FiscalNote FAQs

Whether you're entering a description into an Action, or creating a Private or Organization Note, you can take advantage of the voice to text capability within the iOS app. Where you see the throughout the app, you can use voice to text that will convert spoken words to written language.

To use, tap the microphone and speak clearly into the microphone. The app will convert and enter the words as you speak. When finished, tap Done.

Discovery Alerts are designed to help you discover the most relevant legislative and regulatory information as it occurs during active sessions. You can be notified of newly introduced or revised bills as well as proposed rules that match your criteria on the iOS app. While you cannot create a new Discovery Alert on the mobile app, you will be able to manage the alerts on the go.

On the Alerts screen, you will see a listing of your Alerts grouped by name. The number of new Alerts will show beneath the name.

Tap on the Alert name to open the listing of Alerts.

The bill list on the Alerts page has multiple functions available to you. From this page, you will be able to complete the following:

By tapping on the top right corner of the screen, you will get a consolidated view of the bill where you can tap Show More Info to go to the bill’s page. You will also be able to set the priority, set your position, add this bill to an issue, or flag the bill as irrelevant. Once an action is taken (by adding to an issue or flagging as irrelevant), the next bill in the list will automatically move into view.

By tapping in the far top right corner, you can select multiple bills from the list to add to an issue or mark as irrelevant in bulk. To do so, select the circle(s) to the left of the bill, add the selected bill(s) to an Issue (1) or mark as (2) Irrelevant, Read or Unread.

Search within the Alerts list by entering in a keyword into the search field. The result listing will filter automatically based on the keyword that is entered. To reset the search, tap the "x" at the far right of the search field.

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Filters can be applied by tapping to the right of the search field. The list can be filtered by read status, a specific time frame, and selected legislatures. The order can be sorted as well.

Once set, the section below the search field will show the number of bill matches based on the set filters and entered keywords.

With the list of bills in view, you will be able to quickly add the bill to an Issue or mark as irrelevant by swiping left directly on the bill and making the appropriate selection. Once the bill has been marked, you will receive a confirmation of the action at the top of the screen. Simultaneously, the list will refresh, and the bill will no longer be included in the list.

Adding contacts into FiscalNote using the iOS app can be done by scanning in a business card directly from your mobile device. The iOS app will capture all of the important information for the contact, and with a few taps, can be added to FiscalNote without having to type anything. Getting to the scanner within the app can be done multiple ways.

Option A: From the Organize screen, tap the Contacts icon. In the top right corner, tap the "+" in the top right corner, then select the Scan Business Card option.

Option B: Tap the "+" button at the bottom center of the screen. Next, select the Create Contact option, then Scan Business Card option.

Next, center the business card within the borders of the rectangle in the center of the screen and take a picture. Once completed, use the captured picture by tapping the blue check mark.

Once the screen refreshes, you will see the completed fields with the contact's information from the business card.All completed fields are editable if information was not captured correctly. Additional information can be added for the contact that was not available on their business card, such as a website, Affiliations, and Relationships.

When done, tap Save in the top right corner.

In addition to adding Actions on the FiscalNote platform from your computer, you can add Actions while you're on the go using your Android mobile app. You can log an action from multiple different places:

On the homepage, you can add an action by selecting the "+"at the bottom center of the screen.

On the Actions page,you can add an action by selecting the "+" at the bottom center of the screen.

You can add actions for past and future events. You can also link your colleagues or contacts that you’ve uploaded to that event. Add a summary of the event to keep track of what took place or was discussed.

To add past or future actions, from the New Action modal:

Enter in the date and time of the action

Select the "+" to add colleagues and contacts

Enter a summary of the event

Click the Account Settings button in the bottom rightto view the Account Settings, Help Center, and Log Out options. Then, press the "Help Center" option and choose a Browser to open the link, if you are prompted to do so.

When the FiscalNote Help Center loads on your mobile phone, please press the Menu button at top right and select the "Submit a request" option that appears. You will be able to submit your Support request from there by filling out the form.

The FiscalNote Mobile App is available for Android devices in the Google Play Store. You may use the Android Mobile App to manage your Discovery Alerts, add Actions, search US legislation, view information about US legislators, and work with your Issues, Contacts, and Notes.

To log in to the FiscalNote mobile app, enter your email and password in the respective fields and click "Login" or use your company account via the SSO option. You can also save your login credentials to login quicker.

Once you've signed in to the app, you'll be taken to the Discovery Alerts page. From here, you can see your Discovery Alerts and their new legislation count, as well as access those Discovery Alert inboxes to review their bills.

In the bottom navigation bar, you can do the following:

Navigate to the Organize Page to access Issues, Actions, Contact, and Notes

Add an Action

Search US Federal and State Bills

Access Account Settings

Navigate back to the Discovery Alerts page

On the Organization page, you can access:

Issues

Contacts

Actions

Notes

On the Add Action page, you can add an Action by clicking on the ACTION button at the bottom:

On the Search Page, you can search for US Federal and State Bills. Legislator pages are viewable by clicking on a bill's sponsor or cosponsor.

On the Account Settings Page, you can access your Account Settings, our Help Center, or Log Out:

You may log into FiscalNote through a web browser, the FiscalNote mobile app for iOS or the FiscalNote mobile app for Android.

Web Browser Login

To login to FiscalNote in a web browser, visit the FiscalNote application home page at https://app.fiscalnote.com.Press "Click Here to Log In" and a new window or tab to "Sign in with FiscalNote" will appear. Enter your email address and your password, then click the purple "Log in" button.

Entering the correct login credentials will cause the"Sign in with FiscalNote" tab to disappear and you will get redirected to the tab with https://app.fiscalnote.com. After a moment, FiscalNote will bring you to your dashboard and you will see the greeting "Welcome to FiscalNote" with your name at the top of the screen.

Mobile app for iOS Login

To log in to the FiscalNote mobile app for iOS, enter your email and password in the respective fields and click "Login" or use your company account to login with SSO.

