Find Your Way Around Program Settings

Admins set up the program in Settings: its name and look, and the lists and numbers the rest of TRIOPilot uses. Open Settings from the admin sidebar. The tabs across the top group everything by purpose: Program, Reporting, Features, Emails, Participants, Team, Program Year, Account, and Audit Log.

This article covers each tab. To find a setting, scan the headings.

There is no single Save button. Every card saves on its own button, so finish one card before moving to the next. After a save, a green check and a short confirmation such as Saved. appear beside the button you chose (under it on a phone), and stay until you change something on that card again; if a save fails, the reason appears in red in the same place. Most checkboxes and switches save the moment you tick them. A few wait for the button under them: Do not send bulk texts during quiet hours saves with Save Quiet Hours, the modality choices in Booking Rules with Save Booking Rules, and the Team tab's permission grid with Save Changes.

Program: Name, Time Zone, Color, Logo, and Terms

How your program is named, the clock it runs on, and how its pages look.

• Program Identity holds your Program Name, shown in the portal header and throughout the app. It cannot be blank; a message under the box says so. Choose Save Program Name. The page reloads so the new name appears everywhere.
• Time Zone is your program's clock. See Time Zone below.
• Program Logo is optional. It appears in the sidebar of the staff pages, in the top bar of your public homepage and, if you tick Show program logo at top of application in the Application Builder, at the top of your application form and your appointment booking page. PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF, under 2 MB, and a transparent background looks best. Use Upload Logo, then Replace Logo or Remove Logo later. Replacing or removing the logo deletes the old image file, and within about a minute it is no longer at its web address.
• Color Scheme themes the whole advisor and admin interface, not just the buttons: the sidebar, headings, the page background, borders, badges, and the primary buttons all follow it. Start with one of the Presets: each tile sets a brand color, a surface tone and a sidebar style together. If none fits, open Customize and set your own Brand Color (type a hex value or use the picker), choose a Surface Tone (Cool, Neutral, or Warm), and choose a Sidebar Style (Dark, Brand, or Light). TRIOPilot derives every shade from those choices, keeps text readable on buttons and in the sidebar, and shows a note beside any pairing that falls short. The Preview renders real portal pieces (the sidebar, a stat card, a primary button, a table row, a badge) in the candidate theme as you adjust it, so you see the result before anything is saved. Choose Apply Color Scheme to keep it, or Reset to Indigo to return to the default. Body text stays dark gray in every scheme. Your public application form and homepage are not affected.
• Terminology renames Student, Contact, Advisor, and Event, singular and plural, across your portal. If your program says "participants" instead of "students", type it here. Leave a box blank to keep the default, then choose Save Terminology.

Time Zone

The Time Zone card sets your program's clock. It decides three things:

• When your program year turns over: at midnight, your time, on the first day of your reporting period.
• Which day TRIOPilot records for something that happens at a moment, such as an online application that arrives at 11:30 PM.
• The times staff see across TRIOPilot, such as in the Audit Log, on appointments, in emails, and for Quiet Hours.

The setup wizard asks for your time zone, and the card always shows, whether or not scheduling is on. To change it, choose your zone from the list and select Save Time Zone. Changing it does not change any date already recorded. Times shown from then on use the new zone. If your program's zone was set before this list existed and is not on it, it stays selected under its full name until you choose another. Each change is recorded in the Audit Log as Time Zone, with the zone before and after.

Reporting: What Your APR Reads

Grant figures and federal settings that your Annual Performance Report uses.

