Screen Applicants with Knockout Questions
Most affiliates don't want every applicant filling in a forty-question form before anyone checks whether they're in the service area. Screening sections put the prerequisites first: the applicant answers a short set of questions, and either moves on to the next stage of the application or is told, then and there, that they don't qualify.
You can chain as many screening sections as your process needs — an initial eligibility check, then a pre-approval stage that asks for documents, then a financial review, and so on. Each one unlocks the next.
Turn a section into a screening gate
- Go to Application Hub → Form Templates and open your application form.
- Find (or add) the section that holds your prerequisite questions. Put it near the top of the form — everything after it stays locked until it's cleared.
- Click Add screening gate on the dotted line just below that section. (The shield icon in the section header opens the same settings.)
- Switch on Use this section as a screening gate.
Once it's saved, the dotted line turns into an orange-striped Screening gate bar. It shows the stage it unlocks, how many knockout rules it has, and what happens on a match. Click Edit rules on the bar to change them. The section also gets a shield marker in the Structure list on the left.
If a section is titled something like Eligibility or Pre-Qualification, the line below it is highlighted with a suggestion to make it a gate. It's only a suggestion: nothing changes until you open it and add rules.
Published form versions that applicants have already answered are locked against edits. Create a new version first, then add your screening rules to it and publish.
Write the knockout rules
Rules describe what disqualifies an applicant, the same way you'd say it out loud: "if they don't live in our service area, they're out."
Each rule picks a question, a comparison, and an answer:
| Question | Comparison | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Do you live in our service area? | is | No |
| Do you currently own a home? | is checked / yes | — |
| Annual household income | is greater than | 80000 |
| Housing situation | is any of | own, other |
The question list shows the questions in this section, since those are almost always what a gate checks. To write a rule about an answer from an earlier section, tick Also use questions from earlier sections. Questions from later sections are never offered, because the applicant hasn't answered them yet when the gate runs.
Reason (optional, per rule) is what gets shown to the applicant and recorded on the application. Without one, Omnivo records the question's label.
When several rules apply
With more than one rule you'll be asked when they disqualify:
- If any rule matches (the default) — a single wrong answer knocks them out.
- Only if every rule matches — for criteria that are only disqualifying in combination.
Choose what happens on a knockout
- Decline the application — the applicant stops here. The application is marked rejected with the reason you wrote, and the rest of the form never opens.
- Let them continue, but flag for staff review — useful for a soft criterion (a low credit score, say) that you want to look at yourself rather than reject automatically. The application continues and picks up a Flagged for review badge.
Name the stage
Stage name once they pass labels the level the applicant reaches —
Pre-Screened, Pre-Approved, Documents Verified. The name appears to the
applicant on the section and to your staff on the application, so you can tell
at a glance how far someone has progressed.
Messages
- Message shown when they do not qualify — what the applicant reads on the decline screen. Write it the way you'd say it in person; this is often someone's first and last contact with your affiliate.
- Message shown when they pass (optional) — a short note as they move on, e.g. "You've met our initial requirements — next we'll need a few documents."
What applicants see
Applicants answer the screening section like any other, but Next is where the rules run:
- They pass — the next stage opens, along with your pass message.
- They're knocked out — they get a plain "Not eligible at this time" screen with your message and an email address they can use to reach your team. Their answers are still saved so you can see who was screened out and why.
Set the contact email applicants see
The "Not eligible at this time" screen shows your Homeowner Services Contact email. Set it in Settings → Organization → Homeowner Services Contact. If you leave it blank, applicants see your organization's main contact email instead.
Sections behind a gate they haven't cleared stay locked, so nobody starts gathering documents for a stage they won't reach.
What staff see
On the application, a Screening card shows which stages were cleared, the stage the applicant is currently in, and — for anyone knocked out — the exact rule that did it. The status also appears as a badge next to the application status:
- Passed screening — cleared every gate
- Flagged for review — cleared the gates, but matched a flag rule
- Screening in progress — still working through the stages
- Did not qualify — knocked out; the application is declined
Review screened-out responses in Form Submissions
Responses submitted through an embedded or public form are saved in Form Submissions. A response knocked out by a screening section is saved with the status rejected.
- Go to Form Submissions and set the status filter to Rejected.
- Click a response to open it.
A red Rejected by screening box at the top lists each screening stage the response failed, with the question and the reason. In the answers below it, the questions that failed are outlined in red with the reason underneath, so you can see exactly which answers didn't meet your requirements. Responses that only matched a flag for staff review rule show a Flagged for review by screening box and are highlighted the same way.
Screening never overrides your staff. You can still reopen a declined application from Homeowners → Applications and review it by hand.
Email the person who submitted a response
To follow up with someone about their response, click the envelope icon in the Actions column of Form Submissions. Or open the response and click the envelope icon at the bottom (or their email address under Submitter Information).
An Email Submitter window opens inside Omnivo, addressed to them, with a subject line naming the form they filled out. Edit the subject if you like, write your message, and click Send Email. The email is sent from your affiliate, signed with your name, and any reply comes back to your own email address. The message box is a formatting editor: use the link button to turn words like "the document checklist" into a link, and a web address you paste on its own becomes a clickable link too.
Sending from Omnivo needs permission to manage homeowner program settings. If you can view submissions but not manage them, the envelope opens a new message in your own email program instead. The button only appears when the response includes an email address.
Print a response
To keep a paper copy of a response, open it from Form Submissions and click the printer icon at the bottom. The printout contains the submitter's information and every answer, across as many pages as it needs, without the navigation menu or buttons. This works for any form, not only homeowner applications.
Test your form before applicants see it
Click Preview at the top of the form builder to fill in the form yourself, the way an applicant would, and watch your screening gates decide. Nothing is saved or submitted. No response appears in Form Submissions, no application is created, and nobody is emailed. The preview uses whatever is in the builder right now, including changes you haven't saved, so you can try a rule out before you keep it.
The form itself is on the left, with the same steps, required-field checks and screening behavior as the live form. On the right, a panel lists each screening gate with its rules written out in words, and a status that updates as you answer:
- Waiting for answers — some of the questions the gate checks are still blank
- Not reached — an earlier gate hasn't been answered yet
- Passes — no knockout rule matches
- Stops applicant — a decline rule matches
- Flags for review — a flag rule matches; the applicant carries on
Below the gates, If this response were submitted now tells you how the live form would file the response: Rejected, Submitted, or Submitted — flagged for review.
To test a knockout, give an answer that matches one of your rules and click Next. You see the same "Not eligible at this time" screen an applicant would, with your message. Click Go back and change answers to return to the form with your answers kept, or Start over to clear them. One difference from the live form: the preview's decline screen leaves out your Homeowner Services Contact email.
To test a pass, answer so that no rule matches and continue to the end. Clicking Submit shows the applicant's thank-you screen, and the panel confirms that nothing was submitted.