Someone on your admissions team is going to ask why the app still says undeclared when Slate was updated this morning. You want an answer that does not start with a spreadsheet. This is for the person who keeps the Slate record, and for the person who publishes the guide.

The Slate student records connection links each student's Slate profile to their Guidebook account. Once they're linked, the details you already keep in Slate can show on that student's in-app profile, and they stay current on every sync. Slate stays the source of truth. You choose which fields a student sees.

What is the Guidebook and Slate student records connection?

It's the part of the Guidebook and Slate integration that matches each student's Slate record to their Guidebook app account. College, major, and orientation group are the details most teams turn on first. Leave off any field you would not want sitting on a profile.

The connection everything else builds on

Student records are the first piece to set up, and the other two build on it. Link records first, and you unlock the rest:

• Slate details appear on each student's app profile
• Event registrations can be tracked, once you also connect Events and sessions
• App engagement can flow back to Slate, once you also connect App usage data

How each student gets matched

Guidebook links each app account to the right Slate profile one of two ways. By default, it matches on email: the student's app email has to match their Slate profile email, and they verify it before the accounts link. If your SSO returns NetID at sign-in, Guidebook can match on NetID instead.

The person being matched is the student who shows up, not the row in an export. Until the emails match and they verify, or until NetID comes through at sign-in, the profile stays empty of Slate fields.

You choose what students see

In Builder, you pick which Slate fields show on the in-app profile, and you set the label for each one. Want to keep Slate data off profiles entirely? Untick one box and it stays hidden. The standard Slate fields are available, plus the custom ones your team uses every day, like NetID, college, major, and orientation group.

NC State's new-student guide is one picture of the app those records sit inside. The menu and the checklist are what a linked student opens. The Slate fields you chose are on the profile, not on this screen.

What to check before the first sync

The Slate admin imports the Guidebook suitcases. In Builder, you choose which fields show and what each one is labeled. Standard person fields come over under their standard names. NetID, college, major, and orientation group come as the four custom fields on the second suitcase.

If your instance renamed a standard field, it will not sync until the export sends the standard key name. A custom field beyond those four is a request to your account manager. Hiding the fields does not remove the link. Events and engagement can still use it.

Names are the field to be careful with. While the integration is on, the name syncs from Slate and stays read-only in the app, so nobody edits it in two places. Turning the integration off is what releases that lock. Pause is the lighter switch. It stops the sync without throwing the setup away.

Slate stays in charge

Slate is the source of truth. While the integration is on, student names sync automatically and stay read-only in the app, so nobody edits a name in two places. Records update on the cadence you choose, every two hours by default, as often as hourly.

“I have found that the management of Guidebook for our campus doesn't really require a lot of technical skill, it just requires some good organization skills and the ability to partner with other people on campus.” Leslie Dare, IT Director of Student and Academic Affairs, NC State University

Link records first. Events and the engagement that flows back both need that match. Admissions and enrollment events are where you will notice it, and Indiana Tech's admitted student day is one picture of the day those records are for.

Indiana Tech's admitted-student visit is that picture. One phone has the visit details, one has the menu, and the third is the day's schedule.

Frequently asked questions