Checklist of the Application before going live
- Review and Test
Making adjustments and changes to a live application can become challenging for your staff and frustrating. Therefore, it is best practice to always thoroughly review and test the application form before making it a live application and allowing your applicants to begin applying.
You will not want to publish any application until it has been reviewed and tested.
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > General Information > Select “No” under Published.
The following sections will cover how to review the application's various areas and funding source to ensure that you have correctly set up the application.
When reviewing, you will want to, again, look at the funding sources, your review process, and awarding process to reconfirm that you have built into your application all the items needed to pull eligibility for those areas.
- Did you include all necessary items in the drop-down listing, etc., so that the data can be mined efficiently?
- What about your review process? Are there items that are discussed in the review committees to determine eligibility or tie breakers? Were those included in the application, and can you easily pull the data if needed?
- After the initial application, are there additional sections that should be included to capture additional information from your applicants or staff members during review or after the awarding process? Are those sections created to appear during the appropriate stages?
- What types of reports do you need to run, and have you set up the question items in a manner that allows you to be able to pull that data and reported it on quickly?
- Required attachments – did you include all the upload questions to capture all your required attachments needed for your applicants to apply.
- Communication – are all the appropriate email templates created that are needed to communicate with your applicants during the application process? Do they relay your message, or are they still set on the default messages?
You will want to go through each section of the application form and confirm that the correct settings have been set on all your sections, all the valid questions are in the correct sections and formatted correctly. You have provided sufficient instructions to the applicants on how to complete this application form.
- Confirm Build of the Application form
From Home page> Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > General Information
- General Information Setup:-
- Sponsoring Organization, if you have multiple organizations, did you make sure to select all that can access the application form?
- Confirm your deadline date and time is correct (did you include a note in the instructions to the applicant that this is set on the EST zone, not their local time zone) Note: when ready to test, the Begin accepting applications date, will need to be the current date, so that the testers can access it.
- Ensure the Logout URL is set to the correct location that you want the applicant to land when they log out.
- Reply Sent from– if you have included this in your email templates did you remember to change this to the correct staff’s email address, so that the applicants know who to reply to.
- Applicant Minimum Age – If your application form has a minimum age requirement did the correct age get entered?
- If your application requires payment did you include the amount in the Application form cost?
- Enable Prequalification during applicant Sign-up- If using prequalification questions – did you remember to set this to yes?
- Enable View Matching Scholarships– If using this function did you remember to set this to yes?
- Enable Opt-In/Apply Options– If using this along with the view matching scholarships (used mainly in 1 application per 1 fund relationship) – Did you remember to set this to yes?
- If allowing multiple submissions did you say yes to Enable Multiple Submissions?
- If allowing proxy or collaborators did you say yes to enable those areas?
- Nomination type – If using request sections did you select the correct type.
- Enable Editing after Submitting - Do you want the applicant to edit after submitting? Did you select yes or No?
- Confirm the selections for the committee review process are selected correctly
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- Show Applicant to Committee
- Show Application to Committee
15. Acknowledgment – Used only if setting as Applicant Minimum Age– is the message to the applicant correct and understandable. (If not using, this should be left blank.)
16. Instructions – These are the applicant’s dashboard instructions
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- Are you explaining to the applicant clearly how to fill out the application form?
- Are you displaying the deadline date and time as EST?
- Are there grammatical errors or typos?
- Are there sections they should fill out first that they need to know about?
17. Contacts– did you remember to include the staff member that is maintaining this application in the Contacts section?
- Section Setup
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Section and Questions > Click on Edit Section
- Are all your sections named correctly?
- Do you have the correct Section Type selected for the section
- Are the sections for your staff only – marked as a “Staff Section” – are they hidden from the applicant?
- Are the Sections that are Request Sections marked as “Request Section” – are they hidden from the applicant?
- If using Request Sections did you set the correct email notification template for this section?
- Are the sections you don’t want reviewers to view marked to “Hide from Reviewer”?
- Is the Display Order correct to how you expect the application to flow?
- Is the correct image showing for the section?
- If this section is to only appear to applicants that are at a certain Status in the application process, did you select the correct Status(s) type for this section to appear to the applicant when the applicant is at that Status(s) only?
- Do you have the correct deadline date and time for that section?
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- Is it a separate date from the application or does it have its deadline?
11. Did you make sure you remove the submit button from appearing on sections that do not require a submit button and add it to those that do? (i.e. post-acceptance sections need a submit button)
12. Did you confirm the “Lock after Submit” is set correctly?
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- Does it carry a separate submittal from the application, if it does, do you want it to lock after they submit this section or allow them to continue editing after the section has been submitted.
13. Section Specific Instructions–
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- Does the section need specific instructions entered so that the applicant understands how to complete the section (or requested individual if this is a request section?
- If this is a Request Section– are the instructions to the requested individual filling out this section clear so they know how to complete the section? Do they know how to submit the form or deny the form?
- Are there grammatical errors, typos?
14. Did you remember to “Activate” the sections so that they appear on the application?
15. Did you de-activate the sections you do not want to appear in your application?
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- Is there a section that needs to be de-activated now but activated later on in the process? Are they set correctly?
16. Do you have conditional logic set on sections you only want to show if an applicant answers a question in another part of the application a specific way? Did you test this logic?
Click on “Add/Edit”, the below condition screen will display.
