Getting Started With TRIOPilot

TRIOPilot keeps your TRIO program's student records, contacts, documents and Annual Performance Report (APR) in one place. This guide covers signing in, what each role can do and where to find things.

Signing In

You sign in with a code sent to your email. There is no password.

1. Open your program's TRIOPilot address followed by /login, or click the link in your invite email. If you try to open any page while signed out, TRIOPilot sends you to the sign-in page for you.
2. Enter your email address and choose Email Me a Sign-In Code.
3. Check your email for an 8-digit code, type it under Sign-In Code, and choose Sign In With Code. Each code works once and expires after 1 hour; if it has expired, request a new one. There is no link to click: a code cannot be used up by your college's email security scanner the way a link could.
4. TRIOPilot opens the start page for your role.

Once you are signed in, opening triopilot.com takes you straight to your program. If you work in more than one program, you choose one first. If one of your programs is not open, TRIOPilot takes you to the one that is. To see the TRIOPilot website instead, open triopilot.com/?view=site. If your program has no homepage, opening your program's address while signed in takes you to your start page, not to the application form. See Edit Your Homepage.

If a code no longer works, choose Send a New Code on the sign-in page and use the newest email. Use a Different Email takes you back a step.

If TRIOPilot shows No Program Available, none of the programs on your account is open right now, for example because your only program is no longer active. You see the same page whether you sign in, open triopilot.com or follow an invitation link. Choose Sign Out, or ask your program administrator for help.

If a page reads We Could Not Check Your Sign-In, TRIOPilot could not reach its sign-in service for a moment, and it kept your sign-in as it was. Choose Try Again; if it keeps happening, choose sign in again on that page.

If every page of your program reads This Program Is Not Currently Active, your program's access is paused. Your applicants and portal participants see the same page. An admin of your program should email support@triopilot.com.

Signing in never creates an account: only invited staff can get in. If TRIOPilot does not recognize your email, ask your program admin to invite you. See Add a User or Advisor.

Use School Sign-In

If your program connected TRIOPilot to your school's sign-in, the sign-in page shows Sign In With and your school's name. Choose it, sign in on your school's page as you do for your other school systems, and TRIOPilot opens your start page. Your school's own rules, such as a second step on your phone, apply there.

When your program requires school sign-in, all of its staff sign in this way, and the sign-in page does not email them a code. A school sign-in lasts 30 days; after that, TRIOPilot sends you to your school's page again. If your admin removes you from the program, you lose access at once.

Students using your Student Portal, and TRIOPilot support, still sign in with an emailed code: on the sign-in page they choose Students and TRIOPilot support: sign in with an email code.

If the school sign-in does not finish, the sign-in page says why:

• Your school account is not one this program accepts: you signed in with an account outside your school's staff email domains. Sign in with your work account.
• Your school account signed in, but no TRIOPilot account with that email is staff in this program: ask your program administrator to invite you, or to change your login email to your school address.
• That sign-in took too long or was already used: start again from the sign-in page.

To connect your program to your school's sign-in, ask TRIOPilot support. They give your school's IT the details to register TRIOPilot, and set it up with them. To require an authenticator app of your program's staff, ask TRIOPilot support too. See Use an Authenticator App.

Use an Authenticator App

If your program requires an authenticator app, signing in takes one more step after the emailed code: a 6-digit code from an app on your phone, for example Duo Mobile, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or 1Password. TRIOPilot support turns this on for a program when the program asks. Students are never asked.

The first time, TRIOPilot shows Set Up Your Authenticator App:

1. Open your authenticator app and scan the QR code. On a phone, choose Add to Authenticator App instead. If you cannot scan it, type the key shown under the QR code.
2. Enter the 6-digit code your app shows under Authenticator Code and choose Finish Setup. This is not the code from your email.

After that, each new sign-in asks for the code from your app on Enter Your Authenticator Code. Once you enter it, that browser stays signed in as before. When you enter it, any other browser that is signed in to your account with the emailed code alone is signed out.

If your program turns this on while you are signed in, the next page you open asks you to set it up, and anything you have not saved there may be lost. Your admin agrees a time with TRIOPilot support, so save your work before then.

A program that does not require it never asks, even if you set up an app for another program. If you work in more than one program, you are asked when you open a program that requires it; after the code, your other programs open as usual. If you sign in through your school (see Use School Sign-In), your school's sign-in applies its own rules, and TRIOPilot does not ask for the code.

If a code does not match, enter the newest code your app shows, and check that your phone sets its time automatically. After 5 codes that do not match, TRIOPilot signs you out, and you sign in again with a new emailed code. After 10 in an hour, wait for the time the page shows.

If you lose your phone or your authenticator app, ask your program administrator to reset it. If you work in more than one program, TRIOPilot support resets it. After a reset you set up a new app the next time you sign in.

Who Sees What

Your role decides which pages you see. Your admin sets it.

