Award Force Product updates Search for: Select type Articles Ebooks Feature focus How to guides Press releases Product updates Webinars August 2026 Sep 11, 2026 New features Organisations view is now available, connecting entries, program users and activity at organisation level. Program managers can track participation and entry progress, manage access, communicate with organisations and support collaboration across teams. Included on Premier plans and available as an add-on for Pro plans. The new Award Force dashboard is now available, with configurable charts, chart resizing and flexible layouts for organising and viewing program data. The current dashboard remains available during the transition. AI model configurations now include pre-prompt and temperature settings, giving program managers greater control over how AI responds. Pre-prompts define the AI’s role and instructions, while temperature controls how predictable or creative its responses are. HubSpot is now available in the Integration marketplace, allowing Award Force to connect with HubSpot and share data between the two platforms. Learn more about it in this help article. E-invoicing is now available for entry fee invoices in France and Belgium. E-invoice status is displayed alongside payment status in the Invoices list view, and structured invoice files can be downloaded from individual invoice records. Improvements Managers can now configure up to three searchable fields per form or resource. Table row and column labels are now included in API entry payloads. The Submission completed content block can now be selected at form level. New API endpoints are available to get, update and delete fields. The create field endpoint has also been expanded to support user, attachment, contributor and referee fields in addition to entry fields. Emojis are now available in the content editor. Word count announcements in the content editor have been improved for assistive technologies, reducing disruption while users are typing. AI fields can now process uploaded files, including documents and images. The password reset message on the Forgot password form has been updated to better reflect the current login flow. The API now has a 500 per-page limit on the get field endpoint. Enhanced dashboard now available 📈 Sep 8, 2026 The new Award Force dashboard gives you more control over how you view your program data: Customise your charts with predefined templates Resize charts to focus on the information that matters most Rearrange your layout to create a dashboard that works for your program The new dashboard is now available to explore at your own pace, while your current dashboard remains available during the transition. Switch to the new dashboard using the link at the top of your current dashboard. Learn more about it Now available: Organisations view Sep 8, 2026 Connect entries, program users and activity at organisation level to get a clearer view of how each organisation is participating in your awards program. Track entry volume and progress, give each role the level of access it needs, communicate with organisations directly and support collaboration across teams. As programs grow, this structure ensures entries, activity and members remain organised and connected. Learn more about Organisations view July 2026 Aug 6, 2026 New features A new entry assignments list view has arrived! Program managers can now view all current entry assignments in one place, quickly identify gaps and reassign entries to keep judging on track. A new autocomplete address field type enables entrants to start typing their address and select the correct result, making forms both faster to complete and more accurate. Program managers can now screen for eligibility manually. You can use automatic eligibility screeners, screen for eligibility manually or use a combination of both. This includes new notifications, content blocks, bulk actions and more. Program managers can now choose whether entrants are allowed to select their own entry thumbnail via the advanced tab in form settings. Improvements The thumbnail picker now only appears when a thumbnail is available to select. Managers can choose not to display embedded PDFs in the judging view, helping entries load faster. The dashboard completion chart now includes invited, resubmitted and resubmission-required entries. Managers can add collaborators to entries, even when they are not the entry owner. A new autocomplete address field is now available 📍 Jul 21, 2026 Capture complete, consistent addresses with less entrant effort. Suggestions narrow as users type, making location details quicker to enter and easier to get right. Available on all plans for entry and user fields. Learn more about all field types NEW: Review eligibility manually ✅ Jul 14, 2026 Review entrant eligibility manually before entrants continue with their submission. Program managers can hold entries for review, make eligibility decisions when predefined rules are not enough and notify entrants of the outcome. This helps ensure judges see only eligible submissions, reduces unnecessary review work and supports a fair, consistent process for every entrant. Learn more eligibility screener June 2026 Jul 6, 2026 Improvements Judging tasks can now be deleted from both the assignments list view and the manager’s view of an entry. Two improvements were made to the dashboard: Dashboard filters now remember users’ last selected values. A new completion metric has been added to the dashboard, allowing managers to include or exclude archived entries from completion data. Performance has been improved on the judge entry page by loading full-size images only when clicked. Entrants have been removed as recipients from the Collaborator invited notification. May 2026 Jun 3, 2026 New features Program managers can now upload images directly into content blocks, notifications and broadcasts using the editor. Supported file types include PNG, JPG, JPEG and GIF. Entrants can now choose which image is displayed as the thumbnail for their entry using the thumbnail picker. Gallery score sets now support shared scores, allowing judges to view scores from other judging rounds. Improvements A new API endpoint is available to restore deleted users. Address and currency formats are now fully localised to match users’ regional preferences. The entry tagged webhook now includes the specific tag that triggered the event. List view pagination has been improved to increase performance and efficiency. April 2026 May 6, 2026 New features Multi-account dashboards are now available from My Award Force, allowing program managers to view combined dashboard data across multiple accounts within their chosen data residency region. Managers can also resize charts, configure titles and descriptions, and adjust display settings such as labels. Improvements Several updates have been made to the dashboard: Two cumulative trend charts showing submitted entries and total entries over time. A dashboard chart for user registrations. A new icon is displayed for charts with no results. Three new languages have been added to the DeepL integration: Thai, Hebrew and Vietnamese. A new tag trigger is also available. Additional triggers have been added for AI fields, including entry moderated, entry resubmitted, entry tagged and a manual trigger on field configuration save. Help text has been added to the internal judging comment box to clarify where comments appear. Individual judging scores are now included in the get assignment and list assignment API endpoints, complementing the aggregated scores available via the leaderboard endpoint. March 2026 Apr 8, 2026 New features Judges can now switch between list and grid views across all judging modes. A new setting in the score set allows program managers to define the default view. Judges’ comments can now be included as inputs for AI fields. New webhooks are now available: entry copied, entry deleted (soft delete), entry category changed and entry chapter changed. Improvements Pricing and payment-related pages—including prices, pricing rules, payment settings and discount codes—have been updated with improved design and usability. Additional payment data is now included when sending transactions to BPOINT. New dashboard charts are now available: categories with zero entries, cumulative submitted entries and cumulative entries. A tags filter has been added to the dashboard. A new interface text option allows program managers to define the message shown to collaborators when an entry is submitted during editing. Accessibility improvements to keyboard navigation have been made in line with WCAG standards. Now available: E-invoicing for paid awards entry fees Mar 10, 2026 Award Force now enables organisations to generate structured e-invoice files for entry-fee invoices. Structured electronic invoice files can be generated directly from individual invoice records, while payments, invoice data, and e-invoice status remain visible in one consolidated view. The result is clearer oversight, simpler reporting, and stronger operational control over entry-fee transactions without introducing additional systems or parallel workflows. Learn more about it February 2026 Mar 5, 2026 New features Program managers can now require judges to leave a comment when scoring entries in all judging modes. This option was previously available only for VIP judging. E-invoicing