An application process is a named path a sponsor uses to apply. It connects to one application form and controls which opportunities the sponsor can choose, whether they confirm their details first, and whether checkout uses your account’s defaults or this process’s own settings.
What It Controls
Each application process controls:
- Which application form a sponsor fills in.
- Whether sponsors can use the process in the Portal.
- Whether the process is limited to opportunities from specific sponsorship categories.
- Whether the sponsor confirms their contact and organization details before the application form.
- Whether checkout uses your account's default checkout settings or checkout settings for this process.
Sponsors use an application process in the Portal purchase flow. Staff can also use it when they submit a sponsorship application for a sponsor.
A sponsorship link on an event page or microsite is not limited to that event. It shows every sponsorship application process available in the Portal, not only the process intended for that event or microsite. There is currently no way to filter the processes shown there to a specific event.
Where to Find It
Go to Sponsorship & Benefits › Setup › Applications › Processes. This opens Manage Application Processes, where you can view your account’s processes, select Create Application Process, and use the clone, edit, and delete icons on each row.
Prerequisites
You need the permission your administrator grants for application process setup.
Create or Edit an Application Process
- From Manage Application Processes, select Create Application Process, or select the edit icon on an existing process.
- Enter a Name:. When you create a process, Rhythm suggests a permanent ID: from the name, and you cannot change the identifier after your first save.
- Choose the Application Form: the sponsor fills in. Rhythm only offers active sponsorship application forms, so create one first under your account’s forms setup if none are available.
- Leave This process should be available in the portal checked to offer the process to sponsor contacts, or clear it to keep the process staff-only.
- If this process should only sell opportunities from certain categories, check This process should only let sponsors purchase opportunities from specific categories and choose one or more categories.
- If you want the sponsor to confirm their contact details before applying, turn on Show Contact Form, choose the contact form to show, and optionally add an HTML Header: above it.
- If you want the sponsor to confirm their organization’s details before applying, turn on Show Organization Form, choose the organization form, and optionally add its own HTML Header:.
- If this process should use checkout settings that differ from the rest of your program, turn on Override Checkout Settings and complete the checkout settings that appear.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The process appears in Manage Application Processes. If you made it available in the Portal, sponsors can now use it as one of the ways to apply there.
Warning
Application Form:, and the contact and organization forms when their switches are on, are required. If you leave Application Form: empty, or turn on Show Contact Form or Show Organization Form without choosing a form, Rhythm refuses the save.
Delete an Application Process
- From Manage Application Processes, select the delete icon on the process you want to remove.
- Confirm the deletion.
Warning
You cannot delete an application process that any application still uses. If you try, Rhythm refuses the delete. Reassign or remove every application that names the process first.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | Any text | Empty | Required. Identifies the process in lists and reports |
| ID: | Letters, digits, underscores, pipes, hyphens | Generated from the name | Required. Permanent after your first save |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | Intended to control whether the process is offered. Inactive processes are hidden from the process list’s default view. Turning a process inactive applies across your account, not to one event, so it cannot keep one event’s process active while another event’s process is inactive at the same time |
| Application Form: | Your account's active sponsorship application forms | Empty | Required. The form the sponsor completes |
| This process should be available in the portal | On, off | On | Intended to control whether sponsors can find this process in the Portal |
| This process should only let sponsors purchase opportunities from specific categories | On, off | Off | Turns on the category restriction below |
| Categories | One or more of your account's sponsorship categories, active or not | None | Required once the restriction above is on. Limits this process to opportunities in the chosen categories |
| Show Contact Form | On, off | Off | Shows a contact-confirmation step before the application form, using an active Rolodex contact form |
| Select the contact form: | Your account's active Rolodex contact forms | Empty | Required while Show Contact Form is on |
| HTML Header: (contact) | Rich text | Empty | Shown above the contact-confirmation form |
| Show Organization Form | On, off | Off | Shows an organization-confirmation step before the application form, using an active Rolodex organization form |
| Select the organization form: | Your account's active Rolodex organization forms | Empty | Required while Show Organization Form is on |
| HTML Header: (organization) | Rich text | Empty | Shown above the organization-confirmation form |
| Override Checkout Settings | On, off | Off | Turns on checkout settings for this process instead of your account’s defaults |
| Checkout settings | Business unit, merchant account, bank account, payment methods, invoice, and related settings | Empty | Required once the override is on. See Default Checkout Settings for Sponsorships for what each setting does at the account level |
Tip
Use Override Checkout Settings when one application process needs its own payment terms, invoice handling, or credit card fee rules. For example, an installment application might use invoice terms that differ from the rest of your sponsorship program. Each process’s checkout settings, including its payment terms and invoice template, are separate from your account’s general Sponsorship checkout settings and from any other process’s override. If invoices from this process are not using the terms or template you expect, check this process's own checkout settings before you assume the account-wide default is at fault.
Dependencies and Precedence
- A process needs at least one active application form to be created or kept working. If no active sponsorship application form exists, you cannot save a new process.
- Category restriction only affects the categories offered when applying through this process. It does not hide other, unrelated application processes from Portal users. If you need to keep sponsors from seeing a process at all, use that process's own Portal-availability and Active/Inactive settings instead. If someone later deletes or deactivates a category used by a restricted process, Rhythm does not automatically remove it from the restriction. Review the categories on restricted processes periodically.
- Deleting a contact or organization form that a process uses is blocked while the process still names it. Remove the form from the process, or delete the process, before deleting the form.
- Overriding checkout settings replaces your account's default checkout settings only for purchases made through this process. If you turn the override off later, Rhythm removes any values you entered for it.
- Reasons staff can give when reviewing applications submitted through any process are configured separately; see Application Status Reasons.
Change Impact and How to Revert
- Renaming a process is safe because applications refer to it by its identifier.
- Changing any setting on a process — including which form it uses, its category restriction, or its checkout override — applies to applications submitted afterward. It does not affect applications already submitted.
- Turning the Portal or Active/Inactive settings off is meant to stop sponsors from using a process, but those settings are not confirmed to be enforced everywhere a sponsor could reach the process. If you need to reliably stop a process from being used, also make its application form inactive and consider removing it from any Portal page.
- Dragging a row to reorder processes is available on the screen, but the new order does not reliably save. Do not rely on drag reordering to control the sequence sponsors see.
Warning
Deleting an application process is permanent and cannot be undone. Rhythm refuses the delete while any application still names the process.
Permissions
You need the permission your administrator grants for application process setup. There is no separate permission recorded for creating, editing, reordering, or deleting within that setup area.
Validation and Errors
If you save a process without a name or a valid application form, Rhythm refuses the save. If you turn on Show Contact Form or Show Organization Form without choosing a form, or turn on the category restriction without choosing at least one category, Rhythm refuses the save until you complete the required selection. If you try to delete a process that any application still uses, Rhythm refuses the delete and keeps the process in the list.