If you'd like to quickly access the mobile app, you can also save your login credentials with "Remember Me" so that the app will retain your login credentials.

You may also enable Touch ID to login quickly using your fingerprint. To do this, make sure that you select "Use Touch ID" the first time you log in. The next time you open the app, you'll be prompted to use your fingerprint to log in. You can also select the fingerprint symbol at the bottom of the page to trigger the Touch ID to log in.

Mobile app for Android Login

To log in to the FiscalNote mobile app for Android, enter your email and password in the respective fields and click "Login" or use your company account to login with SSO.

If you'd like to quickly access the mobile app, you can also save your login credentials with "Remember Me" so that the app will retain your login credentials.

Finding Your Focus Points in FiscalNote

Description: This 30 minute session will focus on using FiscalNote to search for relevant content and what information is available to you.

Date and time: Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:00 pm

Managing Your Issues in FiscalNote

Description: This 30 minute session will cover the basics of how to create and manage your issues in FiscalNote.

Date and time: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 11:00 am

Building Reports and Legislator Lists in FiscalNote

Description: This 30 minute sessionwill focus on the report/export function and legislator list building in the FiscalNote platform.

Date and time: Friday, February 21, 2020 2:00 pm

You can use the Directory to create, search and manage individual and organization stakeholders that are important to you.

To Create a New Stakeholder

To create a new individual or organization contact, click on the "Create Contact" button. For more information on creating contacts, check out this article: Contacts FAQs

To Search for Stakeholders

Searching by Name

You can search for an individual stakeholder by first or last name using the search bar under "Search by Name". If you'd like to find an organization stakeholder, you can search for the organization name.

Filtering

If you're looking for a general list of stakeholders, you can use filters to search across all stakeholders, individual stakeholders or organization stakeholders. Each type allows you to filter for different data types:

Stakeholder Type

Filters

Data

All

Labels

Labels that were created in your account

Issues

Issues that were created in your account

People

Contact Type

Custom Contacts, U.S. State Legislators, U.S. State Executives, U.S. Federal Legislators, U.S. Federal Executives, Members of EU Parliament, Global Legislators

*Options depend on the data that you are subscribed to

Legislator Status

Active, Inactive

Legislative Chamber

Senate, House

Title

Search for the stakeholder's title

Organization

Search for stakeholder's organization

Labels

Labels that were created in your account

Issues

Issues that were created in your account

Organizations

Contact Type

Custom Contacts, U.S. State Committees, U.S. Federal Committees

Labels

Labels that were created in your account

Issues

Issues that were created in your account

To Manage Stakeholders

After you've found the stakeholders you're looking for, you can view the Name, Title and associated Organization (if applicable) for each stakeholder. To add stakeholders to Issues or to add labels to stakeholders, select the stakeholders and click on the Add to Issue or the Add Labels button on the top right corner of the page.

Can I create a contact for an organization or person that doesn’t have FiscalNote?

Yes, you can create contacts and organizations that can be connected Actions and Notes throughout the platform.

Can I import contacts into FiscalNote?

Yes, you can bulk import your own database of contacts into FiscalNote.

Can I create a mailing list with my contacts?

You may select multiple people from your contacts to send them a message via bcc. To do so, select the relevant contacts and then click "Email Contacts".

Can I access my contacts in the mobile app?

Yes, your new contacts can be associated with Actions that you log while you’re on-the-go!

You may recover a forgotten password through the Forgot Password screen in a web browser or through the Forgot My Password link in the FiscalNote mobile app.

Password Recovery in a Web Browser

Visit the FiscalNote application home page ( https://app.fiscalnote.com/ ) in a web browser to recover your password.

Press "Click Here to Log In" and a new tab to "Sign in with FiscalNote" will appear. Clickthe "Don't remember your password?" link just above the purple "Log In" button.

Enter the email address you use to access FiscalNote and then click the purple "Reset” button.

An email will be sent to the provided email address with instructions to reset your password. The email Subject line will be "Reset Password Instructions" and the link to change your password will be included on the phrase "Change my password" in the body of the email. An image of the email is shown below.

The "Change my password" link will take you to a screen to create your password. An image of the password creation screen is shown below.

When setting your new password, please keep in mind the following requirements:

Password must be more than 8 characters in length

Password must contain a number, upper and lower case, and special character

Password cannot be the same as the email address

You cannot use your previous 3 passwords

Password Recovery in the FiscalNote mobile app for iOS

You may launch the password recovery process from the login screen of the FiscalNote mobile app for iOS. Click on "Forgot My Password", enter your email and click "Reset Password".

Check your email for a "Password Reset Instructions" email from FiscalNote Support and click on the "Change my password" link. You'll be redirected to a password reset page in your mobile browser where you can enter your new password.

As of February 29, 2016, FiscalNote will no longer support Internet Explorer versions 10 and below.

As Microsoft had noted previously, starting Jan 12, 2016 security updates will be provided on IE 11 and Edge. Accordingly, FiscalNote will support users on Microsoft Internet Explorer version 11, Apple Safari version 8.x on Mac OS X. The most recent stable versions of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are also supported. If you’re using Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 710, you will have a degraded user experience.

For mobile, we do not support browsers on phones or tablet devices. Instead, please use our app on your mobile device. To learn more about getting the mobile app, please read this article.

Finally, please see below for a matrix of all supported Operating Systems and corresponding Browser versions.

The FiscalNote Mobile App is available for iOS devices in the App Store.

To log in to the FiscalNote mobile app, enter your email and password in the respective fields and click "Login" or use your company account. You can also save your login credentials or enable Touch ID to login quicker.

Once you've signed in to the app, you'll be taken to the homepage. From here, you can search for Legislation, Legislators, Committees, and Actions. By selecting the top-left menu button, you can navigate to Discovery Alerts, Issues, Files, Links, Contacts, and more.

