GOapply Administrator Guide

 

GOapply is akoyaGO’s application and review portal. As a GOapply administrator, you can create applications and phases, approve users, control your GOapply settings, and much more. GOapply talks to akoyaGO in a process we call mapping. Your akoyaGO database can capture any data you want from GOapply. We’ve also created Flows to ease the administrative process.  

 

This guide will provide you with resources for the application administration process from start to finish. 

 

GOapply Admins are those users with the GOapply Administrator security role.

 

For additional GOapply Admin information, please see GOapply Basic Admin Video Series.

  Getting Started

 

Before you can start creating applications, there are a couple of things we need to get squared away. First, we’ll look at terms you need to be familiar with, then we’ll walk through the registration/migration process, then we’ll look at your technical settings. 

 

Glossary of Terms

• akoyaGO: When we say akoyaGO, we’re referring to your main database that contains your Grant Management area.  
   
• GOapply UI: UI stands for user interface. When we talk about the UI, we’re referring to the actual application portal. The UI is what your applicant (the end-user) will interact with. 
   
• Mapping: This refers to the process of GOapply and akoyaGO “talking” to each other. The most common example of mapping is creating a Request upon phase submission that has all its fields and tabs filled in according to applicant input. 
   
• Lookup Field: a lookup field is a field in akoyaGO that is searchable. It is marked by a magnifying glass icon upon hovering over the field. 
   
• Form Definition: A form definition is a string of code that represents forms that you create in Form Editor (more information below). Form Definition fields will autofill/update when you create or make changes to a form.
   
• Dynamic Panel: These are a feature of applications that are used to capture and map applicant information. Dynamic Panels can also read your CRM and pre-fill applicant information.

GOapply Administrator

GOapply Administrator is a security role in your akoyaGO system. Assign the GOapply Administrator role to the people on your staff who will need high-level access to the GOapply workspace. To set this role, go to your Settings > Advanced Settings > Security > Users > select the User and click Manage Roles. Choose GOapply Administrator and click OK. 

 

Users with GOapply Administrator will not have access to delete any records from the GOapply workspace.  

 

  GOapply Settings

 

GOapply settings are where you can find the fundamental controls for your GOapply site.

 

1. In akoyaGO, you will see a workspace called GOapply. This is where you’ll create opportunities, view submitted applications, and determine GOapply Settings.

 

 

2. From the left navigation bar, choose Settings.
 

 

3. GOapply Settings is split into two tabs – General and Organization Profile Form Editor.

General Settings

 

In the General tab, there are three sections. We will look at each field below.

 

• GOapply URL: This is your unique GOapply URL. This is the link that you can give to applicants or your team. Once data has been added to this field, it will lock, so be sure that it is correct.
   
• Applicant Approver: This field determines who the applicant approval email goes to when new users register. The approval is sent via email flow. To ensure this email flow is active and accurate, go to the Settings gear > advanced settings > processes > GOapply Foundation Applicant Approval Email. If the flow is already Active, Deactivate the flow to make edits then select Set Properties. In the To and From field, add/remove contacts then click "Add". When edits are completed, reactivate the flow. The approval process allows you to choose to approve the applicant as a submitter (can start, fill in, and submit applications), as a contributor (can start and fill in applications but cannot submit) or to deny registration. Choose between Foundation Staff, GOapply Contact, or Automatic Approval.

1. Foundation Staff: the email will be sent to the person chosen in the Foundation Staff field. Please ensure this person has send-as permissions.
2. GOapply Contact: the email will be sent to the person in the GOapply Contact field on Constituent.
3. Automatic Approval does not require registrants to go through the approval process. Registrants will not receive a registration confirmation email in this case.
   ​

• Foundation Contact: required field that determines who the registration emails come “from”.
  *IMPORTANT: The Foundation Contact MUST allow Microsoft to send emails on their behalf, or automated emails will not be able to send from akoyaGO. For more information on allowing this permission, reference this Knowledge Article: Allow Microsoft to Send Emails on my Behalf
   
• Registration Status: open or invitation only. If not doing invitation-only applications, choose Open. If this field is set to Invitation Only, registration will not be possible from your GOapply portal. The “register a new account” button will be removed from the login page.
   
• Allowable Registration Type: Individual, Organization, or Both
• Enable Email Verification: When Yes, new users will be sent an email to verify their email address after completing their registration. When No, users will not be asked to verify their email address.

