Legacy | Manage Survey/Assessment

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Updated over a week ago

If you are looking to create an assessment or survey, there are a few ways to do so. Firstly, you can go through quick creation steps by utilizing our Assessment Wizard. This will allow you to create the desired assessment and drops off the User on the Manage Assessment page.


The other way to create assessments is under the Site Administrator folder in the Navigation Bar and selecting Manage Survey/Assessment.

From this page, you will find many tools to allow you to create new surveys or assessments, disable/enable assessments, delete assessments, and manage how your form will appear for your Users.

Note: Only Site Manager Users and above have access to delete Assessment responses. This is hard coded into the software and cannot be changed.

Add New Survey or Assessment: Utilize the button tools at the top left of the Manage Survey/Assessment page to create an assessment. From here, you will find a page similar to the Assessment Wizard page. See the Assessment Wizard article to assist you in this creation process as well as descriptions of question elements.

Show disabled Surveys/Assessments: All surveys and assessments do not automatically appear on this page. Any disabled forms will be hidden upon arriving to this page. Selecting this box will add the disabled forms to the list of available forms to then be edited, re-enabled, or deleted.

Survey/Assessment Column displays the Assessment name that will be visible to your users upon taking a response.
Type column displays what sort of form you are working with.
Status line displays if the form is disabled, provides an option to only allow the form to be taken in your current program, and provides and displays if the form is available for the current site or for the entire enterprise.
Allow Self-Assessment provides your users the options to take the assessment for themselves rather than for a participant. Note that this is only available for assessments and not surveys.

Review Page

Selecting Review brings up the Manage Assessment or Survey Page. 

Manage Program Groups: When reviewing your assessment, you will see Manage Program Groups next to Manage Assessment. This will allow you to share the assessment with any group of programs. (See: Manage Program Groups

Reorder Elements: Edit the sequence the questions in the assessment. If page elements are included, one of them must come first. 

Preview Assessment: Displays the assessment as it will appear to the assessment-taker

Assessment Name: The assessment name as it will appear in the drop box to take and report on the assessment. 

Assessment Header: Appears at the top of the assessment, and might include explanation or instructions. 

Assessment Response Period: Guidelines for when an assessment should be taken (at enrollment, quarterly, etc) 

Submit Button: Each Page or Last Page Only (click current value to change). This will change the placement of the Submit button within an assessment using Pages.
Note: Having a submit button on every page can be confusing and it is recommended that you set this to Last Page Only, particularly if you have required questions on subsequent pages. 

Page Navigation: If the assessment uses Page elements to create separate tabs for different sections of the assessment, the Page Navigation will generate Next Page and Previous Page buttons at the bottom of each page where appropriate. 

Element Numbering: This feature allows you to turn off the standard numbering features in the software, i.e. A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, and create your own numbering within the stimulus text. 

Messaging Label: This feature will allow you to change the label of Assessment to another term your users may be more familiar with, such as Intake Form or IEP. The messaging label will be displayed at the top of the screen when taking the assessment and also in the pop-up window when the data is submitted, i.e. Your IEP data has been successfully submitted. 

Assessment Update Period: When an Assessment is taken, it will be locked after the update period (calendar days from first submission) expires and not allow edits.
Note: You can set this update period to Unlimited, which will prevent the assessment from ever locking with time. You can alternatively set the assessment to not allow any editing after submission.

Section Label: If you add a Section Header element to your assessment, the default name is Section. Using Section Label, however, you can change the default to anything you would like such as page, part, etc. 

Section Quick Links: If your assessment uses Section Header elements to divide up the assessment, this feature will create quick links at the top of each page that can be clicked to quickly access sections lower on that page. 

Schedule Follow-up Alert Check Boxes: Settings are ON and OFF – click current status to change. If turned ON the user will be able to schedule a follow-up alert to place the assessment on their To Do List or the To Do List of another staff person. If turned OFF this option will not be available. 

Allow assessment to be taken ONCE per Entity/Participant: This option will prevent users from taking the assessment more than once for a particular subject. 

