As a result, more companies are undergoing digital transformations. They’re turning to solutions like workflow software and robotic process automation (RPA) — using software “robots” to perform basic and repetitive tasks.

If you’re not already leveraging these solutions, you’re missing out on opportunities to boost productivity across the board.

In this article, we’ll look at how workflow automation can help you manage and advance automation initiatives at your company. We’ll also look at automation initiatives that you can get started with today.

Click the links below to jump ahead:

• How Workflow Software Helps You Manage and Advance Automation Initiatives
• When Should You Consider Automation Initiatives?
• Automation Initiatives You Can Start Today
• Best Practices to Help Your Automation Initiatives Succeed

How Workflow Software Helps You Manage and Advance Automation Initiatives

Relying on manual processes may work in the early stages of a company. But as you start to expand, automation is a must if you want to scale your business processes.

Here’s how workflow software can help you manage automation initiatives.

It Keeps Everything in One Place

A workflow is a series of steps that you follow to accomplish an objective — onboarding a new hire, procuring goods and services, approving a sales order, etc.

Here’s an example of a purchase order workflow:

These are just a few examples. However, there’s a good chance that your company relies on dozens or even hundreds of workflows to get work done.

Workflow software like frevvo enables you to keep your workflows in one place, making them easily accessible when you need them most.

It Improves Visibility 

Before you can automate a process, you need to understand how it works first.

Workflow software allows you to map a workflow in its “as-is” state — how a process looks before you make any changes. This makes it easier to analyze your workflows and identify steps that you can automate.

For example, you might notice that an employee has to constantly track down their manager to approve a purchase order. In this instance, you can add a step to your workflow to automatically route forms to the right approver. 

It Acts as a Single Source of Truth

70% of automation initiatives are held back by data silos — a depository of data inaccessible to certain areas of an organization.

Making informed decisions depends on having the latest data. Because of this, the decision-making process can be stalled when data exists in silos. If someone needs information, they’d have to manually log in to different systems to retrieve it.

Workflow software can help your automation initiatives by connecting your data sources and creating a single source of truth, giving your employees a more unified view of your data.

Having connected data sources also means that you won’t have to copy data back and forth between different applications, which is time-consuming and prone to errors. 

It Provides Real-Time Data

Not all automation initiatives are successful. 

Whether you’re leveraging automation to reduce data entry, update customer records, or even onboard new hires, you need a way to determine that your efforts are working as intended. A failed implementation can prove costly in the long run.

Workflow software provides real-time data, allowing you to track and measure the impact of your automation initiatives. These insights can prove especially valuable as they can help you determine what’s working and adjust what’s not.

When Should You Consider Automation Initiatives?

If any of the following are becoming more commonplace, then you’ll want to implement workflow software sooner rather than later.

Your Team Spends Hours Each Week on Manual Tasks

Consider a common scenario: a new position just became available, leaving it up to HR to manage the hiring process and sort through hundreds of applications.

Applications are then forwarded to a department head, and promising candidates are called in for interviews before an offer is finally extended. It’s a lengthy process that can consist of dozens of emails, countless printouts, and numerous back and forth calls to HR.

When you consider just how much manual work is involved, it’s no surprise that 53% of employees estimate they can save up to two hours a day with automation.

So, turn to automation. Not only do electronic forms make it easier to collect information, but you can connect them to automated workflows.

Your Team Has a Hard Time Tracking Their Tasks

90% of employees are frequently burdened with monotonous and repetitive tasks. 

When employees are stuck with manual tasks like data entry, they have less time to focus on the skill-based work they’re hired to do. 

Workflow software can free up your team to focus on more important tasks. Examples include using automation to reduce data entry and update records.

Forms Are Frequently Lost or Held Up Due to Slow Approvals

Handling paper forms can be problematic. They can go missing or get lost entirely while they’re being delivered to an approver. When this happens, you’ll have to recreate the document and start the process over.

This was a problem that Activ8 was dealing with. 

Before switching to frevvo, its sales team would fill out a paper form in a customer’s home and mail it to the office for processing. However, missing forms and data entry mistakes would frequently slow this process down.

After digitizing its forms and connecting them to an automated workflow, Activ8 no longer has to deal with lost paperwork and data entry mistakes. It can now assess solar readiness and even process customer payments without having to wait for lengthy approvals.

Your Team Is Constantly Switching Between Different Systems

There are applications for practically every business function. However, when your team is frequently jumping between different apps, they’re also wasting valuable time.

One example is matching invoices against purchase orders to verify their authenticity and identify any discrepancies. Performing these steps involves logging into multiple systems, but it can easily take hours depending on how many invoices you need to verify.

With workflow software, you can connect your forms to your accounting system to perform this matching automatically and save your accounts payable team a great deal of time.

You’re Facing Compliance Issues

Finally, another reason to adopt workflow software is if you’re facing compliance issues. 

Just consider the expense approval process. Employees are entitled to reimbursement when they make company-related expenses.

However, ensuring compliance with your expense claim policy isn’t always easy. Expenses that aren’t covered can slip through the cracks if your finance team is reviewing each claim manually.

Automation initiatives can help you address compliance issues. For example, you can create forms that connect to your accounting system and flag any discrepancies for review. You can even require that employees submit receipts for each expense.

If your company continues to encounter the scenarios described above, then it’s time to start exploring automation initiatives.

Automation Initiatives You Can Start Today

There’s a reason why 93% of business decision-makers plan to extend the use of automation across their company — it can improve productivity, reduce repetitive tasks, and lower costs. 

Leveraging automation software can have the same positive impacts on your company. But where do you even start?

Here we’ll look at a few automation initiatives that you can get started with using frevvo.

Create Digital Signature Workflows

Obtaining signatures on paper forms can take days or even weeks. If you’re still relying on paper forms, one of the first automation initiatives you should tackle is to create dynamic forms. 

With frevvo’s drag-and-drop form builder, you can easily design and customize electronic forms without any coding.

You can also position a signature control anywhere in your form, so you can collect wet and digital signatures from any device.

Forms rarely live in isolation. They’re typically part of larger workflows that consist of people, data, and business systems.

With frevvo, you can connect your forms to a document approval workflow, define who they need to reach, and notify approvers that a form requires their signature. 

Validate Form Data Automatically 

Few things are as frustrating as having to send a form back because it contains missing or invalid data. This wastes valuable time and slows down key processes.

While electronic forms enable you to capture data faster, they’re still prone to data entry errors like incorrect formats and missing values.

Business rules enable you to add dynamic behavior to your forms. For example, you can specify custom formats for certain fields and display errors if the data doesn’t fit the requirements.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

It’s a simple yet highly effective way to prevent simple errors from slowing a process down.

Pre-Populate Form Fields

Employees waste time when they have to manually fill out the same forms over and over. The next automation initiative you can undertake is to automate manual data entry. 

With frevvo’s connectors, you can seamlessly connect your forms to external systems like SQL databases, Google Sheets, or any cloud service that you use. Once connected, you can have your forms automatically pull in data from any source.

Here’s an example of a purchase order that automatically pulls in customer data:

Pre-populating fields greatly cuts down on manual data entry. It also helps minimize the risk of human errors (e.g., typing a “0” instead of a “9”).

Connect Workflows to External Databases

Instead of switching back and forth between different systems, you can connect your workflows to the applications and databases that your company already uses.

For example, you can connect an employee onboarding workflow to your HR system. When new hires fill out and submit their onboarding forms, their information will automatically show up in your HR system. It’s more efficient than copying and pasting data from one source to another.

Streamline Approvals With Dynamic Routing

Some forms require multiple approvers before they can be processed. But routing documents manually is slow and cumbersome. 

With frevvo, you can streamline approvals and seamlessly move electronic forms from one person to the next. There’s no coding required when you use the workflow builder.

Here’s an example of an expense claim workflow:

You can also incorporate dynamic routing into your workflows. For example, you can add a rule that routes expense claims to a department head if it’s over a certain value.

There’s no shortage of automation initiatives that you can implement. But the ones detailed above offer a great starting point.

Best Practices to Help Your Automation Initiatives Succeed

Automation can be a complete game-changer, but making the transition isn’t easy. 88% of IT decision-makers reported at least one challenge with a process automation project.

Follow these best practices if you want to succeed with your automation initiatives.

1. Make Automation a Priority

72% of organizations that reported success with automation say that making automation a strategic priority was one of the most important factors. 

Don’t let automation projects take a backseat. Get buy-in from your entire team and have managers set a positive example by leveraging automation in their daily work.

2. Establish Clear Goals

It’s essential that you track and measure your results. But first, you’ll need to establish clear goals. This will help you plan your automation initiatives and keep your team on track.

3. Use the Right Automation Tools

For any automation initiative to succeed, you need the right tools. Choose a tool that can help you scale your automation efforts. It should include essential features like a no-code interface, a visual form builder, real-time tracking, built-in mobility, and third-party integrations.

4. Pick an Appropriate Process

Don’t overwhelm yourself by automating all your processes at once. Start with “lightweight” processes like travel requests before moving on to more critical ones.

5. Provide Employee Training

Automation initiatives will undoubtedly bring about new changes to your team’s workflow. Make sure to define the roles and responsibilities for the stakeholders involved in the process, and provide adequate training to help your team become well-versed with the software.

Conclusion

Whether you’re onboarding new hires, preparing purchase orders, or approving travel requests, there’s no reason to continue losing valuable time to repetitive tasks. 

Workflow software like frevvo can help you manage and advance your automation initiatives. The platform features a fully visual interface, so there’s no coding required.

The post How Workflow Software Helps You Manage Automation Initiatives appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Some examples include assigning an account manager to a new client, determining how to address a customer complaint, and deciding which positions to fill.

While managers and employees can handle these decisions, they can quickly become bottlenecks if certain decisions aren’t made on time. 

Even simple things like making calculation errors and forgetting to fill in a product code create unnecessary delays since these mistakes must be corrected.

This is where business rules come in — a way to automate decision-making and reduce the risk of errors.

In this article, we’ll look at what business rules are and how they work. We’ll also provide examples of business rules that you can create using business process automation software.

Click the links below to navigate to the section you want to learn more about:

• What Are Business Rules?
• 10 Examples of Business Rules
  1. Conditionally Routing Documents
  2. Auto-Populating Fields in a Form
  3. Applying Customer Discounts
  4. Creating Dynamic Picklist Options
  5. Routing Customer Service Tickets
  6. Assigning Company Assets
  7. Performing Calculations Automatically
  8. Validating Data Fields
  9. Requiring Signatures
  10. Showing or Hiding Sections

What Are Business Rules?

Business rules are a set of instructions that determine how a process is performed. They guide decision-making by establishing rules that everyone must follow when carrying out certain activities.

Companies frequently apply business rules to approvals. 

As an example, consider the loan application process. Lenders look at specific criteria like income, credit history, and outstanding debts to determine which loans to approve. 

Applications that don’t meet certain criteria are automatically rejected. Establishing these rules and communicating them in advance ensures that employees apply them uniformly to every application.

Similarly, you want employees to follow a consistent set of instructions whether they’re onboarding a new customer, creating a purchase order, or preparing a sales contract.

The easiest way to get started with business rules is to create checklists. Then employees can simply pull up the right checklist and check off each item as they complete a task.

While checklists can certainly work, a better way to implement business rules is to use a business rules engine – usually as part of a software platform. For example, a workflow engine will usually embed a rules engine that lets you add conditional logic to your workflows, making your organization more efficient.

Managers waste time when they have to send forms back because of missing information. With a workflow engine, you can digitize your forms and make fields like product codes a requirement. You can even pull in data from a database to cut down on data entry.

This is just one example. Now let’s look at other ways you can apply business rules to your workflows.

10 Examples of Business Rules

Processes can become slow and inefficient when manual decision-making is involved. This can result in more errors, higher operation costs, and even delayed business projects.

With business process automation software like frevvo, you can implement rule-based logic into your processes and streamline operations.

Here are some examples of business rules that you can create in frevvo.

1. Conditionally Routing Documents

Companies may require multiple rounds of approval for documents like purchase orders.

An employee creates a PO and submits it to their manager for review. The PO is then routed to a senior executive for further review before it’s handed off to the finance department for final processing.

