Award types group the awards your organization runs, so staff can tell scholarships, achievement awards, and competitions apart. Each award belongs to exactly one type. This article explains how to create, rename, reorder, switch off, and delete award types. To manage the awards that use them, see Create or Edit an Award.
Use an award type for an ongoing scholarship or award program across years, not for one specific year. Create a separate award record for each year's program, include the year in the award name, and track that year's applications, nominees, and recipients on the award record instead of the type.
What It Controls
An award type has a name, an on/off status, and a display order you choose. Rhythm uses award types in four places:
- The Type field when staff create or edit an award.
- The Type filter on the awards search in the Console.
- The award-type restriction on a coupon, which limits a discount to certain kinds of award.
- The Portal list of open awards, where awards appear under their type headings in the display order you set here.
Where to Find It
Go to Awards & Nominations › Setup › Awards › Types. This opens Manage Award Types, where you can see your Rhythm account’s award types, their status, and when each one last changed.
- Create Award Type opens a blank form.
- The clone icon on a row opens a new type prefilled from that row, but without its identifier.
- The edit icon opens the type so you can change it.
- The delete icon removes the type after you confirm.
- The grip on the left of each row lets you drag it to a new position.
Use the filter box to narrow the list by name or identifier. Use the link in the count line to switch between active types only and every type, including inactive ones.
Prerequisites
You need access to Awards Setup in the Console to reach this screen.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | Any text | Empty | Required. Staff see this name wherever the type is listed or chosen. Two types may share the same name |
| ID: | Letters, digits, underscores, colons, vertical bars, and hyphens | Suggested from the name, using upper case and replacing other characters with hyphens | Required. This is the type’s permanent identifier. You can change it only before you save the type for the first time |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | Controls whether staff can choose the type in pickers |
You reorder types from the list, not from the form. Drag a row by its grip to a new position, and Rhythm saves the new order for every type in the list as soon as you drop the row.
Tip
The order you set here is also the order the Portal uses for open award type headings, so put your most common award types first.
Dependencies and Precedence
- An award names exactly one type. You choose the type on the award form, not from this page. To change the heading an award appears under on the Portal's Browse Awards page, open that award and update its Type under Setup › Award Details.
- A coupon can restrict its discount to one or more award types. Rhythm will not delete a type that a coupon still names.
- Applications, nominations, nominees, and recipients each carry a copy of the award type from their award. Changing an award’s type does not change theirs.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Renaming a type is safe. Staff and members see the new name everywhere at once, and you can rename it back.
- Switching a type to Inactive removes it from the pickers where staff choose a type going forward. The award form’s Type field and the awards search’s Type filter no longer offer it. This does not remove the type from awards that already use it, and the Portal list of open awards still shows those awards under the inactive type’s heading. If you edit an award that already has an inactive type, its Type field shows no selection because the picker offers active types only. To change that award’s type from the Console, choose a different type.
- Reordering takes effect immediately, and you can change it again at any time by dragging rows back into place.
- Deleting a type is permanent and cannot be undone.
Warning
You can't delete an award type that any award, application, nomination, nominee, recipient, or coupon still names. If you try, Rhythm refuses the delete and shows a generic "Unable to delete" message with no reason given. Before you delete a type, move every award off it and remove it from any coupon’s award-type restrictions. Switching the type to Inactive does not help with deletion.
Validation and Errors
A type needs a name and an identifier before you can save it, and the form will not let you continue without both. When you type a new identifier, the form checks whether one already exists and shows a warning beside the field. That warning is advisory, so it does not stop the save by itself. If you save with an identifier that is already in use, Rhythm refuses the save separately. If you try to delete a type that any record still uses, Rhythm refuses the delete and leaves the type in the list.