Some things have to be collected more than once. A flu vaccination record, an annual health declaration, a yearly confidentiality agreement. An ongoing requirement lets you describe who owes it and how often you collect it, so you set it up once rather than editing an expiration date by hand every year.

Nothing is sent until you open a round. Creating a round only schedules it. People are asked when the round actually opens, either on its opening date or when you open it yourself.

1. What is an ongoing requirement?

It is a step entry that people have to keep current, rather than submit once. You configure two things on it:

• Who owes this. The group of people the requirement applies to.
• When you collect it. One or more collection rounds, which can repeat every year.

Both live in the Ongoing requirement section of the step entry, directly below the expiration date settings.

A third panel in the same section, Who will be told, reports who will actually hear about it once it comes due.

2. How do I set one up?

Open the file upload entry (or custom entry, or fillable form) you want to collect, then:

1. Scroll to Ongoing requirement.
2. Under Step 1. Who owes this, leave it empty to cover everyone active in your database, or add a rule to narrow it down.
3. Under Step 2. When you collect it, select Add a round.
4. Give the round a name, for example 2026-27 Flu Season. Set Opens on, an optional Deadline, and Closes on.
5. Set Repeat to Every year if this comes round annually.
6. Save, then select Open this round when you are ready to start collecting.
7. Check Step 3. Who actually hears about it before you open the round, and turn on the notification settings described below.

The round has to be saved against an entry that already exists, so save a brand new entry first.

3. Who does the requirement apply to?

You decide. With no rules at all it applies to everyone active in your database, including people who were never put in a sequence. That is usually what you want for something like a flu shot.

To narrow it, add a rule using any of these conditions:

• Only people active in the database
• Only people at certain sites
• Profile tags, matching any, all or none of them
• An age condition, either a single comparison or a range
• Only people who finished certain sequences
• Only people assigned to an opportunity

Rules are combined with OR, so matching any one rule counts a person in. Inside a single rule, every condition has to be true.

As you edit, a strip above shows how many people are covered, how many already have it on file, how many are exempt, and how many would be asked. That count is produced by the same calculation that runs when you open a round, so the number you see is the number that will be acted on.

4. What happens when a round opens?

Two things happen at once, and between them everyone who owes the requirement is reached:

• People who already submitted have their record expired as of the round's opening date, so the usual resubmit card appears on their homepage.
• People with nothing on file are sent a request instead, which produces the same card.
• People whose earlier submission is still waiting to be checked are asked again, because that submission belongs to the previous round. Anything sent in after the round opened is left alone and stays as Awaiting review.

Nobody is ever asked twice. Somebody whose file is already current for this round is left alone, and somebody who has already been asked is not asked again.

An open round controls the expiration settings above it. While a round is open, the entry's expiration is set to a fixed date of that round's opening day. Any rule you had set, such as one year after completion, is restored when the last round closes. Changing that date by hand while a round is open will un-expire the people the round has already asked.

5. Will people be emailed, or only see a card on their homepage?

That depends on two different settings, and this is the part worth getting right, because each one covers a different group of people.

• People with nothing on file. Covered by the round's own Tell people when they are asked setting. Turn it off and the request still appears on their homepage, it just does not email them.
• People whose previous submission has lapsed. Covered by the expiration date settings above the Ongoing requirement section, not by the round. Request that user to resubmit the file on the expiration date from their homepage is what puts the card there, and Notify the user to resubmit the file on the expiration date is what sends the email.

In a seasonal round most of your database falls into the second group, so the round's own setting on its own reaches far fewer people than it sounds like it should.

Turning on the round's notification is not enough on its own. It only reaches people who have never submitted this. If Request that user to resubmit the file on the expiration date from their homepage is switched off, anybody whose submission has lapsed gets no card and no email, and still shows as outstanding on the Requirement tracking report with no way to act.

Two further settings help around the edges:

• Remind people before this expires sends a heads-up ahead of the date, so people can resubmit before there is a gap.
• Notify all users who currently have a past expiration date as a one-time notification is a single catch-up for anyone already overdue when you first set this up.

Nobody is emailed over and over. Each person is told once for each expiration date, and the advance reminder stands down once something has actually lapsed, so the two never arrive together.

6. How do I check that everyone will actually be told?

Open Step 3. Who actually hears about it in the Ongoing requirement section. The Who will be told panel reads your current settings and reports what will really happen:

• How many people will be told.
• How many of those get an email, rather than only a card on their homepage.
• How many will not be told anything at all.

That last number is the one to watch, and it should be zero. When it is not, the panel names the people and explains why, which is almost always a setting above being switched off. It is worth checking before you open a round rather than afterwards.

The panel counts the same people the Requirement tracking report counts, so the two always agree.

7. What do people see?

A card on their homepage asking for the document, exactly as they see today for anything that has expired. The card says Due again when their previous submission has lapsed, and Requested when they have never submitted it. They upload the file and answer any questions attached to the step, in one flow.

This works on the web app and the mobile app.

Where the entry collects no document, there is nothing to attach and they simply mark it as complete. The file picker is still there if they do have something to send.

If you sent their submission back for changes, the card says Changes needed instead, lists what to change, shows your note and has a Resubmit button. See question 11.

8. How do I see who still owes it?

Use the Requirement tracking report, under Reports. Unlike the File upload dates report, it lists people who have never submitted anything, so it can answer who is outstanding rather than only who has sent something in.