These steps can work for companies in their early stages. But having a senior executive review every single PO can quickly become a bottleneck as a company expands its operations.

To speed up the purchase order process, an example of a business rule you can implement is to route POs to a senior executive if they exceed a certain value (e.g., above $10,000 or more).

Here’s an example of a purchase order workflow with conditional routing:

If a manager approves a PO that’s less than $10,000, it automatically routes to the finance department skipping the VP approval step. You can also apply similar rules to other forms like invoices and sales contracts.

Another business rule example is to dynamically route approvals to the right manager. For example, if Joe submits a time off request form, it should route the form to his manager and not to just any manager.

2. Auto-Populating Fields in a Form

Digital forms are certainly an improvement over paper forms. But filling them out is still tedious and prone to errors — an employee may input the wrong data, leave a field blank, or make a typo.

These mistakes can create further delays. A manager (assuming they notice the error) would have to send the form back for corrections and review it again.

With the Visual Rule Builder in frevvo, you can create forms that auto-populate fields based on which user is logged in.

Here’s an example of how this looks:

In the example above, the user’s personal information is auto-filled from an internal system, e.g. Active Directory while another field (“Manager ID”) automatically populates with the user id of their specific manager. 

By adding these business rules to your forms, you can greatly cut down on manual and duplicate data entry. 

3. Applying Customer Discounts

Offering discounts can incentivize clients to spend more. However, employees may apply these discounts differently (or not at all) if they’re not clearly documented.

With a workflow engine, you can set business rules that apply discounts to invoices that exceed a certain value. An example might be, “Apply a 2% discount if a client spends over $10,000.”

The benefit here is that the discount is automatically calculated and applied, saving employees from yet another time-consuming step.

4. Creating Dynamic Picklist Options

Most forms have static picklists (dropdown menus), meaning those options are predefined and can’t be changed. 

But what if you want to create a dynamic picklist? 

It would allow you to pull the most recent data into your forms. You can use dynamic picklists to manage time off requests and make it easier for employees to take leave.

The time off request form below has a dynamic picklist that’s connected to a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.

When “Bobby Jones” selects his name from the picklist, the form shows the number of vacation days that he has available.

Click here to try out the time off request form above yourself. 

Other uses for dynamic picklists include displaying a list of products for sales orders, displaying a list of projects for timesheets, and more.

Dynamic picklists can also depend on one another. For example, pick a car brand from the first picklist and a second picklist narrows to display just the list of models for that brand. 

5. Routing Customer Service Tickets

25% of consumers say that repeating themselves is one of the most common frustrations when dealing with customer service.

Implementing business rules can help you deliver better customer experiences. 

For example, you can create a dynamic form and implement a rule that routes support tickets to the right department based on a selection.

Someone from the support team can note down the details of an issue and route it to the appropriate department (e.g., billing, sales, technical support, etc.). Customers can receive a notification letting them know when their issue has been resolved.

When you can quickly resolve issues (and not have customers repeat themselves), your customers are more likely to have a positive impression of your company. This can help increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

6. Assigning Company Assets 

Providing a good onboarding experience is key to engaging new hires. 

Equally important is ensuring that they have the equipment they need for their jobs. However, it can be difficult to keep track of equipment like phones and computers depending on the size of your company.

You can create a business rule to assign equipment based on a new hire’s role (e.g., mobile devices for salespeople in the field and high-end desktops for graphic designers). 

You can also set up rules to grant credentials to the appropriate software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop for designers). When an employee comes in on their first day, everything will already be set up for them, and they won’t have to wait around.

Using business rules is helpful for offboarding employees too. 

While companies try to retain their employees, some may quit their jobs to take opportunities elsewhere or for personal reasons. If an employee leaves, you’ll need to recover all equipment and revoke credentials to prevent continued access to sensitive data.

You can set up rules to notify the I.T. department that an employee has left and to remotely disable their device and revoke access to any internal systems.

7. Performing Calculations Automatically

Another common use case for business rules is for calculations.

When an employee prepares a document like an invoice, they’ll have to calculate subtotals and totals. But performing these calculations manually (even with a calculator) can be prone to errors.

If you don’t catch these mistakes, you risk overpaying or underpaying invoices. Even spreadsheets are susceptible to errors, as you might input the wrong values or forget a zero.

Implementing business rules into your forms to perform calculations can greatly reduce manual data entry and minimize errors.

Consider a purchase order that contains products with different quantities and values. With the Visual Rule Builder, you can create rules that automatically calculate row subtotals and a grand total.

Here’s an example of how these business rule look:

And here’s what the form looks like with the calculation rule above:

Of course, you can combine calculation rules with other rules to make your workflows even more efficient. For example, you can add a dynamic picklist to your purchase order forms and prefill pricing information based on the selection.

8. Validating Data Fields

Consider a common scenario: an employee fills out a form but either enters the wrong data or uses an incorrect format. In these cases, a manager would have to send the form back for corrections and review it again.

To prevent these kinds of mistakes, you can add rules to your form controls that validate the data. For example, an Email field validates that a user has entered a valid email address.

If a user is entering their Social Security Number (for onboarding forms), you can also use rules to specify formats and ensure the data fits those requirements.

Here’s an example of how this validation rule looks:

In the example above, the rule displays a message notifying the user about their error so they can fix it. It’s a simple yet effective way to prevent simple errors that can slow down a process.

9. Requiring Signatures

Documents like purchase orders, sales contracts, and time off requests generally require signatures from the appropriate approvers before they’re processed.

But collecting these signatures can be tedious, especially for paper-based forms — an employee would have to chase down their manager and follow up.

To eliminate the hassle of chasing down signatures, you can add signature fields to your form and make them required.

frevvo makes it very easy to create legally binding electronic signatures for authenticated users. You can also add a signature control that allows any user to sign electronically using their mouse or finger on a mobile device.

Here’s an example of a form with a signature field:

77% of businesses say that e-signatures are a critical requirement for supporting business resilience. As more work takes place outside the office, collecting digital signatures can help you streamline approvals. 

10. Showing or Hiding Sections

Some forms may require additional sections based on certain inputs.

A common example is if a user’s shipping address is different from their billing address. Instead of showing both sections, you can use rules to show the shipping address section if the user says they’re different.

Here’s an example of how this business rule looks: 

If both addresses are the same, then the shipping address section will be hidden.

Other ways to use this business rule include showing or hiding text fields with detailed guidance, approval sections on a workflow step, and more.

Conclusion

Business rules allow you to apply specific instructions to your processes, thus increasing efficiency, minimizing errors, and automating decision-making.

With frevvo’s business process automation software, you can implement a range of business rules to your workflows — conditionally route documents, auto-populate fields, create dynamic picklists, and much more.
Click here for a free 30-day trial to get started with business rules.

The post 10 Examples of Business Rules That Make Work More Efficient appeared first on frevvo Blog.

But having employees perform tasks their own way on more critical activities can affect project outcomes and lead to inconsistent customer experiences.

So how can you set expectations and ensure consistent results across your organization?

Implementing business rules is a good place to start.

This article will look at what business rules are and how implementing them can change how you work. We’ll also look at how you can incorporate business rules into your workflows to make them more efficient.

Click the links below to jump ahead:

• What Are Business Rules?
• What Are the Benefits of Business Rules?
• How to Implement Business Rules Into an Automated Workflow
• 7 Examples of Business Rules

What Are Business Rules?

Business rules are a set of instructions that determine how specific processes are performed. They provide guidelines on critical activities and help ensure compliance with company policies.

Employees having a lack of clarity or understanding of their roles is more common than you may think. Nearly 50% of employees across all sectors lack role clarity in the workplace.

Using business rules across your organization can help employees understand their roles and what they need to do to carry out certain tasks.

You can write these rules down in a handbook for employees or automate them using workflow automation software. The software often includes a business rules engine that guides decision-making based on preset rules.

Let’s say you want to automatically approve purchase requests that are below $5,000 but require approval from a manager above that amount.

With a workflow engine, you can create a business rule based on the example above and implement it in your approval process for purchase orders to automate this decision-making.

Here’s an example of a purchase order with a business rule:

Workflow routing is just one example of how you can apply business rules.

Other examples include using rules for data entry. For example, you can make certain fields on a form required depending on which department is filling them out.

Later in this article, we’ll take a closer look at how you can use workflow software to implement business rules. For now, let’s look at why you should use them in your organization.

What Are the Benefits of Business Rules?

It’s not uncommon for a business to make decisions on the fly in its early years. But taking this approach isn’t practical in the long term.

Organizations that want to scale their operations without sacrificing efficiency must implement automation technology like business rules. 

Here’s why.

Increases Efficiency

Unwritten rules create a lack of clarity, which affects efficiency. 

Imagine you assign similar tasks to a group of new hires. Without clear guidelines and rules, your new hires will likely complete the task to a different standard. Some may even waste time figuring out how to perform a certain step.

Business rules make your workflows more efficient, especially when you use business process automation software to automate them.

Take document routing as an example. 

Chasing down signatures to get a document approved is time-consuming. By applying business rules to document routing, you can make approvals more efficient.

Improves Consistency

Many organizations have rules that are informal or undocumented. 

For example, a manager may offer discounts to customers who spend a certain amount. It’s a common strategy that retailers use to boost sales and increase loyalty.

However, if this rule isn’t documented, employees are likely to apply the discount differently — some customers may receive a discount, while others may not. This can lead to inconsistent customer experiences and even hurt your brand.

Applying business rules to a process can improve consistency. They ensure that employees uniformly carry out certain tasks once specific criteria are met.

Ensures Compliance

Ensuring compliance with company policies is difficult without well-defined rules.

Consider the expense approval process, which allows employees to claim back any costs they’ve personally incurred on behalf of their employer.

However, one challenge that finance teams face is maintaining compliance. Only 27% of companies have a system that automatically flags out-of-policy expenses.

Employees may include out-of-policy items (or forget to attach receipts) when submitting expense claims, which can lead to financial losses if the errors are not caught.

Ensuring compliance can prove challenging, and mistakes are bound to occur if there are volumes of expense claims to process.

Finance departments try to improve compliance by including a list of items that are covered and placeholders with detailed instructions for submitting expense claims. But, this is a manual and error-prone approach.

A business rules engine can enforce compliance so that ineligible expense items are automatically rejected and claims cannot be submitted without the proper receipts.

Streamlines Decision Making

Companies make hundreds of decisions on a daily basis. Implementing business rules can help streamline these decisions.

For example, let’s say your company assigns customer support tickets to certain representatives based on specific criteria. While an employee can make these decisions, you can use business rules to automatically assign those tickets.

74% of business leaders and employees believe that parts of their jobs can be automated. 

By leveraging business rules to automate decisions like routing, you can speed up certain processes and free up employees for higher-value work.

With the benefits of business rules described above, it’s no surprise that 93% of business decision-makers plan to incorporate automation across more areas of their organization.

Let’s look at how you can get started with business rules in the next section.

How to Implement Business Rules Into an Automated Workflow

The easiest way to implement business rules is to write them down in a handbook. But their application relies on every individual reading them and following through. 

Inevitably, different individuals will interpret the instructions differently. It’s almost impossible to obtain consistency and uniformity with this type of manual approach.

Using workflow automation software like frevvo can help your company enforce business rules in a consistent manner thereby streamlining operations. Here’s how to get started.

1. Pick a Workflow

Business rules are more effective when you apply them to workflows that employees perform on a regular basis.

Start with a workflow that follows a repeatable set of steps (with clear start and endpoints). It should also accomplish a specific objective for your company and be performed reasonably often.

Here are some example workflows you can apply business rules to:

• Employee onboarding
• Purchase orders
• Contract approvals
• Invoice approvals
• Expense claims
• Travel requests
• Time-off requests
• Timesheet approvals

Your company may have dozens or even hundreds of workflows. 

To avoid becoming overwhelmed, simply choose one to start with. You can also narrow down your list by choosing a workflow that generates a high return on investment (ROI) when completed.

2. Create a Workflow Diagram

Once you’ve picked a workflow, the next step is to understand how it works today.

