General Information Setup Items
Home > (Select - Application Name) > Application Settings > General Information
To access the General Information settings screen, from the Home page (Application Listing Report), click on an application name to select the form, and the Manage Applications tab will display. Click the Application Settings tab and then select the General Information option from the left sidebar menu.
Application Form - General Information Field Definitions
All fields marked with a red asterisk are required to contain a valid value before the General Information page can be saved. Each field on the General Information page is described below in the following format: a screenshot of 2-5 fields followed by the descriptions of the fields pictured in the image.
*Funding Application Form Name: Enter the name of the application which will be visible to applicants.
*Sponsoring Organization: Select the organization(s) responsible for maintaining the Funding Source. If you only have one organization/department, then select that organization and click Ok to save the selection. This is used to connect applications to a specific organization or department. If you are setting up applications for more than one organization, you can select the organization that owns this application process. Then you can filter applications by sponsoring organization so that only those users that are assigned to that sponsoring organization can access the specific application. Multiple sponsoring organizations may be selected.
*Description: Enter a brief description about the use of this application, or you can reenter the application name. This is currently only visible to the admin.
Does this Application have a Deadline:
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Yes – Select if your application has a deadline for submission. Once selected, the Deadline Type and Date fields will display, as shown in the image above.
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No – Select if this is a rolling application and no deadline is required because applicants have an unlimited time frame to complete their application form.
Academic Year: If set to Auto this will be updated when the application is saved and will be calculated based on the Begin Accepting Applications Date and the Deadline Date. These dates will be compared with the chart in the Administration/Manage Academic Years and the period the dates fall within will be the default Academic Year period entered for this application form.
Note: This field is determining the period for the fund awarding for this application process. Therefore, the fund set up must have the same Academic Year as the application form. If you have applicants apply in one period, but the actual funding is awarded in another period, you can override the Auto function by selecting the correct awarding period in the dropdown listing.
Deadline Type (option 1): Date and Time Specific - Select this option to enter a start date to begin accepting applications and a deadline date and time the system will no longer allow applicants to apply to the application form. Once you select this option, the Begin Accepting Applications Date, Deadline Date and Deadline Time fields will display.
Time Zone: This displays the site time zone set in the Administration > Manage Site Settings > Select Time Zone field. You cannot have a different time zone for the application, therefore, if the application is for a different time zone than the site time zone, you will need to make a note in the application instructions so that the applicant is aware.
Begin Accepting Applications Date: This is the date the application will be available for applicants to begin applying.
Note: The application will not be visible to applicants until the funding source linked to this application form is published and the Begin Accepting Applications Date is current or in the past. If the funding source is published but the application begin date is not yet current, the applicant will be able to view the funding source details (and add to their interest cart, if applicable); however, the Apply button will not be present until the date has arrived. For testing purposes, you will need to use the ‘Application Invitation’ functionality.
Deadline Date: This is the date the application will close. This date must be greater than or equal to the current date.
Deadline Time: The last time of day on the Deadline Date an application will be accepted. (Note this is set per the Time Zone for your site as noted in the Time Zone field.)
Deadline Type (option 2): No. of Days from the time Application is Started - Select this option to limit the number of days an applicant has to complete the application form based on the day they start their application. After the deadline has passed, the applicant will not be allowed to edit their form. After selecting this option, the Number of Days field will display, as shown in the image above. The Begin Accepting Applications Date field will also be active (see the Deadline Type (option 1) section above for a field description.)
*Number of Days: This field displays when the Deadline Type of No. of Days from the time Application is Started, or No. of Days from the time Application Invitation is Sent is selected. Enter the number of days the applicant has to complete their application form. Example: Applicant has 90 days to complete their application form from the date they start their application – enter 90 in this field.
Deadline Type (option 3): No. of Days from the time Application Invitation is Sent - This option enables you to have a private application open indefinitely. However, once you invite the applicant using the Application Invitation process, the applicant is limited to the number of days they have to complete the application form based on the date they were invited to apply. After the deadline has passed, the applicant will not be allowed to edit their form. After selecting this option, the Number of Days field will display, (see the Deadline Type (option 2) section above for a field description.)
Logout URL: Enter the URL for the landing page you want the applicant to be redirected to when they log out of their application.
Reply To: Add the email address of the key contact person you want to receive replies from emails that are sent from this application. If you leave this field blank it will default to admin@communityforce.com and all replies will be returned to CommunityForce.com.
