> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/decisions/funding-decisions.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 funding decision approves or declines a set of submitted applications from one grant round and
sends each applicant a letter, or defers them to decide later. `Decision`, `Application` and `Grant`
are your organisation's own terms if you've renamed them.

## Create a decision

1. Select `Decide > Funding decisions`, then `Create Decision`.
2. Choose the grant round. Every application in a decision belongs to one grant round.
3. Work through the steps. Changes save automatically.

You can also start a decision without choosing the grant round:

- `Create Decision` on an application opens a decision on its grant round with that application
  already ticked.
- `Record decisions` on a meeting's `Minutes` tab opens a decision with the meeting's agenda
  applications for that grant round already ticked.

The draft decision is made first, then the applications are ticked. If one can't be ticked, for
example because it's no longer decidable, the page says why and offers `Open the draft`. The draft
is kept: open it, fix the selection on the `Application` step and carry on.

### Decisions

Choose the `Outcome`: `Approve`, `Decline` or `Defer`. It applies to every application in the
decision. Give the decision an optional `Title` to tell it apart from others for the same grant round.

`Defer` puts the applications off to a later decision. A deferral sends no letter and notifies
nobody, so a `Defer` decision has three steps: `Decisions`, `Application` and `Record Deferral`.

### Application

Tick the applications to decide. Only applications that are submitted, or pending board approval,
without a sent decision can be decided.

To decide an assessment round's shortlist, enter its tag under `Tags` (such as `shortlisted`) and
select `Search`. While a tag is entered, the tick box at the top of the list ticks the applications
on that page only.

### Notification Details

For an approval, choose `How are the Applicants notified?`:

- `Offer Notification`: the letter tells the applicant they are approved. They have nothing to
  accept.
- `Offer & Decision`: the letter makes an offer the applicant accepts or declines.

Each application shows its `Recommendation`: `Approve`, `Review` or `Decline`, with who recorded it
and when, or `No recommendation`. If you can access funding decisions, select `Record
recommendation` to record or change it, with an optional rationale of up to 2,000 characters. The
recommendation belongs to the application, not the decision: it is internal, the applicant never
sees it, and it shows on the [decision register](decision-register.md). If a rationale is already
recorded, type it again to keep it; saving a blank rationale records none.

Set the `Amount granted` for each application beside its `Requested Amount`. A decline letter has no
amount. For any application you can `Add personal message`, added to that applicant's letter email
only.

If your organisation has `Administrator drafting` switched on, an open message offers `Draft with
AI`. The suggestion appears in a card: `Accept` adds it to the message, `Edit` lets you change it
first, and `Discard` drops it. Accepting sends nothing and saves nothing; the message is saved the
way anything you type here is.

Each approved application has an `Amount type`: `Cash`, or `In-kind` for goods or services. Choose
`In-kind` and enter `What is given`, `Quantity`, `Unit` and `Declared value` instead of an `Amount
granted`; an in-kind award grants no cash. A line keeps its amount type once the decision is sent.
See [In-kind grants](../payments/in-kind.md).

For a decline, choose each application's `Decline reason`. The list is grouped by category and holds
your organisation's active reasons (see [Decline reasons](decline-reasons.md)). Every declined
application needs one before the decision can be sent.

Each application also has a `Decision rationale` of up to 2,000 characters, which records why the
decision was made. It is internal: the applicant never sees it, in a letter, an email or the portal.
Whether a rationale is required depends on the grant's `Require rationale` setting. The step lists
the rules this decision must meet under `Before this Decision can be sent`.

To give several applications the same reason or rationale, tick them and select `Apply to selected`.
Leave the reason or the rationale as it is to keep each application's own.

Once a decision is sent, its reasons and rationales can no longer change. Add an internal comment to
the decision instead.

### Select a Letter Template

Choose the `Letter Template`, or create one with `New Letter Template`. Select `Preview` to see the
letter as the first ticked application would receive it, or `Edit` to change this decision's letter.
See [Decision letters](decision-letters.md).

If the round has an `Offer letter` or `Decline letter` under `Advanced Settings`, the step selects
the one for the decision's outcome for you and says `Pre-selected from the grant's letter choices`
beneath the list. Choose another template to replace it.