What is the exact sequence of steps? Who’s involved in each step, and what decisions do they need to make? Do employees need any tools or resources?

Walk through the exact workflow yourself and get input from those who are directly involved.

Use the information you’ve gathered to create a workflow diagram — a graphical model that lets you visualize each step of a workflow from start to finish.

Here’s an example of a workflow diagram for invoice approvals:

Creating a workflow diagram is useful because it helps you identify where you can add business rules to your workflows.

3. Add Your Business Rules

The next step is to add your business rules.

Let’s say you want to make invoice approvals more efficient. Senior executives are currently reviewing each invoice, but this policy is slowing approvals down.

To speed things up, one business rule you can create is to route invoices to a senior executive only if their value is $10,000 or more.

frevvo’s Visual Rule Builder walks you through the following steps when adding a rule to your workflows:

There’s no coding required, so even non-technical users can create their own business rules.

Here’s what our new invoice approval workflow looks like with a business rule: 

Invoices below $10,000 are automatically routed to the finance department for payment.

This is just one example of a business rule you can add to a workflow. Here are others that you can create with the Visual Rules Builder:

• Validate that the data in a field fits the requirement (e.g., valid email addresses)
• Make additional fields required depending on which department is filling them out
• Populate fields with data based on certain selections
• Show/hide form controls like buttons and text areas 
• Automatically and consistently apply discounts (e.g., depending on region)
• Ensure all required information is provided before allowing the workflow to advance to the next step

Adding these and other rules to your workflows can help your company improve efficiency, minimize errors, and speed up approvals.

4. Test Your Workflow

Leaving out a key step in a workflow can delay work and cause confusion. That’s why it’s important to run a few tests before you deploy a new workflow. 

In frevvo, you can test your workflow right from the workflow designer. You can even preview how the dynamic forms you create will look on mobile devices.

Here’s an example of a mobile preview for invoice approval forms:

Run through the test to make sure everything is working properly. It’s also a good idea to get feedback from your team, as they’ll likely have valuable insights to share. When users have a chance to impact the system, they’re also far more likely to enthusiastically adopt it.

5. Deploy Your Workflow and Monitor Key Metrics

Deploy your workflow and provide guidance so that your team knows how to use it. 

Be sure to also track key performance indicators (KPIs) like cycle times — the time it takes to complete a workflow from start to finish. The analytics data you gather will prove especially helpful to continue improving your business processes. 

7 Examples of Business Rules

Now that you understand what business rules are and how to create them, let’s look at how you can apply them across your organization. Here are some examples.

Read more: 10 Examples of Business Rules That Make Work More Efficient

1. Routing Documents

Forms like contracts and invoices typically go through an approval process. However, having a senior executive review each one may not be the best use of their time.

You can create a rule like, “Route a VP for additional approval if the invoice amount is above $10,000” to improve turnaround times.

2. Performing Calculations

Manual data entry is time-consuming and prone to errors. You can add a business rule to your forms to automatically calculate totals from other values.

Here’s an example:

This cuts down on manual data entry and reduces the risk of human error.

3. Applying Discounts

You can create business rules to apply discounts on accounts that spend a certain amount. An example could be something like, “Give 5% off if a customer spends more than $5,000.”

4. Requiring Signatures 

Receiving an important form without a signature can be frustrating — you’d have to send the form back and review it again.

To avoid wasting time on constant back-and-forth trips, you can make signature fields required on forms like expense claims and display an error if a signature is missing.

Here’s an example:

5. Enforcing Data Validation

You can also create business rules to specify custom formats for fields. An example is ensuring that users enter social security numbers or bank account numbers in the correct format.

6. Approving or Rejecting Applications

Lenders often use specific criteria to approve or reject loan applications.

You can apply similar rules to processes like contract approvals. For example, you can create a rule that declines a contract if certain criteria aren’t met, saving employees the time it would take to unnecessarily review something that does not make business sense.

Contracts can also have extremely complex and dynamic approval chains depending on the information entered, the departments involved, and ad-hoc changes made along the way by approvers. 

Business rules put guidelines around these approval chains making sure that necessary approvals aren’t skipped, while still affording the flexibility to change things on the fly.

7. Improving Compliance With Internal Policies

Business rules can help improve compliance. 

For expense claims, you can make certain fields required (e.g., image attachments for receipts) and have employees check a box confirming they’ve read the company’s expense policy. 

You can enforce constraints on per diem charges, mileage reimbursements, and business meals automatically without the need to manually verify.

Business rules can also allocate expenses automatically to GL categories or budget accounts depending on data entered in the form. This reduces the need to manually reconcile later.

You can also apply business rules to other internal policies, such as vacation and time-off requests with similar productivity-enhancing automation.

Conclusion

Business rules are powerful tools that can help your organization improve its processes. They use business logic to guide and automate everyday decisions.

The good news is you don’t need a team of developers. frevvo’s workflow automation software comes with a powerful business rules engine. It has a fully visual user interface, so there’s no coding required.

The post What Are Business Rules (and How to Implement Them) appeared first on frevvo Blog.

But accessibility in the digital world is just as important.

7.3 million students, or 14% of all public school students, received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

As a higher education institution, you’re committed to fostering an inclusive environment where every person can enjoy the student experience. 

Accessibility has also become important for the government, which must support the needs of a diverse set of constituents. Government also sets guidelines for colleges and universities, healthcare organizations, and other institutions to follow to make sure their facilities and digital properties are accessible. 

Following these guidelines and becoming digitally compliant hasn’t been easy for educational institutions, healthcare providers, and public sector agencies as it requires technical and legal assistance to execute.  

In this article, we’ll cover the levels of compliance, what this means for your online properties, and how to make an ADA form fully accessible. 

Click the links below to jump ahead:

• ADA Compliance: Institutions are Facing Difficulty
• Accessibility Regulations: What It Means to Comply
• WCAG 2.0 Priority Levels
• Section 508 Compliance For Online Forms
• How to Create an ADA Compliant Form
• frevvo Forms: ADA Compliance is a Point and Click Away

If you prefer, you can also watch a short video (2.5 minutes) of how to create ADA-compliant forms and workflows with a single click.

ADA Compliance: Institutions are Facing Difficulty

The ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 

It was created to protect the rights of people with disabilities from facing discrimination in the private and public sectors. Under its tenets, all people, regardless of disability, should have the same access to physical and digital properties. 

In other words, digital properties like websites must be accessible to people with disabilities.

Years ago, the guidelines focused primarily on physical access, which for institutions has been easier to comply with. In 2008, the law was revised to impact the digital landscape, which broadened the definition of “disability.” 

For example, the rise of digital forms and courses, however, has made it difficult for higher ed organizations to comply with the ADA. 

The University of California at Berkeley came under fire in 2017 from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to make its digital courses fully accessible to the deaf or hard of hearing or those with visual or manual disabilities. 

The DOJ found UC Berkeley in violation of the ADA. As a result, UC Berkeley announced it would close its courses. 

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also suffered backlash when they were sued by the National Association for the Deaf for neglecting to add closed captions to their online course videos.

People become frustrated when they can’t access essential functions. If an individual feels that an institution hasn’t done enough to make their services accessible, they can fill out an ADA complaint form and submit it to the DOJ.

In 2020, there were 3,550 ADA-related lawsuits, an increase of 23% from the previous year.

It’s not just higher ed institutions that have to comply with ADA requirements. ADA rules also apply to organizations that meet any of the following criteria:

• K-12 school districts
• Local, county, state, and federal agencies
• Regulated entities like healthcare and financial services institutions
• Businesses that serve the general public
• Employers with at least 15 employees

Since ADA covers digital properties like websites, it’s important that you take steps to meet these requirements or you risk facing hefty fines.

Accessibility Regulations: What It Means to Comply

In working toward ADA compliance, organizations follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for web accessibility. WCAG 2.0 is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines. 

Let’s take a closer look at these requirements.

Web Accessibility Principles: POUR

WCAG 2.0 organizes web accessibility into four categories or principles:

• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

According to W3C recommendations, the definitions are as follows:

• Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
• Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable.
• Understandable: Information on the page and the operation of the user interface must be understandable.
• Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

Each of the POUR principles also includes three levels of conformance (A, AA, or AAA), with A corresponding to the minimum level of compliance, AA to medium, and AAA to the maximum. 

The higher the rating, the more groups of people who will be able to access the web content. 

Let’s take a look at these principles in more detail.

Perceivable

Perceivability refers to a user being able to use their senses to fully perceive and understand the content. For some, this may mean visual perception, while for others, it could involve using touch or sound. 

If you create an online application form, perceivability is ensuring that the information can be perceived regardless of the user’s disability. 

Can a user with a hearing or visual disability watch and hear your video, read your PDF, or distinguish the text color on a background from similar colors? 

Here are ways you can make your website more perceivable:

• Provide captioning for your videos
• Include readable field labels on your forms
• Add ALT text to your images so a user’s screen reader can “read” it
• Enable resizable text and enable text-to-speech options
• Use strong contrast to make your content readable

People with low contrast sensitivity and color blindness may have difficulty reading your content if there’s insufficient contrast between the text and the background.

Here’s an example of color contrast ratings:

Use strong contrasts to make your web content easily readable.

Operable

Operability refers to how people interact with your website.

This may involve interactive elements, such as navigation links and buttons, and how the user can click or perform other actions.

Accessibility may also require implementing ways for users to control their movement with keyboard controls or voice commands to make your content fully accessible.

Ways to make your website operable include:

• Ensure that users can use their keyboards to navigate your site
• Create a logical structure and keep it consistent across all pages
• Include search features and site maps
• Give users the ability to control media players

Here’s an example to help you picture why operability is important.

Alex is a reporter who developed a repetitive strain injury, which makes it difficult for him to use a mouse for extended periods. 

He’s able to work with less pain using assistive technology, but he still frequently encounters websites and forms that he can’t navigate with keyboard commands.

Make sure that users can navigate your website and fill out online forms with their keyboards.

Understandable

Is your content consistent and easy to comprehend? Paying attention to predictability and consistency in formatting, layout, and language will make your content fully understandable.

Some examples of consistency and predictability to aid understanding include consistent navigation throughout your website, input errors on forms, and consistent language in documents.

Here’s how you can make your content more understandable:

• Define abbreviations and acronyms
• Provide confirmation screens
• Give instructions and contextual help 
• Use clear language and avoid jargon when possible

These principles also apply to your online forms. 

Users can feel frustrated if they make a mistake and don’t know why they can’t proceed. Include descriptive labels and clear input errors on your forms.

Here’s an example of an accessible form:

These errors let users know what errors they need to correct and which fields are required.

Robust 

Your website and forms should function optimally (within reason) across all technologies for which it was created. 

For example, if you create a form that requires a specific browser to operate, all users should be able to download or access that browser.

Follow these best practices to ensure your website is robust:

• Ensure your website and forms work on all browsers
• Use a W3C validator to identify any markup errors
• Avoid using outdated technology like Flash

More people are accessing the web from smartphones and tablets. Use a simple mobile form builder to create an accessible form that works on all devices.

WCAG 2.0 Priority Levels

As previously mentioned, the A, AA, and AAA priority levels denote the level of accessibility. 

We won’t have time to go into detail on each rating, but as an example, here are the ratings for one guideline (non-text content like images and videos):

Some actions for Level A compliance may include:

• Provide a short text topic description of all non-text content (audio or video) 
• Add a text name to a control or input field (if it’s non-text)

Some actions for Level AA compliance may include everything in A compliance plus:

• Provide captions for all live audio content
• Provide audio descriptions for all prerecorded video content

Some actions for Level AAA compliance may include everything in A and AA compliance plus:

• Provide sign language interpretation for prerecorded audio
• Provide extended audio descriptions for all prerecorded video content

For more information on all of the criteria and conformance regulations, see the full WCAG 2.0 guidelines or contact a legal professional to ensure your website and forms meet all ADA regulations.

Section 508 Compliance For Online Forms

In keeping with ADA compliance, higher education institutions, government agencies, healthcare providers, and other organizations are also required to adhere to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

Section 508 addresses public institutions that receive federal funding. 

If your institution or agency is funded by the federal government, you’re required to make your digital forms and website fully accessible regardless of disability. 

