By: Sarah Johnson
New to BillTrack50? Interested in trying a feature you haven’t used before? Look no further for the help you need to get the most out of your BillTrack50 subscription. The resources below (explanatory videos and articles) will help you with everything ranging from getting started with BillTrack50 to using our tools to your best advantage to sharing important legislation impacting your stakeholders.
You can view all of our videos and webinars on demand on our YouTube Channel. For announcements of new features and our webinar schedule sign up for our newsletter here. For a one on one demo or training session book time on our calendar here.
Getting Started
How to Register for a BillTrack50 Account:
1:04 Minutes
This video will show you how to register for a BillTrack50 account. Whether you are looking to be a free basic user, start a free trial, or purchase a subscription to BillTrack50, you will create your account in this manner. Enter your information, select which type of customer you are (Association, Citizen, Company, Journalist/Blogger, Non-Profit, Student, or Other), and confirm your email. If you are considering a BillTrack50 subscription and would like a look inside before you decide to start a free trial, we advise you watch our BillTrack50 Pro Basics Webinar On Demand.
How to Start a Free Trial:
2:38 Minutes
This video instructs users how to start a free trial with BillTrack50. This video covers: how to access the start free trial button, what information you need to provide to setup your trial bill sheet (bill sheet name, topic, legislation location, and grid template), how to create your legislation search terms (where to input search terms, how many bills matching the search are shown, how to refine a search), how to select free trial pricing, and finalizing your 30 day free trial bill sheet. When you start a free trial, make sure you watch our bill sheet demo and read our how-to articles to ensure you are using your free trail bill sheet to its fullest extent while you test it out. See this information in Searching: The Basics of Key Word Searches & Creating and Managing a Bill Sheet one section down.
Free Trial Upgrade Walkthrough:
3:45 Minutes
This video will walk you through how to upgrade your free trial to a BillTrack50 subscription. Choose from bill sheets (in all 50 states or in one or more specific state), regulation sheets (in all 50 states or in one or more specific state), legislator score cards (based off your bill sheets), and mobile stakeholder pages (share your bills with your members through our app, receive notifications on bills, and search for legislation). You can either enter your credit card information to pay for the subscription when you upgrade, or request an invoice be sent you. You can add additional subscriptions throughout the year that will be pro-rated for the time left in the session you are able to use them. See this blog post for similar information.
How to Add and Manage Users
3:35 Minutes
Once you start a BillTrack50 subscription, invite people in your company to the account through a Company Account Invitation. BillTrack50 allows you to add unlimited people within your organization to your subscription and we allow for you to assign various levels of permission to those users to ensure that everyone who needs access to BillTrack50’s tools and information has it at the appropriate level. The video will take you through how to add users and assign them permissions, along with describing what each one of the permission options mean.
How to use BillTrack50 for Journalists and Bloggers
5:28 Minutes
This video helps Journalists and Bloggers setup a BillTrack50 account. You must create your account as a journalist or blogger and then create a free trial bill sheet. After you complete these steps, your account will be upgraded to an unlimited account (unlimited bill sheets, topics, and states to track within) for six months. If you link to us in one article every six months, you will continue to receive unlimited access to BillTrack50. The video also explains how to manage a bill sheet (adding and removing bills that you want to track), the permanence of our legislation’s link, and our sharable, embeddable widgets (how to setup a stakeholder page to share bill sheet information, how to embed bill list and map widgets, and what they look like).
Interested in keeping an eye on your representatives in your statehouse and in Congress? Not sure where to start?
33:53 Minutes
Check out this webinar for a discussion of the legislative process, and how and when you can get involved, and the changes expected to public participation in 2021. A quick demo of the free BillTrack50 functions to help you with your research plus a peek at the paid features for sharing bills with others,
BillTrack50 Basics to Get You Going.
Wether you are a seasoned legislation tracking professional or looking to start tracking legislation for yourself this year, it can be a little confusing to figure out what is happening. We have tried to simplify this as much as possible for you. Here are some articles that explain how to understand and access the important legislative information BillTrack50 provides our users.
