As an administrator, you may find yourself receiving emails from Applicants with questions in regards to the application process. This article will walk through the most common issues that applicants run into when completing the application process. A checklist has also been provided for each issue to allow you to quickly troubleshoot and resolve applicant issues. You can also refer to our Applicant FAQ article that can be shared with your applicants to help them resolve commonly reported issues on their own.
- "Why can't I edit a task?"
- "Why can't I view a task?"
- "I am trying to proceed with my form, but it won't let me Continue or Submit"
- "Why can't I attach my file?"
- "I submitted my application but did not receive an email confirmation"
Depending on how your site has been configured there are certain times at which a task will become unavailable to the Applicant. If an applicant has contacted you questioning why they are unable to click to edit a task you may find the answer is related to one of the potential reasons below.
Potential Reasons:
- The deadline has passed for the stage/task
- The open date has not yet occurred on the stage/task
- The applicant has already completed the and you have enabled "Prevent Editing"
- The applicant has not yet met a prerequisite for the task
- The entire Application is Locked
The Deadline has passed for the stage/task
If the applicant has reached out to you that they can't edit a task, first check to see if the deadline has passed for the task/stage they are in.
- Go to your Workflow
- Go to the Stage Configurations
- Check the Stage deadline to confirm what the current date is and if it's correct.
- If there is no deadline on the stage, go to the Tasks tab
- Check the Task deadline to confirm what the current date is and if it's correct.
- If everything has been set up correctly, inform the applicant of the deadline.
The Open Date has not yet occurred on the stage/task
If the applicant has reached out to you that they can't edit a task, you can also check to ensure that if there are any Open dates on the stage/tasks, that it has already passed.
- Go to your Workflow
- Go to the Stage Configurations
- Check the Stage open date to confirm what the current date is and if it's correct.
- If there is no open date on the stage, go to the Tasks tab
- Check the Task open date to confirm what the current date is and if it's correct.
- If everything has been set up correctly, inform the applicant of the open date and when they will be able to apply.
The applicant has already completed the task and you have enabled "Prevent Editing"
Based on the settings of your site it is possible that the applicant is unable to edit the task after already completing it.
- Assume the role of the applicant to confirm whether or not they have completed the task
- If they have completed the task, go to the Workflow
- Go to the Stage Configurations
- Open up the Tasks tab
- Within the task settings of the task they are trying to edit, confirm whether or not "Prevent Editing" has been enabled.
The applicant has not yet met a prerequisite for the task
It is common for administrators to configure their programs so that certain tasks need to be completed before others within the workflow. These are known as "prerequisite tasks."
If an applicant is having difficulty editing/starting a task within the site:
- Go to the Workflow
- Go to the Stage Configurations
- Open up the Tasks tab
- Within the task settings of the task, they are trying to edit, confirm whether or not there are any "Prerequisites" set on the task
- If there are, assume the role of the applicant and ensure that those prerequisites have been met.
The entire Application is Locked
It is possible that the entire application has been locked, either manually by an administrator, or automatically using an automation.
To verify if the application is locked:
- Go to Manage Applications
- If the application is locked, it will appear with a Lock icon beside the Application ID.
- If you are unsure of why the application is locked you can check the Automation Logs to verify if it was done automatically.
- If you wish to unlock the application for your applicant you can refer to How to Lock/Unlock an Application.
Potential Reasons:
- They have not completed their prerequisites and "Hide task until prerequisites are met" is enabled
- There is an automation to hide the task in the application
- An automation to Show the task did not fire for the application
- The task has been manually hidden from the applicant
They have not completed their prerequisites and "Hide task until prerequisites are met" is enabled
If an applicant is having difficulty seeing a task within the program.
- Go to the Workflow
- Go to the Stage Configurations
- Open up the Tasks tab
- Within the task settings of the task, they are trying to edit, confirm whether or not there are any "Prerequisites" set on the task
- If there are, check to see if the option "Hide task until prerequisites are met" has been enabled.
- If so, assume the role of the applicant and ensure that those prerequisites have been met.