Federal agencies are also required to make their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) accessible to everyone (not just to federal employees).

Examples of ICT include:

• Websites
• PDF documents
• Online training
• Webinars
• Operating systems
• Office equipment
• Desktops
• User guides

Failure to make the necessary accommodations can lead to formal complaints and civil lawsuits.

Michael Letterman, a blind employee working for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sued his employer for failing to provide the necessary accessibility tools to perform his job. DHS failed to get the case dismissed and reached a settlement with Letterman.

Now that we’ve discussed the different levels of compliance, we’ll provide you with a list of requirements to help you become compliant with your forms.

How to Create an ADA Compliant Form

Following ADA requirements makes your forms more accessible to a wider group of people. Let’s look at how you can create an ADA-compliant form.

1. Make Your Layout Easy to Navigate and Use

Are your forms too complex? Forms should be logical and intuitive for all users. 

Some things to keep in mind while creating your forms are providing clear instructions and creating a logical order of form elements.

Here’s an example of a purchase order form with a straightforward layout:

The form features a clean interface, clear instructions, and a logical structure that users can easily follow.

Here are some more form layout suggestions to keep in mind when making your forms ADA compliant and accessible.

Highlight Important Information

Use large clickable areas, color, icons, and highlighting to call out key elements. This will make them easier to perceive.

Use Strong Color Contrast

Color contrast refers to the ratio of light to dark, or how bright a color appears against a dark background. Use a strong color contrast between the text and the background to help users with visual disabilities use your forms.

Make sure to also use strong contrasts if you’re using text over images. Here’s an example of an image (left) that has poor text contrast:

The image on the right is from a tool that displays its contrast ratio, which shows the text doesn’t have enough contrast to be readable.

To ensure you’re compliant, use a color accessibility checker. Simply enter the foreground and background color, and the tool will tell you if your contrast passes.

If your contrast ratio fails the checker, then change it to colors that pass.

2. Ensure Your Forms Are Keyboard Accessible

Your forms should be accessible and usable with or without a mouse. 

Users should be able to fill out and complete the desired form actions using only their keyboard. They should also be able to navigate through the form using their keyboard’s tab key. 

3. Ensure Your Forms Work With Screen Readers 

Screen readers translate your text to speech for users with vision disabilities. Ensure all text, including form fields and descriptions, are simple for screen readers to translate, e.g. using one of the aria-xxx elements, which are well supported by most screen readers and assistive technology.

4. Include Text Labels With Form Controls and Inputs

A form control is an interactive element, such as a checkbox, radio button, and menu.

Typically, you’d add text labels to these controls above or to the left of the controls for clarity. However, users with visual disabilities may have trouble associating the labels with the correct controls. 

Use HTML, the <label> and <aria-label> elements to associate the text labels with the proper controls. This will allow screen readers to convert the text label to speech and recite it to the user. 

Here’s an example of a form with clear text labels above the controls:

The same applies to text inputs. Without labels connected to inputs, users with disabilities won’t be able to decipher what data goes inside the form’s input fields.

Ensure labels are associated with the controls, not just added to the HTML. Here’s an example:

Your code must include the screen reader label/attributes (aria-label, aria-placeholder, aria-labelledby, etc.), or assistive technology cannot properly determine the label’s purpose. 

Visit this in-depth resource to learn more about ensuring ADA compliance with form labels and controls and incorporating the correct attributes. 

When your text label instructions are long, use a description instead. Similar to your labels, you must also associate your descriptions with the right inputs.

Here’s an example of an expense approval with descriptions:

Descriptions help users understand how to use a particular form. Make sure the description itself is ADA compliant so screen readers can properly decipher and recite them. 

5. Avoid Using Radio Buttons and Checkboxes

Some browsers don’t support radio buttons, so if possible, avoid using them in your forms. If you have to use them, make sure to include the associated labels. Ask your developer to assist here.

6. Include Descriptive Error Messages

The key to form error messages is to keep them simple and easy for all users to understand. The error messages should be clear for users seeing and hearing the text. It should also provide solutions to the errors, if applicable. No fancy statements or jargon is needed. 

Here’s an example of a form with a descriptive error message:

The message above not only tells users that there are errors on the form, but it also specifies what they need to do to fix them.

Tip: Similar to labels, and other inputs, associate errors so screen readers can translate the text.  

7. Highlight Required Form Fields

When filling out your forms, all users should be able to clearly identify the required fields:

• Make your input error messages clear and not generic. Opt for “Please complete Name Line 2” instead of “Please complete required field.” 
• Outline the required form fields at the beginning of the form.
• Associate a symbol (*) with the field and provide attributes (aria-required) for screen readers. 
• Use color to help users perceive required form fields, but don’t rely only on color. Use size, images, and position as well to highlight fields to cater to users with all disabilities.

8. Follow HTML Semantic

Use HTML elements in your forms so screen readers can properly translate. 

Here’s a list of the 119 HTML elements, with each one corresponding to a specific purpose (e.g., the <caption> element defines a title for a table).

In addition, when working on form input status (required field, invalid field, etc.), focus on HTML attributes instead of relying on CSS and javascript. 

For more information on how to use HTML attributes to make your forms more accessible and ADA compliant, check out this resource. 

9. Test Your Forms on Mobile Devices

Some users may be accessing your website from a smartphone or tablet. Make sure to test your forms on different devices before you deploy them.

frevvo’s dynamic form builder allows you to build fully responsive forms that are mobile-friendly out of the box. You can also preview how your forms will look on different devices.

Here’s an example of how a time-off request form looks like on a tablet:

The forms you build also meet ADA and WCAG standards, making them accessible to all your users.

Note that this isn’t an exhaustive list of all requirements for creating compliant forms. If you’re wondering if your forms are fully accessible, use the WAVE accessibility tool and consult with IT and legal professionals. 

frevvo Forms: ADA Compliance is a Point and Click Away

Here at frevvo, we know the immense value in making forms more accessible, but we also realize how cumbersome and difficult it can be to fully execute this endeavor. 

In addition, it’s expensive for schools, universities and other organizations to make forms compliant because it requires the hands of a skilled developer who also understands WCAG guidelines. 

Enter frevvo. 

The forms created with our mobile form builder are ADA, Section 508, and WCAG compliant and offer worldwide language support. All you have to do is check a single box in the form’s properties wizard.

That’s it. Your forms are now fully accessible for all users.

Add workflow automation to that and creating accessible forms is a breeze with built-in rules, drag-and-drop fields, dynamic routing, and more. frevvo enables you to automate your routine tasks so you can put time and money back in your pocket.

Conclusion

Even if ADA doesn’t apply to your organization, it’s still good practice to create a website with an accessible design. If users can’t navigate parts of your website or fill out a form, they’ll leave in frustration because of accessibility issues.

And if ADA does apply to your organization, then becoming compliant is crucial as an ADA lawsuit could lead to hefty fines. The good news is that meeting ADA standards with your forms is easy with frevvo.

Try frevvo free for 30 days to create your own ADA compliant forms for your organization. Or contact us for a free demo and we’ll walk you through the software and show you how you can automate your workflows.

The post ADA Compliance: Forms, Regulations, and Best Practices appeared first on frevvo Blog.

These forms typically require signatures from at least one person for approval. For example, an employee likely needs to get time off requests approved by a manager.

But printing out and sending forms for signatures is a wildly inefficient process that’s costing your business. It wastes valuable time that could be spent on more productive tasks.

Electronic signatures offer a more efficient way to sign documents. 

But how do you add your signature to a PDF?

In this article, we’ll look at how you can electronically sign PDFs. We’ll also take a look at how you can digitize the signature and approval process without having to print and waste paper.

Click the links below to navigate to the section that interests you most:

• Electronic vs Digital Signatures
• How to Add a Signature to a PDF
• Why You Need an Electronic Signature Workflow
• How to Create a Signature Workflow

Electronic vs Digital Signatures

Before we talk about how to add a signature to a PDF, it’s important to make a distinction between “electronic signatures” and “digital signatures.”

Electronic signatures are a type of “wet” signature — when someone uses an ink pen to apply their signature. They offer a convenient way to sign documents without having to print or mail them out.

You’re applying your signature to an electronic form just as you would to a paper form. The only difference is you’re using a computer mouse (or finger if you’re on a mobile device) to sign.

Digital signatures offer a more secure way to sign documents online. They are a type of digital certificate that encrypts signatures and verifies identities using a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

To sign a document with a digital signature, you’ll need a digital certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA) — a trusted organization that issues public keys.

Digital signatures add an extra layer of authentication and are extremely secure. But in most cases, you only need an electronic signature.

That’s because these types of signatures are considered legally binding according to the ESIGN (Electronic Signatures and National Commerce) Act as long as you comply with the established guidelines.

How to Add a Signature to a PDF

There are a few ways you can sign PDFs you receive. Let’s look at each of these methods in more detail.

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is a free application that lets you open and view PDFs. Download and install the application and open the PDF you want to sign. Then click the Sign icon in the toolbar and choose Fill & Sign.

Type, draw, or upload an image of your signature and click Apply. Then place your signature in the right field and save the document.

Note that this is for an electronic signature. To add a digital signature, you’ll need to configure a Digital ID from a trusted Certificate Authority.

Then click Continue once you’ve finished configuring a Digital ID.

Preview

Preview is an image and PDF viewer that’s available on macOS. If you’re using a laptop or desktop from Apple, you won’t need to download or install anything.

Open the PDF you want to sign in Preview and click Show Markup Toolbar. Then click the Sign icon that appears in the toolbar.

Here you’ll see two options: Trackpad and Camera. Use your trackpad to write your signature or sign your name on a piece of paper and hold it up to the front camera.

Click Done and your signature will be inserted into the PDF. Move and resize your signature, and click Save when you’re finished.

Preview will automatically save your signature. So when you want to sign another document in the future, you can choose your previous signature to save time.

These two methods offer a cost-effective way to add a signature to a PDF. You won’t have to waste paper or ink for printing and you can simply email these documents for the necessary approvals.

It’s not hard to see why more companies are switching to electronic signatures — they’re faster, more convenient, and eliminate the need to print papers.

But electronic signatures aren’t perfect. It’s easy to get bogged down in this process if your organization doesn’t have a system in place and regularly handles a large volume of forms.

Whether you’re signing purchase orders, sales contracts, or travel requests, you can greatly increase productivity with an electronic signature workflow.

Why You Need an Electronic Signature Workflow

Requiring signatures for documents like purchase orders and sales contracts is crucial for every organization. Signatures act as proof that a document has been reviewed and form a legal agreement between two parties.

Here’s how an electronic signature workflow can benefit your organization.

Increased Efficiency

Using electronic signatures is a great start. But there are also steps that you take before and after you sign a document.

Let’s look at new hire onboarding as an example. 

Even with electronic signatures, new employees may spend hours filling out forms. And they might not know who to send their completed documents to.

Having new hires go through a tedious and time-consuming onboarding process can leave a negative impression. Creating a workflow that streamlines this process gets employees up to speed faster and allows them to start contributing on the first day.

Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America (PMMA), an organization that provides senior services, hires over 1,200 people each year.

Their new hire packet would take hours to complete. This meant that employees were spending a lot of time just on paperwork before they even started working.

PMMA digitized their onboarding process with frevvo and saved their HR department and new hires hours of time. Using frevvo also allowed them to drastically cut down on their paper usage and manual data entry.

This is just one example. Other organizations use frevvo to create electronic signature workflows around processes like purchase orders, travel requests, expense approvals, and more.

Reduced Costs

The use of electronic signatures reduces printing and delivery costs. But there are still indirect costs like time spent on initiating and completing a process.

For example, if it takes days or even longer to process a purchase order, you’re wasting valuable time that could be spent on more productive tasks.

Companies that have automated this process have a significantly shorter cycle time than those that take a manual approach. 

By creating an electronic signature workflow for a business process like purchase orders, you can streamline each step and significantly reduce overall costs.

Fewer Errors

Manual processes are especially prone to mistakes — an employee may misspell something or type in the wrong figures when calculating order totals. An automated workflow built in frevvo can mitigate those risks by populating form fields and doing calculations automatically.

