Automatic Verification Request and Responses

Automatic Verification Request and Responses

What is the Difference between Editing vs Verifying a Resource

  1. Editing is when you make any change, big or small, to a record. For instance, you might change a spelling mistake or make a minor change to the name of the Agency.
  2. Verifying is when you have contacted the Agency directly to ensure that all the information you have about them in your iCarol database is accurate. Most agencies who do verification, tend to do so once per year for every resource they have in iCarol.

Create New Automatic Verification Requests

From the Resource Search Page

  1. Log on to iCarol, using an account with Resource Editor privileges.
  2. Click on Resources from the left menu, then to the right of the Geographic Filters choose the "Verify" radio button which will change the page to allow you to create a request.
  3. Use the search filters on the page (Taxonomy/Resources/Categories radio buttons, Filters and Geographic Filters) to create a search to find the records you wish to include in the AVR. Use examples:
    1. Find all Resources with a specific Taxonomy term. eg. "Suicide Issues", "General Counselling", "Homeless meals", "Homeless people", etc.
    2. Find all Resources with a specific Keyword/Category term eg. "Meals", "Income Tax", etc.
    3. Find all Resources that have a specific word in their Resource Name. eg. "Meal", "Counselling", "Mental Health", etc.
    4. Find all Resources that have a specific word or phrase in any field on the Resource Record. eg. "Low income", "form filling", etc.
    5. Find all Resources that have a Custom Field Value chosen. eg. "Update Quarter", "Update Month", etc. (For more information on how to create a custom resource field, see Help Article "Resource record - add a custom field")
  4. Apply any additional filters to the AVR, such as including only Agency or Program Records, Geographic Restrictions, including only 'Active' records, or Resources that have not been updated within a specific time frame.
    1. Note: if you wish to send AVRs to 'Active' resources only, click 'Filters' and ensure the check boxes for the following settings are deselected, depending on which statuses you wish to send: 'Include Inactive' and 'Include 'Active but do not refer''
  5. Click the 'Search' button the complete the search
  6. When the search results appear, they will all be auto-selected.  Review the search results, and, if needed, deselect any resources you do not want to include
  7. Click "Start a verification request with these search results" to configure specific AVR settings.  To learn about the AVR settings, please see the article titled 'Resource Automated Verification Settings'.
  8. Once all setting have been adjusted to meet your needs, click the 'Send verification request by email' button

When editing a Resource Record

Another way to send an Automated Verification Request (AVR) is when editing a resource record. This method is particularly useful as it allows Resource Editors to initiate an AVR directly from an individual resource record when they identify it needs to be updated, as opposed to initiating the AVR from the main Resources search page.

To send an Automated Verification Request when editing a resource, complete the following steps:
  1. As a user with resource editor permissions, edit the resource that needs to be verified
  2. Make sure you're editing the correct level of the resource (ex. Agency, Site, Program) that you wish to send an AVR to, and at the bottom of the page click the link to 'Initiate a verification request for this resource'
  3. The page will reload with the AVR Settings Page.  To learn about the AVR settings, please see the article titled 'Resource Automated Verification Settings'.
  4. Once all setting have been adjusted to meet your needs, click the 'Send verification request by email' button
Note: if a resource is marked as 'Inactive (and exclude from public website)', the inactive resource(s) will be included in Automated Verification Requests. This gives verifiers the opportunity to review and update inactive resources as appropriate.

Sending Reminder E-mails for Verification Requests

When resource editors have sent out resource verification requests you have the option to send out reminders that will help you to increase the response rate. The reminder email will only be sent to recipients who have not yet completed their responses. If the resource was updated directly (not via the verification process) then the reminder email will still go out.

Steps to create and send a reminder email

First you need to create a verification email template for the reminder email: the email template you use to send the reminder must be different from the template chosen when you sent the initial AV Request. So, you'll want to create a template to use just for sending the reminder emails.  For instructions on how to create Automatic Verification Email Templates, please see the article titled 'Resource Automated Verifications Settings'.

To send a reminder email:

  1. Log on to iCarol, using an account with Resource Editor privileges.
  2. Click on Resources from the left menu, then to the right of the Geographic Filters choose the "Verify" radio button
  3. Click the 'requests' link
  4. Click on one of the listed verification requests that have been "sent" 
  5. If there are still requests pending feedback you will see the option to send a reminder email at the bottom of the page, just above the 'Email outcomes' section
  6. Select the appropriate email template from the drop down
    1. Remember, the email template you choose to use when sending the reminder must be different from the template chosen when you sent the initial AV Request
  7. Click on the "send a reminder" button. 
  8. The system will now send this email to all listed recipients who have not yet completed their responses.