There is an automation to hide the task in the application
- Check their application within the Automation Logs to confirm whether or not an automation to hide the task was fired for their application.
- Compare the application to the automation in regards to the Activation and the Conditions on the automation to verify why the application fired for this application.
- If necessary you can manually show the task within the application.
An automation to Show the task did not fire for the application
If you believe that there is an automation that should have fired for an application to show a task:
- Compare the application to the automation in regards to the Activations and the Conditions on the automation to verify why the application didn't fire for this application.
NOTE: The Activation will need to be met as well as all of the Conditions of the automation. This will tell you a lot in regards to what may be missing for this application. There may be a misconfiguration of the automation, or the application may be missing a piece of information. - Make the necessary adjustments as per the step above.
The task has been manually hidden from the applicant
It is also possible that the task was manually hidden by you or another administrator in the site due to individual reasons for this application. If this was the case, you can show the task again within the application manually.
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"I am trying to proceed with my form, but it won't let me Continue or Submit" |
If you receive a question in regards to their form.
- Assume their Role
- Click to Edit their Form
- Try and Save & Continue their form in order to reproduce the error message they are receiving.
Potential Reasons:
- A response in the form has not met the validation
- They have not provided a response to a required question
A response in the form has not met the validation
When saving the form on behalf of the applicant you will receive a warning within the form informing you of the validation error. For example, in an email field with an email validation, the error may be "a valid email is required." The applicant will either need to complete the response using the correct format, or you will need to remove the validation for all applicants, depending on if the setup is correct.
They have not provided a response to a required question
When saving the form on behalf of the applicant you will receive a warning within the form informing you that an answer to a required question is missing. The form will also inform you which question in the form is missing the required response. If a response is missing to the question you will need to inform the applicant that they are required to complete the field in order to proceed.
Alternatively, if the current setup is correct you can make the question Optional for all applicants. If the question is meant to be required for some applicants but not others, you can also set up Advanced Branching Logic to hide the question from applicants it is not applicable to.
Potential Reasons:
- The file is not in an available format
- The file does not meet size restrictions
- They are attaching more files than allowed
- The file is encrypted
- The file is corrupted
- A task related issue
NOTE: These reasons are also provided within Applicant FAQ
The file is not in an available format
- Ask the applicant to send you their file(s), if they didn't do so already.
- Compare the format of the file with the available formats enabled within the task settings of the attach a file task.
The file does not meet size restrictions
- Ask the applicant to send you their file(s), if they didn't do so already.
- Confirm that the file they are trying to attach meets the file restrictions you have set in the task settings.
They are attaching more files than allowed
- Ask the applicant to send you their file(s), if they didn't do so already.
- Confirm that they aren't trying to attach more files than you wish to allow them to.
SurveyMonkey Apply will not accept encrypted files. You will need to instruct them that in order to attach their file successfully the encryption must be removed.
- Have them re-save the file on their computer on a different location on their drive.
- Then attach the copied version of the file to resolve the issue.
If none of the above are applicable refer to "Why can't I edit my task?"
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"I submitted my application but did not receive an email confirmation" |
Potential Reasons:
- The email was sent successfully from the site but sent to their spam/junk folder
- The 'Submit' notification has been disabled
- The applicant has turned off notifications
- The applicant has not verified their email address
The email was sent successfully from the site but sent to their spam/junk folder
- Confirm that the applicant has fully submitted their application.
- Check the Email logs to ensure that the email has gone out.
- Instruct the applicant to check their spam/junk folder
The 'Submit' notification has been disabled
- Go to Settings
- Click More
- Go to the Notifications tab
- Go to the Applicants tab
- Ensure that 'Application Submitted' is currently selected.
The applicant has turned off notifications
- Assume the role of the user
- Click on the User's Name in the top right corner
- Go to My Account
- Go to Notifications
- Ensure that notifications for activity within their application are turned on
The applicant has not verified their email address
- Assume the role of the user
- Ensure there is no banner at the top of the screen instructing them to verify their email
- If there is, inform them they will need to verify their email in order to receive emails.