You’ve Received a Request... Now What?
The Loopio Projects page is your workspace for building out and collaborating on your responses to RFPs, RFIs, and questionnaires.
A Project is created for each request you want to answer in Loopio. Within a Project, you can:
- Import content directly from an issued document
- Invite teammates to collaborate on answering questions
- Search through your existing Library of content to automatically answer questions
- Export answered questions right back into your original document for submission
For an overview of Projects, take a look at this video:
How Can I Control Who Does What in a Project?
Tailor your team members’ Project permissions using predefined Project Roles. Project Roles allow you to customize the level of involvement your Project Participants have as they work together on an RFP.
There are three predefined Project Roles:
- Project Admin: Project Admins can do everything in a Project, including:
- Importing questions from an RFP
- Adding Project Participants
- Assigning Project Entries* to Participants
- Completing, reviewing, and commenting on Project Entries
- Running Magic as a first pass to answer Project Entries
- Exporting completed requests
- Collaborator: Collaborators can be assigned to answer or review Project Entries assigned to them, and have the ability to see and comment on all questions, including those they are not directly assigned to
- Assignee: Assignees can also be tasked to answer or review Project Entries assigned to them, and do not have the ability to see any other Project Entries
*Project Entries include both the Question and Answer as a pair
Note: Loopio-wide Projects, Level 3 (Full Access) permissions will allow a User to take all action in a Project - even if they are set as a Collaborator or Assignee.
Read more: The difference between Project-specific and Loopio-wide permissions
As different Project Roles experience the Projects space differently, we’ll walk through each of the Roles one by one below.
Projects From the Eyes of a Project Admin
Project Admins have the ability to manage and answer Projects. A Project Admin can view all the Projects where they are a Project Admin from the “Active Projects” pane on the Project dashboard.
Project Admins can also view all Projects they are working on (including those in which they are a Collaborator or Assignee) from the Projects tab.
As a Project Admin, How Do I Create a Project?
A Project can be created by any Loopio User with Projects Access, Level 2 (Creator) permissions. The person who creates a Project is known as the Project Creator, and by default will be assigned Project Admin permissions and Project Owner status for that Project. As a Project Admin, the Project Creator has the ability to do everything in a Project.
While every Project Creator has Project Admin permissions, not every Project Admin is a Project Creator. Only one Project Creator is designated per Project (this cannot be changed), and a Project can have more than one Project Admin.
Read on to learn more about this: Project Creator versus Owner versus Admin
To learn how to create a Project, read more: Creating Projects
As a Project Admin, How Can I Bring a Request I’ve Been Issued Into a Project?
As a Project Admin, you can Import your content directly into a Project to populate it with the questions you have been issued.
Tip: Were you assigned more than one source document? Loopio allows for the Import of only one source document per Project. Create a Project for each document, and Import one source document to each Project. You can use a naming convention to keep track of the various Projects that make up a single proposal - e.g. “RFP Part 1 of 3,” “RFP Part 2 of 3,” and “RFP Part 3 of 3”.
To learn how to import content into your Project, read more: Importing a Project
As a Project Admin, How Do I Start Answering the Questions in My Project?
Loopio Projects provides three options for answering your proposal’s questions (called Project Entries): Magic, Library Search, and manual answer creation.
Magic: Taking a “First Pass”
Magic is Loopio's automation workflow that acts to automatically populate Answers in your Project Entries by finding the best related content from your Library.
Magic searches your Library for matches to any unassigned Project Entries that have not yet been answered. When Magic finds a strong match, the Project Answers will automatically be populated with the highest match strength.
Because Magic works on Entries that have not yet been answered or assigned, it is a great first pass to leverage your Library before you begin assigning your Project Entries out to Users. This helps reduce the amount of time your Participants spend answering questions, allowing them to focus on producing high-quality responses for unanswered Entries.
You can run Magic on the whole Project or for individual Sections.
Tip: All Project Entries filled with Magic are indicated with a magic wand icon in the Entry’s top left corner.
Learn more in this article about Magic: Magic best practices
How Do I Add Users as Project Participants?
Once you’ve used Magic to take a first pass at automatically populating your Entries, you can start adding Participants to your Project. This allows you to delegate the answer and review of your Project Entries to your Project’s Participants.
As a reminder, here are the three roles you can assign your Participants:
- Project Admin: Can do everything in a Project
- Collaborator: Can answer and review all unassigned Entries or Entries assigned to them, and can see, review, and comment on all Entries
- Assignee: Can only see, answer, and comment on Entries assigned to them
To learn more about adding Participants to your Project, read on: Adding Users to a Project
Once your Participants have been added to your Project, you can assign them to Project Entries by Section, Subsection, or individual Entry.
