Brilliant Assessments can send a BCC (blind copy) of the feedback report at the same time it is sent to the respondent. This article covers every place a BCC can be configured for both individual response reports and cohort reports, the order of precedence, and how to troubleshoot delivery.
A BCC is commonly used to deliver a copy of the report to an administrator, an adviser, a manager, or a shared mailbox without exposing the recipient to the respondent.
The system supports several places to configure a BCC, each with a different scope. When more than one is configured, a clear order of precedence determines which BCC address is used.
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1. Prerequisites for BCC Sending
The prerequisites differ for individual response reports and cohort reports.
For Individual Response Reports
For an individual report to be BCC'd on completion, the Email Report to BCC checkbox must be ticked on the Individual Report.
On Assessment Settings > Feedback > Edit Individual Report, there are three recipient checkboxes:
- Email Report to Respondent
- Email Report to Assessor
- Email Report to BCC
Each checkbox controls whether the report is automatically emailed to that recipient on completion. There is no separate "Email Report on Completion" toggle. Ticking Email Report to BCC both enables BCC sending and triggers the report to be sent on completion. The BCC address used is determined by the precedence rules described in Section 2.
Note: If Email Report to BCC is not ticked, the BCC address can be populated and the individual report will still not be BCC'd.
For Cohort Reports
There is no equivalent Email Report to BCC checkbox on the Cohort Report. Cohort BCC behavior is controlled entirely by the Cohort Email Recipient dropdown on the Feedback tab, in combination with the BCC address configured on the Cohort Initiation, the External Cohort Default BCC, or the Use Contact Email as BCC option. See Section 3 for the full set of cohort BCC options.
2. BCC for Individual Response Reports
For individual response reports, the BCC address is determined by checking three locations in order. The first location with a populated BCC value is used.
Default BCC at the Assessment Level
This is the fallback BCC used for any response that does not have a more specific BCC set on its organization or on the response itself.
- Navigate to Assessment Settings > Feedback tab.
- Under Individual Report, click Edit on the report.
- Locate the BCC Email field (sometimes labelled Default BCC) and enter the email address that should receive a copy of every report by default.
- Confirm Email Report to BCC is ticked.
- Click Save.
When a new response is created, the BCC Report Address field on the response is automatically populated with this default value. The default can be overridden at the organization level or on the individual response.
Organization-Level BCC Override
If a response is linked to an Organization that has a BCC Email Address configured, that organization-level BCC overrides the assessment default. This is useful when reports for different client organizations should be copied to different internal contacts.
- Navigate to Administer > Organizations and open the relevant organization.
- Locate the BCC Email Address field and enter the email address that should receive a copy of reports for responses linked to this organization (or to any of its child organizations).
- Click Save.
The organization-level BCC applies to all new responses linked to this organization or to any organization beneath it in the hierarchy.
Response-Level BCC Override
The most specific level is the BCC set directly on the individual response. This always takes precedence over the assessment default and the organization override.
- Open the response from Responses in the left menu.
- In Response Settings, locate the BCC Report Address field.
- Enter or update the email address. Leave blank to fall back to the organization-level or assessment-level default.
- Click Save.
The BCC Report Address can also be populated when creating responses in bulk via CSV upload. The CSV column is CopyInAddress, and the value supplied for each row is written to that response. For details on the bulk upload format, see Bulk Inviting Respondents Using CSV.
Order of Precedence
When the system needs to determine the BCC address for an individual response report, it checks each location in this order and uses the first non-empty value found.
| Priority | Source | Where it is configured |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (highest) | Response BCC | Response Settings > BCC Report Address |
| 2 | Organization BCC | Organization record > BCC Email Address |
| 3 (lowest) | Assessment Default BCC | Assessment Settings > Feedback > Edit Report > BCC Email |
Note: If none of these locations contain a BCC address, no BCC is sent, even if Email Report to BCC is ticked.
3. BCC for Cohort Reports
Cohort reports (including 360 and Group/Team reports) use a different set of BCC controls. The same prerequisites apply: the cohort report must be configured to send on completion, and the relevant BCC option must be enabled.
Cohort Initiation BCC
Each Cohort Initiation has its own BCC Report Address. This is the most direct way to BCC a single cohort's report.
- Navigate to Cohorts and open the relevant Cohort Initiation.
- Locate the BCC Report Address field on the cohort settings.
- Enter the email address that should receive a copy of the cohort report.
