Admissions software for South African schools

Run your admissions cycle in one tool. Not seven.

Intake replaces the spreadsheets, shared inboxes, paper files and weekly status meetings with one workspace your admissions team actually wants to use. Documents stored in South Africa, POPIA-compliant by default.

Book a 30-minute demoSee the product
Pilot programme
Now accepting founding schools for the 2027 admissions cycle · limited to 12
Today · 7 places to look
  • Google Form
  • Sheets master list
  • Shared Drive folder
  • Two staff inboxes
  • Committee WhatsApp
  • Paper file room
  • Printed checklists

Replaces: a Google Form, a Sheets master list, a shared Drive folder, two staff inboxes, a committee WhatsApp group, the paper file room, printed checklists.

Intakeone workspace
  • Applications, documents, flags, decisions
  • Parent portal under your school’s name
  • Audit log on every action
  • POPIA-compliant by default
Why schools switch

A complete admissions toolkit. Replaces a stack of half-built systems.

Most schools we talk to are running admissions across a stack of separate tools: a Google Form, a Sheets master list, a shared Drive folder, one or two staff inboxes, a paper file room, and a WhatsApp group for the committee. Intake replaces all of them with one place built for admissions.
Today
A spreadsheet, an inbox, a Drive folder.
Held together by one admin officer's institutional memory.
  • Documents emailed back and forth, lost in threads
  • "Where are we with the Mokoena application?" weekly meetings
  • Parents calling reception for status updates
  • Paper checklists to verify documents
  • No audit trail when a parent appeals a decision
  • POPIA compliance bolted on as an afterthought
Held together by memory · no audit trail
With Intake
One workspace. Built for admissions.
Reviewers do their work. Heads see the cycle. Parents stay informed.
  • One inbox of applicants · searchable, filterable, sortable
  • Documents verified on one screen · every version kept
  • Flag any answer for follow-up · resolved on the record
  • Internal notes and decision history on every application
  • Decision letters drafted for you · sent when you’re ready
  • Audit log on every action · POPIA-compliant by default
One workspace · full audit trail
The product, end-to-end

Three screens cover almost everything an admissions team does.

Heads of admissions live in the inbox. Reviewers spend their day on the application review screen. The committee meets in the decision view. Everything else — settings, the cycle overview, parent letters — exists to feed those three.
app.intake.school/applications
Inbox64 applications
Search applicants…AllIn reviewUnassignedOldest first ▾
ApplicantStatusDocsAssigneeSubmitted
BM
Bongi MthembuGr 6
In review3/5DRReyes4 May
CM
Connor MaritzGr 8
In review5/5FKKhan5 May
EJ
Emma JohnsonGr 1
In review5/5FKKhan6 May
ID
Imani DlaminiGr 3
In review5/5Unassigned7 May
NM
Naledi MokoenaGr 4
Waitlisted5/5DRReyes8 May
OG
Olivia GarciaGr 2
Offered5/5MPPillay9 May
Ctrl K search · ⌘K on Mac
01 · INBOX

See the whole cycle in one view.

Every applicant in your cycle, who is reviewing them, and where each one stands. Heads of admissions see what’s stuck at a glance — Bongi Mthembu still has two documents to verify, and Imani Dlamini hasn’t been assigned a reviewer.

Move between views — in review, offered, waitlisted, declined — and filter by grade, reviewer, or tag. The review queue runs first come, first served, and Ctrl K (⌘K on a Mac) finds any applicant from anywhere.

Seven viewsEvery outcome, one click
Filter & sortGrade, reviewer, tag
Ctrl KGlobal search
app.intake.school/applications/WC-4812/documents
Required · 4/5
B
Birth certificate
birth_cert.pdf
R
School report
report_t4_2025.pdf
P
Proof of residence
eskom_april.pdf
I
Immunisations
immunisations.pdf
ID
Parent ID
sjohnson_id.jpg
eskom_april.pdf· 0.8 MB · 12 May1 / 1
Eskom Holdings · Account Statement
Name
JOHNSON, SARAH M.
ID number
820614 0214 087
Address
14 ACACIA LN, RONDEBOSCH
Period
01 – 30 APR 2026
Amount
R 2,148.30
Verification
✓ Verify
✕ Reject
Versions
v2 · current · pending
v1 · rejected · illegible
02 · REVIEW

Verify documents at speed. Flag what needs a second look.