On the Search page, you can:

1. Search across legislative data using filters.

2. Add new Contacts, Actions, Files and Notes to your account.

3. Click on the hamburger icon on the top left corner to access your Issues, Discovery Alerts, Actions, Contacts, Files and Links.

You can change your password while logged into FiscalNote on a web browser by following the process in the below outline. It is not possible to change your password in the FiscalNote mobile app. If you cannot login, please read I'm having trouble logging into FiscalNote.

1.) At the bottom left of your screen, click the gear icon

2.) In the pop-up menu in the bottom left of your screen, click “Account Settings”

3.) In the middle of your screen, click "Password"

4.) Arrive on the password screen

5.) Enter a new password in the “New password” field

Your password must satisfy the following requirements

Make a password that is 8 or more characters in length

Use at least one number, upper case letter, lower case letter, and special character

Do not use your email address

You cannot use your previous 3 passwords

6.) Re-enter the new password in the “Confirm new password” field

7.) Click “Save changes”

A successful password change will be acknowledged with a notification in green at the top of the screen. An unsuccessful password change will prompt you to try again.

In the Homepage Agenda and Hearings box you will find upcoming scheduled Actions or committee hearings for bills in your Issues. This Agenda and Hearings section should serve as a resource to help you and your team plan your day and week ahead.

Actions

Under your Agenda you will find the most recent upcoming Action you have entered into FiscalNote, and to view more upcoming Actions you can click the "See future scheduled meetings" link. Follow this link to learn more about Actions.

add your Actions to your Outlook, Google, or other calendars

Hearings

Based on the legislation you are following in your Issues, we will show you what bills are scheduled to be read in committee under Hearings. Additionally, next to each committee hearing, click on the lightning bolt to easily add that hearing to your Actions. Follow these links to learn more about our State Committee Hearings and our Federal Committee Hearings.

Interested in having your upcoming Actions more visible on your calendar outside of FiscalNote? Follow these instructions to .

In addition to managing your relationships with legislators, bills, and committees, you can create contacts for people and organizations outside of FiscalNote and outside of legislative bodies that you interact with topush your policy initiatives forward. YourPeopleandOrganizationContacts are organized under the address book icon on the left-hand panel.

Notes

People Contacts:

Click on the name of an individual contact to see their basic/contact information and the legislation or committees or legislators they're linked to.

You can also keep track of all Actions andassociated with this person.

OrganizationContacts:

Click on that individual's organization to learn its contact information and to view allContacts within with that organization.

Keep track of allActions andNotesassociated with this organization.

If you're new to FiscalNote, or just need a refresher, check out our Getting Started Guide to learn the basics of the platform:

Discovery Alertsare designed to help you discover the most relevant legislative and regulatoryinformation as it occurs during active sessions. Discovery Alerts will notify you of newly introduced or revised bills as well as proposed rules that match your criteria. You can also choose to get alerted whenever a relevant Congressional Research Service (CRS) report is published.

Our Account Management team uses Boolean logic to create custom alerts with a string of keywords relevant to your issue areas. Our system will then scan newly introduced legislation, regulations or CRS Reports for those keywords and alert you to the most relevant information. If you would like changes made to your Discovery Alerts or would like a new alert created for you, reach out to your account manager or our Support Team at [email protected].

You can also create your own Discovery Alerts on FiscalNote yourself!

To create a Discovery Alert, navigate to the Discovery Alerts page by clicking the telescope icon in the upper right corner of the FiscalNote app.

Click the green "Create Discovery Alert" button to create a new discovery alert.

The Discovery Alert creation pane will appear.

Under “Document Type”, select the type of discovery alert you’d like to make: bills (state and federal), federal and state regulations, CRS Reports and international bills.

Next, enter a name for your Discovery Alert. The name will not impact the criteria applied to the discovery alert.

Next, enter the keywords that you would expect to appear in the legislation you want to be alerted about. You can use boolean operators in your keyword search.

Each individual entry is automatically separated by an “OR” boolean operator. In this example, the discovery alert would search for bills that include the exact phrases “Product Stewardship,” or “Drug Take Back,” or “Rx Disposal.”

Next, select the legislatures that you want to discover bills from. You can quickly select all 52 of the legislatures we cover (US Congress, DC, and the 50 states), or you can select individual states.This is ideal for regional managers who cover only a portion of the country.

Finally, select your Discovery Alert notification preferences. To receive email notifications, select "Send to Email". You can choose to receive notifications in real time, or in four hour, daily, and weekly digests.

To complete the Discovery Alert creation process, click the green “Save” button.

Once a Discovery Alert has been created, it will populate a list of all previously introduced or revised bills or rules that match your criteria in addition to alerting you to new bills or rules. These bills will appear in your “Discovery Alerts inbox”.

How to Find Bills You Want to Track

How to Monitor Bills

How to Add Relevant Information to Your Issues

How to Find Bills You Want to Track

Discovery Alerts

This is where all newly introduced bills that hit your issue areas will be

Any bill in inbox is reviewed the day it is received

1. If relevant, add to the corresponding Issue(s)

Bills can be placed into multiple Issues

2. If irrelevant, mark as irrelevant

Add any bills you’ve identified as pertinent to an Issue. The bill will be saved under the Data tab in an Issue Folder

How to Monitor Bills

Issues > Overview / Details Tabs

The Overview tab on the Issues Page allows you and your team to identify the main pain points around the issue at hand

Issues > Data Tab

Any bills in an Issue can be further organized in 3 different ways

1. Add a Priority to the bill (High, Medium, Low)

2. Add a Position to the bill (Support, Monitor, Oppose)

3. Add a Label to the bill

Labels can be anything from subtopics/ subcategories, risk categories of the bill, or business units affected by the bill

Examples:

“2019 Strategy”

“Resale Policy”

“Risk Category: Tax”

“Finance Department”

How to Add Relevant Information to Issues

Issues > Files / Links Tabs

Files : Any relevant talking points, analyses, one pagers, proposed amendments/prefiles that you have access to should be uploaded to FiscalNote

If the file is in relation to a particular bill, legislator, or stakeholder, link the entity to the article

Then, link to the corresponding Issue(s)

Links : Any relevant news links or press releases should be loaded into FiscalNote

If the article speaks about a particular bill, legislator, or stakeholder, link the entity to the article

Then, link to the corresponding Issue(s) for easy organization going forward

If you have access to Congressional Quarterly (CQ), you may add to your FiscalNote account any links to news stories, reports, or other content from CQ.

