Revised 03/16/2026

 

Third Party Overview - Form Editor and Pre-Defined Panels

 

There are two key functions of GOapply for Third Party Responses.
These are:

1) Transcript and Recommendation Form Editors: utilized to create the forms that will be filled out by the third-party user (most typically teachers and counselors). These form editors can be accessed from the Form Editor tab of a Phase record. There are buttons to launch the Transcript Form Editor and Recommendation Form Editor.

2) Pre-defined Dynamic Panels: inserted into phases for the applicants (most typically in the Application phase). This is where the applicant (i.e., student) will list the third-party individual's information. The predefined panels are located in the main Application Form Editor toolbox and are named Recommendation and Transcript.

We will look more closely at these elements later in this document.

The first step when setting up Third Party Responses is to create the Transcript and Recommendation forms. To do this, navigate to the Phase, choose the Form Editor tab, then open the Transcript or Recommendation Form Editor.

GOmanager will launch a blank Transcript or Recommendation form. Drop the fields into the form and create it as you would for a third-party individual to complete. Then Save the form.

As of November 2025, the Transcript Form Editor and Recommendation Form Editor within a Phase will still launch in Advanced Form Builder. For more information on utilizing the Advanced Form Builder, please reference the GOapply Advanced Form Builder Knowledge Article.  

You may note that the heading of the Transcript and Recommendation form editors says Phase: Transcript or Recommendation. This denotes the form you are working on; it does not indicate that a new phase of the application has been created.

              

 

Transcript and Recommendation Form Definitions

 

In Phase records, there are fields to capture the Transcript Form Definition and Recommendation Form Definition. Once each third-party form is created and saved, the form definitions will be populated.  

 

Pre-Defined Dynamic Panels Overview

 

In the Application Form Editor, you will utilize the Transcript and Recommendation panels. This is where the applicant will list the third-party individual(s) who will complete the form(s) set up in Step 1. Give each panel a name and, optionally, a description.

 

Pre-Defined Dynamic Panels - Simple Form Builder

We recommend using Simple Form Builder to build your application. If you are building a new phase, it will open in Simple Form Builder by default. 

You must complete this step after building the Transcript and Recommendation Forms. If you attempt to insert the Transcript or Recommendation panels before setting up the Transcript and/or Recommendation Forms, you will receive an error.

To insert the Transcript or Recommendation panel within Simple Form Builder, begin from the Designer tab. Scroll down or search for Transcript or Recommendation from the "Request" section of the side navigation bar to find the panel. The third-party pre-defined panels will be indicated with a speech bubble icon:

 

To insert the predefined dynamic panel, click Insert at the end of the last page, or drag and drop it to the page where you would like to insert the panel. Here is an example of the Transcript panel inserted within the Application phase using Simple Form Builder: 

After inserting the panel, set the General Properties for this question (such as the Question name, Question title, and Question description. For further instruction on setting question properties within Simple Form Builder, please reference the GOapply Simple Form Builder KA. 

 

Pre-Defined Dynamic Panels - Advanced Form Builder

If your phase was built before the release of Simple Form Builder, or if you have chosen to use the Advanced Form Builder instead, you will insert the predefined dynamic panels there. 

Select the Recommendation or Transcript panel from the Toolbox and set the properties of this question (such as the Question name, Question title, and Question description). For further instruction on setting question properties within Advanced Form Builder, please reference the GOapply Advanced Form Builder KA.

 

Important: these panels are pre-mapped. You do not need to manually map them. The information collected from them will be mapped to an entity called GOapply Third Party Responses that will be available in the Related tab of the main Status Tracking Record. Responder information will also be stored in a table called Third Party Responses.

 

After all setup and testing is complete, you will publish the GOapply Opportunity, and applicants will fill out the dynamic panels and submit the phase.

Upon clicking Submit, an email will go out to the specified third-party individuals inviting them to upload their transcripts or letters. As mentioned above, this email is sent via programming and is driven by Email Templates. The third-party user does not need to be a registered GOapply user, as the email they receive includes a unique link taking them to the form they need to complete. 

In the time between the applicant’s phase submission and the external responder’s submission, the Status Tracking Record will be in Status = Waiting for External Reply, and the Request’s Special Request Status will be set to “awaiting third-party reply”. Once all external replies are submitted, the Status Tracking current phase status will update to Submitted, and the Special Request Status will clear.

 

A new record will be created for each third-party response. Note that while the external party has their form open, the Current Status field will read as In Progress. Once they submit their form, that field will flip to Completed. Sent status means the email has been sent, but the form has not been opened. This record can be accessed from the main status-tracking record, from the Third Party Responses tab, or from the Third Party Responses table. 