Allow assessment to be taken ONCE per Entity/Participant Enrollment: This option will prevent the assessment from being taken more than once per enrollment. This is helpful for intake assessments in programs where a participant may be enrolled and dismissed multiple times when they return for new services.

Confidential: making an assessment confidential will require users to create an assessment-specific password when taking the assessment. Users will then be required to enter the password again to update or run a report on the assessment. Site Administrators can view the password at any time on the Participant Assessments page by hovering their mouse over the Password link. Assessments taken prior to the assessment being made confidential will not have a password. 

Allow Assessment Identifier: By checking this box, you allow staff to enter a word or number (or combination thereof) to identify the particular assessment. This is helpful if users are taking the same assessment several times in a row and need to distinguish from each response. 

Automatically Generate Identifier: The assessment identifier can be set to auto-populate with the subject’s initials, your site ID, the subject’s Unique ID, a dash and the number of times they have taken the selected assessment, or with the program name that the user is in when they take the assessment. 

Requires Approval: This feature is only available for Enterprise or Professional versions of ETO Software®. It allows administrators to require an assessment to be approved by a higher level site before it can be submitted. (See: Navigation Bar Component Site Administration, Feature Approve Assessments) 

Allow Pre Populate within Site: Checking this box allows users to populate an assessment with data from a previously taken copy of the same assessment (or a copy of the same assessment) on the same participant or entity. This is helpful for assessments that are taken quarterly when much of the data is the same for each quarter. 

Allow Pre Populate to other Sites: This setting, in working with the setting immediately below, will allow users with participants enrolled in programs on multiple sites to prepopulate responses for assessments that are recorded in both sites. Check off this box to allow responses recorded in the current site to be able to be populated into assessments recorded on other sites, as long as the corresponding setting is checked off on the linked assessment in the other site.

Allow Pre Populate from other Sites: This setting, in working with the setting immediately above, will allow users with participants enrolled in programs on multiples sites to prepopulate responses for assessments that are recorded in both sites. Check off this box to allow responses recorded in another site to be able to be populated into assessments recorded in the current site, as long as the corresponding setting is checked off on the linked assessment in the other site.

 Lowest role that can view Submit button: Site Administrators can limit which user levels are able to submit completed assessments by specify the lowest role that is able to view the Submit button. Users below the role selected will be able to take the assessment and save a draft. A role at least as high as what is selected will be able to review and edit the responses before submitting. 

Allow User to Save Draft of Assessment: Checking this box allows users to bypass any required fields and pre-defined update periods set by the ETO Administrator and save the responses that have been entered. Removing this option will require users to Submit their assessment.  Assessments should be submitted unless a draft is absolutely necessary.

Make “Date Assessment Taken” blank as default: This is the highlighted field at the top of the assessment, which defaults to today unless this box is checked. 

Allow Assessment Date to be prior to Program Start Date: This setting, checked off by default in all assessments, allows users to record an assessment for a participant using a date that is prior to the participant's program start date. If the setting is not checked off, users will not be able to select a date prior to participant's program start date. Selecting a date prior to the program start date will prevent the user from being able to submit the assessment.

 Allow Alert Type: Reminder to Complete this Assessment: For follow-up alerts scheduled on the bottom of the assessment, which populates the To Do List. 

Allow Alert Type: Reminder to take a new Assessment: For follow-up alerts scheduled on the bottom of the assessment, which populates the To Do List. 

Automatic Follow-up: Automatically schedules follow-up alerts on the To Do List, after a specified number of days, weeks, months.  Can also be scheduled on a specified day or days of the way.

 Share Responses Across Enterprise: Checking this box will allow responses for this assessment to be shared across the enterprise in the Review Participant Efforts feature for participants who are referred or enrolled into other sites.  Go to Enterprise-->Manage Sites and turn on Enterprise Review Efforts to enable this functionality. The data will also be displayed on the Participant Dashboard in the Recent Assessments if the box is checked. Enterprise Review Efforts does not need to be enabled to allow the data to show on the dashboard.

