Creating a program in your SurveyMonkey Apply site is an essential step to getting started. You can create a single program or multiple depending on the requirements of your process.
When you first log in to your SM Apply site you will land on what will soon be your Site Dashboard. As you have not yet created a program in your site:
Once you have created a program in your site, you may require additional programs. To create more programs:
Clicking + Create Program directs you to the Program Settings page to configure the new program. However, if you need to edit your program in the future you can use the following steps to access this section:
When the program is first created (not yet launched) the program will be in Build (Edit) Mode.
Within the Basics, you can configure the following settings for your program.
NOTE: The Program Open/Close Dates will also update the Dates for the first application stage.
| Feature | Description |
| Title | This is the title displayed to your users entering the site.If you have multiple programs it will also help you to identify the Program in the future. |
| Award Value | You can choose whether you wish to have a monetary value attached to your program. The options you have are: - Exactly: If you wish to allocate a specific value to your applicants - Range: If you will be allocating between two values but the exact amount is not set - None: If you have no monetary value associated with your program - Custom: If you will be awarding your applicants with a "prize" that is not a monetary value TIP! Select "Hide from Applicants" if you do not wish to make the award value visible to your applicants. |
| Number of Awards | Select how many applicants in the site you will be awarding for this program. |
| Summary | Add a brief description of the program. This will display to your applicants in the listing of programs they are eligible for. |
| Full Description | Give your program a full description with more in-depth details on the program. This description will display to your applicants within their application when they click "(?) Help" above their list of tasks. |
| Program URL | Configure how your program is accessed by your applicants. Every program on your site will have its own unique Listing URL. The URL of the program will appear as: yoursitename.smapply.io/program_name See below for more information on program listing URLs |
| Open Date(Required) | Set the date you wish to Open the program. To add an Open Date: 1. Click on top of the Open Date Field 2. Select a date from the calendar Your program will become currently available if the date is set for the current day. You can also choose to set the Open Date for a later date. The program will automatically launch, and become available to receive applications. |
| Open Time(Required) | Set the time of day you wish to open your program. The time zone for this time is based on your site's time zone. On the user's end, the deadline will be reflected in the time zone they have set on their account. |
| Close Date(Required) | Set the date that your program will close so applicants can no longer edit or create applications. To add a close date: 1. Click on top of the Close Date Field 2. Select a date from the calendar TIP! Select "No Close Date" if you wish for the program to remain open indefinitely. |
| Close Time | Select a time that you wish for the program to close at (If applicable). The time zone for this time is based on your site's time zone. On the user's end, the deadline will reflect the time zone they have set on their account. |
| Grace Period | The Grace Period is in HOURS. You can set if you want to allow for additional time for applicants to complete their application. This is an internal setting for when to close the program and is not displayed to applicants. |
You can configure how your program is accessed by your applicants. Every program on your site will have its own unique Listing URL. The URL of the program would appear as:
yoursitename.smapply.io/program_name
This is a required field to save your program. By default, the Listing URL populates with the name of your program. If you enter an incorrect character within the Listing URL section you will be prompted with a red X and will be required to change it. Accepted characters are dashes (-) and underscores (_).
This Listing URL is the unique URL of your program. You can then distribute the URL to your applicants to access the program Homepage.
TIP! If you only have one program, you can redirect people straight to your Program Homepage. For more information, you can refer to Redirecting to a Program's Homepage
For each program you create, you can set specifications for how to identify and accept applications in your site. These specifications include:
| Setting | Description |
| Application Limits | Set how many applications each applicant can complete within the site. By Default, applicants will only be able to create one application per program. To allow for more applications select "Allow applicants to apply more than once" You can then decide from the following options: - Limit number of applications to... - No application limit This is only the limit for this specific program. If you have multiple programs on the site, the user may still be able to create multiple applications across different programs. |
| Allow Collaborators | Enable to allow your applicants to work in teams to complete their application. You can also restrict Collaborators invites to a specific email domain, if enabled. TIP! Provide instructions to your applicants for inviting collaborators to the application. |
The application ID is the unique identifier of each application in your site. This ID cannot be changed on an application once the application has been created by the user. This is to ensure that it can always be used to search for the application, even if the Application Title or other information has been changed.
However, you can change the setup of the Application ID so that new applications reflect different ID settings. For more information please refer to How to Change the Application ID.
| Setting | Description |
| Include a Prefix | Add a prefix to the beginning of the Application ID as a way of identifying it. TIP! Format the prefix based on the name and/or year of the program. If you have two programs "Program A" and "Program B" and each has two years of applications you may choose to have the Prefix be "A16-" and "B16-" for one year, and update the following year to be "A17"- and "B17-." |
| Randomize Application ID numbers | Check if you wish for the ID numbers to be randomized when new applications are created. Uncheck you wish for the ID numbers to be incremental when new applications are created. The length of the application ID is 10 digits and cannot be changed within the site. |
| Require applicants to name their applications | Select the checkbox to enable. Optional: Provide format suggestions to applicants using the naming guidelines field. Instead of a Custom Name, you can leave this selection unchecked. The Application Name will reflect the Application ID as described above. |
On each program, you can setup Eligibility to determine whether or not the program will be available to the applicant. You can set eligibility on a program based on:
To Add Eligibility Criteria on your program:
Under the Extras tab, you can add additional information about your program, such as Program Custom Fields and Program Categories.
Any Program Custom Fields will be displayed here if they have been added to your site (Settings > More > Custom Fields). Provided that it has a target of Programs, the field will be displayed here and within every Program in your site. You can enter associated information for this program in this field.
Add a program to a category to help organize your programs. If you already have a list of program categories in your site, they will be listed here.
To add a New Category:
To add a program to a category:
Select how to display the review scores of reviewers within your site. The format selected will appear for other reviewers if result sharing is enabled. Completed review scores for an application will only be visible to a reviewer once they have completed their review for the given application.
| Display Format | Description |
| Percentage | The score of the review is presented as a percentage |
| Actual Value | The score of the review is presented as a whole number |
| Percentage + Actual Value | Both formats are displayed to reviewers |
Before you publish your program, look back over all of your settings and ensure that everything is set-up as desired. There are a few settings that are required in order to successfully create the program in your site:
After you have successfully set up your program you can click Save to save the program and remain in the settings page, or Save & Exit to save the program and proceed to the Site Dashboard. If necessary, you can come back to the Program Settings at a later date to make changes.