This article discusses proxy votes or ideas portal custom domains. You need to be an Aha! Ideas Advanced plan customer to access these features. Please contact us if you would like a live demo or would like to try using it in your account. If your Aha! account was created before October 20, 2020, you may have access to these integrations, but you will need to upgrade to Aha! Ideas Advanced for any future enhancements.
Your customers share feedback in many ways. They might talk to you on a call, open a support ticket, or mention a request during an evaluation. Proxy votes help you capture those requests in your ideas portal — even when the customer does not vote directly.
A proxy vote is a vote that you add on behalf of an organization or contact. Use them when you want to record feedback that arrived through sales or support, represent the needs of an organization that you work with, or make sure your product team sees demand from people who do not use the portal.
This article is for ideas portal users who add proxy votes on behalf of organizations and for workspace owners who manage and report on proxy votes as part of idea management.
If you are an Aha! Ideas administrator, read the separate article on configuring proxy votes for details on how to set up proxy voting and customize layouts.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Overview
Proxy voting is only available in private ideas portals. An administrator must enable it for your portal. When proxy voting is on, you see a Proxy votes section on ideas and a Proxy votes page in the portal navigation. Many teams use an internal private portal for proxy votes and a separate external portal where customers vote for ideas themselves. If you see the Proxy votes section, proxy voting is enabled for your internal portal.
Every proxy vote links to an organization. An organization usually represents a company, account, or another group your team tracks. You can also link a proxy vote to a contact. A contact is a person at that organization, such as a champion, buyer, or end user.
What you can see in the portal depends on how your administrator configured proxy vote visibility:
If the portal is set to Only their own proxy votes, you see a My proxy votes section on ideas, and the Proxy votes page shows only votes that you created.
If the portal is set to All proxy votes, you can see every proxy vote in the portal and filter by organization or creator.
Add a proxy vote to an existing idea
When proxy voting is enabled, you see a Vote dropdown next to the vote count on every idea. Use this dropdown to vote as yourself or on behalf of an organization.
To add a proxy vote to an existing idea:
Open the idea in your ideas portal.
Click the Vote dropdown next to the idea's vote count.
Select Add proxy vote. A proxy vote form will open.
-
In the form, select the organization you are voting for.
Choose an existing organization from the dropdown.
Create a new organization if it does not exist yet.
(Optional) Select or create a contact at the organization. This helps your product team see who requested the idea.
Fill out any additional fields on the form, such as description, priority, value, or other custom fields. Provide clear details about the request and why it matters.
Click Save proxy vote.
After you save the proxy vote, the idea's total vote count increases to include your vote. You can see your proxy vote listed in the idea's Proxy votes section.
Administrators with customization permissions can customize proxy vote layouts.
Add a proxy vote when submitting a new idea
You can add a proxy vote when you submit a new idea on a customer's behalf.
To submit a new idea with a proxy vote:
In your ideas portal, click the option to add or submit a new idea.
Fill in the idea details, such as its Name, Description, and any required fields.
Look for the Proxy votes or related section on the submission form.
Select the organization you are voting for and, if available, add a contact.
Complete any additional proxy vote fields that your administrator has added.
Submit the idea.
Your idea is added to the portal, and your proxy vote is recorded at the same time.
View and filter proxy votes in the portal
You can review proxy votes that exist in your portal and focus on the ones that matter most to you.
To view proxy votes:
In your portal navigation, click Proxy votes.
Review the list of proxy votes and any fields that your administrator has configured, such as Organization, Idea, and custom fields.
Use filters at the top of the page to narrow your view:
Filter by Organization to see all proxy votes for a specific customer, prospect, or partner.
Filter by Created by to see only proxy votes you have added.
If your administrator limits visibility to your own proxy votes, this page and the My proxy votes label make that scope clear. You do not see proxy votes created by other users.
Edit or delete your proxy votes
You can edit your proxy votes if details change or if you need to add more information. You can also remove a proxy vote if it no longer applies.
To edit a proxy vote:
Open the idea and click the Proxy votes tab, or open the Proxy votes page in the portal.
Find the proxy vote you want to change.
Click Edit next to the proxy vote.
Update fields such as Organization, Contact, Description, or any custom fields.
Click Save proxy vote to apply your changes.
