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How to Publish an Award Cycle

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Micall Searles
Micall Searles
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Contents

Overview

This article shows Program Admins how to publish an Award Cycle in Next, including things that can and cannot be changed after publishing.
 

Publishing an Award Cycle

Publishing an award cycle in Next makes the cycle live and available to applicants. 

  • Why publish? 
    • Publishing is the “go-live” switch for your cycle. Once published:
       
      • Visibility: The cycle appears on your organization's Opportunities page. (If your program is “invitation-only,” it will not be visible on the Opportunities page). 
      • Applications Open: Applicants can see it and start applying.
      • Shareable Link: You can share the URL with potential applicants. 
      • Workflow Starts: The first Intake Round begins, starting the official application process.
  • Who can publish? 
    • Organization Owner 
    • Program Owner
    • Program Manager
  • When to publish? 
    • Publish your cycle on the date you want to begin accepting applications.
       

⚠️Before You Publish: Test Your Award Cycle. 

  • You must test your cycle before you can publish it. 
  • Test Mode lets you walk through your cycle as an admin, applicant, or reviewer without making it live to applicants. If you still need to test your cycle, see ➡️ How to Activate Test Mode. 
     

What You Can & Cannot Change After Publishing

⚠️Review this section before starting the steps to publish. After publishing, many settings cannot be edited. The tables below show what can and cannot change for each cycle type. 

  • How to tell which cycle type you have:
     
    • Deadline-Based: You wait for an application deadline to pass, then move all applications to review at once. Go to Table 1.
       
    • Rolling (Must Be Enabled): You move applications to review one by one as they come in. Rolling is enabled by the Program Owner during Cycle Setup (if available). Go to Table 2. 
      • Note: If you don’t see or didn’t enable rolling applications in ➡️Cycle Setup, then your program is deadline-based. 
         

Table 1 - Deadline-Based Cycles

Review this table carefully before publishing your deadline-based cycle.

🔗 Quick navigation:
If you’re returning to this article or need to review a specific area, use the links below to jump to a section of the table.

FEATURE ✅ YOU CAN  ❌ YOU CANNOT  IMPORTANT NOTES
Program Setup

✅Edit Program Title, Description, Financial Info Award Listing & URL.

✅Change “Is this program currently active” feature toggle.

 ❌Change “invitation only” toggle.  
Cycle Setup

✅Edit Award Cycle Title and Description.

✅Change “Allow awardee to request amendments” feature toggle.

 ❌Change cycle feature toggles, including enabling or disabling direct awarding, rolling applications, multiple applications, or log expenses.   

FORMS

Eligibility Form/Criteria

 

 ❌Edit Eligibility Form or criteria.  
Intake & Request Forms   ❌Edit Intake and Request Forms (unless you unpublish).

You can unpublish your cycle to make limited changes to Intake Forms, then republish.  If you unpublish, you can: 

  • Hide questions (cannot delete them). 
  • Add questions (💡User Tip: Drag and drop new questions into place). 
  • Edit Rich Text Fields, Presentation Text, and Question Text (Note: You cannot change options on single-select/multi-select questions).

For programs with multiple Intake Rounds: 

  • You cannot make changes to the first round’s Intake Form once the cycle is published. 
  • You can make changes to a second (or later) round’s Intake Form up until that round starts in the workflow.
Custom Review Feedback Forms ✅Edit Custom Review Feedback Forms BEFORE the Review Round starts. ❌Once the Review Round starts, you can no longer edit Custom Feedback Forms.  

WORKFLOW

Intake Round   ❌Edit Intake Round deadline or settings. You can unpublish your cycle to change the Intake Round deadline date/time, if needed (cannot change the Time Zone). 
Review Round ✅Edit Review Round deadline or settings, including reviewer assignments, BEFORE a Review Round starts.  ❌Once a Review Round starts, you can no longer edit the deadline or settings, including reviewer assignments. If you need to assign reviewers after the Review Round starts, see ➡️Assign Reviewers Manually.

COMMUNICATIONS

Communications
Setup  		✅Edit Communications Setup.    
Email Template Library ✅Duplicate and create new email communication templates.     

AWARD

Award Setup ✅Edit Award Setup.   Reminder: If you need to add awards, you must first add them in Program Setup > Award Listing. 

For more help, see ➡️ Award Setup
 Award 
 Agreements 		✅Create new Award Agreements. ❌Edit published Award Agreements. 

If you need to make changes after an Award Agreement Template is published, you can make a copy to edit. 

For more help, see Award Agreement Templates 

POST-AWARD

Progress Report Forms ✅Create new Progress Report Forms. ❌Edit published Progress Report Forms.

If you need to make changes after a Progress Report Form is published, you can make a copy to edit. 

For more help, see ➡️ Progress Report Form(s) 
Other Post-Award Activities ✅Complete any Post-Award activities, such as Award Agreement Amendments and Reporting.    For more help, see ➡️ General Amendments to Award Agreement 

↑ Back to Contents

Table 2 - Rolling Cycles

Review this table carefully before publishing your rolling cycle.

🔗 Quick navigation:
If you’re returning to this article or need to review a specific area, use the links below to jump to a section of the table.

FEATURE ✅ YOU CAN  ❌ YOU CANNOT  IMPORTANT NOTES
Program Setup

✅Edit Program Title, Description, Financial Info Award Listing & URL.

