Quick answer
Go to Admin → Review cycles. First add questions to the shared Question bank, then create a Template, pull questions into it and order them, and Publish it. Finally press Launch and choose a review period to open the cycle. Nothing changes for employees until you publish a template.
What are the three tabs for?
The Review cycles screen has four tabs:
Question bank → the reusable pool of questions you can ask
Templates → an ordered set of questions for one audience
Cycles → a launched template for a specific period (e.g. Q1 2026)
Rating scales → the points a rating question offers, and what they are called
The first three build on each other left to right: questions, then a template, then a cycle. Rating scales is independent — set one up whenever you like, and pick it at launch.
How do I add questions?
Open the Question bank tab and select New question. For each question you set:
- Question — the text the reviewer sees.
- Category (optional) — a grouping label like Job Knowledge.
- Answer type — Rating only, Written answer, Rating + comment, or Goal.
- Guidance (optional) — a short hint shown under the question.
- Key — a stable id, filled in for you from the question text.
Removing a question only hides it from new templates. Past reviews keep what they already recorded, and you can Restore it any time.
How do I build a template?
On the Templates tab choose New template, give it a name, and pick the Audience:
Self-appraisal → the employee reviews themselves
Manager review → the manager reviews the employee
Peer / 360° → colleagues give feedback
Then open Questions on the template, add questions from the bank, drag the order with the up/down arrows, and toggle Required where an answer is a must. Mark one template as Default for its audience so it is the standard choice at launch.
How do I build a rating scale?
Out of the box, rating questions use the standard five points — Does Not Meet Expectations through Star Performer. On the Rating scales tab you can build your own.
A scale is a set of points. For each point you choose the number that gets stored, the label a reviewer reads, and optional guidance. So a three-point scale might be:
1 Below bar Not yet delivering what the role needs
3 At bar Doing the job as we expect it to be done
5 Above bar Consistently beyond what the role asks for
A scale can carry two to five points, and every point is a whole number from 1 to 5. That is not an arbitrary limit: ratings are stored as whole numbers 1–5 everywhere in the product, including the calibration grid, so a six or a seven would be a number nothing else could read. What you are configuring is how many of those five points you use and what each one is called.
Mark one scale as the default and new cycles will use it.
Changing a scale never rewrites an old review
This is the part worth knowing. When you launch a cycle it takes a copy of the scale as it stands. Rename a point next quarter, or make a different scale your default, and the cycle you already launched is untouched — a manager who picked 4 while the screen said Exceeds Expectations leaves behind a review that still says exactly that, however the wording moves on.
The same is true in reverse: cycles launched before you built any scale of your own keep the standard five points, because that is what their reviewers actually saw.
How do I launch a review cycle?
A template must be Published first (it needs at least one question). Then press Launch and set three things:
- Review period — such as Q1 2026 or Annual 2026.
- Rating scale — your default, another of your scales, or the built-in five points. This is the copy the cycle keeps.
- Submission deadline (optional) — the day this stage must be in by.
The cycle opens and appears on the Cycles tab, where you can Close it when the period ends or Re-open it if needed.
How do deadlines and reminders work?
A deadline is optional, and leaving it empty is a real choice rather than an oversight: a cycle with no deadline is never shown as overdue, and nobody is reminded about it. You can add or clear one at any time from Set deadline on the Cycles tab.
Once a deadline exists, anyone who has not submitted is emailed three times — 7 days, 3 days and 1 day before it. That is the lot. Nothing is sent on the day itself and nothing is sent afterwards; once the date passes, the cycle simply shows as Overdue on the Review cycles screen and on the person's own Reviews page.
Two details that catch people out:
- The deadline is per stage. Self, manager and peer are separate cycles, so each gets its own date. That is deliberate — managers usually need longer than the people they are reviewing.
- Overdue is worked out in IST. A cycle due today stays due until midnight India time, not until midnight UTC.
The deadline is not the same thing as the review period. The period is what the review is about (say, July to September); the deadline is when the form has to be in by.
Will this affect reviews already in progress?
No. Building templates is safe and additive. Existing self, manager and peer reviews keep working as they do today. A published template simply decides which questions the next cycle asks, and a rating scale only ever applies to cycles launched after you set it.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to build a template before running appraisals?
- No. If you never build one, the standard self-appraisal keeps working exactly as before. Templates only take over when you publish one.
- Can I reuse the same question in more than one template?
- Yes. Questions live in a shared bank, so one question can sit in as many templates as you like.
- If I change the rating scale, does it change reviews people have already written?
- No. A cycle keeps a copy of the scale it was launched on, so renaming a point or changing your default only affects cycles you launch afterwards.
- Why can a rating scale only have five points?
- Ratings are stored as whole numbers from 1 to 5 everywhere in the product, including the calibration grid. A scale chooses how many of those points you use and what each one is called, so you can run a two, three, four or five point scale — but not a seven or ten point one.
- What happens if I do not set a deadline?
- Nothing is sent. A cycle with no deadline is never shown as overdue and nobody is reminded about it.
This guide also lives in the help centre at /help/admin/building-review-cycles, which is its canonical home.