Documentation / Guides

Building, sending and reviewing forms

This guide covers building an intake or consent form, sharing it with a patient who has no account, reviewing what comes back, and having selected answers write straight onto the patient's own record.

Build the form

The owner builds forms; any staff member can send them. Add fields of the types Short text, Long text, Dropdown, Checkbox, Date and Signature, and mark any field Required. Build the form once for a purpose, a new-patient intake sheet or a consent form for one procedure, and reuse it for every patient who needs it. Essential includes up to 3 forms, Complete unlimited; dental practices can get a ready-made intake form at setup.

Send it as a link

Open Share this form, choose an existing patient or a new one, and Generate link. Copy the link or show the QR code on a tablet or phone. Email it to them and Text it to them (a text uses credits) appear for an existing patient, since a new one has no address yet. The link works for 3 days and can be submitted once, so it behaves like a paper form handed to one patient rather than a reusable public page. The patient does not need an account. For a new patient, the answers create a record if the form binds first and last name, or attach to one that already matches on the name plus an email address or mobile number.

Capture a signature

If the form includes a signature field, the patient draws their signature with a mouse, stylus or finger, or chooses Type your name instead, and the typed name is saved as the signature image. Either way the signature is stored privately as part of the submission.

Bind answers to the patient record

A field can be bound to a patient field: first name, last name, email, mobile, address, postcode, country, tax ID, tax office, date of birth, or (checkbox only) consent to SMS or email reminders, or to using the patient's files for teaching or promotion. A consent box is never required, however you mark it: consent that has to be ticked before the form will submit is not consent. On submit, bound answers update the patient's record. Three rules apply. The name is never changed, and if it does not match the record, nothing is applied and you are told. An email or mobile already on the record is never replaced, only filled when blank, and when the answer differs the practice's notification says it was not copied across. A record found by matching, rather than chosen by you, only gets its other blanks filled: its email, mobile and consents are never changed. Fields that aren't bound stay only in the form response.

Review what came back

Open a form and choose View submissions to see every link you sent, as Submitted, Waiting for an answer or Link expired, and open any answer in full, signature included. A signature is also saved in the patient's Files, with See the signed form beside it. If a link expires before a patient submits it, send a fresh one; an expired link cannot be reopened or extended.