- Question Setup
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Section and Questions > Click on the Section Name
- Are all the necessary questions present in your application for data mining and decision making:
- Are you including all the required questions needed to pull on for your scoring process(i.e. if needing a GPA score-do you have a question asking for a GPA score somewhere in your application?)
- Are all questions included to be able to retrieve data needed for the selection of Funding Source fund eligibility?
- Do you have all the required questions needed for the committee reviewers and award committees to make their decisions?
- Are the questions in the right sections?
- Are there typos in any of the Question Names to be corrected?
- Are the questions formatted correctly with the correct question type?
- Numeric fields are set correctly for data you need to be able to run calculations on.
- Are you using drop-downs and checkboxes efficiently (i.e. you need to know the college the applicant is attending – do you want them to type this – risking spelling errors or abbreviations – or do you want them to pick from a dropdown listing so that you get an exact match to be able to pull and filter that data into criteria reports or automated scoring?)
- For File upload, are all the accepted file types entered so that they can upload needed documents?
- If entering text are you using the appropriate types for Text or Essay so that the applicant has plenty of space to enter their required answer? Do you have the word count minimum and maximums, set if needed?
- If using one application for multiple funds, did you include the Matching Fund Eligibility question, so that the applicants can be matched to the funds using the eligibility questions?
- If using the Program Name question to display as a separate column in your applicant status report, did the correct question get set up as the Program Name Question? (used when allowing multiple submission of applications on the same application form)
- If Awarding using the Batch Awards screen do you want the Requested Amount and the Budget Amount to appear in those columns when awarding? If so, are they in the same section, and is the Section they are located in named with the correct Section XML - Budget Info, and the questions named with the correct questions XML –Amount Requested, Budget Total, set on those two items.
- Required - If the question is required, did you remember to mark it as “required” so that the question is not missed?
- Hidden From Reviewer- If the question is not to be seen by the review committee did you remember to mark it as “Hidden from Reviewer”?
- If awarding using the Manage Awards, do you want a question on your Award screen, did you mark it “yes” to Show on Award Screen, so that it appears when awarding?
- Display Order- Is the question in the right Display order for easy flow of the application?
- If you have a document to load to this question, did you remember to upload it?
- Conditional Logic- Did you set all the necessary conditional logic so that the appropriate questions hide or appear depending on how other questions are answered? Did you test your logic?
- If there is a question you do not want to appear on the application – did you remember to mark it as “Excluded”?
- Did you include all your questions to capture the required attachments needed from the applicants?
3. Pre-Qualification Questions setup - If using pre-qualification questions
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Pre-Qualification Questions
- Did you include all your pre-qualification questions?
- Are these set with the correct combination?
- Is the Denial Message set up?
- Check for grammatical errors or typos.
- Request Instructions to Applicant setup – message to the applicant on how to use this section.
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Request Instructions to Applicant
- Does the message explain to the applicant how to use this section and how to recommend an individual to fill out a section on their behalf?
- If you have multiple request sections, do you explain to the applicant the purpose of each, so that they know who to recommend to complete that section?
- Are there grammatical errors or typos?
- Submit Application Message setup– online message to applicants when they submit their application
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Submit Application Message
- Is the message clear on their next steps?
- Are there grammatical errors or typos?
- Text Tabs Information Setup– (if using)
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Text Tab Information 1, 2,…..
- Did you remember to mark them as published?
- Are there grammatical errors or typos?
- Global Notification Center Email Templates
On Administration Page > Select Global Notification Center
- Did you check all the System-Global messages for correct content, grammatical errors, or typos?
- Did you check all the Application-specific System templates for correct content, grammatical errors, or typos?
- If you have multiple request sections in your application, that are different types of sections going to different types of people, did you remember to create separate nomination templates for each section, using the “Add New Nomination Template” in the Create a template?
- Confirm the setup of your Funding Sources
From Home page > Select Manage Application Funds > Click on Funding name
- Annual Budget/Academic Year– is this fiscal year set to the same as the Application forms with the correct amount for your current year?
- Associated application– Is the correct application associated with the fund,
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- If using one application for multiple funds did you remember to create the mock fund and associate that fund to the application?
- Did you remember to not associate any applications to the associated funds?
- If using the Common Application Method did you create the mock fund and associate the Common application to that.
- Did you remember to associate each fund to its application?
3. Sponsoring Organizations –are all the correct sponsoring organizations that need to view this fund selected?
4. Allow Non-(org) Applicants/Allow (org) applicants– are these selected correctly on the “yes” and “no” options?
5. Email signature– if you want to override the site settings default signature, did you enter a signature line here to be included in your email templates when selecting the Signature merge field?
6. Brief Description and Description– Did you include the correct information that you want the applicants to view. Check for grammatical errors and typos.
7. Search filters– (if using) did you include all the correct eligible search filters for the fund so that the applicant can locate it correctly and apply to it.
- Assign Application Funds (Manage Application Funds) (This is the main set-up if you are using 1:Many Process)
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Assign Application Funds (Manage Application Funds)
- Did you assign all the correct funds to this application?
- Manage Funds Criteria Information
From Home page > Select Application Form Name > Application Settings > Manage Funds Criteria Information
- Did you remember to set all the criteria conditions for each fund that was assigned to this application using either the Manage Application Funds or the Manage Common Application Grants?