by Lindsay Nash | Jun 9, 2026 | Articles
We like to say that creating an awards program is like assembling an intricate set of Lego. There are hundreds (thousands!) of pieces, in every size and shape, but all equally important in the build. If you forget a piece, there may be a gaping hole, or an unstable outcome.
It can certainly be challenging to manage it all, especially if you consider that awards managers often wear multiple hats, and are sometimes not award managers alone. They are often program coordinators, marketing professionals, community outreach specialists, and more. Awards management is often just one piece of the job description.
This means it’s important to stack those Lego pieces correctly. To help, an awards manager needs a reliable program dashboard: a quick, easy view of what’s happening at all times. The dashboard is not just a reporting tool to use at the end of the program, but an organisational backbone, useful at every stage of the awards lifecycle.
It’s a pivotal resource that helps you avoid gaps and protect your program outcomes. And it’s important to consider this dashboard and what metrics you’ll track from the very start, before the program even opens for entries.
In the last year alone, program and chapter managers viewed their Award Force dashboard more than 750,000 times, and that number grows every month.
Here are some tips on how and when to use a program dashboard, and how Award Force can help.
Your program dashboard is useful before a single entry arrives. In the pre-launch phase, you can use it to verify that your program structure is set up correctly. Are categories configured? Deadlines in place? Entry form tested and ready to go?
For organisations running multiple awards programs or regional chapters, the dashboard gives administrators a consolidated view across programs. Award Force supports a configurable dashboard for program managers overseeing multiple accounts in the same data region—ideal for managers handling both regional and national versions of a program.
This is also the time to confirm that each chapter or program is correctly configured and that nothing has been missed before entrants start submitting.
Checklist for pre-launch:
Getting this right early means far less re-engineering once submissions open.
Once your program is live, your dashboard shifts into a monitoring tool. The key metrics at this stage are often entry volume by category and submission pacing relative to your deadline.
A steady flow of entries is a good sign. Here, you’ll want to watch for any imbalances. For example, a category with unusually low uptake may need a targeted push, or one with a surge of last-minute entries could create judging bottlenecks later.
Most awards management software with real-time analytics and reporting will surface these patterns automatically. In Award Force, the program dashboard displays entries by category, so you can spot issues at a glance rather than running manual reports.
Other things worth monitoring during this phase:
This is also the phase where deadline decisions get made. If one category is significantly behind others, the dashboard gives you the evidence to justify an extension, rather than relying on gut feel.
The judging phase is where the judging dashboard earns its keep. The priority here is visibility over the evaluation progress: who has completed their assignments, who is behind and whether any entries are at risk of not being reviewed in time.
Key metrics to watch:
In Award Force, you can easily manage the judging assignments by sending reminders, reassigning entries or adjusting judging configurations without needing to dig into separate menus. The Manage judging view in the platform provides this bird’s-eye view of all configurations and progress in one place.
Once judging is complete, the dashboard becomes a retrospective tool. Final entry counts, judging completion rates and category-level breakdowns give you the data you need for a meaningful program debrief.
This is the phase that’s easiest to skip, but it’s where the most useful planning information lives. How did this cycle compare to the last? Which categories over- or under-performed? Where did bottlenecks occur?
Good reporting at this stage helps you account for the completed cycle, and informs how to configure the next one. Export the data and reports you need, and share with your program stakeholders.
Most program managers log into their dashboard reactively, when something needs checking or a decision needs to be made. But the teams that get the most from their awards management platform treat the dashboard as a routine part of their workflow at every stage.
Pre-launch, it’s a configuration check. During submissions, it’s a momentum tracker. During judging, it’s a coordination tool. At close-out, it’s your evidence.
In Award Force, the dashboard includes:
Filters can also be applied for seasons, tags, and date ranges to make it easy to drill down into the metrics you need.
There are new charts and metrics added all the time, and clients are welcome to request new additions.
Want to learn more? Watch a demo and explore how the platform’s dashboard and real-time analytics can support your next program cycle.
Articles
Feature focus
How-to-guides
Press releases
Product updates