Admin Dashboard Guide

The admin dashboard is where you'll spend most of your time during a live event. It shows you what's happening, who's scoring, and what needs your attention.

Overview

The admin dashboard adapts to the judging mode you picked when creating the competition.

Panel mode shows four stat cards at the top — Entries, Judges, Judges Complete, and Overall Progress (a percentage that turns green as scoring finishes) — followed by Judge Management, Scoring Results, and Public View sections.

Audience mode replaces the per-judge layout with a single vote counter, a voting link panel (with QR code), and the same Scoring Results and Public View sections.

The rest of this guide covers panel mode first, then audience mode. Most controls (Public View, appearance, finalization, CSV export) work identically in both.

Watching Your Judges

The Judge Management section shows a table with each judge's name, a progress bar, and action buttons.

The progress bar tells you how far along each judge is — blue means in progress, green means they've finished all entries.

A judge showing 0% progress ten minutes before the event ends is a problem. Call or text them directly — that's why we recommend keeping phone numbers handy.

Sharing Links

Each judge has a Share button that generates a ready-to-send message containing their unique scoring link. Copy the message and send it however works best — text, email, Slack.

If a judge lost their link, use the Share button again to get a fresh copy and send it directly.

Judge Actions

Two action buttons appear per judge:

• Reset Completion (undo icon) — appears when a judge has finished. Lets them go back and score more entries. Useful if they accidentally hit the finish button too early.
• Deactivate Judge (person-x icon) — removes a judge from scoring entirely and excludes their scores from totals. Use this for no-shows.

Once deactivated, a judge shows a "Deactivated" label in place of action buttons.

Audience Mode Dashboard

When the competition is in audience mode, the per-judge layout is replaced by an audience-specific view.

Vote Counter

The big number at the top shows how many people have submitted their full ballot so far. Below it, a progress indicator shows the count relative to your plan limit:

• Free: "12 / 25 votes" with a progress bar
• Plus: "87 / 250 votes" with a progress bar
• Pro: total count only, no cap

The number updates every few seconds — there's no need to refresh. Once the limit is reached, the voting link automatically starts showing a "Voting is full" screen to anyone who hasn't already submitted.

Voting Link Panel

The voting link panel shows the shared URL in a copy-to-clipboard box and a QR code button beside it. Use the QR code for live events — projecting it on a screen or printing it on the event programme is far faster for voters than typing the URL.

The same panel stays accessible throughout the event so you can re-share the link mid-event if needed.

Scoring Results in Audience Mode

The Scoring Results section works the same as in panel mode, but the breakdown changes:

• Audience Scoring: each entry shows its total points and the number of voters that contributed (e.g. "1,164 points (142 votes)")
• Audience Ranking: each entry shows its accumulated points from the Eurovision-style distribution

Use List view during a live event — it's the cleanest top-to-bottom ranking. Matrix view is less useful in audience mode because there are no individual judges to see per-cell.

There is no per-judge action column (no "Share", no "Reset Completion", no "Deactivate Judge") because there are no individual voters to act on. If a competition is being abused, finalize it to close voting — see Finalizing below.

Scoring Results

The Scoring Results section updates every few seconds as judges submit scores. You can toggle between two views:

Matrix — a grid with entries as rows and judges as columns. Each cell shows the judge's total score for that entry and how many criteria they completed. Useful for spotting which judge-entry combinations are missing.

List — a ranked leaderboard. Each entry shows its rank, total score, and a breakdown by judge and criterion.

Judge Notes

If you've enabled judge notes in the Editor settings, the dashboard gives you two ways to review them.

A Notes button appears in the view toggle alongside Matrix and List. The Notes view shows all feedback grouped by entry — each judge's note displayed in a card format. This is the best way to review feedback before sharing it with competitors.

In the List view, notes also appear inline: expand any entry's judge breakdown and you'll see each judge's note quoted below their score.

Notes are included in the CSV export as "Notes: [Judge Name]" columns. See the Judge Notes guide for full details on setup and usage.

Controlling the Public Display

The Public View section has a visibility mode dropdown with three options:

• Live scores — scores are visible to the audience in real time
• Hidden — the leaderboard is visible but all scores are hidden
• Entries only — only entry names are shown, no scores

Use "Hidden" or "Entries only" during deliberation or before a big reveal. Scores still calculate on your end regardless of which mode is selected.

From this section you can also copy the public leaderboard link, preview it, embed it on a website, or customise its appearance.

Appearance

The Customise button opens the appearance modal with:

• Theme — preset themes including Default, Dark, Bold, Gaming, Contest
• Accent color — optional color override
• Layout — Bar or List view for the public leaderboard
• Font size — from 75% to 200%
• Judge Progress Indicator — show or hide the judging progress banner on the public scoreboard

Finalizing

The Finalize button permanently locks all scores. After finalizing:

• Judges cannot submit or edit scores
• In audience mode, the voting link shows a "Voting is closed" screen to any new visitors
• No more entries, judges, or criteria can be modified
• The button is replaced by a "Finalized" badge

Use this after scoring is complete and you're confident in the results. It cannot be undone.

In audience mode, finalizing is the only way to definitively stop voting before the plan voter limit is reached — handy if you're running an event with a fixed end time and want to lock in the result the moment voting closes.

Editing the Competition

Click Edit Competition to go back to the editor — this is where you can add or remove entries and judges, update contestant details, or adjust criteria.

When Things Go Wrong

Judge Not Responding

Start with the admin dashboard: is their progress bar still at 0%? If so, they may not have received their link. Use the Share button to copy their link and send it again directly.

If they've accessed the link but aren't scoring, they might be confused about the interface. Send clear instructions or have someone walk them through it.

Last resort: deactivate the judge and note their scores separately.

Scores Not Calculating Right

Check that all judges have actually submitted scores for that contestant (clicking around without submitting doesn't count). Verify your calculation method — average and sum produce very different results.

Technical Issues

Real-time updates need a stable internet connection. If the leaderboard stops updating, check your wifi first.

Judges on flaky connections should refresh their browsers. If the whole system seems slow, clearing browser cache sometimes helps.

Have a backup plan. If the internet dies completely, switch to paper scoring and enter results manually after the event.

Getting Help

During your event, email [email protected]. Include your competition name and what's happening.

For pre-event setup questions, the same email works. We typically respond within a few hours.

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Practice first. Create a test competition and click through everything before your real event. Five minutes of practice prevents most day-of confusion.