Reviews

Whether you’re running a contest, managing awards, curating an exhibition or sending submissions to a team of editors, Reviews makes the process smoother and more transparent. By giving each reviewer a dedicated space to score, vote, or comment, organisations can collect consistent feedback, reduce bias, and ensure every submission is fairly considered.

Grant application software dashboard for foundations, non-profits and charities

How it works

How it works

Dapple saves your reviewers and judges time to focus on what matters most — the submissions. Everything happens in one place, so the process is seamless, fair, and can be set up in a few minutes.

  • Create Review Panels: Set up bespoke groups of reviewers and assign them to different projects and stages.
  • Assign Submissions: As new submissions are received, they are then sent to designated panels for review.
  • Dedicated Review Accounts: Panel members sign in to their own Review Accounts, where they’ll see only the submissions assigned to them.
  • Due Dates: Hold reviewers and judges accountable by creating deadlines that display in each individual's dashboard.
  • Collate Feedback: See all reviews and feedback saved against each individual submission.

Review panels

Review panels

Creating Review Panels is a bit of a game-changer. Here’s why:

  • Involve multiple perspectives: Readers, editors, or judges can all contribute feedback.
  • Flexible setup: Create different panels, with customised rules for different projects.
  • Multi-round reviews: Different panels for different stages. For example, use Round 1 for initial screening and Round 2 for shortlisted work.
  • Reviewer flexibility: Reviewers can belong to multiple panels at once.
  • Remove Bias: Promote fairness by selecting fields on the form that are automatically hidden from the panel.
  • It’s quick!: Assign multiple reviewers to a project in a couple of clicks. It keeps the whole process transparent and organised.

Ways to review

Ways to review

Reviewers can review anywhere, any time, and on any device using their own personalised Review Account. Depending on how you set up your Review Panel, reviewers can:

  • Rubric Scoring: Score submissions against multiple weighted criteria, like originality and technical ability, and get one clear result out of 100 instead of a single gut-feel number.
  • Score: Rate submissions on a scoring scale you define, from a quick 1–5 to a detailed 1–100.
  • Vote: Record a straightforward decision, like Yes/No, Shortlist/Reject, or any custom option you choose.
  • Comment: Add written feedback alongside a score, so the reasoning behind a decision isn't lost by the time you get to panel discussion.
  • Save Feedback: Reviewers can save a review in progress and pick it back up later — no need to get through a whole batch in one sitting.
  • Toggle: Move between pending and in-progress reviews without losing your place.
  • Complete: Reviewers can batch submit reviews back to the admin in one click.

All feedback in one place

All feedback in one place

On the admin side, all the feedback and reviews are brought together in a single, organised view, saved against each submission.

  • Real-time feedback: See up to date feedback from your panels regardless of whether it is in progress or completed.
  • Transparency: See reviewer comments side by side.
  • Set limits: Set minimum or maximum numbers of reviews per submission.
  • Record: Track average scores and tallied votes.
  • Decide: Compare perspectives across the panel. Send to a designated next stage in one click
  • Toggle: Quickly skip through each submission, comparing feedback and scores.

Reviewer oversight

Keep track of every reviewer, at a glance

See exactly where each reviewer stands — who's done, who's in progress, and who hasn't started. Stay in control of your review process without chasing anyone manually.

  • Full reviewer dashboard: See all your reviewers in one place, with a live snapshot of their progress across completed, in-progress, and outstanding reviews.
  • Status at a glance: Progress counts to make it instantly clear how each reviewer is tracking — no digging required.
  • Nudge reminders: Send a one-click reminder to reviewers who haven't completed their reviews, keeping the process moving without awkward emails.
  • Review panel visibility: See which panels each reviewer belongs to, so you always know who's responsible for what.
  • Joined and last active dates: Track when reviewers joined and when they last submitted a review to spot anyone who's gone quiet.

"I've used Award Force for years. Judging in Dapple is so much more user-friendly, visual and quicker to complete."

— Emily RF, Founder

Setup

Six steps from zero to reviews

Most organisations are up and running in under 30 minutes. Complete steps 1–3 once, then repeat steps 4–6 each round.

1

Create a Review Panel

Give it a name, add reviewers — internal team members, external collaborators, or both.

Project Settings → Reviews
2

Assign to a Stage

Link each panel to the stage or round where it should run.

Project Settings → Reviews → Assign
3

Configure Feedback

Set the scoring, vote options, guidance and due dates.

Project Settings → Reviews → Configure
4

Send Submissions

Send individually, in bulk, or trigger automatically when a submission reaches the configured stage.

Stages view → Send to Review Panel
5

Reviewers Score

Each reviewer signs in to their personal Review Account. They see only their assigned submissions — and can save progress and submit when ready.

Reviewer Account → Awaiting Review
6

View Feedback & Decide

Scores, votes, and comments appear side by side in your dashboard. Review, decide, then move or decline submissions.

Submission → Reviews tab

Panel anatomy

What's inside a Review Panel

Each panel is independently configured — different reviewers, different scoring, different guidance. Here's what you can set.

Panel example
📋
Round 1 Panel
A
Anna M. — Reviewer
B
Ben K. — Reviewer
C
Clara O. — Reviewer
J
Jaden S — Reviewer
S
Sophie K — Reviewer
→ Assigned to: Sift Stage

Panel configuration options

Set these per panel in Project Settings → Reviews

Rubric Scoring
Weighted, multi-criteria scoring
Customised separate scoring, blended into one result out of 100
Vote
Yes / No / Shortlist
See the split across your full panel
Comments
Free-text prompt
Qualitative reasoning from each reviewer
Automations
Stage-level triggers
Automate when submissions are sent to panels
Max reviews
e.g. 3 maximum
Hitting this triggers automatic completion
Due date
Optional deadline
Visible to all panel members in their account
Blind fields
Hide identifying info
Names, addresses, demographics — any form field
Guidance notes
Reviewer instructions
Shown to reviewers before they score
Reviewers
Internal or external
External collaborators need no full admin access

Submission flow

How a submission moves through review

From the moment you send a submission to a panel, through to marking it complete and making a decision.

📥

Submission arrives

Lands in a stage on the Stages board

🔵

Sent to panel

Blue dot appears — review open & submission locked

👁️

Reviewers score

Each member works through their queue

Mark complete

Manual or automatic when max reviews hit

📊

Admin decides

Move to next stage, or decline

Awaiting Review
Sent to panel, reviewer hasn't started
In Progress
Reviewer saved feedback, not yet submitted
Submitted
Scores, votes & comments returned to admin
Complete
Reviews closed — submission can be moved

Multi-round

Running panels across multiple stages

Create one panel per stage — or per category, or per round. Each is fully independent. Reviewers can overlap or be entirely different people.

1
Stage 1

Initial Sift

Early screening to identify eligible and promising submissions.
Round 1 Panel
5 reviewersScore + Vote
Move shortlisted submissions
2
Stage 2

Shortlist

Deeper review on selected entries before final decision.
Round 2 Panel
3 reviewersScore + Comments
Advance finalists
3
Stage 3

Final Jury

Final panel review to decide winners and outcomes.
Final Panel
External judgesScore + Comments

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