When setting up emails in the Notification Center, if the merge field Reply-To-Email is available for use in a template, this is the item to which the merge field links.
When emails are created from the site, they are automatically sent from the CommunityForce server. If an applicant replies to the email using the reply button, the email will be returned to CommunityForce. If you do not want the email returned to CommunityForce, you must enter the email address of the individual you want to receive replies from email recipients. It is good practice to add the Reply-To-Email merge field to your email templates. This helps applicants know who to contact for information.
Applicant Minimum Age: The minimum age to apply using this application, if applicable. Enter 0 (zero) if no minimum age is required. If the applicant's age is below the specified age, he/she is redirected to a screen that provides an explanation as to why they cannot apply. This message is entered in the Acknowledgement section of this setup screen. The minimum age is based on the user's date of birth entered when they first create their account.
Application Form Cost: If your application form requires a fee, enter the amount that the applicant must pay prior to submitting their completed application. This setting will display only if it has been enabled in the Administration > Manage Site Settings and you have purchased the integration functionality to accept payments using a third-party payment software. (For more details see the How to Set up the Application Payment Feature article.)
Enable Prequalification during Applicant Sign-up: Enables the feature to allow you to create Prequalification yes/no questions for an applicant to answer prior to gaining access to the application. These questions must be arranged in a combination format, meaning if the applicant answers the specific combination of yes/no questions they are either granted access or denied access. (For more details please see Create Prequalification Questions article ).
- Yes – The Prequalification Questions will display and the applicant will not be allowed access to the application until they provide the correct answer combination.
- No – The Prequalification Questions will not display to the applicant and they will have immediate access to apply.
Enable View Matching Scholarships: This setting is applicable in the following instances:
- If you have multiple funding sources with separate applications for each
- If you want applicants to view details of the funds they have been matched to
- If you want the applicant to be able to see additional applications for funding sources similar to the one they just applied to, based on similar criteria
The other funding opportunities available will display with the option to Opt/In and apply to those additional applications. This will require additional setup in the Manage Application Funds and the Manage Funds Criteria Information sections of the application setup. Both applications would need to have the same XML on the criteria questions that are used to determine the match.
- Yes – Activates this feature and allows the applicant to view a listing of funds they have been matched to along with descriptions for each fund. This is based on the fund eligibility you have built into the application process. Once you select Yes, the field Enable Opt-In/Apply Options will display.
- No – The applicant is unable to see the listing of matching funds.
Enable Opt In/Apply Options in View Matching Scholarships: If using the Enable View Matching Scholarship feature, and applicants are being matched to other applications available on your site that are not a part of this application’s process when applicants are matched to those application forms based on fund eligibility criteria you have set, the applicant can opt in to apply to other applications. If this is disabled and is being used with the View Matching Scholarships, the applicant can view only fund details with no opt-in/apply option to be directed to other application forms.
- Yes – Activates this feature and the applicant sees a list of funds they are matched to and is given the option to opt-in and apply to those additional applications. The applications would then display in the applicant's My Applications tab.
- No – The applicant would not be able to opt-in/apply but would be able to see a listing of funding sources to which they have been matched.
Enable Multiple Submissions: This allows an applicant to apply multiple times to the same application without needing to create separate login accounts. When activated, applicants have the option to name each occurrence so they can keep track of each application in their My Applications tab. This is also used if applicants are able to apply as a proxy on behalf of someone else. Activating this feature will open the option to Enable the Proxy.
- Yes – Select to activate this feature and the Proxy functionality.
- No – Select if applicants can only apply one time per application period.
Enable Collaborators: Collaboration allows an applicant to collaborate with other individuals to help complete specific sections of their application.
- Yes – When Yes is selected, an Add Collaborators button will display on the applicant dashboard for that specific application, which allows the applicant to assign specific sections to other individuals to complete. The completed sections will be viewable by the applicant. Selecting Yes will also activate other collaboration setup items, such as the Collaboration Instructions icon in the Application Setup and in the Collaboration Request email templates in the Notification Center.
- No – Select if you do not want to allow the Collaboration functionality.
Enable Proxy: This enables an applicant to apply on behalf of someone as a proxy for that individual. The applicant would start the application, create a user account if not already created, and a notification would be sent to the individual notifying them that the applicant started an application on their behalf. To activate this functionality, Enable Multiple Submissions must be set to Yes.