Issues > Actions Tab and Actions

This is FiscalNote’s CRM capability

This is where you can track activities with your stakeholders so that you can gain insight how you and your team tracking towards your goals

Any meeting with a legislative agency employee, lobbyist or trade association representative should be logged in FiscalNote with the following information:

Meeting time and date

FiscalNote user attendees

External attendees

Link to abill, legislator, committee, stakeholder when appropriate

Link to the corresponding Issue(s)

Meeting notes should be detailed

What was discussed? Summary

Are there next steps? Next Steps

Issues > Stakeholders and Contacts

This is your personal rolodex outside of state legislators

We recommend adding any contacts with whom you frequently interact

From here, you can track your Actions with them to measure the success you are making towards achieving your impact

Any relevant stakeholders (legislators,committees, external contacts) on a given issue should be added. A stakeholder is considered any person or group who is influential on a given issue

Stakeholders can be added to multiple issues

You can create a record for an organization within FiscalNote and then add that organization two one or more Issues so that the organization with appear in the stakeholders list for the issue/s. To create an organization.

Access the Contacts > Organization page

Bulk Contact Import

Click the "Create Organization Contact" button

Complete the Create Contact form. Fields are listed below, and required fields include an *

Contact Type* (leave as Organization)

Name*

About

Website

Phone

Address

Labels (completing this field will apply your choice of Labels to the organization)

Issues (completing this filed will assign the organization to your choice of Issues)

If you would like to add more than one organization, we recommend using ourtool.

The Directory allows you to find and manage all stakeholder data in one place. This includes:

Your custom individual contacts that you can find on the Contacts - People page

Your custom organization contacts that you can find on the Contacts - Organizations page

Committee data that you are subscribed to

Individual legislator data that you are subscribed to.

To access the Directory, go to the Contacts icon on the left navigation bar and select "Directory".

create, search and manage stakeholders.

On the Directory page, you can

If you'd like to share key information about your Issues with your team members and stakeholders who aren't FiscalNote users, you can now download high level Issue summary information directly from the Issue page itself. To download an Issue Brief, you can click on the "Download Brief" button on the Overview tab in your Issue:

to the Details tab

Your Issue Brief will contain the following information from the Overview tab:

Issue banner image

Basic Information: Priority, Impact, Lead, Labels

Any Details sections that were added . To edit the sections that appear in your Issue Brief, you can hide, reorder or delete the sections on the Details tab.

You can also find your current and historical Issue Briefs on your Exports page:

What is Sine Die?

In those instances where carry-over doesn’t occurthe end of an annual session or the end of a bienniumall bills that did not reach a status of Passed Second Chamber, Enacted, Vetoed, or Failed are considered “Sine Die - Failed”. That is, since the legislature has adjourned “without day”, there is no opportunity for further activity to occur on that bill, and it is effectively “Failed”.

Why is a bill Sine Die - Failed?

Many bills and resolutions do not complete all the stages of activity necessary for enactment. Perhaps a bill remained in committee for the entire session. Or maybe a bill passed one chamber without adequate time to receive a vote in the other chamber of a bicameral legislature. Whatever the reason, many bills simply lose the momentum needed to carry them through the entire legislative process.

These bills that are stuck in the legislative process therefore lack an explicit indication of failure, such as a governor’s veto or vote-down in a chamber. Legislatures interpret bills that cannot complete the legislative process prior to the end of session as bills that failed by Sine Die, or Sine Die - Failed. In other words, these bills did not achieve the necessary approval of the legislature within the time allotted for legislative activity.

Determining bill status can be challenging because legislatures do not adhere to a uniform standard for recording bills as Sine Die - Failed. Some legislatures explicitly indicate that a bill is Sine Die - Failed, while others do not. FiscalNote provides a convenient, standardized record of bill status by applying logic and analysis to the bill’s publicly reported history in order to infer a Sine Die - Failed status.

Why isn’t a bill Sine Die - Failed when I expect it to be in that status?

A bill should complete a legislative session in one of three possible statuses: Enacted, Failed, or Sine Die - Failed. The first two statuses apply to bills that either explicitly succeeded or failed during a session, and the last status applies to bills that lost momentum during the legislative process. Not all states explicitly report Sine Die - Failed status, so FiscalNote can interpret bill status based off of the legislative activity reported by states.

It is possible that a state may not provide enough information for FiscalNote to definitively apply Sine Die - Failed to a bill. For example, many states allow a governor to take no action on a bill after it passes the legislature; sometimes this event is classified as a pocket veto while in other cases the bill gets enacted automatically. If the state lacks a system to report these procedures, FiscalNote maintains the last-reported or interpreted status until the state government updates their record of the bill. The accuracy of bill status ultimately depends on the information that FiscalNote is able to obtain from publicly-available sources.

To narrow down your Actions for exporting or searching purposes, use the filters in the bar at the top of the table. There, you can filter for:

Dates:Use "Start" or "End" to see all Actions on a specific date or during a date range.

Action Type: Use "Type" to filter down to specific types of Actions, such as committee hearings, meetings and emails. You can select more than one Action type.

Creator:Use "Creator" to filter down to Actions created by one or more of your colleagues.

Attendees:Use "Attendees" to filter for Actions attended by one or more of your colleagues.

Linked Items:Use "Linked Items" to filter for Actions connected to certain legislation, committees and contacts. You can also filter out any Actions with linked items by clicking on "Only Actions Without Linked Items".

