Module · Forms & workflows

Where to find it in the app

• Use it: Operations → Forms
• Turn it on/off: your business name (top-left) → Settings → Modules → Operations → Forms

Plan: Business · Module group: Operations · Navigation: Operations → Forms

1. Overview

Purpose. Build your own forms, incident reports, maintenance requests, feedback, checklists, and track every submission through a workflow of statuses you define. Nothing is fixed: you choose the fields, the wording and the stages each submission moves through.

2. When to use it

• To capture structured information your team submits repeatedly.
• To manage what happens after submission (triage → in progress → done).

3. Required permissions

• View / submit forms (forms.view), see and fill in forms.
• Build forms & manage submissions (forms.manage), create/edit forms and move submissions through their workflow.

4. Navigation path

Operations → Forms

5. What you'll see

• A list of your forms. Anyone with View / submit forms sees "Fill in the forms your team uses"; anyone with Build forms & manage submissions sees the full Forms & workflows builder with Submissions for each form. It follows the permission, not the job title, so if you grant that permission to a supervisor or to a role you made yourself, they get the builder.
• A builder to create/edit a form.
• A Submissions panel to track entries by status.

6. Turning it on

Settings → Modules → Operations & compliance → Forms.

7. Step-by-step tasks

7a. Create a form

1. Select New form. Start from a template (so you never face a blank page), from scratch, templates are just editable seeds, or choose Describe it, let AI build it: describe the form in plain English and the AI drafts the title, fields and workflow for you to review and edit before saving. AI drafting uses your business's shared AI allowance.

   The templates, all of them editable once loaded:

   Template	What it is for
   Incident report	Accidents, injuries and near-misses
   Customer feedback	A rating plus what went well and what did not
   Enquiry or quote request	Work your booking page cannot take online. Arrives with a card on your booking page, managers emailed, and the enquirer acknowledged
   New client intake	Details and consent before a first appointment, with a signature and a two year clean-up of archived entries
   Maintenance request	Staff flag something broken, you track it to fixed
   Opening and closing checks	One record per shift, pinned to the dashboard while anything is unchecked
   Job application	Applicants, hiring lanes, and Hire to team
   Equipment checkout	Who has taken what, and when it is due back
   Staff onboarding checklist	Everything a new starter needs, in one place

2. Set the title (e.g. Incident report), an optional description (guidance shown above the form) and a category.

3. Add fields. Field types available:

   Type	Use
   Short text	A single line (name, reference)
   Long text	A paragraph (description, notes)
   Number	A numeric value
   Money	An amount in dollars, with a dollar sign and cents
   Email	An email address
   Phone	A phone number
   Address	Street, suburb, state and postcode, as separate boxes
   Website	A web address, checked as they type
   ABN or ACN	An Australian business or company number, checksummed
   Date	A calendar date
   Date with availability	A calendar that shows your open and closed days, see 7a4
   Time	A time of day
   Date & time	A date and time together
   Dropdown	Pick one from a list
   Choice	Pick one (shown as buttons)
   Checkboxes	Pick any that apply
   Yes / No	A simple toggle
   Rating	A star rating (set the max)
   Consent	A tick box holding what they are agreeing to, with an optional link
   File upload	Attach a photo, PDF or document, one or several
   Signature	Sign on screen with a finger or mouse
   Section heading	A heading to group fields

   File upload lets a respondent attach a photo, PDF or document (handy for a damaged-item photo or a supplier quote); the file is kept in private storage and only opened through a signed, expiring link. Switch on Allow several files in this one question and they can add as many as they need to the one question, rather than you adding a field per document. Signature captures a drawn signature on the screen, so an incident report or a waiver can be signed off there and then.

   ABN or ACN is checksummed, not just counted: a transposed digit in a supplier's number is refused on the spot, which is the sort of thing that is otherwise invisible until a BAS is wrong. Consent holds the sentence being agreed to as its label, takes an optional link to your terms, and when it is required the form cannot be sent until it is ticked. Money and Address store their parts properly, so an amount exports as an amount and an address exports as an address.

   For each field set its label, optional help text and placeholder, whether it's required, and (for list types) its options. You can also add conditional logic under Only show if…, so a question appears only when other answers match.

   Each rule reads as one line: a question, a test, a value.

