If you had to list all of the things you didn’t like about dealing with schools, “paperwork” would probably be at the top of that list.
Introduction
There are two types of papers that you typically get when dealing with a school. One is a legally binding contract, something you’d probably use the Documents feature for. The other is an “information gathering” form. Not a mutually binding contract, but evidence enough that you claimed something to be true. These are exactly the type of that the Forms feature is meant for.
Paper Schmaper
Most forms are for data entry. They need the data in some formal format so they can archive it in their records. It’s just a piece of paper that sits somewhere as a record of your claim.
Forms can have all of the same types of content as the Bulletin with the addition of questions.
Question Types
- Text
- Date
- Number
- Single Choice
- Multiple Choice
Multiple Purposes
There are multiple purposes for creating forms in Social Haven. The following are the current options:
– Standard Forms
Standard forms support targeting like the other “us to them” communications. You can assign standard forms to everyone, a particular class, a certain group, or even a unique person.
– Staff Forms
Staff forms are a little unique. They allow you to create a form that is filled out by two people. First, it is generated by a staff member that pre-fills in answers, then they send it to particular person. The second person who fills it out can see the answers of the staff member, but they cannot change them. This allows for a lot of flexibility in form generation.
– User Forms
This form is generated and submitted by a user at any time. They do not need to contact anyone to initiate it.
– Occasion Forms
Essentially the same as a user form, but instead of allowing users to generate it on demand, they are only generated from RSVPing to an Occasion.
Management
Most form responses are designed for some purpose other than living in a database somewhere. All responses for forms can be exported into Excel format, or they can be export to PDF format for printing.
Information gathering doesn’t have to be difficult.