Note: Your Participants will receive notification emails with each new assignment (these emails are sent in batch after 15 minutes). This includes being added to a Project, as well as being assigned Project Entries for answer or review. By default, any Entries you assign to other Participants to answer will be assigned to you for review.
As a Project Admin, How Can I Answer and Collaborate on Individual Project Entries?
As a Project Admin, you have the ability to answer, review, reassign, and comment on all Entries within a Project.
Searching the Library for Answers
Project Entries can be answered in three different ways: Magic, searching your Library, reassigning the Entry to another User, or manually writing content into the Entry’s answer field.
By default, Search Library will use the Project Entry’s question text to search across your Library. You can customize your search using keywords in the question text, or by entering your own search terms.
You can choose to further narrow this search by specifying the Stack, Category, and Subcategory you want to search. You can also specify which fields in your Library should be searched, and whether you want an Exact Match.
Once you’ve located an answer you want to use, click Use Answer to add it to your Project Entry.
Tip: All Project Entries filled with Search Library are indicated with a magnifying glass icon in the Entry’s top left corner.
Reassigning Entries to Other Users
As a Project Admin, you can reassign Entries to other Users in a Project.
Within the Entry, click on the image for the “Assigned” User, then type the name of the User to whom you want to reassign the Entry and press Enter.
Commenting on Project Entries
With visibility into all Project Entries, you can leave comments for your Project Participants. Use Loopio’s @ mention function to directly tag Project Participants in a comment.
This gives you collaborative capabilities and allows you to provide instructions or further detail for your Participants.
As a Project Admin, How Can I Track the Work Being Completed on a Project?
As a Project Admin, you have multiple ways of tracking the status of your Project: Viewing the Project Dashboard, creating a Project Plan, and filtering a Project’s workload by User.
Project Dashboard
The Project Status bar gives an overview of the status of all Questions in a Project as well how a Project is progressing towards its due date.
Clicking “View Dashboard” will show you a chart reflecting the number of questions in the Project and the rate at which work is being completed towards a deadline.
This page also shows the Participants Breakdown table for the Project, which displays the Entries assigned to all Project Participants by Entry status.
If any Users have Entries that are unanswered, you can nudge them from this dashboard. After 15 minutes, the User will receive an email notifying them of their assignments.
User Filter
From the Project page, you can use the User filter to display only the Project Entries assigned to a given Project Participant. This will be reflected in the Project Status bar, which will update to show only the Entries assigned to the User to whom you are currently filtering.
Notification Emails
To help you keep on top of your work, Loopio sends notification emails with new Project Entries assigned to you and when a Project Entry has been answered and requires your review.
Notification emails are also sent when a Project Admin nudges you to complete unanswered Entries.
My Tasks
There are two ways to view Project work that’s ready for your input.
Within a Project, select the “My Tasks” filter to show all Entries that are ready for you to take action on.
You can also view your Tasks from the Loopio homepage. Your Tasks displays all Project Entries assigned to you for answer or review, all Project Entries in which you have been @mentioned, any Project work assigned to your Team that has not yet been claimed, as well as all Library Reviews assigned to you.
Your Tasks shows up to 12 Projects assigned to you in order of due date in ascending order (from closest to furthest due date).
When a Project Is Complete, How Do I Close It out as a Project Admin?
Once you’re happy with your Project Answers, you can export your completed Project work for submission. Exporting enables you to download a copy of all Project Entry questions and answers.
To learn more about exporting Projects, read on: Exporting Projects
Creating and Updating Library Entries Through Close Loop
Once a Project is complete, Close Loop can feed completed Project Entries into your Library. This is great for content you know you will use again, as it ensures they are available for use in later Projects through Magic and Library Search. This helps to populate your Library with content as you work.
Close Loop works by scanning a Project for completed Entries and allowing you to select how you want to manage each individual Entry. You can Close Loop on the entire Project, or by individual Section or Entry, using the Close Loop button.
Close Loop compares your completed Project Entries to your existing Library Entries, and provides you with three options for any new content:
- Create New Entry: This is for net-new content, that does not already exist in your Library.
- Add as Alternate Question: This will be shown for any Entries which have a matching Library Entry Answer in your Library. This will add the Question text of your Project Entry to the related Library Entry as an Alternate Question.
- Don’t Add to Library: Not going to use this content again? Choose this option so it is not added to your Library.
