General Amendments

We're launching the first in a series of releases designed to improve how you and your awardees manage award agreements throughout their lifecycle. When projects evolve—whether deadlines shift, scope changes, or reporting requirements need adjustment—General Amendments provide a streamlined process for managing these real-world changes.

How General Amendments work:

• Flexible initiation - Either party (Program Manager or Awardee) can request amendments for non-budgetary changes like deadline (no cost) extensions, progress report schedules, or content modifications
• In-platform communication - Discuss proposed changes through integrated comments, keeping all conversations centralized
• Clear approval workflow - The receiving party reviews and either approves or rejects amendment requests
• Complete change tracking - Once approved and accepted, amended agreements are stored in NextZen with full revision history

The result is a transparent, documented process that adapts to how grants work in practice. Everything is tracked and accessible within NextZen.

Release includes: General Amendments handle all non-financial/no-cost agreement changes. Such as, deadline extensions, progress report schedule adjustments and changes to terms and conditions. 

What’s next: Budget-specific amendments will follow in 2026, providing the same streamlined process for financial modifications.

Learn how to use this new enhancement in your current and future programs. For your awardees, share this help article with them so everyone can take advantage of this new functionality.

Enhanced Search, Sort & Filter for Reviewer Assignments

Managing large-scale review workloads just got easier. This release introduces comprehensive search, sorting, and filtering capabilities to Reviewer Assignments, enabling reviewers to navigate hundreds or thousands of applications efficiently.

New capabilities include:

• Smart search across applicant names, IDs, and application aliases
• Advanced filtering by score ranges, vote status, review progress, assigned dates, and review groups
• Flexible sorting options for all key columns with customizable ascending/descending order
• Combined search and filter functionality for precise results
• Default intelligent sorting that prioritizes recently assigned applications

Previously, reviewers could only filter by review status and limited scoring ranges. Now they have the complete toolkit needed to manage their workload effectively and ensure no applications are overlooked.

Release includes: Enhanced Search, Sort and Filtering for the Reviewer Assignments page.  This enhancement is for Reviewers when they manage their review assignments.

What’s Next: Similar enhancements will roll out to Participant Network, Award Recipients, and Your Applications (applicant view) to create a consistently powerful user experience across the entire NextZen platform.

Enhanced PDF Generation + New Downloads Page

We've completely rebuilt our PDF generation system and introduced a centralized Downloads page to eliminate timeout errors and streamline how you access all your documents. The new asynchronous PDF generation delivers faster processing, eliminates timeout errors, and provides better fidelity for complex, media-rich applications.

What's New:

• Asynchronous PDF generation with improved speed and reliability
• Email notifications when requested documents are ready
• New Downloads page serves as your personal document library where all users—Program Owners/Managers, Reviewers, and Applicants—can manage their download requests in one centralized location

When you create your next download, you will see the green notification that will let you know if you can move on with your work and find the download later in your downloads page/email notification or if you need to wait on screen to get your download.

Release includes: Applications, previews, and intake rounds now utilize this improved experience and appear in your Downloads library.

What’s next: We're actively expanding this enhanced system to include all downloads across NextZen, creating a consistent and dependable download workflow for everyone.

Report Builder Enhancement

• Application Nicknames can now be pulled into custom reports

• Waitlist and Denied application statuses are now available in Report Builder.

  

Salesforce Integration Enhancements: Intelligent Data Sync and Enhanced Configuration

Building on our initial Salesforce integration, version 2.0 delivers intelligent automation and comprehensive data management capabilities that make the connection between NextZen and Salesforce even more powerful and user-friendly.

What's New in 2.0:

• Historical data ensures complete application records into Salesforce, including all past data
• Smart auto-mapping automatically connects NextZen fields to Salesforce equivalents and maps dropdown options intelligently
• Configurable lookup field control gives you flexibility to specify which fields are used for record searches
• Direct file-to-object integration streamlines document management by connecting uploads directly to Salesforce records
• Enhanced field mapping configuration provides greater control over how data flows between systems

To implement this integration, contact your customer success representative to add it to your plan. Refer to our help documentation for guidance on connecting to Salesforce and mapping your preferred intake form fields.