> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/decisions/decision-record.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 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](decision-register.md)
- [Funding decisions](funding-decisions.md)
- [Decision letters](decision-letters.md)
- [An application](../applications/an-application.md)