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The questions we hear most, grouped by topic. Expand any question for a short answer and a link to the full documentation.

Forms & questions

Question types, custom questions, and reuse.

Appearance & layout

Layout, themes, fonts, dates, and buttons.

Flows & steps

Building, testing, and versioning processes.

Business rules

Automation, conditions, and integrations.

Documents

Generating, merging, and signing documents.

Views & reporting

Notifications, views, and analytics.

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Building forms and questions

The standard question types are calculated, choice, date and time, file upload, lookup, multiple lines of text, number, person or group, repeating table, separator, single line of text, SQL lookup, verify digital signature, and yes/no.Question types →
Yes. A custom question is made from a paired .js file (its logic) and .html file (its look, controls, and Flow Designer screen), which you then register in the Manifest file so it appears in the question type drop-down.Creating a custom question →
Yes. Use Replicate Question in the question list ribbon: select a single question, then enter a new unique question code before clicking Save to create the copy.Replicate questions →
Yes. In the flow designer you can click the circled + icon to add an existing question, reusing a question you have already created rather than building a new one.Questions →
Yes. Carry questions let you reuse a question from one step in another and automatically copy the response, though this does not support calculated questions.Carry questions →
It performs mathematical operations on number questions, concatenates text strings, and generates hyperlinks, with output formats of number, text, currency, percentage, and hyperlink.Calculated question →
Use a lookup question, which populates a drop-down from a SharePoint list and can apply filters, ordering, and offline caching to control the options shown.Lookup question →
Use a repeating table question, where each sub-question becomes a column and users can add rows, with options for footers, themes, row limits, and CSV export.Repeating table question →
In Office 365 users can upload files of up to 250MB with a file upload question, and you can limit the allowed (or disallowed) file extensions and set a maximum file size.File upload question →
Deploy them free of charge from FlowForma settings, Add-ons section, after which they appear in the question editor; add-ons include Auto number, Button, Date of Birth, Get location, and People picker.Add-on questions →

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Form appearance and layout

Yes. Use the visual form designer (opened from the flow designer toolbar) to customise the form header and each step’s layout, including adding or deleting columns and rows, merging cells, and dragging questions into position.Visual form designer →
Yes. Dates and times can be formatted using specifiers such as d, dd, MM, MMMM, yyyy, HH, and ss (for example, yyyy gives a four-digit year and MMMM gives the full month name).Date and time formatting →
Yes. In Flow settings, enable ‘Hide step numbers’ to remove the step number from each step (the step box stays the same size).Flow settings →
Yes. In Flow settings under ‘Button labels and tooltips’ you can change the text shown on each button and its tooltip, or choose to include no text at all so that only the icons appear.Flow settings →
Yes. In Step settings you can hide buttons on a step by unchecking options such as ‘Show passback button’, ‘Show delegate button’, ‘Show reject button’, and ‘Show save button’.Step settings →
Yes. On the FlowForma homepage you can add, edit, or remove the process tiles and process count tiles using the Tiles drop-down in the navigation panel.FlowForma homepage →
Yes. In the visual form designer you can apply a pre-defined theme from the themes drop-down, or set the colours directly for the steps, step background, step font, form background, and separators.Visual form designer →
Yes. There is no built-in font setting, but you can change the font by editing the font-family in the custom.css file in FlowFormaAssets and uploading it back to the CSS folder.Change font on forms →
Yes. Build a custom theme in the Kendo UI theme builder, upload the CSS file to the css folder in FlowFormaAssets, and enable it by checking ‘Enable custom theme’ in FlowForma Settings.Custom theme →
Yes. Custom CSS can hide questions or repeating table columns on a form while keeping the functionality that hiding them in the Flow Designer would otherwise remove.Custom CSS →

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Flows and steps

Yes. When defining a flow you can assign it to a group (for example ‘Finance’ or ‘HR’) or create a new group, so related flows are organised together; leave it blank if no grouping is required.Flow →
The Flow Designer shows the flow with its steps, parallel groups, and questions on one side, and a context-sensitive options panel (toolbar, summary, defined rules, and add rules) on the other, letting you build and edit everything in the flow.Flow designer →
Yes. You can add an existing step to another flow and choose to reuse it (shared, so changes to its questions are reflected in both flows) or copy it (which generates a new step code and new question codes).Add existing steps →
Yes. You can group steps into a parallel group so multiple steps can be completed simultaneously by different users in any order, though the form will not progress beyond the group until all its steps are completed.Parallel steps →
Yes. In a step’s advanced settings you can set a ‘Time to complete’ in days, hours, and minutes (1 day by default), which is used for reporting to flag the step as completed on time or delayed rather than to trigger any action.Step settings →
Yes. When adding a step you can assign it to specific users or groups (who can then complete, reject, or approve it) and enable view permissions to limit which users or groups can see the information entered in that step.Add a new step →
Yes, but it is not recommended: restoring only affects rule actions and flow settings and may restore invalid rules, so FlowForma recommends exporting the flow as XML before making changes and re-importing that to restore it instead.History and restore options →
Yes. The Form Preview feature shows a live preview of the currently selected step inside the Flow Designer, updating automatically as you add steps and questions or change the layout, themes, or button labels.Form preview →
Yes. Test Forms let you launch a live form from any step in the Flow Designer without working through the whole process; these forms appear on the forms list with a TEST_ prefix and have a ‘Delete test form’ button.Test forms →
Yes. Flow Comments lets FlowForma administrators leave dated, attributed notes inside the Flow Designer to add notes, track changes, or suggest changes, with comments displayed newest to oldest.Flow comments →
Yes. If advanced form versioning is enabled, a ‘New form version’ button appears on the final step of a completed form and creates a new version copying all the original form’s data, along with a record of the version number, creator, date, and original form.Advanced form versioning →