• Reporting Periods holds the dates each program year runs, from Block 6 of your Grant Award Notification (the first day of classes for SSS and McNair). Every year runs September 1 to August 31 until you enter dates. See Set Your Reporting Periods in Run Your APR.
• APR Report Configuration holds your grant numbers under Grant Numbers by Program Year: your Number Funded to Serve, per-objective targets, and for EOC the postsecondary enrollment option, each saved for the program year you pick, so past years keep reporting against their own targets. The year list runs from your program's earliest student record through next year, so you can enter next year's numbers before it starts. The card also holds whatever else your program type needs, such as state assessment cut scores. See Run Your APR.
• Postsecondary Attainment Choices (Section IV.E) appears for Talent Search only. It records, one line per grant cycle, your Option 1 or Option 2 choice and whether you track all enrollees or a random sample. Your enrollee list and Objective E follow it. See Run Your APR.
• Competitive Preference Priorities (Section II.L) appears for Talent Search only. Pick a Program Year, choose Participants took part in CPP activities or The project did not address the CPPs, or no participant took part, and choose Save Choice. TRIOPilot never assumes the answer, and Clear Choice removes one you recorded. See Run Your APR.
• Project Start Type appears for Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science only. It records when your project year starts: Summer start (June or July), Fall start (September to November), or Moving from a summer start to a fall start. Your Grant Award Notification shows your project year in Block 6. The setup wizard asks it for a new program; if your program was set up before TRIOPilot asked, the card says Not recorded. Choose one and select Save Start Type. The federal APR instructions give some fields different choices for each kind of project, so record it before you file. For example, Participation Level (APR field #28) offers choices 0 to 6 for a summer or fall start. Through PY 24-25, a project moving from a summer start to a fall start had the transition-year choices (11 to 81, plus Unknown), which name the summers of the year you are viewing. From PY 25-26 on, the federal form lists only 0 to 6 for field 28, and the instructions say every kind of project should "Use options #0-#6 only", so every project is offered 0 to 6. An answer saved from the earlier list stays as it is, with a note under the field, and Check Federal Upload File names it, so you can choose one of the answers 0 to 6. The start type also decides how Objective C and the GPA fields treat summer bridge participants (see Run Your APR). When you enter your project year's dates, the Reporting Periods card tells you if the dates and the start type disagree. Once dates are entered, each year's own dates decide its kind: through PY 24-25, the year your project moved from a summer start to a fall start offers the transition-year choices on the student profile and in the upload file's check, and the years before and after it offer 0 to 6.
• Target Schools appears for EOC, Talent Search, Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science. It is your copy of the target school list your APR form names (EOC Section II.H, Talent Search Section II.M, Upward Bound and UBMS Section I, Part 3), which the TRIO portal fills in from last year's report. Choose Add a School and enter its NCES School ID, name and the location your form asks for, then Save School. Archive takes a school off the list staff choose from without changing the records that name it; Restore puts it back; Remove works only for a school no participant record names. On Upward Bound and UBMS, a participant's Target School at Entry keeps a copy of the school's NCES School ID, which your APR record file reports, so while participants hold that ID you cannot change it or remove the school: the message says how many. To correct a mistyped ID, add the school again with the right ID and choose it as those participants' Target School at Entry, or use Report an Issue to have them moved. You need your program specialist's approval to add or drop a target school. An EOC project that serves no target schools leaves the list empty. See Target Schools in Run Your APR.
