Why do people use Formulize?

The situation: Our membership list is a spreadsheet that is mostly up to date, we just have to be careful when we're looking for who needs to renew, because if we don't include every column when we re-sort then everything gets very mixed up.

With Formulize:

• A member form, with a renewal history joined to it
• Start by importing the spreadsheet you already have
• Members can log in and update their own record, so the list keeps itself current
• A series of live reports, including who is lapsing in the next month

The situation: We all keep good track of our own contacts — but in separate lists, and which one has the new phone number for the big client?

With Formulize:

• A contacts form, with interactions and notes joined to each one
• One record per contact, that everyone adds to and everyone can see
• Segment contacts by group, tag, or status
• A report of who needs a follow-up, and by whom

The situation: Which of our volunteers have completed the new training module? And meanwhile our coordinator can't keep up with requests for swapping shifts, so the schedule is only ever partly right.

With Formulize:

• A volunteer profile form that records training and whatever else you need
• A shift form attached to each profile, and volunteers can pick from available shifts or request swaps
• Coordinators see the whole schedule; volunteers see only their own shifts
• Everything is always up to date; easily search profiles and find open shifts

The situation: We get the matching done, in a spreadsheet and a lot of email, but the criteria shift every term, and the candidates are always asking us about their status.

With Formulize:

• A candidates form and a placements form, joined together by a third form to record who is assigned where
• Track preferences, capacity, and requirements to automatically find suitable candidates
• Coordinators see everything; candidates see only their own assignment
• For the next term, update only the data that changed; the same process keeps working

The situation: Our applications and progress reports both come in as email attachments, and the only thing connecting them is a folder we name carefully.

With Formulize:

• One form for the application, connected to one for each progress report
• Everything joined by applicant, so all reports sit where they belong
• Applicants see only their own entries; staff see all of them
• A flexible report of what is outstanding and what is due next, by date, or whatever criteria you need right now

The situation: We have different claims form depending on the type of expense. We email them to accounting, but they're always behind in saying how much they owe us.

With Formulize:

• A dynamic claims form that asks the right questions for each kind of expense
• Staff submit their own; approvers see only what needs their sign-off
• Running reports of what is approved but not yet paid, and totals by category
• When it's time to reconcile, export the data to Excel, QuickBooks, etc.

The situation: We write bookings into a shared calendar everyone sees, but only one person can edit it, so the rest of us have to send requests to that person by email or phone.

With Formulize:

• An items form and a bookings form, joined together
• Anyone can request; certain people can approve
• One shared list automatically generated, of what is out, who has it, and when it's due back
• Filter by this month, or a date range, or category, or search for a particular item

The situation: We have a stock list, and it was right on the day we counted it, but nothing since then records what has actually moved in or out.

With Formulize:

• An items form, with a movements form joined to it
• Anyone can log what came in or went out, as it happens
• What is on hand is a report, not a recount
• Search by location, category, or condition, or filter for what needs reordering

The situation: We have a lot of paper forms at intake, so data entry is a constant, and then our notes system doesn't allow more than one worker per client, so we have to duplicate client profiles.

With Formulize:

• An intake form, with case notes joined to each client
• One client history, added to by whoever is working the case
• Add and remove workers just by changing permissions; one set of unified data
• Front-desk staff see all intakes and profile info; caseworkers see their own notes

The situation: We get the work done, and logged, but our logging system doesn't have a place for “category”, so we type that info into the general notes box.

With Formulize:

• A customized log form that anyone on the team can fill in
• Entries are linked to the client, project, or case they belong to, so reporting is easy
• A running history that nobody has to piece together manually
• Filter by person, date, or category, and get automatic calculations of totals

The situation: We all fill in a timesheet, but the categorization options aren't as detailed as we need, so our admins export to Excel each month.

With Formulize:

• A customized time entry form, joined to the project or client it is billed to
• People log their own hours; managers see everyone's, and can classify according to any criteria
• Totals by person, project, or date range, at any point in the month
• For payroll and billing, export the totals or directly integrate with accounting via the API

The situation: We get the assessments done and the scores recorded, but our system can't compare across years, we're not sure why, so we put the totals from prior years into a spreadsheet to make reports.

With Formulize:

• One assessment form, joined to the person or program it covers
• Assessors see only what is assigned to them
• Results compared across everyone at once, and across any timeframe, including years
• Filter results by person, program, or date range

The situation: Registrations come in and we record every one of them, but it's hard to track when an event is full, and we have to retype everything into a single attendance list for the door staff.

With Formulize:

• A public form where anyone can RSVP, no account needed
• An events form behind the scenes where each event's RSVPs show up automatically
• The public form only includes events that still have space; organizers log in and see all events
• A door list is automatically generated, and you can sort and search it on the day

The situation: Our surveys do give us feedback about our programs, but the results come back in their own spreadsheet, separate from all our other data about those programs.

With Formulize:

• A public form for respondents, no account required
• Responses joined to the program, event, and people they relate to
• Results reported alongside everything else you track
• Easily reuse or adapt the same form for the next round

The situation: Our website is beautiful and custom-made, but the content is hard to change, and we want to add regularly updated announcements that any of our staff can write, but only managers approve them.

With Formulize:

• A custom form in Formulize to record the announcements; the website pulls in the content live over the API
• Editors work in ordinary forms, approvers review and publish; no coding required
• This site's own News section is a live example of this exact workflow
• No separate CMS to license, host, or keep in sync