Submission Date Capture

This article is considered appropriate for administrators or workspace users with an intermediate level of knowledge about submission portals. If you are a beginner, we recommend reading the following article first:

• Submission Portal Key Concepts: Beginner

For more information about suggested learning paths, see Introduction to Submission Portals: START HERE.

Contents

• Overview
• The Purpose of Submission Date Capture
• Where to Find the Setting
• How to Customize Submission Date Capture
• Notes and Configuration Options

Overview

In Zengine, workspace administrators can configure the submission portal to automatically collect the date when a program Stage was submitted by a portal user. This article provides information and instruction around that setting. 

The Purpose of Submission Date Capture

A date field can be added to a program’s Primary form and used to store the submission date of an application package or other Stage. In other words, when an applicant submits a designated Stage via the submission portal, Zengine will automatically complete the date field that is configured. This date can be viewed by workspace members in the workspace, and can be set to be visible (but not editable) to portal users. 

Typically, this feature is used to collect the submission date of an application package (i.e., the first Stage completed by a portal user). However, it can be configured to collect the submission date of any Stage that has been set up in the portal. 

Where to Find the Submission Date Capture Setting

In the Submission Portal Settings, the Submission Portal Date Capture can be added or changed on the General Settings tab of the Portal Settings page.

To find the Submission Portal Email Display Name:

1. Logged into a program as an administrator, navigate to the Settings & Tools section by selecting the cog wheel icon in the top navigation bar.
2. Select the Submission Portal tile from the Plugin Settings section.
3. Select the Edit button to the appropriate submission portal.

4. In the Portal Settings section on the right side of the screen, navigate to the General Settings tab if not already visible.

5. Selecting the General Settings tab will change the contents of the right side of the screen if it was not the landing page.  The Submission Date Capture is shown in the highlighted section of the image below and is found at the bottom of the page.

How to Customize Submission Date Capture

--- IMPORTANT ---

Submission Date Capture cannot be set up unless the Primary Form has at least one date field.

After navigating to the General Settings tab of the Portal Settings page:

1. Select the box next to Collect Submission Date of Application Package?

2. Additional fields are revealed once the checkbox is checked.

3. Select the date field to use from the Primary form.  
   • The text shown in the dropdown box will reflect only the date field option(s) from the program’s Primary form.
   • Please note that the date captured will be generated by Zengine when the user submits the application package.

4. If desired, select the box next to Do you want to allow your applicants to view this date on the Submission Portal? (read only) to allow applicants to see the submitted date field in the submission portal. Applicants will not be able to edit or enter anything into this field.

5. Choose the Stage in which the date field from the Primary Form (designated above) should be completed when the Stage is submitted by the portal user. Note that regardless of the Stage chosen, the date must be stored on the Primary form designated for this submission portal.

6. To save any changes made on this screen, select the blue Save all settings button in the lower right corner of the screen.

Notes and Configuration Options

The most widely-used case of this feature is for capturing the submission date of the Application Stage. However, the designated date field on the Primary Form can also be used to collect the submission date of any Required Stage. 

A Required Stage is one in which a portal user must complete one or more Steps in a submission portal to submit a Stage. This will advance them to the next Stage by changing the folder on the Primary Form record. In contrast, a workspace administrator must move a record out of an External Stage by changing its folder in the administrative portal. For more information about Required and External Stages, see the article Submission Portal Key Concepts: Intermediate.)

Although any Stage that has been set up in a submission portal can be chosen as the Stage used to collect the submission date (see the image below for an example), the designated date field will only be auto-completed when a Stage is submitted in the portal. As a result, selecting an External Stage will have no practical effect, since portal users do not submit anything to advance out of External Stages.

For example, if Application Stage were selected as the designated Stage, the Submission Date field on the primary form would be automatically completed when a portal user submitted the Application Stage.

If Awarded were selected, the Submission Date field (on the Primary form) would be completed when a portal user submitted the Awarded Stage.

If Under Review (an External Stage) were selected, then this setting would have no practical effect, since this Stage is not submittable by a portal user.

If there is no need to capture the submission date of any Required Stage, the Collect Submission Date of Application Package? box should remain unchecked.