The Forms feature lets you build custom forms for your clients and staff members to complete. You can easily build forms from scratch, use pre-existing templates, or have AI generate the layout for you.
This feature is only available on Premium Plans. You can upgrade your account by navigating to Account > Subscription.
Creating a New Form
To get started, navigate to Forms > List. Here, you can see a detailed list of your current forms.
Click 'New Form' in the top right corner.
This will open the form creation menu, which is divided into four tabs:
Blank Form: Start completely from scratch to build your own layout.
Incident Form: Create a specific form for incident management that will automatically trigger an Incident Ticket in the system when submitted.
Template Gallery: Select from a list of pre-existing, ready-to-use form templates.
AI Form Templates: Use Artificial Intelligence to generate a custom form by simply describing what you need.
Using the AI Form Template
The AI Form Generator allows you to build a form simply by describing what you need in plain text. The AI will build the layout, and you can chat with it to refine the results before saving.
Select 'AI Form Templates'. You will see several starter cards (e.g., Incident Report, Client Intake, Staff Checklist) that serve as helpful starting points. Click a card to begin, or click 'Custom Template' to start with a blank prompt. Click 'Start'.
A chat window will open. Type a description of the form you want to create (e.g., "Create a daily check-in log that asks about the client's mood, meals, and any safety hazards"). A default description that you can edit is already provided (except for Custom). Click '✨Generate Form'.
A read-only preview of the form will appear. This preview will show all the fields the AI has created for you, as well as any dynamic variables it has automatically inserted to save you time.
If the form isn't perfect, you can type a follow-up instruction in the chat box (e.g., "Add a signature field at the bottom" or "Remove the section about meals") and click '✨Refine'. The AI will update the preview based on your instructions. You can do this as many times as needed.
Once you are happy with the preview, click the final 'Generate Form' button.
The AI will redirect you to the standard Form Builder page. From here, you can save it as a template (if needed) and make any final manual tweaks before publishing and assigning your new form.
🤖 The AI Form Generator is designed to give you a helpful head start, but human oversight is essential. Always review the generated questions, fields, and dynamic variables in the Form Builder to ensure they meet your organisation's exact requirements before clicking Publish.
Creating a Blank Form
When building a form from scratch, select 'Blank Form' and click 'Start'. See the section below for the next steps.
Creating an Incident Form
When building an incident form from scratch, select 'Incident Form' and click 'Start'. This type is specifically for incident management. Submitting this form automatically creates an Incident Ticket in the system. Read this complete guide for more information on incident forms.
See the section below for the next steps.
Using a Template
If you want to use a previously-created template, click 'Template Gallery' and choose the appropriate one from the list. Click 'Start'.
You can choose whether to create this template as a new regular form or an incident form.
You will be able to make changes to the template after it opens in the Form Builder.
Duplicating an Existing Form
If you want to create a new form based on one you have already published, you can quickly duplicate it rather than starting from scratch. This preserves all the questions, structure, and settings of the original form.
There are 2 ways to duplicate forms:
From the Forms List: Click the three vertical dots on the form's row and select 'Duplicate'.
From inside a Form: Open a published form and click 'Duplicate' in the top navigation bar.
Confirm the action in the pop-up window. A new Draft version of the form named "[Form Name] Copy" will automatically open so you can begin editing it.
Note: You can only duplicate forms with a Published or Awaiting Response status. Draft or Archived forms cannot be duplicated.
Designing Your Form
Once you have selected your form type, you will be presented with the form builder. The screen shows a blank form on the right and a list of available fields on the left.
Give your new custom form a descriptive name.
Drag and drop the necessary fields (e.g., headlines, dropdown menus, signature fields) from the left menu onto the right side of the screen.
Click on any field you have added to customise its settings, such as the label name or whether the field is mandatory.
Click 'Preview' in the top right corner to see how the form will look to your users.
If you plan to use this layout again, tick 'Save Form as a Template'. This saves the form for future use (you can still make changes when using templates). This is toggled on by default.
Click 'Next' when you are finished designing.
Dynamic Variables
Dynamic variables allow you to insert placeholders into your forms that will automatically populate with specific client or account information when the form is viewed. You can use these in three ways: within the form's text blocks, directly in the question titles, or as a pre-filled answer.
Variables in Text Blocks
When adding a Text Element to your form, you can insert a dynamic variable in three ways:
Type the "@" symbol to open a dropdown menu of available Client and Account fields.
Click the "{x}" button in the text editing toolbar to open a dropdown menu of available Client and Account fields.
Type the variable directly (e.g., {client}{first_name}). The text will automatically be highlighted to indicate that it is a valid variable.
When a client or staff member opens this assigned form to fill it out, the placeholders will be replaced with actual data.
This replacement also applies to the submitted form response and any PDF exports.