 

Document and Attachment Setting

• Consolidated PDF and attachments as originally named by the applicant: Consolidated PDF means that any uploads from the applicant are stitched to the end of the submitted PDF. With this option, what you will see in Request > Documents is the submitted PDF with uploads stitched in addition to each individual upload named as the applicant had named it. For example, if an applicant uploads a file called “Organization Mission Statement”, then the file will be named as such in Request > Documents.
   
• Consolidated pdf and attachments named by question name: With this option, what you will see in Request > Documents is the submitted pdf with uploads stitched in addition to each upload named as the question name in the application. For example, if an applicant uploads a file called “Organization Mission Statement”, to a question called “Please upload your organization’s mission statement,” then the file will be named Please upload your organization’s mission statement in Request > Documents.
   
• Application and attachments not consolidated: In Request > Documents, file uploads will NOT be stitched to the submitted PDF, but will be listed separately from applicant uploads.
   
• Consolidated pdf only: Only the submitted pdf with the file uploads stitched to it will move to Request > Documents.
   
• Attachments only: Only the individual file uploads will move to Request > Documents.
   
• Custom Flow: Choose this option if you have a custom document move flow.

 

Theme: Add your logo and branding to your application.

• Primary Logo: This is what appears on the sign-in page.
   
• Navbar Logo: This is what appears at the top left of the GOapply UI.
   
• Color Selector: Click on the box to choose a color and toggle to the Custom tab to enter a HEX code or RGB code. Below is a breakdown of each theme field and its association with the UI.
  • Primary Theme Color: Color of primary buttons. These changes appear on the login screen, dashboards, applications, and the logout screen. Main examples include the “Apply,” “Next,” and “Sign In” buttons.
  • Secondary Theme Color: Color of certain buttons, often more optional selections, such as the “Save Draft” button on applications.
  • Background Color: This is the color in the background of the screen. 
  • Text Color: Color of the text throughout the site. This field will default to black or white, depending on the intensity of the background color.
  • Link Color: Color of links (can be link text or link buttons).
  • Navbar Color: The color of the navigation bar that runs across the top of the page and contains menu options such as Opportunities, In Progress, and Submitted.
  • Navbar Text Color: The color of the text in the navigation bar. This field will default to black or white depending on the intensity of the navigation bar color.
  • Footer Color: Color of the footer bar that runs along the bottom of the screen. This field will default to the Background color unless otherwise specified.
  • Footer Text Color: Color of the text in the footer. This field will default to white or black depending on the intensity of the footer color.

 

 

 

Labels  

• Application Apply: What you enter in this field is what will appear on the button that applicants use to start a new application. This field changes the button on all published applications. If left blank, it will default to “Apply”.
   
• Login Instructions: This is a rich text editor field. Format your login instructions to your liking. This will appear on the left side of the sign-in page. Please note that images are not supported in rich text fields.
   
• Registration Page Text: Optional rich text editor field that will appear on the initial registration page. 

 

 

• Individual Registration Page Text: Optional rich text editor field that will appear when the user clicks Individual in the screen above.
   
• Organization Registration Page Text: Optional rich text editor field that will appear when the user clicks Organization in the screen above.
   
• Individual Account Creation Confirmation Text: This is a rich text editor field. This field allows you to display a message to new individual users upon creating their account. This message will be displayed on the account creation confirmation page in GOapply.
   
• Organization Account Creation Confirmation Text: This is a rich text editor field. This field allows you to display a message to new organizational users upon creating their account. This message will be displayed on the account creation confirmation page in GOapply.
   

Organization Profile Form Editor

Organization GOapply users will see an organization profile in the GOapply UI. This is where you can create the organization profile that your users will fill out or see. A default organization profile may have been uploaded to your system, but you can select the information that you want to collect (or pre-fill) from applicants.

 

 

• Org Profile Form Definition: This field will auto-populate once the org profile form editor is created.
   
• Display GOapply Users: The org profile will display other GOapply in the user’s organization if this box is checked. Uncheck it if you do not want organization users to be able to deactivate or see other users in their organization. Please be aware that, if on, this function gives users the ability to deactivate other GOapply users in their organization.
   
• Launch Form Editor: The form editor is where you can build the profile that org users will see. Click Launch Form Editor and the form editor will open. In the toolbox, (right-hand side) you will see all fields in the Constituent record (including any custom fields you may have). Drag and drop the fields you want to include in the organization profile. The fields are already mapped, and if the information already exists in the applicant’s parent organization, when they navigate to the organization profile, the fields will be pre-filled. They will have the option to fill in the missing information.

 

For information on how to use Form Editor, see the GOmanager/Form Editor resource on GOsupport.

