---
title: Setting up a review cycle and campaign
description: Create a review cycle, set up the campaign, define its steps and participants, then repeat it.
url: "http://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-review-cycles/"
updated: "2026-11-01"
category: "Performance & Goals"
---

# Setting up a review cycle and campaign

This article is for administrators who organise review periods. A cycle is the period that objectives, meetings and reviews relate to; it becomes a campaign as soon as steps are added to it (self review, manager review and so on). It explains how to create a cycle, set up the campaign, define its steps and participants, and carry it over from one period to the next. Launching and tracking are described in [Launching, tracking and closing a campaign](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-launch-and-track/).

## Before you start

- The Performance module must be installed for your workspace.
- Seeing a cycle's settings and its **Steps** and **Participants** tabs: "Settings — Review cycles (steps, population)", **Access** level. Creating, configuring, duplicating, closing and deleting a cycle: **Execute** level. By default, only the administrator role holds this permission.
- Permissions are set in **Settings › Manage Employees › Employee Roles**, PERFORMANCE section.
- Prepare at least one active form template: see [Designing review forms](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-review-forms/).

## The list of cycles

Open **Settings › Performance › Review cycles**. Cycles are grouped by year. Each row shows the name, the status, the periodicity, the technical identifier (for example 2026-Q3), the start and end dates and the number of linked items (objectives, reviews, meetings and comments).

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | The cycle is being prepared: it appears nowhere else and captures nothing. |
| Active | The period is open: objectives, meetings and reviews can be linked to it. |
| Period ended — to close | The cycle is still active although its end date has passed. |
| Closed | The cycle's content is frozen. |

Without any cycle, every screen of the module shows the full history.

![The Review cycles page: New cycle button and the list of cycles grouped by year, each with its status, periodicity, technical identifier, dates and action buttons](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-review-cycles-01.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
Settings › Performance › Review cycles: the list of cycles.

## Creating a cycle

1. Click **New cycle**.
2. Choose the **Periodicity**: Annual, Half-yearly, Quarterly (the default) or Monthly.
3. Choose the **Year** and then the **Period** (except for an annual cycle). Periods are listed with French abbreviations: T1 to T4 for quarters, S1 and S2 for half-years, and French month names.
4. The **Start** and **End** fields take the bounds of the period. Shift them if your financial year does not follow the calendar year; the screen then reminds you of the original bounds.
5. Enter a **Display name** if you wish; one is suggested (for example "T3 2026"). The technical identifier shown below the field will not change.
6. Click **Create**. The cycle starts in Draft status.

A period can only carry one cycle: if it is already covered, the screen shows "A cycle already covers this period." and the button stays greyed out.

![The New cycle window: Periodicity, Year, Period, pre-filled Start and End, Display name with the technical identifier, and the note that the cycle is created as a draft](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-review-cycles-02.en_.png?resize=528%2C698&quality=80&ssl=1)
Creating a cycle: periodicity, period and bounds.

## Setting up the campaign

Click a cycle's chevron ("View steps and participants") to expand it. Four settings blocks appear, followed by the **Steps**, **Participants** and **Progress** tabs.

### Period covered

The cycle's **Start** and **End** dates can be changed as long as it is not closed. Click **Save** after changing them.

### End-of-cycle dossier validation

This setting decides how each employee's dossier is validated at the end of the cycle (see [The end-of-cycle dossier: validating and signing](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/performance-end-of-cycle-dossier/)):

- **In-app validation** (the default): the employee and the company validate inside Illizeo. Acceptance is timestamped and traced; it is not a qualified electronic signature.
- **Electronic signature**: the frozen dossier is sent for signature to the electronic signature provider connected to your workspace (DocuSign, or otherwise UgoSign). Without a connected provider, sending the dossier is refused.
- **No signature**: the cycle has nothing validated. It is the only mode that allows a step to stay hidden from the employee.

### Review unit

For employees with several contracts: **One review per person** (the default) produces a single dossier per employee; **One review per contract** produces one dossier per contract, each assessed by the manager of that contract. This choice can only be changed in draft: once the population is recorded, it is locked.

### Evaluation form

Choose the form used by steps that have no form of their own, or "None — each step carries its own". Only active templates are offered. The choice is locked as soon as steps have produced reviews with this form.

![An expanded cycle: Period covered, End-of-cycle dossier validation with its three modes, Review unit and Evaluation form blocks, then the Steps, Participants and Progress tabs](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-review-cycles-03.en_.png?resize=800%2C407&quality=80&ssl=1)
An expanded cycle: the campaign settings.

