> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/applications/referee-requests.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

A referee request lets an applicant name people who answer a short form about them. Each referee
is emailed a single-purpose link and answers without an account. You choose what they answer, how
many referees each question asks for, and whether the applicant can submit before the references
are in. `Application` is your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

## Create a Referee Form

The form a referee fills in is a template of its own.

1. Go to `Plan > Form templates` and open the `Referee Forms` tab.
2. Select `New Referee Form`.
3. Enter the `Template name` and choose its `Kind`:
   - `Reference` — a referee answers questions about the applicant.
   - `Auspice acceptance` — an auspice organisation accepts or declines to support the applicant.
     A decline stops the applicant submitting.
4. Select `Create`. The Form Builder opens; add the questions as you would on any form. A Referee
   Form can't hold file uploads or applicant-organisation questions, because the referee has no
   account.

A Referee Form locks once a referee has started answering it.

## Add a Referee request to an application form

1. Open the application form in the Form Builder.
2. Add the `Referee request` tile from the `Fields` panel. It is offered on application forms only.
3. Give it a label, such as `Referees`, then set its `Referee request` properties:
   - `Referee Form` — the form each referee fills in. Each one is listed with its kind. The form
     can't be saved until one is chosen.
   - `Number of referees` — from 1 to 5.
   - `Required before submit` — `Submit` stays unavailable until this many references are complete.
     Leave it off to let the applicant submit and the references arrive afterwards.
   - `Link lifetime in days` — each link stops working after this many days, from 1 to 90. The
     default is 14.

## Choose who reads references

On the grant's `Application Form` setup step:

- `Applicants can view references` — the applicant can open each completed reference. Off (the
  default), they see only who was asked, the status and the dates.
- `Show references to assessors` — assessors read completed references beside the application.
  Off (the default), assessors never see them and their exports never print them. Under blind
  review, assessors read the answers but never the referee's name or email address.

## What referees receive

- When the applicant selects `Send request`, the referee is emailed a `Reference request` (or an
  `Auspice acceptance request`) with their link.
- Three days before the link expires, a referee who hasn't answered gets one `Reference reminder`
  with the same link. Links that pass their expiry are expired overnight.
- The referee opens the link with no sign-in. They see the applicant's name, the grant and your
  organisation, then the form. They can save as they go, then `Submit reference` (or `Accept` for an
  auspice acceptance), or `Decline` with a reason.
- When a referee completes or declines, the applicant is emailed.
- Every link that no longer works — replaced, expired, completed or declined — shows
  `This link is no longer valid`.

On a test grant, referees named by anyone other than the grant's testers are not emailed. In a
sandbox organisation, referee emails are captured rather than sent.

## The References tab

An application whose form has a `Referee request` shows a `References` tab. Each referee shows their
email, the kind, the question, the status and every date: requested, opened, completed (or
accepted), declined, and when the link expires or ended. A decline shows the referee's reason.

- `View reference` opens a completed reference read-only.
- `Reopen` sends a completed reference back to its referee. A reason is required. Their answers are
  kept under `Earlier versions` with the reason, a new link is emailed and the old one stops working.
  If the reference changed while you were looking at it, the tab says so and reads it again.
- `Request a reference` names a referee on the applicant's behalf.

`Reopen` and `Request a reference` need permission to manage referees.

## See also

- [Form builder](form-builder.md)
- [An application](an-application.md)
- [References, for applicants and referees](../../applicant/references.md)