 

 

Unless otherwise specified, users will be able to edit the field in their organization profile, and those changes will map to the organization's Constituent record in CRM upon saving. To prevent users from editing the fields, set the field as Read Only in the field properties.

 

 

If you never want users to be able to edit their organization profile, then you can change the Mode in the form settings to Display. This effectively makes the organization profile read-only.

 

Pre-Work Checklist

Before you start creating applications, it’s important to do some planning. Think about the data in your applicants’ submissions, which data points would you like to capture in akoyaGO? GOapply has robust mapping options. If it exists in akoyaGO, you can capture it with GOapply. Read over our Pre-Work checklist before starting to build your application. 

 

  Building Opportunities

 

Now that you have the bones of your GOapply site set up, you can start building your opportunities (applications).

 

In the GOapply workspace, click on the GOapply Opportunities entity on the left navigation bar.

 

 

Create Opportunities

Once you’re ready to create your application, click +New in the top toolbar.  

 

 

You’ll be taken to the New GOapply Opportunity form. If you are creating an invitation-only application, please see the resource Invitation Only Applications. 

 

Fill in the form. Hover your mouse over the field name for tooltips with more information. Below is a deep dive of each field on the page. Please note that Invitation Only and Enable PDF Preview default to No.

 

• Application Name: Required field. Fill in the name of the application. This is an applicant-facing field.
   
• Hero Image: Attach an image to your application. This image will appear at the top of the “home” page of the application. Recommended file types are PNG or JPG, and the maximum image size is 10KB. 
   
• Hero Image Max Height: Whole number 1-100. This number represents the percentage of the screen the image will take up. For example, “20” in the field would scale the image to fill only the top 20% of the screen. “100” in the field would scale the image to fill the whole screen.  
   
• Title Slug: create a URL that is more index-friendly. Whatever you input in the Title Slug field will appear in the application URL after “application/”. Title slugs cannot be duplicated.  
   
• Summary: An Application Summary is typically 1-2 sentences about the application. For example, you might use this to provide more information about deadlines or programs. For example, “Grant Application to request support for projects in the area of education.” This field is a rich text editor. Please note that images are not supported in rich text fields. The character count on this field is 2,000 characters, however, this includes HTML characters such as line breaks.
   
• Description: An Application Description can be a little longer and include more details. It can be used to provide more information about things like funding priorities, limitations, restrictions, etc. An example could be, “Funding priorities for this application include women, children, and literacy. Requests must be $50,000 or below. Organizations may receive up to two grants per year.” This field is a rich text editor. Please note that images are not supported in rich text fields. The character count on this field is 2,000 characters, however, this includes HTML characters such as line breaks.
   
• GOapply Site Settings: This field is meaningful for organizations that utilize more than one GOapply Site. If you only have one GOapply Settings record, select it here. If your organization utilizes more than one GOapply Site, choose here the site in which applicants will apply for this opportunity.
   
• Application Type: Required field. Individual (most common for scholarships), Organization (only org users can apply) or Both. 
   
• Invitation Only: Yes/No field. Choose yes if this Opportunity is invitation-only to remove it from the public Opportunities tab in the GOapply UI. If this field is marked No or is blank, all eligible users will be able to apply for this Opportunity. Please note if you set this field to Yes, users can still access it through the direct URL using the Title Slug (see above.)
   
• Max Submissions: Required field. Use a whole number. No limit to a number of submissions. 
   
• Guideline URL: Link to any rules/tips/guidelines for this application if you have it. This will appear in a box called Guidelines on the application "home" page.
   
• Owner: This field will populate with the user who created the Opportunity record.
   
• Request Type: Required field. Maps back to Request records for each submission.  
   
• Fiscal Year: Data from this field will map to the request records created from submissions on this application, and it will appear on the application “home page”.
   
• Phase Contact: Select the designated staff person who should be contacted with questions about this application. Users will see this on the application's “home page” as a link to the contact’s email. Please note this is a lookup field to Contacts; check the email address and Contact record you are listing here.
   
• Internal Phase Contact (user): This is a lookup to a User (not a Contact) who will receive GOapply notification emails including submission confirmations. This user will also be the sender for submission confirmation emails and must allow emails to be sent on their behalf. This is an optional field designed to allow you to choose someone other than the Foundation Contact (GOapply Settings) to send and receive GOapply notification emails for this particular opportunity. If this field is blank, the Foundation Contact in GOapply Settings will continue to receive GOapply notification emails. 
   
• Publish: If no, this opportunity will not be visible to applicants. If yes, the opportunity will be published to GOapply. We recommend that you keep this field set to No until the opportunity is fully built and tested.
   
