3.10 Forms and tasks

The forms a family, a student or a member of staff fills in, who still owes one, the workflows that carry a submitted form through its steps, and the tasks waiting on you.

Written forRegistrarFront officeTeacherHead of house or yearWellbeingPrincipal and executiveBusiness managerIT

What it is for

Forms and tasks is how the school asks for information and gets work done by its staff. A form collects answers once, from a family, a student, a member of staff or a visitor with no account. A workflow then takes the submitted form through the steps the school decided, such as an approval by a head of house. A task is a single piece of work given to one member of staff, either by a workflow step or by a colleague.

The record keeps each submission with the version of the form it was filled in on, and each step and task with what happened to it and who did it. A published version of a form never changes, so an old submission always reads as it was asked.

Who uses it

In plain words, the capabilities are: designing forms (forms.definition.write), reading submissions (forms.submission.read), filling in forms (forms.submission.write), designing workflows (forms.workflow.write), acting on a workflow step (forms.run.act) and working on tasks (forms.task.write).

Key ideas

Form

A set of questions the school publishes. A form is a Draft until it is Published, and Retired when it is put away. Forms already submitted on a retired form can still be printed.

Who fills it in

The audience: Staff, A student, A family, Anyone by name, or Anyone anonymously. An anonymous form keeps nothing about who filled it in.

Version

Each time a form is published it has a version number. Its questions cannot be changed after that, so the school publishes the next version.

Submission

One person's answers to one version of a form. It starts as a draft, which the person can save and come back to, and ends as Submitted or Withdrawn.

Workflow

The steps a submitted form goes through. A step is An approval, A task, A notice or The outcome, which writes the result to the record. Each step names the role or the member of staff it waits on, and may have a due day.

Run

One submission going through one workflow. It is Waiting, Done, Declined, Cancelled, or could not be saved to the record.

Task

A piece of work given to one member of staff. A task is Open, Done or Cancelled, and reads Past its day when it is overdue.

Owed

A form a current student has not sent this calendar year, which is how the office knows whom to chase.

• 1.5 The calendar and your tasks

Screens

Forms has no tab of its own in the console. You reach a task from the home page, a step from "Waiting on you", and a form from the page that asks for it. Designing a form and a workflow is in Settings.

• Tasks

  /app/tasks

  What you have been asked to do, what you have asked others to do, and what you have finished. Switch between Mine, Given by me and Finished. The form at the foot, "Give somebody a task", makes a task for a colleague.

  Needs forms.task.write

• A task

  /app/tasks/[id]

  One task: who has it, when it falls due, what happened to it and what you can do. The head links to the workflow run when a step raised it.

  Needs forms.task.write

• A workflow run

  /app/forms/runs/[id]

  One run: each step, the ones passed and the ones ahead, who it waits on, what happened, and the decision card for a step you may act on.

  Needs forms.run.act

• A submission

  /app/forms/submissions/[id]

  A draft being filled in, or the printed copy of one that was submitted or withdrawn, with each question beside its answer.

  Needs forms.submission.read

• Who still owes it

  /app/forms/owed/[key]

  Each current student who has not sent a form this year, with their year level. Filter by year level and choose "Export as CSV".

  Needs forms.submission.read

• A public form

  /forms/[key]

  A form the school publishes for anyone, with no account needed. The page says how the answers are kept and gives a reference when the form is received.

Work your tasks and steps

The home page shows two panels for this module: "Waiting on you" for the workflow steps you may act on, and "Your tasks" for the tasks you hold. "All your tasks" opens the Tasks screen.

1. On the home page, open the step under "Waiting on you".
2. Read the steps and "What happened" on the run.
3. Under "Your step", add a note if you want to, and choose "Approve", "Decline" or "Return". A decline and a return need a note, and a return names the step it reopens.

On a task, choose "Mark as done" when the work is finished. "Give to someone else" hands it on, "Reopen" brings back a finished task, and "Cancel the task" stops it. Each act may have a note, which is kept with the task. Completing a task a workflow step raised completes that step. A colleague who is neither the person holding the task nor the person who gave it is offered no controls.

1. Open Tasks and choose "Give somebody a task".
2. Write "What needs doing", choose the colleague under "Who is to do it", and optionally set a due day and a note.
3. Choose "Give the task". The colleague sees it the moment it is made.

Find out who still owes a form

Open the form's page under Settings, or a form you are reading, and choose its list of who still owes it. The list shows each current student who has sent no submission of the form this calendar year, in family name order. A withdrawn form counts as none, and a student leaves the list the next time it is read after their form arrives. The year level you choose is in the address, so you can send the link to a colleague. If the form has not been published, the screen says so.

Fill in and read a submission

A submission starts as a draft. "Save" keeps what you typed, "Submit" sends it to the school and refuses while a required question is unanswered, and "Withdraw" takes it back. Once a form is submitted or withdrawn, the page is a printed copy that shows the version's title, which version it was and each question beside its answer, with what happened to it on the timeline.

A family or student fills in a form from the portal. A person with no account fills in a public form at its own address, where a notice above "Send" names the school asking, says which questions can be left empty and links the Privacy Policy for students and the one for adults. Each send is recorded once, even if the connection drops and the person presses the button again.

• 4.3 Answering the school
• 4.7 Public forms
• 4.6 The student portal

Tasks

• Act on a step waiting on you. Act on a step waiting on you
• Design and publish a form. Design and publish a form
• Give a colleague a task and follow it to done.
• Work down your open tasks, reassigning or reopening where needed.
• Find out which students still owe a form this year and export the list.
• Fill in a draft submission, save it and submit it.

Journeys

Forms and tasks take part in an excursion, which begins with the excursion request form. Public forms and the family's answers are in the family portal part.

• 2.8 An excursion
• 4.3 Answering the school

Settings

A school designs its forms and workflows in Settings under Forms and Workflows. You start a form as a draft, add its questions with a label, a type and a tier, save, preview and publish a version. A workflow is built the same way and a published version is used by new requests from then on, while requests already under way continue on the version they started with. A form with no workflow takes effect as soon as it is submitted.

• 5.6 Forms and workflows

Training notes

• Who needs it: each member of staff needs the Tasks screen and the "Waiting on you" panel. The registrar and front office need submissions and the owed list. The business manager and IT need the design sections.
• Suggested length: thirty minutes.
• Practise on the test school: give a colleague a task, act on a workflow step, then open a form's owed list.