Here’s an example of how forms automatically populate in frevvo:

Having these forms automatically populate also saves employees a ton of time. 40% of workers say they spend at least a quarter of their work week on repetitive tasks.

By selecting a customer in the purchase order, employees won’t have to spend time with manual data entry which also reduces the risks of human errors. 

Better Record Keeping

It’s hard to keep track of paper documents. Papers are easily damaged and they can get lost if there isn’t a process for storing them.

Poor record keeping also makes it time-consuming to find a document to confirm a detail or perform a task. Employees spend 25% of their time searching for information they need for their jobs.

With frevvo’s digital signature software, you can build a workflow to require signatures and have those documents sent to your SQL database, Google Apps, or other applications. Then you can easily locate those documents when you need to.

How to Create a Digital Signature Workflow

Follow these steps to create an electronic or digital signature workflow in frevvo.

#1. Build Your Form

The first step is to build a form that will require an electronic signature. This should be a form that you or your employees use frequently, such as purchase orders or travel requests.

The dynamic form builder makes it easy to create robust forms without writing a line of code. Simply drag any of the elements from the palette onto your form.

And if you don’t want to start from scratch, you can also choose from a wide selection of installable templates.

Each of these forms and workflows are fully customizable, so you can design them exactly how you want.

#2. Add and Configure a Signature Field

Forms aren’t legally binding unless you have a signature. The next step is to add a signature field to your form.

Drag and drop a Signature Control into your form.

In the Settings tab, you can make the signature required or optional. Making signatures required for important documents like purchase orders is generally a good idea.

Then test the form you created including the signature field.

For users on mobile devices, they can use their finger or stylus to add their signature.

Wet signatures offer a flexible way to sign and approve documents. But they’re not as secure as digital signatures and they don’t guarantee the identity of the signer.

You can add a digital signature to a section of a form by navigating to the Security Settings tab and selecting Text/Signature Image from the dropdown menu.

With the Text/Signature Image option enabled, users simply fill out their information and click the Sign This Section button to add their signature.

Make sure the Lock Signed box is checked to ensure that changes cannot be made to the form once it’s been signed and submitted. This prevents anyone from tampering with the document.

The captured signature along with the submission data are then copied to an automatically generated PDF of the form. You can even map signatures to fields in PDFs like W-4 forms and more.

#3. Ensure Legal Compliance 

Electronic signatures hold the same legal weight as wet signatures. But you need to comply with several conditions for electronic signatures to be recognized as valid.

These include:

• Intent to sign: An electronic signature is only valid when there is a clear intent to sign a document. This can be achieved with click-to-sign buttons or allowing users to use their mouse to sign their names. 
• Informed consent: There has to be consent by the signer to do business electronically. To meet this requirement, you can add a consent clause to your forms.
• Document backup: You’ll need procedures in place to securely store and retrieve signed documents.
• Security measures: Finally, forms that users submit must be secure and tamper-proof.

frevvo’s digital signature software includes everything you need to ensure legal compliance with your forms.

#4. Create a Workflow

The next step is to build a workflow (like an approval workflow) that incorporates your form. With frevvo’s Visual Workflow builder, you can have forms automatically routed once they’re submitted.

Let’s use time off requests as an example. After an employee submits a time off request, you likely want the form sent to their manager and then to HR for final approval.

Here’s what your time off request workflow might look like:

From here you can also set other rules and conditions. For example, you can set a condition that automatically routes time off requests to HR.

#5. Test and Review Your Workflow

After creating your electronic signature workflow, the next step is to test it. This is to ensure that everything is working as intended before you deploy it.

In frevvo, you can test your workflow on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones.

Once you deploy a new workflow, communicate how it works to employees and record any feedback you receive. You can always revise your forms or workflows if there are any hiccups. 

Conclusion

Adding a signature to a PDF is fairly straightforward. You can use software like Adobe Acrobat and Preview on Apple devices to electronically sign documents without printing them out.

But manually collecting electronic signatures is inefficient. With frevvo’s electronic signature solution, you can securely automate signatures and streamline this process.

Try frevvo for free for 30 days to see just how easy it is to create an electronic signature workflow for your business.

The post How to Add a Signature to a PDF appeared first on frevvo Blog.

It’s great for basic use cases and workflows involving a form.

Organizing an event and need to create a form for registrations and payments? Formstack has you covered.

Setting up a simple workflow where a completed form gets automatically sent from person A to person B? Formstack can do that.*

*If you pay extra.

But Formstack isn’t much help when your form-based workflows get even slightly complicated.

You don’t have to take our word for it:  

Their workflow feature is still half-baked. Lacks enhanced features like logic & ending the workflow mid-step – Review on TrustRadius by Kow S.

What do I dislike? The lack of true workflow features, in particular the inability to send a form back to the submitter for amendment. Currently, you can only reject a form. – Validated Reviewer on G2

Imagine combining an intuitive, drag-and-drop form builder with a simple—yet powerful—workflow designer.

A workflow designer that could quickly automate business processes of any complexity. That could customize workflow automations around your specific business needs and requirements. All without coding or I.T.

And make it all available for one, straightforward price.

That’s frevvo.

frevvo: Everything Great about Formstack + Everything You Need for Better Business Performance

Many workflows start with a form.

Just like Formstack, frevvo features an intuitive, drag-and-drop form builder. Built-in templates make it easy to get a quick start. Resulting forms are attractive and mobile-friendly.

But unlike FormStack, frevvo specializes in adding power-user form features that anyone can use thanks to our visual, no-code tools.

These powerful features allow you to customize your forms to your business’s specific rules and procedures:

Advanced Form Field Options

Create sophisticated layouts in your most-dense business forms with fillable tables, complex repeating sections, and frevvo’s column-based grid layout.  

Dynamic Behavior

Every organization has its own rules, standards, and practices. Anyone can use frevvo’s Visual Rule Builder to easily add all sorts of dynamic behavior to your forms, including calculations, custom validations, and dependencies.

Its many built-in functions mean you can create even the most complex rule combinations–all without coding. (Of course, if you want to code a business rule in JavaScript, you can do that, too.) 

Streamline the form-completion process for your users, and eliminate the need to chase down missing or erroneous information.

Digital Signatures

Encrypted digital signatures are a standard feature included with frevvo — add digital signature fields to any form, regardless of your number of users.

Meanwhile, Formstack charges $15+ per user for its Formstack Sign add-on.

Dynamic PDF Generation

With frevvo’s drag-and-drop PDF mapper, you can map form fields to any PDF document.

That means a new employee can submit her information–including digital signature–in a user-friendly, online frevvo form, and frevvo will auto-populate an official government PDF like a W-4 or I-9.

You just can’t do this with Formstack. Formstack offers form-to-PDF generation in one of their upgrade plans, but you can’t map information to any PDF – your PDF design options are limited.

Where Else frevvo Really Shines: Workflows and More

A Simple, Drag-and-Drop Workflow Designer for Even the Most Complex Workflows

Our goal is to help you automate your workflows–no matter how complex–as quickly and easily as possible using intuitive, visual tools. 

Let our built-in wizards guide you through setting up automated workflows with frevvo’s drag-and-drop workflow designer. Or simply customize one of our built-in workflow templates. 

Contrast this with Formstack: Creating workflows with Formstack requires purchasing an add-on with frustrating, non-visual tools. It’s not built to support anything but very straightforward workflows.

In frevvo, your workflows are designed like a flow chart — the way you’d intuitively design a process. These visualizations also make it easier to share and explain your workflows to stakeholders.

Reminders & Escalations 

With frevvo, no one has to spend time calling or emailing to chase down a late or errant approval. Reminders and auto-escalations–which are missing from Formstack–are built-in, so you customize them to your needs at any stage of a workflow. 

Workflow Audit Trails 

When you request approval for a vacation, a purchase order, or a timesheet, you want to know its current status. Is it stuck with your manager, on the VP’s desk, or somewhere else? With complex approval chains, figuring out where your workflow is can be daunting.

With frevvo, it’s a piece of cake. Every workflow comes with its own audit trail, so you can see a workflow’s history, check the status of a workflow at any time, and easily satisfy compliance and regulatory requirements. 

Formstack doesn’t appear to have any audit history functionality built-in. That means having to manually chase down the status of a workflow.

Dynamic Form Routing for Any Approval process

frevvo is built on the understanding that real-world business processes are complex and often involve long and shifting chains of approvals.

With frevvo, visual wizards walk you through configuring each workflow step to automatically route forms to an email address, to specific users, or to an assigned role. 

You even have the flexibility to dynamically define a recipient at runtime based on data entered into a form. Need approvals over $10,000 to go to a VP instead of a manager? Set it and forget it using simple, visual tools. No coding required.  

Integrations for Better Business Operations

Formstack’s integrations focus on customer data in the cloud – whether from CRMs, email marketing platforms, or payment processors. Need robust options for integrating with payments processors? Formstack is a great way to go.

frevvo distinguishes itself by connecting with your business data, whether it’s cloud-based or local. That’s how we can help your operations run more smoothly and efficiently.

With two-way secure connections to your SQL database, you can auto-populate fields in business forms and auto-save completed form data to internal systems. Speed up form-based processes and dramatically reduce data entry (and inevitable errors that result).

Or automatically save documents to your Electronic Document Management (EDM) system. Or set up a read/write connection with Google Apps / Google Drive. 

Whatever makes the most sense for your operations, frevvo has flexible options to set up time-saving integrations.

Secure and Flexible Deployments

Formstack is only available in the cloud. This is a fine choice for many customers. 

Some customers have more strict security requirements, or they’re subject to regulatory requirements. 

That’s why frevvo gives customers a choice: they can use our secure, robust cloud-based platform or our downloadable on-premise solution that installs and operates behind the customer’s firewall. Both options offer the same set of features.

Customer Onboarding & Training

We want you and your organization to have the onboarding and training you need to make your workflow automation projects successful. 

We offer comprehensive onboarding, hands-on assistance, and access to weekly training classes — all included in the price of every purchase. 

Formstack appears to offer personal onboarding with a Customer Success manager for their most expensive Enterprise plan. The only available training appears to be via online videos. Otherwise, you’re on your own. 

Straightforward Pricing

Formstack offers five pricing plans, each with different user access and feature limitations. Want workflow capabilities or access to “advanced” integrations? You’ll need to talk to their sales team about purchasing an add-on.

Simplicity is a theme we want to color every experience you have with frevvo.

That’s why frevvo has one, straightforward price, based on your usage. 

With that price, you get unlimited users, access to all features, and unlimited forms and workflows. 

Plus, we offer a 30-day free trial.

Our Customers Say It Best

The post The Best Formstack Alternative: frevvo vs. Formstack appeared first on frevvo Blog.

For example, if you’ve ever run a new hire onboarding process, you’re probably familiar with the Federal W-4 or I-9 forms. These PDF documents are often fillable, but: 

• they’re hard to complete on mobile devices, 
• there’s often duplicate information resulting in unnecessary data entry, and 
• they don’t integrate with your backend systems for filing and reporting.

What good is an online form if your staff has to spend extra time manually transferring the submitted data to another format?

In this article, we’ll cover the following topics, showing you how to easily convert your PDFs to simple online, fillable forms and workflows.

• Why not use Adobe Acrobat?
• The benefits of fillable forms vs PDFs
• Example: Converting new hire onboarding PDFs to fillable forms

These fillable forms will be mobile responsive, making them easier to fill out on any device. 

You’ll be able to generate PDFs from web forms, while reducing errors, eliminating manual data entry on the back end, and speeding up processing. 

Why Not Use Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Acrobat provides a fillable PDF form solution that has lots of limitations. 

• Adobe PDF forms are difficult to fill out on mobile devices.
• Adobe PDF forms don’t allow for dynamic content such as showing/hiding a section based on another field in the form, dynamically adding rows or repeating sections, or automatically performing calculations. 
• With Adobe Acrobat, duplicate data entry is often required for multiple forms or multi-page forms.  
• Acrobat documents don’t easily integrate with backend systems to file forms and report on data.
• Acrobat documents don’t allow attachments like photos and files.