• Enable Print Blank: If Yes, applicants will be able to download a blank PDF version of the application. Please note that ALL fields will be visible in the blank PDF, including hidden fields and all fields in branching logic questions. This feature is not intended for paper applications.
   
• Phase 1 Due Date: Locked field. This field is simply displaying data from the first phase of the application. More info is in the phase section below.

 

Below that, you will see several calculated fields -- Total Submissions, Total Requested ($ amount), Total Awarded, Total Interim Phases, and Final Report Requirement. These fields will auto-update.

Create Phases

Next, create the phases in your application. Click on the Phases in this Application tab to add a phase. Click +New Phase to add a phase.

 

 

Fill in the New Phase form.

• GOapply Application ID: This field will autofill with the Opportunity record.
   
• Phase Name: Required field. Give the phase a name. This is an applicant-facing field.
   
• Phase Type: Choose from the dropdown. 
   
• Phase Order: single digit number where 1 = first, 2 = second, etc. 
   
• Phase Due Date: choose a date and time. The time zone corresponds to what is set in your database settings. (Settings > Personalization Settings > General tab > Time Zone). The date and time (in the applicant's timezone) will appear on the application in the GOapply UI.
   
• Phase Guidelines URL: paste in a URL where applicants can find tips/guidelines/rules about the phase. Please note that this field will override the Opportunity guideline url and will appear in a box called Guidelines on the application "home" page.
   
• Form Definition: This field will populate once you build the form for this phase.
   
• Transcript Form Definition: Applicable only to Third Party Response applications. More information is in the GOapply for Third Party Responses guide.
   
• Recommendation Form Definition: Applicable only to Third Party Response applications. More information is in the GOapply for Third Party Responses guide.
   
• GOmanager Modified By: This field will autofill with the last user to modify the Form Editor for this opportunity.

 

On the right side of the page, you have several calculated fields. These fields will autofill/update.

Phase Form Editor

To build the actual phase that applicants will fill in, go to the Form Editor tab of the Phase and click Launch Application Form Editor.

 

 

This will open a Form Editor in GOmanager, similar to the form editor you used to create the organization profile. For information on how to use Form Editor, see the GOmanager/Form Editor resource on GOsupport.

 

  GOapply Status Tracking

 

A Status Tracking record is created each time an applicant clicks Apply. GOapply status tracking can be found on the navigation panel and can be viewed by Active, In-Progress, or Submitted. In-progress status tracking records mean that the application is saved as a draft. 

 

Each status tracking record is assigned a unique ID number.  

• GOapply Applicant Organization: If org. applicant, this field will fill with the org’s constituent record
   
• GOapply User: If an individual, this field will fill in with their user record  
   
• GOapply Application: Lookup to application 
   
• Request: Created upon submission, looks up to request. Requests also have a GOapply tab where you can find the GOapply Application, Phase, and Submitter.
   
• Current Phase: Looks up to phase 
   
• GOapply Phase Name: Locked text field that displays the phase name 
   
• Override Phase Due Date: This field will be used to give individual applicants more time to complete the phase. For example, if an application is due on Friday at midnight but an applicant has experienced extenuating circumstances and needs until Sunday, change the due date using this field and it will ignore the overall Phase due date in favor of this one. However once, the “override” date has passed, the applicant will no longer be able to submit that application. If they need additional time, make sure to update the field to avoid complications. 
   
• Current Phase Status: Submitted, Draft, or Not Started. If there was an error with the application, the Current Phase Status will read as ERROR. Submitted means the application has been submitted successfully. Draft means the application has been started and contains data, but has not been submitted Not Started means the application has been opened but does not contain any data. 
   
• Progress (%): Tracks the applicant’s progress if in Draft. Progress will read as 100% once submitted, regardless of how much of the application was filled in. However, when in Draft, the progress will be updated with each save.  
   
• Most Recent Submission DateTime: This field will populate with the user's local date and time once the phase is submitted.
   
• Most Recent Submit Date (dep.): The deprecated field will be removed in a future product update
   
• Submitter: Looks up to GOapply user record  
   
• Submitted File: PDF of the completed application with any attachments appended to the application
  • Reviewer File: This is what will be displayed in the review form. If you want to display something other than the submitted PDF of the phase, upload it here. Please see the GOapply Reviewer Admin guide for more information.

 

In the Internal tab on Status Tracking Records you will find: 

• GOapply Settings: This field will auto-populate on the creation of the record to your active GOapply settings record. You do not need to change or update the data in this field. It is to support GOapply email functionality.
   
