Deadlines

Locating the Deadlines feature

Anyone in a Role with the Edit Deadlines privilege can navigate to the Deadlines screen by opening the PROGRAM DESIGN menu and clicking on Deadlines.

How to create Deadlines

A common Deadline used in PowerClerk is a Deadline that requires Administrators who review applications to complete a preliminary review of every application that enters the Application in Review Status within a certain number of days. In this way, the Deadlines feature can help monitor program performance and set reasonable metrics for application processing. Deadlines can also be configured to ensure applicants (or any other user with an email collected in PowerClerk) submit certain data by a due date. In this way, Deadlines can help manage applicant expectations and provide a better applicant user experience.

To configure a Deadline, navigate to the Deadlines screen and click New Deadline:

The Deadlines screen works similarly to Actions, in that the user must configure each dropdown menu on the screen:

Due in: With this setting you can configure the countdown in days before or after a deadline shall expire. You can also dynamically calculate this date by using another Data Field to calculate the target deadline date. Please Note: If the Data Field you are trying to dynamically calculate a Deadline date with does not have a value when the deadline is started, no deadline will be set.

Allow only one instance for each project and Allow update: If another instance of this deadline is created (either manually or by an Automation’s Action Rule) and the previous instance is not satisfied, the due date will be determined using the current value of the data field reference for which the deadline relies.

Satisfied by status change to:

• Require manual change: the Deadline will keep counting down until an Administrator specifically marks this Deadline as Satisfied from the project’s Admin screen.
• Any status change: the Deadline will automatically be marked complete if the project changes to any Status but the one in which the Deadline was originally set.
• [Specific Status]: the Deadline will automatically be marked complete if the project changes to this specific Status.

Remind with template: this setting specifies which Communication Template shall be sent as the Deadline Reminder, an email sent to the relevant group or individual for whom the Deadline due date is approaching. Within the Communication Template you can configure which recipients receive the reminder as well as the messaging such as what actions need to be taken in order to satisfy the deadline.

Reminder schedule: Choose this option, if you require different intervals for the reminder schedule to be sent out. The default schedule will send reminder notifications 60, 30, 7, and 1 day prior to the deadlines expiration. This schedule will discontinue, once the deadline has been satisfied. Alternatively, a custom schedule may be specified by a custom schedule by providing the reminder intervals separated by commas (e.g. “200, 60, 20, 5, 1”).

On expiration: This setting allows you to define what should happen if the deadline expires without being satisfied. Options for the Actions that can occur when a Deadline expires include changing the project’s status and sending out a Communication Template to inform the relevant parties that the deadline expired.
 

Delaying Deadlines

The option to delay a Deadlines expiration dates will allow you to accommodate for storm days and delays all deadlines without having to extend them individually, reset a temporary delay, or recalculate Deadline expiration (only for Deadlines configured to use Business Days):
 

Figure 6: Delaying Deadlines

Deadline Automations

Deadline Automations allow deadlines to be: Set, Paused, Resumed, and Satisfied based on certain events triggered through an Automation Action Rule.
 
A common Deadline used in PowerClerk is a Deadline that requires Administrators who review applications to complete a preliminary review of every application that enters the Application in Review Status within a certain number of days.
 
Through an Automation Action Rule a Program Designer can “Set” a deadline for Administrator Review when an application is submitted. If the application review reveals that corrections are required by the applicant, another Deadline Action Rule can be set
to “Pause” the Application Review status, and “Set” the Customer Corrections Deadline.
 
Once the customer has submitted their corrected application and the status of the project moves back to “Application Review” the Deadline for “Application Review” can “Resume” and the Customer Corrections Deadline is set as “Satisfied”.
 
Steps 1 – 3 below illustrate this example:
 
Step 1: When the project status enters “Application Review”, “Set Deadline [Application Review]”:
 

Figure 7: Set Deadline Action Rule

Figure 7b: Set Deadline Action Rule

 
 
Step 2: If customer corrections are required on the application, two deadline action rules are configured: “Pause Deadline [Application Review]”, and “Set Deadline [Customer Edits Required]”:
 

Figure 8: Pause Deadline Action Rule

 
 
Step 3: When the customer corrections are finished and the project re-enters the Application Review status, two action rules are configured: “Satisfy Deadline [Customer Edits Required]”, and “Resume Deadline [Application Review]”. Please note: In these examples a formula condition was used to express the scenario of customer corrections being required:
 

Figure 9: Resume Deadline Action Rule

Deadlines in the Admin View

Deadlines in the Admin View Project Page now show “Status, (Paused, Pending or Satisfied), Due Date, Due in day(s), length the deadline has been paused, and the End Date.” The End Date represents the date the deadline was Satisfied.
 

Figure 10: Deadlines in the Admin View Project Page

“Deadline Active” Template Tag

Template tags for deadlines are now available. This template tag shows how long the deadline was active in the “Pending” status. This template tag disregards all time that the deadline was “Paused”.
 
This template tag can be helpful when reporting on how long a deadline was actively being processed during a specific status:
 

Figure 11: Deadline template tags

 
To illustrate the Deadline Automations Template Tag, the communication template below is configured to send a utility customer an email informing them how long the utility took to process their application:
 

Figure 12: Deadline template tags

Allowing a deadline to continue running after due date

A new deadline feature is now available within the “Edit Deadline” page. The feature, “Allow deadline to continue running after due date” can be selected if you wish the deadline to be used like a timer.
 