Summary:Use "Summary" to filter for certain hashtags in the Summary sections of all Actions.

You can also use the search bar to search for keywords in your Action summaries:

Using mentions or “@-mentioning" is an easy, effective way to make sure the right people see your questions or answers for relevant issues.

To make a comment or ask a question to a specific person, type the “@“ symbol and start typing that person’s name FiscalNote will show you a list of potential matches you can choose from. Select the person you’re looking for, and then enter your message. That person will then receive an in-app notification and an email about your message.

Please note that the Privacy of the post must be set to "Organization"to tag users.

In addition to the traditional keyword search, FiscalNote offers advanced options, including boolean modifiers, that can help you form more specific queries to find more relevant results.

Quotes "..."

AND

OR

NOT

Parentheses (...)

Proximity (~)

Quotes “..."

Quotes indicate that the results should includethe exact words in the exact order. Capitalization and punctuation are ignored, unless the punctuation is a special symbol. If words such as “and” or “or” are included within quotes, they are treated as normal search terms. You can use quotes in addition to other modifiers.

Examples:

“sales tax” == “Sales TAX”

“auto insurance” OR “car insurance”

“natural gas leak” == “natural gas leaks”

AND

As in most search engines, this operator is the default in our search. When searching two terms, you can separate those terms with the upper-case word AND. However, the AND is implicit, and the search function assumes that there is an AND between them. You can think of this as a union, with each additional term restricting the set of results further. An AND inserted inside quotes will not act as a boolean operator, but rather as the word and.

Examples:

health insurance (the AND is implied)

property tax == property AND tax “property” AND “tax”

infrastructure AND bridge

“renewable energy” AND “solar panels”

OR

The OR operator yields results with at least one of the terms, therefore, broadening the search results. All documents with at least one matching term are returned.

Examples:

“sales tax” OR “value added tax”

fracking OR fracturing

petroleum OR oil

NOT

The search result will exclude a particular term immediately after the operator NOT. The (-) and (!) operators can be used to indicate NOT. The NOT operator is a very powerful term because it will exclude any document that contains the word after NOT. Itshould be used carefully.

energy NOT electricity

insurance NOT “life insurance”

pet NOT cat NOT dog == pet -cat -dog

Parentheses (...)

Parenthesis are best utilized for complex searches to combine terms and modifiers. They are used to indicate the precedence of application of the boolean operators, similar to the distributive property in multiplication. Think of PEMDAS!

Examples:

(health insurance) == health insurance

(health OR life) AND insurance == (health OR life) insurance

banking OR (financial regulation) (banking OR financial) regulation

Proximity (~)

The proximity operator can be used to find sets of words within a specified proximity to or distance from one another. It is used to return results containing words in exact succession or throughout a piece of text.

Examples:

“Health insurance”~5

Returns texts with the words “health” and “insurance” within 5 words of each other

Ensure no space between quotation mark and tilda

Best Practices:

~5 -~10: Utilize small proximities for terms with limited variations.

~10 -~20: Utilize large proximities for broad searches that may span a paragraph.

FiscalNote does not support proximity searching greater than ~20.

You may add Labels to content within FiscalNote to indicate meaningful relationships or bundle information.

Where can I Add a Label?

What do I click to Add a Label?

How to Add a Label?

What are Suggested Labels?

Label Suggestion: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Where can I Add a Label?

Labels may be added to content in many different areas of the FiscalNote platform. The exact methods for adding Labels depend on your location within FiscalNote and the content that you are viewing. This article will discuss labelling the following data:

Legislation

Regulation*

Legislator

Member of EU Parliament

United States Committees

United States Research Documents

*Note: Only United States Federal Regulation Dockets may receive Labels. United State Federal Regulation Documents, Comments, and Public Inspection Desk may not receive Labels.

What do I click to Add a Label?

Apply one or more Labels to government content or data by using the Add Label button...

...or the Label Tag button.

If one or more Labels are already present on the content, then you will see an Edit button.

If FiscalNote is not able to display all the Labels present on the content, you will see a count of undisplayed Labels next to the Edit button.

How to Add a Label?

Click the Add Label button to activate a text field

The instruction "Type label..." appears inside the text field

A "Cancel" and "Save" buttons appear beneath the text field

In the text field, start typing a keyword or term you wish to use as a Label

FiscalNote will display a list of matching Labels that already exist in your account

If you wish to apply an existing Label, hover over that Label with your cursor and then click it or press the Enter key to add that Label to the text field

You may add multiple Labels to the text field while it is open

You may remove Labels that you do not wish to apply by pressing the "X" to the right of the Label name

If you wish to make a new label, continue typing the words you wish to use for the Label Name.

Labels may contain multiple words with spaces

Beneath the text field, FiscalNote will display a blue drop-down tab with header text "New Label" and a preview of your new Label name

Click on the blue drop-down tab containing the "New Label" or press the Enter key to add your new Label to the text field.

Press the "Save" button to finish adding Labels to the content. The Labels will be visible to anyone with access to your organization's FiscalNote account.

What are Suggested Labels?

Wherever you can add a label, FiscalNote will suggest Labels based on topic hierarchy entries (topics e.g. "Tax Credit"). You can select and add those suggestions like they can select and add existing labels.

Suggested Labels uses a simple text search over FiscalNote's topic hierarchy to suggest Labels you might want to add. As you start typing, FiscalNote will auto-completes the typing with suggestions from the topic hierarchy.

To use Label Suggestion

Open the Add Label menu

Starts typing

Selects one or more suggested Labels

Click Apply to commit the Label additions.

Label Suggestion Q&A

Are suggested labels different from the Labels created by me?

Suggested labels are no different from the Labels created by you. All these labels appear in FiscalNote and can be edited in the same way.

Does FiscalNote check for case sensitivity when suggesting Labels?

Yes. If you type lowercase "tax", you will see suggestions for topics related to "Tax" as well. However, please note that you can still create a label that is the same phrase as an existing label but with different casing. FiscalNote is examining ways to address this issue.