• Dual Enrollment at Target Schools appears for Talent Search. For each target school and program year, record whether the school had a dual enrollment program (Section II.M, column 7): Yes, No or Unknown. The APR report counts each school's participants in its program from their profiles, enters 9999 for a school answered No or Unknown, and checks the total against Section II.H. If you choose No or Unknown for a school with participants recorded in a dual enrollment program that year, the card says how many before you save. Use PY ... Answers (it names the program year before the one shown, for example Use PY 25-26 Answers) copies that year's answers into the form; nothing is saved until you choose Save Answers. An archived school appears for a year in which it has an answer or a participant attended it. See Target Schools in Run Your APR.
• Project Information holds your PR/Award number, address, project director, and project period. It populates Section I when you run your APR, so complete it before you file. The Director Email is also where applicants' and students' replies to program emails go; see Edit the Emails TRIOPilot Sends. Choose Save Project Information. Three fields are checked before anything is saved, and a message under the field says what to change:
• PR/Award Number: for Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math-Science, Veterans Upward Bound, McNair and SSS, the 11-character number from your Grant Award Notification, in capital letters and digits only, with no spaces, hyphens or other text before or after it. For Upward Bound it begins with P047A, for Upward Bound Math-Science P047M, for Veterans Upward Bound P047V, and for McNair P217A, as your federal APR form prints it. The EOC and Talent Search APR forms fill in the number for you and do not describe its format, so TRIOPilot saves it as you type it.
• Director Email: a complete address, such as director@university.edu.
• Project Period End: a date after the Project Period Start. Either project period date is also refused when it does not exist, such as 09/31/2027, or is not finished: the box is outlined in red, the line beside Save Project Information says what to type, and the date already saved stays as it was.
• Low-Income Eligibility Thresholds take your program's annual income limit for each household size, from 1 to 8 people, plus an amount for Each additional person. Choose Save Thresholds. These limits drive the Income Eligibility Calculator question on your application form: it asks household size first, then offers two ranges built from that size's limit ("$32,460 or less" and "More than $32,460"; an income exactly at the limit qualifies, because the federal definition counts a family whose taxable income did not exceed the limit), and the applicant's answer sets low-income eligibility automatically, which feeds your APR. Enter each limit in whole dollars of at least 1, with no commas or cents (32460). When a limit is lower than the limit for the household size before it, the card names that household size and saves nothing, so a limit missing a digit is caught when you save. To empty the table, clear every row; you cannot clear one row on its own, or empty the table while your application form asks the Income Eligibility Calculator question. While the table is empty, the Application Builder does not save a new Income Eligibility Calculator question.
• Annual Enrollment Goal is your internal target for reportable participants in a program year, which runs on the dates on your Reporting Periods card. The Annual Enrollment Progress card on the admin dashboard measures against it. It is separate from Number Funded to Serve, the grant figure on the APR Report Configuration card. A new program's goal starts at 1,000. Enter a whole number of at least 1 and choose Save Enrollment Goal to set your own.