## Defining the steps

In the **Steps** tab ("Campaign steps"), click **Add a step**. A cycle with no steps is only a period; a typical campaign runs a self review followed by a manager review.

| Who assesses | What the step does |
| --- | --- |
| Self review | The employee assesses themselves. |
| Manager review | The supervisor assesses their report. |
| Peer review | Selected colleagues give their feedback. |
| Upward review | The employee assesses their supervisor: the supervisor is the person being reviewed. |

Then complete the window:

1. **Label** (required), for example "Q3 self review".
2. **Form**: the cycle's form, or a form specific to the step. An employee and their manager are not necessarily asked the same questions.
3. **Start** and **End** (required). A passed deadline flags a delay without locking input: only closing the cycle freezes the content.
4. **Wait for submission of**: "None — starts on its date", or another step. This is how you get "employee first, then manager": the manager review only opens, for each employee, once their self review has been submitted.
5. If the step waits for another one, **The contributor sees the previous step**: From the start, After submitting, or Never.
6. **The subject sees the review about them**: On finalization (the default), On signature request, or Never (only offered in "No signature" mode). Private questions stay hidden in every case.
7. Click **Add**.

Each row of the list shows the type, the step status (Upcoming, Running, Ended), its dates, its form and its dependency. An alert flags a step without a form, which would produce no review. The **Move up**, **Move down**, **Edit** and **Delete** icons manage the list.

### Peer review

For a "Peer review" step, the **Peer nomination** block is added to the window:

- **Who chooses the peers**: "The reviewed employee proposes" (the default), "The manager chooses" or "HR chooses". Proposals and nominations are made in the **To fill** tab of each person's Performance space; in "HR chooses" mode, managers do not take part.
- **Minimum peers** (1 by default) and **Maximum peers** (5 by default, 20 at most).
- If the employee proposes: **The manager approves the proposed peers** (ticked by default).

Without a nominated peer, no peer review is created for the employee, and a step that waits for the peer review stays pending for them.

![The Add a step window with the Peer review tile selected: Peer nomination block (Who chooses the peers, Minimum peers, Maximum peers, The manager approves the proposed peers), then Label, Form, Start, End and the visibility settings](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/performance-review-cycles-04.en_.png?resize=688%2C826&quality=80&ssl=1)
Adding a step: the case of a peer review.

## Choosing the participants

In the **Participants** tab:

- **Include**: departments, offices, teams, sub-companies, employment type (employees or contingent workers) and, depending on your reference data, employee groups. No criterion means the whole company; several values of one criterion add up; two different criteria combine.
- **Exclude**: with **Hired after**, people who joined after the chosen date (an unknown hire date does not exclude); with the **Exclude employees on probation** box, employees still on probation (without a probation end date, the employee is not excluded).

A live counter shows how many employees are targeted. Click **Save rules**. The "Cycle participants" block lists the recorded people; **Resync** adds newcomers and removes those holding no data. Before the launch this is not needed: launching records the population from the rules. Only active employees are included, and the population is limited to the scope of your role.

## Duplicating a cycle

The "Duplicate to another period" icon carries a cycle over, even a closed one. Choose the year and period (the next one is suggested), a name if you wish, then click **Duplicate**. The steps are copied with their date offsets, visibility settings and sequencing, together with the population rules. No review, participant or signature is copied: the copy starts empty, as a draft.

The dossier validation mode and the review unit are not copied: the copy reverts to "In-app validation" and "One review per person". Check these two settings after each duplication.

## Deleting a cycle

The bin only appears on a cycle with no linked item. The cycle disappears with its steps and participant rules; this cannot be undone from the screen. A cycle that holds data is closed instead of deleted.

## Good to know

- A step's type cannot be changed: delete the step and create it again. Its form is locked as soon as it has produced reviews, and a step that has produced reviews can no longer be deleted.
- Deleting a step that others depend on makes them start on their own date.
- As long as a step is set to "Never" for the person reviewed, the cycle cannot switch to a validation mode with a signature.
- HR staff who launch and track campaigns see the list of cycles and the **Progress** tab, but neither the settings blocks nor the **Steps** and **Participants** tabs. Like every Settings page, the screen also requires the "Settings — Access" permission, which by default only the administrator holds.
- A closed cycle freezes its steps and its population.

### *Similaire*