### Send

Choose who to `Notify` for each application, then select `Send Letter of Offer` or
`Send Letter of Decline`. Each application moves to its decided status, and only revoking undoes it.
If the round holds declines, a decline waits in the decline queue instead, and nothing is sent
until it is released (see [Decline queue](decline-queue.md)).

If an `Amount granted` would exceed a budget, Backed tells you by how much. What happens next
depends on the budget: an informational budget only records it and the send goes ahead; a budget
that warns asks you to tick `I understand this Decision exceeds the budget` first; a budget that
blocks holds the send until you lower an amount or raise the budget.

#### Check the letters before sending

When a decision sends letters, select `Check letters` first. Backed renders every application's
letter exactly as the send would print it, without storing any letter or emailing anyone, and
opens them one per page (`Letter 1 of 12`, with `Previous` and `Next`). Letters with problems come
first. Each letter's flags sit beside it, each naming its field or block:

- `Empty field`: a merge field printed nothing.
- `Default value`: a merge field printed its fallback, or the letter still holds placeholder text.
- `Amount differs`: the approved amount isn't in the letter, or a typed amount doesn't match the
  application's `Amount granted`.
- `Missing attachment`: an image or the signature is missing or hasn't passed its scan.

Fix the cause (the letter, a personal message or the record) and check again. If a flag is fine as
it is, and you can send funding decisions, tick it and any others on that letter, enter one reason
and select `Waive`. A waiver carries over when you check again, for the same application, kind and
field. `Open letters` pages through the last check again without running a new one.

The line above the send button shows the last check, for example `Checked 8 Nov 2026, 2:02 pm – 2
waived, 0 open`. The send stays unavailable, and says why, until the letters have been checked
since the decision last changed (including a `Notify` tick) and no flag is open. A decision of more
than 200 applications is checked in the background, and the letters open when the check is done.
If a background check still hasn't finished 10 minutes after it started, the line says so and
`Check letters` is available again: select it to start a new check, which replaces the unfinished
one.
Each check and each waiver, with its reason, is recorded in the decision's history.

### Record Deferral

A `Defer` decision's last step is `Record Deferral`, not `Send`. Select `Record Deferral` and add an
optional reason of up to 2,000 characters: it stays on the decision record for your team, and
applicants never see it. No letter or email is sent, and each application stays `Submitted`. The
step then says `Deferral recorded. No letter or email was sent.` and shows each application as
`Deferred`, with who recorded it, when, and the reason. A deferred application can be ticked in a
later decision that approves or declines it.

A `Defer` decision can't be sent, and an `Approve` or `Decline` decision can't be deferred: change
the `Outcome` on the `Decisions` step first.

## Ask for a review

If you do not have permission to send decisions, or an amount is above your Decision Approval Limit,
select `Request Review` and choose the `Reviewer`. They get a task and an email, and the decision shows
`Decision pending review`. The reviewer selects `Approve and Send`, or hands it on with
`Review Request`.

While a decision is a `Draft`, only the administrator who created it can change it.

## After sending

A sent decision lists each application with its `Status` and `Letter`. Tick lines and:

- `Revoke Decisions` to undo them. Each application goes back to the status it had before the
  decision was sent.
- `Resend Letters` to email the stored letter again to the same people.
- `Retry` if some letters or their PDFs have not been generated yet.

Select `View letter` to read a letter, or `Download PDF`.

A deferred decision reads `Deferred`, not `Sent`. It says no letter or email was sent and who
recorded the deferral, and lists its `Deferred` applications with no letters and nothing to revoke
or resend. Each line names who deferred it, when and the reason they gave. Below the lines, `History` lists everything that happened to the decision, newest first:
who created it, who was asked to review it, who sent it and who revoked it, each with the time.

## Conditions

An approved application can carry conditions the applicant must meet, each with a conditions form
and an optional due date. Add them with `Add Condition` under `Decision Conditions` on the
application. When the applicant submits a condition, `Approve` it or `Request Resubmission`.

## See also

- [Decision letters](decision-letters.md)
- [In-kind grants](../payments/in-kind.md)
- [Decline queue](decline-queue.md)
- [Run a meeting with an agenda, a pack and minutes](../reports/meetings.md)
- [Frequently asked questions about decisions](faq-decisions.md)