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How to Test your Award Before it Opens

It is important that admin users take time to thoroughly test awards before opening them for entry. Testing the award via the entrant interface is the best method, but opening the award to create test entries can introduce the risk that an entrant may find the form and attempt to enter prematurely. To avoid this, you can safely test the award by creating a new entry for yourself or members of your admin team. A new, unsubmitted entry will be created in your account, enabling you to access the entry form.

You will need to log into your entrant account and edit the entry from the Dashboard. Additionally, the Submission date on the Awards set-up page must be set in the future for submission to be possible. Ensure that a number greater than 0 is entered in the “Show entries for” field on the Award settings page.

How to Create a New Test Entry

  1. Login into the Admin Interface
    Log in to the admin panel with your admin credentials.
  2. Navigate to the Entry Creation Tool
    The tool has moved and can now be accessed in two ways:
    Via Control Centre:
    Go to the left-hand menu and select Control Centre > Entry Creation Tool.
    Via the Entrants or Organisations pages:
    Click the “…” (action menu) next to a user or organisation, and choose Entry Creation Tool from the dropdown options.
  3. Select the Organisation
    • Go to Actions > Organisations
    • In the Name column, search for the organisation you wish to update (e.g., your own organisation if you are testing the award yourself).
    • Select Edit under the Actions column for the relevant organisation.
  4. Scroll to the Create New Entries Section
    You will find the new location of the Create New Entries tool under this section.
  5. Select the Relevant Award
    Choose the award that you wish to test from the dropdown menu.
  6. Set the Number of Entries to Create
    Specify the number of new entries you wish to create.
  7. Select the Recipient
    Choose the recipient within the organisation whose account the entries will be created in.
  8. Click ‘Create New Entries’
    Once clicked, the specified number of entries will be created within the chosen account. An email notification will be sent to the user, containing the organisation/createEntries template.

New Entrant/Preview Option

In addition to the Create New Entries feature, the Entrant/Preview Option allows you to preview the entrant interface and ensure that everything is working as expected before the award opens for public entry.

  • To access this option, select Preview on the Award Settings page.
  • This will show you exactly what the entrant will experience, allowing you to test the form without needing to submit an actual entry.

Note: Admin users will need to create an entrant user organisation to issue entries, enabling them to test the process.