Every person shows one of six states:

• Not submitted. Never sent it, or their previous one has expired.
• Awaiting review. They uploaded something and it has not been checked yet.
• Needs changes. You sent it back with a reason and are waiting for a corrected version.
• Submitted. On file and current.
• Exempt. An exemption rule excuses them.
• Waived. An administrator excused them for this round only.

From a row you can review the submission, mark it as complete, send it back for changes, open the uploaded file, open the full step for notes and dates and version history, or waive the person for this round. The report is filtered to the sites and sequences you have access to.

9. How do I review a submission without leaving the report?

Select the eye icon (Review) next to the person's state, or choose Review submission from the row menu. The submission opens right there: the uploaded file, the signed PDF or the person's form answers, with earlier versions and the step's history alongside. You can download it or open it in a new tab from the top of the window.

From there, choose one of two things:

• Approve marks it as complete.
• Needs changes sends it back to the person with a reason. See the next question.

To work through everything waiting on you, select Review 12 submissions (the number is however many are waiting) at the top of the report. After each decision the next submission opens on its own, until you see All caught up. The arrow keys move between submissions, A approves and R opens Needs changes.

To approve several at once without opening them, select their rows and choose Approve selected.

10. How do I send a submission back for changes?

Select Needs changes in the review window, or Send back for changes from the row menu. Then:

1. Under What needs to change, pick one or more reasons: Hard to read, Wrong document, Missing signature, Missing information, or Document is expired.
2. Add a note to the person if you want to explain in your own words. A reason, a note or both is enough. The note only becomes required when no reason is picked.
3. Leave Notify by email on to email them as well as showing the request on their homepage.
4. Check What they will see, which shows the person's name and exactly the card they will get, then select Send back for changes.

Changed your mind? Select Undo on the confirmation that appears. The email waits a few seconds before it goes out, so undoing in time means the person is never told.

Sending something back only reopens that one step. The person keeps their place in every sequence they are in. For a fillable form, their form submission is also marked Rejected.

11. What happens after I send something back?

Both sides can always see where it stands.

• The person sees a Changes needed card on their homepage, on the web app and the mobile app, with your reasons, your note and a Resubmit button. The same reasons appear on that step in their sequence. If Notify by email was on, they also get an email and a push notification.
• On the report the row shows Needs changes. Hover over the state to see the reasons and note you sent.
• When they resubmit, the row goes back to Awaiting review with a Resubmitted tag, and whoever sent it back gets an email with a button that opens the submission on the report, ready to review.

Their earlier version is kept, so you can compare what they sent before with what they sent now.

12. Can I review from the person's sequence instead?

Yes. Open the person's step in the sequence. For a file upload entry, a custom entry or a fillable PDF, Preview File opens the same review window. For a fillable form, View submission does.

A Review section under the step's status also shows Approve and Needs changes, along with the reason if you already sent it back.

13. Can I ask one person, or upload the file for them?

Yes, both. Open the person's profile and expand Files:

• Request a file upload asks them for it. This needs a login to reach, so it is unavailable on a profile that has not been claimed yet.
• Upload on their behalf lets you attach the file yourself, which is the right route for an unclaimed profile or for a document that arrived by email.

Where you have already asked somebody and the document reaches you another way, each outstanding request has its own Upload for them action so you do not have to pick the requirement again.

People reached this way appear on the Requirement tracking report too, marked One off so you can tell them apart from people who match the rules.

14. Does this only work for file uploads?

No. Rounds, audience rules and the report work for file upload entries, custom entries and fillable forms. Reviewing a submission, marking it as complete and sending it back for changes work for those three and for fillable PDFs.

Other step types, such as videos, checklists and background checks, can carry rounds and appear on the report, but a person who has never submitted one has no card to action on their homepage yet. For those, the report is still useful for seeing where people stand.

A custom entry that collects no document can be completed without attaching a file, so a step like a hearing test done at a clinic can be cleared by the person themselves.

15. What happens when a round closes?

If the round repeats every year, the next one is created for you with its dates and its name moved on a year, ready to open on schedule. If it does not repeat, the entry goes back to whatever expiration rule it had before the first round took over.

You can close a round yourself at any time, or let it close on its closing date.

16. Who still appears on the report if I never set up a round?

An entry appears on the Requirement tracking report when any one of these is true:

• It has a collection round.
• It has audience rules.
• It has an expiration policy turned on.
• Somebody has an outstanding request for it.

So an organization that only uses plain expiration dates still gets a useful report, without configuring rounds at all.

Summary

• An ongoing requirement describes who owes something and how often you collect it.
• Leave the audience empty and it applies to everyone active in your database.
• Creating a round schedules it. Opening it is what asks people.
• Opening a round expires earlier submissions and asks anybody with nothing on file, and never asks the same person twice.
• An annual round creates next year's for you when it closes.
• The Requirement tracking report shows who is outstanding, including people who never submitted anything.
• Review a submission from the report or from the person's step, then approve it or send it back with a reason.
• A send-back tells the person exactly what to change, and their resubmission returns to Awaiting review marked Resubmitted.
• You can still ask one person, or upload the file for them, from their profile.
• The round's notification only reaches people with nothing on file. The expiration settings reach everybody whose submission has lapsed.
• Who will be told reports the real coverage, including anybody nothing would reach.

If you have a question about setting this up, please submit a ticket or email us at support@vomevolunteer.zohodesk.com.