Create Auto-Referral: Site Administrators can set up an assessment to generate an auto-referral to another program in the site upon submission of the assessment. Click Create Auto-Referral and select the program in your site where the participant should be referred, the reason for referral (managed in Manage Feeder Tables) and referral notes, along with the number of days the referral will stay on the pending list. Once an Auto-Referral is set and the assessment is taken for a participant, the participant will be automatically referred to the program selected in the Auto-Referral and placed on the Pending Referrals List (see Record Efforts – View Pending Referrals for additional details). Programs will only be available for auto-referral if they are set to allow referrals on the Update page of Manage Programs. To adjust or remove an existing Auto-Referral, click Edit/Delete Auto-Referral.

Add More Elements to This Assessment 

This link redirects to the Select Element Type. Please note that adding new Assessment elements after Assessment data has been entered may produce some data irregularities. 

Add/Edit Calculations for this Assessment:

It is possible to create calculations on specific types of assessment elements: any type of numeric field (number, money, percentage), yes/no questions (adding up all yes responses), weighted exclusive-choice elements, and dates. Calculations can be used to add, subtract, divide, multiply and calculate percentages, and can also be combined with constants (i.e. adding up monthly budget items and multiplying by the constant 12 to calculate an annual budget). 

Only elements that can be used in a calculation will be available to select on this page. To create a calculation, check off the first element for the calculation and select the next element and the appropriate calculation type next to it. Calculations follow standard mathematical rules; division and multiplication will be completed first, then addition and subtraction. It may be necessary to create one calculation with addition (for example, adding monthly budget items) and link it to an element, then create a second calculation to multiply the total of the first calculation by a constant (see below for details).  Date calculations can include the number of days between two dates, or adding a defined number to a date to equal another date.

After all items are selected, a constant can be added to the equation by typing in the number in the value box next to Constant and selecting the appropriate calculation next to it. 

Name your calculation in the box provided at the bottom of the screen, review the calculation for accuracy and click Submit. 

All calculations will be listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the screen and can be deleted using the Delete link (calculations cannot be edited). 

The sum(s) of your calculation(s) will show at the bottom of the Review screen of the assessment after submitting the data, and at the end of the Full Report. 

If you would like the sum of a calculation to be saved in the actual assessment data, it is possible to link the calculation to another numeric assessment element. 

To create a link with your calculation, you must first create a numeric (number, monetary or percentage) element to hold the information, i.e. Annual Budget. After creating the element, click Add/Edit Calculations and scroll down to the list of your calculations. 

Click the manage link option next to the desired calculation and check the box next to the desired element on the next page. A calculation cannot be linked to an element that is included in the calculation itself. Select Manually Calculate from the drop box to generate a Calculate button next to the linked numeric assessment element. Clicking this button will automatically populate the element with the sum of the calculation linked to it. Select Auto-Calculate for the calculation result to appear automatically as numbers are entered into the elements contained in the calculation. 

Click Continue at the bottom of the screen and Return to Assessment Calculations. 

  • Add/Edit Submission Reports for this Assessment: A Submission Report is a way to produce a customized response or recommendation based on the answer(s) to one or more calculations in your assessment. For example, you could have a risk assessment with weighted elements to calculate the level of risk in the home. A calculation could be used to add up the weights and calculate the total risk level. A specific Submission Report could be used to generate recommendations based on the level of risk. You must create Assessment Calculations prior to creating a Submission Report. 


After selecting this feature, click Add to create a new Submission Report. 

Select a calculation from the list of available options. 

Next to the calculation you will be able to choose from a list of options: Less Than, Greater Than, Equal To, Not Equal To or Between, and enter the numeric value(s) for the rule. 

Enter the text for the Submission Report in the text area and Submit. 

Multiple Submission Reports can be created, edited and re-ordered using the arrows available. 

When a user takes the assessment and submits the information, they must click the Continue button the Review page to generate the Submission Report(s). The appropriate Report(s) will show based on the answers to the linked calculations. A print icon is on the Submission Report, if a paper copy is desired. 

Add/Edit Conditional Rules for this Assessment:

Conditionality options were made more advanced in December 2008, following the release of enhanced conditionality in the assessment beta tool. The link to creating conditionality guidelines is named Rules, and is much easier to use than the initial functionality. For example, it allows for actions based on responses as well as lack of response (null). 