Tip: Are you clicking Close Loop but still can’t take action on any Entries? Check the Close Loop status! If Close Loop is set to “Complete,” no action can be taken. Change this to “Mark as Incomplete” to allow you to Close Loop on your complete Entries.
Read more: What Are the Ways I Can Build My Library? Close Loop
Projects From the Eyes of a Collaborator
Collaborators are assigned to answer or review Project Entries assigned to them, and have the ability to see and comment on all questions, including those they are not directly assigned to.
Once a Project Admin has created a Project and added a Collaborator as a Project Participant, that Collaborator can then see all content within the Project.
As a Collaborator, How Can I See What I Have to Do in a Project?
Notification Emails
To help remind you what work is waiting for your input, Loopio sends two types of Project notification emails: A one-time notification email when you are added as a Project Participant or assigned Project Entries, and a nudge email sent when a Project Admin nudges you to complete unanswered Entries.
My Tasks
Aside from emails, there are two ways to view Project work that’s ready for your input in Loopio.
Within a Project, select the “My Tasks” filter to show all Entries that are ready for you to take action on.
You can also view your Tasks from the Loopio homepage. Your Tasks displays all Project Entries assigned to you for answer or review, all Project Entries in which you have been @mentioned, any Project work assigned to your Team that has not yet been claimed, as well as all Library Reviews assigned to you.
Your Tasks shows up to 12 Projects assigned to you in order of due date in ascending order (from closest to furthest due date).
User Filter
From the Project page, you can use the User filter to filter down to the Project Entries assigned to a given Project Participant. This will be reflected in the Project Status bar, which will update to show only the Entries assigned to the User to whom you are currently filtering.
As a Collaborator, How Can I Answer and Collaborate on Individual Project Entries?
Answering Project Entries
As a Collaborator, Project Entries can be answered in two different ways: Searching your Library or manually writing content into the Entry’s answer field.
By default, Search Library will use the Project Entry’s question text to search across your Library. You can customize your search using keywords in the question text, or by entering your own search terms.
You can choose to further narrow this search by specifying the Stack, Category, and Subcategory you want to search. You can also specify which fields in your Library should be searched, and whether you want an Exact Match.
Once you’ve located an answer you want to use, click Use Answer to add it to your Project Entry.
Tip: All Project Entries filled with Search Library are indicated with a magnifying glass icon in the Entry’s top left corner.
Commenting on Project Entries
With visibility into all Project Entries, you can leave comments for other Project Participants. Comments can be left as simple text, or you can use Loopio’s @ mention function to directly tag Project Participants in a comment.
This gives you collaborative capabilities and allows you to provide instructions or further detail for other Participants. It also allows you to tag a Project Admin, if you feel an Entry is not suited for you to answer.
Projects From the Eyes of an Assignee
Assignees are assigned to answer or review specific Project Entries, and do not have the ability to see any Project Entries not assigned to them.
As an Assignee, How Can I See What I Have to Do in a Project?
Notification Emails
To help remind you what work is waiting for your input, Loopio sends two types of Project notification emails: A one-time notification email when you are added as a Project Participant or assigned Project Entries, and a daily digest that shows all Project Entries in your name as Project due dates approach.
My Tasks
Aside from emails, there are two ways to view Project work that’s ready for your input in Loopio.
Within a Project, select the “My Tasks” filter to show all Entries that are ready for you to take action on.
You can also view your Tasks from the Loopio homepage. Your Tasks displays all Project Entries that are ready to be answered or reviewed, all Project Entries in which you have been @mentioned, any Project work assigned to your Team that has not yet been claimed, as well as all Library Reviews assigned to you.
As an Assignee, How Can I Answer Individual Project Entries?
Answering Project Entries
As an Assignee, Project Entries can be answered in two different ways: Searching your Library or manually writing content into the Entry’s answer field.
By default, Search Library will use the Project Entry’s question text to search across your Library. You can customize your search using keywords in the question text, or by entering your own search terms.
You can choose to further narrow this search by specifying the Stack, Category, and Subcategory you want to search. You can also specify which fields in your Library should be searched, and whether you want an Exact Match.
Once you’ve located an answer you want to use, click Use Answer to add it to your Project Entry.
Tip: All Project Entries filled with Search Library are indicated with a magnifying glass icon in the Entry’s top left corner.
Commenting on Project Entries
With visibility into only those Project Entries assigned to you, you can leave comments for other Project Participants. Comments can be left as simple text, or you can use Loopio’s @ mention function to directly tag Project Participants in a comment.
This gives you collaborative capabilities and allows you to provide instructions or further detail for other Participants. It also allows you to tag a Project Admin, if you feel an Entry is not suited for you to answer.