Build and send a form

A form is a document: a leave request, an onboarding pack, an expense claim, an incident report. People fill it in on a phone or a computer, sign it, and it goes to someone who approves it. Forms are on every plan. Open Forms in the navigation and choose New form.

Start from a template

Pick one of the templates (job application, new employee onboarding, policy acknowledgement, leave request, expense claim, equipment request, incident report, vendor onboarding) or a blank form. A template is an ordinary form: change anything in it. On plans without review workflows a template keeps its first review step and drops its deadlines.

Build it

1. 1Add fields from the Add tab on the side: short and long text, email, phone, number, date, multiple choice, dropdown, checkboxes, yes or no, file upload, photo, signature, consent, a block of information and a table of rows people add.
2. 2Click a field to set it up in the Field tab: its label, a hint, whether it is required, how wide it is, and the rules that fit its kind (the shortest answer, the allowed domains, the earliest date, how many files).
3. 3Group fields into sections. Switch on New A4 page for a section that should start a fresh page when the form is printed or saved as a PDF.
4. 4Use Show only when to show a field only after an earlier answer (a reason when someone chose Other). A condition can only look at fields above it.
5. 5At the foot of the form, After they submit holds the thank-you people read. The After submit switch above the form is where you choose who reviews each submission.
6. 6In the Design tab, Page design sets how the form looks on paper and when it is filled in: whether people see one section at a time or the whole form on one page, and Check answers before sending, which shows people their answers as the finished form first.

Page design also holds the kind of form, a logo and letterhead, the form number and edition, heading and answer styles, spacing, paper size, a watermark, page numbers, a footer and an Office use only block for the printed copy. The same choices shape the PDFs. A logo of the form’s own, and your own colour and typeface, are on the Team plan and above.

A table can add up a number column: in the column's settings choose Add up this column, and the person sees the total as they type. It is printed on the PDF and on the review page. Save a group of fields you use again with Save for reuse and add it to any form from Saved fields.

Changes save as you type, and Undo and Redo work as you would expect. Preview shows the form as people will see it, in a phone or desktop frame or in a new tab; nothing you enter there is sent.

Choose who reviews

Switch from Fields to After submit, then add a review step for each person or group who must decide: name the step (Manager approval), choose a person or everyone who holds at least a role, and optionally a deadline in days. A submission goes through the steps in order. More than one step, and deadlines, are on the Enterprise plan.

Publish

Publish checks the form first. Anything that stops it (a field with no label, a condition on a field that no longer exists) is listed under Fix these first, with a Show me button that takes you to it. Publishing opens the form. Later changes are published as a new version; submissions already received keep the version they answered, and History lists every version and what changed. You can use an earlier version as the draft.

Send it

Open the Send tab. Anyone with the link can fill the form in, and the page shows a QR code you can print. Switch that off to let only the people you add fill it in:

1. 1Choose Add people and paste email addresses, or names and addresses, one person per line (up to 500 at a time).
2. 2Choose Add and send, or send later with Send to the people not sent yet.
3. 3Each person gets an email with a link that is theirs, when email is set up for your workspace; without it, nothing is sent and you copy a link for each person from the list and send it yourself. Remind the people who have not sent it in, or copy a new link for someone. A new link replaces the old one.

A personal link fills in a person's name and email for them. The Send tab shows who has been sent a link and who has opened it, and the Submissions tab shows who has sent it in.

Settings

• Stop taking submissions on a date, or after a number of them.
• List up to ten addresses to be told about every new submission (when email is set up for your workspace). The email names the form and the reference and links to it; it never carries the answers.
• Choose how references start (LR-0042).
• Keep submissions only for a number of days (Enterprise). A submission under a legal hold is always kept.

Form status closes a form (its link then says it is closed) or archives it. You can print a blank copy of any form as a PDF from the Send tab, for people who prefer paper.