Support for Multi-Form Data Entry for Single Records
J
Jean-Philippe Ghyoot
Implement functionality that allows fields within a single record in a table to be grouped and split across multiple forms. This would enable different subsets of fields within the same record to be populated at different times, facilitating more flexible and staged data entry processes.
Use Case:
Consider a customer onboarding process where different departments need to input specific information at different stages. For example:
- Initial Contact Form: Sales team fills in basic customer details (name, contact information, initial inquiry).
- Qualification Form: Pre-sales team fills in qualification details (budget, timeline, requirements).
- Contract Form: Legal team fills in contract-specific details (terms, agreement dates, legal disclaimers).
- Onboarding Form:Customer success team fills in onboarding details (account setup, welcome package, training schedule).
Each of these forms updates the same customer record, ensuring all information is consolidated in one place but allowing for segmented, role-specific data entry. This staged approach improves data accuracy, streamlines workflow, and ensures that each team only sees and edits the fields relevant to their part of the process.
Jon Darbyshire
Great to hear your perspective, Jean-Philippe Ghyoot! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide more details on how you envision the transition between forms? For example, should there be a specific trigger or event that moves the record to the next form?
- Are there any specific roles or permissions that should be considered when implementing this feature? For example, should certain teams only have access to certain forms?
- Would you like to have a feature to track the progress of the record as it moves through the different forms?
J
Jean-Philippe Ghyoot
Jon Darbyshire
Hi Jon, thank you for your reply. To answer your questions:
- My thinking was that the user can decide how the forms are transitioned and sent out using the automation builder. For example the user could decide what trigger they use to submit the second form link. For example the form submit trigger could be used when Form 1 is submitted, to create an action "e-mail or create a task" to distribute the link for Form 2, and so on... SmartSuite could be configured that the moment multiple forms are created within a table, the system recognises that the forms belong to a set. The fields in the table cannot be duplicated between the forms. For example if I have 10 fields in the table, if I assigned field 1 to 5 to Form 1, only fields 6 to 10 are available to assign to form 2. However, form 2 should carry across some information to show the viewer what record it relates to, e.g title, name etc, and the same rules would apply if the table is split into 3 forms or more.
- Yes I believe it would be very useful to have the roles and permission rules carried over to this function.
- Yes that would be very helpful.
I have worked extensively with Jotform, which we are using in a company as the main information storage and workflow management tool. After coming across SmartSuite I realised how much better the solution is overall, however it lacks this sequential and staged population of data to a record which is often a required use case in business.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
Thank you
Jean-Philippe
J
Jean-Philippe Ghyoot
Hi Jon Darbyshire, I think I may have initially misunderstood your question 1? Let me expand on my initial suggestion. Perhaps it would be more efficient to consider it as a single form split into distinct sections, each of which can be submitted at different times. Instead of treating it as three separate forms populating a record. I’m not too sure about the technical details for transitioning to each new record, but from what I found, the best way to ensure that different users’ information goes to the correct record is to use a unique identifier. This unique ID would be added to the URL parameter to track each form session separately.