Getting started as an administrator

The Administrator portal is where you set up and run your organisation's grants. This article walks through what you see when you sign in.

Getting started

If you are an administrator, Getting started in the top bar, at the right of the bell, opens the go-live checklists, in the order that takes a new organisation from an empty account to its first published grant and on through the life of its grants.

The page is laid out like organisation setup: the checklists run down the left under Going live, with how many you have finished, and the checklist you are on sits beside them. It opens at the first checklist with a step left. Select a checklist on the left, or use Previous checklist and Next checklist, to move between them. A checklist is ticked on the left once every one of its steps is done.

Each step says what to check and links the screen it names; a step about one grant opens the list you choose the grant from. Tick Done when you have finished a step, and the checklist counts what is left. The number beside Getting started in the top bar is how many checklists you have not finished, and it goes when they all are. Your ticks are kept in this browser only, so another browser or device starts with none ticked.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard opens with a greeting, then the view for your role, then your sections. Until all six steps of your organisation's setup are done, its lead Administrator also sees Finish setting up at the top. See Set up your organisation.

View as

To choose what leads your Dashboard, open your name, select View as…, then under Your roles choose Admin: Program manager, Admin: Finance or Admin: Board and select Apply. You can do this from any page. The view you choose is kept for you on any device you sign in on, and it changes nobody else's Dashboard. It changes only what leads the page: every section you have access to is still shown below it, in every view.

Until you choose one, your Dashboard opens on the view that fits what you can do: Program manager if you can open applications, assessments or funding decisions; otherwise Finance if you can open payments; otherwise Board if you can generate reports and open grants; otherwise Program manager. If you ran setup, the role you chose in its first step set it.

Each panel in a view shows only what you have access to, and a panel whose screen is closed to you or not turned on for your organisation is not shown. When none of a view's panels can be shown, the view says so in one line. Every figure links to the list that counts it.

Program manager

The headings below use your organisation's own terms if you've renamed them; these are the defaults. The grant in flight follows the open grant closing soonest or, when none is open, the grant that closed most recently.

Its figures: Applications in so far, every application started or submitted in the grant, which opens the grant's Applications tab; when the grant closes; and how many are Started, not yet submitted. Review N applications opens the submitted applications; when none are waiting, Open the grant opens the grant instead.
Assessment completion is a gauge of how many of the scores assigned in the grant are in, with the Slowest assessment round: the one furthest behind.
Applications by week counts the applications submitted to the grant in flight in each of the last eight weeks, whichever columns your lists show. Its N this week opens that week's applications.
Assessors to nudge lists the assessors with scoring still to do, soonest due first, with how many they have scored and when they are due or since when they are overdue. It needs the Assessor and Due Date columns shown in the grant's assessments list; when one is hidden, it names it, such as The Due Date column is hidden in your columns, so nobody can be named here., and when both are, it says The Assessor and Due Date columns are hidden in your columns. When the grant has more than 200 assessments, it counts from the first 200 and says so: Counted from the first 200 of N assessments.

Finance

Money out the door covers your organisation's financial year.

Paid to grantees this year, with what is Committed, not yet paid and the Average days to pay. Its button reviews the next payment run, such as Review Tuesday's run, or says Open payments when none is scheduled.
Fund left to commit (headed with the fund's name when you have one, such as Community Fund left to commit) is a gauge of how much of the fund is committed, with what is left and, at the pace of the last six months, the month it will be fully committed. Below it is the Next payment run: its date, how many payments and their total.
Waiting on you lists payment batches to approve, payments past their scheduled date, milestones to review and milestones that are overdue.
Committed and paid, by month covers the last six months.
Milestones due in the next 30 days lists them, soonest first.

Board

Portfolio covers your organisation's financial year.

Live grants, what is Committed to them and what was Paid this year. Build a board pack opens your board packs.
Outcomes we said we would move shows, for each outcomes framework, how close your grants are to their targets and how many indicators have been measured.
Where the money went shows what was paid this year by category.
From the latest reports shows the latest story from your quarterly reports that may be shared, such as an impact story or a learning reflection.

Your sections

Below the view, the Dashboard shows these sections. A section you do not have access to is not shown.

