Picking winners

The status lifecycle

An application moves through these statuses in order.

• Submitted. The applicant has submitted. It is in your inbox.
• Admin review. You are looking at it before making a decision.
• Needs info. You asked the applicant for more details. The form unlocks so they can edit and resubmit.
• Eligible. You confirmed they meet the requirements. Ready for reviewers to score.
• Ineligible. You are rejecting them, with an optional reason recorded in the timeline.
• Scoring. Reviewers are actively scoring.
• Finalist. Made the short list after scoring.
• Winner. Selected.
• Withdrawn. The applicant pulled their submission.
• Archived. Done, hidden from active views.

The actions panel

Each submission detail page shows an Actions panel on the right. Awards Manager suggests the most likely next steps for the current status. For example, a Submitted application shows quick buttons for “Mark eligible”, “Request more info”, and “Mark ineligible”. Less common transitions are available through a dropdown.

Comparing finalists

When you are ready to pick winners, go to your program's Scores tab and click “Compare finalists”. This opens a side-by-side card view of all your finalists. Each card shows:

• The weighted average score
• Median and spread
• A snippet from their application
• Every reviewer's comments and recommendation

This page is designed for the moment a committee meets to make winner decisions. You can filter by category or status to narrow the comparison.

Audit trail

Every status change is logged with who made it and when. The Timeline panel on each submission shows the full history. If anyone later asks why a submission became ineligible, the answer is right there with the reviewer's name, the timestamp, and any reason you entered.

Winner notifications

When you mark a submission as Winner, Awards Manager automatically sends the applicant a branded winner notification email. Same for Finalist. The emails use your Chamber's logo, primary color, and brand font. You can review every transactional email that gets sent from the Email log under Settings.