What happens if I add a suggested Label in one place but later I type out that Label again in a different place?

The label you type out appears as as an existing organization label instead of a "Suggested Label".

What if someone in my organization deletes one of the labels. Will it be removed from suggestions or will I still see it?

The suggestion will reappear, so you will still see it.

5 is the maximum number of Attendees.

Please note that the Attendees field can only apply to individuals who can log into your FiscalNote account. If you would like to link other people/stakeholders to the event, whether they are Contacts or Legislators, those names will need to be entered into the Link To field.

25 is the maximum for the Link To field.

In which countries can I be notified on new regulatory notices?

Discovery Alerts for regulatory notices are available in the following countries:

Argentina

Australia

Brazil

Canada

Canadian Provinces:

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

Ontario

Quebec

Saskatchewan

Chile

Colombia

France

Germany

India

Indonesia

Mexico

Peru

Russia

Switzerland

Thailand

United Kingdom

How do I view International Regulations in my Inbox?

To view the regulations that have been added to your alerts, go to the Discovery Alerts page and filter for the International Regulations content type:

How to Save Discovery Alerts to An Issue

Can I only be alerted on new Final regulations or new Proposed regulations?

You will be alerted on all new regulations from your selected countries, regardless of status. Only State Regulation Discovery Alerts allow you to choose between "On Proposal" regulations and "On Final" regulations.

Can I mark a regulation in my alerts as "irrelevant"?

Yes, you can mark a regulation as irrelevant by clicking on the thumbs down icon.

Can I add a regulation in my alerts to an Issue?

Yes, you can add a regulation in your alerts to your Issue. Please refer to this article:

You can now create and receive Discovery Alerts for new and finalized regulatory notices from the international countries you subscribe to. To learn more about International Regulation Discovery Alerts, check out our FAQ article.

To create a new alert for International Regulations:

1. Go to the Discovery Alerts page and click on "Create New Discovery Alert":

[email protected]

2. Once the "New Discovery Alert" window opens, click on the drop down menu under "Document Type" and select International Regulation:

3. Next, give your new alert a name.

4. Click on the "Keywords" section to add a keyword query or queries that are relevant to the issues you are interested in. If you need assistance creating your keywords, please email and our Support team will connect you with your Client Success Manager.

5. Click on the "Countries" section to add the countries that you would like to be alerted on. If you are subscribed to more than one country, click on "Select All to be alerted on regulatory notices in all countries that you are subscribed to.

6. Click on the "Options" section to configure your notification settings. Choose to receive a Daily Digest, a Weekly Digest or deselect "'Send to Email" to turn off notifications for this alert. Click Save.

Labels are an organizational tool within FiscalNote. Labels provide additional context or meaning to information. It can be useful to view and report on your labels in FiscalNote.

To create a report based on Labels

Reporting

Note the Labels on which you wish to report (see To view all your organization’s Labels)

Navigate to

Select the Issues from which you would like to create a report

If you aren’t sure which Issues to use, you may select all the available Issues

Make sure the country is US

Note: International legislation and regulation may receive labels but is not yet available for Reporting

Choose whether to report on bills or regulations

Note: US Federal Regulatory Documents and Comments cannot be assigned Labels and therefore cannot be included in a Labels-based report

Expand the Label filter

Begin typing a Label

Select a Label from the list of Labels that matches your entry

FiscalNote will display on the content of the selected Issues that also contains the Label

You may include additional Labels in the filter via the OR or AND operator

The operator will apply to all labels you include in the query. For example, the following configurations are possible in the Label

Online Gaming OR Compliance OR Loot Boxes

Online Gaming AND Compliance AND Loot Boxes

It is not possible to configure the Label filter like the example below

Online Gaming AND Compliance OR Lootboxes

Select all content

Click Create Report

If you subscribe to multiple products in the FiscalNote product suite, you can easily move between products with Single-Sign On (SSO) capability. SSO means that if you are logged into one product, you will automatically be logged into others. SSO is currently supported between CQ, FiscalNote, VoterVoice, and Knowlegis. Below is a list and descriptions of the different ways to navigate between products.

CQ Products Tab

Links to CQ articles in FiscalNote

"+Create Advocacy Campaign" button

Login once, then navigate to other products

CQ Products Tab

If you are logged into CQ and want to access one of the other three products, you may access the Products tab. Follow these instructions to reach the Products tab:

1. Click "My Account" to the My Account menu.

2. Select the "Products" tab.

3. In the list of products, click the "Go to" button for the product you would like to log into.

The image below depicts the steps within the My Account menu.

Links to CQ articles in FiscalNote

If you have a CQ News item saved in your FiscalNote Issue, for example, clicking on that link will automatically log you into CQ and open the page for the article.

"+Create Advocacy Campaign" button

From any bill page in FiscalNote, click the "+Create Advocacy Campaign" button to access VoterVoice in order to build a campaign.

Login once, then navigate to other products

If you are already logged into CQ, FiscalNote, VoterVoice, or Knowlegis then you may move to another Product simply by navigating to those products within your internet browser.

Please contact your FiscalNote account manager to request one or more additional accounts.

If you're not sure who to contact, the FiscalNote Support team ( [email protected] ) can assist you with the next steps needed to create your new FiscalNote account.

Once your account is created, you will need to activate it.

After the FiscalNote team creates your account, you will receive a message with the subject line "FiscalNote Account" to activate your account. A sample of the email is shown below:

To create the password for your account, click the link on the "click here" text in the email. This link will take you to a screen to create your password. An image of the password creation screen is shown below:

In the "Password" field, enter a password of your choice that meets the following requirements.

Make a password that is 8 or more characters in length

Use at least one number, upper case letter, lower case letter, and special character

Do not use your email address

Enter the password again in the "Confirm Password" field and then click Save to complete the process of creating your password.

Please contact [email protected] if you experience any difficulty with process of activating your account.

Welcome to FiscalNote!