First, it is important to know How States Format Bill Numbers. Every state has its own conventions for numbering bills. Some states zero-pad the number (eg HB0001) while others don’t. Most states use the standard prefixes HB and SB but even that isn’t standardized. If you would like to know what a legislator is up to, you can search for legislators by name and see important information like what bills they have sponsored, their votes, their staff, committees they are on, contact information and their bio. It is also important for you to understand session information and expanded search functionality to inform your general use of the website.
Searching
When you begin using your BillTrack50 free trial or subscription, start by reading our brief Getting Started Guide to gain a general understanding of where and how searching for legislation and creating bill sheets happens.
The Basics of Key Word Searches (Used for Creating and Maintaining Bill Sheets and Regulations Pages)
One of the most important aspects to having your BillTrack50 subscription work the best for you, is to understand how to write keyword searches. Keyword searches describe the way the BillTrack50 system searches for and aggregates the legislation that we put on bill sheets and regulations pages. Read this post more information on how to expand and refine a keywords search after you setup your initial search.
How To Brainstorm Search Terms
8:37 Minutes
This video is a great walk through on how to setup a keyword search (special formatting and how it impacts your search) and what to think about when setting it up. This video A quick look at how to use the all of, any of, near, and wildcard (*) to work with search terms or phrases. The video then offers some suggestions for figuring out relevant search terms for your topic starting from a basic idea. The video covers using bill texts, the keyword column, and code citations.
Using Quick Search to Find Newest Bills
2:10 Minutes
This video helps you to find the bills that have had the most recent actions around the topic you are interested in. The video discusses how to write searches, how to limit them (by state or on federal level), and how you can sort the results. Sorting based on action date will bring the bills with the most recent actions to the top of the list for you to review.
Creating and Managing a Bill Sheet
BillTrack50 Search Tips
2:37 Minutes
This video brings users through creating or updating a search on a bill sheet. It speaks to how to change the keyword search, although the videos above are a better resource for understanding the searching aspect of the bill sheet query tab. Along with being able to change your keyword search and the location of proposed legislation, the bill sheet query page allows you to apply bill filters including: bill progress (introduced, in committee, crossed over, passed, signed, dead/vetoed/failed), bill sponsored by, and the session years you would like to search (our data dates back to 2011). You can also add specific bill numbers to a bill sheet, see the video “Adding a list of bill numbers to a bill sheet” explained jsut below for more instruction on this. You can also individually add bills to a bill sheet by bill number.
Adding a list of bill numbers to a bill sheet
Blog and 3:24 minute instructional video.
If you have a list of bills you know you want to track, say in an email or a spreadsheet, there are a few ways to quickly get them into your bill sheet. The video discusses each of these three ways: quick search, bill number box on bill sheet query tab, and a cheat using the “any of” box on the bill sheet query tab. We discuss a possible issue with the cheat and the proper way to do it. If none of these options work for you and you have too many bills to add via any of these methods, shoot an email to Karen@legination.com as a last resort. 🙂
How to un-hide a bill from your bill sheet
Blog and 90 second instructional video.
This helps users un-hide or un-remove a bill from a bill sheet they accidentally removed or want to re-add. You can either sort your list of hidden bills by attributes you remember about the bill you hid (the state, for example) or can sort the grid based off the hidden date. If you know when you hid the bill, it will be easier for you to find it and add it back to your bill sheet.
How to Manage a BillTrack50 bill sheet
1:04 Minutes
This video discusses the different methods in which you can manage and change a bill sheet after you have created it. This includes changes to the bill sheet title, template used, user permissions, synch comments across bill sheets, and archiving, copying or deleting a bill sheet. For more guidance on how to manage your bills with built in tools read this blog.
