Overview
Whether you have a one-time post-award report or need to collect the same information monthly, quarterly, or annually, the Progress Reports feature in the submission portal will allow you to define unique reporting schedules and deadlines.
Preconfigurations
Before setting up your reports, there are at least two forms that you need to have in your workspace already, each of which must contain one or more required fields. In addition, the Progress Reporting feature works only with a configured submission portal.
Below are the forms you will need and the essential fields:
- Report Names - This form will be used to store report names. For example, if you label one of your reports January Report, the system will add a record in the Report Names form "January Report." This will assist with your own data reporting and tracking constituents.
Required Fields:
- One Text field to store each report name used in one or more reporting cycles. Each record in this form will be used to store a single report name (see below for example):
- Report Form(s) - This form is creating to be the actual report form that constituents will interact with and submit in the portal. Include all necessary fields you wish to meet your collect data requirement. In order to complete a reporting cycle(s), you may find yourself needing to create multiple Report Forms (ex. Monthly, Quarterly, Mid Year, Final Report, etc.). The idea here is that you will only create a certain report form type once, but you will have .
- Required Fields:
- Linked Form Field to the Primary Form (first form in submission section of the Submission Portal, usually an application form)
- Linked Form Field to Report Names Form (the form created above)
- Text Field (used for a system report name tag)
- Date Field (used to capture the submission date of report)
- Required Fields:
Setup
In order to add a reporting cycle, you must have a configured Submission Portal. All submission portals can include the Progress Reporting feature.
The Progress Reporting feature can be set up in the Submission Portal Plugin Settings.
First, navigate to Settings & Tools by selecting the 'gear' icon in the upper right corner of your navigation toolbar.
Select the Submission Portal tile.
Choose which portal you would like to add reporting to, and select the Edit Submission Portal button on the right side of the portal listing..
You will find the Reports section below your submission workflow.
Click on Reports to gain access to the Report Settings. Here you will need to select your Report Names form created in the Preconfigurations section above. The configuration will have you select the form you will use for storing the report names and the text field in that form; the system will populate data into this form once you add reports in later steps, so there is no need to enter any information manually into the Report Names form.
Please note: once you set this form, you CANNOT change it. It will be used for all reporting cycles in this portal.
Click on "Save all settings" to lock in the settings. This action will now allow you to click on +ADD REPORTING CYCLE, which will allow you to create a reporting cycle. A reporting cycle is a collection of reports (forms) that constituents will interact with while their primary form record is in a specific folder. You will determine those reports after you create the cycle settings.
Give the Report Cycle a name and designate which folder on the primary form will activate this reporting cycle. This folder will have to already been used in a submission stage in this portal (or you will need to create a new Stage for this purpose). It can be an existing stage or you may want to create a new External Stage with this folder. You also have the opportunity to give a Cycle Description, which will display in the section of the portal before the constituent views the Reports.
- Learn more about Required and External Stages in a submission portal
- Learn more about creating new Stages in a submission portal
Once you have saved a Reporting Cycle, you can now click on +ADD REPORT, which will allow you to add your reports. A Report is another form you created in the Preconfigurations section; you may have built more than one form depending on your reporting gathering needs.
When adding one or more reports, you will configure several settings. Keep in mind that this is the same report(s) setting for all constituents that you place in this reporting cycle; however, you will add that same report (in the correct order) as many times as is necessary. For example, if you want the portal user to fill out four Quarterly Reports over the course of a year, but they should fill out the same form each time they submit a report, you will add the same Quarterly Reports form to this cycle four times.
The report settings will first ask for a Report Name - this will be the name of the report item in the submission portal as well as the name tag when viewing in the data view of the report form in your workspace. Each report added to the cycle can have the same name, or can have unique names, regardless of which Report Form is used (see below).
You can also:
- Give each report a description in the text box. This will be visible to portal users when accessing the report.
- Set the Start Date and Due Date for each report.
- If the start date is in the future, your constituents will not be able to edit this form until that date.
