📚 Part of the series Application Building Phase I: Core components

The first step in the setup phase of your Slate application is creating application periods.

This applies whether you’ll be importing applications from a third-party, using Slate-hosted applications, or both.

What is an application period?

The application’s period refers to its status as active (usually the current year’s applications) or inactive (all past years’ applications). Periods are “containers” for your cycle, and operate like on/off switches for application processes. Periods are closely interrelated with rounds, which we’ll cover in the next article.

Historical applications can be imported to rounds associated with an inactive period, if necessary. Even if you are only importing applications, you still need a period for the applications to be associated to.

Creating application periods

To create an active application period:

1. Select Database from the main navigation.

2. Select Application Periods.

3. Select Insert. A popup appears.

4. Configure the following settings:

   • Status: Active

   • Name: Enter a name for your application period, for example: 2025-2026 Application

   • Allow Multiple: Do not allow multiple applications

   • Application/Status Page: Enable application and status page

     

5. Select Save.

🔁 To create an inactive application period, repeat the preceding steps, setting the Status and Name instead to Inactive.

Result

• You’ve created an active application period for the current application cycle that restricts the applicant to a single application per period.

• OR, you’ve created an inactive application period that serves as a receptacle for all previous cycles’ applications.

Your requirements may differ from the settings we’ve selected here. Read on to see if your setting selections should differ.

Application period setting descriptions

Status

• Required

• Set the status to Active when it is time for the period to receive applications.

• In general, all prior and future periods should be set to Inactive.

Folder

• Optional

• Keep your Periods organized by putting them in a folder.

• Select Other to create a new folder, which you can type into the free text box.

Year

• Optional

• Specifies the year to which applicants apply.

• For example, the period year 2022 may include the enrollment terms Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

• The period year only reflects the academic year and cycle if your admission process includes hard deadlines and a downtime when no applications are created.

• If you have a rolling admission process or import applications, the period year will usually not serve any critical purpose.

Name

• Required

• The name you type in here will be visible to students on the Slate-hosted application

• Consider adding “Application” into the period name for simplicity, for example, “Slate University Application.”

Period Key

• Optional

• An uncommon setting, primarily used to delineate between multiple active applications. If you do have multiple active application periods, be aware that applicants could potentially pick the wrong application when creating an application and it will require more due diligence in rules, checklist items, and communications.

Period Path

• Optional

• Like period key, period paths have uncommon use cases.

• This setting can be used to override certain shared application files for a particular period.

Export Value

• Optional

• Lets you set an export value for the application period, typically a short value or code used by external systems like an SIS upon the consumption of application data from Slate.

• 📖 Further reading: Translation Codes

Allow Multiple

• Optional

• Applicable only to Slate-hosted applications

• Selecting Allow multiple applications allows an applicant to submit more than one application in this particular period.  

• 📝 This setting must be set to Allow multiple applications if you want to allow applicants to submit multiple applications within the same round.

Application/Status Page

• Optional

• Enables or disables the application status page for applications associated with this period.

• 📝 Disabling this setting will also disable any Slate-hosted applications associated with the period.

Custom Status Portal

• Optional

• If your database has a custom status portal, you can associate this period with that custom portal here to override the standard Slate application status portal.

• 📖 Learn how to make a custom applicant status portal.

➡️ Up next: Creating application rounds

Periods and rounds work in conjunction. Applications can only be created directly by selecting a round associated with an active period.

Next, we’ll create the rounds, or application types, that your applicants will select from at the outset of their application process.

📚 Next article in this series: Creating application rounds