Streamline your business with unique digital form features

It’s never been more important to have an efficient and streamlined process for gathering information and conducting your business. For consultants (from digital transformations to accounting and finance) this is even more true. It’s important to have a system in place that allows you to quickly and easily gather information from your clients, streamline the contract process, and manage data—for your own business and your clientele. Digital forms offer a convenient solution to help you achieve these goals, but not all digital forms are created equal. 

Depending on your business needs, the following features can propel your business forward toward sustainable growth and data management, while also keeping your administrative time at a minimum. This includes everything from customizable fields and conditional logic, to legally binding eSignature capture and automated notifications, but only you will know which features will impact your business most.

Diverse Clients Need Flexible Forms

It’s likely that your clients span a wide range of industries, and with that, your data capture needs some flexibility. This is where customizable fields come into play. Whether you’re focused on safety for construction forms or you’re managing pre-employment screening processes for a retail chain, your clients need data capture as unique as their businesses.

Digital forms offer a unique ability to customize how data is both presented and captured for your clients. When it comes to presenting your forms, try to keep a branded look and feel across all of them. This elevates your business presentation, while also giving your clients a confirmation that these forms are officially from your business. The best digital forms providers offer a way to upload your existing paper documents to convert them to a digital form, so if you’ve already gone through the work to brand your forms, you’ve already completed this step.

Data presentation doesn’t stop there, however. Building out databases, sometimes called data sources, that contain static client information (such as billing addresses or contact information) means that you and your client will be able to fill out forms faster while minimizing the risk of data entry errors. This feature can also provide the ability to auto-fill certain details, like material pricing or hourly rates, to add a level of transparency to your forms while also streamlining data capture.

For detailed data capture, customizable form fields are a must. In the case of safety forms for construction teams, you want your client to be able to add images or even annotate or sketch details about any safety concerns or machinery usage. Not only will this give your client better insight into their business, but it can set you up for success in case you’re managing their files during an audit. Additional flexible fields, like GPS point capture, checkboxes, or long-form text description boxes, mean that there’s no form you can’t cover for your client, and no data you’ll be missing for your own records.

Streamline Form Completion with Conditional Logic

One of the best ways you can bring more automation to your business processes is through conditional logic embedded within your digital forms. Conditional logic, simply defined, is the idea of setting rules, or conditions, that cause your processes to change based on input. An easy example of this would be on a permission slip. There can be a question asking if the person signing the form is over 18, and if the signer selects “no”, then a new form field can appear asking for their parent or guardian information. 

Conditional logic can apply to a lot more than permission slips, however, and in many cases, it applies to forms your business likely already uses. This can range from client intake forms asking for details on how this client heard about your business or even unique authorization requirements for equipment usage. At the end of the day, consulting businesses can thrive on conditional logic making everyday tasks and tracking easier.

Implementing conditional logic means a hands-off approach for you and your team when capturing client information. Returning to the client intake form example, instead of requiring a separate form for each industry you serve, you can build a single client intake form with customized conditional logic that follows a unique path for each industry. By using a checkbox or drop-down menu, your client can select their industry, and then be automatically presented with a selection of questions pertaining to their specific industry and what your consulting firm can do for them. This will provide a more streamlined onboarding experience for your clients and help keep your records clean, organized, and easier to manage.

Capture Electronic Signatures Quickly

As online purchases and services continue to boom, you’re not doing your business any favors if you don’t have an effective, and legally binding, means of electronic signature capture. Everything from contracts and pricing agreements to service authorization forms will require an electronic signature, but just like digital forms, they aren’t all created equal. Depending on your industry, regulating bodies, local laws, and any other input from your own business attorney, you may need E-SIGN Act-compliant eSignatures for some or all of your forms. In some cases, a quick signature field might do the trick as well, so always check on your own use case to confirm compliance around electronic signatures.

Electronic signatures give you the ability to conduct business quickly, from anywhere, and meet your clients exactly where they’re at. You can create an electronic signature form within most digital forms platforms, the best ones will provide electronic signature capture within their existing pricing tiers. Whether you’re opening up online web forms for client applications, or you’re offering additional service packages through an email blast, an electronic signature capture can keep your transaction moving along without the need for a physical meet-up, or directing people away from your business’s website.

Get Your Data Exactly Where You Need It

Just because you’re using digital forms to capture your data, doesn’t mean you’re making the most of it. Digital forms give you the unique opportunity to ensure your data ends up in the systems and tech stack you already have, while also providing new chances for your team to analyze and review critical business information at a glance. 

Top-tier digital forms platforms will have options for you to email completed forms, or email reminders about incomplete forms that require attention or signatures, to anyone who needs them. This can be other members of your team, or your clients’ teams, or third-party stakeholders. By adding an additional notification layer to your processes, you’ll ensure that no forms get missed, and no information goes unseen by those who need it. 

While emailed copies are great, and in some industries a requirement, it doesn’t always leave data in the most usable state. This is another reason digital forms beat out fillable PDFs every time. A digital form will give you your data in a raw state, ready to be imported or sent to any other reporting or analytics platform you already use. The best digital forms platforms will provide these as native integrations for seamless data transfers, or an open API that you can build your own integration with. By managing your digital form data through your existing tech stack, you take all your business insight and make it immediately available for review and analysis. This gives you the ability to make better business decisions while keeping yourself protected in case of an audit.

Give Your Consulting Firm a Competitive Edge

When it comes to digital forms, flexibility can’t be beaten. Whether you’re looking to expand your business’s online presence, offer easier referrals, or ensure that your client and business data is more protected than with paper forms, the choice is simple. Implement digital forms into your consulting business today to see how much time you can save on administrative tasks.

About GoFormz

GoFormz is a digital forms solution that helps bring your data into a single, actionable place. We believe that everyone should be able to fill out their forms online and deliver products and services that redefine how people and businesses collect and process information. No matter your consulting expertise, GoFormz can streamline your business data management while providing tools to help you help your clients. Complete with multiple native integrations, built-in electronic signature capture, and the ability to digitize your exact paper forms, you can rest assured your data is captured quickly and securely, and always available when you need it.