The Benefits of Fillable Forms vs PDFs 

An effective fillable forms solution like frevvo won’t just make required documents easier to complete on all devices and address all of the shortcomings associated with fillable PDF forms, they’ll have additional features that’ll help your team operate faster and smarter. 

For instance, an ideal solution will allow you to:

• Automatically create dynamic PDF documents from digital form data
• Automatically add a signature to a PDF.
• Eliminate manual data entry and/or the need to convert form data to another format.
• Simplify and speed-up form completion. For example, instead of entering their personal info repeatedly on multiple forms, users can enter it once and frevvo will automatically map it to the appropriate fields in different PDFs.
• Reduce errors and missing data by using conditional logic and form field validation.
• Dynamically map different versions of PDF documents–like ones for different states or in different languages–to a single form workflow.
• Create beautiful, branded documents. 
• Ensure compliance with corporate or legal requirements.

The basic steps to convert a PDF to a fillable form with frevvo are very straightforward:

1. Create your form using a pre-built template or start from scratch using a drag-and-drop form designer.
2. Upload your PDF to frevvo to map fields and controls from your form to PDF form fields. If desired, you can add conditional logic to your mappings at this stage.

That’s it – frevvo does the rest! Your users will be able to preview and print completed documents, and you’ll be able to generate and file (i.e., store) completed PDF forms automatically.

Example: Converting New Hire Onboarding PDFs to Fillable Forms

Let’s take a look at these steps in detail to see how they’d work for a common use case: filling out required government forms for new hires.

1. Create a form

Most onboarding workflows include a Federal W-4 form, typically provided by the government as a PDF form.

First, design a new form to collect all the information your employees will need to complete in the W-4.. 

You have two options:

1. Start from scratch using frevvo’s no-code, drag-and-drop form builder. 
2. Use a pre-built template from frevvo that already includes the necessary form fields. You can easily customize the template to add your logo, modify form fields, and personalize messages to reflect your business process.

You can add a digital signature field to your form as well as an option for the new employee to upload a photo of their driver’s license directly from the camera on their mobile device.

2. Upload the PDFs you want to convert

Download the relevant PDF file from the IRS website. 

In many cases, these PDFs are already fillable. If not, use a free, simple tool like PDF Escape to create a mappable text field over each PDF form field you plan to map, including signature fields.

3. Map form fields to the PDF

In frevvo, drag-and-drop to map fields in the form you created to the PDF file you uploaded. Color coding shows you the fields that have already been mapped, the ones that remain, and any errors. You can map text, checkbox, signatures, and other kinds of fields.

You can map a single form field to multiple PDF fields. That means a user only needs to enter information like name, address, or SNN once. frevvo will handle mapping that information to multiple fields — even across different PDFs.

You can drag-and-drop a preview button to your form to allow a user to preview (and print) the completed document. 

4. Automatically send & store completed PDFs

It’s easy to configure frevvo to automatically email the generated PDF file to the user, their manager, or anyone else you define.

You can also choose to automatically file your mapped PDFs in Google Drive, in your file system, or to any web service using frevvo’s many integration options.

That’s it! That simple, one-time process means your employees will never have to fill out a W-4 PDF again — because they’ll have access to a user-friendly, mobile-responsive online form.

With business logic built-in, frevvo can even generate the right PDF based on what your employee enters into your form. 

For example, let’s say you’re hiring remote employees in both California and New York. frevvo will generate a PDF of the appropriate state’s tax document based on the address an employee enters into the onboarding form. 

Of course, many forms completed in the workplace are part of workflows involving approvals and other steps. frevvo’s drag-and-drop form builder and PDF mapper are just part of a complete workflow solution designed to make it easy to automate common processes, improve efficiency, and reduce errors and rote manual work.

The post How to Convert Any PDF to a Fillable Form appeared first on frevvo Blog.

That’s an unproductive use of resources and time, prone to transcription errors.

With frevvo’s Database Connector, you can easily save data from HTML forms to your SQL database, improving your productivity and data validity.

Let’s lay out exactly how you can use the Database Connector to connect online forms to your SQL database.

Start reading below, or jump right to a section:

• frevvo’s Database Connector: An Overview
• So How Do I Connect My HTML Form to My Database?
• Use Case: Create a New Order
• Use Case: Create/Update Records
• Use Case: Insert Multiple Records

frevvo’s Database Connector: An Overview

This is a fairly technical article that contains SQL queries, JavaScript, etc.

Frevvo’s RESTful Database Connector uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to connect your HTML forms and your SQL database via a secure HTTPS connection. 

frevvo handles all data transformations – JSON, XML, SQL – for you in both directions: HTML form to database and database to form.

A SQL query may return a single row or multiple rows, each with many columns. Thanks to the Database Connector, the form will automatically update to show you the information relevant to your request – in an easily readable format.

In reverse, the DB Connector will “translate” data from JSON or XML to SQL to keep the database happy.

Integrating your forms and databases using frevvo’s connector means:

• Less data entry (and more productivity)
• Fewer errors and omissions 
• Automated connection pooling, retries, etc.
• Protection against SQL injections and other attacks 
• Complex queries such as SQL joins
• Encrypted connections for higher security
• Rapid implementation with minimal coding

We’ve already discussed how you can use the Database Connector to auto-populate forms from a database. Let’s take a closer look at how it works in reverse.

So How Do I Connect My HTML Form to My Database?

Note: The following steps require a frevvo account. You can sign up to try frevvo for free for 30 days.

With frevvo, the steps are straightforward:

1. Install the Database Connector.
2. Configure the Connector using SQL or Stored Procedures.
3. Generate form controls from the configured queries. (No coding required.)
4. Arrange form controls in frevvo’s drag-and-drop form designer.
5. Connect forms/workflows to queries using URLs exported by the Database Connector.

Once you’ve configured your Database Connector, you can test it by following along with this example:

Use Case: Create a New Order

In this example, we’ll examine a simple use case of submitting an order form to the database. Using this form, you can capture customer orders and automatically save them to the SQL database. 

1. Define Queries

We will define two queries. The first one creates an order. In addition to the usual <retrieve> operation, this query also has a <create> operation.

<query name="createOrder">
           <retrieve>
               <statement>
                   SELECT orderNumber as onum, customerNumber as cnum from Orders
                   WHERE orderNumber=10100</statement>
           </retrieve>
           <create>
               <statement>INSERT into Orders (orderNumber,orderDate, requiredDate, status,customerNumber)
                   VALUES ({onum}, Now(), Now(), 'In Process', {cnum})
               </statement>
           </create>
       </query>

Let’s examine this query. 

We specify a <retrieve> operation (SELECT statement) in order to generate an XML schema/form controls. When the form is submitted, Live Forms generates an XML document for those controls. The XML document is used to execute the <create> operation, which INSERTs the data. We have simply hard-coded a known order number for the example, but you can use any query that generates a result set with the desired columns.

Note that we’ll just insert the current date as the order date and required date for this example. You can easily customize the query to add a date of your choice. If you want the date to come from the form, you must add it to the SELECT statement so that a control is generated in the form. Dates/Times tend to be database-specific.

The second query is simply used to generate an order number.

<query name="getOrderNumber">
            <retrieve>
                <statement>SELECT max(orderNumber) + 1 as onum FROM Orders</statement>
            </retrieve>
        </query>

Once again, this is an oversimplification for tutorial purposes. In practice, order numbers might be generated by the outer application rather than the database.

2. Generate XML Schema

In your browser, go to the relevant URL for your database connector, e.g. http://localhost:8082/database/BIRT/createOrder/schema. Save the resulting XML schema file to disk.

Edit the file. Due to a current limitation in the database connector, the generated schema needs to be edited. Remove the maxOccurs=”unbounded” attribute from the row element declaration. Replace:

<xsd:element maxOccurs="unbounded" name="row">

with

<xsd:element name="row">

Finally, upload the schema to Live Forms. See Data Sources for instructions.

3. Create the Form

1. Create a form and configure it using the drag-and-drop dynamic form builder. (Here are some detailed instructions on getting started.)
2. In the properties panel on the left, open the Data Sources pane by clicking on it.
3. Click ‘New from XSD’.
4. You should see your schema in the resulting dialog box. Expand it and add the ‘createOrder’ element to the form by clicking the + icon next to it.
5. Close the dialog box by clicking ‘X’ in the top right corner.
6. In the Data Sources pane, expand the createOrder data source by clicking on the + icon to the left.
7. Click the + icon next to the row element. Live Forms will generate controls in the form.
8. You can drag and drop to rearrange as you wish.
9. Rename the Section named ‘Row’ to ‘Order Info’.

This step generates controls that are bound to the createOrder data source by Live Forms. You can render the controls as you wish but Live Forms will always generate an XML document conforming to the XML schema above.

Create a business rule

1. Click the ‘Rules’ button in the toolbar at the top of the Form Designer.
2. Click + to create a new rule and the ‘Edit’ button to open the rule.
3. Set the Name to ‘Copy customer number and generate an order number’.

In the ‘Rule’ text area: copy and paste the following:

/*member onum, resultSet */
if (sc.value.length > 0) {
  cnum.value = sc.value;
  eval ('x=' + http.get('http://localhost:8082/database/BIRT/getOrderNumber'));
  onum.value = x.resultSet[0].onum;
}

Let’s analyze this rule.

1. if (sc.value.length > 0) – this implies that the rule will execute when the select customer drop down has a value and the value changes.
2. cnum.value = sc.value; simply copies the customer number into the cnum control.
3. eval (‘x=’ + http.get(‘http://localhost:8082/database/BIRT/getOrderNumber’)) – this gets an order number HTTP GET.
4. onum.value = x.resultSet[0].onum; copies the order number from the result set into the onum control.

4. Link to the Database

Now, we connect the generated controls to the database query defined above. See Doc URI Wizards for help on the steps below.

1. Click the Form Properties gear icon in the toolbar at the top of the form.
2. In the Properties dialog box that appears, click on Document Actions. You may have to scroll to the right.
3. Click on Send Data and select the ‘Manually set document URIs’ option.
4. Scroll down until you see the document named ‘createOrder’, which is the data source we are interested in.
5. Leave the Read URL and Method fields empty.
6. Set the Write URL to: http://localhost:8082/database/BIRT/createOrder. You’ll need to change localhost:8082 to the host:port where you have installed the database connector.
7. Set the Write method to POST.
8. Click the Submit button.

This step indicates to Live Forms that the ‘createOrder’ document is linked to the above URL via the WRITE method POST.

When the form is submitted, Live Forms will issue an HTTP POST request to the above URL sending the createOrder XML document in the payload. The database connector will map this to the <create> operation of the createOrder query that we defined above, will use the data in the XML document to resolve the query (replace {cnum} and {onum} with values from the XML) and perform the INSERT.

In other words, the data from your HTML form will save to your database.

Let’s look at a few more use cases. 

Use Case: Create/Update Records

Many business problems require creating new records or updating existing records in the database. Let’s take a look at how you can create complex forms without programming using frevvo’s Database (DB) Connector. 

Fair warning: this is a fairly technical topic so we’ve only touched upon the highlights here. You can explore in detail by reading the DB Connector Tutorial in the documentation.

1. Define the SQL Query

The first step is defining the query. You’ll notice that this particular query has an <update> operation in addition to the usual <retrieve> operation.

<query name="customerCreditLimit">
            <retrieve>
                <statement>
                    SELECT
                        "customerNumber" as "cnum","customerName","creditLimit"
                    FROM
                        "Customers"
                    WHERE
                        "customerNumber"={cnum}
                </statement>
            </retrieve>
            <update>
                <statement>
                    UPDATE "Customers" SET
                        "creditLimit" = {creditLimit}
                    WHERE
                        "customerNumber"={cnum}
                </statement>
            </update>
</query>

2. Generate an XML Schema

The first query is used to generate an XML schema and form controls bound to that schema. There will be two (onum and cnum). In this case, you’ll have to modify the XML a bit due to a current limitation in the DB Connector. See the documentation for detailed instructions.

3. Create the Form

Generate the form using frevvo’s no-code dynamic form builder and use the above XML schema as a data source. See Data Sources for more detailed instructions.

4. Link to the Database

Connect it to the SQL query defined above. We use Doc URI wizards, with the only change being that we configure a Write URL using HTTP POST (create) instead of a Read URL.