Every required document and every uploaded version on one screen. Verify or reject each file, with a reason when you reject — illegible, expired, wrong document. Leave internal notes for your team that parents never see.

Flag any answer that doesn’t add up: a mismatched ID number, a current grade that doesn’t fit the date of birth. The flag stays open on the application until someone resolves it, with a record of who did.

Internal notesNever shown to parents
VersionedEvery upload
POPIAAudit trail
app.intake.school/applications/WC-4812/decision
Grade 1 · 2027 intake
Emma Johnson
5/5 docs reviewed · 0 open flags · assigned to Khan
Offer
Letter and accept-by date · sent when ready
Waitlist
Family notified by letter · offer when a seat opens
Decline
Polite letter · your reason stays internal
WC
WESTRIDGE COLLEGE
Rondebosch, Cape Town · Est. 1923
14 May 2026
Ref · WC-4812

Dear Sarah,

We are delighted to offer Emma Johnson a place in Grade 1 for 2027 at Westridge College. Thank you for the care that went into Emma’s application.

Sign in to accept or turn down this place by 28 May 2026.

03 · DECIDE

Letters, drafted. Sent when you’re ready. Audit, automatic.

Pick a decision and Intake drafts the letter from your school’s details. Send when ready, to one family or a whole batch. The parent sees the offer in their portal with the deadline to accept, and the overview updates for the cycle.

Every step is logged: who flagged what, who signed off, what was sent. When a parent appeals, you have the receipts.

Auto-draftedDecision letters
Every actionAudit trail
SASTTimezone-aware
Pricing

Per cycle. No per-seat fees. No applicant pays.

Schools pay once per cycle. All reviewers, all admin staff, unlimited team members included. Parents apply free of charge. 30-day refund if onboarding doesn't go through. Features tagged Roadmap roll out through the 2027 pilot cycle.
One plan · priced by volume
R45,000/ cycle · ex. VAT
≈ R 90 per application
Book a demo

Included for every school

  • Unlimited reviewers & admin staff
  • Your school's own parent portal · free for families
  • 50 GB storage · retention set to your policy
  • Priority support · 4-hour SLA
  • Sibling-pathway & bursary tracksRoadmap
  • CSV & API export for your SISRoadmap
POPIA-compliant for every school1-day guided onboarding30-day refund if Intake doesn't fit your cyclePrices ex. VAT · ZAR invoiced
Compliance & data

Built for South African data law, not retrofitted.

Intake operates as your school's Operator under POPIA, with a signed Data Processing Agreement on every contract. Documents are stored inside South Africa, and the database moves in-region before pilot go-live. Auditors are welcome.

Independent security review · scheduled before pilot launch
Data Processing Agreement · signed on every contract
data.residency
ZA — Cape TownDocuments stored on AWS af-south-1, inside South Africa. Database moves in-region before pilot go-live.
POPIA s.72
encryption.at-rest
AES-256Documents and backups encrypted at rest with AWS-managed keys.
POPIA s.19
encryption.in-transit
TLS · HTTPS everywhereAll traffic encrypted in transit, with strict HSTS. No plaintext endpoints.
HSTS
access.control
Role-based · least-privilegeSchool admin, reviewer and read-only roles. Every query is scoped to one school — tenants never see each other's data.
RBAC
audit.log
Every action, immutablyDocument views, decisions and role changes logged with actor and timestamp. Append-only — never edited or deleted.
Append-only
data.retention
Agreed per schoolRetention periods agreed with each school in its DPA, in line with POPIA. Earlier deletion on request.
POPIA s.14
incident.response
≤ 72h to the Information RegulatorCommitment per POPIA s.22. Affected schools notified without undue delay.
POPIA s.22
backup.recovery
Automated, encrypted backupsManaged database backups. Recovery targets finalised before pilot go-live.
Encrypted
Built with admissions heads

Designed alongside the people who'll use it every day.

