Introduction to SurveyMonkey Apply: Build Mode

To navigate to the General Settings, select the Settings icon from the right hand side of the task bar at the top of the page and select General. Changes made to these settings will impact your entire site.

This section is dedicated to the basic details of your site. The table below displays the editable fields and the actions that can be performed here. Generally, these fields are not edited once your site is live.

Site access provides administrators the option of locking a site restricting the access from applicant, reviewer, and recommender roles. When a site is locked, only users with an administrator role may access the site. This is perfect for sites that aren't quite ready to launch and can be useful for testing purposes. As this is a General Setting, enabling the site lock will apply to all of your programs including those that are launched.

The message here can be customized in order to provide important dates and details regarding a locked site. By customizing a message you can inform your users when they can return to your site to apply for a program or complete reviews. The message provided here will be presented on your homepage.   

TIP! Unlocking your site can also be done from your Site Dashboard.

This section is used to set the site theme as well as add images to your site. These settings allow the administrators to manage the appearance of the site including site themes, images, and access to the CSS Editor.

These settings allow you to localize your site. The adjustable settings are: 

The Site Dashboard can be referred to as the primary hub of your site and will display an overview of all of the programs in your site. To access the Site Dashboard, click on your Site Name in the top left corner, or the Award Ribbon Icon in the top right. 

When you first log in to your SM Apply site, you will automatically land on your Site Dashboard.

To create a program on your site:

How to Create Additional Programs:

Once you have created a program in your site, you may require additional programs to be added. In order to create additional programs:

The Program Builder

There are four sections of the Program Builder that allow you to configure your program:

1. Basics

Within the Basics you have access to configuring the following settings for your program. 

2. Applications

For each program you create you can also set specifications for how you want to identify and accept applications in your site. These specifications include:

Applying

Application ID

NOTE: The length of the application ID is 10 digits and cannot be changed within the site.

WARNING! This ID cannot be changed on an application once the application has been created by the user.

3. Eligibility

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 an award based on:

To Add Eligibility Criteria on your program

NOTE: You will need to return to this tab after completing the Eligibility Quiz if this is yet to be set up. Access the Eligibility Quiz by selecting the Settings icon from the task bar at the top of your screen, then Eligibility. 

4. Extras

Under the Extras tab you can add additional information about your program such as Program Custom Fields and Program Categories.

Program Custom Fields

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.

Program Categories

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:

Review Score Format

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.

The Workflow Designer is a bird's eye view of the process that an application will be guided through based on its success in the application process from the application stage to the review stage and the final decision process. This is the area where new tasks are added and existing tasks can be accessed for editing.

How to Access the Workflow

When you have first created your program and have not yet launched the program will still be in Edit (Build) Mode. To access the Workflow from Build Mode:

To access a program workflow after your application has launched and you are in Monitor Mode:

Within SM Apply there are four types of stages: Applicant, Simple Review, Advanced Review, and Holding Stages. The type of stage will define the tasks that can exist within the stage. When a program is first created an Application Stage will populate automatically. 

The order of stages in your Workflow is very important as it determines the flow of your application process. When an application is first created it will be automatically placed into the first stage in your workflow, unless otherwise configured using automations. 

You can choose to rearrange the stages in your workflow to ensure that all stages are in the correct order by hovering your cursor over the stage and using the Move icon to drag the stage to a new position.

In order to create a new stage:

Applicant tasks can be built within application stages only and multiple tasks can exist within a single application stage. Similarly, review tasks can only be created in a simple or advanced review stage, but the stages are limited to a single task. Holding stages are holding stages for applications and do not have associated tasks.

To access the Tasks section of the stage

Within an Application Stage you need applicant tasks for your applicants to be able to complete within your site.

To add a task:

There are six applicant tasks ready for use in an application stage for your program workflow:

When a form is first created, the form title inherits the form name. However, if you wish to edit it:

The Form Description can be extremely useful if you wish to provide details and instructions to your applicants in regards to the steps they need to take to complete the form. Commonly, administrators will also enter their own contact details in case an applicant has any questions while filling out the form. 

To add or edit the Form Description:

NOTE: If you have multiple pages in the form, the Title and Description will appear at the top of every page. 

The Preview button is located at the bottom of your page within the form builder.

Clicking on Preview will open a new tab where you can test your form. The form will appear almost exactly as it would to your user. Since you are previewing the form as an administrator, you will also see any Hidden Questions or JavaScript Questions; however, these will not be visible to your regular applicants.

NOTE: If your form contains Piping Variables used to pipe information from another form, or to pipe information specific to the user, these piping variables will not work correctly within the preview and the field will appear blank. If you wish to test your Piping Variables we would recommend using a test application. 

Page labels allow you to create named pages of your form that can then branch or jump users to. Page labels do not have a character type restriction, eg., #@!&$%, or character limit.

To change the page label:

Adding questions to your form is how you will build your form(s). You can add questions in two ways.

To add a question to the middle of the page:

 To add a question to the end of the page:

In the case that you have a long list of choices or variables, or a list that you will be re-using often throughout your many forms, it may be useful to use the bulk editor. The bulk editor converts lists into choices/variables/rows, while giving you the option of saving them for use on any future question. The Bulk feature is available under all "Choices" and "Variables" on the left-hand floating editor box.

Additionally, you can also save custom bulk lists. To create a custom bulk list:

The visual editor allows you to add text, videos, links, and more to your form. The editor is available in the Form Title and Form Description, but not in Choices or Variables.