is now available for German clients accepting payments through Award Force, supporting compliance with German invoicing regulations. Support for additional regions may follow. Improvements When creating a PDF from a document template, users can now choose whether the file should be generated as an accessible PDF. Accessibility improvements: Labelled text editor fields to enhance accessibility for the chapter and category dropdowns on the entry form. Improved compatibility of the colour picker with Windows high contrast mode. January 2026 Feb 9, 2026 New features A new data residency region is now available in the United Arab Emirates. This brings the total number of supported regions to six. Tables can now be used in multi-line text fields, allowing entrants, judges and managers to format content in a structured layout. Ideal for judging panels and other tabled content. A new API endpoint is now available to delete judging tasks, allowing managers to remove tasks that are no longer required or were created by mistake. Improvements AI fields now apply a default model automatically, simplifying configuration steps. Keyboard navigation has been improved across multiple areas, including the user profile colour selector, tag input on the manager view and several other elements that could not previously be reached using the keyboard tab key. Guest voting has been removed to improve voting integrity. Guests can still view the voting page but must sign in or register to vote. Remaining instances of the legacy editor have been replaced with the new text editor in notification descriptions, field hint and help text. Introducing Award Force AI tools Jan 13, 2026 We are excited to introduce Award Force AI tools, a new set of optional, responsible, privacy-first AI capabilities designed to help awards program managers do more, work smarter and more fairly—at scale. The first capability is our new AI field now available to power smarter awards management. And it’s only the beginning. Learn more about it December 2025 Jan 9, 2026 New features Award Force AI tools are now available—an optional, privacy-first set of AI capabilities designed to support program managers in working more efficiently, fairly and at scale. The first feature, a new AI field type, allows program managers to configure natural-language prompts that generate insights directly within the entry form. A new API endpoint has been added to allow programmatic field creation. Improvements A new score set setting allows judges to view and score entries grouped by category, with entries shown in random order within each group. The broadcast review and recipient views have been updated for clarity. Functionality remains unchanged, but elements have been rearranged and the recipient list moved to a modal to improve future usability. We updated two text labels on the voting page to improve clarity when only one vote is allowed. November 2025 Dec 4, 2025 New features PDFs generated in Award Force, including manager and entrant PDFs, are now accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.2 AA, Section 508 and EN 301 549 accessibility standards. Program managers can now define a minimum password length for users on their account. Feature available on Premier accounts. Armenian has been added to the list of supported languages, bringing the total number of natively translated languages to 46. Improvements To simplify configuration, a field dropdown is now shown when setting up an integration in the Integration marketplace. The countdown timer now updates automatically when the chapter is changed to one with a different end date. October 2025 Nov 6, 2025 Improvements Password and email address changes have been streamlined on the user profile page. A “Forgot password?” link is also now available, particularly useful for users signed in via SAML. When API collaboration is enabled, any file updates made through the API, such as single file uploads or changes to attachment fields, now appear instantly to users editing the submission. Tray settings have been removed from the theme settings menu to simplify the configuration experience. September 2025 Oct 8, 2025 New features The dashboard has been redesigned to offer faster access to key metrics and improved configurability for program and chapter managers. The previous version remains accessible at /dashboard-legacy. A user agreement content block can now be added to the registration form, requiring entrants to accept the terms before completing registration. Albanian has been added to the platform as a supported language, bringing the total to 45. Individual columns in table fields can now be marked as required, offering more granular control over entry completion. New merge fields allow entrant name and email to be included in notifications, providing more options for personalisation. Entrants can now select their preferred video thumbnail, generated automatically during transcoding (one every 60 seconds), for use in list view previews. Improvements Bulk actions to invite entrants are now available in the Manage entries and Users list views. The content block editor has been updated with a full-width text field for easier editing. The user agreement modal has been widened to better support formatted content such as tables. Status fields have been renamed across the platform to indicate whether they belong to entry, judging, payment, plagiarism and more. New + improved: Your program dashboard! Sep 15, 2025 We’ve redesigned the Award Force dashboard to give you faster, more configurable insights into your awards. Every account now includes the enhanced dashboards by default, at no extra cost. Highlights: Separate dashboards for program managers and chapter managers. New charts for moderation and resubmission volumes. New charts for orders per currency. Traffic light indicators for open and closed rounds. Flexible filters, date range comparison and drag-and-drop chart ordering. For advanced reporting needs, custom dashboards are available on Premier plans. Learn more about it August 2025 Sep 3, 2025 New features We’ve updated our text editor, which provides program managers with increased control over how your content looks, without using Markdown formatting. All the usual text-formatting options are available, along with some time-saving enhancements, like the ability to add and resize images directly. New integrations are now available: Xero. When orders are created in Award Force, an invoice is automatically generated in Xero. Once paid in Xero, the payment status is synced back to Award Force. Australian Business Register. Program managers can retrieve verified data on registered Australian businesses to validate entrant status and enrich entry data. Improvements A tax rate mapping system has been implemented to align tax rates in Award Force with those in external platforms such as Xero. The Stripe gateway has been improved to support off-site payments like Alipay and iDEAL, using webhook notifications to ensure payment confirmation is received. A new column option has been added to the Manage entries list view to display the entrant’s language preference. Updates to the update payment API endpoint now allow amount and status fields to be optional, preserving existing values if not included in the update. We’ve given our text editor a big update Aug 18, 2025 We’ve upgraded the Award Force text editor to make formatting easier, faster and more intuitive, requiring no special codes or formatting syntax. The new WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor means you can now create, update and style content directly on screen with greater precision. Here’s what’s new: Easy text styling and hyperlinking. Quick formatting for block quotes, indents and bulleted lists. Drag-to-resize media and images. Learn more about how it works from our blog. Learn more about it July 2025 Jul 30, 2025 New features Form access by role is now available in the Advanced tab of Form settings, allowing program managers to control visibility based on user roles. A new Carts list view shows all pending shopping carts across all entrants/submitters, with the option to convert pending carts to invoices. Improvements A Resubmission required notification trigger is now available. Payment gateway settings now pass credentials even more securely than before. A new embedded PDF viewer for enhanced viewing on iPad and tablets is now available. It works for attachments and single file upload fields in the judging and preview views. A new setting in General settings allows program managers to reverse the order of ID and category shortcodes. Entrants can now be invited from more locations, including User details, Manage entries and Entry details views. Program managers can now enable or disable Internal judge comments in the score set settings. Collaborators are now included in notifications. Field settings now include a sticky table header and improved styling for role selection. Currency and Referee field types are now supported when copying entries in My Award Force. New list view: Carts Jul 16, 2025 A new Carts view is now available under Payments, providing a clear overview of in-progress payment activity. The list includes carts in one of three statuses: Pending submission (when payment is required to start an entry). Payment processing. Payment failed. Each record shows the user, cart status, cart