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Business rules and integrations

Business rules are organised into categories (workflow control, data integration, communications, SharePoint actions, permissions, and repeating table), and where each rule can be added (question change, step started, step completed, flow started, flow completed, or form loaded) depends on the rule type.Business rule types →
Yes. The Execute SQL stored procedure rule lets you extract information from an external SQL database into a FlowForma form, or update the database with values entered in a form, using SQL stored procedures.Execute SQL stored procedure →
Yes. The Step assign to rule assigns one or more steps to a person or group other than those defined in the step definition, and, like all business rules, it can carry conditions so the assignment runs only when they are met.Step assign to →
Yes. The Hide/show step rule can show, hide, enable, or disable an entire workflow step, and you can add conditions so the change only applies when they are met.Hide/show step →
Yes. The Hide/show question rule can show, hide, enable, or disable a question, and conditions control when the change is applied.Hide/show question →
Yes. The Call External API rule lets you invoke APIs configured in the API Connection Manager, mapping form question answers to the request (parameters, headers, body, and authentication) and mapping the response back to questions in the form.Call External API →
Yes. The Get List Data rule pulls information stored in SharePoint lists into your form questions, with options for filtering, filtering by folder, offline caching, and mapping multiple rows into a repeating table.Get List Data →
The Third Party Integration rule connects your processes with two built-in external applications, Procore and Spectrum, letting you map request parameters and the response back to form questions.Third Party Integration →
SharePoint action rules let workflows create lists or libraries, create sites, perform document actions such as renaming, moving, or copying documents, and generate shareable links.SharePoint actions rules →
You set conditions in the conditions editor, combining individual rules and nested groups with AND or OR logic; if no conditions are set the rule always runs, otherwise it runs only when the conditions are met.Conditions →
Yes. By default FlowForma runs all rules that meet their conditions in parallel, but if a rule changes items that affect another rule’s conditions you should select set execution in series so the rules run one by one.Business rules →

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Documents

Yes. Document display rules let you conditionally show or hide flow attributes in a generated document, displaying an attribute only when the conditions you set against the flow’s attributes are met.Document display rules →
Yes. The document generator dynamically creates documents from one or more Word templates by adding data from your form fields, with the content customised for the intended recipient.Document generator →
Yes. External fragments let you build a document from different document templates by referencing their URLs, and the {value} token maps a question’s answer to the correct template to insert.Document templates →
Use the Generate document rule, which creates a document from a template attached to the current flow and assigns it to an output question. You can optionally convert it to PDF or text.Generate document →
Yes. The Merge documents rule combines the content of multiple PDF or Word files into a single document, and the order the URLs are listed in is the order they are merged.Merge documents →
Yes. The Convert Word to PDF rule takes a Word document already created in SharePoint by the Generate Document rule and converts it to a PDF, with optional password protection and permissions.Convert Word to PDF →
Yes. The DocuSign feature lets you send documents, whether uploaded or generated in FlowForma, for signing via DocuSign, and track their signature status from within the flow.DocuSign →
Yes. When you convert a generated document to PDF, the PDF security option lets you set user and owner passwords and control the permissions applied to the document.Generate document →

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Notifications, views and reporting

Yes. You can create reusable email templates with a custom subject and body, using tokens to pull step, form, and question data dynamically into the email.Email templates →
Yes. If the step allows it, you can delegate it to another person or group and add a comment with further information.Submitting a form →
Yes. A FlowForma Administrator can use the I am on leave function to delegate all steps assigned to you to a substitute for the dates you specify, though steps already assigned to you before it is set up remain yours to complete.I am on leave →
You can base a view on one of four layouts: List, Calendar, Gallery, or Board. View functionality is primarily standard, out-of-the-box SharePoint.Views →
Process Performance shows the status of forms and steps against their time to complete setting, reporting how many are on-time, delayed, or not started, and the Step analysis page drills into step performance for a chosen flow.Process Performance →
Yes. The Advanced Reporting feature exports your form, step, and question data to a SQL database, which you can connect to Excel to build advanced pivot table reports.Exporting form data to SQL database →
Yes. FlowForma Administrators can bulk assign forms from the All forms list, add a message, and the assignee is notified by email listing the forms reassigned to them.Bulk assign forms →
Yes. Flow administrators can reopen a completed form using the Reopen button, once form reopen is enabled either in FlowForma settings or in the flow’s settings.Reopen forms →
Yes. The Advanced Reporting feature exports your form data to a SQL database, which you can connect to Power BI to build dashboards for open, overdue, and completed processes.Exporting form data to SQL database →
Use Trend Analysis to compare process performance across years, months, weeks, or days, selecting a flow, frequency, and date range to spot trends such as spikes in form submissions.Trend Analysis →
Yes. You can change the default sender address in FlowForma Settings (it must include the angle brackets), or set a unique sender per email template in the Email Templates list.Email sender address →
Open FlowForma settings using the cog button on the top right of the homepage: the General tab displays the FlowForma version.The FlowForma site →

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How-to articles

Step-by-step guides for common tasks.

How-to videos

Short walkthroughs of key features.