Request forms – New screen receipt and allocation/closing

When staff enter questions using the New screen, there are some fields that they might want to use, or that the system needs to know about, that might not be included in the selected Request form. Where such a required field is not included in the Request form design it is presented in the system provided Receipt and Allocation/Closing information sections of the New screen. The fields that must always be available for staff to enter (if there is more than one value for that field) are:

• Receipt information: Request type, Received via, and Staff (Receipt) and Client location.
• Allocation information: Staff note, Priority, and Last useful date.
• Closing: The fields defined for the closing section of this particular form (see more information below)

Some Request forms that you design may already include some of these fields, and when this occurs, the system will automatically drop those fields out of the Receipt or Allocation information section, and present them in the central Request form part of the screen. Note that if you define any of these fields in your Request form, with a default value or as a hidden field, you can reduce the number of fields being presented to your staff! For example – if, whenever you use a specific form, the question will have been Received via phone, simply add the Received via field to your Request form as a hidden field with a default value of “Phone”.

Also note that, as in the client interface, when attachments to the question are allowed by the request form, the action to add the attachment is not done in the form itself. In the client interface it is done in the confirmation screen. In the staff interface it is done in the Question section of the Answer screen after the question has been entered. How to define that an attachment is allowed in a particular form, and even include instructions about how to add it in the Client confirmation or Staff Answer screen,  will be covered in an upcoming section.

Allocation or closing – Followup or Close now

When staff enter questions using the New screen, they can indicate that the question needs Follow up, or they can choose to close it on the spot (Close now). When there is follow up an Allocation section shows at the bottom of the screen, and when Close now is chosen, a Closing section shows at the bottom of the screen so the question can be closed on the spot. Staff can swap between Follow up and Close now as they complete the form.

The screen print above shows a typical Allocation division (for recording the follow up required).

Here is an example Closing division allowing the closing information to be provided.  Note that the Answer field is automatically provided, along with all the closing information fields defined for that form (in Edit options).

Forms specifically designed to close on the spot

Some forms do not provide a Follow up option – they are designed to always close on the spot – and are indicated in the New menu list by a ♦ symbol after their name.  By defining the Answer field as a hidden field, minimising the number of closing fields (in Edit options), and defining that the form should be closed on entry (Edit options>Processing options) you can create a form that is highly efficient for capturing a number of pieces of information for statistical purposes (such as training statistics, surveys, etc.).