That’s it. When the form is submitted, frevvo will generate an XML document with values for onum and cnum and send the XML to the DB Connector. The Connector will extract onum and cnum from the XML and execute the INSERT operation. 

Use Case: Insert Multiple Records

It’s easy to build on this principle to satisfy far more complex business requirements. 

For example, in this use case, you want to insert an Order but there will also be multiple Order Line Items. This means running an INSERT for the Order itself + multiple INSERTs for the line items with different data. 

Fortunately, with frevvo you can create forms with multiple Data Sources. Each one generates its own XML document and each one can have its own Doc URI.

Auto Creating Rows

You can also set up the queries so that they will first try an update and if it fails, create a new record.

<query name=”customers” autocreate=”true”>

The auto create feature is particularly useful when working with Repeat Controls or Tables. With these controls, your forms can work with dynamic collections, for instance: customers, cars, addresses, dependents and others. When the user loads the form, the form may be initialized with some items. 

If the user adds new items to the collection, updates a couple and submits the form, the items will be automatically added to the database and the existing ones will be updated if autocreate=true.

Auto Deleting Rows

Auto-creation raises the obvious question: What if the user deletes a row from the repeating collection described above? If you want the DB Connector to delete the corresponding records from the database, you can simply set the autodelete property and provide a key.

<query name=”customers” autocreate=”true” autodelete=”true”
 deleteKey=”customerId”>

Behind the scenes, the connector compares the items in the database with what is submitted in the form. That comparison is based on a key that you define with the attribute deleteKey (required). The deleteKey value is normally the name of the primary key in the table that contains the repeat items.

The post How to Save Data from an HTML Form to a Database appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Practically every organization has at least one SQL database and often many of them. 

But, here’s the rub: Most of your company has no idea what SQL even means, let alone how to get the information they need out of the database. So, that means your IT or development team spends an unreasonable amount of time either manually running queries and generating reports or building one-off applications and HTML forms for every department under the sun to get the data they need.

It’s not a good use of time.

What you need is a form builder with configurable SQL database integration that can help you stand up solutions quickly. Rather than rolling your own applications, you can use frevvo to build custom forms, configure advanced workflows, integrate data from a MySQL database, and ship a solution—in about an hour. 

Note: This is a fairly technical article that contains SQL queries, JavaScript etc.

Using frevvo’s Database Connector to Connect SQL Databases with HTML Forms

To perform the steps outlined in this article, you’ll need a frevvo account. You can sign up to try frevvo free for 30-days.

Let’s take a look at how you can easily connect your workflows and web forms to a SQL database using frevvo’s Database Connector.

The Database Connector allows you to perform sophisticated integration with your database. We’ll explore several possibilities in detail such as dynamic dependent picklists and master detail views. 

These implementations will allow you to create forms that populate form fields based on database entries. For instance, you could pull in customer order history based on the company’s name. 

First let’s take a look at how the DBConnector works.

frevvo communicates with the outside world using XML (or JSON) over HTTP(S). I.e., it’s RESTful. Databases want you to talk SQL and return data as ResultSets.

With frevvo, the steps are straightforward:

• Configure the Database Connector using SQL or Stored Procedures.
• Generate form controls from the configured queries. (No programming required.)
• Arrange controls in the drag-and-drop form builder.
• Connect your forms to queries using URLs exported by the Database Connector.

frevvo takes care of all the data transformations in both directions. JSON, XML, SQL – it’s all transparent to the form designer and you don’t have to worry about programming any of this. The result of a SQL query could be a single row or multiple rows each with many columns – the form will instantly update to show you the information relevant to your request.

Try now: Master Detail form gets customer information from SQL.

You’ll need to install and configure the Database Connector one time so it can connect to your SQL database. Then follow the steps below for each section.

Use Case: Dynamic Pick Lists

Let’s take a look at dynamic pick lists (drop downs). It’s a very common scenario and, with frevvo, you can use business rules to dynamically initialize the options (choices) in a pick list from a SQL query. The steps are as follows:

1. Define the SQL Query

<queryset name="BIRT" ...>
  <query name="allCustomers">
    <retrieve>
      <statement> SELECT customerNumber,customerName from
Customers order by customerName </statement>
    </retrieve>
  </query>
</queryset>

This is a straightforward query that simply retrieves the list of customers from the customers table in the database. Once the query is configured, it can be accessed via a URL that looks something like this:  http://<server>/database/BIRT/allCustomers

BIRT is the queryset name above and allCustomers is the query name. 

You can name these whatever you want. The Database Connector Tutorial explains how URLs map to queries in more detail. This URL will return the data in the ResultSet above in the appropriate format for frevvo to use.

2. Create the frevvo form

For our example, we create a new form in the Designer. Drag in a Dropdown control. Label it whatever you want. In the Properties panel, change the Name to sc.

3. Write a business rule

To connect the dropdown to the query, we use a business rule.

/*member customerName, customerNumber, resultSet */
var x;
if (form.load)
{
  eval ('x=' + http.get('http://<server>/database/BIRT/allCustomers'));
  var opts= [];
  for (var i=0; i < x.resultSet.length; i++) {
    if (x.resultSet[i]) {
      opts[i] = x.resultSet[i].customerNumber + '='
              + x.resultSet[i].customerName;
    }
  }
  sc.options = opts;
}

Let’s analyze this rule.

1. if (form.load) – this implies that the rule will execute when the form first loads.
2. eval (‘x=’ + http.get(‘http://<server>/database/BIRT/allCustomers’)) – this calls the above URL and returns the data. Since it’s a rule, the data will automatically come back as JSON.
3. Loop over the JSON and create an array in the format value=label (e.g. 242=Alpha Cognac).
4. Finally, set the options of the dropdown to the array of options using the Name we chose earlier (sc).

That’s it. When the form is loaded, the drop down will be populated with the list of customers as shown in the image above.

Try it now: SQL Dynamic Picklists example.

The example initializes the customers pick list as above. When you select a customer, it uses a similar rule to initialize a second (dependent) pick list using the value from the customer pick list. You can read more about this in the Database Connector Tutorial.

Use Case: Complete Form Fields from a SQL Database with a Master-Detail View

Master-detail from SQL

Master-detail views are another very common scenario in real applications, for example, when you want to look up details for a customer or a student or a part number.  With frevvo’s Database Connector, complex forms like this can be created without programming.

The steps are as follows:

1. Define the SQL Query

<queryset name=”BIRT” …>
  <query name=”customerByNumber”>
    <retrieve>
      <statement>SELECT * from Customers where customerNumber={cnum}
      …

This is a straightforward query that simply retrieves customer details. It can be accessed via a URL that looks like this: http://<server>/database/BIRT/customerByNumber?cnum=242.

In this query, notice the {cnum} in curly braces. That’s a variable. When frevvo asks the DB connector to run this query, it will provide a value for cnum in the URL. You’ll get back an XML document with customer details for Alpha Cognac.

Try now: Get Customer Information by Customer Number

Connect this to the form. Since customer details is a complex structure (first name, last name, phone etc.) we will use Live Forms’s built-in XML features to generate controls and populate them from the database.

2. Generate an XML Schema

The DB connector can generate an XML schema from any query’s <retrieve> operation. This schema can then be used to generate a Live Forms form. Try now: Generate an XML Schema. You’ll get back an XML schema. Save the resulting XML schema file to disk and upload it to Live Forms. See the documentation for detailed instructions. Note that we need to pass in a known customer number so that the query can successfully execute.

3. Create the form

We’ll use the form from the Dynamic Pick Lists section discussed above. It already has a dynamic pick list which lists the customers in the format value=label (e.g. 242=Alpha Cognac). Edit the form and:

1. Create a new data source from the Schema uploaded above in Step 2.
2. Add controls to the form and rearrange them as desired.

4. Link to the database

Connect to the DB query defined above. We use Doc URI wizards to do this. In a nutshell, this means configuring the form so that the data source is bound to the URL for the query that we saw in Step 1. The Database Connector Tutorial explains this in great detail.

Use Case: Pull Multiple Results from SQL Database

Multiple Rows from SQL

Now we’ll take a look at queries that return multiple results. It’s another very common scenario in real applications e.g. look up order line items for a particular order. With frevvo’s Database Connector, complex forms like this can be created without programming.

The steps are as follows:

1. Define the SQL Query

<queryset name=”BIRT” …>
  <query name=”orderDetailsByOrder”>
    <retrieve>
      <statement>SELECT p.productName as product,
o.quantityOrdered as quantity, o.priceEach as
price, p.productDescription as description, p.MSRP FROM
OrderDetails o, Products p
WHEREo.productCode=p.productCode and o.orderNumber=
{onum} ORDER by o.orderLineNumber
      …

This is a straightforward query that simply retrieves order details for a particular order number. It can be accessed via a URL that looks like this: http://<server>/database/BIRT/orderDetailsByOrder?onum=10100. As before, the {onum} in curly braces is a variable whose value should be passed in the URL.  You’ll get back an XML document with order details.

Connect this to the form. We will use Live Forms’s built-in XML features to generate controls and populate them from the database.

2. Generate an XML Schema

The DB connector can generate an XML schema from any query’s <retrieve> operation. This schema can then be used to generate a Live Forms form. Try now: Generate XML schema in your browser, save the resulting XML schema file to disk and upload it to Live Forms. See the documentation for detailed instructions. Note that we need to pass in a known order number so that the query can successfully execute.

3. Create the form

We’ll use a copy of the form we created for the Dynamic Pick List. It already has a dynamic pick list which lists the customers in the format value=label (e.g. 242=Alpha Cognac). Edit the form and:

1. Create a new data source from the Schema uploaded above in Step 2.
2. Add controls to the form and rearrange them as desired.

4. Link to the database

Connect to the DB query defined above. As before, we use Doc URI wizards to do this. In a nutshell, this means configuring the form so that the data source is bound to the URL for the query that we saw in Step 1. The Database Connector Tutorial explains this in great detail.

Example Business Forms Using frevvo’s Database Connector and a SQL Database

To bring it full circle, let’s look at specific use cases where you may want to use frevvo and the Database Connector to build a business form.

Manage Customer Orders from a Dropdown List

One common use of the frevvo Database Connector is to create a form for members of your team to see and manage customers orders.

From this form, you can select the customer from the drop-down list.

Once you choose a customer, you’ll be able to see a list of orders associated with that customer in the other dropdown and select an individual order to see the details below.

Try now: Dynamic Populate Sales Orders from a Database

The post How to Populate an HTML Form from a SQL Database appeared first on frevvo Blog.

You can customize them to perform calculations, populate fields from a database, and validate form submission data. You can even incorporate them into automated workflows.

So why aren’t more organizations using dynamic forms?

Because rolling out dynamic forms and creating custom workflows can be a major investment that many businesses can’t make.

frevvo’s forms automation software includes a Visual Rule Builder (VRB) that makes it easy for business users to create dynamic forms without coding. 

Using the VRB engine with our dynamic form builder, even non-technical users can define custom rules that control how a form functions.

All of the custom functionality that would require manual coding and a huge investment to build and maintain can be created with just a few clicks.

In this article, we’ll look at how you can create dynamic forms with our Visual Rule Builder and cover different use cases for them.

Click the links below to navigate to the section you want to learn more about:

• Why Use Dynamic Forms in Your Business Processes
• Building No-Code Dynamic Forms with the Visual Rule Builder
• Use Cases For Dynamic Forms

Why Use Dynamic Forms in Your Business Processes

One commonality that workflows like processing purchase orders and approving contracts have is paperwork. An employee fills out a form and sends it to their manager for approval.

When these workflows are done manually, they can affect productivity and lead to delays — an employee wastes time when they need to chase down signatures or confirm details.

Dynamic forms can address many of the problems that manual processes have. Here’s how.

Reduce Manual Data Entry

Manual data entry is tedious and time-consuming. By connecting dynamic forms to a SQL database, you can have certain fields automatically fill in.

Here’s an example of how dynamic forms can automatically populate based on an input:

Employees spend less time on manual data entry when fields are filled in automatically. This is useful for forms like purchase orders, expense claims, and legal contracts.