Fill in your thresholds before you share your application link. With none saved, the income question cannot offer any ranges, applicants see "Income thresholds have not been configured by your program yet", and staff have to set low-income status by hand on each profile.

Your National Student Clearinghouse account details are not on this tab. They are on the National Student Clearinghouse page in Reports, with the file they go into. See Check College Enrollment With the Clearinghouse.

Features: What Your Program Can Do

The parts of TRIOPilot your program can turn on or off, one row each: Scheduling, Student Portal, Text Messaging, AI Assistant and Program Activity.

Each row says what the feature does and how it stands right now, such as how many texts you have used this month. On a row:

• The switch turns the feature on or off, with On or Off beside it. It saves the moment you press it, and it works whether the row is open or closed. A green check and Saved. appear beside it (under it on a phone). If the save fails, the switch goes back and the reason appears in the same place; a longer reason goes on the line under the switch.
• Manage opens the feature's settings below the row. Press it again to close them. A row keeps anything you typed and have not saved while it is closed, and your browser's find on the page reaches closed rows and opens the one it finds.

A link to a feature, or to one of its settings, opens its row.

What each row holds:

• Scheduling. While it is on, Manage holds Booking Rules (how far ahead a student may book, the notice required, the buffer between appointments; it names your time zone, which you set on the Program tab), Appointment Types (the named kinds of appointment you offer, each with a length and the modalities it allows), Days Off (days the whole program is closed, with US federal holidays filled in automatically; nobody can book on a closed day) and Outlook Calendar (which staff have connected their Outlook calendars, and an approval link you open, while signed in to TRIOPilot, with someone from your IT department who can approve apps for your college). Turn it off and those settings, and every booking page and button, go away. Nothing is deleted: appointments already booked are kept exactly as they are and reappear if you switch scheduling back on. See Set Up Appointment Scheduling.
• Student Portal is off unless you turn it on. With it on, participants who already have a profile can create an account, verified by their email address and date of birth, then the sign-in code TRIOPilot emails them (the code screen offers Send a New Code and Use a Different Email), to view their own record, add comments, and upload documents. Give participants your program's address followed by /student/activate. See Set Up the Student Portal. Everything else stays read-only. The portal includes an activity stream showing contacts, staff comments marked visible to the student, record updates, appointments, and the application submission, each with the staff member's name on it; you choose which kinds appear using the Portal column on the Activity Feed Display card, on the Participants tab. Turn the portal on and the Log Contact form warns your advisors that participants can read their notes. If a participant signs in and their account is not linked to a record in your program, the portal shows No Student Record Linked and asks them to contact your program office. Each program's address shows that program's record. If the participant's record is in another program whose portal is on, the page names that program and links to its portal. Turn the portal off later and participants who already have an account see Participant Portal Is Off instead of their record, and can no longer add comments, upload documents, or change appointments there. Nothing is deleted, and turning the portal back on restores their access. If your program has no homepage, a participant who is signed in to the portal and opens your program's address goes to their portal instead of the application form. Under Manage, Show text messages in the portal is off unless you turn it on, and works only while the portal is on: with it on and texting on, the portal shows a Text Messages card with the most recent 100 texts between the participant and your program, read only, oldest at the top, and a line telling them to reply by texting your program's number from their phone. Texts that never reached their phone, and texts an admin added from Texts From Unknown Numbers, are left out, and there is no reply box in the portal.
• Text Messaging. With it on, advisors get a two-way text conversation on student profiles, and Manage shows your usage for the month. Under Manage, Forward calls to this phone number is for students who phone your texting number instead of texting it: enter a number and choose Save Forwarding Number, and those calls ring there, or leave it blank and callers are asked to send a text instead. Send bulk-text tests to this number, saved with Save Test Number, sets the one number your staff's bulk-text tests are allowed to reach, usually your own cell: a test can go only there, never to a student or a typed-in number, and if you leave it blank test sends are turned off. Quiet Hours is off unless you turn it on: check Do not send bulk texts during quiet hours, set a start and an end on your program's clock (the time zone is shown beside them; the window may run past midnight, such as 9:00 PM to 8:00 AM), and choose Save Quiet Hours. During quiet hours Bulk Texts and the AI Assistant send no group text and offer to schedule it for when quiet hours end; a text to one student from a profile still sends. These three stay under Manage while texting is off, so you can change or clear them. Switching texting off asks first when group texts are waiting to go out, because each one that comes due while texting is off is stopped and never sent. See Send a Text Message and Send a Text to Many Students.
• AI Assistant is off unless you turn it on. With it on, staff get a chat panel that looks up students, finds groups of them, drafts contact logs and, when texting is on, prepares texts; only a staff member can save a draft or send a text. Manage explains how the AI provider handles the data and, while the assistant is on, shows how much of this month's assistant limit your program has used. See Use the AI Assistant.
• Program Activity controls the card on the staff dashboards that lists the newest activity across your program. It is on by default; turn it off and the card leaves every dashboard. Under Manage, Who Sees It has a checkbox for Advisors and Assistants (on by default) and Observers and Guests (off by default); admins always see it while it is on. What It Shows chooses Contacts, Comments, New Students and Appointments (on by default) and Profile Edits (off by default); Appointments is listed only while scheduling is on. Show student names is on by default; turn it off for a dashboard on a shared screen, and entries say how many students with no names, links, notes, comment text or edited values. Each choice saves on its own and is recorded in the Audit Log as Program Activity. This changes what the dashboards show and nothing else: every entry is still recorded, and the audit log is untouched. See See Program Activity.

Emails: The Wording of Automatic Emails

TRIOPilot sends a few emails on its own, such as the receipt an applicant gets after submitting and the confirmations around appointments. This tab is where you edit their wording, with your program's details merged in, or leave the ready-made defaults. You write in English and the versions in your application's languages are generated for you. See Edit the Emails TRIOPilot Sends.

