Form steps

A Form step is a form that one person fills in. This article covers everything on a form step’s panel: the Form, Notification, Rules and Data & PDF tabs. For the emails themselves, see Notifications and emails.

Form tab

The form. The step shows the form’s cover, its type (PDF form, web form or master form) and how many fields it has. Edit form opens the form builder in a new tab, Submissions opens its submissions, and Change form swaps in another form. The form must be published; an unpublished or archived form shows as a red item in the checklist and marks the workflow Broken once it is live.

Who hears back (start step only). The person who submits the start form is the one decisions, send-backs and the completion email should reach. PlatoForms never guesses their address from the answers: choose the text field on the start form that holds their email, or leave it as None if runs are always started by invitation, in which case the invitee’s address is used. If the field is left unset and the workflow has approvals or send-backs, the checklist warns that people who start from the shared link will not hear back.

Who is told (every step after the start). A plain-words summary of the step’s Notification tab: the addresses, the answers from earlier steps, the person who started, the team members who can view submissions, or “the person who approved …” (such a step shows a green edge and a green ✓ Approver of “…” chip on the canvas; see Let the approver fill in a form). A step after the start that names nobody is a red checklist item, unless the step before it has Redirect to the next step after submitting switched on, in which case the person who submitted the previous form continues straight into this one.

When this form is submitted. One card per outgoing connection: which step comes next, who is told about it, and a link to that step’s Notification tab. The last form step shows The run completes with the recipients of the completion notification. When the workflow has parallel paths, the run completes only once every path has finished.

Notification tab

Who receives the email that says this step is ready, what it says, and the reminders that follow. This is the same screen as a form’s own notification settings, so everything you know from there applies. See Step notifications.

Rules tab

When several people get the same link. If the Notification tab names more than one person, they all get one link to one copy of the form, not a copy each. The two options only decide what happens while the form is open and not yet submitted:

• The first to open it claims it, others can take it over (default). Whoever opens the link first has the step; anyone else who opens it meanwhile sees who has it and since when, with a Take it over button.
• Anyone may open it, the first to submit completes it. No claiming; everyone goes straight to the form.

Either way, once anyone submits, the link closes for everyone, including the person who submitted, unless the option below is on. The claim is remembered per browser, so opening the link twice from the same browser never shows the claim page.

After it is submitted. Once a form step has been submitted, its link normally shows “Submitted” and “This link is now closed.” Tick The same link can be used to submit again if the same person may need to submit this form more than once for the same run, for example several expense claims against one approved trip. The page then offers Submit another, each submission is recorded as its own task, and the steps that follow are created again for it. Whether a submitted form may be edited is decided by the form’s own Show “Edit Submission” on last page setting under General settings, not here.

Deadline. Due after a number of hours or days, counted from the moment the task is created. Leave it empty for no deadline. The tracker marks overdue tasks in red.

A deadline is not a lock. The link keeps working after it passes and the person can still submit, unless the option below reassigns or skips the task. What stops a link working is expiry, the number of days under Links on the workflow panel, which is a separate clock: an overdue task can still be submitted, an expired link cannot. See Expiry.

Two things to know when testing: the deadline is stamped on each task when it is created, so changing it affects runs started afterwards, not runs already in progress; and overdue tasks are checked once an hour, so the action below happens up to an hour after the deadline.

When overdue. What happens when the deadline passes:

• Just mark as overdue (default): the tracker flags it; nothing else changes and the link still works.
• Notify someone: email the team members you tick; the link still works. Team members only, because the email’s link opens the tracker, which needs a signed-in member. Nobody ticked means nobody is emailed.
• Reassign to someone: the task is handed to one person, a team member or an email address outside the team. They get the step’s normal task email with a fresh form link and a line saying why it came to them; the old link closes. Nobody else is emailed; the tracker records the reassignment.
• Skip this step: the task closes without a submission and the run continues. Later steps that depend on this form’s answers, such as a branch or a PDF that combines data, run without them; if it was the last step, the run completes. The person’s link then says the task is no longer open.

Reminders. Reminders are part of the step’s notification: open the Notification tab and add reminders there. The Rules tab shows a summary, for example “1 day, 3 days after assignment”.

Data & PDF tab

These options apply once a step comes before this one. They control how the PDF and the answers travel from step to step.

PDF

Combine data across steps. The step prints onto the PDF produced by the step before it instead of starting from a blank copy of its own template, so one document accumulates every step’s data. Switch it on when the steps share the same uploaded PDF; the panel says which step’s PDF this one continues from. Leave it off when the steps use different PDFs, otherwise the previous step’s document would be used as this step’s template. With a master form, Mapping PDF files in previous and current step lets you pair each PDF of the previous step with the PDF it continues in this step.

Display the previous PDF’s data in this form. PDF online forms only. Shows the data of the previous steps on this step’s PDF while the person fills it in, so a manager sees what they are signing.

Include link to previous step’s PDF. Adds a link labelled Previous PDF at the bottom of the form to the PDF produced by the previous step. Useful when the form is a web form or when data is not combined. The link expires with the earlier step’s form setting Expiration Time for Shared URLs.

Include link to previous step’s form. Adds a link labelled Previous Form that opens the previous step’s submission for editing. Anyone who has the page can use it, without signing in, until the earlier step’s shared-URL expiry. No form permission is needed, so you do not have to make the previous form public.

Data

Automatically fill fields with matching labels. Fields on this form that have the same label as a field on the previous step are pre-filled with that step’s answer. Every field type except file uploads is copied: choice and dropdown fields pick the options whose text matches, a text field receives the selected options joined by “, “, and other fields, signatures included, receive the earlier answer as is. File uploads and photos are not copied unless you also turn on Copy uploaded files with matching labels.

Two more options appear once automatic filling is on:

• Match display name first. When pre-filling, match fields by their display name before falling back to the label.
• Copy uploaded files with matching labels. Copies files uploaded in the previous step into this step’s file fields with the same label.

Create signature certificate. Produces a signature certificate for this step’s submission. The certificate names who signed and when, based on the address the workflow link was emailed to. When an approver is taken straight into their form after approving, that link still carries their address, so the certificate names them. For the start step, turn the certificate on in the invitation instead. A step reached by Redirect to the next step after submitting or from the workflow’s public link gets no certificate. A signature copied by Automatically fill fields with matching labels is marked as not valid on the certificate, because the person did not sign it themselves.

Redirect to the next step after submitting. Shown when a step follows this one. The person who submits this form is taken straight into the next form instead of seeing a thank-you page. Use it when the same person fills in two forms in a row.

What the person sees

The person receives an email for the step, opens its link and fills in the form. After submitting, the form’s own thank-you page appears. If they open the same link again later, it shows Submitted, the date and their address, and either This link is now closed or Submit another depending on the Rules tab. The link acts as the address it was emailed to, whatever PlatoForms account happens to be signed in on that computer.