When an application process requires references, the applicant enters their referees directly on the application form. This article explains what happens after the application is paid for: how Rhythm turns each referee into a contact it can email, and how a completed reference updates the application automatically.
Naming Referees on the Application
An application form with a references section shows one slot for each required reference, grouped and labeled by the reference type name. A process can ask for up to ten referees of one type. If the process needs more than one reference type, each type appears in its own group. If an applicant starts an application and returns later, the form keeps the same number of slots they started with, even if your administrator has changed the process’s reference requirements since then.
Each slot asks for the referee’s first name, last name, email address, and, optionally, a mobile phone number. In the normal application form, the applicant’s browser checks that all three required fields are filled in before allowing them to continue. That check only happens in the browser, so a slot submitted another way could bypass it. When the application is saved, Rhythm quietly drops any slot with no first name, even if it includes a last name or email address. A slot with only a first name and nothing else is still kept.
Rhythm does not compare the named referees with the process’s reference requirements when the applicant enters them. It saves exactly the referees it receives, including their count and claimed type, without checking whether they match what the process requires.
What Happens After the Application Is Paid For
Rhythm does not contact referees or create reference records until the application’s order is fulfilled. After fulfillment, Rhythm works through the named referees one at a time. For each referee whose reference type matches a reference requirement on the application’s process, Rhythm turns that referee into a reference:
- Finds or creates a contact. Rhythm looks for an existing contact by a stored identifier, then by the referee’s email address if needed. If several contacts share that email address, Rhythm uses the first one it finds. If it finds no match, Rhythm creates a new contact from the details the applicant entered.
Warning
If the applicant’s details for a referee are missing both a first and last name, Rhythm can save the new contact with a placeholder name instead of a blank one. Check for this if you see an unexpectedly named contact from a reference.
Links the reference to that contact, then copies the referee’s current name and email address onto the reference record so staff can see them without opening the contact. Rhythm makes this copy when the reference is saved, so if the contact details change later, the reference can show older information until it is saved again.
Emails the referee, if the reference process for that referee’s type has its notification switch on and a template assigned. The email includes the link the referee uses to answer. Rhythm sends the email once; there is no built-in resend, and the reference record does not show whether the email actually went out. If the referee’s contact has no email address on file, Rhythm has nowhere to send it.
If a referee’s type does not match any reference requirement on the process, Rhythm does not create a reference for that referee and does not show an error. If the process requires more referees of a type than the applicant named, or the applicant named more than required, Rhythm still processes every referee with a matching type. It does not check the count against the number the process asks for.
Tip
If a named referee was never contacted, first check whether the application’s order was fulfilled, because Rhythm does not process referees until payment goes through. If the order was fulfilled, confirm that the referee’s type matches a reference requirement on the process. A type that does not match is quietly skipped.
Because Rhythm processes referees one at a time, two referees who share an email address are linked in order. The second referee finds the contact the first referee just created instead of creating another contact.
This processing runs only when the order is fulfilled. If someone adds a referee or changes a referee’s details after the application has already been paid for, this same process does not pick up that change automatically. Each reference is tied to its specific application and referee slot, so processing the same application’s referees a second time does not create duplicates or resend emails for referees Rhythm already processed. It simply does nothing for any slot it has already handled.
How a Completed Reference Updates the Application
After Rhythm creates a reference, it watches for changes to that reference. Whenever the reference changes, Rhythm immediately recalculates the application’s requirement results if the reference belongs to a reference requirement on that application’s process. No one needs to open or save the application. Rhythm recalculates only the application the reference is currently linked to, so if a reference is ever reassigned to a different application, the original application stays as it was.
This automatic status change applies only while the application is in one of its two open review states: missing requirements or pending approval. If the application has already been approved, or has moved past those states another way, a reference completed afterward does not change its status.
Related
To understand how a reference requirement fits alongside an application’s other requirements, see How Application Requirements Are Evaluated. Referees who become contacts follow the same contact record rules as anyone else in your account.