Participants: How a Record Is Shaped

What a participant record holds and what your team sees of it, on one tab.

• Profile Fields defines the custom fields on a profile and turns catalog fields on or off. See Customize Student Profiles.
• Profile Layout arranges those fields into cards. Same article.
• Activity Feed Display is the one setting that chooses which kinds of entry appear in activity feeds: Contacts, Profile Edits, Comments, and Enrollment. A fifth, Appointments, is listed only while scheduling is on. With the Student Portal on, each row carries two checkboxes: Staff controls the feed on a profile, and Portal controls what a participant sees in their own portal activity stream. Two things ignore the Portal column on purpose: a participant's own comments always appear in their stream, and appointments and program years keep their own portal sections either way. Everything is shown by default. This changes what the feeds print and nothing else: every entry is still recorded, and the audit log is untouched.
• Contact Types & Modalities holds two lists: types (the kind of help, such as FAFSA guidance) and modalities (how it happened, such as in person or by phone). Both appear on the Log a Contact and Record an Event forms. Each logged contact records exactly one type, so selecting several types saves one contact per type. Names can be up to 80 characters. Every change to either list is recorded in the Audit Log as Updated Settings, for example Contact Types: Added FAFSA guidance.
• High School List holds the schools offered by the High School Attended question, one per line. Choose Save High School List. Applicants pick from your list or choose Other (not listed) and type their own, and the same list suggests matches when staff edit a profile. It only suggests names: your APR target schools are a separate list, on the Reporting tab, with NCES IDs.
• Program Year Dropdown sets which program years the Program Year dropdown shows on the Students page, newest first. Under Oldest Year to Show, choose the oldest year you want, then choose Save Years to Show. That year and every newer year show a check. Older years are hidden from the dropdown. Choose your oldest year to show every year, which is the default. The number of years stays the same each year: when a new program year starts it appears, and the oldest shown year is hidden, so you do not need to change anything. The dropdown always offers All Years, which searches every student, and it always shows your current year. A hidden year still opens from its web address, and the dropdown then shows that year too. No other page's year picker changes, and neither does the Program Years (Participated) filter.

If either contact list is empty, advisors see "No contact types are set up yet" or "No modalities are set up yet" and cannot finish logging a contact. New programs enter their types during onboarding, so if logging seems blocked, check this tab first and add at least one type and one modality.

Team

What each role in your program may do. See Add a User or Advisor. Adding and removing people stays on the Users page: this tab is about what a role can do, not who holds it.

Program Year

Rollover moves the participants whose statuses you choose from the current program year into the next one. The tab also has a simulation that saves nothing, and optional defaults that fill in a run. Nothing rolls until you tick the statuses that roll. Rollover is optional. EOC programs do not use rollover, so on an EOC program this tab says how a returning participant joins a new year. See Roll Students Into a New Program Year.

Account: Your Data and Your Subscription

• Data Export has two buttons. Export All Program Data downloads everything TRIOPilot holds for your program: every record and text message as one ZIP file of spreadsheets, and every uploaded document in ZIP files of up to 1 GB each, one folder per participant. Only admins of your program can use it, and it asks for a code sent to your email first. See Export All Your Program Data. Download Current Program Year (CSV) is a quick spreadsheet with one row per participant with a record in the current program year, with identity, demographics, eligibility, status at entry, outcomes, and assigned advisor. It does not include uploaded documents, text messages, contacts, applications, or other program years. For a different year, or for the APR-specific export, use the exports on the APR report.
• Billing appears only if your program subscribes through Stripe. It shows your subscription status, and Manage Billing opens the secure Stripe portal to update your payment method and view invoices.

Looking for your apply link or the Application QR Code? Neither is in Settings. Both are at the top of the Application Builder. See Build Your Application Form.

Audit Log

Opens the full audit log outside Settings: see See Who Changed What.