Request Fields

Arancha Lattanzio
Arancha Lattanzio
First Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
edited September 17 in Blackbaud Grantmaking™ General Discussions

Can we re-use request fields in different progress report forms without the data being overwritten? I am now creating our progress reports for 2026 grant awards and would like to use the Request fields that were used in the application/request to update the programmatic status of those on a quarterly basis. Can I use these or do I need to create Requirement fields instead? And if I need to create requirement fields, do I have to create unique fields for each of the 4 quarterly reports?

I found this on Help:

Form fields are used in custom forms to capture information from Applicants, display responses to Grant Managers, and more. Fields can be reused across forms, and standard product fields are available out-of-the-box to quickly create forms that integrate with other standard product templates like reports.

But does that mean the prior data for that field will not be overwritten with a new form; example Progress Report 1 (field x); Progress Report 2 (field x)? And does it matter if that field is from a request record used in a requirement form?

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Answers

  • Arancha Lattanzio
    Arancha Lattanzio
    First Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    Per BB:

    If you use a request field on a requirement form, whatever is entered into that form will overwrite any data already in that request field.  

    For example, if you added "Request:Project Description" to a requirement form, when that was submitted, whatever the applicant put into that field would be updated on the request record.

    Generally, it's best to use Requirement fields on Requirement forms, because each requirement form has a separate record so each time you create that requirement, there would be an "empty" field ready to collect data.

    All requirements for a given request would be associated with that single request, so if you use a request field, it will update the request record, overwriting anything previously in that field.

    Within a program, any repeat use of fields may not have the desired experience.  Here's an example scenario:

    1. I submit an application which is considered and turned into a request.
    2. I create a quarterly progress report requirement, and publish out my requirement form named "Requirement Progress Report"
    3. On that requirement progress report, I have a requirement field named "Update". 
    4. The first time I submit this Requirement Progress Report, that data will flow into a requirement record.
    5. If I create another requirement record and publish the same form again the next quarter, the system will view that as a revision.
      1. Your grantee would receive an email indicating a revision has been requested
      2. When they log into the portal, they'll be requested to revise that previously submitted requirement progress report.
      3. When they open the report, all of their previously submitted responses will be pre-populated.  Those can certainly be changed and submitted.
    6. Grantmaking would still retain the data that was submitted from the first report on the separate requirement record.
    7. In order to prevent this from being seen as a revision, you would need to create an additional Requirement Progress Report form - perhaps "Requirement Progress Report #2".  If you have a separate form, then the system will treat it as a new requirement and not as a revision.
    8. However, if you have the requirement field named "Update" on both the first form and the second form, when you publish the second form out, that field will automatically prepopulate with the data they submitted in the first form because that field was already used once in that program.
    9. To avoid having any data prepopulate, you would need to create unique fields for each form, so you could have "Update" on your first form, and "Update 2" on your second form.  Because these are unique fields and are on separate forms, you would collect clean data and not prepopulate anything.
  • Amanda Ball
    Amanda Ball
    Fourth Anniversary Kudos 1 Facilitator 1 Blackbaud Certified

    Hi, I'm also experiencing this issue, and I'm sorry, but your solution is not an acceptable one, and is incredibly frustrating. We have hundreds of individual requests that are multi-year, that require standardized progress reports at least twice a year and in some instances, multiple times a year - all in different stages. It is simply not feasible to create endless new copied requirement fields to create new progress report forms, so that the data is "clean". Yes, I can add instructions for the applicants about changing the fields, but the applicants filling out the form are young people aged 17-29, many of whom will simply allow information to stand as is and resubmit, because its the path of least resistance. Our data will not be clean.

    As there continues to be issues with the requirement forms (at least with my organization), is this something that is being looked at to be improved (or more accurately, returned to the original functionality found with Forms Manager)?

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