> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/decisions/decline-queue.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 grant round can hold its declines for a few days after you send them. While a decline waits in
the decline queue, nothing is sent: the applicant gets no letter and no email, and the application
keeps the status it had. When the time comes, Backed releases it exactly as if it had been sent
then. `Decision`, `Application` and `Grant` are your organisation's own terms if you've renamed
them.

## Before you start

To hold a round's declines, you need permission to edit and publish the grant. To release or
cancel a queued decline, you need permission to send funding decisions.

## Hold a round's declines

1. Open the grant round and go to `Advanced Settings > Decisions`.
2. In `Hold declines for`, enter a whole number of days from 0 to 90.
3. Select `Save`.

0 sends declines at once. The setting applies to declines sent after you change it; a decline
already in the queue keeps its time.

## What happens when you send

When you send a funding decision that declines applications on a round that holds declines, each
application goes into the decline queue with the time it will be released. The sent decision shows
each line as `Queued until` its date and time, with `Open the decline queue`. The application's
page shows the same under `Application Decisions`.

Approvals are never held.

## The decline queue

Go to `Decide > Decline queue`. It lists every decline waiting to be released, soonest
first: the application, the applicant, the grant, the decision, the decline reason, when it was
sent, when it will be released and who sent it. Filter it by grant, or open it from a sent
decision to see only that decision's declines.

Backed checks the queue every 15 minutes. A decline whose time has come is released: the
application moves to its declined status, the Letter of Decline is generated and the applicant is
emailed, as if the decision had been sent then.

## Release a decline now

1. Select `Release now` on the decline's row.
2. Select `Release now` again to confirm.

The decline is released at once, exactly as it would have been at its time.

## Cancel a decline

1. Select `Cancel` on the decline's row.
2. Enter a `Reason for cancelling`. It is internal and the applicant never sees it.
3. Select `Cancel decline`.

Nothing is sent and the application keeps the status it had, so it can be decided again. To cancel
every queued decline of one decision, open the sent decision and select `Cancel queued declines`.

A queued decline cannot be revoked: cancel it instead.

## See also

- [Funding decisions](funding-decisions.md)
- [Decline reasons](decline-reasons.md)