Send a form

Copying a form’s link into your own email works, but it tells you nothing afterwards. Sending the form from here gives every person their own link, files their answers against the right patient automatically, and chases anyone who forgets.

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Send it

Each link works for one person, and stops working after 30 days or when the form closes — whichever comes first. If the form has a deadline, the email asks them to answer by that date, and so does every reminder; a scheduled form with no deadline names its close date instead. The invite email carries your form’s colour and logo from Design, so it is recognisably from your practice. If some of the form’s questions are set to fill in from the patient record, a patient you choose from your records gets those answers already filled in, with a note asking them to check. Somebody sent the form by email address alone gets a blank form. See Build a form.

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How many times the Free plan can send a form

On the Free plan, each form can be sent by email 5 times a month. Paid plans and trials have no limit.

• Each email counts as one send. Sending a form to three people by email uses three of that form’s five. A patient set to Patient portal only, or a form handed over In person, on this device, sends no email and is not counted.
• Remind and Resend count too, because each one emails the person again. Reminders we send ourselves do not, and neither do forms and intake packs sent automatically with an appointment.
• Each form has its own five. Sending one form five times does not affect another form.
• A send held by Out of Office counts, because it will go when the block ends; it is not counted again when it does, and it is not given back if the form is answered or the link cancelled first.
• Only emails that go out count. Someone with no email address is not counted, and if your document emails are switched off that send is not used.
• The month is your clinic’s calendar month, in your clinic’s time zone. It resets on the 1st.

Under Send to patients or an email address the sheet shows how many are left, for example “3 of 5 sends left for this form this month”. If you choose more people than you have sends left, nothing is sent and the sheet says how many are left, so you can remove some people or upgrade. When none are left, it tells you the date the allowance resets and offers See plans; patient portal and in-person sends still work. Copying the form’s link, the QR code and embedding are not counted.

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Sending while the clinic is out of office

If an Out of Office block for the whole clinic is running (or one for the person whose visit the form is for), sending a form or a signature request by email asks first: “The clinic is out of office until date. Send now, or send it when you’re back?”

• Send now sends it straight away, as usual.
• Send when I’m back saves it and sends it shortly after the block ends, between 8 AM and 8 PM in your clinic’s time zone. Nothing is sent if the form is answered or the link is cancelled in the meantime.

Handing a form over in person or putting it in the client portal never asks. Forms and intake packs sent automatically, for example when a visit is booked, wait until the block ends unless Form and intake sends is switched off in the block’s Pause automated reminders section.

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See what happened

The Invites tab lists everybody the form went to: Next reminder tells you when we would chase them, so you know whether to do it yourself. A Not delivered invite shows a dash: we do not remind somebody who was never sent the form. If the form is set to close on a date sooner than the invite would have lasted, the link closes with the form, and the row says so: “This link closes on …, when the form stops collecting.” Move the form’s close date later and the link gets its own expiry back. When a patient you sent the form to finishes it, you get a notification — A form you sent was completed — that opens the form’s responses. It names nobody and no form. If nobody sent it (it went automatically with an appointment), or the person who sent it has left the practice, everyone gets it instead. It follows the Document switch in your notification settings. A long list is split into pages, with Show at the bottom choosing how many people appear on each. On a phone each person is a card, with their status, when the invite went and the three actions below. The tab shows the 200 most recent people the form was sent to.

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Chase, replace, or close a link

Three actions sit on each row, and two of them are not the same thing:

• Remind sends them a reminder with a fresh link to the same form. Use it when somebody has simply forgotten — the link they already have in their inbox still works too, and whichever they use, they can answer only once.
• Resend replaces the link. The one they already have stops working straight away. Use it when the first one went to the wrong address, or into a mailbox they cannot reach. On a Not delivered row it is called Send new link: it takes the email address from the patient’s record, sends the form, and the row becomes Sent.
• Cancel closes the link. Anything already submitted is kept.

We remind people ourselves too, when Send reminders was on for the invite: a first reminder two days after it was sent, a second on day five, and a last one the day before the link expires (only when the link has an expiry). That is at most three, and then we stop. Nobody is chased with a link that has already expired. Reminders stop at once when the form is submitted, cancelled or expires. They are also not sent when:

• Send reminders was switched off for the invite, or the form’s own reminders are set to none;
• the person is a client whose record has Incomplete documents reminders switched off, or a contact who has unsubscribed or is on your do-not-contact list;
• your practice has switched off Document notifications or email notifications in your notification settings;
• the form send is held while you are out of office. It goes out, and its reminders follow, when you are back.

