Contents

• Overview
• What Does It Mean to Close an Award Cycle?
• ⚠️Important Notes
• When to Close a Cycle
• Closing Rolling vs. Deadline-Based Cycles
  • What Happens When You Close a Rolling Cycle?
  • What Happens When You Close a Deadline-Based Cycle?
• Before Closing: Set Up Automatic Emails (if desired)
• How to Close a Cycle

Overview

This guide shows program admins how to close an award cycle in Next and what to expect after closing.
 

What Does It Mean to Close an Award Cycle?

Closing an award cycle marks the official end of a funding or program round in Next. Once all applications have been reviewed, decisions communicated, and awards issued, you can close the cycle to finalize the round. 

Closing a Cycle: 

• Updates applicant statuses 
• Preserves the cycle for admins as a historical record

⚠️Important Notes

• Post-Award Activities Continue Normally. Closing a cycle does not interrupt ongoing post-award work. 
   
  • Admins can still: 
    • Approve, reject, or request revisions on post-award reports
    • Initiate reimbursements, disbursements, and award agreement amendments
    • Track goals and milestones
  • Awardees can still:
    • Submit post-award reports
    • Log expenses for reimbursement
    • Track disbursements
    • Receive award agreement amendments
    • Manage goals and milestones
       
• Keep Your Workflow Published. Do not unpublish your workflow when closing a cycle. Unpublishing hides cycle data and is not recommended as part of the cycle closure process. 
   
• Cycle Closure Is Permanent. Once a cycle is closed, it cannot be undone through the platform.  This also applies to all applicant status changes triggered by the close. To reopen a cycle or revert any statuses, please submit a support ticket.  

When to Close a Cycle

Close your award cycle when:

• Your awarding process is complete.
• All awards have been issued to selected recipients.
• All awardees have been notified.
• All awardees have accepted or declined their awards. (⚠️ If awardees have not yet accepted their award when a cycle is closed, their status automatically updates to "Declined.")

Closing Rolling vs. Deadline-Based Cycles 

What happens when you close an award cycle depends on your cycle type. The sections below explain what to expect for closing in a rolling cycle and a deadline-based cycle. 
 

Here’s how to tell if your cycle is deadline-based or rolling:

• 🗓️ Deadline-Based: You wait for an application deadline to pass, then move all applications to review at once. 
   
• 🔄 Rolling (must be enabled): You move applications to review one by one as they come in. If you don't see "Rolling Applications" enabled in Cycle Settings > Workflow > Workflow Options, then your cycle is deadline-based.

What Happens When You Close a Rolling Cycle?

When you close a rolling cycle, the cycle status updates, application statuses update, and denied applicants can receive the Awarding Closed email (if it's added to your Communications Setup). 

Parallel Cycles Note: For rolling cycles, you must close the current cycle before you can publish the next one. If you want to run multiple active cycles at once without closing a previous cycle, parallel cycles must be enabled for your organization. To enable this, please contact Customer Success.

Cycle Status 

The cycle status updates to "Awarding Closed."

Application Statuses 

When a rolling cycle closes, some application statuses change automatically and others stay the same. It depends on where each applicant is in your workflow.

STATUSES THAT CHANGE:

➜ Final Review Round:

• "Under Review" and "Waitlisted:" Applicants who are still "Under Review" in the final review round, and applicants who are on the waitlist at the time of closing change to: 
  • Admin view: “Denied”
  • Applicant view: “Not Selected"  

➜ Awarding Stage:

• Accepted the award offer: 
  • Admin view: "Accepted"
  • Applicant view: "Awarded" (on the Applications page); "Accepted" (on the Your Awards page) 
    • The award agreement will show as "Accepted."
• Declined or didn't respond to the award offer: 
  • Admin view: “Declined”
  • Applicant view: “Declined”
    • The award agreement will also show as "Declined."

STATUSES THAT STAY THE SAME: 

• All other applications keep their current statuses when the cycle closes, including: 
  • Applications in any intake round.
  • Disqualified applications (in all intake and review rounds).
  • Applications with a pending revision request (in all intake and review rounds).

What Happens When You Close a Deadline-Based Cycle? 

When you close a deadline-based cycle, the cycle status updates, application statuses update, and denied applicants can receive the Awarding Closed email (if it's added to your Communications Setup). 

Parallel Cycles Note: For deadline-based cycles, the current cycle does not have to be closed, but there must be at least one awardee in Awarding before you can publish the next cycle. If you want to run multiple active cycles at once without that requirement, parallel cycles must be enabled for your organization. To enable this, please contact Customer Success.

Cycle Status 

The cycle status updates to "Awarding Closed."


 

Application Statuses 

When a deadline-based cycle closes, some application statuses change automatically and others stay the same. It depends on where each applicant is in your workflow.

STATUSES THAT CHANGE:

➜ Final Review Round:

• "Waitlisted:" Applicants in the final review round who were on the waitlist at the time of closing change to "Denied." (Note: In a deadline-based cycle, applicants you don’t select for awarding are automatically waitlisted when you finish the decision in the final review round. This includes applicants with a pending revision request in that round).
  • Admin view: “Denied”
  • Applicant view: “Not Selected"  

➜ Awarding Stage:

• Accepted the award offer: 
  • Admin view: "Accepted"
  • Applicant view: "Awarded" (on the Applications page); "Accepted" (on the Your Awards page) 
    • The award agreement will show as "Accepted."
• Declined or didn't respond to the award offer: 
  • Admin view: “Declined”
  • Applicant view: “Declined”
    • The award agreement will also show as "Declined."

STATUSES THAT STAY THE SAME:

• All other applications keep their current statuses when the cycle closes, including: 
  • Applications in any intake round
  • Disqualified applications (in all intake and review rounds)

Before Closing: Set Up Automatic Emails (if desired) 

In both rolling and deadline-based cycles, applicants whose status changes to "Denied" when you close a cycle can get an automatic email. This email is off by default. To make sure applicants get it, add the Awarding Closed trigger to your Communications Setup before you close the cycle. You can use the ready-made templates or your own.

For setup steps, see ➡️Notify Denied Applicants When a Cycle Closes.
 

How to Close a Cycle

1. In the award cycle, click Awarding in the left-hand menu. 
   
   
    
2. Next to the "Switch to" dropdown at the top of the page, click the gear icon. 
   
   
    

3. Select Close Awarding Process.
   
   

    

4. In the confirmation pop-up, click Close Process. 
   
   
    
5. The status note in the upper-right corner of the screen will change to “Awarding Process Ended” and show who closed the cycle and when. 

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