Copy Functionality – Foundant Technologies

This feature is available with the Standard license and above. Contact Support with any questions about your license or to enable this feature in your site.

The Copy functionality allows administrators and/or applicants to create new requests by copying existing ones, transferring responses to matching questions in the destination process. Copies can be created in the same process or a different process, saving time and data entry errors.

User Role: Administrator

When to Use the Copy Functionality:

Applicants submit requests to multiple similar grant or scholarship opportunities and need to reuse information like organizational details, program descriptions, or budget data across applications.
Annual grant cycles repeat each year with similar application forms, and returning applicants want to use their previous year's responses as a starting point for their current application.
Administrators need to move an approved request into a different process without requiring the applicant to manually re-enter all their information.
Organizations run multiple funding programs with overlapping application requirements, and applicants would benefit from being able to transfer common information between processes.
Error correction is needed when a request was submitted to the wrong process, and the administrator wants to move it to the correct process while preserving the applicant's responses.

Requirements and Limitations

How Response Copying Works

Responses from the existing request can only be copied into the first form of the new request (either LOI or application, depending upon what the process starts with). This is because a new request is created, so it's intended to move through the process as usual beyond the first form.

Prerequisites for Applicant Copying

For an applicant to copy an existing request into a new process, the following must be true:

The copy functionality is enabled for applicants in the old process where they submitted their original request.
The copy functionality is enabled for applicants in the new process.
The new process is toggled on and active, meaning the current date is within the start and end date range, if applicable.
The applicant must be the person who started the existing request that will be copied. Applicants cannot copy a request started by other applicants under the same organization.

This video shows the process of copying responses to a new request from the applicant perspective.

Response Matching Requirements

When copying a request, responses will only transfer to the new request if both of the following are true:

The destination process was copied from the original process.
- For example, let's say you're copying a request from your Fall Cycle process into your Winter Cycle process. If Winter Cycle was created by copying Fall Cycle, even if you added, edited, or deleted some questions, any questions that are the same on the first form of the process will match up for request copying purposes.
Question labels are the same.
- Consider the example above, where the first form in Winter Cycle was created as a copy of the first form in Fall Cycle. If a particular question label was changed on the first form in Winter Cycle, a response to that question from Fall Cycle won't copy over to the new form.

When copying a process, only the Grants Managers assigned to that process are assigned to the copy.

If an applicant copies their request, the responses for any matching internal visibility questions will be copied as well but will not be visible to the applicant. If you want to prevent this and instead fill out these questions even if a request is copied, you can modify the labels on any internal visibility questions after copying a process. Additionally, using Copy Request copies over file uploads from third party responders. If applicants enter a new email in the third party question and send a new link, the response from the new 3rd party will overwrite the copied response.

Configure Copy Functionality

Both the process that requests will be copied from and the process requests will be copied into must be configured for the copy functionality.

To enable copying in a process, access the process settings in Process Manager and configure the Allow Copying option.

Navigate to one of the processes that should allow requests to be copied from or into it.
Click the Edit Process Summary drop-down to expand it.
Click the Allow Copying drop-down and select the desired option.
- This controls who is able to copy requests to or from this process: administrators, applicants, or both.
Click Save Summary.
Repeat these steps for the other process(es) that should allow requests to be copied.

Copy a Request

The steps to copy a request as an administrator are described below. If you allow applicants to copy requests, Applicant Tutorial - Copy Request Responses can be shared with them.

To copy a request as an administrator, navigate to the Request Summary page and select which processes should receive the copied request.

Navigate to the Request Summary for the request you want to copy.
Click Copy Request.
Check the box for each process that you want to copy this request into.
Select the Initial Status for the new requests.
- If a request is placed in draft status, the applicant can edit their responses before submitting the new request.
- A request can only be copied into the submitted status if all required questions on the form are completed by copying the request.
Click OK.
Click Confirm and Copy.
Click Email Applicant or Close.
- The applicant is not automatically notified that a new request has been created for them. Sending them an email is best practice, especially if the request was placed in the draft status and requires action from them to be submitted.