To stop reminders for one person, cancel their invite. To stop them for a form, set its reminders to none in the form’s settings. A client who asks you to stop can be switched off on their record. Remind is your own choice, but it is refused for a client who has switched reminders off, or a contact who has unsubscribed.

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If it is still not completed

After the last automatic reminder, if the form has still not been completed, the person who sent it gets a notification, and your practice inbox gets one email saying the form is still not completed. It is sent once per invite. The notification and the email name the form and, where your practice allows it, the client. The email’s subject names neither, and neither contains any answer. A client whose record is restricted appears as Secured patient with their number, and a practice running as a Part 2 program does not name the client in the email. If the same person is waiting on more than one thing from you — another form, or a document to sign — the reminder arrives as one email listing everything they still have to do, not one email each. Each item keeps its own timing, so something that is not due a reminder yet is not included. When reminders go out, your practice inbox gets one short summary of how many people were reminded and about how many forms and documents, as long as Document notifications are switched on in your notification settings. It names nobody and no form — open your client list to see who is still outstanding.

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When an invited form comes back

When somebody you sent a form to by invitation submits it, the person who sent the invite gets a notification and an email to their own address, and your practice gets a notification and an email to the practice inbox. The notification names the form and the client; the email body names them too, and its subject does not. No answers appear in either: open the response from the link, which asks you to sign in and is recorded in your access log. If the person who sent it is also set to be told about every response, they are told once. Your Document notification switch and the email switches in your notification settings decide whether these go out. Forms people fill in without an invitation (a public link, a booking page, an embedded form) do not do this; they follow each team member’s own Every response or Daily digest choice. See Notifications.

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Everything one person has been sent

The Invites tab is one form’s list. When you want the other view — everything this patient has been sent, whatever it was — open their profile and select Sent & Shared. One list, in one set of words, covering all three things a practice sends somebody: Each row shows the same states as the Invites tab, when it last moved, and how it was sent. Nothing on it is a link you can copy — opening an item goes through the record itself, which is what keeps the read on your practice’s audit trail. The actions on a row depend on what it is:

• A form can be reminded, resent with a new link, or cancelled — exactly as on the Invites tab, and meaning exactly the same things. While it is still waiting, Complete in person opens the same form on this device for the person to fill in now: you are asked first, and once they submit it there the link they were sent will not take another answer. Once they have answered, Open the response takes you to their answers on the form’s Responses tab, and opening it is recorded in your practice’s audit log.
• A document can be opened for its details, and its access revoked. A document whose link has run out can be resent.
• A signature request opens its tracking page, and a signer who has not finished can be reminded. Voiding one is done on that page, because it needs a reason that becomes part of the record.

Anything already finished, declined or closed offers none of these — there is nothing left to chase, and nobody should be emailed a link to a record the practice has deliberately closed.

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Are completed forms saved to the patient’s chart automatically?

Yes. A form you sent to a client is saved to their chart automatically when they answer — you do not file it yourself. It shows Completed on their Sent & Shared list (on the chart’s Documents & forms tab), and Open the response opens their answers on the form’s Responses tab. A document they signed is on the same list; see Send a document for signature. A form filled in without an invitation — from a public link, a booking page or an embedded form — is not on Sent & Shared: read it on the form’s Responses tab.

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Give a signature request more time

A signature request has two dates, and they do different jobs:

• The last day to sign is when the links stop working.
• The finish-by date is the date you ask people to finish by. Nothing stops working on it — it is printed on the reminders, so a signer knows what you are waiting for. It can never be later than the last day to sign.

Set a finish-by date when you send, with Ask signers to finish by (optional). Tick Use this signing window next time this document is sent and the next request from that template starts with the same number of days. Once one is set, the tracking page says Signers are asked to finish by and the date. When somebody needs longer, open the request’s tracking page and select Extend. Give more time to sign asks for:

• New last day to sign — later than the current one, and no more than a year away.
• Why — The signer asked for more time, Waiting for their appointment, The clinic needs more time, or Another reason. It is recorded with the request.
• Ask them to finish by (optional) — a new finish-by date.

Extending keeps everybody’s link as it is; nobody has to be sent a new one. Whoever it is currently waiting on gets a short email saying they have more time, with no link in it. The confirmation tells you how many people were emailed, or that nobody was — for example when document emails are switched off. A request that has already expired, been completed or been voided cannot be extended; send a new one.