   Test	Reads as	Works on
   is	Which role? is Chef	anything below
   is not	Which role? is not Chef	anything below
   is any of	Which role? is any of Chef, Waiter	Dropdown, Choice, Checkboxes
   is more than / at least	Years is at least 5	Number, Rating
   is less than / at most	Years is less than 2	Number, Rating
   is after / before	When? is after 1 July	Date, Time, Date & time
   is between	Years is between 2 and 5	Number, Rating, Date, Time

   A question can drive a rule if its answers are a fixed list (Dropdown, Choice, Checkboxes, Yes / No) or can be compared (Number, Rating, Date, Date with availability, Time, Date & time). Free text, files and signatures cannot.

   More than one rule: add as many as you need and choose whether to match all of these or any of these. So Which role? is Chef and Years is at least 5 can open a question that neither alone would.

   Branch a whole block: put the rule on a Section heading instead of a field, and every question under that heading follows it, down to the next heading. One rule, a whole section.

   Rules chain to any depth: Are you applying? Yes opens Which role?, and Which role? is Chef opens Knife skills?. Change the first answer back to No and the whole chain closes, including anything below it. An answer to a question the form has taken back is not kept, so it never reaches your inbox, your export or a report.

   Two things the builder tells you rather than leaving you to find out: a rule that can never match (keying off a dropdown with no options yet, for instance) is called out in red, and a rule pointing at a question further down the form says so, because that question has to be answered before the field appears.

   A Section heading left with nothing under it, because everything in its block branched away, is not shown at all.

4. Define the workflow statuses, the lanes a submission moves through. The default is New → In progress → Done; the first status is where new submissions start. Rename/add/remove to suit.

5. Set the submit button label, a success message, and optionally Email owners & managers on each new submission.

6. Save.

A date field can pre-fill with the day it's opened (a per-field switch in the builder): the box arrives holding the person's own date that day, so a food diary entry or an incident report knows which day it is without anyone typing it. Anything already there, a value they typed, a restored draft, or an entry being updated via its private link, is never overwritten. The Incident report starter arrives with this on for "Date it happened".

Put a form on your own website. Open Share & QR and copy the snippet under On your own website. Paste it into any page and the form appears there, posting straight back into Forms. The back office can never be embedded this way, only the forms you have shared publicly.

An enquiry can become a quote. Open a submission and choose Create a quote. The quote editor opens with that customer already attached, their email filled in, and a note on the quote saying which enquiry it answers. Price it, send it, and when the customer accepts, Convert to invoice finishes the job. The button appears only when the submission came from a customer the form could identify, and only for someone who can raise a quote.

Submissions show on the customer too. A customer's record carries a Forms sent in list, and each entry opens that form's submissions. The answers stay in Forms, where the permission that guards them lives. Quotes now appear in the customer's History beside their bookings and invoices, so an enquiry, the quote it became and the invoice that followed all read as one thread.

Print, or save as PDF, three ways. Your browser makes the PDF, so there is nothing to install and it works on a phone.

• One submission, from its own entry: the business name, the form, who sent it and when, its reference and status, then every question and answer, with the signature drawn on the page. Attachments are listed by name rather than embedded, because they stay in your file store. This is the copy to put in a client's file or hand to an insurer. A question the branch closed is not on it, and one they saw and left blank is marked "Not answered", because those are two different things on a record.
• The report, from the Insights tab: the totals and every chart, drawn so a printer keeps the colour.
• The blank form, from Share & QR: tick boxes beside each option and room to write, for the day the tablet is flat. A conditional question spells out when to answer it, since paper cannot branch.

Keep a copy in Documents. Beside it, File a copy in Documents puts the same document in your own library, in a folder named after the form, so a signed waiver or a completed intake lives with your policies and handbooks. The copy is self-contained: the signature is embedded in it, not linked, so it still shows years later. It is filed as a web page rather than a PDF, because the PDF is made by your browser on your own machine and never reaches us; opening the copy and printing it gives you the identical PDF.

Once it is filed, the copy can also be downloaded as Word from its menu in Documents, for a record somebody needs to edit or send on.

⚠️ The folder decides who can see it. Documents is your staff library, and a submission can hold personal details, so choose the folder's access with that in mind. Filing needs both the forms permission and permission to add documents to that folder.