 

 

Third-Party User(s) Submission of Recommendation and/or Transcript

 

After the GOapply user submits their application, the third-party user will receive an email with links to complete the appropriate form. Again, the Third-Party User does not need to be a registered GOapply user. The link in the email is unique to the submission they were listed within. 

 

The external responders will click this link to submit their forms and upload any requested materials. Please note that these uploads will be moved to a new folder in the SharePoint location for the Request. This folder will be created upon the third party's submission of the form.

Third Party Responses Table

 

In the GOapply area, there is a table called Third Party Responses that shows each submitted or pending third-party response.  

 
  

In a Third-Party Response record, you’ll find:

• the third-party name and email
• the current status
  • Sent: email request sent
  • In Progress: form opened but not submitted
  • Complete: documents uploaded and submitted, the PDF of their responses
• External Form Response: the PDF of their responses to the form
• Submitted File: the file that the third party uploaded (if applicable)
• Relationship: for recommendation requests
• School: for transcript requests
• Response Type: Transcript or Recommendation
• Request: a lookup to the corresponding request record
• GOapply Status Tracking: a lookup to the corresponding status tracking record
• GOapply User: the scholarship applicant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viewing Third-Party Responses Form a Request

 

Another place to find third-party response records is in the GOapply tab of the corresponding Request. At the bottom of the page, a subgrid called GOapply Third Party Responses displays the response records. 

 

Attachments

 

When third-party users submit materials, these attachments will be uploaded to the Documents tab on Request.

 

Attachments can also be found from the Status Tracking record by clicking Related > GOapply Status Tracking Attachments:

 

Please note that the form submission PDFs and the attachments they submitted will live here.  

Name = Name of the field in the Form Editor. Value = name of external party’s attachment or submission PDF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each attachment and submission has a corresponding record. 

 

Manually Uploading Third-Party Responses

To manually upload a third-party attachment, navigate to the applicant's Status Tracking record. Click the “Related” tab and find the “GOapply Third Party Response” tab; this is where the responses from third-party users can be found:

 

 

Select the appropriate third-party response:

Upload the letter of recommendation or transcript by selecting the “Upload File” in the “Submitted File” field:

 

Hit “Save” in the command bar:

 

Third Party Responses - Scholarship Specific

If your organization is using transcript or recommendation panels to collect third-party responses on an individual scholarship basis, any attachments from those will be stored in a Requested Scholarship-related table called Requested Scholarship Attachments. For more information on scholarship-specific forms, please see the Scholarship Automatch Knowledge Article. 

Notifications of Submission

While waiting for third-party responders to submit their forms, the GOapply Status Tracking Record will be in the "Waiting for third-party reply" status, and the submission will appear in the applicant's Submissions dashboard in the GOapply UI with the status Pending.

The applicant will receive an email each time a third-party user submits a form, and another to confirm their application submission once all third-party users have completed their forms.

For example, if the application requires a transcript and three letters of recommendation, the applicant will receive five emails: one for the transcript, three for the letters, and one submission confirmation.

The email that is sent when a third-party user completes their form is driven by the GOapply - Recommendation/Transcript Updated Email Template. 
The submission confirmation email is driven by the GOapply Submission Confirmation to Applicant Email Template.

For more information on accessing and editing Email Templates, please refer to the How to Edit Email Templates in akoyaGO Knowledge Article.  

Resend Third Party Requests

 

Applicants can resend their requests to their transcript or letter of recommendation providers. If, for example, the request got lost in their inbox or the applicant entered their email address incorrectly, they can change it and resend it.

Note: editing one of these requests is only possible if the Status is Sent. If the third-party responder has already completed and submitted the form, editing is not possible. If the form is In Progress, editing is not recommended; however, it is possible if someone on the foundation staff changes the Status on the third-party response record from In Progress back to Sent. 

In the applicant’s submitted dashboard, under their main submission, they will see a grid listing the third parties to which requests were sent for that application. They can choose to Resend Email or Edit.

Resend Email will resend the request to the email address in the grid.

 

Edit will open the form, and the applicant can change any information except the request type. This option will also resend the email.

Important: Once they click Update Request, the request will be resent to the third party.

GOapply Logs

 

Third-party response activities are also stored in the GOapply logs. An activity is created when the third-party response is requested and when it is submitted.

From the Activities table, you can choose to reference one of the GOapply Logs System Views:  

 

Here is an example of third-party activity from the All GOapply Logs System View: