The 360° Issue Report

• Introduction
• What's Included
• The How-To Steps
• Benefits
• The 360° Issue Report 1-Pager

Introduction

Policy professionals who track legislation typically have several topics or issues to monitor.  For example, a vehicle safety association may monitor new bills with potential implications for seat belts, windshields, airbags, and more.  A vehicle safety lobbying shop may track seat belt legislation for one client and airbags for another.  Use FiscalNote's 360° Issue Report when a narrow focus on just one of these issues is necessary.

What's Included

1. Customizable Logo, Title & Summary
   Reassure your audience that this policy report was curated just for them.  Explain what's included and what details to pay special attention to.
   
   
2. Bills by State Heat Map
   Share an at-a-glance view of where the largest concentration of policy is originating from.
   
   
3. All Team Actions Pie Chart
   A visual breakdown of response effort by type, such as Phone Call, Meeting, Attended Hearing, etc.
   
   
4. Bills by Status and Position Chart.
   Shows a breakdown of all bills cross-compared by Status and organizational Position (Support, Monitor, Oppose, None).
   
   
5. Bill Count by Status Pie Chart
   A visual breakdown of all bills by status.
   
   
6. All Team Actions
   List of all response efforts taken, including details such as bill referenced and participants.
   
   
7. OPTIONAL: List of Bills by State.
   Your list of bills will default to being grouped by Issue.  If tracking bills in more than 1 legislature in your 360° Issue Report, we recommend changing how bills are listed, from 'By Issue' to 'By State' in the report template.

The How-To Steps

1.) Click Create Report from the collapsible menu on the left to get started:

2.) Choose the specific Issue to Report on from the Issues Filter.  In this instance, we are choosing 'Airbags':

All bills added to the Airbags Issue will show in the bills queue to the right.

3.) Choose 'Select All' at the top of the bills queue: 

This step ensures your report will populate with all 'Airbags' bills your team is monitoring this session, not just a select few. 

Choosing 'Select All' also allows you to refresh this report in the future, capturing both updates to the bills previously included, as well as any new bills added to the report since it was last produced.

4.) Click Create Report on the top right, and choose Weekly Legislative Update:

*The Weekly Legislative Update is a template the FiscalNote team has prepared for you, giving you a head start in the Report creation process. 

5.) Customize the report with a logo, title, and summary.  The summary should tell the audience what the Report covers, and what details within to pay attention to:

6.) Make the Bills by State visualization a heat map.

*This gives your audience an at-a-glance view of where the largest concentration of policy documents is originating from, by legislature.

7.) Add an extra visualization by clicking the Pie chart at the top.  Change to Bills by Status and update the title to reflect the change:

This addition gives your audience an at-a-glance understanding of where the largest concentration of bills is by stage in the legislative process.  It's important because the chart highlights a potential need to act.  For example, if this Airbags 360° Update shows a large concentration of bills in 'Passed First Chamber', it could signify an immediate need to act when delivered internally or to a client.

8.) Rearrange the visualizations using the arrows until you reach a desired format.  For the 360° Issue Report, we recommend pairing the two pie charts together:

OPTIONAL: Change how bills are listed from 'By Issue' to 'By State'.  Because we have already chosen 1 Issue in the creation process (Airbags), we do not need to see which bills implicate which Issues.  Changing to 'By State' provides an extra layer of organization, making the report easier to digest.  Do not change if only monitoring one legislature:

9.) Save when done.  FiscalNote will store the finished product under Reports for you to access and share, whenever needed!

Benefits

Focused

Use the 360° Issue Report to cut out the noise from other topics or issues.  

Refreshable:

No need to recreate the wheel!  As is recommended for every Core 4 option, the 360° Issue Report uses 'Select All' above the bills queue in the Report builder (see step 3 above).  This prompts FiscalNote to continue adding bills to the report as you add them to Issues, even after the report has been saved.  Create the report once and just click refresh in the future to capture them all! 

Most clients refresh the Legislation-Monitoring report on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis to review new bills, as well as any updates or changes to previously captured legislation.

Customizable:

Countless studies have shown that organizations go through great lengths to formulate even the smallest details of a public image, such as a logo.  They are designed to evoke a reaction out of the viewer.  Even if subliminal, customizing the report with a logo to make it seem as if it was curated specifically for your audience can have a big impact.  A specific title and descriptive Summary further enhance the level of appreciation your readers will have.

Note: We are constantly rolling out updates and making improvements to the platform. Please help us keep the Help Center up to date by reporting any information that may need some updating at support@fiscalnote.com.