Hiring from a form is a switch, off by default. Turn on Hire applicants to your team from this form in the builder and every submission gets a Hire to team button: their name, email and phone arrive prefilled from their own answers (all editable), you pick their role, and their CV and other attached documents are copied onto their new staff record's Files section. Adding them without a login works for kiosk-only staff, or tick "Email them a login invite" to send one straight away. It needs both the forms permission and the team permission, and the plan's seat rules apply exactly as they do on the Team page. Leave the switch off on every other form, so a feedback or maintenance form never offers to hire whoever sent it. The Job application starter arrives ready end to end: hiring on, public link on, "email managers on each new submission" on, applicant acknowledgement on, CV and document upload fields in place, hiring lanes (New, Shortlist, Interview, Hired, Not this time), and 12 month auto-delete of archived applications already set.

7a2. Automations (optional)

Each form can act on its own once a submission arrives. Every one of these is optional:

• Auto-assign new submissions to a chosen team member.

• Acknowledge the submitter by email, sends a short branded "thanks, we've got it" whenever the submission includes an email address. Needs email connected.

• Announce to the team when a submission reaches a chosen status.

• Escalate if not resolved in time, pick everyone who manages forms or one person and a number of hours; if a submission is still open (not in the last lane) after that long, they're emailed once. Great for incident reports that mustn't sit.

• Auto-delete archived submissions, pick a window (3 months to 2 years) and anything you archive is permanently deleted that long after archiving, attached files included. Active submissions are never touched, the Archived tab reminds you the window is on, and every clean-up is listed in your Activity log. Off unless you turn it on. Ideal for job applications, where holding rejected applicants' CVs forever is a privacy pile nobody wants; the Job application starter arrives with 12 months already set.

• Entries can be updated for a window (public forms): pick 1 to 30 days after sending, or a set close date (end of that day on your clock, up to 90 days out), and a person who submits gets a private link, shown on screen and emailed when the form collected their address, to keep adding to the SAME entry until the window closes. With a set date, entries sent after it are simply final, so a diary that "runs until Sunday" seals itself. The plain link also remembers, on that person's own device, which days it already has entries for: opening it again the same day offers "Continue today's entry" instead of inviting a duplicate, and earlier days still inside their window are listed underneath. A new day is simply a fresh page. One bookmark runs the whole week, and each day stays its own entry, which is exactly the shape the CSV export turns into a week table (one row per day, one column per question). Made for anything filled over time: a food diary gets breakfast at 7am and dinner at 9pm on one entry. You're notified once, when it first arrives; their later saves never move it between lanes, and the entry shows "Updated by the submitter" so a changed answer is never silent. Archiving the entry ends the window early. Off by default: an entry is final once sent.

7a3. Share a form with customers (public forms)

Forms don't have to be internal. Turn on Public link and the form gets its own address at /f/<slug> that anyone can fill in with no login, so it's ideal for feedback, enquiries or intake.

1. In the builder, under Share with customers, switch on Public link.
2. Use the Share panel to copy the link, Download QR (a QR image to put on a wall, counter sign or receipt), or Print poster (a ready-made printable poster with your business name, the form title and the QR).
3. For tighter control, turn on Only via a personal link: the plain link stops accepting entries and only one-use links you send (for example after a booking) will work. Best for verified, low-spam responses.
4. Auto-send a link after a booking emails each booking that has a customer email one personal link, a set number of hours after the booking ends.

When a public form has a Rating field you get two extra tools:

• Alert on a low rating, set the rating (or lower) that emails the form managers, so an unhappy response reaches you straight away.
• Review Booster, invite every submitter to leave a Google review. Add your Google review link and a threshold; happier customers (at or above it) get an upbeat nudge, lower ratings get a "let us make it right" message and trigger the manager alert. The link is shown to everyone, since hiding it from unhappy customers would breach Google's review policy.

7a4. The "Date with availability" field

An ordinary Date field accepts any date, including days you are shut or already full, and you find out when you read the submission. This field shows the person a real calendar of your days before they pick one.

Each day is labelled: open (a small dot), closed that day, or, when the field is linked to one of your offerings, no times bookable online. In the field's settings, Show availability for picks what the calendar reflects: your whole business (trading hours and closure dates) or one specific offering (its live booking availability).