• Advisors see every student in the program, add students, log contacts, record events and text students when texting is on.
• Admins do everything advisors do, and also set up the program, manage users and run reports.
• Assistants work in the advisor pages and can update student profiles and add students. By default they cannot log contacts, record events or make bulk edits, and they never text students one at a time.
• Observers and guests can look but cannot change anything. Observers can also open the admin dashboard and reports from the sidebar.
• Applicants never sign in. Students apply through your program's public application form, with no account, and staff review what comes in.

Your admin can change some of these defaults for advisors and assistants on the Team tab in Settings. See Find Your Way Around Program Settings.

Work in More Than One Program

Each program has its own TRIOPilot address, such as yourprogram.triopilot.com. The address you open decides which program you work in. If you belong to more than one program, you can keep each one open in its own browser tab, and each tab stays in its own program.

• Switch programs with the program switcher at the bottom of the sidebar. It lists the programs you belong to and opens the one you choose at its own address.
• Sign in at triopilot.com and TRIOPilot shows Select a Program so you can choose. Open triopilot.com while signed in and TRIOPilot takes you to your program, or shows Select a Program if you belong to several. Each time you sign in, TRIOPilot starts from the address you signed in on, or asks you to choose again.
• Open an address you do not belong to, and TRIOPilot takes you to your own program and says so at the top of the page. If you belong to several programs, it shows Select a Program instead. If you mistype a program's address, TRIOPilot opens the page you asked for in your program, or shows Select a Program if you belong to several.
• Your role can differ by program. For example, you can be an admin in one program and an advisor in another. Each program's admin manages your role and access in their program only: if one program archives you, you keep working in your other programs.

Finding Your Way Around

The sidebar is the same on every page, and the notification bell sits at the top.

• Advisors land on Dashboard, a work queue of applications waiting for review, students who need attention, and possible duplicates. The sidebar also holds Students and Events, plus Schedule when appointment scheduling is turned on. To log a contact, open a student's profile and choose Log Contact. Each number at the top of the dashboard opens its list on the Students page, and the arrow on each card closes it out of your way. On a phone, your dashboard starts with Today: your next appointments (when your program uses scheduling) and the first five students who need attention, with View All for the rest. When your admin has it on, the dashboard also shows Program Activity, the newest activity across your program. See Read the Advisor Dashboard and See Program Activity.
• Admins land on Admin Dashboard. Their sidebar adds Advisor Dashboard, Reports, Application Builder, Homepage Builder, Users and Settings to the advisor pages.
• Bulk Texts appears for anyone who can text many students at once, when texting is on. See Send a Text to Many Students.

Your program can rename some of these words, so Students, Events and the Advisor in Advisor Dashboard may read differently in your sidebar, and Contact may read differently on buttons such as Log Contact.

Notifications

The bell shows a red badge when something new is waiting for you. The badge counts every unread notification, not only the ones in the bell. You get a notification when a new application comes in, a student is assigned to you, someone comments on a student you are assigned to, a colleague mentions you in a comment, a contact note, an event or an appointment's staff notes, or a student texts back. If your program uses appointment scheduling, you are also notified when an appointment with you is booked, moved, or cancelled. Click a notification to jump straight to the student or page it is about. If the record a notification is about was deleted, the notification says so and no longer opens anything. A notification about a record that was merged into another opens the record that was kept. Opening the bell marks its 20 newest notifications as read. If older ones are still unread, the bell says how many, and See All Notifications at the bottom opens your full history. On that page, Mark All as Read and Clear All apply to every notification in your history. If some could not be saved, the page says so under those buttons and keeps them as they were, so you can try again. The X on one notification clears only that one; if it could not be cleared, the page says so under that notification. The matching emails can arrive one at a time or as an hourly or daily digest; you choose on your account page. See Manage Your Account. If you belong to more than one program, the bell lists notifications from all of them. A notification from a program other than the one you are working in names that program after its time, for example "2h ago · Stonefield University Upward Bound".

Next Steps

• Advisors: read Log a Contact, Find and Filter Students and Understand Student Statuses.
• Admins: start with Set Up Your Program, then read Add a User or Advisor and Build Your Application Form.

Getting Help

Click a small ? icon next to a feature to open its help article, or choose Help in the sidebar footer to browse the Help Center.

• Something broken, confusing, or missing? Choose Share Feedback in the sidebar. Pick Report an Issue for something that is not working, or Suggest an Enhancement for an idea that would help, then describe it. TRIOPilot attaches the technical details automatically, along with your name and email so we can reply to you. We email you a confirmation with a reference; if you write to us about it, include that reference.
• Want the walkthrough again? Open Help and choose Restart the Tour to replay the guided walkthrough of your portal. If the tour cannot be restarted, a message says so; choose Restart the Tour again.
• Prefer email? Write to support@triopilot.com.
• Use a keyboard, a screen reader or zoom? See Accessibility in TRIOPilot for what works today, the known limitations and how to report a problem.
• Is TRIOPilot down? A colored bar across the top of the page, and of the sign-in page, announces an outage or planned maintenance. You can close an information or caution notice for the rest of your visit; a red one stays until the problem is over. triopilot.com/status shows whether TRIOPilot and the services it relies on, such as texting, are working.
• Asked for a security review? triopilot.com/security holds the security documents a college may ask for. Share that address.