Introduction to Forms & Checklists
This page list of content:
A form on its own is a document with labels and fields in which you can write or select from provided options. Forms, when completed, may be a statement, a request, or an order.
A checklist is a type of job aid used to reduce job failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a job. A basic example is the “to-do list”.
Checklists help standardize the workflow, create accountability, and ensure tasks are consistent for all jobs, regardless of the fieldworker or employee involved. You can use job checklists to train new hires, increase work efficiency, and ensure top-quality service on every single booking.
Checklists are often presented as lists with small checkboxes down the left-hand side of the page. A small tick or checkmark is drawn in the box after the item has been completed.
In addition, checklists are designed to perform repetitive activities, verify a list of requirements, or collect data in an orderly and systematic manner. They are used to make systematic checks of activities or products ensuring that the worker or inspector does not forget anything important.
In OctopusPro, forms and checklists are objects that can be linked to any item that requires certain information at certain times and can have rules on how those items should be displayed to different types of users, at different stages of the job lifecycle.
Both forms & checklists control the layout of the page, the data that is required, and the data that is coming into the system after. They are also specifically useful in environments or organizations where users with different needs and purposes must access the same data, app, or website.
What are forms & checklists used for?
Binders full of paper job forms and site inspection checklists can cause unneeded hustle and waste a lot of time for any business owner. Digitally creating and storing your forms and checklists gives everyone in your team access to the information they need right from their desktop or mobile devices.
OctopusPro allows you to use job forms and checklists to keep track of job history, store notes or photo attachments, and keep important information from slipping through the cracks.
In OctopusPro, admin users are allowed to create forms & checklists for all types of users, whether they are fieldworkers, customers, or office users.
Every job is different, and every job form in OctopusPro can be customized and tailored to reflect exactly what your business requires. You can customize titles, checkboxes, text fields, text boxes, dropdowns, and more. You can also create specific forms for specific services, or you can create default forms that appear on every job. You can also assign job forms to specific booking statuses, or create default sheets and checklists applicable to all booking statuses.
OctopusPro helps you follow up with fieldworkers by filling in forms for each job. You can create different forms for fieldworkers to fill out at different stages of their booking process, from starting a job (check-in), until finishing the job (check out). You can also create forms and set them to be displayed on booking status change. This option helps you collect important information from fieldworkers whenever they change the status of a booking, facilitating the updating process for admin users in the fastest most efficient way while ensuring all required data regarding job updates is always collected on time.
In addition, you can create forms and checklists for following up with customers after job completion by creating forms for them to rate the service level received. This helps admin users stay updated with the level of customer satisfaction with the services provided.
You can also create forms and checklists to collect data required upon placing a booking, by creating forms that can be set to always display for fieldworkers, customers, and admin users when creating, viewing or updating any booking.
Similarities and Differences between a checklist and a form
Form & Checklist Similarities:
- Both checklist and forms have the option of adding a text field (multiple or single lines) where users can write in
- Both can be used as an analytical tool, similar to surveys since they can be used to collect data
- Both can be used as a reference
- Both forms and checklists can be used as a template
Form & Checklist Differences:
- Checklists contain boxes that could be checked, whereas a form usually does not
- Checklists can be used to reduce failure or forgetfulness by compensating for potential limitations of human memory and attention
- Checklists can be used to form a “to-do list”, but forms cannot be used in that sense
- Checklists can be used to structure a laid down plan for a safety audit, inspection, survey, etc…
Benefits of using the Forms & Checklists feature:
- Available online and offline
- Can include text, photos, videos, signatures, and file uploads
- Custom fields allow you to capture multiple data types including images, text, time, temperature, formula, integer, decimal, and more
- Data validation rules to ensure information is accurate
- Allows you to convert forms and checklists to PDF
- Allows you to email forms and checklists to clients, fieldworkers, and other stakeholders
Forms & Checklists benefits for businesses
Forms & checklists can benefit your business in multiple ways to ensure that you are constantly flourishing and developing; for example:
- Context: forms & checklists provide context for each specified viewer (fieldworker, customer, office user) to avoid confusion and unnecessary data collection.
- Organization: Having specific forms & checklists for each user helps them in staying organized and avoiding forgetfulness.