Closed days can still be picked, on purpose. Someone enquiring about exclusive hire or a private function often wants exactly the day you are shut, because the venue is empty. The calendar tells them you are closed and lets them ask, and their submission shows you the date they chose. If you want the opposite, for example a cake order that needs a trading day, switch on Only allow days that are open and the calendar makes non-open days unpickable. The same rule is enforced when the form is submitted, not just in the picker.

Past dates can never be picked or submitted, whichever way the switch is set.

7a5. Offer a form on your booking page

A form can appear as a card on your public booking page, under your offerings. This is how you take enquiries for things your booking flow cannot book: an after hours private hire, a custom cake, a wholesale order, a school visit, a quote request.

1. In the builder, under Share with customers, switch on Public link.
2. Switch on Show on your booking page.
3. Give the card a heading and an optional one-line pitch, in your own words. That is exactly what your customers see.

Form is live is the master switch. It has to be on for any of this to work. Turning it off closes the public page, the QR code and the booking-page card together, not just your team's copy, so it is the one to reach for when you want a form completely off and the wrong one to reach for when you only want it hidden from staff.

The card links to the form, submissions land in Forms like any other, and Email the form managers on each new submission tells you the moment one arrives (it goes to everyone whose role can Build forms & manage submissions, so a custom role you gave that permission to hears about it too). Pair it with the automations: acknowledge the submitter so they get an instant "we've got it", and escalate so an enquiry nobody answered gets chased, an unanswered enquiry being a lost sale.

A business with nothing bookable online at all can still run its whole shopfront this way: an empty catalogue plus an enquiry card is a working booking page.

Cards do not show for forms set to Only via a personal link, because their plain address refuses entries, and a button that leads to a refusal is worse than no button.

7b. Fill in a form (staff)

1. Open Operations → Forms and choose the form.
2. Complete the fields and submit. You'll see the success message.

7c. Manage submissions

1. As a manager, open a form's Submissions.
2. Read each entry and move it through your statuses (e.g. New → In progress → Done) as you action it.
3. Need a hand? On a submission, Suggest triage asks the AI to propose a status and assignee with a short reason, you decide whether to apply it, and Draft reply writes a reply email to the submitter for you to edit before sending. Both are manager-only and use your business's shared AI allowance.

8. Examples

• Beginner (any): use the Feedback template as-is and share it with the team.
• Real-world (venue): an Incident report form with date, description, a yes/no "injury?", and a severity rating; submissions flow New → Investigating → Closed, with the form managers emailed on each one.
• Advanced (facilities): a Maintenance request with a category dropdown and photo notes; statuses Logged → Quoted → Scheduled → Fixed so nothing is lost.

9. Reports & exports

Each form's Submissions panel is the record, grouped by your workflow statuses. New submissions can notify the form managers by email (everyone whose role can Build forms & manage submissions).

A submission lights the bell, live, as "2 form submissions came in", and each line names the form and takes you to it.

It clears when you have seen it, two ways: read it in the bell, or simply open Operations → Forms, because looking at the submissions is reading the news about them. The submissions themselves do not go anywhere; they stay in the list until you work through them.

Switch it off under Settings → Notifications → Records & compliance → form submissions came in, for a whole role or just for you.

Separately, your dashboard carries a count of everything still sitting in its first status, which clears as you move things along rather than when you read it. So the bell tells you what is new and the dashboard tells you what is outstanding.

A form pinned to the dashboard is counted on its own dashboard line instead of in that total, so one submission is never counted twice on one screen.

For feedback-style forms, Summarise last 30 days produces an AI digest of recent submissions, overall sentiment, recurring themes and suggested actions, so you don't have to read every entry to spot a pattern. It uses your business's shared AI allowance.

10. Common mistakes

• No "required" on key fields, important details get left blank; mark them required.
• Too many statuses, keep the workflow short and meaningful.
• Editing a live form's fields mid-stream, existing submissions keep the answers they were given; plan field changes carefully.

11. Troubleshooting

12. Error messages

Saving a form and submitting an entry both confirm inline ("Form saved", plus your custom success message). Required-field validation prevents an incomplete submission and highlights what's missing.

Related: Safety & cleaning · Documents