items and a timestamp, helping you track incomplete transactions and understand where payments may have stalled. June 2025 Jul 2, 2025 New features A new Form settings menu under Entries is now available, consolidating several options previously found in General settings, including PDF downloads, chapter moderation and more. A new checkbox on the broadcast page allows program managers to include collaborators when sending broadcasts. Judges can now mark their comments as internal, keeping them hidden from entrants. A new webhook, Field value updated, is now available to trigger instantly when specific form fields are updated. Improvements A warning has been added to panel settings to clarify that including a guest role results in public access. Changing the cover image for the score set can now be done directly on the score set settings page without saving first. Additional interface text overrides are now available: Entry form blank PDF download. PDF upper header title. PDF upper header subtitle. Entry form link extra label. Payments invoice PDF totals thank you message. Ecommerce cart info ready for payment. Ecommerce cart titles entry fee. Ecommerce cart form company name label. The upload message “Save and submit buttons are deactivated while upload is in progress” is now shown in red to improve visibility. Moderation actions are now recorded in the audit log. Introducing the new form settings menu Jul 2, 2025 A new form settings menu is now available, and includes some of the options from General to a new Form settings menu under Entries. This includes settings for entry copy, PDF downloads, chapter moderation and more. May 2025 Jun 4, 2025 Improvements We improved the styling for forced colour settings across the platform to support Windows’ high contrast mode, ensuring better accessibility for users with visual impairments. Keyboard navigation has been improved for both audit and saved views. Auto-score values are now available in column settings and file exports, helping program managers view scores per field alongside the total. A referee panel has been added to the score set settings, allowing program managers to selectively display referee fields to judges and show or hide referee names and email addresses. The video resolution selector now remembers the last selection made by the user. #timesaver A new title parameter has been added to the List entries API endpoint to allow filtering by entry title. April 2025 May 12, 2025 Improvements Tagging is now supported across all judging modes for program managers and users with tagging permissions. In the Manage tasks view, the option to reset/reassign action tasks for referee stages has been removed to avoid confusion for entrants. Columns added via the cog icon in the payments list view can now be sorted. The entrant email and global ID have been added to the Get entry API response. Action flow tasks with future start dates now display an improved message that the round is not open yet. March 2025 Apr 9, 2025 New features You can now use qualitative judging recommendations to highlight one or many standout entries, with or without scores, with new recommendation judging control in the VIP judging mode. Perfect for surfacing multiple awardees within a category. Improvements The sortable score column is now the default column in the judging list view. Judging comments have been added to the Get assignment API endpoint. Hover tips have been added to the collapsed main menu for improved navigation. Based on user feedback, the message on the Suspended account page has been updated. Replace and Upload buttons have been added to Theme settings. Word count calculations have been improved for Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Korean text. Webhook names have been updated for consistency across the platform. The judging list view has been improved with a faster load time. February 2025 Mar 11, 2025 New features A new score matrix has been added to the judging list view, providing an overview of all assignments for a score set along with the total score and individual scoring criteria. All columns are sortable. There is also a new “sum” column option for the scoring matrix. Bulgarian has been added as a supported language, bringing the total number of natively translated languages to 37. Premier accounts can now use their own Twilio accounts to send SMS messages to program participants directly through Award Force. Program managers can now add internal comments to user details, just like entry comments, which are visible only to managers. This can be done in the new Comments tab in user details. For consistency, “Comments” in Manage entries has been renamed to “Entry comments”. Improvements API updates: A webhook is now available for Collaborator invited. A new endpoint has been added to list tax rates. Account owners can now request that audit logs be deleted from their account. January 2025 Feb 5, 2025 New features Video uploads can now include automatically generated captions as an optional upgrade for Premier accounts, with transcription occurring during processing and captions available once complete. Improvements To improve navigation, the setting to lock entries after submission has been moved from Entries > General to Entries > Form settings. Assignment completed and Assignment created webhooks, along with auto tagging, are now available. The Assignment created webhook and auto tagging apply to manually or randomly assigned entries in Manage entries, but do not apply to panel assignments. A Tax details object has been added to the API orders endpoints. Referee fields are visible in all judging modes. The Show my votes only option in the voting list view has been converted to a checkbox to improve visibility. December 2024 Jan 13, 2025 New features Entry collaboration is now available for Premier accounts, enabling teams or groups of entrants to securely collaborate on an entry in real time without shared logins or additional workflows. Voting page category counters have been added for judges, providing a visual indicator of which categories they have already voted for and how many times. Two new API endpoints—List review tasks and Get review task—are now available, along with webhooks for Review task created and Review task submitted. Improvements Improvements have been made to the judging view, with a new visual layout option ideal for programs that showcase images and videos. Taxes now include a dedicated name field, simplifying identification and integration with accounting systems. Payment gateway support for FirstData has been removed. November 2024 Dec 11, 2024 New features Program managers can now set maximum and minimum values for image width and height, providing better control over uploaded images. Improvements Improvements have been made to the colours and flow of entry form buttons to streamline the submission process. Files can now be downloaded with their original file names. Scoring criteria now display in separate panels in the entry judging view for improved visibility. Entry slug and tab slug parameters have been added to the List contributors API endpoint, allowing filtering by entry and tab. Drag-and-drop options in field settings and custom exports can now be moved with a keyboard in compliance with WCAG 2.2 accessibility. An alert is now provided in the referee tab when no review stage is selected in the tab settings. Hong Kong has been added as our newest data residency option, in addition to our existing options in Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States. The Stripe payment gateway now supports Cartes Bancaires with Mastercard and Visa when the currency is set to euros. October 2024 Nov 6, 2024 New features Program managers can now access recent product updates, new features and important announcements from the update centre in Award Force. Improvements The judging comment box can now be turned on for individual scoring criteria, enabling judges to see only specific comment boxes when needed. Using the Google Sheets integration in the Award Force Integration marketplace, entry and user fields can be required. Referee fields are now visible to both reviewers in the review flow and judges in judging views. Judges’ comments are now autosaved. A quality selector icon has been added to the video player toolbar so users can choose their preferred video quality. When enabled in settings, entry ID can now be displayed to reviewers in the review flow task list. Hovering over a file or attachment now displays its full name, allowing users to see truncated names. Timestamp parameters have been added to the List entry API endpoint. September 2024 Oct 8, 2024 New features Entrants can now initiate a Review flow process to contact referees or managers before submitting their entry. A review stage can now be launched in five different ways: manually by the program manager, during entry submission, through another review stage, through the API or by the entrant. Our list of supported languages now includes Catalan, bringing the total to 36. See all languages. Improvements Merge fields have been added to the payment gateway description. API endpoints received several improvements: The List chapter and Get chapter endpoints now include chapter manager as an object, along with full name and slug to allow programmatic interaction. The full form object has been included in all