If this box is checked, the deadline counter will continue to run until satisfied (the counter will continue to run even when expired), and you can report on how long the deadline has been active. This feature can help utilities uncover bottlenecks in their workflow, understand how long deadlines run before being satisfied, and the number of days a deadline may run before it is considered due in the definition of that deadline.:
 

Figure 13: Allowing a deadline to continue running after due date

Deadlines in Communications and use of special Template Tags

There are four distinct template tags that can be used within Communication Templates to convey information about specific Deadlines:

• Tag {deadline_time_active: deadline name}: Calculates the sum of elapsed times any of the respective Deadline’s instances have been running for a project. This value is emitted in days (calendar or business days depending on whether the Deadline uses calendar or business days), rounded up to full days. Any times when the respective Deadline instances may have been paused will be subtracted. See also above section “Deadline Active” Template Tag for further information.
• Tag {DeadlineDueDate}*: Emits the respective Deadline’s due date in context of a reminder email or expiration email sent out for the respective Deadline.
• Tag {DaysToDeadline} *: Emits the respective Deadline’s remaining days for the Deadline to expire in context of a reminder email or expiration email sent out for the respective Deadline.
• Tag {DeadlineName}*: Emits the respective Deadline’s name in context of a reminder email or expiration email sent out for the respective Deadline.

*These template tags can only be used in conjunction of Deadline Reminder Emails, e.g. they will only appear and have a proper value if the respective Deadline has been configured to sent out a Communication Template triggered by the reminder schedule or eventual expiration of the respective Deadline.
 
 

Deadlines in Reports

Figure 14: Deadlines in Reports

 
Deadlines can also be reported upon by using the Deadlines column within your Report to retrieve the due dates for a set deadline. You can also use the Nearest Deadline column within your Report to fetch the next, upcoming Deadline per project and output this information in your Report:

Within the Multi- Instance Report you can now report on Deadline History. The deadline fields being reported are:
• Deadline Name: Name of deadline
• Creation Timestamp: The date the deadline was originally created (set) on a project deadline.
• Due Date: Deadline due date that includes any extension such as Delay Deadline or Admin Change Due Date.
• Original Due Date: Original due date, prior to a Delay Deadline or Admin Change Due Date being triggered.
• Deadline Status: Pending (active), Paused, Satisfied, Expired
• End Date: The date the Deadline was marked as “Satisfied”
• Calendar Days Running: The difference (in calendar days) between the creation date and the time the deadline was stopped by the Automation, minus the time it was paused (explicit to the Deadline Automations).
• Calendar Days Left on Paused Deadline: The calculation of days remaining in calendar days (explicit to the Deadline Automations).
• Calendar Days Paused: Number of calendar days the deadline has been paused (Explicit to the Deadline Automations).
• Business Days Running: The difference (in business days) between the creation date and the time the deadline was stopped by the Automation, minus the time it was paused (explicit to the Deadline Automations).
• Business Days Left on Paused Deadline: the calculation of days remaining in business days (explicit to the Deadline Automations).
• Business Days Paused: Number of business days the deadline has been paused (explicit to the Deadline Automations).

Please note: The deadline automations “Days Running, Days Left, and Days Paused” is calculated by the difference between the Creation Timestamp, and the time the deadline was stopped (i.e., paused), minus the total time paused.
 

Figure 15: Days Running, Days Left, and Days Paused

Deadlines in Project List Columns

With the ability to add column headers Nearest Deadline Name and Nearest Deadline Due Date in your Project List Columns, you can easily add an overview of which Deadline will expire next for each project in your program:
 

Satisfying Deadlines with a Data Import

Please follow this link to learn more about how to satisfy Deadlines in bulk via Data Imports.
 

Deadline Functionality Definitions

• Deadline Automations: to pause/resume deadlines with the purpose of obtaining a tally of the total number of days a deadline was running or “active” (useful for reporting purposes).
• Delay Deadline: to modify the due dates of all active deadlines for a particular Deadline Definition (useful in scenarios where all instances of a deadline need to collectively be extended e.g., during storm duty events)
• Change Deadline: Admin page functionality allowing an Admin to change the Due Date for that project’s active Deadline(s).

Feature Reference

Deadlines

Deadlines enable administrators to keep stakeholders abreast of the timing requirements for any application. PowerClerk can automatically send reminder communications prior to expiration of a deadline and can also send additional communications and/or change the status of a particular application when a deadline expires.

As shown in Figure 8 below, a Deadline can be configured to automatically send reminder emails. A Deadline can be configured to be satisfied once the application is moved into a new status.

Video Guides

Would a video guide help to better explain Deadlines? Contact us and let us know.
 
A full list of all Video Guides can also be found here.

FAQs

Q: In the ‘View/Edit’ page for a project I see a ‘Deadlines’ section, but I don't see the same deadline exposed that I can see on the ‘Admin’ page. Why is that?

A: As the majority of deadlines are mostly utility internal, and most utilities would not want to expose such deadlines, you will have to mark a deadline on the Edit Deadline page as Show on Project View/Edit page to display this deadline also on the View/Edit Page:

Have additional questions? Contact us to nominate your FAQ and help others find answers to your own questions concerning this feature.

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