- Productivity: forms & checklists help in staying focused; therefore, increasing productivity level.
- Efficiency: forms & checklists save time and energy wasted on planning and organizing; therefore, increasing the efficiency of fieldworkers.
- Customer Satisfaction: forms & checklists ensure a high customer satisfaction level through receiving fast and organized service.
- Improvement: forms & checklists give you the ability to receive both positive and negative feedback in order to know weak and strong points in the organization and constantly improve them.
Difference between Service Custom fields and Forms & Checklists
The service custom fields feature is another feature available in OctopusPro that can be used when creating services. Custom fields are used to provide or gather more details regarding each specified service in a booking. For example, if a business provides pet grooming services with different options regarding cut, wash, and style, then custom fields are more appropriate to use instead of forms & checklists for those options, so when the service is selected, the user will be able to view the different custom fields added and customized the service required for their pet.
Service custom fields can affect the price and availability of services upon selecting options, as admin users can set up custom fields to apply extra charges or activate different custom field options for different fieldworkers. However, forms & checklists can’t affect the pricing or availability of services.
Forms & checklists are a type of job aid used to reduce failure level or forgetfulness by compensating for potential limitations of human memory and attention. Checklists ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out each and every task. A basic example is the “To-do list”. A more advanced example for checklists would be a schedule, which lays out tasks to be done according to time of day or any other factors. A primary task in the checklist is documentation of the task and auditing against the documentation.
While a form on its own is a document with fields in which you can write or select from provided options. Forms, when completed, may be a statement, a request, or an order.
Also, check out more forms and checklists topics we’ve prepared for you:
This page will provide detailed information about how to set up forms and checklists so admin users can create and set up forms in OctopusPro in the most professional way possible. The page will provide information about How to set up forms and checklists in OctopusPro, What are the visibility options and what are they beneficial for?, Display options definition, how to assign a form to a booking status, how to assign a form to a service, Why ‘assign form to a service’ option is available for some services and not others, editing forms and checklists, deleting a form or a checklist, activating and deactivation forms.
Simply, this page will provide the admin user with the proper knowledge to set up and control when forms and checklists appear in OctopusPro. The page also explains the way of setting the visibility option, so forms/checklists appear to the correct users. So, this feature is compatible with forms/checklists directed to the admin users, fieldworkers and customers.
The usage of different forms and checklists in OctopusPro depends on the user dealing with a form. So, after setting up a form, and depending on the form setup, the forms can be directed to admin users, fieldworker and customers. This page explains how to use forms/checklists in different users perspectives, admins from the admin dashboard, customers from the customer portal/ branded apps and fieldworkers from the fieldworker app and customer portal.
This document is covering the following topics: Where can admin users fill forms & checklists from? Where can admin users view the filled out forms & checklists? Forms and checklists from the fieldworker’s perspective, completing Forms and checklists as a fieldworker using the app and completing Forms and checklists as a fieldworker using the browser.
Field Types/Elements in OctopusPro are a set of input fields that the admin can add to the form/checklist so users can fill in the correct data. Admins can create a huge variety of field Types/Elements to a form, from asking a user to provide a date to answering multiple answer questions. So, this page will provide the admin users with details about all of the field types in the system, and how they appear to users.
Page topics are:
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- How to create a new field and what are the types of fields that can be used in the system?
- Date picker field type
- Time picker field type
- Text box (multi-lines) field type
- Text field (one line) field type
- (+/-) button field type
- Toggle field type
- Dropdown field type
- Radio button field type
- Button group field type
- List field type
- Checkbox field type
- Making a form element/field Mandatory
- Mandatory fields in admin web view Mandatory fields in fieldworker App
- Mandatory fields in the customer portal
- Requesting to upload photos for a form/checklist element
- Requesting to upload photos fields in admin web view
- Requesting to upload photos fields in fieldworker App
- Requesting to upload photos fields in the customer portal
- Making Photo Uploads Mandatory for all Users
- Editing and Deleting Form & Checklists Fields/Elements
This page provides real-time examples of forms and checklists for different industries. So, admin users can preview the use cases and create forms/checklists that are compatible with their business. Industries like real estate, cleaning and automotive are considered and explained in this document.
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