endpoints that return forms. August 2024 Sep 4, 2024 New features New API endpoints have been added for: Create, recuse, unrecuse and delete assignment. Create review task. Program managers can now programmatically trigger a review stage based on something other than entry submission. Custom entry deadlines. Set, update or remove entry deadlines via the API. Improvements The country flag selector replaced the mobile help tooltip on the homepage. Two new parameters have been added to webhooks: subscription_event and http_method. July 2024 Aug 7, 2024 New features API endpoints have been added for List assignment and Get assignment to help API users track judging progress automatically. Improvements List views can now be filtered to show or hide the thumbnail column. The URL detector used to display thumbnails for URL fields has been refactored. After several improvements, user exports are now faster and more performant. A new source parameter has been added to webhooks to distinguish between requests made in the UI and those made through the API. June 2024 Jul 9, 2024 Improvements Score sets and rounds now have API endpoints, which will soon allow judging progress to be tracked through the API. Assignment functionality has been fine-tuned for improved performance, ensuring quicker and more efficient data retrieval. May 2024 Jun 11, 2024 New features With the addition of Malay, we now support 35 languages. Improvements The entrant’s timezone is now displayed on the submitted column timestamp in My entries list view. We have added a SAML button to the “Please log in” page. April 2024 May 9, 2024 New features Auto tagging is now available for optionable fields in review flow and entries, where program managers can create tags for checkbox lists, radio fields and dropdown fields that are added as entries are submitted. Managers can now set maximum and minimum video length in seconds for all supported file types for both single file uploads and attachments. Improvements Top pick judging mode now includes hover tips so judges can easily understand high and low picks. An optional submitted column has been added to the My entries view to make it easy for entrants on perpetual programs to see when their entries were submitted. Endpoints for webhooks have been improved. Improvements were made to reviewing for speed and performance. March 2024 Apr 9, 2024 Improvements List views now display thumbnails for video uploads and URL fields. The manager’s view of a submission now also displays the entrant’s email address. Also included is a copy icon for copying addresses. Custom high resolution video playback is now available to enterprise clients. Accounts that do not wish to have images for files stored outside the European Union can selectively deactivate Imgix. List views will now load much faster, thanks to several background performance improvements. How we handle large file uploads has been improved and will result in a faster experience for entrants. February 2024 Mar 7, 2024 New features The voting list view now has a toggle to “Show my votes only”, a similar view as offered in the Top pick judging mode, where judges can see which entries they’ve chosen. There is a new description field for notifications to help program managers better keep track of notifications and their use. Improvements Several technical improvements were made to prevent resource-intensive commands from causing system delays. January 2024 Feb 7, 2024 New features For organisations requiring multiple Award Force accounts, it’s now possible for the owner to copy configuration across accounts. Improvements Technical improvements were made to prevent resource-intensive commands from causing system delays. December 2023 Jan 9, 2024 Improvements Facebook’s new logo colours are now reflected in the Facebook button. English (Great Britain) text has been replaced by English (United Kingdom). When users access a program page and land on the “Please log in” page, an input field will allow them to log in directly from there without having to click through to the home page. The score set sync timeout length has been extended to support longer requests. The URL field now supports Instagram and Twitch video embeds. We improved how modals work with screen readers and keyboard navigation in line with WCAG accessibility standards. As of 2nd January 2024, users in programs with no SMS feature enabled can only select email when registering. November 2023 Dec 13, 2023 New features Entrants can now download judges’ scores and comments using the newly added button “Print/Save as PDF”. Improvements The Advanced roles settings page has been updated to make it even easier to view and use the full table of settings. The voter role is now automatically applied on all new awards accounts, and corresponding permissions are automatically applied when a voter is added to a panel. Several accessibility improvements were rolled out: We added keyboard focus when dismissing the account toggle at top left The main navigation menus and footer have also received accessibility improvements to help with better navigation. October 2023 Nov 13, 2023 Improvements Program managers can now access form settings by visiting Settings > Entries > Form settings. Accounts that use SAML can now force all users through SAML login. Improvements were made to notifications to help simplify what is displayed and available to each account. The entry ID has been added to orders and invoices as well as sent to the payment gateway for Stripe, Authorize.net, Bluepay, CCAvenue, First Data, Sage Pay, Paystack and eWay. September 2023 Oct 11, 2023 New features Two new languages have been added to the app: Swahili and Bengali. Improvements Program managers can now reassign and reset decisions for review flow workflows in the Review flow tab of the manager’s view of an entry. We’ve made several improvements to the application background to further improve performance, security and reliability. August 2023 Sep 11, 2023 New features There is a new submission deadline counter available to alert entrants how many days, hours, minutes and seconds are left to complete their submissions. This feature is optional and can be toggled on in just a few clicks. Improvements Notifications can now be sent based on specific categories. Program managers can now re-assign review flow tasks to another user when a reviewer is no longer able to complete their tasks. In new accessibility improvements, we added screen reader labels for checkboxes and the action overflow menu to help visually impaired users know which row the checkbox is referencing. A new cog icon has been added to the My Entries view so entrants can now also add and remove columns to suit their preferences. Entry form field slugs can now be accessed from the configuration mode tray under Advanced. #timesaver July 2023 Aug 4, 2023 New features We have upgraded our video file transcoder to support a wider range of codecs, including Apple’s HEVC and speed up encoding across all video files. For Enterprise plan clients, the transcoder supports custom templates, which allows for greater control over video settings including variables such as resolution and bit rate. Improvements The manager’s view of an entry now has tabs for a more structured view. Data is now divided into overview, entry, review flow, judging and if enabled, audit tabs. Permissions in the roles view have been simplified for more streamlined role customisation. Advanced role configuration is still available for more complex role configurations. To enable mobile registration for users in the UAE, SMS communication consent has been added to the home page. To comply with new SMS guidelines in Australia and the UK, we added a sender ID to all SMS messages. The payment pending and payment success notifications are now called order payment pending and order payment success. The payments toggle has also been renamed to order payments. June 2023 Jul 10, 2023 New features Program managers can now add and remove tags from judging views. Contributor field data can now be added and edited via the API. TikTok videos can now be uploaded in an entry, and can be viewed by participants without leaving Award Force. Improvements The “Entry page info box” content block has been renamed to “Entry form info box” to better reflect its location. When downloading a blank entry PDF, the maximum character requirements are now displayed. May 2023 Jun 6, 2023 New features The new home page experience has been launched, including: A new, optimised home page layout Streamlined registration and login Optional display of award opportunities (both entry form and categories) Optional display of about page content Users can now access the home page while logged in via the home icon in the top menu Broadcast emails can now be scheduled. Program managers can schedule communications to be sent at a specific time and date. AddThis social share buttons have been replaced with new buttons from Shareaholic. Changes do not require user action, as new buttons replace old ones automatically. Improvements The “Assign judges modal” now shows judges’ email addresses when hovered over. Adding or removing tags can be done directly from judging views, without having to return to Manage entries. « Older Entries Search our blog Search for: Categories Articles Feature focus How-to-guides Press releases Product updates Follow our blog!
