A phase is a stage a school moves through in a program, such as “Candidate” or “Accredited.” Phases control what happens when a billing run advances schools: a school either stays in its current phase or moves to a named next phase. They also control how Rhythm recalculates the school’s expiration date when the school enters that phase. This article explains how to create, order, and configure phases. For the reports a phase asks schools to submit, see Phase Reporting Requirements.
Prerequisites
- You need access to Accreditation Setup to manage phases.
- Choose the program you want to work in before you open the phases page, because the page shows phases for the current program.
- If a phase advances to a specific next phase, create that next phase first. Build phases in reverse order: start with the last phase a school reaches, then work backward.
What This Controls
- The identifier, name, and order of each stage a school moves through in a program.
- Whether a billing-run advancement keeps a school in the phase or moves it to a named next phase.
- Whether and how Rhythm recalculates a school’s expiration date when it enters the phase.
- The reports the phase asks schools for, which you configure separately in Phase Reporting Requirements.
Where to Find It
Go to Accreditations › Setup › Accreditations › Phases to see the phases for the current program. From there, select the option to create a phase, or open an existing phase to edit it.
Create or Edit a Phase
- Choose your working program, then go to Accreditations › Setup › Accreditations › Phases.
- Select the option to create a phase, or open an existing phase to edit it.
- Enter a name. Rhythm builds the identifier from your program and the phase name.
- Choose the advancement rule: Do not advance, or Advance to a specific phase.
- If you chose to advance to a specific phase, select the next phase.
- Set the expiration-date recalculation settings, or check Do not update accreditation expiration dates during phase advancement to leave dates unchanged.
- Add reporting requirements if this phase asks schools for reports.
- Save the phase.
A phase’s identifier always begins with its program’s identifier. Any phase it advances into must also begin with that same program identifier, so a phase cannot advance schools into a phase from another program.
Order Phases the Way Schools Move Through Them
The phases list shows the current program’s phases in the order schools move through them. You can reorder phases by dragging a row, as long as none of the phases you move is fully locked. This drag-and-drop order applies only to phases; programs use a typed display order instead.
Advancement: Stay or Move to a Named Phase
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Do not advance | Schools stay in this phase when an advancement run includes them |
| Advance to a specific phase | Schools move to the named next phase when an advancement run includes them |
When you set a phase to Do not advance, Rhythm hides the Do not update accreditation expiration dates during phase advancement checkbox because there is no phase for the school to enter. If you switch a phase between advancement modes, Rhythm keeps the next phase you selected under Advance to a specific phase and checks that it belongs to the same program if you switch back.
Tip
An Accreditation query's Next Phase output uses the next-phase selection on the accreditation record, not the phase definition’s advancement rule. Because of that, the output can be blank even when the phase is configured to advance somewhere, if the accreditation record has no explicit next phase selected in its own Phase Information. Set the next phase directly on the accreditation record when you need the query field to return a value.
A notice's next_phase_id merge field works the same way. It returns no value in preview or when the notice sends if the accreditation record has no next phase specified, even when the phase itself is configured to advance somewhere.
A next phase can be the same phase you are editing. When a phase advances to itself, the school does not move to a different phase, but its phase start date and expiration date reset each time an advancement run includes it.
Warning
You can choose an inactive phase as the next phase. If you do, advancement into that phase still works; active status only affects whether the phase appears for selection, not whether schools can enter it through advancement.
Expiration Date Recalculation
Set how Rhythm recalculates a school’s expiration date when the school advances into this phase. These settings belong to the phase the school is entering, not the phase it is leaving, so the setting on the phase it leaves has no effect.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Expiration settings (when the checkbox is cleared) | Rhythm recalculates the school’s expiration date using the values you set the next time an advancement run moves a school into this phase |
| Do not update accreditation expiration dates during phase advancement | Advancing a school into this phase during a billing run leaves its accreditation expiration date unchanged |
Tip
If you change a phase’s expiration settings, the change applies the next time a school advances into the phase. It does not recalculate dates for schools already in that phase.
If a phase has no expiration settings, advancement into it leaves dates unchanged, just like checking Do not update accreditation expiration dates during phase advancement.
If your association runs different accreditation validity periods that otherwise share the same rules, phases, and timelines, model the difference as phases within one program rather than separate programs. A phase carries its own expiration settings, but a program does not have its own validity-length setting. Use a separate program when the different path also needs its own rules, phases, or timelines, not just a different validity length.
Tip
If a phase advancement changed a school's phase but a saved query still shows the old value, refresh the query results by re-saving the affected accreditation records. You can also run a mass update through a query, such as populating a field and then clearing it again, to refresh all affected records.
Edit, Retire, or Delete a Phase
When you edit a saved phase, you can change its name, status, advancement rule, expiration settings, or reporting requirements. Rhythm does not block changes to any of these fields, so review your edits before saving. If you change a phase’s program, its identifier no longer starts with that program’s identifier, and Rhythm refuses the save. You cannot move a phase between programs by editing it.
Mark a phase inactive to hide it from pickers until you choose to show inactive records. This does not affect schools already in the phase, and it does not affect other phases that advance into it. A phase that advances into an inactive phase continues to do so.
You can delete a phase only when nothing refers to it. No school, visit, report, or other phase can name the phase you want to delete. If Rhythm refuses the delete, the message tells you how many records depend on the phase, but it does not name them. Review your programs, schools, visits, and reports for anything that still names the phase you are trying to remove.
Permissions
You need access to Accreditation Setup to create, edit, reorder, retire, or delete phases.
Validation and Errors
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| The identifier’s suffix contains a character other than letters, digits, underscores, hyphens, or vertical bars | The save is refused |
| The identifier, or a next phase, does not begin with the phase’s own program | The save is refused |
| A named program, next phase, report type, contact role, or form does not exist | The save is refused |
| A phase, created through the API, has no identifier | The request is refused; nothing is written |
| A referring record, such as a school, visit, report, or other phase, still names the phase you are deleting | The delete is refused, with a count of dependents |