Intake is being built in close conversation with admissions heads, registrars and admin officers at independent schools. Each screen is designed around how their day actually works — then taken back to them before it ships.
Most of what we sell is a spreadsheet replacement — but the real product is giving an admissions head hours of their week back. Every design decision is judged against that.
IF
Intake founding team
Cape Town · Johannesburg
2027
The pilot admissions cycle we're building toward
12
Founding-school spots in the first cohort
Free
For every applicant family, always
Onboarding

Onboarding takes a day, not a term.

No drawn-out rollout. We get on a call, set up your grades, intake window, documents, and team with you, and hand over a parent portal that's ready to open — usually within a day. New applicants apply through the portal, so there's nothing to migrate.
Step 1Kickoff

Tell us how you run a cycle

A short call to map your grades, intake windows, deadlines, the documents you require and how your team reviews.

Step 2Setup

We build your workspace

We configure your grades, seats, and intake window, add any extra documents you require, and invite your team with the right roles.

Step 3Walkthrough

Your team gets the tour

A quick run through the inbox, document review and decision screens — enough for your reviewers to start straight away.

Step 4Go live

Open your portal

We publish your parent portal and you start taking applications — usually the same day.

Common questions

What admissions heads usually ask first.

Can't see your question? Book a 30-minute call with our team — most of these answers come up in the first ten minutes anyway.
Can we keep our existing application form questions?
Intake uses one application form, built around what South African schools ask: the learner, both guardians, previous school, medical details, and supporting documents, with follow-up questions that appear only when they apply. During onboarding we walk through it against your current form. Adding your own questions is on our roadmap.
Does Intake integrate with our SIS?
Not yet with pre-built connectors. A CSV/API export path so your SIS can pick up enrolled students, and native connectors for the major SA systems, are on our roadmap — tell us which you run and we'll prioritise it.
Can each grade have its own reviewer team?
Access is role-based today — admin, reviewer and read-only, scoped per school. Finer-grained grade scoping (junior-school staff seeing only junior applications) is on our roadmap; tell us how your teams are split and we'll factor it into your setup.
How does the parent experience look?
Parents apply through your school's own portal — a dedicated per-school link, free for families. They see their application’s status in plain language, and accept or turn down an offer online. Custom domains and deeper branding are on our roadmap.
What about bursary applications?
Bursary tracks — a separate document set and review flow, with the same parent-facing journey so applicants aren't marked out — are on our roadmap. If bursaries are central to your intake, let's talk about sequencing them for your cycle.
Can we run multiple intake cycles in parallel?
Today Intake runs one intake window per enrolment year, and you can set up next year’s window ahead of time. Parallel intakes within one year — a main January intake alongside a mid-year one, as separate queues — are on our roadmap.
What happens when a parent appeals a decision?
Every admin action is in the audit log. When an appeal lands, you have the full record — who did what and when, the documents and notes, the decision and its rationale. Append-only and POPIA-compliant by design.
What if we already collected this year's applications?
Intake works best from the start of a cycle — every applicant applies through your portal, so the data comes in clean and parent-entered rather than bulk-imported. If you've already started collecting this year, we'll help you invite those families to apply through Intake, or plan the switch for your next intake.
Join the 2027 pilot

12 founding schools. One admissions cycle.

We're inviting our first cohort of schools through the 2027 cycle. Hands-on onboarding and a direct line to the team building it. 30 minutes is enough to see if we're a fit.

Apply for the pilotSee pricing
No credit card · Demo with your school’s name · Founding-school terms