October 2026 - Product News

This is the first Product News roundup. Rather than list every change since Backed began, it describes the product as it stands, one section per module, with a link to the help guide that covers each part in full. Later entries describe what changes from here.

The screens below use Backed's default words. If your organisation has renamed any of them under Settings > Organisation > Terminology, you see your own words instead.

Setting up your organisation

Problem

An organisation needs one place to set its details, brand and the rules that shape what applicants, assessors and verifiers see, without asking anyone else to do it.

How it works

Settings > Organisation holds your organisation's details, brand, terminology, number formats and portal settings. Settings > Security lets you require two-factor authentication, check that your logs reach your security team, and report a suspected data breach: you get a Reference to quote, and an email confirming the report was received. Funding, payment and contract categories and field tags are managed in one place.

Important notes

• Each person chooses System, Light or Dark under Appearance on their own account page.

See Organisation settings and Security settings.

Administrator permissions and users

Invite administrators, choose what each one can do, and check your own access. The Team pages list everyone with access to your organisation; invite people by email or text message and manage outstanding invitations. Decide who can join without an invitation and approve or reject join requests. Each person manages their own profile, appearance, sign-in details, two-step verification and active sessions from their account page.

Applicants manage their account, save a signature for contracts and choose which emails they receive. When Backed updates its Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, people see Updates to our terms the next time they sign in. Backed's current terms, privacy policy and cookie notice are in the Legal Centre on the Backed website.

See Administrators and permissions, Your account and, for applicants, Your profile.

Registration management

Applicants register with your organisation before they apply. Build the registration form and the registration types that use it, add one applicant by hand or import many from a CSV file, review registrations, manage the people who act for an applicant, and move an applicant's applications, contracts and milestones to another applicant when records need to be merged. Applicants add and remove the members of their own organisation from the Applicant portal.

See Applicants and Registration templates and types.

Verifiers and Institutions

Add the verifiers who check applications on your behalf, invite the people who act for them and see what is assigned to each one.

See Verifiers and institutions.

Programmes

Group your grants into programs, give each an owner, and see every grant in a program on one page.

See Programs.

Funding rounds and grant management

Problem

Setting up a grant round touches the form, the funding, the dates, who can see it and how it is advertised, and a mistake found after publishing is costly.

How it works

A new grant is set up step by step: Details, Application Form, Funding Type, Time & Date, Landing Page and Publish Grant. A round can ask eligibility questions before an applicant starts, run in stages such as an expression of interest followed by a full application, and be duplicated into a new draft with its settings, invitees and landing page but none of its applications. Publish a round to open it, or unpublish it to make changes.

Important notes

• You need a registration template before you create your first grant round.
• The go-live checklist for grant rounds lists what to check before you publish.

See Create a grant round and Multi-stage grant rounds.

Applications

Problem

Administrators need to find and act on applications across every round, and applicants need a form that tells them what is wrong before they submit.

How it works

The applications list finds, filters and acts on applications across all your grant rounds. An application's page shows its answers, an Actions panel and its history; from there you can change its owner, amount or verifier, unlock it, request more information, or work as the applicant. Forms for applications and every other template are built in the Form Builder under Settings > Templates, with field tags that fill letters, contracts and reports, and field events that show or require parts of a form. Export one application as a PDF, or prepare a bulk export of a round.

Important notes

• Applicants find open grants, answer the eligibility questions, fill in the form and submit from the Applicant portal. If submitting is unavailable, the screen says why, for example This Grant is closed.
• A template marked In use has some changes limited.

See Applications list, Form builder and, for applicants, Applying for a grant.

Assessments

Problem

Assessors need a clear queue and a form beside the application, and administrators need to see progress, conflicts and scores without chasing anyone.