- Yes – Select if you want to allow the Proxy functionality. This will activate the following proxy setup items: the Proxy Instructions icon will be available in the Application Setup and the Proxy email template will be available for this application in the Notification Center.
- No – Select if you do not want to allow the Proxy functionality.
Nomination Type: If there are request sections in your application, this will allow the applicant to select one nominator to complete all the request sections in an application or to select multiple nominators, one per each request section, in an application.
- Single – All request sections go to a single nominee. The applicant will click a single icon on their dashboard and enter the contact data for one nominee to complete all the required request sections.
- Multiple – Each separate request section can go to a different nominee. The applicant selects each separate request section and enters the nominee's contact information just for that one specific request section.
Enable Editing after Submitting Application: Determines if an applicant can reenter/change data on their application after they have clicked the Submit button on their application.
- Yes – The applicant can access their application after it has been submitted and make changes to the application.
- No – The applicant is unable to change any information once their application is submitted and the section must be released back to the applicant by the Admin if a correction/addition is to be made. (See the section Release a Section to Applicant.)
Show Applicant to Committee: This allows you to perform a blind process review or to display the applicant’s identifying information on the evaluation committee reviewer’s dashboards when reviewing their applications.
- Yes – Allows the committee reviewers to see the identifying information of an applicant.
- No – Allows for a blind process review in which the committee reviewers are not able to see the names of the applicants they are reviewing in their review dashboard or any application pdf’s created specifically for Reviewers.
Note: This does not hide applicant name information on a question field if you’ve created a question asking for this information. It only removes the name from the report listing and in the application preview header. If you want to hide names from a question, you will need to access the question build and hide the question from reviewers.
Show Application to Committee: Allows the committee reviewers to see the applicant’s application. However, sections and/or questions can be hidden from their view when setting up that section and/or question in the application. (See Section Setup and Question Setup).
- Yes – The committee reviewers can view all allowable fields of the application and be able to access the active review tasks assigned to them.
- No – The committee reviewers cannot view any part of the application or the review process including tasks assigned to them. (You can select this if you wish to turn off the entire review process for all tasks, once reviewers have completed scoring on all tasks and you no longer want them to have access to the review for this application’s process.)
Display Reviewer Tasks/Comments to Reviewers: This was originally a Site Setting that has been moved to the individual application form only. This enables reviewers to see all the scores and replies to all tasks assigned to all reviewers in the review process. When a reviewer views that application form or pdf version they will see separate sections that contain the replies and comments that each reviewer has submitted.
- Yes – Activates this feature and reviewers can see how all reviewers have evaluated this applicant.
- No – Turns off the functionality and reviewers can only see what they entered on their own review tasks.
Display Reviewer Tasks/Comments to Applicants: This allows applicants to see how the reviewers scored them in the review process. This will show the applicant the name of the reviewer and how that reviewer completed each question in the review tasks. This information will be visible to the applicant as a separate section on their application preview and the pdf view, listing the reviewer's name and the replies to the question for each task.
- Yes – Activates this feature and applicants can see how all reviewers have evaluated them in the review process.
- No – Turns off the functionality and applicants cannot see the reviewers' information on any of the review tasks.
Published: This is an optional field that can be turned off or on in Administration > Manage Site Settings > Enable Application Publishing. When your site is initially set up, this should be set to No in site settings unless specifically requested at the time of implementation. This setting does not publish the application for the applicant to apply. That publishing is set in the fund set up page.
If Enable Application Publishing is turned on in Manage Site Settings, this box is available in the Application Settings > General Information Setup and provides the option to prevent the application from being published to staff. Therefore, it will also not be available in the Fund Setup listing when connecting funding to application forms. This may be helpful if you have multiple staff members maintaining your site and you do not want applications being connected to funding until you have completely built the application form.
Instructions: These instructions are displayed on the Applicant's application dashboard once he/she enters the application to begin completing the various sections.
Example of an Instruction message for the applicant dashboard:
Thank you for your interest in the Scholarship Application opportunity and welcome to your dashboard.
Important Instructions:
- When you see a blue information icon, just hover over it to view the tip.
- Click on any section and fill in the answers to questions, as they are presented on the page.
- Each section below must read 100% in order to submit your application. If a section does not read 100%, there are unanswered required question(s) in that section.
- When you are ready to submit, click the Final Review and Submit button to verify your attachments have uploaded correctly and the application contains all necessary information.
Note: The file size for each document uploaded should not exceed 10mb/upload. The time given is in Eastern Time Zone (EST).