Click the link to add or edit rules: 

Add rule(s): 

Add action(s) based on the rules added above: 


A list of rules you've created will appear on this page: 


Conditional elements will appear with a yellow background on the Take Assessment page.  Click the Advanced Formatting box to select the setting that will make the background the default gray color instead.


Special Features Available in Assessments:

Making Assessment Elements like Point of Service Elements 

This option will only be available for some Assessment element types: Yes/No, Numeric, Percentage, Money, and Exclusive and Non-Exclusive Choices (but only if weighted). A screen will appear so that details about the element can be defined: the name, description, default Contact Location Method, Program, Measurement, and Type of Element (Outcome, Output, Quality Indicator). 

Once an Assessment element is tagged as a POS element, an actual Point of Service element is created in the selected program. That element will automatically be in the disabled position. 

The great benefit of making an Assessment element a Point of Service element is that these fields will be available through some of the strongest reports in Software: ETO Reports and the ETO Analyzer. For example, if a program contains a quarterly report card assessment, and data is entered for more than one quarter for a group of participants, the ETO Reports will show how many participants have increased, decreased, or remained the same within a particular element. 

(This is true in brand new assessments being created with the Assessment Wizard, and Assessments reviewed through the Manage Survey/Assessment feature.) 

Only element types that have numeric value have this option available. Those types include: 

  • Yes/No or Boolean (No=0 and Yes=1)

  • Numeric

  • Percentage

  • Money

  • Exclusive Choices (with weights)

  • Non-Exclusive Choices (with weights)


Click edit element for the element to be added as a point of service. Follow the link to enter the details of the point of service. The details gathered here model those in the Point of Service Wizard.

  • Point of Service Element Name - This is the name that will show in reports. I will copy and use the assessment element name.

  • Description - This is an optional field available for all point of service elements.

  • Default Contact Location Method - This is a feeder table selection that will populate reports.

  • Program - Like all point of service elements, this is a program specific tool. While data can be entered into the assessment from other programs (if it's not secured to the program), it will not populate the reports containing point of service data.

  • Are you measuring an Increase, a Decrease, or Neither?

  • What is the Type of Date Element - Outcome, Output, or Quality Indicator?


Once this information is saved, it cannot be edited from the Manage Survey/Assessment “Review” screen. Edits can be done on the Manage Point of Service page. 

Now that the assessment element has been added as a point of service, it is flagged on the review assessment page “Note: Used as an Outcome.” The element will be added to the Manage Point of Service page, but in the disabled position. This is to ensure that data is entered through the assessment only. 


Take the assessment as usual. The date of the assessment will be recorded as the date of contact for any of the elements that are also point of service. 

Once data has been entered for multiple dates, it's time to take advantage of the reports. While comparative assessment reports only compare two assessment responses with two selected date ranges, the ETO Reports show progress over all responses in the selected date range. Assessment elements that are point of service will populate assessment reports AND those reports containing efforts. Review Participant Efforts, Participant ETO (Crystal) and the ETO Analyzer are the three reports that we are most excited to use with this option. 

Two things to be aware of if utilizing the Assessment Element as Point of Service option: 

  1. Copied assessments will not include this option, even if it's been configured in the master

  2. Batch uploaded assessment data will not populate the data to Point of Service elements, only to the Assessment elements


Assessment Wizard in Beta

The Add Assessment as Beta box appears when the type Participant is selected from the drop box.  Social Solutions does NOT recommend checking that box, once that setting is checked and the screen submitted it cannot be undone.


Updating or editing an existing Assessment

Other options for making adjustments to your assessment are available through Manage Survey Assessment.


Assessment Data Entry Features:

Participant Assessment, Family Assessment, Group Assessment, Self Assessment, Entity Assessment, General Assessments, Staff Assessment

Assessment Report Options:

View Single Assessment Reports, View Aggregate Assessment Reports, View Compared Assessment Reports, Participant Assessment Completion Reports 

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