Maps and geography

Backed finds where each address is and which regions it falls in. You can then show your applications on a map, and filter and export reports by local government area, electorate or remoteness, without a GIS export.

Geography is set per organisation, and it is on unless you turn it off.

Which addresses are placed

Two kinds of address are placed on the map:

• An applicant organisation's address from its registration (the standard Organisation address field).
• An Address field on an application form tagged location.

When the address is saved, Backed looks it up in the background, usually within a minute. It stores the point (latitude and longitude), how precise it is, and the regions it falls in:

• Australia: the local government area, the federal (Commonwealth) electorate, the state electorate and the ABS remoteness area.
• New Zealand: the territorial authority and the general electorate.

An address that hasn't changed is never looked up again. When an address changes, it is looked up again, and any pin placed on the old address is removed.

An application with no address of its own uses its applicant organisation's point.

What the address service receives

Australian addresses are looked up with Geoscape, and New Zealand addresses with LINZ (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand). They receive the address text only, never a name or any other answer. Both are listed as subprocessors.

The regions are worked out inside Backed, from boundary data we load. The address service never sees them. Boundaries are refreshed each year, when the ABS and Stats NZ publish new editions.

The map pictures come from OpenFreeMap. Your browser asks it for map tiles, so it sees which part of the map you are looking at, but never your applicants' data.

Turn geography on or off

You need Can access Settings > Organisation.

1. Go to Settings > Organisation.
2. In Geography, tick or untick Geocoding, then save.

While geography is off:

• No address is looked up.
• Maps are hidden on the dashboard, and Map isn't offered as a visualisation, even on a dashboard with no map yet. A map can't be added, duplicated or made from another visualisation until geography is back on.
• Nobody can place a pin.
• The points and regions already stored stay until the address next changes. If an address changes while geography is off, its old point and any pin are removed and it shows Pending. If an address is removed, its point is removed too.

When you turn geography back on, every address showing Pending is looked up.

Each change is recorded in the audit log.

Re-run enrichment

After new boundaries are loaded, select Re-run enrichment in Settings > Organisation > Geography. Backed works out the regions of every stored point again. No address is looked up again, and no point moves.

When an address is not located

If the address service can't find an address, the application or applicant record shows Address not located on its map location. While the lookup is still running, it shows Pending.

To place it yourself, you need Can edit applicants:

1. Open the application or the applicant.
2. On its map location, select the option to place the pin.
3. Drag the pin to the right place, or type the Latitude and Longitude, then save.

The regions are worked out from your pin. Moving a pin is recorded in the record's history.

Let applicants place their own pin

On an Address field's properties in the form builder, tick Allow map pin. The applicant can then drop or move a pin on a map under the address on their form. Their pin is used in place of the point found from the address, on maps and in reports. See Form builder.

Geography in reports

The Applications and Applicants data sources have six columns under General:

• Latitude and Longitude.
• Local government area, Federal electorate, State electorate and Remoteness.

For a New Zealand address, Local government area shows its territorial authority and Federal electorate its general electorate. Each column can be filtered and is included in exports. See Build a data table.

Show applications on a map

You need Can generate reports.

1. On the dashboard, add a visualisation and choose Map as the Visualisation type.
2. Choose the Layer:
   • 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 a point to open that application.
   • Regions lists each local government area or electorate with its count of applications, or the sum of their approved amounts, largest first and shaded by its figure. New Zealand applications are counted too: Local government area lists their territorial authority, and Federal electorate their general electorate. State electorates are Australian only, so a state electorate map says how many New Zealand applications it couldn't place.
3. Save. The legend under the map names each colour and its count, and says how many applications have no located address.

A map only counts the applications your data access rules let you see. One you can't see is never shown or counted.

From a map's menu, select Download PNG for a picture of the map, or Download CSV for the rows behind it. A regions map's picture is its ranked table, with each region's shade and the legend. Download PNG is unavailable while the map is still loading, and if the picture can't be made the card says so.

Every Download CSV from a map is recorded in the audit log as an export: who downloaded it, which map, its layer and date range, and how many rows it held. The entry never holds the locations or amounts themselves.