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What the signer sees

The signing page carries your clinic’s name and logo, so the person knows who is asking before they read anything. Somebody who opens a request from an emailed link first passes a quick check that they are a person and not an automated program. Usually it takes a moment and nothing to click. It is always on for signing links and cannot be switched off; it is not shown to somebody signing in person on your device, signing as a member of your team, or coming from the patient portal. If the check does not pass, the page says so and offers Try again, and the link still works. The document appears in full, one page after another, with the boxes to complete highlighted where you placed them. Each box says what it asks for — Sign here, Initial here, Type here, Choose — or shows the label you gave it, and the panel at the bottom of the screen is where the signer answers it. Start takes them to the first box; Next moves on to the box after the one they are on, and the page scrolls so it stays in view. Boxes that fill themselves in — the signer’s name, their email address, the date they sign, details from the patient’s record — are shown in grey and cannot be typed into. Selecting one explains that it is filled in automatically. Finish turns on once every required box is complete. Finish on another device emails the signer a link to their own address, so somebody who opened the request on a phone can finish at a desk. Everything they have filled in is kept. As the page warns them, opening the new link ends the session on the first device. Before anyone signs, the page shows Electronic records and signatures — the statement they agree to so their electronic signature counts. The wording depends on your clinic’s Country (Settings → General): the United States, the United Kingdom, the countries of the European Union, Nigeria and Ghana each add a sentence naming that country’s or region’s electronic-signature law, and every other country gets the general statement. While no country is set, your billing currency (Settings → Billing) decides instead — US dollars, euros, pounds sterling, naira and cedis pick those same statements — so if you bill in a currency that is not your own country’s, set your country. Each version of the text has a version number. The page shows it, it is recorded when the person agrees, and the signing certificate prints it with the law it refers to and which setting chose it — your country, or your currency because no country was set. The certificate also names your clinic, and carries your clinic’s logo at the top when you have one. A document made from a template in the template gallery whose author asks for credit also lists the template and its author, under Template. Adding or changing the logo never changes anything the certificate proves about the signing. A practice with the document seal also gets a digital signature in its own legal name across the whole finished file, added when everyone has signed and the certificate is attached. Open the copy in a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat and its signature panel shows it as signed by your organisation and whether the file has changed since then. It is your organisation’s seal on the finished document, not the personal digital signature of anyone who signed; the certificate of completion is still the record of who did what, and lists it as Digital signature. Without the document seal, the finished copy carries no digital signature and keeps the standard proof — its fingerprint, the certificate of completion and the verification page, which works the same way either way: a copy that matches shows as a match.

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The QR code

The QR code card gives you a code people scan with a phone camera to open your form. The card is in the Share sheet of a published form. A response is counted as Responded from the code when a new response is submitted: editing a response, or sending the same one again, is not counted. Anyone who may open the form’s responses can see the counts, as well as owners and managers.

• It is in the form’s own colour, with your logo in the middle. If that colour is too light for a camera to read reliably, the code is drawn in near-black and the card says so. If your logo cannot be loaded, the code is drawn without it and the card says that too.
• Only a code that has been checked is offered. Before Download PNG or Print appear, the finished picture is read back on your device and must open exactly the address printed under it. If that check fails, the card says the code could not be checked and offers nothing to print.
• It always uses the saved address. Change the address or the look, save, and the code is drawn again. Anything you have typed but not saved is never printed.
• If the page is switched off, the code still works the moment you turn it on; until then anyone who scans it sees that the page is unavailable, and the card warns you.

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Poster and card

Select Poster and card to open Print your code. Choose Poster (A4) for a wall or window, or Reception card (A6) for the front desk, then Download PDF or Download PNG. Both carry your form name and logo in your colour, the line “Scan to fill in this form”, and the short address for people without a camera. Everything is in words, so it reads the same on a black-and-white printer. The file is made on your device; nothing is uploaded.

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How many people used it

Owners and managers see Last 30 days on the card: Opened from the code and Responded from the code. These are counts only. No name, device or address is kept with them. The counts are approximate, and refreshing the page in the same tab counts once.

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Check it worked

The person appears on the Invites tab as Sent. When they answer, the same row becomes Completed and their response appears on the Responses tab — filed against their chart if you chose them as a patient.

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If something goes wrong