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Revised 03/10/2026

 

 

Prerequisites

 

While akoyaGO does not replace human review with automated decision‑making, it can automate processes to support an initial, structured evaluation of applicants. Using Business Rules and/or Formula Fields can allow you to calculate preliminary scores based on defined criteria - such as GPA, financial need, or other application data - and apply custom weighting to those factors. This allows for ranking candidates using consistent logic, prioritizing reviews, identifying submissions to assign to Review Groups, and more.

For more information on GOapply Reviewer and Review Groups, please see the GOapply Reviewer Administrator Guide. 
 

This article walks through how you might use Business Rules and/or Formula Fields to support this type of initial scoring framework. Business rules and formula fields can work together - as Business Rules can handle the logic, while formula fields handle the calculation.

  Option 1 - Business Rules

A Business Rule can automatically evaluate specific criteria and assign scores based on predefined logic. Business Rules will calculate in real time when the conditions are met; for example, translating GPA or ACT ranges into point values.

Business Rules work best when each evaluation factor (such as GPA, financial need, etc.) is translated into a consistent, rule‑based score. Those individual scores can then be combined, often using a formula field, into an overall preliminary score.

Example: Merit Score (GPA‑based)

A business rule could say:

  • If GPA is 3.8 or higher, set Merit Score to 25
  • If GPA is 3.5–3.79, set Merit Score to 20
  • If GPA is 3.0–3.49, set Merit Score to 15
  • Otherwise, set Merit Score to 10

This ensures GPA is evaluated consistently for every applicant, without subjective interpretation. The automated Merit Score could then allow submissions to be reviewed in a specific order and assigned to specific Review Groups, etc. 

For more information on Business Rules, please see: 
Creating Business Rules KA
Creating Business Rules Video 

  Option 2 - Formula Fields

A Formula Field would be used instead of a Business Rule when the requirement is purely calculation‑based.  For example, if you already have numeric values (such as partial scores) and simply need to add, multiply, or weight them. A formula field can be used if there is no conditional logic and you do not need to store or lock in a value at a point in time.

Example: Initial Evaluation Score (Merit Score + Needs Score)

Let's say Business Rules were created and have already been assigned partial scores based on defined criteria:

  • Merit Score (from GPA logic - like our example above)
  • Needs Score (from SAI or financial need logic)

Both of these fields are standard number columns populated by Business Rules.
 
I could then use a Formula Field to combine these scores into an Initial Evaluation Score, which simply adds the Merit Score and Need Score.  The formula field will automatically recalculate whenever either score changes, resulting in a single numeric value representing the applicant’s preliminary score.

For resources related to creating custom formula fields, please see: 

 

Keywords: auto-scoring, ranking, score candidates, scholarships