How to Schedule Policy Reports

• Introduction
• How it Works:
  • Scheduling a Policy Report - The Setup
  • Who Receives the Report?
  • What Do Scheduled Policy Reports Look Like?
• Scheduled Policy Reports: Best Practices
• Scheduled Policy Reports: FAQ
• Scheduling Policy Reports E-Book

Introduction

We heard you: in today's increasingly remote world, you need a faster way to send out policy updates, stay on top of updates that matter to you, and take back some control in your day.  To that end, we're thrilled to introduce Scheduled Policy Reports.  Choose who should receive updates, which Reports should be scheduled, when and how often.

How it Works:

Scheduling a Policy Report - The Setup

To use a Policy Report that can be scheduled, head to the new Reports Center and build a Report using the Enhanced Policy Reports template: 

**Click here to learn more about Enhanced Policy Reports (also new, as of September '21)  

When saving, give it an easily identifiable name.  Locate the Report by name in your list and click the 3 dots to the right of its 'Source'.  Use the drop-down menu and click 'Schedule':

The top-half of the pop-up panel is where to determine the cadence of email updates.  Choose from Weekly or Monthly options, in addition to the time and day of the week:

Who Receives the Report?

After setting your email update frequency, scroll down within the panel.  List those you wish to receive this Report by email address in the text box below.  Separate multiple recipients with commas:

FiscalNote will guide you along the way, indicating potentially incorrect email addresses with an error notice.

What Do Scheduled Policy Reports Look Like?

After a Report has been scheduled and delivered, the recipients essentially receive 2 versions: one is a raw list of policy being monitored within the email message, and the other is a link to the full Report that you designed: 

The emailed, text-version of the data within your Report will be organized the same as your web-based Report -- that is, it will be separated by the Issues and/or Labels used when building the Report. 

Click the hyperlink to view the summary and other insights that your Report may offer, such as heat-maps of relevant policy concentrations or total bills by Status & Position.

Scheduled Policy Reports: Best Practices

1. Use Titles to Your Advantage

The more reports you review in your email inbox, the greater the need to understand what you are looking at and why. Name reports appropriately and add a summary, making it easy for both you and your stakeholders to recognize the information at-hand.

2. Document Your Report Schedules

Much like using titles to document the what and the why, use Issue Summaries to document the when, where, and to whom.  Make both your future self and future colleagues love you by documenting when the information within a specific Issue is or should be delivered, how often, and to which stakeholders.

3. Set an End Date

Initially, the benefit of Scheduled Policy Reports may cause one want to use them in perpetuity.  However, we recommend setting End Dates, allowing you to review the efficacy of your workflow and uncover any opportunities for improvement.

Example Scenario: 

At Safe Vehicles USA, the Government Affairs team schedules an End Date for individual reports covering each Issue -- Airbags, Tires, Seatbelts, etc. -- at the suspected end of federal legislative sessions.  Upon review, the team determines if similar email frequencies are required in the next session.  Schedules are documented in Issues Summaries and Issue Titles are used as Report Titles. 

Scheduled Policy Reports: FAQ

Q:  Is a refreshed version sent each time, or do I have to refresh the Scheduled Report first?

A:  No need to click Refresh!

The Scheduled Policy Report will automatically update prior to being delivered via email.

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Q:  Who can receive Scheduled Reports from FiscalNote?

A:  Anyone!

Your recipients do not need a FiscalNote Account to access the reports they see in their inbox.

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Q:  Can I Schedule a Report on multiple days of the week, or even daily?

A:  Yes! 

Just click each weekday necessary (or the weekdays option for M-F) from the ‘Repeat Every’ drop-down menu.

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Q: Is Scheduling available for any kind of report?

A: No. 

It is only available for FiscalNote's latest policy reporting offering, Enhanced Policy Reports.

**Click here to learn more about Enhanced Policy Reports (also new, as of September '21)  

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Q:  Can recipients see the full version of the Report as I built it, including data visualizations?

A:  Yes.

The email will list policy data in text format. However, the email message will contain a hyperlink to access the full report online and/or download a PDF version of it.

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Q:  Can recipients access FiscalNote Shared Pages via the Hyperlinks available for each bill or regulation in the report?

A:  If they have a FiscalNote Account. Guest Views are coming soon for U.S. policy documents!

Clicking the individually linked bill or regulation titles within reports will automatically direct you to your FiscalNote account.  Non-FiscalNote users, or those without an active FiscalNote account, would be asked to log in. The team is hard at work on building a landing page for non-users when clicking links on U.S. policy documents, called Guest Views, where more information can be found.  Keep an eye out for notices from the FiscalNote Team about product releases to learn when they may become available.

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Q:  What is the Time Zone Default?

A:  Your current Time Zone.  

Use the drop-down menu to change the Time Zone for report deliveries, if necessary.

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Q:  Who do I contact to opt in or opt out of the Scheduled Reports?

A:   On the e-mailed report, under the line that reads An interactive version of the report is available here., you will see the name of the person who created the scheduled report and you can contact the person to opt you in/out of the scheduled report. Or you can email support@fiscalnote.com and we will take care of it for you.

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Scheduling Policy Reports E-Book (Click here to download)

Note: We are constantly rolling out updates and making improvements in 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.