• Error Message: In the Internal tab of the Status Tracking Record, there is an Error Message field that will populate if there are any errors during submission. Check this field to find out what went wrong. 

 

  GOapply Attachments

 

Attachments can be found in the Status Tracking Record Attachments tab or the corresponding Request in the Documents tab. The Documents tab of Request will also house the submitted PDF according to the Document and Attachment setting. 

 

 

Upon submission, a flow runs automatically that sends attached files to the corresponding request in Documents. Documents in Request are housed in SharePoint. The flow looks for a document location, if none is found, it creates one, i.e., a new SharePoint folder.  

 

Each attachment has its record. The title of the attachment will populate the Value field in the Attachment record. The name is dependent on the Document and Attachment setting. Click on the File link to download the attachment. GOapply Status Tracking looks up to the corresponding Status Tracking Record. Anonymous is determined by the Hide from Reviewer setting in the GOmanager field properties, in the akoyaGO dropdown.  

 

  Users

 

This entity allows you to manage your GOapply Users. Users are automatically created upon registration for individual users and upon registration approval for organizational users. At the user level, you can also see their status tracking records and GOapply responses. GOapply Responses contains each answer for each question on the application they submitted.  

 

 

Please note, that if you change a User’s Role or Permissions, they will need to log out and then log back in for the change to take effect.

 

Please refer to the GOapply Video – Managing Users for more information. Manual creation of GOapply Users is not permitted at this time. 

 

In the Internal tab of a GOapply User record, you will see a field called GOapply Settings. This field will auto-populate upon creation of the record with your active GOapply Settings record. You do not need to change or update this field. It exists to support GOapply email functionality.  

 

Impersonate a User

Impersonating a user gives foundation staff the ability to log in as a user from akoyaGO and do anything that the user’s permissions allow. For example, if the user’s permission is a contributor, the impersonator will not be able to submit an application on their behalf without changing that user’s permissions.
 

Warning: Impersonating more than one user at a time is not supported and will result in data corruption. To avoid this, be sure to Log Out of each impersonation session.

 

1. In the User record, click Impersonate in the toolbar.

 

 

2. This will open a new GOapply tab. Click sign in to impersonate.

 

 

3. You will then be signed in as the user. This will be indicated by a red square around the user with “(Impersonating)” next to it.

 

 

4. To stop impersonating, log out of that user.

 

 

  GOapply Workflows

 

We’ve created several Flows to ease the administrative burden of GOapply.  

 

Invitation Only Applications

See the Invitation Only Applications whitepaper for step-by-step instructions on how to complete this process and run the invitation-only flow. 

 

Duplicate Application

You can duplicate an application (Opportunity) and all its phases on the GOapply Opportunities view or in the Opportunity record. This action exists as a command bar button. Simply click the button and the process will run in the background. The new Opportunity will appear in the list after a refresh. It will be named "Copy of [opportunity name]".

 

Create All GOapply Requirements

This flow exists on Request and will create a requirement for every Interim Report or Final Report phase that exists on the Opportunity. This flow will also create corresponding status-tracking records for each reporting phase. As such, once a status tracking record exists, applicants will be able to see the new phases as available on their In Progress dashboard.

 

Advance to the Next Phase

Using a Flow on Request, advance applicants to the next phase of your application. Please see the Advancing to the Next Phase whitepaper for step-by-step instructions. 

 

Advance to Final Report Phase

Run from the Request. This flow is intended for organizations that make exceptions for certain grantees to skip the reporting phases and allow them to jump directly to the final report. From the Request, click Flows and choose this flow, it will run in the background. This workflow creates a Status Tracking Record for the final report phase. When it is finished the phase on Request will have been updated to the final report phase, and the applicant will see the final report phase available in their In Progress dashboard in GOapply.  

 

Note on application type: this workflow looks at the Application Type field in the Opportunity record to determine how it fills in the Status Tracking Record. If the Application Type is Organization, the workflow will fill in the GOapply Applicant Organization field on the Status Tracking Record. If the Application Type is Individual, the workflow will fill in the GOapply User field on the Status Tracking Record. If the Application Type is Both, the workflow will fill in both the GOapply Applicant Organization and the GOapply User fields on the Status Tracking Record.

 

  GOapply Logs

 

In the Activities entity in CRM, filter on Activity Type for GOapply Logs. This will show all activity in GOapply, including activity from GOapply for Third Party Response (if applicable).  

 

User metrics are also recorded and stored in a dashboard in your akoyaGO CRM called GOapply Usage Metrics. The dashboard contains recent submissions, recently viewed applications, recent sign-ins, and recent password resets.