Contents

• Overview
• What is Approving a Late Application?
  • ⚠️ Important Notes
• Step-By-Step Instructions
  • Navigate to the Intake or Review Round
  • Approve a Late Application
• What Happens After Approving a Late Application?
  • Applicant Email Notification
  • Application Status
  • Next Steps
• Related Articles

Overview

This step-by-step guide shows Program Admins how to approve a late application in an Intake Round in Next. 

What is Approving a Late Application?

If an applicant starts an application but misses the deadline, it stays in "Draft" status. They can still finish and submit the application late, but a program administrator must approve it. 

This gives your team a chance to decide whether a late submission should still count, instead of rejecting it automatically.

• Who can approve a late application?
  • Organization Owners
  • Client Admins (For partner-managed accounts)
  • Program Owners
  • Program Managers

⚠️ Important Notes

• You can still approve late submissions after the review round starts. They will stay in the intake round until you approve them (in a deadline-based cycle), or until you advance them to the next round (in a rolling cycle) 
   
• Once the Review Round closes, late submissions can no longer be approved.

Step-By-Step Instructions 

Navigate to the Intake or Review Round

1. In the program, click the cycle name to open the cycle. 
   
   
    
2. In the award cycle, select the intake round that contains the application from the left-hand menu.
   
   
   

Approve a Late Application

• In the intake round, late applications show a yellow "Late" tag next to the Submission Date, with a Submission Status of "Approval Needed."

1. Click the hyperlinked Applicant ID or Applicant Name to open the application.
   
   
    
2. Click Admin Controls in the upper-right corner of the application (An "Approval Needed" notice appears next to Admin Controls).
   
   
   
    
3. A panel opens on the right-side of the screen. In the Workflow tab, select Approve late submission, then click Next in the bottom-right corner of the panel.
   
   
   
   📌Note: This option won't appear unless the application was submitted late.
    
4. On the confirmation pop-up, click Approve.
   
   

• A notification appears in the bottom-left corner of the screen confirming the late submission was approved.
   

What Happens After Approving a Late Application?

Applicant Email Notification

• The applicant receives an automatic email notifying them of a change to their application status. 
  
  Applicant Email Template:
  
  
  
  
  📌Note: This email is setup by default, under the trigger "Late Submission Approval" in the Intake stage. To remove this email or edit the template, see ➡️How to Manage Your Email Communications Setup + How to Manage Your Email Communications Template Library.
   

Application Status

• Admin View:
  • Application status changes to “Submitted (Approved).”
• Applicant View:
  • The application status shows as "Submitted (Pending Approval)", then changes to "Submitted (Approved)" once approved.

Next Steps 

Once approved, the application can move into the review round. (Note: In deadline-based cycles, this happens automatically).

Related Articles

➡️Disqualify an Applicant
➡️How to Reverse a Disqualified Application
➡️Request Revisions on an Application
➡️SAM.gov & GuideStar Compliance Checks

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