August 2026 Sep 11, 2026 New features Organisations view is now available, connecting entries, program users and activity at organisation level. Program managers can track participation and entry progress, manage access, communicate with organisations and support collaboration across teams. Included on Premier plans and available as an add-on for Pro plans. The new Award Force dashboard is now available, with configurable charts, chart resizing and flexible layouts for organising and viewing program data. The current dashboard remains available during the transition. AI model configurations now include pre-prompt and temperature settings, giving program managers greater control over how AI responds. Pre-prompts define the AI’s role and instructions, while temperature controls how predictable or creative its responses are. HubSpot is now available in the Integration marketplace, allowing Award Force to connect with HubSpot and share data between the two platforms. Learn more about it in this help article. E-invoicing is now available for entry fee invoices in France and Belgium. E-invoice status is displayed alongside payment status in the Invoices list view, and structured invoice files can be downloaded from individual invoice records. Improvements Managers can now configure up to three searchable fields per form or resource. Table row and column labels are now included in API entry payloads. The Submission completed content block can now be selected at form level. New API endpoints are available to get, update and delete fields. The create field endpoint has also been expanded to support user, attachment, contributor and referee fields in addition to entry fields. Emojis are now available in the content editor. Word count announcements in the content editor have been improved for assistive technologies, reducing disruption while users are typing. AI fields can now process uploaded files, including documents and images. The password reset message on the Forgot password form has been updated to better reflect the current login flow. The API now has a 500 per-page limit on the get field endpoint.
Enhanced dashboard now available 📈 Sep 8, 2026 The new Award Force dashboard gives you more control over how you view your program data: Customise your charts with predefined templates Resize charts to focus on the information that matters most Rearrange your layout to create a dashboard that works for your program The new dashboard is now available to explore at your own pace, while your current dashboard remains available during the transition. Switch to the new dashboard using the link at the top of your current dashboard. Learn more about it
Now available: Organisations view Sep 8, 2026 Connect entries, program users and activity at organisation level to get a clearer view of how each organisation is participating in your awards program. Track entry volume and progress, give each role the level of access it needs, communicate with organisations directly and support collaboration across teams. As programs grow, this structure ensures entries, activity and members remain organised and connected. Learn more about Organisations view
July 2026 Aug 6, 2026 New features A new entry assignments list view has arrived! Program managers can now view all current entry assignments in one place, quickly identify gaps and reassign entries to keep judging on track. A new autocomplete address field type enables entrants to start typing their address and select the correct result, making forms both faster to complete and more accurate. Program managers can now screen for eligibility manually. You can use automatic eligibility screeners, screen for eligibility manually or use a combination of both. This includes new notifications, content blocks, bulk actions and more. Program managers can now choose whether entrants are allowed to select their own entry thumbnail via the advanced tab in form settings. Improvements The thumbnail picker now only appears when a thumbnail is available to select. Managers can choose not to display embedded PDFs in the judging view, helping entries load faster. The dashboard completion chart now includes invited, resubmitted and resubmission-required entries. Managers can add collaborators to entries, even when they are not the entry owner.
A new autocomplete address field is now available 📍 Jul 21, 2026 Capture complete, consistent addresses with less entrant effort. Suggestions narrow as users type, making location details quicker to enter and easier to get right. Available on all plans for entry and user fields. Learn more about all field types
NEW: Review eligibility manually ✅ Jul 14, 2026 Review entrant eligibility manually before entrants continue with their submission. Program managers can hold entries for review, make eligibility decisions when predefined rules are not enough and notify entrants of the outcome. This helps ensure judges see only eligible submissions, reduces unnecessary review work and supports a fair, consistent process for every entrant. Learn more eligibility screener
June 2026 Jul 6, 2026 Improvements Judging tasks can now be deleted from both the assignments list view and the manager’s view of an entry. Two improvements were made to the dashboard: Dashboard filters now remember users’ last selected values. A new completion metric has been added to the dashboard, allowing managers to include or exclude archived entries from completion data. Performance has been improved on the judge entry page by loading full-size images only when clicked. Entrants have been removed as recipients from the Collaborator invited notification.
May 2026 Jun 3, 2026 New features Program managers can now upload images directly into content blocks, notifications and broadcasts using the editor. Supported file types include PNG, JPG, JPEG and GIF. Entrants can now choose which image is displayed as the thumbnail for their entry using the thumbnail picker. Gallery score sets now support shared scores, allowing judges to view scores from other judging rounds. Improvements A new API endpoint is available to restore deleted users. Address and currency formats are now fully localised to match users’ regional preferences. The entry tagged webhook now includes the specific tag that triggered the event. List view pagination has been improved to increase performance and efficiency.
April 2026 May 6, 2026 New features Multi-account dashboards are now available from My Award Force, allowing program managers to view combined dashboard data across multiple accounts within their chosen data residency region. Managers can also resize charts, configure titles and descriptions, and adjust display settings such as labels. Improvements Several updates have been made to the dashboard: Two cumulative trend charts showing submitted entries and total entries over time. A dashboard chart for user registrations. A new icon is displayed for charts with no results. Three new languages have been added to the DeepL integration: Thai, Hebrew and Vietnamese. A new tag trigger is also available. Additional triggers have been added for AI fields, including entry moderated, entry resubmitted, entry tagged and a manual trigger on field configuration save. Help text has been added to the internal judging comment box to clarify where comments appear. Individual judging scores are now included in the get assignment and list assignment API endpoints, complementing the aggregated scores available via the leaderboard endpoint.
March 2026 Apr 8, 2026 New features Judges can now switch between list and grid views across all judging modes. A new setting in the score set allows program managers to define the default view. Judges’ comments can now be included as inputs for AI fields. New webhooks are now available: entry copied, entry deleted (soft delete), entry category changed and entry chapter changed. Improvements Pricing and payment-related pages—including prices, pricing rules, payment settings and discount codes—have been updated with improved design and usability. Additional payment data is now included when sending transactions to BPOINT. New dashboard charts are now available: categories with zero entries, cumulative submitted entries and cumulative entries. A tags filter has been added to the dashboard. A new interface text option allows program managers to define the message shown to collaborators when an entry is submitted during editing. Accessibility improvements to keyboard navigation have been made in line with WCAG standards.
Now available: E-invoicing for paid awards entry fees Mar 10, 2026 Award Force now enables organisations to generate structured e-invoice files for entry-fee invoices. Structured electronic invoice files can be generated directly from individual invoice records, while payments, invoice data, and e-invoice status remain visible in one consolidated view. The result is clearer oversight, simpler reporting, and stronger operational control over entry-fee transactions without introducing additional systems or parallel workflows. Learn more about it
February 2026 Mar 5, 2026 New features Program managers can now require judges to leave a comment when scoring entries in all judging modes. This option was previously available only for VIP judging. E-invoicing is now available for German clients accepting payments through Award Force, supporting compliance with German invoicing regulations. Support for additional regions may follow. Improvements When creating a PDF from a document template, users can now choose whether the file should be generated as an accessible PDF. Accessibility improvements: Labelled text editor fields to enhance accessibility for the chapter and category dropdowns on the entry form. Improved compatibility of the colour picker with Windows high contrast mode.
