This guide will prepare you to set up your own Programs by reviewing what Programs are used for, the hierarchy on which programs are built, as well as reviewing a few important notes about set-up and administration.

Put simply, a Program is a list of questions that can be answered within the Visit App in Encompass. Programs have a wide range of uses, from field visits to opening/closing checklists at the store level.

The possibilities are endless. Simple uses for programs are store visits to ensure policy compliance, merchandising, etc. At a franchise level, Programs are great in the form of checklists to make sure procedures are being followed or to reinforce training.

Chances are, if there’s information you need to know at the corporate, franchise, or individual store level - you can build a Program to collect that information with Encompass.

Here are a few common uses for Programs:

If you'd like to view our training session on Checklists, you can find it here!

Programs exist within a structural hierarchy - which is important to understand as you set up your own.

The hierarchy is 4 levels:

Interaction Types

Interaction Types categorize Programs. For instance, you may have an Interaction Type called Store Check-ins where you would find all your monthly check-ins. Another example of an Interaction Type could be Opening/Closing Checklists. Your Interaction Types can be as specific or general as you would like depending on how you would like your programs organized. Interactions also sort your programs into those that require the location is recorded and those that do not.

Programs

Programs are the actual lists of questions. Each Program must be assigned to an Interaction Type. An example of a Program would be 'Opening Checklist' or ‘September Field Visit’.

Pages

Pages can be helpful if your program includes a large number of questions about a variety of subjects. While it's not necessary to set up more than one Page for a Program, it can help you organize your questions into related topics. For example, in the Program 'September 2022 Check-in', you may split this Program up into the following Pages: 'Appointments', 'Inventory', 'Promotions', and 'Sales'.

Questions

Questions are the questions to be answered within your Program. A Question must be associated with a Page in your Program. Your Program does not need to be more than 1 Page long of Questions. There are several different Question Types that Encompass supports.

Creating Programs

You can create your own custom Programs, or use one of the available templates to build a Program. Click below for guides on each:

One element of Programs that makes them so flexible is the 19 types of questions you can choose from. Building Programs with different types of questions allows you to collect information in many different ways.

For a full guide to Encompass’ question types, click here.

Elements of a Program (Interaction Types, Programs, Pages, and Questions) can be deleted, but once a visit has been made on a Program associated with any of these, you cannot delete them. This preserves the information for reporting purposes. You can archive questions and un-publish or close Programs to keep your lists of questions and Programs manageable and up to date.

Click here for a step-by-step guide to editing, deleting, and archiving.

A lot can go into creating a program of questions. That’s why we’ve created a duplicate function for Programs. This will duplicate all of your questions into a new program, and can be helpful for Programs you run on a regular basis.

Click here for a step-by-step guide to duplicating Programs.