Many organizations have a multi-tiered review process consisting of an initial submission screening followed by more focused review stages. With the Review Workflow feature, Submittable offers Multi-Stage Reviews to set up review stages tailored for this process.
Please note: Multiple Stage Reviews are a paid feature. To add them to your account, please contact your account manager.
With Multiple Stage Reviews, you can:
Build review stages. Create as many stages as you need and map them to each stage of your process.
Choose review type. Set up each stage to require either up/down voting or a custom review form. You can also choose a “review not required” option.
Customize each stage. For custom review stages, design your review form to match the specific needs of that stage.
Assign reviewers. Involve the right reviewers at each stage of the process.
Rate each stage. At every stage, you can view the cumulative score from completed reviews on each submission.
Filter for completed reviews. Know where you are in the process and when your team has finished reviewing each stage.
Advance submissions. As reviews are completed, you can move qualified applications on to the next stage.
Set up Multi-Stage Reviews
1. Click on Projects. Select the Project for which you want to build your Review Workflow.
2. Click on the Review Workflow tab and then click +Create Your First Stage.
3. Give your first stage a name and select the type of review for that stage. You can choose from 3 options: Yes/No/Maybe voting, Custom Review, or Review Not Required. A common first review stage is to determine eligibility for an applicant to move into a more detailed review. In this case, a Yes/No/Maybe stage might be most useful.
In the Auto-Assign Reviewers dropdown, select reviewers from your team who will automatically conduct reviews for this stage. Note that you can also auto-assign reviewer Groups.
4. Click Done.
5. Click +Add New Stage. This will begin the setup for your second review stage. In the example below, a Custom Review form has been selected. When Custom Review is selected, you will have the option to select an existing review form that will be available to reviewers assigned in this stage. You can also opt to start a New Review Form at the end of the dropdown.
6. Click Done to save. Repeat these steps to create as many review stages as needed for your review workflow.
Reordering Stages of Review
To reorder review stages, click Edit Stages:
Then grab and drag the stage using the three dots:
Changing Stages of Review
When a submission is received, it is automatically placed into the first review stage. The stage is indicated on the submission list view next to the submission title:
Level 4 and 5 administrators can change the review stage from this page by selecting the checkbox next to the submission, and then clicking the Stage button at the top left of the submissions:
Click the submission title to open the submission details view. Here you'll see the review stage next to the submission status. Level 4 and 5 administrators can change the review stage with this dropdown:
Please note: Clicking on "Select all matching results" from a filtered submission list will gray out the Stage button in order to prevent inadvertent mass actions. Use the "Select # on page" button instead. Increase the number of visible submissions using the setting located on the bottom right of the page.
Voting, Reviewing, and Reading Scores
Assignees to a submission can complete their reviews by following these basic instructions. From the Submission Details view, click on the Review tab in the right column. Levels 4 and 5 can see which review stage is currently active, who is assigned, how many votes out of the expected total have been cast, and what the average overall score is for this review stage of the submission. Other planned stages will be visible there too. For example, the planned Round 2 (semi-finalist) stage is shown in the image below but appears in a lighter gray until that review stage is active.
Levels 4 and 5 view:
Level 1, 2, and 3 reviewers will only see their own vote (or custom review) in this column.
Levels 1, 2, and 3 view:
Once all reviews for a stage have been completed, a checkmark will be visible in the Submissions List on the right side. This indicates that the process is ready to move on to the next review stage. Note: You can advance the review stage at any time, but any uncast votes or incomplete reviews will no longer be accessible to assigned level 1, 2, and 3 reviewers to complete. The image below shows a submission that was assigned to three reviewers. The checkmark on the right indicates that all three have completed their review, with a total score of 2 that was created from the three votes.
Editing and Deleting Review Stages
In general, you should NOT edit or delete Review Stages if reviews have been completed. You will lose data, and it is not recoverable. If you see this message, please consider the above information:
If you're unsure about any changes you want to make, please contact Technical Support for assistance.