To delete a proxy vote:
Follow the steps above to locate the proxy vote.
Click Delete proxy vote.
Confirm that you want to remove it.
Deleting a proxy vote reduces the idea's total vote count. The change appears in idea details views and in reports that include vote totals.
Proxy vote visibility and notifications
When you add a proxy vote to an idea, you are subscribed to that idea. You receive email notifications about updates or comments on the idea. This is true even if you are not part of your organization's main Aha! Ideas account and only use the ideas portal. These notifications help you stay current on the ideas that matter to the organizations you represent.
Organizations and contacts on a proxy vote are not subscribed to the idea automatically. They do not receive email notifications.
Your administrator configures whether you see only your proxy votes in the portal or all proxy votes. This setting controls what appears on ideas and in the proxy votes page:
If your portal is set to show only your proxy votes, you see a My proxy votes section on ideas, and the Proxy votes list shows only votes you created.
If your portal is set to show all proxy votes, you can see every proxy vote in the portal and filter by Organization and Created by.
If you are not sure which setting your portal uses, look for the label on the proxy votes section or ask your administrator.
Manage proxy votes
Proxy votes communicate customer demand for an idea, just like regular votes do. As you manage submitted ideas for your portal, proxy votes become an important part of the conversation.
Proxy votes count toward an idea's total votes. In a list report, you can sort by votes, and the Idea votes column reflects total demand for an idea.
From an idea's details view, you can see more information:
The Votes tab shows a breakdown of proxy and regular votes.
You also see other idea insights, such as Organization count, Total opportunity value, and a chart of voting trends over time.
You also see a Proxy votes section on the idea's details view.
Click the + icon to add a proxy vote. This uses a customizable form layout that can differ from the layout in the ideas portal.
Use the Proxy votes table to see information from every field in the proxy vote form. From here, you can click the voter's name to email them directly or adjust information in the form.
-
Click View in report to open a pre-built list report on votes for the idea. You can sort and filter columns as needed.
You can also delete multiple proxy votes at once by bulk editing votes from your list report.
The proxy vote table layout on an idea's details view depends on the Proxy votes layout. If you add proxy votes through an integration, make sure you have the Link and Value fields enabled in that layout, so that this information appears in the proxy vote table. An administrator can help you with this.
Report on proxy votes
Idea management depends on the ability to analyze idea votes. With proxy voting enabled, you can build reports that separate proxy and regular voting, use pre-built list reports to examine the voting breakdown for a specific idea, and report on organizations.
You can:
View a breakdown of proxy votes for an idea or group of ideas by creating a report that includes the Idea votes record and adding idea organizations or idea contacts as a related record. Any vote with an associated organization or contact is a proxy vote.
View a pre-built list report for an idea's votes by opening the idea in Aha! Ideas and clicking View as list report next to the Proxy votes table. This report is filtered by default for votes where an idea's Organization is not blank. You can adjust this filter as needed.
See all proxy votes for an organization by creating a report that includes ideas, idea votes, and idea organizations, then filtering for a specific organization.
You can also report on organizations themselves, from the proxy votes linked to each organization to all of their ideas and the status of those ideas. Navigate to Ideas → Organizations, then open an organization's details page to access pre-built reports or create your own custom report from the Idea organizations, Idea contacts, and Idea votes data tables.
Share any report you create on proxy votes by selecting an export option from the Share menu:
Select Share as webpage to invite people outside your Aha! Ideas account to view the report.
Select Export to Excel or Export to CSV to export a list report for further analysis. An administrator can import from CSV later to update data.
Export the report to PNG image or PDF document if you need a static version.
Tips for meaningful proxy votes
Strong proxy data helps your product team understand actual demand and make better roadmap decisions. Keep these guidelines in mind:
Add a proxy vote when a customer shares clear feedback, but does not use the portal directly.
Encourage customers to submit their own ideas and votes when they are willing, then use proxy votes to supplement that direct feedback.
Capture why the request matters to the organization. Include context such as the use case, urgency, or potential business impact.
Fill in custom fields that your administrator has added, such as Priority, Expected value, or Segment. These details help your product team compare and prioritize ideas.
Consistent, detailed proxy votes provide a clear view of demand across organizations and help your team make informed product decisions.