The decision record

A decision record is the evidence of how a funding decision was reached, in one PDF you can file or hand to an auditor. For each application it sets out six sections, in this order: Assessment, Conflicts of interest, Recommendation, Review and approval, Decision and Letters. Every fact in it cites the audit entry that recorded it, and the letters themselves are appended as they were stored.

Before you start

You need Can access Funding Decisions and permission to generate reports. You see only the applications you can already read, and a section you cannot read is left out: the cover says which, and why.

Export one application's record

1. Open the application and go to its Decision panel. The export appears once the application has a decision.
2. Select Export decision record. Backed says Preparing the decision record. This can take a minute.
3. When it says The decision record is ready., select Download PDF, or Download CSV for the same facts as a spreadsheet.

If it could not be made, select Try again, which makes a new record from the decisions as they stand now.

Export a round's record

A round's record holds every application in it that has a decision you can see, in application number order.

1. Go to Funding Decisions > Register and filter it to one grant round. Decision record appears beside Export CSV and Export XLSX. It does not appear for several rounds or for none.
2. Select Decision record, and download the files when they are ready, as above.

If the round holds no sent decision you can see, Backed says There is no sent decision here that you can see, so there is nothing for a decision record to hold. and makes nothing. A round can hold up to 250 applications in one record; above that, Backed says so when you ask and makes nothing.

The recommendation

The Recommendation section states the recommendation as it stands now, who recorded it, why, and the audit entry that recorded it. An application has one recommendation, so the section states it once, even when the application was decided again after a revoked decision. If it was recorded or changed after a decision went out, the record says so and names that decision's sent time: Recorded or changed after the Decision sent and the time in UTC, to the second, as the Decision sent row shows it. Where nobody recorded a recommendation, the section says none was recorded and names the person who created the decision as the recommender.

What each fact cites

Each row gives the fact, who did it, the value, when, and the audit entry: its number, its time in your organisation's time zone and in UTC, and the chain position of the seal that covers it.

• Unsealed at export means the entry was written after the last seal. Backed waits one sealing interval before it builds the record, so this is rare; the entry is still listed.
• No audit entry means no audit entry records that fact, such as the amount requested, which is part of the application itself.

The cover

The cover states the organisation, what the record covers, who exported it and when, the range of audit entries cited, the last seal, and the result of checking each cited seal against the one before it. If a check fails, the cover says Verification FAILED with the chain positions, and the record is still made, so you have the evidence of what was found.

The CSV

The same facts, one row per fact, are attached inside the PDF as decision-record.csv and offered as Download CSV. The two are the same file, byte for byte.

See also

• The decision register
• Funding decisions
• Decision letters
• An application