Using FormStack to Automate Your Online Forms and Reports

Formstack is a cloud-based platform that enables organizations to automate and streamline their business processes by creating custom forms and workflows. Formstack Documents is a powerful tool within the Formstack platform that allows users to generate custom documents based on data collected through Formstack forms and other sources.

What is Formstack for?

By using Formstack and Formstack Documents together, organizations can significantly increase their productivity by automating the creation and distribution of documents. This can save time and effort that would otherwise be spent manually preparing documents and can help ensure that documents are consistent, accurate, and compliant with company policies and regulations.

What are some ways that FormStack can help me?

Here are a few ways that Formstack and Formstack Documents can help organizations increase productivity:

Streamlining data collection

Formstack forms can be used to collect data from employees, customers, and other stakeholders in a consistent and efficient manner. This data can then be used to automatically populate Formstack Documents templates, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors.

Automating document generation

Formstack Documents allows users to create custom templates that can be used to generate documents based on data collected through Formstack forms and other sources. This can save a significant amount of time and effort that would otherwise be spent preparing documents manually.

Customizing documents to meet specific needs

Formstack Documents templates can be customized to meet the specific needs of an organization, including adding logos, images, and other branding elements. This can help ensure that documents are consistent with an organization’s brand guidelines and can improve the professional appearance of documents.

Ensuring compliance with company policies and regulations

Formstack Documents templates can be configured to include compliance checks and validation rules to ensure that generated documents meet company policies and regulations. This can help reduce the risk of errors and ensure that documents are consistent and accurate.

Improving collaboration and communication

Formstack’s collaboration features allow multiple users to work on the same document at the same time, improving communication and collaboration within an organization. Formstack Documents also offers integration with popular collaboration tools like Google Drive and Slack, making it easy to share documents and collaborate with team members.

What programming language does Formstack Documents use?

Formstack Documents uses a proprietary template language that is based on the Mustache template syntax, which is a popular language for creating templates that can be used to generate text documents.

Formstack Documents templates use placeholders to represent data fields that will be filled in with data when the document is generated. For example, a template might include a placeholder like {{$first_name}} to represent a person's first name, which will be replaced with the actual first name when the document is generated.

Formstack Documents templates can also include logic and control structures, such as loops and conditional statements, to create more complex documents. For example, a template might include a loop to iterate over a list of items and generate a table row for each item.

What documents can be used in Formstack?

Formstack Documents templates can be created using a variety of tools and methods, including the Formstack Documents template editor, which provides a user-friendly interface for creating and testing templates. Formstack Documents also provides a comprehensive API that allows developers to programmatically create and manage templates, as well as generate documents using the templates. Word documents and PDFs can also be programmed to use in Formstack Documents.

How much is Formstack?

Formstack’s entry-level cost is very accessible, starting as low as $50 per month for the basic forms but increases as you use documents and the electronic signature. It is worth contacting the sales team at Formstack if you have a particular use that doesn’t meet the pricing defaults.

Summary

Formstack and Formstack Documents offer a powerful and flexible solution for automating and streamlining the creation and distribution of documents. By using these tools, organizations can significantly increase their productivity, reduce the risk of errors, and improve the professional appearance of their documents.

Originally published at https://hyperproductive.me on January 4, 2023.