Note: Dynamic variables only populate when a form is assigned to a specific client. They will not populate when viewing a template.
Variables in Question Titles
You can also personalise your form by inserting dynamic variables directly into the actual question titles (e.g., changing "How is the client feeling?" to "How is {client}{first_name} feeling today?").
Click on any question title while in the Form Builder.
The Smart Fields panel will slide in on the right side of the screen. Click the desired variable to insert it as a blue token into your title.
Variables as Pre-Filled Answers
You can configure a Short Answer or Long Answer field to automatically pre-fill with a specific value when the user opens the form. This saves time and ensures accuracy.
In the Form Builder, drag a Short or Long Answer field to the right side of the screen and click to edit it.
The Smart Fields panel will slide in on the right side of the screen. In the 'Pre-fill value' box, you can add dynamic variables by selecting them from the Smart Fields panel or typing the tokens manually.
The variables will appear as blue tokens (e.g., {client}{first_name}). You can type regular text around these tokens.
Client and Account Fields: You can pre-fill the answer box with demographic data (e.g., address or mobile number). The options available in the Smart Fields panel will depend on your account's specific region.
Last Response: If you select the {last_response} variable, the field will automatically pre-fill with the answer the user provided the last time they filled out this exact form (within the last 90 days). This is useful for recurring daily or weekly logs where the answers rarely change.
Note: The {last_response} variable cannot be used in question titles.
When a client or staff member opens the form, any field with a pre-filled template will automatically be populated with the correct data. A small note stating the field has been pre-filled but is still editable will appear below the box.
The user can choose to leave the pre-filled answer as is, or edit/delete it before submitting the form.
Assigning the Form
The final step is to determine who needs to complete this form.
You can select recipients using three tabs:
Assigning forms to teams or roles is future-proof. If a new staff member joins your organisation later and is added to that specific team or role, they will automatically be assigned the form, even if their account didn't exist when you first published it.
Tick your choices, and they will appear in the list on the right side.
Multiple Response: If turned on, a user can submit the form multiple times (i.e. Weekly Client Progress Form). If this form should only be completed once, turn this off (i.e. Employee Onboarding Form).
Private Responses: Turn this on to hide the form responses from other staff members (i.e. Confidential Incident Report). If turned off, multiple staff members can view the form responses (i.e. Client Progress Notes).
Once you have selected your recipients, click 'Publish' (to only publish the form) or 'Publish and Send' (to publish the form and send it to the chosen assignees).
Form Category Management
Form Categories allow admins to organise forms and quickly filter the forms list.
To manage your categories, navigate to Forms > List and click on the 'Manage Categories' button.
From here, you can add, delete, and reorder your categories. Click 'Add' after every category name, click the red trash bin icon to delete a category, and click and drag the grey boxes to reorder your categories.
Assigning a Category to a Form
To assign a category to an existing form, click the three vertical dots on the form's row and select 'Add to a Category'.
Select the specific category from the dropdown menu and click 'Save'.
If a category is deleted, any forms assigned to it will simply be unassigned (they will not be deleted).
Filtering by Category
On the Forms > List page, you can use the category dropdown menu to filter your view. Selecting 'All Categories' shows every form, while selecting 'Others' shows forms that have not been assigned to a category.
Now that your form is created and published, learn how to track responses and export submissions in our guide to Managing and Exporting Form Responses.
To extract filtered data from form responses and export it as a tailored CSV or PDF, read our guide on creating Custom Form Reports.
Custom Forms Webinar
Please note that since this webinar was recorded, there have been adjustments to the appearance and functionality of custom forms.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between “Publish” and “Publish and Send” when creating a form?
These two actions control both the form’s availability and whether it is sent to assignees:
Publish
Saves and publishes the form
The form remains editable (you can still update content and assignees)
The form is not yet accessible to assignees
No notifications are sent
Publish and Send
Publishes the form and immediately sends it to assigned users via email
The form becomes available to assignees in the app
The form is locked and cannot be edited after sending
Why wasn’t an incident ticket created after a staff member submitted the form?
Please check the form type that was used. Only forms configured as an Incident form will automatically create an incident ticket in the system. Read this guide to learn more about Incident Management.
If the form is set as a general type, submitting it will not generate an incident ticket. Ensure the form is configured as an Incident type if you want it to create an incident record.
Also, be aware that if you created the form from a template, the template also needs to be set to Incident type
Does ShiftCare provide form templates?
Yes, ShiftCare includes a set of pre-built form templates in your account when you first sign up. You can find these templates in the Form List page.
These templates include:
Incident Report
Participant Seizure Recording Chart
NDIS Service Agreement
Medication Incident Report
SIL House End of Month Tasks
Progress Notes
You can use these templates as a starting point to create your own forms. They can also be edited, archived, or deleted to suit your organisation’s needs.
For further assistance with Creating and Assigning Custom Forms, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.