Forms Add-on: build professional PDF forms or reports on site

ServiceM8’s electronic Forms add-on streamlines paperwork involved in compliance reporting, routine procedures, and the provision of formal documentation to clients.

With this add-on, you can create templates for electronic forms and reports to suit your business needs. Simply by working through a step-by-step list of questions on their iPhone or iPad, field staff can generate comprehensive and professional PDF forms and reports while on site.

Possible applications

Some common areas in which the Forms add-on can help include:

• Industry-specific compliance certificates
• Inspection reports
• Job site risk assessments
• Pre-start checklists
• Authority to proceed forms
• Contract variation approval forms
• Routine vehicle safety checks

Think of any job tasks or areas of your business in which your staff are still using paper-based forms, frequently typing up the same kind of documents, or in need of some more methodical structure and process – these are possible opportunities to further streamline your work with the Forms Add-on!

Forms are a great way to instil quality, consistency and safety in the way all field staff go about each job. They’re also great for improving the efficiency of providing documentation to your customers, with a professional touch.

Easy to build

There are two main parts to building Forms:

1. Creating the form, along with setting the questions and answers for field staff to step through on site. This is done in the Forms editor of your ServiceM8 dashboard (go to Settings > Forms).
   
   
2. Creating the report template in Microsoft Word: this is what you want the final PDF document to look like. Customize one of our templates or start from scratch!

When your field staff are done filling out the form on their iPhone or iPad, their answers will populate the template to instantly produce a professional PDF report. This report is saved to the job diary for future reference, and ready for emailing to the customer.

Flexible question types

A variety of question types cater for different types of jobs and scenarios. Form questions can require staff to pick from a list, take a photo, collect a signature, type a response, or enter a date or number. The responses then populate the relevant part of the form template.

You can even set questions as mandatory, meaning staff must provide a response in order to complete the form.

Badges

Each form you create will have a Badge, which can be added as a job requirement when creating new jobs, or new job templates e.g. a JSA badge for a Job Safety Analysis form: 

In each Form’s settings, you can decide whether to make the form Optional, Mandatory at Check-In, or Mandatory at Check-Out.

How much does it cost?

The Forms add-on costs 10 Job Credits per month.

How to get started

To activate the Forms add-on in your ServiceM8 dashboard – go to Settings > ServiceM8 Add-ons.

Check out this video for step by step help on creating a form from scratch:

http://servicem8.wistia.com/medias/4gp9sdrxhb?embedType=async&seo=false&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=700

From there, check out some of the articles in the ServiceM8 Help Centre:

• Forms Overview
• How to create Form questions and add fields to document templates
• Creating a simple Contract Variation Form
• How to enable a Form badge on a job
• How to buy ready-to-use Forms from the Forms Store

Need more help?

Perhaps you can’t spare the time to set up a few forms? Or maybe you’ve got a lot you’d like created? If so, consider contacting a ServiceM8 Partner for assistance with building forms.