Configure and utilize Tip manager

You can't be everywhere. Get tips from your users and visitors

• Encourage parents, community members, students, and teachers to keep you informed with insider tips.
• Find out what staff are doing right, possible bullying issues, and any other situations students or staff want to anonymously post.

The Tip Line feature allows selected recipients to receive community-submitted tips and feedback through a phone number or an embed code widget, with customizable settings for alerts and categories, enabling schools or districts to receive anonymous (optional) submissions about various issues.

This article will show you how to configure the settings to make tip line work and how to manage the feature once you get it setup.

Strategize your tip line

Decide where your tip line can be found by your users.

• Widget Embed Code: Once set up, you can copy some embed code so that you can place a Tip Line widget onto your district and school websites, in any area that you choose.
• Mobile App: Support can help you see if there is an option for you to add the tip line feature to your mobile app.

Configure your tip line settings

Before configuring your settings, you and your team may need to decide a few matters:

• Set the tip line phone number.
• Decide who will receive the messages.
• Will your messages be anonymous or not?

Navigate to your tip line settings

Once you have decided these things, you are ready to configure your settings!

• Click your Settings tab in the left navigation of your Messages XE Enterprise platform.
• On the Organizational config tab, scroll down to the very bottom where you’ll see a Settings section.
• Click to open Tip Line settings.
  
• The Tip Line window will open up, allowing you to configure your settings here.

Tip Line options breakdown

• Tip Line settings: Have you already set a phone number? If you see a number here, confirm that it is your selected tip line phone number.
  • Check the box next to Disguise recorded voice to add an extra layer of anonymity for the caller’s voice to be disguised when they call in with a tip.
• Enable: Check this box to enable your tip line. Deselect if you choose not to utilize this feature.
• Alert dialog: Edit and enter the details that will show up as an alert within the tip line feature.
  
  • Check the box next to Show alert dialog to display this alert or deselect to hide it.
• Placeholder text: Adjust the text in this box to determine what shows up in the input box for the user's view. What text would you like to display in the box that a user will enter their tip into? It’s helpful to give a sort of prompt for the user to know where to get started and to just say hello!

• Anonymous:
  
  • Force identity inclusion: Check this bow to require users to include their contact information anytime they submit a tip.
  • Tips are anonymous by default: Checking this box means that all tips will default to anonymous.

• Organization: Checking this box will provide a dropdown to allow the user to select a school with their tip.
• Categories: Add or delete tip categories for users to select a category in which their tip belongs. Categories help to organize tips, and you can even assign specific personnel to receive tips from an assigned category. Some examples might be: bullying, threat, safety risk, fighting, vandalism, drugs, etc.
• Notification: Who will receive a notification when a tip is submitted?
  
  • Email Addresses: To add new, type the email address into the field, then click Add. Add multiple email addresses so that each of those will be notified when a tip is submitted.
  • SMS Numbers: To add new, type the SMS number into the field, then click Add. Add multiple SMS numbers so that each of those will be notified when a tip is submitted.
  • Assign email and SMS to categories: Click on an email address or phone number to assign this contact information to a category.
    
    • For example: After you add an SMS number, you can then click on that number, maybe, that belongs to the campus security officer. In the Edit Address window that pops up, you may want to assign any tips that come in regarding “Weapons” to be directed to the campus security officer.
    • Once these notifications are configured and assigned, you'll see them included in the data at the bottom of the page in the section Notification Settings.
      
• Summary email: Send a summary of all of the tips that were received during a given period of time.
  
  • Type the email address into the field, then select Add.
• Receipt message: Customize the message that will be sent to the user once a tip is submitted.

• Widget: To embed the Tip Line widget paste the code in the box in this area onto your website.
  
  • Click Preview Widget to get a glimpse of how your tip line feature will appear on your website.
• Click Save to save all changes you made in tip line configurations.

Use the Notification Settings area

The reason why tips are popular with districts is the unique and precise ways that school staff can be notified when tips come in.

• Scroll all the way down in the Tip line window to see which Notification Settings have been set in the Notification section above. 
• Settings are organized by school so you can see how many users are assigned to receive notifications when tips come in. 
• See any that say "0/#"? This is a big red flag! That means if the Tip line is configured at that school and a community member submits a tip, no one will be notified. 

Access your tip line data in Tip manager

View the tips sent in via tip line using the Tip Manager Report. Remember that, depending on your settings, the tips may be anonymous or may include contact information. This will be reflected in the results in your reports.

• To access Tip manager, click to open your Reports area in left navigation.
• Click on the Tip manager tab at the top of Reports.
• Select a topic from the Category column and view the tips pertaining to that category in the main panel.
• Browse through and review the individual tips in a specific category.
• Click on individual tip submission to open up and see the details that were sent in on the tip line.

Take action on individual tips

Once you open up an individual tip, you have some actions you can take:

• Acknowledge: Clicking the Acknowledge button places a timestamp onto the tip details page. The button will change to “Mark as New” if you want to undo, though a timestamp will document any changes to the tip.
• Archive: Clicking the Archive button will add a timestamp onto the tip details page. To undo, simply click the “Mark as New” button again. All documentation is timestamped to make sure all actions are clear and documented for you and your team.
• Note: This is a box where you can add any notes pertaining to this tip. Any notes are added into the timestamp feed. Add as many notes as you’d like to track documentation and keep your team looped in.
  
  • Add notes on actions taken such as:
    
    • IT contacted regarding IP address
    • Contacted reporter on 2/7/25
    • Notes on conversation with team or any other actions taken