Perform Calculations Automatically

Most digital forms tend to have limited functionality. But with dynamic forms, you can have fields automatically calculate totals based on quantities and unit prices.

Here’s an example of how automatic calculations look in frevvo:

In the example above, the subtotals for “Red Widget” and “Blue Widget” along with the grand total are automatically calculated. This saves time and reduces the risk of human errors.

Set Up Conditional Routing

Forms are typically routed to others for signatures or approvals. 

But managing this routing manually is inefficient and wastes time. You can create dynamic forms with conditional logic, so they’re automatically sent to the right individuals once they’re submitted.

60% of employees say it’s difficult obtaining the information they need to do their jobs from their colleagues. With a dynamic form, you can require an input for certain fields.

An employee can’t hit the submit button unless those fields are filled out, and other team members won’t have to waste time chasing missing information.

Building No-Code Dynamic Forms with the Visual Rule Builder

frevvo’s Visual Rule Builder is so simple and user-friendly that any business user can build rules without coding. These rules are created using plain language and a WYSIWYG-style interface that lets you see how each rule will function.

A business rule has three parts:

1. An optional condition, which could be a complex expression.
2. A set of actions that should be executed when the condition is true.
3. A set of actions that should be executed when the condition is false.

The Visual Rule Builder (VRB) guides you through three screens — one for each part above. 

On each screen, you can visually define your condition and actions. Similar to an Excel spreadsheet. It also supports many functions/expressions for common business needs.

Let’s investigate some common business rules that are easily built with the Visual Rule Builder. 

We’ll see how to:

• Concatenate First and Last Names
• Fill in the date automatically when the user signs
• Automatically fill in user details to reduce data entry
• Perform calculations
• Show fields or workflow steps only when they’re relevant

Concatenate First and Last Names

There are many situations where you simply want to concatenate the First Name and Last Name fields to generate a Full Name. A common example is completing a Federal W-4 when onboarding a new hire.

All you need are First Name, Last Name, and Full Name fields in your form.

You can manually add JavaScript like this. The above example is simple enough, but a simple syntax error could cause the rule to not work:

FullName.value = FirstName.value + ‘ ‘ + LastName.value;

Let’s go through the three parts of the rule.

1. In this case, we can skip the condition wizard since we always want to concatenate the strings. Open the Visual Rule Builder, and click Next on the Condition wizard.
2. On this screen, select the Full Name field as the field you want to set from the first dropdown. Select “to” from the second dropdown and type FirstName + ” ” + LastName in the third column field. As you type Fir… the wizard suggests controls on your form that match, so it’s easier to complete. It’ll also check for any syntax errors. Click Next.
3. There is nothing to do on the next screen. Since there is no condition specified, it cannot be False. Click Finish.

Now, populate Full Name with First and Last Name

The final rule looks like this:

Try the form and see that the rule works as expected.

Fill in the Date Automatically When the User Signs

Approval steps in workflows commonly have a place where, for example, the manager must sign to approve a leave request and date it. 

You can easily fill in this date with a business rule. It takes two seconds with the Visual Rule Builder.

All you need are Signature and Date Fields in your forms/flows. Let’s say you have added two fields and named them SignHere and Date, respectively.

If you were manually building this rule using HTML and Javascript, you’d need to write a function to fill in the date. But with the Visual Rule Builder, it’s simple and straightforward. 

Again, let’s go through the three parts of a rule.

1. This rule requires a condition, since we want to fill in the date only when the user signs. Open the Visual Rule Builder and select the Signature field as the field you want to set and “is filled” as the condition from the adjacent dropdown. Click Next.
2. On the next screen, we specify what action to take when the signature is filled. As the image shows, it’s easy. Simply use the today() function to fill in the Date field with today’s date and click Next.
3. On the next screen, we specify what action to take when the signature is empty. Again, it’s obvious. Leave the Date field empty.

When you click Finish, a synopsis of the rule looks like this:

Try the form and see that the rule works as expected.

Automatically Fill in User Details to Reduce Data Entry

Many business forms — consent forms, emergency contact, expense report, new hire onboarding, and so on — require the users filling them out to enter today’s date and their personal information, such as first name, email address, etc. 

You’ve built a form with a few fields shown below. There’s a date field for Today’s Date and a Personal Info section with some user-specific data.

This rule initializes fields, meaning we want it to run when the form loads up. 

When you open the Rule Builder wizard, on the Condition screen, check the Initialization Rule Only box and click Next to advance to the actions screen.

In this case, we have many actions, since we want to set multiple fields on the form. You can click the Add Action button at the top to create as many as you want. 

You can rearrange each component using the up and down arrows. In this case, we have seven fields.

For each action, choose which field you want to set from the picklist. The picklist shows all available fields. You can also start typing to narrow the list of choices.

For each action, select an operation that corresponds with what you want to do. The list shows all available options for the chosen form field. 

You can set a value, set a label, show/hide the control, enable/disable the control, etc. In this example, we wish to initialize the controls, so we’ll choose the “to” option for all fields.

For each component, what do you want to set the chosen field to? You can use the slider to choose a literal value (e.g., “3” or the string “Joe”) or a function/expression. 

We’ll deal with expressions in a later example. In this case, we want to use built-in functions for today’s date and user information. 

Start typing in the text box, and matching functions will pop up. It’s very similar to Excel or Google Sheets. For each function, available parameters and detailed help is also displayed.

When you’re done with all the fields in our form, it’ll look like this. We’re setting the TodayDate field to today’s date using the today() function and the various Personal Information fields to user-specific information using the appropriate userXXX() function.

Since this is an initialization rule, there is no condition and no corresponding false actions. Click Finish and you can see a synopsis of the rule. If you need to change something, simply click any pencil icon.

Test the form. You’ll see that all fields are automatically initialized to the appropriate values as soon as the form loads.

Perform Calculations

Real-world forms and workflows have many kinds of business requirements. Another common one is the need to compute a subtotal and grand total in a table of line items. Think invoices, purchase orders, expense reports, reimbursement forms, sales orders, etc.

The form might look something like this:

There’s a table with four columns: Item description, Quantity, Unit Price, and Subtotal. 

The Subtotal for each line is computed as the product of Quantity and Unit Price. There’s also a Grand Total, which sums up the individual line items.

With the VRB, it’s simple and anyone can do it.

We’ll create two separate rules, one for the subtotals and another one for the Grand Total.

First, let’s take a look at the three parts of the rule for the Subtotal.

1. In this case, a Subtotal can only be calculated when we know the Quantity and Unit Price, so we set that up as the condition in the first panel of the VRB. 

Since there are two fields, you’ll have to click Add Condition to add a second one. By default, all conditions must be true as the Logic Expression box shows (1 and 2). You can edit this expression and change it as desired. In this case, we want both fields to be filled so we leave the default unchanged.

2. The next step is to define what actions to take when the condition is TRUE. 

Once again, with the VRB, it’s straightforward. We want to multiply Quantity and Unit Price. So, we simply set the Subtotal to the desired expression. We don’t have to worry about the fact that these are repeating fields in a table. There are no for loop or array indexes to consider.

3. Finally, in the last panel of the VRB wizard, we set the Subtotal to empty when the condition is FALSE. This ensures that the Subtotal will be cleared if Quantity or Price are empty.

Now, let’s take a look at the Grand total calculation.

1. On the first panel, there is no condition required, so leave it empty.
2. On the next panel, we use a function to set the Grand Total to the Sum of all the Subtotal fields. That’s it. The SUM () function is smart enough to ignore empty rows and treats them as 0’s.
3. Since there is no condition, there is no false action to specify. Click Finish.

The final rules look like this.

Test the form. You’ll see that the Subtotals and Grand Total are automatically computed as desired.

There’s no need to fiddle with loops or repeating fields or to deal with situations like a row being added or removed. The VRB handles all the details behind the scenes.

Show Fields or Workflow Steps Only When Relevant

Another common business rule is where you want to show or hide certain form sections depending on data that’s been entered into the form elsewhere.

In the Visual Rule Builder video, you saw how to collect a Billing address only if it is different from the Shipping address.

Let’s take a look at another example — a new employee onboarding workflow where the user has to fill in a Federal I-9. 

The Federal form asks for Eligibility Status, and for one of those statuses — an alien authorized to work until a certain date — the employee has to provide additional information.

With the VRB, it’s again very straightforward.

1. As usual, set the condition first. In this case, we use a Literal value “WorkAlien” which is the value of the radio button in question.
2. When true, we make the AlienNumbers section visible.
3. When false, we hide it.

What’s the condition that causes the rule to fire?

What action(s) should be taken when the condition is true?

Optionally, What actions should be taken when the condition is false?

The VRB will generate a rule as shown below:

When you run the form, it works as expected. Choose the appropriate option (alien authorized to work …), and the required section shows up. 

For any other option, the section in question is not visible exactly as desired. As with all frevvo forms and workflows, it’ll just work automatically on mobile devices.

Simple and easy. 

Show/Hide the Manager Approval Step

Show/Hide is also very common in approval workflows where we only want to show a section on a particular step. 

Let’s say you have a three-step expense report workflow. 

Step one is filled in by the employee, step two goes to their manager for approval, and step three goes to the finance department for final processing, if approved.

We have created Manager Approval and Finance sections in the form.

We want to hide the Manager Approval section when the employee is filling in the Expense Report and only show them when the workflow is routed to the Manager and Finance department.

With the VRB, it’s simple. 

Create a rule and on the condition screen, pick the current step in the first dropdown, “is on or after,” from the second dropdown. Select the Manager step from the third dropdown. Click Next to advance to the TRUE actions screen.

Here we will specify the action to show the Manager Approval section on the Manager and Finance steps. See the image below. Click Next.

When the workflow is on the Employee step, we want to hide the Manager approval section. See the image below.

When you click Finish, the final rule looks like this:

Show the Manager Approval section on the Manager and Finance steps. Hide them on the Employee step.

Run the workflow. Notice the Manager and Finance sections (there’s a separate rule for the Finance section) are hidden on the Employee step and show when the flow navigates to the Manager and Finance steps.

The Manager sees this screen:

The Finance department sees this screen:

What About JavaScript Rules?

If you need to edit the generated code, you can click Rule Code and make changes manually to the generated JavaScript.

Existing JavaScript-based rules will continue to work, and you can also create new ones. There is no lost or deprecated functionality. Some things are impossible to do using wizards, e.g., connecting to an external web service (API) and parsing the result in specific ways.

These are just some examples of how you can use the Visual Rule Builder to give you more dynamic control of your forms. Citizen developer or JavaScript expert, the Visual Rule Builder is a powerful tool that generates code based on your visual input.

Use Cases For Dynamic Forms

Dynamic forms are versatile tools you can use to boost productivity and streamline workflows across different departments.

Here are some ways you can incorporate dynamic forms.

Employee Onboarding

Get new hires ready for their new roles with dynamic forms instead of drowning them with paperwork on the first day. The system automatically generates and populates Federal and State forms.

Purchase Orders

Purchase orders are an essential part of the procurement process. With dynamic forms, you can build automated workflows to streamline this process.

Contract Approvals

Contract approvals can be a rather lengthy and complicated process. Dynamic forms help you automate this process, and you can even add a legally-binding signature component to your form.

Expense Claims

Automated workflows for expense claims combined with dynamic forms allow employees to submit expense claims and receive reimbursement in a timely manner.

Travel Requests

If your employees frequently travel for work, you can set up dynamic forms that automatically route travel requests to the finance department.

Recruitment

The recruitment process involves identifying and selecting candidates to fill a vacant job position. Incorporating dynamic forms into a workflow can help you manage all the moving parts.

Incident Reports

Another use case for dynamic forms is for reporting workplace incidents. Employees can use these forms to report and escalate incidents for further investigation.

Conclusion

Creating dynamic forms that allow you to create conditional rules and incorporate them into automated workflows no longer requires a significant investment.

With frevvo’s Visual Rule Builder, even non-technical users can create a dynamic form and improve processes without coding.

Why not give it a whirl? Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself. It takes 30 seconds, and you can install a template and try it out instantly.

The post How to Create Dynamic Forms with No Code appeared first on frevvo Blog.