January 2026 Feb 9, 2026 New features A new data residency region is now available in the United Arab Emirates. This brings the total number of supported regions to six. Tables can now be used in multi-line text fields, allowing entrants, judges and managers to format content in a structured layout. Ideal for judging panels and other tabled content. A new API endpoint is now available to delete judging tasks, allowing managers to remove tasks that are no longer required or were created by mistake. Improvements AI fields now apply a default model automatically, simplifying configuration steps. Keyboard navigation has been improved across multiple areas, including the user profile colour selector, tag input on the manager view and several other elements that could not previously be reached using the keyboard tab key. Guest voting has been removed to improve voting integrity. Guests can still view the voting page but must sign in or register to vote. Remaining instances of the legacy editor have been replaced with the new text editor in notification descriptions, field hint and help text.
Introducing Award Force AI tools Jan 13, 2026 We are excited to introduce Award Force AI tools, a new set of optional, responsible, privacy-first AI capabilities designed to help awards program managers do more, work smarter and more fairly—at scale. The first capability is our new AI field now available to power smarter awards management. And it’s only the beginning. Learn more about it
December 2025 Jan 9, 2026 New features Award Force AI tools are now available—an optional, privacy-first set of AI capabilities designed to support program managers in working more efficiently, fairly and at scale. The first feature, a new AI field type, allows program managers to configure natural-language prompts that generate insights directly within the entry form. A new API endpoint has been added to allow programmatic field creation. Improvements A new score set setting allows judges to view and score entries grouped by category, with entries shown in random order within each group. The broadcast review and recipient views have been updated for clarity. Functionality remains unchanged, but elements have been rearranged and the recipient list moved to a modal to improve future usability. We updated two text labels on the voting page to improve clarity when only one vote is allowed.
November 2025 Dec 4, 2025 New features PDFs generated in Award Force, including manager and entrant PDFs, are now accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.2 AA, Section 508 and EN 301 549 accessibility standards. Program managers can now define a minimum password length for users on their account. Feature available on Premier accounts. Armenian has been added to the list of supported languages, bringing the total number of natively translated languages to 46. Improvements To simplify configuration, a field dropdown is now shown when setting up an integration in the Integration marketplace. The countdown timer now updates automatically when the chapter is changed to one with a different end date.
October 2025 Nov 6, 2025 Improvements Password and email address changes have been streamlined on the user profile page. A “Forgot password?” link is also now available, particularly useful for users signed in via SAML. When API collaboration is enabled, any file updates made through the API, such as single file uploads or changes to attachment fields, now appear instantly to users editing the submission. Tray settings have been removed from the theme settings menu to simplify the configuration experience.
September 2025 Oct 8, 2025 New features The dashboard has been redesigned to offer faster access to key metrics and improved configurability for program and chapter managers. The previous version remains accessible at /dashboard-legacy. A user agreement content block can now be added to the registration form, requiring entrants to accept the terms before completing registration. Albanian has been added to the platform as a supported language, bringing the total to 45. Individual columns in table fields can now be marked as required, offering more granular control over entry completion. New merge fields allow entrant name and email to be included in notifications, providing more options for personalisation. Entrants can now select their preferred video thumbnail, generated automatically during transcoding (one every 60 seconds), for use in list view previews. Improvements Bulk actions to invite entrants are now available in the Manage entries and Users list views. The content block editor has been updated with a full-width text field for easier editing. The user agreement modal has been widened to better support formatted content such as tables. Status fields have been renamed across the platform to indicate whether they belong to entry, judging, payment, plagiarism and more.
New + improved: Your program dashboard! Sep 15, 2025 We’ve redesigned the Award Force dashboard to give you faster, more configurable insights into your awards. Every account now includes the enhanced dashboards by default, at no extra cost. Highlights: Separate dashboards for program managers and chapter managers. New charts for moderation and resubmission volumes. New charts for orders per currency. Traffic light indicators for open and closed rounds. Flexible filters, date range comparison and drag-and-drop chart ordering. For advanced reporting needs, custom dashboards are available on Premier plans. Learn more about it
August 2025 Sep 3, 2025 New features We’ve updated our text editor, which provides program managers with increased control over how your content looks, without using Markdown formatting. All the usual text-formatting options are available, along with some time-saving enhancements, like the ability to add and resize images directly. New integrations are now available: Xero. When orders are created in Award Force, an invoice is automatically generated in Xero. Once paid in Xero, the payment status is synced back to Award Force. Australian Business Register. Program managers can retrieve verified data on registered Australian businesses to validate entrant status and enrich entry data. Improvements A tax rate mapping system has been implemented to align tax rates in Award Force with those in external platforms such as Xero. The Stripe gateway has been improved to support off-site payments like Alipay and iDEAL, using webhook notifications to ensure payment confirmation is received. A new column option has been added to the Manage entries list view to display the entrant’s language preference. Updates to the update payment API endpoint now allow amount and status fields to be optional, preserving existing values if not included in the update.
We’ve given our text editor a big update Aug 18, 2025 We’ve upgraded the Award Force text editor to make formatting easier, faster and more intuitive, requiring no special codes or formatting syntax. The new WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor means you can now create, update and style content directly on screen with greater precision. Here’s what’s new: Easy text styling and hyperlinking. Quick formatting for block quotes, indents and bulleted lists. Drag-to-resize media and images. Learn more about how it works from our blog. Learn more about it
July 2025 Jul 30, 2025 New features Form access by role is now available in the Advanced tab of Form settings, allowing program managers to control visibility based on user roles. A new Carts list view shows all pending shopping carts across all entrants/submitters, with the option to convert pending carts to invoices. Improvements A Resubmission required notification trigger is now available. Payment gateway settings now pass credentials even more securely than before. A new embedded PDF viewer for enhanced viewing on iPad and tablets is now available. It works for attachments and single file upload fields in the judging and preview views. A new setting in General settings allows program managers to reverse the order of ID and category shortcodes. Entrants can now be invited from more locations, including User details, Manage entries and Entry details views. Program managers can now enable or disable Internal judge comments in the score set settings. Collaborators are now included in notifications. Field settings now include a sticky table header and improved styling for role selection. Currency and Referee field types are now supported when copying entries in My Award Force.
New list view: Carts Jul 16, 2025 A new Carts view is now available under Payments, providing a clear overview of in-progress payment activity. The list includes carts in one of three statuses: Pending submission (when payment is required to start an entry). Payment processing. Payment failed. Each record shows the user, cart status, cart items and a timestamp, helping you track incomplete transactions and understand where payments may have stalled.
