Form Conversion Example - Vehicle Inspection Form

Seeing the process of a form build can be extremely helpful as a guideline to improve your own form builds.

In this post we will be going over the process of converting a generic Vehicle Inspection form to a FormTab digital form.

Firstly have a good look over the generic form. When converting a paper form to FormTab it is important to remember that the end product will not look aesthetically identical.

The first step is to break the form down into logical sections so the user is at ease when filling in the form. For this form we have broken it into four sections.

1. Initial Details

2. Vehicle Details

3. Inspection Checklist

4. Sign Off

At this point have a look back at the original form and identify the sections we have broken it into. Please note all of the screenshots below are taken from within the form builder at https://www.formtabcentral.com on a desktop PC.

Section - Initial Details

The start of the form required the user to check all that applied from a list of vehicle and inspection types. For this we decided to break it into two select lists

1. Vehicle Type - where we input the three options "Bus, Passenger Van or Car"
2. Inspection Type - which had the options "Initial Inspection and Re-Inspection"

You can add these options in the select list by clicking on the Show Settings cog to the right of the field and then clicking update as shown in the screenshot below. 

For the rest of the fields we just chose the logical choices for each of the fields.   

Date	=> Date Field
Seating Capacity	=> Number Field
Facility/Home	=> Text Field
Address	=> Address Field
Phone Number	=> Number Field

It's also important to note we made each of the fields mandatory so the user will not be able to submit the form unless they have all the fields in this section filled out.

Section - Vehicle Details

The next section we separated was Vehicle Details. This section is quite simple and we're able to again choose the logical choices for each field.

Chassis Make	=> Text Field
Body Make	=> Text Field
Chassis Year	=> Number Field
Mileage	=> Number Field
Vehicle Identification Number (V.I.N)	=> Number Field
Registration Number	=> Text Field
Registration Expiry Date	=> Date Field

Section - Inspection Checklist

The next part in this form is the checklist. We used an information field to give the user a key as to what the options mean "Code: P=Pass R=Rejected N/A=Not Applicable".

The next part is the checklist itself, because there are three different options the user can choose we decided that the segmented field would work the best for this. Using the checklist point as the Segmented Field's label and giving it the three options of P, R and N/A as shown below.

Again, we made each of the items on the checklist mandatory so they all have to be checked before the user can submit.

For a more detailed explanation on building checklists please see the blog post here.

Section - Sign Off

Here we have the final section of the form which is sign off. Again, like Vehicle Details we chose what are the most logical fields. The Inspection Status is a select list with the values " Approved, Rejected, Passed Reinspection and Unsafe Vehicle"

Inspected By	=> Text Field
Date of Inspection	=> Date Field
Business Name	=> Text Field
Business Phone Number	=> Number Field
Business Address	=> Address Field
Inspection Status	=> Select List

Conclusion

The main thing to take away from this tutorial is although your FormTab digital form or form output will not look identical to your old paper one, you are able to record information quickly and more accurately.

Don't be afraid to change and adapt your digital forms to make them better. Using paper forms restricts the way you record data, with FormTab, almost anything is possible. 

Here are some screenshots to show what the digital form looks an iPad. 

 If you would like a copy of this form sent to your team please contact our fantastic Customer Service Team.