How To Set Up Email Alerts
3:46 Minutes
This video will give you a quick look at how to set up alerts for different topics and an explanation of what each of the alert choices means. Alerts are daily emails BillTrack50 users subscribe to that inform them about changes pertaining to legislation on their bill sheets. The types of alerts users can choose to be notified about on a bill are: new action, new vote, new version, sponsor change, new bill, or new associated document. See another brief video discussing how to set up BillTrack50 alerts and add legislation to your hearings schedule.
How To Track Committee Hearings
1:45 Minutes
This short video shows how to turn on your Event Schedule alert so you can review the committee hearings scheduled for any bills that match a particular topic. We also review a few tips for using and sharing the event schedule information.
Creating and Managing a Regulations Page
Regulation tracking works much the same as bill tracking. This blog walks users through all the basics of regulations. The first thing to know is that we don’t cover all 50 states. We keep a current map of our coverage on the regulations product page. Also, like with legislation, we are looking at proposed regulations, not all current regulations. Finally, unlike legislation, our regulations aren’t updated nightly, but rather on whatever weekly, monthly, or periodic basis that state publishes their register. If you want to understand using regulation tracking for advocacy, watch the webinar listed below.
Tips and Tricks for Regulation Advocacy
38:44 Minutes
This webinar goes over the important differences between legislation and regulations. Michael talks about what regulatory advocacy is and what it can look like across different states. Michael and Karen provide seven great tips for effective regulatory advocacy at the state level including: the importance of starting early, why tracking is the most important thing you need to do (obviously!), integrating compliance and advocacy teams, knowing your regulations, why you do not miss deadlines, how important messaging is, and regulatory groups and associations.
Templates, Templates, Templates!
BillTrack50 allows you to customize templates for bill sheets, stakeholder pages, map widgets, and regulation pages. We have many Flexible Customization Options pertaining to templates. Using templates for bill sheets and regulations is a great way for our users to communicate important information to members of their organization, other stakeholders, and the public. Templates allow our customers to share their legislation tracking the way they want with the information they know is important for people to receive. See these blogs detailing how to create templates and custom columns, more information on better custom columns, and yes, more and more columns if you haven’t found enough information! Our custom columns allow you to create columns where you decide their name and data type based off the best way your organization thinks they can covey important information. Then, you can create a custom template with unique columns and order the columns depending on how you will convey your information (discussed more below). When looking at stakeholder pages and widgets, position columns are very important! You may also be interested in adding a calls to action column.
How To Manage Templates
6:22 Minutes
This video will guide users through how to create custom columns and then add basic columns available to all BillTrack50 subscribers or unique columns you have created to create a custom template. We have a lot of great built in columns including: last action, action count, sponsor, introduced session, keyword list, vote count, and more. When deciding which columns you want to make up your custom template, you can choose the order of the columns along with customizing the column header text, the width of the column, if it is visible (included in the template) or not, and how it is sorted on the initial page load.
Sharing
Our product pages (see menu in website header) offer examples and how-to hints for our different sharing tools. We also maintain a list of examples of how people have used our sharing tools on their websites in this blog post in case you are looking for some inspiration. For a deeper dive into the tools see below.
Stakeholder Pages
How to make a Stakeholder Page
4:00 Minutes
You might be asking why on Earth would I need a stakeholder page? Well, we have that question answered for you — How to Use a Stakeholder Page. Primarily, stakeholder pages allow you to share your bill sheets with people outside your organization without using a widget. This video will discuss how to create a stakeholder page from a bill sheet and the different functionality stakeholder pages give you (comment threads, sharability, etc.). This video also talks about different permissions you can assign to people to manage the way they interact with your stakeholder page, along with different customizations available for stakeholder pages. You can also read this blog, Creating a Stakeholder Page, for more information. Finally, you may be interested in adding a call to action (new column) to a widget or stakeholder page.
Widgets
Widgets are one of the best ways to show the legislation your organization is tracking with the public. We offer two different types of widgets to BillTrack50 customers, bill list and map widgets. Both of these widgets give an option to allow for users to include a position indicator in their widget. Both of the videos will also show users how to embed a widget (inserting HTML) to your site or blog post. These widgets will update as your bill sheet is updated (as you add/remove legislation, add/update/removed columns and column information), but if you want to update the colors you will need to re-embed the HTML.
