil day school doesn't work for a 1,500-pupil international boarding school. The trade-off is 60-90 minutes of compilation work per quarter.
The discipline of compiling well is part of the value — the head who reads through the numbers properly often spots things the dashboard doesn't surface.
Cadence
Three reporting layers, different audiences and depths:
- Monthly internal review — 15 minutes, just the admissions team. Pull the funnel snapshot from the cohort dashboard. Note what changed since last month. No formal write-up
- Quarterly board pack — 60 minutes to compile. Subset of the full structure (sections 1 + 2 + a 1-paragraph narrative). 4 pages
- Annual full report — half-day to compile. All 4 sections, YoY comparison, multi-year trends, narrative section properly developed. 8-12 pages
This article focuses on the quarterly + annual versions — the monthly is informal enough that the cohort dashboard is your whole report.
The 4-section structure
A board pack should answer four questions, in order:
- Where are we in the funnel? — inquiries, tours, applications, enrollments. The numbers
- Are we on track for the cycle? — actuals vs. target per cohort. The progress
- Is the operation healthy? — response time, show-rate, profile quality. The hygiene
- What changed and what's the head's take? — narrative. The interpretation
The first three are platform-pullable. The fourth is the head's work — it's the part the board actually reads.
Section 1: The funnel snapshot
Goal: one page showing the funnel from inquiry to enrollment, with totals + conversion rates.
What to pull:
| Metric | Where | How | |---|---|---| | Inquiries this period | CRM tab, top right CSV export | Filter to the reporting period, export, count | | Tours booked | Bookings tab CSV export | Filter status to "confirmed" or "completed" in period | | Tours that happened | Same CSV | Filter to "completed" (you marked these manually after each tour) | | Applications submitted | Admissions tab, filter by submitted_at in period | Manual count, or CSV export if available | | Decisions issued | Admissions tab, filter by status changed in period | Manual | | Offers accepted | Admissions tab, filter status = accepted or enrolled | Manual | | Enrolled | Cohort dashboard (admissions → View by cohort) | Read the "Enrolled" stat per cohort card |
The math the platform doesn't do for you:
- Inquiry → tour conversion (tours / inquiries × 100)
- Tour show-rate (completed / confirmed × 100)
- Tour → application conversion (applications / tours that happened × 100)
- Application → offer rate (offers / applications × 100)
- Offer → accept rate (accepted / offers × 100)
Run these in Excel/Sheets — 5 cells, 2 minutes. Display as a simple funnel diagram.
Format for the board:
Inquiries 200
↓ 35%
Tours booked 70
↓ 80% show
Tours attended 56
↓ 25%
Applications 14
↓ 70% offered
Offers 10
↓ 80% accepted
Enrolled 8
One page. Sanity-check the conversion percentages against the dashboard analytics baselines — if you're far off the medians, that's a discussion point.
Section 2: Cycle progress
Goal: one page per active cohort showing actual vs target.
What to pull: open the cohort dashboard (Admissions → View by cohort). Screenshot the relevant entry-year cards.
Each card already shows:
- 5-stage funnel (needs review, in review, decision pending, offered, closed)
- Enrolled count, highlighted
- Total applications
- Progress bar vs. capacity target if you set one
This is the cleanest single-screen output the platform has. Use it as-is in the board pack. The visual is more legible than a table you'd construct in Excel.
If you have multiple programs (IB + Swiss Matura, say), include one card per program. The board cares about program mix.
What to add as commentary:
- "We're 60% to target with 8 weeks of decision-window left"
- "The IB program is over-indexing; Swiss Matura needs more application volume"
- "Two waitlisted families are likely to convert if our top offer declines"
The data is the platform's; the commentary is yours.
Section 3: Operational health
Goal: one page showing whether the operation itself is functioning well, independent of cycle results.
Metrics worth tracking:
| Metric | Where | Healthy range |
|---|---|---|
| Inquiry response time (median) | Manual: pull inquiries CSV, compute contacted_at − created_at | <4h business hours, <24h overall |
| Tour show-rate | Bookings CSV, count completed / confirmed | 75-85% in-person, 60-75% video |
| Profile completion score | Dashboard → Profile widget | 14+/15 ideal |
| Trust badges earned | Profile page | 4-5 of 5 ideal |
| Active days in past 30 | Dashboard activity log if available, else "are we logging in regularly" | Daily for someone on the team |
| Broadcast frequency this quarter | Broadcasts tab list | 4-12 per quarter (monthly cadence ± seasonal) |
The narrative for this section is short — a 4-bullet "we're in good shape on these / watch this / let's improve this" summary.
Section 4: What changed and what's the head's take
The thing the platform absolutely cannot give you. This is the section the board actually reads.