How it works

Set up an assessment round or a singular assessment, choose its assessment form, assign assessors to applications and publish the round. Assessors open the Assessor portal, agree to the confidentiality agreement, declare any conflict of interest, decide whether to assess, and read the application beside the assessment form while keeping private notes. You follow each round's progress and scores, change assignments after publishing, review declared conflicts, compare scores across a grant, and fill in or correct an assessment on an assessor's behalf.

Important notes

• In a round that uses blind review, Backed withholds what would identify the applicant from the assessor, and an exported assessment PDF prints the name as Anonymised for blind review. There is no setting for it on a round's screens yet.

See Assessment rounds, Assignments and, for assessors, Assessing an application.

Decisions

Approve or decline submitted applications in a funding decision, choose a letter template and a signatory, and send the letters. Ask for a review before sending, then revoke or resend a decision when you need to. Applicants read their decision letter, accept or decline an offer and complete its conditions from the Applicant portal.

See Funding decisions.

Contracts

Problem

A grant agreement has to be generated from the right template, signed by the right people and changed safely once it is in place.

How it works

Create a contract for an approved application or an applicant, link its milestones and funding, choose its document and send it to its signatories. Follow its signing, counter-sign it, change its details, and complete, replace, terminate or withdraw it. Contract templates keep every saved version. Grantees review, sign or decline a contract and make requests such as a variation or an extension, which you decide.

Important notes

• A change to a sensitive field, such as a bank account number, needs a second person to approve it.

See Create and send a contract.

Milestones

Create a milestone for one application, or give the same milestone to many applicants in a batch, from reusable milestone templates with a deliverables form and a funding amount. Applicants complete and submit the deliverables and resubmit when asked; you approve or decline each deliverable, then approve the milestone or ask for a resubmission.

See Milestones and batches.

Emails, tasks and comments

Turn the emails Backed sends on your behalf on or off, edit their subject and body, and preview them. Send reminders a set time before or after a date. Every email sent is in the email logs. Keep track of your own tasks and assign tasks to other administrators, and leave internal comments on applicants, applications, decisions, contracts and milestones, mentioning people and attaching files.

See Tasks.

Outcomes and partner reporting

Problem

Funded partners report each quarter, and the funder needs those returns gathered, reviewed and turned into a board pack without spreadsheets.

How it works

Set up the Epics your quarterly reporting runs on, place funded applications in them as projects and keep partner profiles. Open each Epic's reporting quarters and set the dates partners work to. Partners report on their projects each quarter from the Applicant portal and read what is shared back with them. Generate the pack your board or steering committee is given for a quarter.

Important notes

• Quarterly reporting appears only when it is turned on for your organisation.

See Quarterly cycles and returns.

Reports and exports

The portfolio report shows your awarded grants across any two dimensions of a classification taxonomy, shows the gaps, and exports the figures. Choose the columns each list shows by default for everyone in your organisation.

See Portfolio.

Classification and funder networks

Build the taxonomies your applications are coded against, publish versions and re-code when terms change. Join a funder network, accept its data-sharing agreement, share your awarded grants and read the network's combined portfolio.

See Classification.

Audit log and migration runs

See every recorded change in your organisation, who made it and when, and open an entry for its detail. When your records are loaded from another system, check each load against its reconciliation summary and sign it off.

See Audit log.

API, MCP and single sign-on

Problem

Organisations want their people to sign in with the identity provider they already use, and want other systems and AI assistants to reach their data under their own control.

How it works

Single sign-on works over SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect. Choose the protocol, enter the provider's details, run Test connection for OpenID Connect, choose whether new people get accounts, and require SSO with SSO-only mode. Create API credentials so another system can connect through the Backed API, and delete them when they are no longer needed. Administrators can connect an AI assistant, such as Claude, to read your organisation's outcomes, and you approve or revoke each assistant. The integration logs show what each integration sent and received.

Important notes

• The protocol can be changed only while SSO is turned off; select Enable SSO again afterwards.

See Single sign-on, API access and Connect an AI assistant with MCP.