The Financial Grid Field
The financial grid collects figures across several years, which is what you want for income and expenditure history. Applicants get a row per line item and a column per year.
You do not type the years
The grid works its columns out from two other answers on the same form. When you add it, point it at the question asking for the organisation's financial year end, and the one asking for its founding date.
The payoff is that every applicant sees years matching their own financial calendar instead of a fixed set that half of them have to mentally translate.
Founded long ago | Five years of history, as you would expect. |
Founded two years ago | Two historical years, then the rest as future years labelled predicted. |
Either question unanswered | Falls back to plain calendar years rather than breaking. |
Because of that last row, put the financial year end and founding date questions before the grid on the form. Behind it and you will get calendar-year fallback more often than you want.
Five years is the default.
The Total column
Each row totals itself as the applicant types, which is useful for them and useful for you when reading it back.
It is worth knowing that the Total is not saved. It is recalculated for display every time. Nothing is wrong with that, but it has one consequence.
Scoring the figures
Write criteria against the individual figures rather than the Total, because the Total is not part of the stored answer and nothing can read it back.
If a criterion genuinely needs one summary number, an enriched field is the better tool. It computes and stores a value that scoring can then use.
The major donor grid
Same field, different purpose. It uses identical year logic and is meant for donor or funder figures across years.