Notification that the reminder was sent:

At the top of the request page, just under the details of when and by whom the request has been sent, and how many emails for how many resources to be verified were sent, viewed and completed, will be a line indicating when the last reminder was sent.  It will say:
The last reminder was sent on (date) at (time).
It went to X recipients.

Email Outcomes and Bounced Email Notification for Verification Requests

This allows the Resource Editor to better track AVRs that have been sent out. After an AVR has been sent, at the bottom of the AVR page under the 'Email Outcomes' section, the following information is available for each request:
  1. Request Number
  2. Recipient email
  3. Resource Names
  4. Status (of the AVR)
  5. Outcome (of the email)
The 'Outcome of the email' column has the following descriptions:
  1. Delivered
  2. Delivered Opened
  3. Bounced
In addition to these enhancements under the 'Email Outcomes' section, if the email outcome is 'Bounced' the Resource Editor who made the verification request will also receive an email to their inbox alerting them the email has been bounced and asking them to look into the resource. 

View and Accept Automatic Verification Responses

The Automated Verification Response (AV Response) page is where you can review your organization's AV Responses. By default, this page includes AV Responses for 'Everyone' with 'Pending' and 'Responded' statuses, which are defined as follows:
  1. Pending: an AV Response that has been sent to a verifier, 
  2. Responded: an AV Responses that has been completed and submitted by a verifier, and is ready for a resource editor to review for accuracy and approve to publish to your resource database
In addition to these two statuses, a third status of 'Completed (in last 90 days)' can be selected, which is defined as: an AV Response that has been reviewed for accuracy and published to your resource database by a resource editor, in the last 90 days.
Note, the reason iCarol only retains the last 90 days of records is because retaining records for any longer period of time would drastically increase the amount of database storage needed for your organization. Remember, you always have access to the 'History of Changes' within each resource record. But if you're required to keep records of these exact AV Responses for longer than 90 days, you should develop an internal process for your organization where you either print these records, save them as PDFs to store outside of iCarol, or save them in some other way preferred by your organization.

Filter Automatic Verification Responses

To filter your AV Responses, complete the following steps:
  1. From the main Resources page, select the 'Verify' button and click the 'Responses' link to go to the main AV Responses page
  2. At the bottom of the page click the 'Show Settings' link to reveal the filter options
  3. Under 'Show Verification Responses for:' you can choose to:
    1. keep the default 'Everyone' selected, or
    2. select 'Just Me' to display only AV Responses sent in reply to an AV Request you initiated
  4. Under 'Show Verification Responses in:' you can choose to leave the default choices selected, as outlined above, or you can choose to include one or more of the available selections; Pending Status, Responded Status, and/or Completed Status (in last 90 days)
  5. Under 'Include the following fields in the Results:' notice you have the option to include Custom Fields from your resource records that are setup as a drop-down list as an additional column in the AV Response table on this page; select any of these Custom Fields as you wish
  6. Click the 'Hide Settings' link to hide the filter and your page will refresh with your selections applied
  7. At the top of the page notice the drop-down list in the top left corner where you can choose the number of AV Responses to include on the page; select your desired number from the drop-down list and the page will refresh with your selection, then use the page numbers and/or Previous/Next links at the bottom right corner of the page to move to the different pages of results

Sort Automatic Verification Responses

To sort your AV Responses, simply click the title/headings at the top of the AV Response table; you can sort your AV Responses with or without any filters applied.

Verifier's notes

The verifier’s notes only appear when you are reviewing and accepting the change request from a verifier. It is the job of the resource manager to interpret and apply those updates. They are not currently saved but for now if one wants to save them, one could perhaps manually add them to a field (e.g. “Internal Notes”) in the resource record.

How to close or hide an Automated Verification Request

After you’ve sent an Automated Verification Request, it will appear in a list on the left side of your main Automated Verification Request page. After you send a request, you can click the sent information/optional label that appears in the list to see more details about the request.

