Overview

Internal Chat lets you communicate privately with your team members right inside Enrollio's Conversations module. Need to discuss a tour follow-up strategy? Want to loop in your assistant director about a tricky enrollment? Do it all without leaving the platform.

Unlike conversations with parents, internal chats are completely private — only the people you add can see them.

What's Covered

  • Understanding Your Inbox
  • Starting an Internal Chat
  • Adding Team Members to a Chat
  • Managing Notifications
  • Who Can Access Internal Chats

Understanding Your Inbox

Once you enable Internal Chat from Labs, you'll see a new Inbox panel on the left side of Conversations. It includes two key sections:

1. Team Inbox

The Team Inbox shows conversations based on your access level:

  • Staff with "Only Assigned Data" access see conversations where they're the owner or a follower
  • Admins with "All Access" see every conversation in your center

This ensures your team sees what's relevant to them, while admins keep full oversight.

[SCREENSHOT: Conversations interface showing the new Inbox panel on the left with Team Inbox expanded]

2. My Inbox

My Inbox is your personal workspace. It contains:

  • Assigned to Me: All conversations where you're the owner — parents and families you're responsible for
  • Internal Chat: Private team threads where you're a participant, separate from parent-facing conversations
[SCREENSHOT: My Inbox view showing both "Assigned to Me" and "Internal Chat" folders]

How to Start an Internal Chat

  1. Open Conversations and click New
  2. Select Internal Chat
  3. Choose the team members you want to include
  4. Click Start Chat

You can send text messages, emojis, and attachments in internal chats — just like texting with parents, but private to your team.

[SCREENSHOT: New conversation dialog with Internal Chat option highlighted]
Pro Tip: Add a subject to your chat by clicking the edit icon at the top. This makes it easy to search for specific conversations later — like "May Enrollment Strategy" or "Summer Camp Staffing."

Adding Team Members to an Existing Chat

Need to loop someone else in? Here's how:

  1. Open the internal chat
  2. Click Add Users in the right panel
  3. Select the team members and click Next
  4. Choose whether they can see previous messages
  5. Click Confirm

Important: Once you add someone to a chat, you can't remove them. Make sure you're adding the right people.

[SCREENSHOT: Add Users panel showing team member selection and chat history access option]

Managing Notifications

Stay in the loop without getting overwhelmed:

  1. Go to Settings → My Profile → Notifications
  2. Choose your notification preference:
    • Get notified for every message in chats you're part of
    • Get notified only when added to a new chat
[SCREENSHOT: Notification settings page showing Internal Chat notification options]

Access & Permissions

Who Can Create Internal Chats?

Any team member with access to Conversations can start an internal chat. Enrollio admins can create chats even if they're not part of your specific center.

Who Can Be Added?

Only users within your center can participate in internal chats.

Who Can View Chats?

Only people explicitly added to the chat can see it. Your team members won't see internal chats unless you add them — keeping sensitive discussions private.

Why This Matters for Your Center

Everything in One Place

No more jumping between Slack, email, and text messages. Discuss tours, enrollments, and parent concerns right where you manage them.

Better Context

When you're chatting about a prospective family's enrollment, all their information is right there in Enrollio. No switching apps to remember which parent you're discussing.

Faster Decisions

Need quick input from your assistant director about accepting a waitlist family? Chat them instantly without leaving the conversation with that parent.

Stay Organized

Internal chats stay attached to your CRM, so you have full context when discussing tours, enrollment opportunities, or parent concerns.

Good to Know: Internal chat is included in your Enrollio platform at no extra cost. And if an admin logs in as another user, they won't see that person's internal chats — your team's privacy is protected.