✅Change “Is this program currently active” feature toggle.

 ❌Change “Invitation Only” toggle.  
Cycle Setup

✅Edit Award Cycle Title and Description.

✅Change “Allow awardee to request amendments” feature toggle.

 ❌Change cycle feature toggles, including enabling or disabling direct awarding, rolling applications, multiple applications, or log expenses.   

FORMS

Eligibility Form/Criteria

 

 ❌Edit Eligibility Form or criteria.  
Intake & Request Forms   ❌Edit Intake and Request Forms (unless you unpublish).

You can unpublish your cycle to make limited changes to Intake Forms, then republish. If you unpublish, you can: 

  • Hide questions (cannot delete them) 
  • Add questions (Tip: drag and drop them into place) 
  • Update Rich Text Fields, Presentation Text, and Question Text (Note: You cannot change options on single-select/multi-select questions) 
Custom Review Feedback Forms   ❌Edit Custom Review Feedback Forms  

WORKFLOW

  
Intake Round   ❌Edit Intake Round deadline or settings. You can unpublish your cycle to change the Intake Round deadline, if needed (but cannot change the Time Zone). 
Review Round   ❌Edit Review Round deadline or settings, including reviewer assignments. You can unpublish to change the Review Round deadline, if needed.

If you need to assign reviewers after publishing, see ➡️Assign Reviewers Manually.

COMMUNICATIONS

Communications
Setup  		✅Edit Communications Setup.    
Email Template Library ✅Duplicate and create new templates.     

AWARD

Award Setup  ✅Edit Award Setup.   Reminder: If you need to add awards, you’ll first need to add them in Program Setup > Award Listing. 

For more help, see ➡️ Award Setup 
 Award 
 Agreements 		✅Create new Award Agreements. ❌Edit published Award Agreements. 

If you need to make changes after an Award Agreement Template is published, you can make a copy to edit. 

For more help, see Award Agreement Templates 

POST-AWARD

Progress Report Forms ✅Create new Progress Report Forms. ❌Edit published Progress Report Forms

If you need to make changes after a Progress Report Form is published, you can make a copy to edit. 

For more help, see ➡️ Progress Report Form(s) 
Other Post-Award Activities ✅Complete any Post-Award activities, such as Award Agreement Amendments and Reporting.    For more help, see ➡️ General Amendments to Award Agreement 

↑ Back to Contents

How to Publish an Award Cycle

Before You Begin 

  • If your program has multiple cycles (e.g., you run your program annually or quarterly), only one cycle can be in “Active Workflow” status at a time. You must close the previous cycle before publishing a new one.

⚠️IMPORTANT: Closing a cycle prematurely can affect applicant statuses. Review this article carefully for instructions and important considerations ➡️ Closing an Award Cycle. 

Note: You can still complete post-award activities in closed cycles (e.g., post-award reports, reimbursement expenses, award agreement amendments) 

Instructions to Publish a Cycle

⚠️IMPORTANT: Once your cycle is published, it’s immediately open for applicants to apply to. As a best practice, publish on the date you want it to officially open.

1. On the Cycle Settings page, click Workflow in the top menu. 


2. Select Workflow Builder from the left menu, if not already selected. 

3. In the Workflow Builder, click Finish Testing in the upper-right corner. 

 


4. In the confirmation pop-up, click Confirm. (Note: All test data will be deleted). 


 

5. A notification appears in the bottom-left confirming that your test data is being deleted.

6. Make sure your Intake and Review Round deadlines are set to their formal deadlines before publishing.

⚠️IMPORTANT: If your Intake and Review Round deadlines are set to dates in the past (from testing), the “Workflow ready to Publish” notice at the top will be yellow, and the Publish button will be unavailable.

  • Once round deadlines are set to future dates/times: 
    • The “Workflow ready to Publish” notice will be green.
    • The Publish button will be clickable.


7. Click the Publish button.


8. On the confirmation pop-up, click Publish. 
 


9. Two notifications appear confirming your program and workflow are published. 



📌Note: If you need to unpublish at any point, see ➡️Unpublish.
 
↑ Back to Contents

After Publishing an Award Cycle 

Cycle Status Changes to “Active Workflow” 

  • Immediately after publishing, the status of your cycle on the All Award Cycles screen will update to “Active Workflow.” This shows that the cycle is now live and open to applicants.


Share the Program URL With Applicants

  • The Program URL can be shared with potential applicants through websites, emails, or other communication channels. 

Access the Program URL 

1. On the Program page, click Program Settings. 




2. In Program Setup > Program URL, click the Copy button. 


3. A notification appears at the bottom confirming the URL was successfully copied. 


 

What Applicants See 

Program Page

  • Here’s how your program’s landing page (accessed via the Program URL) will appear to applicants. They can see your Program Info and preview the application. To apply, they’ll need to log in or create an account (if they haven’t already). 


     
  • By clicking on the “Opportunities” tab at the top of the program page, applicants are directed to the organization’s landing page. Here, they can view a list of all programs currently accepting applications under your organization. 


     

Help Articles for Applicants 

Feel free to share these resources with your applicants, as needed: 


 

 

What did you think of this article? Please leave a comment below! 
Your feedback helps us improve the experience for everyone.


 

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