- Due dates will only inform when the report is due: once the date passes, portal users will still be able to edit and submit the report.
After completing the configuration options above, you will be required to choose a Report Form, a report name text field on that form, and a submission date field on that form. If you do not see these as options, you will have to go back to the report form and add them (see Preconfigurations above).
The form you choose as this report could be a form you re-use for other reports in this setup. As an example, let's say you created a report form named "Monthly Reports" through the form builder and are now using this form for several monthly reports in this cycle. You would use the +ADD REPORT option to continue this process and give the Report Name something like "1st Month Report" "2nd Month Report" "3rd Month Report" etc.
You would repeat the +ADD REPORT step for each report you would like you constituent to see and interact with in this reporting cycle. In the image above, the report was named "1st Month Report" and used the "Monthly Report" form, you can add another report in the configuration with a name of "2nd Month Report" and use the "Monthly Report" form again. The idea here is that the monthly reports are using the same form.
You can also use another form built (that was built according to the Preconfiguration requirements) for a different report in this same cycle. For example, you could add 12 monthly reports using the same "Monthly Report" form, and then add a year-end "Annual Report" using a different Report Form at the end of the cycle. Or, you could intersperse "Quarterly Reports" between the Monthly Reports at appropriate intervals, using the same form for all Monthly Report requirements and a different form, with different questions, for the Quarterly Reports.
Add reports in the order you would like to display in the portal. Once you save, you will be able to use the Details tab to have a custom order or custom show of the fields on the report. Select a Report Name in the left-hand Portal Sections pane to pull up the General Settings page in the main part of the screen, then select the Details tab.
The process for customizing the details tab is similar to that for customizing a submission portal step.
After you have built out your cycle, it may look similar to the images below:
Portal Experience
Once your reporting cycle is configured using the instructions under Setup above, your constituents will not see the reports until you move their primary form record into the designated folder. You must update the folder on the record in the workspace to give the portal user access to the reports. They will have access to the reports only while in that folder.
In the above Setup steps and image, "Final Report" folder was used for this example. Once the primary form record representing a portal user's information is put into this folder, the system will create draft records of the report forms for that user. You can track their progress on the form's data view by examining which records have been completed (the records will appear black) and which ones are still a draft (the records will appear gray).
The submission portal will display a new status on their submission card:
The portal will display the reporting cycle at the top of the submission section:
Once the user clicks into the reporting cycle, they will gain access to the entire cycle of reports. Based on established start and due dates, access will vary. They will be able to view previously submitted reports, edit reports that are open and in progress and see reports that may have a start date that has not come to pass.
Important Tips
Here are a few items to keep in mind when setting up Progress Reports:
- The submission portal can have more than one reporting cycle, each tied to a different folder on the primary form; these folders/reporting cycles can be associated with different submission portal Stages, or the same one. This can be useful if different portal users will have different reporting requirements based on their application types, award tiers, or other criteria.
- Your constituents can be in only one reporting cycle at a time; since the cycles are folder-based, records cannot be in more than one folder at any given time.
- Start dates and due dates are for everyone that is interacting with the report cycle. In other words, all portal users who are in the same report cycle will have the same start dates and due dates.
- If your constituents need to have different or variable report due dates, then it may be better to use a different reporting structure, such as Single Form Steps or a Listing Step in the submission portal. If you have questions about these, please contact the Zengine Support Team for more information.
- Though a reporting structure can be associated with a folder that is used in a Required Stage in a submission portal, it's best practice to associate reporting cycles with External Stages. This is because if the portal user completes their requirements and submits a Required Stage, it changes folder of their primary form record and moves them out of the reporting cycle.
- When the primary form record for the portal user is moved out of the reporting cycle folder, they lose all access to the reporting forms.
Limits
- You can have up to 10 reporting cycles in a given submission portal.
- You can have up to 20 reports in a single cycle.
- You can have up to 5 different forms used for reports in a cycle.
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