Groups & Reports

Groups organize your tracked bills into meaningful categories, while reports transform those groups into professional deliverables you can share with clients, stakeholders, or team members. Together, they turn bill tracking into client reporting.

Duration: 7 minutes | Tier: Platform & Enterprise

Understanding Groups

Groups work like folders [0:21]. Create them for issue areas, clients, partners, or any organizational system that matches your workflow. The flexibility lets you categorize bills however makes sense for your work.

Bills can belong to multiple groups [0:38]. If a healthcare bill matters to both your hospital client and your Medicaid policy team, add it to both groups. Each group can maintain separate notes, positions, and priorities for the same bill—essential when you're managing multiple stakeholder perspectives on the same legislation.

Creating Groups

From the Groups Tab [0:55]

Navigate to Groups, then click "Create New Group." Name it (example: "Client Amazon" or "Test Gongwer Group") and it appears immediately in your groups list. Use the search function to find specific groups as your list grows.

From Any Bill [2:17]

When viewing bills on the Keyword Alerts page or bill tracking, click "Group" directly on the bill card. From the dropdown, either select an existing group or create a new one on the fly. This workflow keeps you moving without navigating back to the Groups tab.

Adding Bills to Groups

Method 1: From Within a Group [1:29]

Open a group and type a bill number (example: "Michigan HB 102"). The system finds the bill and adds it to the group.

Method 2: From Keyword Alerts [1:58]

While browsing keyword alert results, click "Track" to start monitoring a bill, then click "Group" and select which group should contain it.

Method 3: From Bill Cards

Any bill card across the platform has a "Group" button. Click it, select or create a group, and you're done.

Group-Specific Tracking

When a bill belongs to multiple groups [3:14], you can set different tracking details for each context:

Different notes per group
Different positions (Support, Oppose, Neutral)
Different priority levels (High, Medium, Low)
Different team assignments

Example: SB 5 appears in both your "Client Amazon" group and your "Hospital Association" group. In the Amazon group, you might mark it "Support" with notes about marketplace implications. In the Hospital Association group, the same bill could be "Neutral" with notes focused on healthcare impacts.

Creating Reports

Reports pull bills from groups and format them as professional documents [3:34]. Access report creation from any group page by clicking "Create Report."

Two Report Types [3:42]

Manual Report: You select exactly which bills from the group appear in the report. If your group contains 13 bills but you only want to highlight 3 in this week's report, choose manual.

Dynamic Report: Automatically includes all bills in the group. As you add or remove bills from the group, the report updates to match. Perfect for ongoing client reports that need to stay current.

Customizing Report Content

Choose what appears for each bill [4:20]:

Sponsors and co-sponsors
Bill description
Link to legislature website
All actions (warning: can be very long)
Your position on the bill
Priority level
Team member assignments
Comments/notes

Group-Specific Notes [4:37]

This is where multiple group membership shines. Click "Comments" then "Show groups" and select which group's notes should appear. Even if a bill appears in five different groups, the report only shows notes from the group you specify—keeping client communications focused and relevant.

Sort Options [4:57]

Organize bills by:

State
Latest action (most useful for showing recent activity)
Chamber (House vs. Senate)
Your position

Report Branding and Distribution

Title and Logo [5:17]

Name your report (example: "New Gongwer Amazon Report") and optionally upload a logo to brand the document for professional delivery.

Automated Scheduling [5:36]

Set up automatic report delivery to specific email addresses. Choose the day and time (example: "Every Friday at noon") and State Affairs sends the PDF report and a web link to your recipients. Recipients don't need State Affairs accounts to receive and view reports.

This automation is powerful for client work—once you've fine-tuned the report parameters, you can set it to send weekly without manual intervention.

Manual Distribution [6:18]

Skip scheduling and download reports on demand as PDF, Excel, or Word documents. Share the link with State Affairs users or distribute the file directly.

Report Output

The generated report [6:23] shows exactly what you configured:

Only notes from the specified group (even if bills belong to multiple groups)
Position and priority from that group's perspective
Primary and co-sponsors for each bill
Direct links to legislature websites for non-State Affairs users

Editing Reports

Click "Edit" [7:19] to modify any aspect of a saved report:

Change which bills are included
Adjust what information appears
Update the report name
Modify the schedule
Add or remove recipients

Click "Save and Regenerate" and the report updates with all new parameters.

Workflow Example

Scenario: You're a lobbying firm tracking healthcare legislation for three clients.

Create groups: "Client A Healthcare," "Client B Healthcare," "Client C Healthcare"
Track bills: Michigan HB 201 matters to all three clients—add it to all three groups
Add context: In Client A's group, note their support position. In Client B's group, note concerns about cost. In Client C's group, note neutrality pending amendments.
Generate reports: Create three dynamic reports, one per client. Each report shows only that client's notes and position on HB 201, even though all three are tracking it.
Automate delivery: Schedule Client A's report for Monday mornings, Client B's for Wednesday afternoons, Client C's for Friday.
Maintain once: When HB 201 gets amended, update the notes in each group. All three reports automatically reflect the changes the next time they generate.

This system lets you track shared legislation while maintaining separate narratives and analysis for different stakeholders.

Pro Tip: Start with manual reports until you've confirmed the format is exactly right, then switch to dynamic reports and schedule them. This prevents sending incorrectly formatted reports to clients.