To access the visual editor:

Click the Source button within the visual editor to input HTML, or CSS. While JavaScript can be placed in the source, we recommend that you place it in a JavaScript question type instead so that you can find it easily if you need to revisit the form in the future.

This information is important to ensure that changes in your form do not impact your data! If you are deleting questions/ choices, or restructuring a form these actions could delete or skew your responses. For more information in regards to this we highly recommend referring to the article How to Safely Make Changes to a Live Form to ensure that you are not making changes that will negatively affect your data.

Overview

Automations can be used to perform actions based on the activity of applications, completion of assignments, date activations, and more. There are two areas where automations are managed: the Stage Configuration page, and the Automations page for your Program. 

The WHEN TO APPLY section is also known as the Activation and refers to when the automation will fire and verify that all conditions have been met. To set an activation properly the menus below must be configured.

NOTE: In some cases a target will not be required.

Conditions are the rules of the automation and these rules determine if the automation will perform the actions within the DO Statement after the activation has been triggered. 

The DO Statement consists of all of the actions that will be performed if the activation is triggered and all/any of the conditions have been satisfied.

Stage Automations

Stage Automations are configured from the stage settings from the Stage Automations tab and always consist of a rule that the application is currently in that given stage. Only automations with a condition of "application is in stage" will appear in this area. 

To access the automations of a specific stage:

To create or edit a stage automation:

NOTE: Once a stage automation has been configured it will appear with your other program automations within the automations page as well as within the Stage Automations tab of stage it is related to. 

Program Automations

Program Automations are configured from the Automations tab which can be selected while in Build Mode for a program. These automations do not require a rule that they are associated with a specific stage.

To enter the Automations page where all automations related to the program are listed:

To create or edit a new program automation:

NOTE: Once an automation is created it will not immediately be active until the status is updated to Active.

Editing Automations

Editing automations can be done from the automations page regardless of whether it is a stage or program automation. Stage automations can be accessed for editing in both locations while program automations that were not created from the Stage Automation page can only be accessed from the Automations tab while in Edit mode.

Activating and Deactivating Automations

When an automation is created it must be ACTIVE in order for it to fire. To activate an automation from the Automation Page:

To deactivate an automation from the Automation Page:

Automation Logs

To view a searchable log of previous instances where automations have fired, administrators can select the View Logs icon from the Automations page or within an automation at the bottom of the page.

This can be helpful for troubleshooting applications that did not follow the process as expected and to determine if an automation fired/misfired based on application activity. The log will display the name of the automation, the date and time it fired, the title of the application, and the name of the actor who caused the automation to fire.

Managing Automations

Automation Names

Automation Names should follow a predetermined format that will help you find them easily so edits can be made later. A common format is:

"The Action: Brief Summary of the Automation"

For example, if an automation is used to move an application to another review stage based on a response in a ranking form, the automation could be named:

"Move: Approved Application to Follow-Up Review"

This name allows any administrator within the site to search and modify the automation easily should any changes be made to the process in later cycles.

TIP! If your automation performs multiple actions, be sure to include both actions in your Name to help you find it later. An example of this would be "Move & Email: Application Form Completed."

NOTE: This formatting is a suggestion only with the purpose of helping with organization of your site.

Automation Folders

Add your automations to folders to help organize them. Once many automations have been added, it's easy to become overwhelmed when trying to locate a specific automation especially since a single automation can have multiple actions. Adding folders with names such as "Move," "Emails," and "Date Activation" can be helpful to update your process later or for troubleshooting while your program is live.

To create a new folder from the Automations page: 

To add an automation to a folder from the Automations page:

NOTE: Automations can only be associated with one folder at a time. 

The set up of your review tasks and the rules to which applications are assigned should be configured before launching your program. It is important to test your review forms to ensure that scoring is reliable and consistent throughout your application process. Refer to our article Introduction to SurveyMonkey Apply: Reviews & Assignments for a collection of articles regarding the setup and completion of your review process.

We strongly recommend thoroughly testing your site to ensure that all aspects are working as expected.

Applicants - Add test applicants through Manage Users and create an application for them within the program's Manage Applications page by selecting Create Application. You can then assume their role to complete the tasks you've created, test automations, test forms, etc., associated with your process. 

Reviewers - Create test reviewers to experiment with assigning test applications to reviewers and view the review forms from a reviewer's standpoint by assuming their role. Ensure that scores are calculating correctly, applicant data is appearing as expected, and that applications are moving to the appropriate stage based on a completed review, for example. 

Troubleshooting Automations

If an automation doesn't fire when expected.

Deleting Test Applicants and Applications

When testing is complete you can permanently delete test applications to remove this data from your live applications. To permanently delete a group of applications:

WARNING! This action cannot be reverted.

If your programs are currently displayed in Grid View, to launch your program:

Launch a Program in List View

If your programs are currently displayed in List View, to launch your program:

TIP! Before Launching your program, we would recommend testing it to ensure everything is set up correctly. When you are finished testing your program, it is recommended to archive test data and disable test accounts.

Now that your programs are built and launched you can refer to our Introduction to SurveyMonkey Apply: Monitor Mode for helpful articles to guide you through monitoring your programs. You can always switch back to edit mode to make edits to settings and tasks within your programs, but we recommend against making major changes until your current cycle is closed to prevent any data loss or issues with applications.