You may obtain the latest version of the FiscalNote mobile app for iOS by visiting Apple's App Store while on a device such as an iPhone.

If you're currently viewing this content on an iOS device, please use the link below to visit the FiscalNote Mobile App page in the App Store.

FiscalNote by FiscalNote, Inc

Your password must satisfy the following requirements

Make a password that is 8 or more characters in length

Use at least one number, upper case letter, lower case letter, and special character

Do not use your email address

You cannot use your previous 3 passwords

You will need to reset your password every 90 days. FiscalNote will send an automated message 5 days before each required password reset.

If you've attempted to login to your FiscalNote account 10 times, your IP address will be blocked for security purposes.

Immediately after your IP address is blocked, you will receive a Blocked Access Attempt email. Please click on the link to verify that you were attempting to login and your IP address will be unblocked.

In order to ensure the security and integrity of your and your organization’s FiscalNote information, the following three security measures are in place:

Password Resets every 90 days: As of 12/1/17, you will need to reset your password every 90 days. FiscalNote will send an automated message 5 days before each required password reset.

Account Lockouts after 10 failed login attempts: You will be locked out of your account after 10 failed login attempts. You will receive an email notifying you of the failed login attempts and including a link to unlock your account. Once unlocked, you will be able to log in like normal or request a password reset.

Auto-logouts after 3 days of inactivity or every 30 days: You will stay logged in to FiscalNote unless a) you do not access your FiscalNote account for a 3-day period or b) you last logged in 30 days ago.

If you find that you are having difficulty logging in due to any of these security measures, please email [email protected] for further assistance.

Customize the roles of every FiscalNote user. Control who can view, edit or delete certain information to make sure everyone has access to only the information they need.

Each organization has a System Administratorthat can make these changes. If you want to make changes to your account and don't know who your System Administrator is, please reach out to your account manager or [email protected]

If you're a System Administrator, you can create as many roles as you'd like for your organization. For each role, you decide what each person in that role can create, view, edit or delete. You also decide what everyone else at the organization can view, edit and or delete what anyone in that role has created.

Accessing Roles:

Go to the bottom left-hand corner on FiscalNote and click the Setting icon

Click on Organization Settings

Toggle over to Roles. Here you will find all the roles you've already created

To Create a New Role:

Click "Create Role"

Give the role a name and description (ie. Associates, Executives, Contract Lobbyists, Compliance Team)

Click Next to flesh out the parameters of that role. For each part of the FiscalNote platform, decide what people in that role can do and what everyone else at your organization can do in relation to this role.

The last step is deciding which people in your organization are included in this role

Once you're done, click Submit to save

A note on the difference between Groups and Roles:Groups are a way to better collaborate with your team within your organization. You can see what group you are in, create Issues for your group members etc. Roles are a way to customize the access of information and editing privileges for users. This is only visible to the System Administrator.

Any organization using FiscalNote can choose to work with FiscalNote to create a single sign-on (SSO) process unique to that organization.

SSO allowsa user to provide one set of login credentials (username and password) to access any applications to which they receive rights from their IT administrator.

If you believe your organization has an agreement with FiscalNote for an SSO and you need assistance with accessing FiscalNote's web app, please contact FiscalNote Support.

If you do not have SSO and are interested in setting one up for your organization, please contact your account manager. If you're not sure who to contact, please ask FiscalNote Support to direct you to the appropriate person.

The FiscalNote Homepage allows you to easily pick up where you left off when you come back into FiscalNote. You will find a quick overview of what pages you have looked at most recently, news articles, a visualization of your policy landscape across your issue areas and important updates to your Issues.

If you’re following legislation at the state level, see where your bills are in their lifecycle on the Policy Landscape component of the Homepage. You can view this breakdown by Issue and use the interactive map to narrow down to those specific states.

If you'd like to share the Policy Landscape with others or include the visual in a presentation, for example, you are able to download the map via the menu selection button at the top right of the map. Your options are PNG, JPEG, PDF, or SVGSVG is a vector format file that makes graphic design easier.

Additionally, clicking a purple state will pull up a small window to allow you to view the bills in that state.

Anytime you are added as an attendee to an Action, an Action you created is edited by another colleague, or are tagged in a Discussion, you will receive an alert that is visible from the bell icon in the top right of the page. By clicking on the bell icon, you will see your list of notifications, and new notifications will have a blue dot next to them to serve as an unread indicator.

To see the item your colleague tagged you in, click on the blue text for the link or on the text of the notification itself.

Clicking on the link or the notification text will remove the blue dot, marking the notification as "read." An alternative way to dismiss the blue dot indicator is to click "Mark all as read" in the top right of the Notifications box.

Go to the FiscalNote Homepage to easily pick up where you left off from your last time on the platform.These Recently Viewed and Pinned Items are only visible to you and will not affect anyone else using FiscalNote at your organization.

Recently Viewed Items

Pages you visited recently will show up for you to jump back into more easily. They are grouped by Issues, Data and Discovery Alerts. Data would include any bill or regulation page.

Pinned Items

No need to search for the same bill every day! Save your top five most viewed items by clicking the pin icon, whether the item is a specific bill, legislator, Discovery Alert, or Issue. The linked page will then move up under the Pinned Items section.

Individual users manage their accounts in the Account Settings menu.

Account Settings Options

Account: Change the name, email, and password associated with the account

Calendar Sync: Provides links needed to sync Actions to an external calendar

Notifications: Permit notifications for @mentions

Password Requirements

8 characters in length

Contains the following

a number

an upper and lower case letter

a special character

Cannot be the same as the email address

Cannot use the previous 3 passwords

System Administrators manage their organization's account in the Organization Settings menu. FiscalNote allows for customized segmentation and permissions between individual users and groups of users.

Labels

Organization Settings Options

Organization: Create and manage users. Determine the jurisdictions, content, and features they may access.

Groups: Create and manage a container, called a Group, to segment users. Add users to this Group to grant them access to certain parts of FiscalNote.

