To create a Review Panel, open the project and click the Review Panels tab, then Set Up Review Panel. A setup wizard walks you through selecting a stage, naming the panel, and setting guidance, deadlines and scoring, before you add members. We'd recommend using the AI Generator on the first step — it scans your submission form to draft guidance and a scoring rubric for you, which gives a base from which to edit. Most panels take just a few minutes to set up, and every step can be edited later.
Step 1: Open the Review Panels tab
Open the Project where you want the review to happen.
Click the Review Panels tab, next to Settings, Stages and Form Builder.
Click Set Up Review Panel.
If panels already exist for this project, they appear in a list — click one to edit it or create a new one.
Step 2: Select a stage and name your panel
The setup wizard opens with the steps in order to complete:
From the Stage dropdown, choose which stage in your application flow this review applies to.
Give the panel a clear name that reflects the round or purpose — for example "Round 1 Sift" or "Final Jury".
Optional: toggle Automatically send to review panel when a submission enters this stage. This sets up a stage automation so submissions reach the panel the moment they enter that stage, with no need to send manually. Automations are available on the Growth plan and above.
Optional: Select the "Generate review panel" option to quickly generate using AI (see below).
You can rename a panel, change its stage or all the settings at any time after it is created.
Can I speed up setup with AI or by copying a previous panel?
Yes — and we'd recommend generating with AI as your default starting point. From the Name & stage step, two shortcuts sit next to the Continue button:
Generate with AI — scans your submission form and builds a starting panel automatically: it drafts reviewer guidance from your form fields and suggests a scoring rubric with example weightings. If you're on the Growth plan or above, it also creates the stage automation for you, so submissions moving into that stage are automatically sent to the panel straight away. It doesn't add any members — you'll need to add these yourself in the Members tab before reviewers can start.
Copy from an existing panel — search your existing review panels in this project and duplicate one into the new panel. This copies the review settings (guidance, deadlines and scoring) only; members are always set separately, regardless of which shortcut you use.
Either way, treat what's generated or copied as a draft. You can make edits and changes once the panel is saved.
Step 3: Review guidance, deadlines and scoring
Whether you built the panel manually or with AI, check these three tabs before reviewers start work.
Guidance
Reviewer guidance is shown to your panel when they score, vote, or give feedback on submissions — they can refer back to it at any time during the review. If you used Generate with AI, this tab already contains a draft written from your form and rubric; edit it, click Suggest guidance to regenerate it, or delete it and write your own. Use the toolbar to format with headings, bullet points, or other styling.
Deadlines
Two settings control how deadlines work for this panel:
Display Due Date To Reviews — when enabled, reviewers see a due date for their feedback. Choose a fixed date, or set a number of days from the review start.
Require all panel members to review — when enabled, a submission is only marked complete once every active panel member has submitted feedback. Turn this off to set a custom minimum instead.
Scoring
Each criterion can collect a numeric score, a vote (with custom options), or a free-text response — only Score criteria contribute to the weighted average, which runs from 0–100. If you used Generate with AI, this tab is pre-filled with suggested criteria based on your form; adjust the criterion names, max scores, weights, and vote options as needed. Here is more information on rubric scoring.
Type | What it collects | Counts toward the 0–100 average? |
Score | A numeric score up to a max you set, with a weight | Yes |
Vote | One of a set of custom options you define (e.g. "Fully compliant" / "Minor deviations") | No |
Text | A free-text response for open feedback | No |
Step 4: Add panel members
Members is the final step when creating a panel.
Toggle Add team members to auto-add your existing team members as reviewers, or add them individually.
Save your changes to finish setting up the panel.
Team members aren't notified when they're added to a panel — they only see assignments once submissions start flowing in.
Can I add external reviewers?
Yes — but they need to be added to your organisation first. Invite them in Settings → Users with the Reviewer role. Once invited, they appear in your Panel Members list as a pending panel member, even before they've accepted the invitation. They'll only have access to a personal Review Account — not full admin access.
Can I edit a review panel after it's created?
Yes. Open the panel from the Review Panels tab and you'll see several tabs — go back into any of them at any time:
Tab | What you can change |
Overview | The panel's name; whether reviewers can decline a review (with a reason); whether reviewers can declare a conflict of interest, routed through a panel manager. |
Stage | Which stage the panel is assigned to, and the automation that sends submissions to it automatically. |
Guidance | The instructions shown to reviewers. |
Deadlines | Due dates and the minimum number of reviewers required. |
Scoring | Rubric criteria, scoring ranges, and vote options. |
Members | Who's on the panel, including pending external reviewers. |
Stats | Progress and results for this panel. |
Click Update Review Settings on any tab to save your changes.
Sending Submissions to Review Panels
Once you've set up a panel, any submissions reaching this stage will now be automatically sent to the panel (if the automation is set up) OR you will need to manually send submissions to the panel. Please note that if creating a panel and adding to a stage midway through a submission cycle, you will need to bulk send any existing submissions to this panel. The automations will only apply to any submissions entering this stage from the moment it is set up and not retrospectively.
Best practice for setting up review panels
Use Generate with AI as your default starting point — it's faster to edit a draft than to build guidance and a rubric from nothing, and you can still change everything before it goes live.
Remember panels start with no members — add these yourself before reviewers are expected to start.
Duplicate existing panels when you're running near-identical panels across rounds (e.g. Round 1 vs Round 2) — you'll typically only need to update deadlines and members.
Only assign a panel to a stage with In Progress status. You will receive a warning if adding to a different status.
Turn on "Allow reviewers to declare a conflict of interest" if reviewers might have a stake in specific submissions, and route flagged conflicts through a panel manager.
Name panels descriptively ("Round 1 Sift", not "Panel 1") so reviewers can tell rounds apart at a glance.
Add external reviewers to your organisation with the Reviewer role before adding them to a panel.
Where to go next