June 2025 Jul 2, 2025 New features A new Form settings menu under Entries is now available, consolidating several options previously found in General settings, including PDF downloads, chapter moderation and more. A new checkbox on the broadcast page allows program managers to include collaborators when sending broadcasts. Judges can now mark their comments as internal, keeping them hidden from entrants. A new webhook, Field value updated, is now available to trigger instantly when specific form fields are updated. Improvements A warning has been added to panel settings to clarify that including a guest role results in public access. Changing the cover image for the score set can now be done directly on the score set settings page without saving first. Additional interface text overrides are now available: Entry form blank PDF download. PDF upper header title. PDF upper header subtitle. Entry form link extra label. Payments invoice PDF totals thank you message. Ecommerce cart info ready for payment. Ecommerce cart titles entry fee. Ecommerce cart form company name label. The upload message “Save and submit buttons are deactivated while upload is in progress” is now shown in red to improve visibility. Moderation actions are now recorded in the audit log.
Introducing the new form settings menu Jul 2, 2025 A new form settings menu is now available, and includes some of the options from General to a new Form settings menu under Entries. This includes settings for entry copy, PDF downloads, chapter moderation and more.
May 2025 Jun 4, 2025 Improvements We improved the styling for forced colour settings across the platform to support Windows’ high contrast mode, ensuring better accessibility for users with visual impairments. Keyboard navigation has been improved for both audit and saved views. Auto-score values are now available in column settings and file exports, helping program managers view scores per field alongside the total. A referee panel has been added to the score set settings, allowing program managers to selectively display referee fields to judges and show or hide referee names and email addresses. The video resolution selector now remembers the last selection made by the user. #timesaver A new title parameter has been added to the List entries API endpoint to allow filtering by entry title.
April 2025 May 12, 2025 Improvements Tagging is now supported across all judging modes for program managers and users with tagging permissions. In the Manage tasks view, the option to reset/reassign action tasks for referee stages has been removed to avoid confusion for entrants. Columns added via the cog icon in the payments list view can now be sorted. The entrant email and global ID have been added to the Get entry API response. Action flow tasks with future start dates now display an improved message that the round is not open yet.
March 2025 Apr 9, 2025 New features You can now use qualitative judging recommendations to highlight one or many standout entries, with or without scores, with new recommendation judging control in the VIP judging mode. Perfect for surfacing multiple awardees within a category. Improvements The sortable score column is now the default column in the judging list view. Judging comments have been added to the Get assignment API endpoint. Hover tips have been added to the collapsed main menu for improved navigation. Based on user feedback, the message on the Suspended account page has been updated. Replace and Upload buttons have been added to Theme settings. Word count calculations have been improved for Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Korean text. Webhook names have been updated for consistency across the platform. The judging list view has been improved with a faster load time.
February 2025 Mar 11, 2025 New features A new score matrix has been added to the judging list view, providing an overview of all assignments for a score set along with the total score and individual scoring criteria. All columns are sortable. There is also a new “sum” column option for the scoring matrix. Bulgarian has been added as a supported language, bringing the total number of natively translated languages to 37. Premier accounts can now use their own Twilio accounts to send SMS messages to program participants directly through Award Force. Program managers can now add internal comments to user details, just like entry comments, which are visible only to managers. This can be done in the new Comments tab in user details. For consistency, “Comments” in Manage entries has been renamed to “Entry comments”. Improvements API updates: A webhook is now available for Collaborator invited. A new endpoint has been added to list tax rates. Account owners can now request that audit logs be deleted from their account.
January 2025 Feb 5, 2025 New features Video uploads can now include automatically generated captions as an optional upgrade for Premier accounts, with transcription occurring during processing and captions available once complete. Improvements To improve navigation, the setting to lock entries after submission has been moved from Entries > General to Entries > Form settings. Assignment completed and Assignment created webhooks, along with auto tagging, are now available. The Assignment created webhook and auto tagging apply to manually or randomly assigned entries in Manage entries, but do not apply to panel assignments. A Tax details object has been added to the API orders endpoints. Referee fields are visible in all judging modes. The Show my votes only option in the voting list view has been converted to a checkbox to improve visibility.
December 2024 Jan 13, 2025 New features Entry collaboration is now available for Premier accounts, enabling teams or groups of entrants to securely collaborate on an entry in real time without shared logins or additional workflows. Voting page category counters have been added for judges, providing a visual indicator of which categories they have already voted for and how many times. Two new API endpoints—List review tasks and Get review task—are now available, along with webhooks for Review task created and Review task submitted. Improvements Improvements have been made to the judging view, with a new visual layout option ideal for programs that showcase images and videos. Taxes now include a dedicated name field, simplifying identification and integration with accounting systems. Payment gateway support for FirstData has been removed.
November 2024 Dec 11, 2024 New features Program managers can now set maximum and minimum values for image width and height, providing better control over uploaded images. Improvements Improvements have been made to the colours and flow of entry form buttons to streamline the submission process. Files can now be downloaded with their original file names. Scoring criteria now display in separate panels in the entry judging view for improved visibility. Entry slug and tab slug parameters have been added to the List contributors API endpoint, allowing filtering by entry and tab. Drag-and-drop options in field settings and custom exports can now be moved with a keyboard in compliance with WCAG 2.2 accessibility. An alert is now provided in the referee tab when no review stage is selected in the tab settings. Hong Kong has been added as our newest data residency option, in addition to our existing options in Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States. The Stripe payment gateway now supports Cartes Bancaires with Mastercard and Visa when the currency is set to euros.
October 2024 Nov 6, 2024 New features Program managers can now access recent product updates, new features and important announcements from the update centre in Award Force. Improvements The judging comment box can now be turned on for individual scoring criteria, enabling judges to see only specific comment boxes when needed. Using the Google Sheets integration in the Award Force Integration marketplace, entry and user fields can be required. Referee fields are now visible to both reviewers in the review flow and judges in judging views. Judges’ comments are now autosaved. A quality selector icon has been added to the video player toolbar so users can choose their preferred video quality. When enabled in settings, entry ID can now be displayed to reviewers in the review flow task list. Hovering over a file or attachment now displays its full name, allowing users to see truncated names. Timestamp parameters have been added to the List entry API endpoint.
September 2024 Oct 8, 2024 New features Entrants can now initiate a Review flow process to contact referees or managers before submitting their entry. A review stage can now be launched in five different ways: manually by the program manager, during entry submission, through another review stage, through the API or by the entrant. Our list of supported languages now includes Catalan, bringing the total to 36. See all languages. Improvements Merge fields have been added to the payment gateway description. API endpoints received several improvements: The List chapter and Get chapter endpoints now include chapter manager as an object, along with full name and slug to allow programmatic interaction. The full form object has been included in all endpoints that return forms.
