> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/assessments/assessment-templates.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.

An assessment form is the form an assessor fills in for each application. You build it in the Form
Builder under `Plan > Form templates > Assessments`, and choose it on the `Template` step of an
assessment round.

## Create an assessment form

1. Go to `Plan > Form templates` and open the `Assessments` tab.
2. Select `New Template`, enter the `Template name` and select `Create`.
3. Add the questions in the Form Builder. See [Form builder](../applications/form-builder.md).

You can also select `Create a New Assessment Form` on an assessment round's `Template` step.

## Score a field

Choice fields and sliders can be scored. In the Form Builder:

1. Select the field and turn on `Score this field`. Each answer's score adds to the assessment's
   total.
2. Give every option a score. An option without one adds nothing to the total. For a slider, the
   number chosen is the score.
3. Optionally set a `Weight`. A weight of 1 doubles the score, and 10 turns a score of 10 into 110.
   Leave it blank for none.
4. On a scored `Single choice`, optionally fill in each option's `Anchor descriptor`: a sentence of
   up to 500 characters saying what that level means. Assessors see it beside the option's score.
   Anchor descriptors can't be changed once the form is in use.

The field shows the most it can add, and the form shows its `Total Score`. Scored fields are marked
`Scored field` in the fields panel.

If you stop scoring a field on a form that is in use, the scores already given for that field are
recalculated when you save.

An application's assessment scores are added together. Averaging or normalising them instead is
turned on for your organisation by Backed support; there is no setting for it on your side.

## Criteria library

The criteria library holds scored questions you can reuse across assessment forms. Each criterion
has a name, guidance for assessors, a default weight and a scale of 3 to 10 levels. Each level has
a label, a score and an optional anchor descriptor, and scores go up from the first level to the
last.

1. Go to `Plan > Form templates` and open the `Criteria library` tab. The list shows each
   criterion's `Scale`, `Default weight`, `Current version` and how many templates it is `Used in`.
2. Select `New criterion`, fill in the name, guidance, default weight and scale, and select
   `Create criterion`.

Select `Edit` to change a criterion. Saving a changed scale, guidance or weight makes a new version.
Forms that already use the criterion keep the version they were given.

To add a criterion to a form, open the form in the Form Builder and select `Insert from criteria
library` in the fields panel, then choose the criterion. Save any changes first. It is added to the
end of the selected section as a scored `Single choice`, with the criterion's levels, anchors,
guidance and weight. You can't insert a criterion into a form that is in use.

When a newer version of a criterion exists, the field's panel says `Newer version available`.
Select `Update to version` to bring the field up to date. This is only possible while the form is
not in use. Changes you make to an inserted field's options apply to that form only.

`Archive` hides a criterion from `Insert from criteria library` without changing the forms that use
it; tick `Show archived criteria` to see it again and select `Unarchive`. `Delete` removes a
criterion that no form uses. A criterion in use can't be deleted; archive it instead.

## Capacity assessment settings

An assessment form can instead be a capacity template, used to rate an organisation's capacity
rather than to score applications. Open the template with `View` and, under `Capacity assessment`:

- Tick `Capacity assessment`. The template is then offered only when you start a capacity
  assessment, never on an assessment round's `Template` step.
- Set the `Divergence threshold (% of a criterion's maximum)`, 20 % unless you change it.
- Add the `Rating bands` on the total: a `Label` and `From (% of the total)` each, the first from 0.

Select `Save capacity settings`. A template in use keeps its threshold and bands. See
[Capacity assessments](capacity-assessments.md).

## See also

- [Assessment rounds](assessment-rounds.md)
- [Capacity assessments](capacity-assessments.md)