Structure as 3-5 paragraphs covering:
- What's working — the win of the quarter. Specific. "Saturday open house in March drove 24 tour bookings, our highest single-event yield ever"
- What's not working — the operational concern. Specific. "Day-pupil applications are 30% below the same point last year; we suspect the new school down the road is taking that segment"
- What we're doing about it — concrete, near-term. "Running a targeted broadcast to past-year day-pupil inquiries in the next 2 weeks; assessing whether to add a third open house in May"
- What we need from the board — the ask. Sometimes nothing (information only); sometimes specific (budget approval, introduction to a corporate partner, decision on tuition for next cycle)
- Looking ahead — what's next quarter going to bring? Helps the board calibrate expectations
This section is the head's voice. Don't outsource it to admissions staff. The board is hiring the head's judgment, not the team's data-pull.
Annual report extras
For the year-end report (typically delivered in June or December), extend each section:
Year-over-year comparison
The Analytics tab has built-in comparison: pick a timeframe (30 / 90 / 365 days) and a comparison mode ("vs same period last year"). Each engagement metric card then shows a delta arrow with percentage change vs. last year's matching window — average time on page, bounce rate, pages per session, return visitor rate.
For broader metrics the dashboard doesn't compute (inquiry volume, tour bookings, applications, enrollments by program), the manual compile is still worth it for annual reports:
- Export inquiries CSV for this year + last year
- Export bookings CSV for this year + last year
- Export the cohort dashboard data for both years
- Build a side-by-side table in Excel: month-by-month inquiry volume, tour bookings, applications, enrollments
For a school that's been on the platform 2+ years, this is the single most valuable analysis the board sees. It either confirms the trend or shows a turning point.
Multi-year enrollment trend
Pull the cohort dashboard for each of the past 3-5 years. Plot enrolled counts per program per year. The platform doesn't do this for you — it's a manual chart.
Diversity / demographic statistics
Not in the platform at all. Boards often want gender mix, nationality mix, day vs. boarding split, scholarship vs. full-fee split. Pull these from your SIS (student information system) — if you don't have one, from a manual spreadsheet the registrar maintains.
Revenue (cycle-end)
Schools cannot see their own application-fee revenue in the dashboard right now. Stripe dashboard has the raw transaction data — pull the report from there. For tuition revenue forecasts, that's also off-platform (SIS or finance team).
What the platform deliberately doesn't give you
A summary of the gaps so you can plan around them:
- One-click "board report" export — not built, not on the immediate roadmap. Compilation discipline is the point
- YoY analytics in the UI — shipped for engagement metrics (Analytics tab timeframe + compare picker); for inquiry / booking / application volumes still manual via CSV exports
- Revenue dashboard for schools — admin-side only; you see Stripe direct
- Multi-year cohort trends — pull each year manually
- Print-optimised charts — screenshot or use browser Print to PDF (Recharts components don't render great on paper)
- Demographic aggregations — SIS territory, not ours
- Conversion rates between stages — Excel math on the CSVs
None of these block the board pack; they just shape the workflow. Build the muscle memory of "export, pivot, screenshot, paste." After 2 cycles it's routine.
Sample 60-minute quarterly compilation
Time-budget for the quarterly pack:
| Minutes | Task | |---|---| | 0-10 | Export inquiries CSV, bookings CSV, list applications. Open in spreadsheet | | 10-25 | Compute conversion rates. Build the funnel diagram | | 25-35 | Open cohort dashboard. Screenshot each card. Add commentary | | 35-45 | Pull operational metrics. Write the 4-bullet hygiene summary | | 45-60 | Write the narrative section. The hardest part — leave time for it |
If you're consistently spending >90 minutes, your data sources aren't organised. Build a saved spreadsheet template after the first cycle so subsequent ones are just paste-and-recompute.
Common mistakes
- Trying to make the board pack in the dashboard. The dashboard is for operations. Export the data, compile externally. Don't try to print the dashboard.
- Bringing raw numbers without narrative. The board wants interpretation. "Inquiries: 200" is data. "Inquiries: 200, steady vs last quarter, but international segment grew 40% — evidence that the agency partnership in Singapore is working" is intelligence.
- Comparing this month to last month. Seasonal patterns dominate at monthly cadence (admissions cycle drives enormous variance). Always compare to the same month last year for trend signals.
- Including everything. A 12-page board pack doesn't get read. A tight 4-page pack with a strong narrative does. Edit ruthlessly.
- Skipping section 4. Without the head's take, the pack is just numbers. The narrative is what makes it useful to a board member who isn't in the school every day.
When to escalate to us
Email admin@swissprivate-schools.ch if:
- You want a custom data export pulled for board reporting (we can run SQL queries we don't expose in the UI and send you CSVs)
- You're presenting to the board next week and need help interpreting an unusual metric movement — we'll do a 30-min call to look at it together
- You want a bespoke board-pack template built for your school (matching your branding, recurring quarterly delivery) — this is Bespoke-tier work; we can quote it
- You're seeing data that doesn't match what you remember from last quarter — we can audit the historical state if needed
We respond within 2 business days. For urgent board-meeting prep, mark the email with "BOARD MEETING DATE: ..." in the subject line.