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This post was originally published in November 2023
Your favorite Submittable time-saver just got four times more useful! You can now use Auto Labels to help you organize and take bulk actions on segments of applications across (almost) every Submittable form type.
Read on for some of our favorite ways that you can take advantage of this enhancement today.
Better, faster, stronger (but not harder!)
We hope the examples we’ve compiled below provide you with some inspiration for YOUR own program, and show you how you can use them to help save time, reduce human error, and compile and organize key information.
Auto Labels in action across various Form types
Review Forms You guessed it– across your review process, use Review Forms to prompt your review team with specific questions that pertain to the specific stage or criteria that they are responsible for considering per application. Examples:
- Tag applications based on the next stage of review they are ready for.
- Flag applications that may have conflicts of interest.
Internal Forms From adding site visit notes to an application to distilling key points from an application, Internal Forms provide a useful internal documentation tool for your team of program administrators and key stakeholders that can be leveraged across the term of your program. Examples:
- Indicate that a grantee requires program manager follow up based on the notes given following a site visit.
- Label applicants for follow up recommended within a given timeframe, such as three or six months, based on the results of a verbal check in.
Reference Forms Often placed within Initial or Additional Forms, Reference Forms enable an organization to create custom recommendation forms that applicants can then direct towards a referee of their choice. The recommendation is then collected from the requested individual, and reviewed by Program Administrators during the review process. Examples:
- Organize applications based on an overall positive or negative reference for the appropriate next stage of review or to decline.
- Follow up with applicants with neutral references for additional screening.
Request Forms This NEW supplemental form type allows Applicants to request responses or communicate with you on their own timeline, based on the forms that you have provided to them throughout the entire course of your program (think: project extensions, reimbursement requests etc.). Examples:
- Prioritize requests related to an urgent issue for the awardee.
- Send requests for reimbursement over a given dollar amount into a specific stage for financial review.
Important reminders
- Take advantage of Auto Labels via the filters on the Submissions List view in your account. You can filter by any or all labels, as well as including or excluding one or more labels.
- While you can add Auto Labels to your form mid-application cycle, they will not be retroactive. In other words, labels will have to be applied manually to any existing applications that match any Auto Labels applied mid-cycle.
- Auto Labels are not available on Eligibility Forms (we recommend you include the necessary Auto Label on your Initial Form instead), and they’ll be available soon on the rating tools in Review Forms. Stay tuned for more!
Consider submitting your feedback to let us know what you’d like to see featured in the next Best Practices series!
Sam is Submittable's Product Marketer focused on Foundations, Non-Profits, and organizations that distribute grants or awards. She is passionate about helping organizations of any size to measure their impact and scale their programs with the platform. When not at work you can catch her in the mountains of Montana with her golden retrievers.