Roles: Configure permissions to control what users can do within FiscalNote. You can grant or forfeit their access in places like Discovery Alerts, Issues, and Collaboration Tools.

"Create" allows users to add objects

"View" allows users to see content

"Delete" allows users to remove objects.

Security : Configure time until session timeout and password expiration cycle (default is 90 days). Only QA user this setting.

: manage the Labels in your organization's account.

You can set the notification preferences for your Issues within Account Settings, beneath the Preferences tab.

While viewing any single Issue, you may click the gear Icon ( How to Set Notification Preferences for My Issues? or) in the Issue's banner to be immediately directed to the Account Settings > Preferences tab.

Alternatively, you can reach the Account Settings > Preferences tab through your account's navigation bar.

Move your cursor to the lower left corner of the screen

Hover on the gear icon

A pop-out menu will appear over the gear icon

Choose "Account Settings"

Near the top of the screen, see the four Account Settings tabs: Account, Calendar Sync, Notifications, Preferences

Choose "Preferences"

Arrive on the "Account Settings > Preferences page"

To learn about managing your Issue notification preferences, please read ""

The Account Settings > Preferences page is the center for managing notification preferences for all your Issues. On this page, you may

Set the Default as your notification preference

Choose Issues

Choose Legislatures

Legislation

Scheduled Committee Hearings

Federal Regulations

Comment Periods

State Regulations

Create or Edit your own notification preferences

Please note that that FiscalNote sends email notifications regarding updates to monitored legislation or regulations from the United States. Monitored legislation and regulation from countries besides the United States is not currently included in notification preferences for Issues.

Default Notification Preferences

The Default is the one notification preference configuration that cannot be deleted. To manage the configuration of the Default, click the pencil icon on the right side of the Default's row in your list of preferences.

Follow the steps outlined below to update your Default.

Choose Issues

Choose the Issue to which you want to apply the Default

No Issues

All Issues

Specific Issues

Choosing this option will require you to individually select Issues

A pop-up menu with a scroll bar will appear, showing you all the Issues to which you have access

Select an Issue by clicking the checkbox to the left of its name

When you finish making selections, press the Apply button to complete the process of choosing the Issues to which the Default will apply.

Choose Legislatures

Select the United States Legislatures to include in the Default

Click the downward facing carat next to "Select Legislatures to scroll through a list of the legislatures on which FiscalNote can notify you

Select a legislature by clicking the checkbox to the left of its name

When you finish making selections, press the Apply button to complete the process of choosing the Legislature to include within the Default.

Alternatively, press "Select All" to include all legislatures on which FiscalNote can notify you.

The selections you make in this area determine the states on which FiscalNote will update you for both Legislation and State Regulation

Legislation

In this area, you control how FiscalNote will notify you about the legislation that you are monitoring in the Issues you previously selected

Determine the types of updates you would like to receive

Select which of the following types of updates you would like to receive...

All

Passed First Chamber

Pass Second Chamber

Vetoed

Failed

Enacted

Other

Other includes more specific changes to the legislation, beyond the statuses shown above, such as

Change in Bill Title

Change in Timeline (e.g. "Passed First Chamber")

Change in Actions (e.g. "Committee on Environment moved bill for further consideration")

Change in Legislator Sponsors

Change in Committee Sponsors (for those bills that have a committee, not a legislator, as a sponsor)

...and how often you would like to receive the updates

4 hourly

Daily

Weekly

Never

Scheduled Committee Hearings

Choose whether to receive Committee Hearing updates relevant to your monitored legislation

Mark the checkbox for "New Hearings" and under "Notify me..." choose "Hourly" or "Daily" to receive updates on committee hearings for bills that you are monitoring

Federal Regulations

Choose whether to receive updates on Federal Regulations and how often

Select which of the following updates you would like to receive...

All

Notice

Rule

Propose Rule

Supporting

Other (includes more specific changes to the legislation, beyond the statuses shown above)

...and how often you would like to receive the updates

4 hourly

Daily

Weekly

Never

Comment Periods

Choose whether to receive updates on Comment periods for United States Federal Regulations you are monitoring

Mark the checkboxes for "Comment Period Open" and "Public Comment Extension"

For "Notify me..." choose "Daily"

This selection will allow you to receive updates on comment periods for United States Federal Regulations that you are monitoring

State Regulation

Choose whether to receive updates on United States State Regulation and how often

To receive notifications, mark the checkbox for "New Notices"

And for "Notify me..." choose one of the following

Daily

Weekly

Never

Press "Submit" to complete the changes to the Default

Creating and Editing custom notification preferences

The process for creating and editing configurations for custom notification preferences is very similar to the process for managing the Default. The chief difference is that you may assign a name of your choice to the custom preference.

To create a new preference, click the +Add button.

To edit an existing preference, click the pencil icon for the preference.

Follow the process outlined in Default Notification Preference to adjust the settings of your custom notification preference. Note that an Issue assigned to both the Default and a custom notification preference will only adhere to the custom notification preference.

Click on the gear icon in the bottom left corner of the screen. FiscalNote Support

If the resulting menu includes the Organization Settings option, you are a System Administrator.

If you don't you should have this role or if you have any questions, please feel free to c ontact.

You can change your Committee Hearing notifications to Hourly on your account's Preferences page.

Once you are on the Preferences page, find the Default or the name of another notification and then click the pencil icon How to Set Notification Preferences for My Issues? on the right side of the screen. Scroll through the "Create Preference" modal until you reach the Committee Hearings section.Mark the checkbox for "New Hearings" and under "Notify me..." you may choose one of the following options: "Hourly", "Daily", "Never". The selection you make here will determine the frequency at which you receive updates on committee hearings for the bills that you are monitoring in the Issues managed by this Preference. Finally, click "Submit" to confirm your changes.

If you'd like additional directions on reaching the Preferences page and making changes to your notifications, please read the following articles.

Where can I change my notification preferences for my Issues?