August 2024 Sep 4, 2024 New features New API endpoints have been added for: Create, recuse, unrecuse and delete assignment. Create review task. Program managers can now programmatically trigger a review stage based on something other than entry submission. Custom entry deadlines. Set, update or remove entry deadlines via the API. Improvements The country flag selector replaced the mobile help tooltip on the homepage. Two new parameters have been added to webhooks: subscription_event and http_method.
July 2024 Aug 7, 2024 New features API endpoints have been added for List assignment and Get assignment to help API users track judging progress automatically. Improvements List views can now be filtered to show or hide the thumbnail column. The URL detector used to display thumbnails for URL fields has been refactored. After several improvements, user exports are now faster and more performant. A new source parameter has been added to webhooks to distinguish between requests made in the UI and those made through the API.
June 2024 Jul 9, 2024 Improvements Score sets and rounds now have API endpoints, which will soon allow judging progress to be tracked through the API. Assignment functionality has been fine-tuned for improved performance, ensuring quicker and more efficient data retrieval.
May 2024 Jun 11, 2024 New features With the addition of Malay, we now support 35 languages. Improvements The entrant’s timezone is now displayed on the submitted column timestamp in My entries list view. We have added a SAML button to the “Please log in” page.
April 2024 May 9, 2024 New features Auto tagging is now available for optionable fields in review flow and entries, where program managers can create tags for checkbox lists, radio fields and dropdown fields that are added as entries are submitted. Managers can now set maximum and minimum video length in seconds for all supported file types for both single file uploads and attachments. Improvements Top pick judging mode now includes hover tips so judges can easily understand high and low picks. An optional submitted column has been added to the My entries view to make it easy for entrants on perpetual programs to see when their entries were submitted. Endpoints for webhooks have been improved. Improvements were made to reviewing for speed and performance.
March 2024 Apr 9, 2024 Improvements List views now display thumbnails for video uploads and URL fields. The manager’s view of a submission now also displays the entrant’s email address. Also included is a copy icon for copying addresses. Custom high resolution video playback is now available to enterprise clients. Accounts that do not wish to have images for files stored outside the European Union can selectively deactivate Imgix. List views will now load much faster, thanks to several background performance improvements. How we handle large file uploads has been improved and will result in a faster experience for entrants.
February 2024 Mar 7, 2024 New features The voting list view now has a toggle to “Show my votes only”, a similar view as offered in the Top pick judging mode, where judges can see which entries they’ve chosen. There is a new description field for notifications to help program managers better keep track of notifications and their use. Improvements Several technical improvements were made to prevent resource-intensive commands from causing system delays.
January 2024 Feb 7, 2024 New features For organisations requiring multiple Award Force accounts, it’s now possible for the owner to copy configuration across accounts. Improvements Technical improvements were made to prevent resource-intensive commands from causing system delays.
December 2023 Jan 9, 2024 Improvements Facebook’s new logo colours are now reflected in the Facebook button. English (Great Britain) text has been replaced by English (United Kingdom). When users access a program page and land on the “Please log in” page, an input field will allow them to log in directly from there without having to click through to the home page. The score set sync timeout length has been extended to support longer requests. The URL field now supports Instagram and Twitch video embeds. We improved how modals work with screen readers and keyboard navigation in line with WCAG accessibility standards. As of 2nd January 2024, users in programs with no SMS feature enabled can only select email when registering.
November 2023 Dec 13, 2023 New features Entrants can now download judges’ scores and comments using the newly added button “Print/Save as PDF”. Improvements The Advanced roles settings page has been updated to make it even easier to view and use the full table of settings. The voter role is now automatically applied on all new awards accounts, and corresponding permissions are automatically applied when a voter is added to a panel. Several accessibility improvements were rolled out: We added keyboard focus when dismissing the account toggle at top left The main navigation menus and footer have also received accessibility improvements to help with better navigation.
October 2023 Nov 13, 2023 Improvements Program managers can now access form settings by visiting Settings > Entries > Form settings. Accounts that use SAML can now force all users through SAML login. Improvements were made to notifications to help simplify what is displayed and available to each account. The entry ID has been added to orders and invoices as well as sent to the payment gateway for Stripe, Authorize.net, Bluepay, CCAvenue, First Data, Sage Pay, Paystack and eWay.
September 2023 Oct 11, 2023 New features Two new languages have been added to the app: Swahili and Bengali. Improvements Program managers can now reassign and reset decisions for review flow workflows in the Review flow tab of the manager’s view of an entry. We’ve made several improvements to the application background to further improve performance, security and reliability.
August 2023 Sep 11, 2023 New features There is a new submission deadline counter available to alert entrants how many days, hours, minutes and seconds are left to complete their submissions. This feature is optional and can be toggled on in just a few clicks. Improvements Notifications can now be sent based on specific categories. Program managers can now re-assign review flow tasks to another user when a reviewer is no longer able to complete their tasks. In new accessibility improvements, we added screen reader labels for checkboxes and the action overflow menu to help visually impaired users know which row the checkbox is referencing. A new cog icon has been added to the My Entries view so entrants can now also add and remove columns to suit their preferences. Entry form field slugs can now be accessed from the configuration mode tray under Advanced. #timesaver
July 2023 Aug 4, 2023 New features We have upgraded our video file transcoder to support a wider range of codecs, including Apple’s HEVC and speed up encoding across all video files. For Enterprise plan clients, the transcoder supports custom templates, which allows for greater control over video settings including variables such as resolution and bit rate. Improvements The manager’s view of an entry now has tabs for a more structured view. Data is now divided into overview, entry, review flow, judging and if enabled, audit tabs. Permissions in the roles view have been simplified for more streamlined role customisation. Advanced role configuration is still available for more complex role configurations. To enable mobile registration for users in the UAE, SMS communication consent has been added to the home page. To comply with new SMS guidelines in Australia and the UK, we added a sender ID to all SMS messages. The payment pending and payment success notifications are now called order payment pending and order payment success. The payments toggle has also been renamed to order payments.
June 2023 Jul 10, 2023 New features Program managers can now add and remove tags from judging views. Contributor field data can now be added and edited via the API. TikTok videos can now be uploaded in an entry, and can be viewed by participants without leaving Award Force. Improvements The “Entry page info box” content block has been renamed to “Entry form info box” to better reflect its location. When downloading a blank entry PDF, the maximum character requirements are now displayed.
May 2023 Jun 6, 2023 New features The new home page experience has been launched, including: A new, optimised home page layout Streamlined registration and login Optional display of award opportunities (both entry form and categories) Optional display of about page content Users can now access the home page while logged in via the home icon in the top menu Broadcast emails can now be scheduled. Program managers can schedule communications to be sent at a specific time and date. AddThis social share buttons have been replaced with new buttons from Shareaholic. Changes do not require user action, as new buttons replace old ones automatically. Improvements The “Assign judges modal” now shows judges’ email addresses when hovered over. Adding or removing tags can be done directly from judging views, without having to return to Manage entries.