How To Create a BillTrack50 Bill List Widget
2:13 Minutes
This video goes over how to create a custom bill list widget. Bill list widgets are ideal for BillTrack50 users who do not track bills across the country and focus on one or a few states. You can customize the name, states/legislation available, colors, height, width, and sorting order (numerically ascending or descending).
How To Create a BillTrack50 Map Widget
1:29 Minutes
This video covers how to create a custom map widget. Map widgets are ideal for BillTrack50 users who track legislation nationally, or across many different states. This widget shows users a map of the United States and is interactive. When users hover over a state, they will see how many bills fitting your keyword search are in each state. Users can then select a state and be shown the bills that fit these terms in a template with the information you include in your bill sheet. You can customize the widget width, map color range (states are colored based off the amount of bills they have that match keyword search terms), and the template displayed to users once they select a state.
How To Add Color Coding To A BillTrack50 Widget
3:38 Minutes
This video instructs users how to add and use the position indicator with their widget. The position column is available to add when you customize a template, described above. This column allows you to choose from five options: strong support, support, neutral, oppose, strong oppose, monitor, and amend. This functionality will color code the bills in the widget based off the position you have indicated about the bill in your bill sheet.
How To Add A Bill To A Widget
2:35 Minutes
This video walks you through selecting individual bills to add to your widget or stakeholder page by creating an empty bill sheet and then adding bills by using the list button or by simply typing in the needed bill numbers.
Legislator Scorecards
How To Make A Legislator Scorecard
6:08 Minutes
This video shows users how they can setup a legislator scorecard based off a bill sheet. It is important that users select bill sheets where they can state their position on all bills in the bill sheet (which requires you use a template for the bill sheet that has a position column). Users can choose a bill sheet and choose either one state or federal bills to create their scorecard. We allow for many different customizations on the scorecard including: score scale assigned, how sponsors get points, how committee voters get points, and overriding the name of legislation. Users can see views from the House, the Senate, and overall for each party. We also have a lot of blogs about scorecards to help you set them up: Legislator Scorecards – Scorecards Advanced Features – Legislator Scorecard On Demand Webinar – Scorecard Context (what do the scores mean?). Along with some of the features and integrations we have with scorecards: Legislator Scorecards – Override Bill Name and Legislator Summary, Legislative Scorecard WordPress Integration, and Creating a Legislator Widget. Also, we usually will do a yearly webinar discussing how to make scorecards.
BillTrack50’s Mobile Application.
Did you know that BillTrack50 has a mobile application? You can find it here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/billtrack50/id1315336133?mt=8. It is completely free, doesn’t have in-app purchases, and won’t bug you for reviews. (But please do write a review if you get a chance, that really helps us out…)
The application allows you to look up your own representatives, election information, and search for bills and legislators. You can also follow bills you think are important using the watch list. Our Mobile Stakeholder Pages help keep your members engaged in your agenda or allow you to share bill alerts with certain members without actually adding them to your BillTrack50 account. If you have been invited to follow bills, or want to setup a mobile stakeholder page, check out this blog as well Following Bills on the BillTrack50 App.
Account Management
It is important to manage your account. This includes many different actions usually all at the end the year, which we keep our users up to date on via our newsletters. At the end of the year, it is important to archive your bill sheet to keep all your data (bills, comments, columns, etc.) preserved year after year. It is important to know where your archived bill sheet went after you archive it so you can find the information you so diligently preserved! Another great way to preserve your data is to copy your bill sheets to manage the data and information for new sessions. Finally, every year we publish two blogs, a checklist to get ready for the new year and instructions on how to renew your subscription. Check out our 2020 posts! Renewing your subscription 2020 – Getting Ready for 2020 – Checklist
Super Helpful Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash