Customize Your Experience Using Scorecard’s Advanced Settings

By: Christian Ragland
April 3rd, 2023

We designed our Scorecard software to be intuitive, easy to use, and flexible. We know that every organization and user has unique needs, frameworks, and reporting requirements. That’s why we’ve added advanced customization features and settings. To get the most out of your Scorecard subscription, you may want to spend some time looking through the advanced administrator settings. To save you time poking around, we outlined the most useful settings in the blog below.*

*Most of the advanced settings in this article are available only to Scorecard administrators. Please contact your administrator if you’re interested in using one of the settings listed.

In this blog, you’ll learn more about how to customize your Scorecard experience using Advanced Settings.

Table of Contents:

1. How to Access Advanced Settings
2. Users
3. Reporting Frequencies
4. Notes
5. Presentation View Column Settings
6. Chart Options and Global Color Bands
7. Default Action Custom Fields
8. API Connectivity
9. Partner Connect
10. Multi-Instance Tools
11. Final Thoughts
12. Helpful Links

How to Access Advanced Settings

All of the settings listed in this article can be accessed via the general settings. The general settings are accessible via the gear icon in Scorecard’s main navigation menu.

Users

You can customize user access via the “Users” page in General Settings via the gear icon in the main navigation menu (see previous screenshot). Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

One of the first things administrators should customize within Scorecard is the level of access granted to personnel. By clicking on “Users” from the General Settings Menu, an administrator can add new users, edit levels of permission, add notes, or delete users. By clicking “edit” next to a user’s name, you can see all of the custom levels of access available in Scorecard. 

Custom settings page for individual Users in Scorecard 7.0. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

From the Users page, you can quickly add a larger batch of users via CSV import. After importing users, administrators can quickly apply custom permissions or default levels of access. Here is a list of the default levels of access you can give to members of your organization:

1. Administrator*: Access to everything
2. Scorecard Builder: Access to everything except admin-level settings
3. Data Entry: Ability to add comments, enter data, and action management
4. Presenter: Add comments and action management

*Note: organizations can list as many administrators as they wish, but Reach Your Peak support is limited to two administrators. If an organization wishes to have more than two administrators with Reach Your Peak access, they can purchase more at $100 per administrator. 

Reporting Frequencies

Reporting frequency is one of the most important fields when adding a measure to a Result or Program. When first using Scorecard, we have default frequencies that are most commonly reported on by our users. You can choose from monthly, quarterly, annual, or half-year reporting frequencies. Often, users want more specific time periods or labels. For example, when tracking a school-related program, it may be best to use “semesters” as the reporting frequency.

Customizing your reporting frequencies allows you to specify start and end dates and create labels that may differ from our default options. Administrators can create custom frequencies by choosing how many annual periods a measure is reported on, including start and end dates. We’ve also included the ability to label your frequencies with custom prefixes for ease of use. 

From the calendar view, you can customize reporting frequencies and add new ones. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

Notes 

We believe in the power of data to make lasting change. However, we also understand that you need more than data to tell the whole story of a metric. The default notes in Scorecard are based on the principles of Results-Based Accountability, including Story Behind the Curve, Partners, What Works, and other RBA terms. We included these because many of our Scorecard users are familiar with RBA terminology. However, we understand that different organizations use different frameworks, so we allow users to create their own custom note types.

When creating custom note types, administrators can include default text and custom help text to help fellow users understand what type of information each note should contain. 

The notes view in settings allows you to add, edit, or delete note types as well as decide where to include them. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

Presentation View Column Settings

One of the most powerful features of Scorecard is the ability to present your data to partners, stakeholders, and funders directly from the software. Before a major presentation, you should always double-check the “Presentation View Column” settings. In this view, you can edit which columns are visible during a presentation. In this way, you can avoid unnecessary white space on the screen which can lead to clunky presentations. Using this feature with custom notes can make your presentation more valuable and visually appealing for your audience.

Presentation View Settings can be found under “Columns” in general settings. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

Chart Options and Global Color Bands

To customize graph options, including line colors, line widths, comparison chart colors, and more, access the “Graph Settings” page via the Advanced Settings sidebar. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

For further customization, Scorecard allows administrators to edit the appearance of certain features within the User Interface (UI). In chart options, you can edit the line width of charts along with the colors for different types of lines (target values, actual values, trend, forecasts, and comparison charts). In Scorecard 7.0, this feature has been upgraded to include a full range of colors, whereas Scorecard 6.0 had a limited color range.

In Global Color Bands, administrators can apply custom colors to new Indicators and Performance Measures when they are created. Changes to the color bands will not affect existing Indicators or Performance Measures.

Default Action Custom Fields

If you’ve been keeping up with our blogs, you may have read our recent article on Actions and Gantt Charts (check it out here). In that blog post, we talk about how to create, assign, and track Actions to improve project management. Actions can have an unlimited number of custom fields to enter simple values like “budget” or “spent to date.” These custom fields can be edited within General Settings or in Actions themselves. 

To learn more about creating custom Action Fields, check out this blog.

API Connectivity

The Clear Impact Scorecard API allows you to interact with our system programmatically from your own application. Using the API, you can interact with Scorecard Objects like:

• Scorecards
• Results
• Indicators
• Programs
• Performance Measures
• Actions
• Tags
• Data Values

You’ll likely need access to a web developer or programmer (if you’re not one yourself) to get the most use out of the API. You can learn more about Advanced Settings for API here. 

Partner Connect

We love supporting connection and collaboration! Through the Partner Connect Settings, you can control your connections and specify access to content. Simply input your partner’s instance code in the search bar, and you can immediately connect your two accounts.

Adding a partner is easier than ever! Just type in the instance code of your partner in the search bar and immediately connect your two organizations. You can access Partner Connect via the General Settings sidebar. Click on the screenshot to zoom in.

Multi-Instance Tools

Multi-instance tools allow you to allocate measures to separate instances within your network. 

Under multi-instance tools, you can also find useful information about your network, including a tool for looking up objects and users, customer dashboards, and an active measures counter. This tool is a great place for larger networks to check and monitor all of the organizations they work with, and it’s a good idea for administrators to check in regularly to ensure that everyone has access to the correct things.

You can access Multi-Instance tools via the same settings sidebar referenced throughout the screenshots in this blog.

Final Thoughts

Software flexibility is a major key to efficiency. That’s why Scorecard offers a wide range of customization options to help you achieve your specific goals, effectively manage your projects, and create valuable reports that people understand. 

At Clear Impact, we are always listening to user feedback and trying to improve the user experience. Many of the settings listed in this article are the result of user feedback! If you have any questions or suggestions for new settings, feel free to reach out through the in-product help center, or via our support email: support@Clearimpact.com.

Helpful Links:

• See how Clear Impact Scorecard customization tools work in a private customized demo.
• Learn more about Scorecard Actions and Gantt chart features in this recent blog. 
• Still using Scorecard 6.0? Work smarter and upgrade to 7.0 today. See what’s new here.
• Learn more about the importance of consistency and flexibility in social impact work.
• If you need help using any Scorecard features, feel free to email support@Clearimpact.com.