I think I get the idea behind having instrutions for report field editable in each process (although I wonder how often different instructions are needed but I'll go with it). So why have a space to enter instructions in the Report Fields manager in the first place. Perhaps a description for internal use..... but since changing the instructions in the manager won't change it anywhere in the processes, it seems un-necessary and confusing (yes I have just changed the instructions here expecting it to change everywhere for the third time - I am slow, I don't change the instructions that often) Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Idea posted October 23, 2012 by Amy Moore, O.P. & W.E. Edwards Foundation

When we implemented the 3rd party recommendation functionality in 4.0.0 (November, 2013), some of the input we considered came from the Idea Lab item titled "Recommendation letter upload."

Within that item were a couple other ideas, one of which can be summarized as "providing a way for an administrator to upload an updated document on a form (i.e. application) without have to take the request back to a Draft status". The specific comments from Bob Coakley (Thomas J. Long Foundation) and Don Brackett (Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation) are as follows:
I would like to be able to replace an upload document that has been submitted with an application, and the solution may not be too different than what might work for Don. Often times our program staff will require an updated program budget, financial statement, or the applicant will submit last year's audit report with a comment that a more current report will be available in a few weeks (after our due date). In each of these cases, it would be nice to replace the old document altogether without having to back the applicaton back to a Draft Status, especially since that will change the Submitted Date. I know the system allows for attachement of an external document to the application, but it would not be in the same location as evaluators and staff would typically find this information in other applications. The other option would be to create an "internal use" upload feature that allows staff to upload additional documents directly into a submitted form. - posted September 12, 2012 by Bob Coakley, Thomas J. Long FoundationWould a solution to the admin overwrite be an approval by applicant before changes could take place? I am thinking of cases were applicants have submitted and they get an updated transcript from the registrar the following day. They send me the updated transcript and I have to attach it as a supplemental doc. What would be nice is if I could overwrite there old transcript for them and a message would be sent to them asking if they approved the change to their application. I don't know if this would get to convoluted or not, but it would be very nice for application reviewers not see a transcript in the application and another in supplemental documents and have to figure out which is the latest. This happens with some frequency in our Fellowship application where we require uploads of transcripts, resumes, essays etc.. For me this is a completely different issue from the recommendation upload by a third party. - posted September 17, 2012 by Don Brackett, Robert and Patricia Switzer FoundationAs I noted in my response in the " https://community.foundant.com/foundant/topics/recommendationletterupload " item, while we've discussed this internally, we have some concerns about potential mis-use of such functionality. Don's comment above was in response to those concerns.

This is not a priority item for us, but I'd appreciate hearing what other users had to say about this type of functionality (in general, editing a form for an applicant after it has been submitted).

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide,
-chris

It would be nice to have the Report Title--as we save it--on the report page, and not just the system titles (Commitments etc. )

I'm learning to really think through the report before I start constructing it so that I make all the basic sort, filter etc. decisons before I save it and therefore have a record of those seletion criteria.

If I keep saving the report while I'm constructing end up with many different reports of the same name. Is there anyway to save new changes to an existing saved report?

Thanks,

Joan

posted October 18, 2011 by Joan Alway, Icicle Fund

New required changes for reporting grants on tax form.

I recently read the IRS is requiring more detailed reporting (starting January 2013) on the exact nonprofit status of grantees from private foundations. They are asking to include specific codes. The ones that affect us the most are the codes for nonprofits that are 509a1 or 2 (PC) and codes for supporting organizations by type (1, 2, or 3).

I currently run a report for our accounting manager listing the grants which she then uses to complete the 990PF. I am wondering if there is a way to include these codes in this report or is it something we will need to add as a report field to requests that we input on our end?

Thanks for your help.

Despite providing instructions that using the Save button on the Third Party Question will make the response visible in the database, many who are completing recommendations for our scholarships applicants find this disconcerting. It's not intuitive. They are looking for a Submit button. It would be helpful to us to have a distinction between Save and Submit, because when I look at applications to determine if they are complete, recommendation forms that have been started or drafted, but not complete, appear to me to be complete. There is no way for me to tell if the reference is actually done completing the recommendation form.