When viewing the details of an Automated Verification request, there are 3 buttons that appear at the bottom of the request, which are as follows:
  1. Mark the Request as Closed
  2. Mark as Verified and Closed
  3. Hide this request on the list
Each of these buttons cause different changes to happen within the resource records included in the Automated Verification request you’ve selected. Depending on your selection, the changes are as follows:
  1. 'Mark the Request as Closed' will:
    1. change the status in the list of requests to ‘Closed’ so it can be filtered from appearing in the list
    2. cause no change to the 'Last Verified On' or 'Verifier's...' data in the resource record(s)
    3. make the Automated Verification request links sent to verifiers inactive, making it impossible to submit an Automated Verification Response for this particular request
  2. ‘Mark as Verified and Close’ will:
    1. change the status in the list of requests to ‘Closed’ so it can be filtered from appearing in the list
    2. replace existing date in the 'Last Verified On' field in the resource record(s) with today’s date
    3. replace existing name in the 'Last Verified By' field in the resource record(s) with the first and last name of the Vols-Staff who marked the request as closed
    4. remove existing text entered in the ‘Verifier’s Email’, ‘Verifier’s Title’, and ‘Verifier’s Phone Number’ fields in the resource record(s)
    5. make the Automated Verification Request links sent to verifiers inactive, making it impossible to submit an Automated Verification response for this particular request
    6. change none of the fields noted above, if an Automated Verification response has been submitted by a verifier for any of the resource records included in the Automated Verification Request
  3. ‘Hide this request on the list’, will:
    1. cause no changes to any of the verified/verifier fields in the resource records included in the Automated Verification request
    2. permanently removes the request from appearing in the list of requests on the left side of the page; once you do this, there is no way to un-hide the request
    3. the Automated Verification request link sent to the verifier remains active, making it possible for a verifier to still submit a response for this particular request
To mark the Automated Verification Request as closed, verified and closed or to hide it from appearing in the list, complete the following steps:
  1. From the main Resource page, select the 'Verify' radio button and click the link to view 'requests'
  2. On the left side of the main Automated Verification Request page, a list of requests will appear based on the filters selected
  3. Click any request in the list that isn't closed or in draft
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the request, just above the 'Email outcomes' section, and click the button to 'Mark the Request as Closed', Mark as Verified and Close', or 'Hide this request on the list'
Note, anytime data is removed or changed as a result of clicking the buttons noted above, the specific changes, including the data previously entered in these fields, is retained in the 'History of Changes' link at the bottom of the page of each resource.

Add and Suggest New Resources

Add a new Agency through Automated Verification

You have the option to allow people to submit new information to you about their agency through your Automated Verification tool. If you would like to enable this option:
  1. Click Resources from the left hand menu
  2. Click the radio button next to Verify
  3. Click the "requests" link
  4. Have your web developer place the link found under 'To allow people to submit new Agency records...' on your website
  5. Or place the link in an email to your service provider
Once your service provider clicks the link, they will be able to complete the web form and submit their information to you. Their information will be accessible when you review your responses to Automatic Verification requests. To access your responses:
  1. Click Resources from the left hand menu
  2. Click the radio button next to Verify
  3. Click the "responses" link
You will know that the response is a new submission when you see 'True' in the column labeled 'New Record?' The new information will only be added to your live database once you review and save the submission. 

Service providers can also submit information about their sites and programs when requesting that their information be included in your resource database if you have enabled the Add New Program and Site Resource records through Automated Verification functionality.  For more information on this, see below.

If this feature is enabled, once you review and save the agency information to your live database, the new site and program records that the service provider submitted will appear in your responses.

Add a new Program / Site through Automated Verification

When a Resource Agency is verifying their information, they can provide you with new programs and sites if this feature is enabled. To enable the ability to provide new program and site information:
  1. Click Admin Tools in the left hand menu
  2. Click the Resources Tab
  3. Scroll down to the Automated Verification section
  4. Click the check box(es) for the setting 'Automated Verification responders can add'
  5. Scroll to the top of the page
  6. Click the Save all settings button
When these settings are enable, verifiers who complete a verification request will be asked if they want to add a new program record or site record.  If they do, they will be presented with a blank Program or Site record to fill in.  The new data they enter will appear in your iCarol system as an Automated Verification Response.  Once the new records are reviewed by a resource specialist and saved, they will be added to your resource database.

At this time, if you use custom categories or taxonomy, assigning custom categories or taxonomy to the new program or site record will need to be completed after the new resource is saved, by searching for the resource in your database, then editing it.

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