Family Types

This article explains how to set up and use Family Types in Enrollio to better organize and manage your families. Family Types are dropdown fields that help define your relationship with each family, such as "Prospective Family," "Enrolled Family," or "Waitlist Family."

What is a Family Type?

Family Type is a customizable dropdown field that defines the role or status of a family in your childcare center. It helps you segment families, target communications, and trigger automations based on where they are in your enrollment process.

You can assign Family Types manually or automatically through automations. When creating a new family record, Family Type is a required field—you'll need to select from your predefined options.

Each family can have only one Family Type at a time, making this field perfect for high-level organization based on enrollment status or relationship stage.

Why Use Family Types?

Organizing families by type helps you communicate more effectively and automate your enrollment process. Here's what you can do:

• Segment families for targeted messages and campaigns
• Trigger automations based on family status (like sending tour reminders to prospective families)
• Build Smart Lists for email and text campaigns
• Customize types to match your center's enrollment stages
• Works alongside tags and other organizational tools

How to Set Up Family Types

You'll configure your Family Types in the Custom Fields section. This is where you add the labels that define each type of family relationship.

1. Go to Settings → Custom Fields
2. Find the Family Type custom field
3. Check the box next to Family Type
4. Click the blue Bulk Actions button and choose Edit
5. Add, rename, or delete options like "Prospective Family," "Enrolled Family," "Waitlist Family," or "Alumni Family"

[SCREENSHOT: Settings page showing Custom Fields section with Family Type field selected and dropdown options visible for editing]

How to Assign a Family Type

You can assign Family Types when creating or editing a family record, or automatically using automations.

Assign Manually

1. Go to the Families tab
2. Click on the family you want to update
3. Click the Family Type dropdown
4. Choose the appropriate type

[SCREENSHOT: Family detail page with Family Type dropdown expanded showing available options]

Assign Through Automation

1. Add an Update Family Field action to your automation
2. Click Add a field and select Family Type
3. Choose the Family Type you want to assign

This is perfect for automatically moving families through your enrollment stages—like changing them from "Prospective" to "Tour Scheduled" when they book a tour.

Filter Families by Type

Segmenting your family list by Type helps you send targeted messages and build Smart Lists for automations.

1. Go to Families → Smart Lists
2. Click More Filters
3. Select Type
4. Choose the Family Type you want to filter by

[SCREENSHOT: Smart Lists page with More Filters menu open and Type filter selected]

Now you can take action on just those families—send a campaign, export the list, or bulk update fields.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a family have multiple Family Types?

No. Family Type is a single-select field—each family can only have one type at a time. If you need to track multiple characteristics, use Tags instead.

Can I trigger automations based on Family Type changes?

Yes! Use the Family Changed trigger in your automations. This fires whenever the Family Type is updated, letting you automatically send welcome messages, move families to different pipelines, or notify staff.

What happens if I rename or delete a Family Type that's already in use?

Renaming a type updates it across all families who have that type. Deleting a type removes it from those family records—you may want to reassign them first.

Can I bulk update Family Types for multiple families at once?

Yes. Select families in a Smart List, click Bulk Actions, choose Update Family Field, and set the new Family Type. This applies to all selected families at once.