Needs you lists what is waiting on you: people asking to join, grants closing soon, grants you haven't finished setting up, applications waiting for a decision, and quarter reports to write. When there is nothing, it says Nothing needs you right now.
Where every Application stands counts applications across your open and recently closed grants by stage: Incomplete, Submitted, Assessed, Approved and Declined. Hover over a stage to see what it means.
Grants shows a card per grant with its status (Draft, Published or Closed) and one date. A published grant that is taking applications shows its closing date (Closes 30 Jun 2026), or Always open when it has none. A published grant that has not opened yet shows the date it opens instead (Opens 1 Apr 2026), and its Published badge takes a quieter colour than an open grant's. A closed grant shows the date it closed. Select All Grants for the full list, or Set up your first one if you have none.
My Tasks lists your outstanding tasks. Select View all tasks to open Tasks.
Registrations to review lists applicant registrations waiting for you. Select Review on one.
Visualisations holds the charts you add with Add visualisation. Each one shows a figure from your data; use its menu to Edit, Duplicate or Remove it. Amounts in more than one currency are never added together: the figure or chart is shown once for each currency, headed In NZD. Start from a recipe, at the top of Add visualisation, fills the editor in from a ready-made chart such as Success rate or Payments outstanding. Choose Budget as the source to add a Budget tile: paid, committed and remaining for everything, one grant or one program, for this financial year, last financial year or the calendar year to date, with a link to the budget report. See See committed, paid and remaining against each budget. At the foot of the section, Governance Dashboards lists the named dashboards you made and those shared with your Admin Groups. See Governance dashboards.

Choose Map as the Visualisation type to show where your applications are. A map always shows applications. Its Layer is either Points or Regions:
- Points puts each located application on the map, coloured by its Status or by Approved or declined. Nearby points are grouped into a numbered circle; select it to zoom in. Select a point to open that application. Under the map, the legend names each colour and how many applications have it. It also says how many applications have no located address and aren't shown.
- Regions lists each Local government area, Federal electorate or State electorate with its count of applications, or the sum of their approved amounts. The largest is first, and each row's swatch is shaded by its figure. Amounts in different currencies are listed separately. A New Zealand application counts in its territorial authority and its general electorate. State electorates are Australian only, so the map says how many New Zealand applications it leaves out.
A map's menu also has Download PNG, for a picture of the map, and Download CSV, for the rows behind it. Maps need geography turned on for your organisation. While it is off, maps are hidden and Map isn't offered.
This quarter shows each Epic's quarterly report, when quarterly reporting is turned on.

If you are also an assessor, the Admin and Assessor buttons at the top switch between your Dashboard as an administrator and as an assessor.

To choose which sections are shown and in what order, use Dashboard Preferences on your account's Preferences tab. See Your account.

Finding your way around

The sidebar opens with the Backed mark and your organisation's name. A long name scrolls to its end every 10 seconds, and shows in full when you point at it. Below it, Dashboard and Tasks sit above a line, then the work is grouped by grant stage.
Plan holds Grants, Funds, Form templates, Outcomes frameworks and Programs.
Applications holds All applications and Applicants.
Assess holds Assessments, Assessment rounds, Sharing, Conflicts of interest and Assessors.
Decide holds Funding decisions, Publication, Probity checklist, Decline queue and Decision reasons.
Award and pay holds Contracts, Milestones, Milestone batches, Payments and Verifiers.
Report holds Portfolio and Networks. When quarterly reporting is turned on for your organisation, it also holds Epics, Captain's report, Board packs and Search reports.
Communicate holds Email templates, Broadcasts, Unfiled email, Email log and SMS log.
People holds Administrators, Admin groups and your team's Team, Invitations and Join requests.
Settings holds Profile and terms, Security, Joining, Audit log, Saved views, Tags, the category pages, Imports and more.

You see only the items your permissions open. The menu labels use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it. A number beside an item counts what is waiting there, in red when it waits on someone.

The foot of the sidebar holds your name, which opens your account menu: Your account (where the My access tab shows your own permissions), View as…, Help Centre, Feedback (when it is on for your organisation), Support, Take a tour, Appearance (Light or Dark) and Sign out. Help Centre opens the guide for the page you are on in a new tab, or the Administrator Help Guides where no guide covers the page. View as… chooses what leads your Dashboard, opens your other portals when you hold more than one role, and shows Backed the way another role sees it. See View as another role. On a phone or tablet the sidebar opens from ☰, and your initials are at the right of the top bar: select them to open the menu. The top bar's buttons show as icons there; point at one to see its name. On a phone, the menu under your initials also holds the organisation switcher, the search and Getting started.

Support in your account menu opens Get help, the Backed support panel. See Getting help.

Searching from anywhere

The search button in the top bar finds a record from any page. You can also press /, or Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), to open it. On a narrow tablet it is a magnifying-glass button, and on a phone it is in the menu under your initials, at the right of the top bar.

Before you type, it shows the records you last opened from search. Select Clear recents to empty that list.
Type two or more characters to search applications, applicants, grants, assessors, contracts, milestones and admins by number, title or name. Results are grouped by type, five to a group, and each group's See all opens that list filtered by what you typed.
Use the arrow keys to move through the results and Enter to open one. Esc closes the search.
You only see, and only count, records you have access to. When nothing matches, the search says so and offers the list pages instead.

When feedback is turned on for your organisation, Feedback in your account menu sends a note to the Backed team from any page. See Getting help.