- Click Save.
The cohort report is sent to this BCC at the same time it is sent to the cohort contact or subject.
External Cohort Default BCC
For assessments that use External Cohort Initiations (where respondents or organizers start the cohort themselves via a link), a default BCC can be configured at the assessment level. This is applied to every cohort initiated via the external process.
- Navigate to Assessment Settings > Cohort tab, and open the Cohort Settings sub-tab.
- Tick the External Cohort checkbox. The External Cohort settings will expand below.
- Locate the Default BCC field in the expanded External Cohort settings.
- Enter the email address that should receive a copy of every external cohort report.
- Click Save.
This default is overridden if the external cohort link specifies an Organization that has its own BCC Email Address.
Use Contact Email as BCC
For External Cohort Initiations, the system can automatically set the BCC to the cohort contact's email address. This is useful when the person who initiates the cohort should also receive a copy of the report.
- Navigate to Assessment Settings > Cohort tab, and open the Cohort Settings sub-tab.
- Confirm the External Cohort checkbox is ticked. The External Cohort settings must be expanded for this option to appear.
- Tick Use Contact Email as BCC.
- Click Save.
When this is enabled, every external cohort initiation uses the contact's email as the BCC address automatically.
BCC-Only Cohort Email Recipient
For some cohort assessments, the cohort report should only go to the BCC, not to the cohort contact or subject. This is configured on the Cohort Email Recipient setting.
- Navigate to Assessment Settings > Feedback tab.
- Under the Cohort report section, locate Cohort Email Recipient.
- Select one of the BCC-only options:
- The BCC only, as a PDF. The report is sent to the BCC address as a PDF attachment.
- The BCC only, as a Word doc. The report is sent to the BCC address as a Word document.
- Click Save.
The BCC address used is taken from the Cohort Initiation as described above.
4. Sending the Report to Multiple Recipients
Only one BCC address can be configured at each level. If the report needs to reach several internal recipients, the recommended approach is to use a forwarding rule on the inbox that receives the BCC copy. The forwarding rule is configured in your email system (for example, Outlook, Gmail, or Microsoft 365), not in Brilliant Assessments.
In addition, the following recipients can receive the report alongside the BCC, providing alternative ways to distribute the report to more than one person.
- The respondent. Enabled by ticking Email Report to Respondent on the Individual Report.
- The Assessor. Enabled by ticking Email Report to Assessor on the Individual Report. The report is sent to the Assessor assigned to the response. This requires Assessor functionality to be enabled on the assessment.
- Cohort contact or subject. For cohort reports, the report can be sent to the cohort contact or subject in addition to the BCC, depending on the Cohort Email Recipient setting.
For a related FAQ on this topic, see Can I send the feedback report to more than one person?.
5. Troubleshooting BCC Delivery
If a BCC is not being received, work through the following checks in order.
-
Confirm the master settings are enabled.
- For individual reports: On the Individual Report (Assessment Settings > Feedback > Edit Individual Report), verify that Email Report to BCC is ticked. This single checkbox both enables BCC sending and triggers the report to be sent on completion.
- For cohort reports: On the Feedback tab, confirm the Cohort Email Recipient dropdown is set to an option that delivers to BCC, and that a Cohort Report email template exists for the assessment.
- Confirm a BCC address is populated. Check the response (or cohort initiation) for a populated BCC field. For individual reports, if the response BCC is blank, the system falls back to the organization-level BCC, and then the assessment default BCC. If none of these contain a value, no BCC is sent. For cohort reports, the BCC address comes from the Cohort Initiation, the External Cohort Default BCC, or the Use Contact Email as BCC option.
- Verify the precedence is producing the expected address. If the BCC is arriving at the wrong address, identify which level (response, organization, or assessment) is supplying the value. A response-level BCC always overrides both the organization and assessment defaults.
- Confirm the required Completion email template exists. The BCC is delivered as part of the Completion email flow. If no Completion email template exists for the assessment, neither the respondent nor the BCC will receive the report. See Choosing the Right Email Template.
- Check spam and junk folders on the BCC mailbox. The BCC copy is subject to the same spam filtering as any other email. Ask the recipient to review their Junk or Spam folder.
- Confirm domain authentication is in place if sending from a custom domain. If reports are sent from your own domain, verify that SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured. See Sending Emails from Your Own Domain.
For related troubleshooting, see Feedback Reports aren't reaching respondents. How do I troubleshoot?.
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