A tracker is a short form that records information about each workplace, employer, branch or other area, such as the claim, offer and outcome in a pay round, or a log of action days. Answers appear on dashboards and can be used in tables, filters, metrics and audiences. People can answer on a dashboard or by a link on their phone with no account.

You need an Admin account to build a tracker.

1. Plan it

Answer four questions on paper first. Two of them can't be changed later.

2. Create the tracker

1. Admin › Build › Trackers › New tracker.
2. Basics: Name the tracker and add a description.
3. What is each answer about? Select from Workplace, Region, Districts, Employers or Branches.
4. What does it record? One Answer or A Log of Entries
5. Who can fill it in: Select from National, Region, District, Employer or Branch. You can also tick the box to make the links to be used with the tracker single use.
6. Opens / Closes (optional): leave blank to accept answers as soon as it's published, or set dates.

3. Add the questions

1. To add questions, click on the +Add Question button at the top right of the field.
2. If it is a required question, tick the Required box.

Question Types Available

Follow-on questions ("Only ask if"): from question 2 onwards, you can show a question only when an earlier yes/no or choice question has a particular answer. The answer appears at the end of the question options. Use the dropdown menu and the Yes/No buttons to mould the "Only ask if" response.

Click Create tracker. It's saved as a Draft: nobody can answer it yet and no links can be issued.

4. Put it on a dashboard

1. Open the dashboard in Admin › Build › Builder
2. In Compose, add a Tracker block from the Data group and choose your tracker.
3. Under Columns, untick any questions you don't want shown.
4. While the tracker is a draft, viewers don't see the block.

What a tracker adds to your data

Every answer becomes an attribute of the place, named Tracker name: Question. Use these as data table columns, metrics, filters and dynamic audience conditions. 

Employer and branch answers flow down: each workplace shows its employer's or branch's answer, and higher levels show sums, averages or how many said yes.

5. Publish it

On the tracker's edit page, click Publish. Its status becomes Active and editors can answer between the open and close dates. If the tracker belongs to a campaign, Go live on the campaign publishes every draft dashboard and tracker in it together.

Once a tracker has answers you can't add questions or switch kind. Duplicate it instead; the copy has the same questions and no answers.

6. Answering on a dashboard

1. Open the dashboard and find the tracker block. It lists the places in your area, with search and a Not yet updated tick box.
2. Click Update (one answer each) or Add entry (log) on a row.
3. Fill in the answers and save. Required questions and number limits are checked; follow-on questions appear when they apply.
4. The row shows your answers and "Updated [date] · [your area]".

Who can update what: you answer only for places wholly inside your own area. For anything else you can see, the button reads History and opens a read-only record. For example, a region officer sees employers with workplaces in their region but can't answer for an employer; the employer account can.

History and removing entries: the dialog's History lists every change, newest first, with old values struck through. Entries can be removed with a reason (required); a one-answer record goes back to its previous values.

7. Collecting answers by link

Links let people answer from their phone without a Dashbuilder account. Each link opens a simple page for one place, showing only that place, the tracker's questions and its current answers, never who gave them.

Links only work on Active trackers. They last six weeks by default and never beyond the tracker's close date.

Issue and send links

1. Open the tracker in Admin › Build › Trackers and click Links.
2. Choose how to issue:
   • To an audience: pick the audience (such as Reps) and Issue links. The message says how many were made and how many members were skipped because they have no workplace.
   • Shared, one per [workplace/employer/branch]: pick the places.
3. Optionally set an expiry date.
4. Copy link on any row to paste into an email or message, or Export CSV for a mail merge (membership number, name, email, unit and link).

Issuing to the same audience again only creates links for people who don't have one.

What the person sees

A phone-sized page with your logo, the place's name, the tracker name and its questions. After saving they see "Thank you, that's saved." On a log tracker, they can add another entry straight away. The answer appears on dashboards and in Results like any other, marked as made through a personal link.

Managing links

The links list shows each link's status (Working, Used), how many times it was used and when, with search and filters.

• Reissue makes a new link for the same place and kills the old one. The new link opens with the current answers filled in.
• Revoke stops one link. Revoke all stops every link on the tracker.
• Links also stop when they expire, when a single-use link has been used, when the tracker closes, or when its campaign is closed with Expire the links too.
• Dead, revoked, expired and used links all show the same "not available" page and are logged as probes. The page also has spam protection and rate limits.
• If a link was used by mistake, remove the entry from the tracker's Latest changes with a reason. The place's answers go back to their previous values.

8. Watch progress

• Responses: coverage by area (tabs per tier) with drill-down, how many places have ever answered and how many recently (set Recent means the last … days), a Nothing in the last … days list naming who can update each place, Who's been answering and Latest changes. Admins, National and the tracker's editors can see it, within their own area. Employer trackers show an employer list instead of coverage by area.
• Results: one row per place with its current answer to every question, searchable, with a CSV. For logs it shows the latest entry and an Entries count.

9. Close, archive and run the next round

• Close: set the Closes date, or close its campaign. Blocks then show Closed and buttons read History.
• Archive: read-only; answers stay on dashboards.
• Next round: Duplicate the tracker (or its campaign). The copy is a draft with the same questions and no answers. Rename it straight away - copies keep the original name, which makes two identical entries in attribute pickers.

Troubleshooting trackers