Create Forms in the CPM

Client Portal’s Forms allow you a way to efficiently collect information from your clients, and have their submitted answers automatically entered into your Filevine project.

This article explains how to create a form template within the Client Portal Manager (CPM). Read Manage Forms in the CPM to read how to adjust form and translation settings, and manage form statuses, and read Client Portal Forms to get an overview of how forms can be used and how the form will look for clients. 

• Create a Form
• Title, Description, and Logo
• Add Fields
• Add Collections
• Formatting and Settings
• Publish

Create a Form

Forms are created in the Client Portal Manager. To navigate to the Client Portal Manager, click Main Menu > Advanced > Client Portal Manager. The Client Portal Manager opens in a new tab.

In the Client Portal Manager, click the Forms section in the left side menu. On this page, you can view and manage all the forms you create. Read the subsequent section to learn more about how to manage forms.

To begin building a form, click + New Form in the top right corner. Select the project type. The selected project template will determine which fields can be added to the form. Since fields are based on project type, forms cannot be shared or copied across different project types/templates.

On the form creation page, you can see the form. The project type’s sections (excluding collections sections) are listed along the right side, and can be expanded to show addable fields.

Click on the Preview option to see how the form will appear to the client. 

Title, Description, and Logo

Title

When a form is created, it will automatically include space for a title, a description, and, optionally, a logo. These fields appear at the top of the form and cannot be reordered.

Each form has both an “internal title” and a “display title.” The internal title is not shown to the client, and is intended to help Filevine users differentiate between forms. For example, the internal title might be “Client Employment Information - MVA,” while the display title is only “Employment Information.” By default, the two titles are the same, but they can be edited independently of one another.

The internal title is used where a Filevine user is selecting the form, for example:

• in the list of forms in the Client Portal Manager
• when selecting a form template for a portal message in the Filevine project

The display title is used where the client sees the form, for example:

• at the top of the form itself
• as the name of the form where it appears in the Client Portal
• as the {{formname}} variable that can be added in the default portal message sent with the form 

Description

Each form has a description field that appears below the display title. The description field is meant to explain the form or provide instructions to the client. 

The description field is optional, and will not display to the client if it is left empty. If you do not want to include a description, leave this field empty.

Logo

If you have a display logo for your portal (added in the Display section of the Client Portal Manager), you will also have a logo field at the top of the form. Click + Add Logo to add the uploaded logo, or click on the trashcan icon to remove it.

Add Fields

Which Fields Can Be Included?

Client Portal forms support:

• fields in static sections: fields in collection sections are not supported. Likewise, some custom field types, like reference fields, calculated fields, person fields, and deadline fields, can not be added to forms.
• contact custom fields: any contact fields included on the form are for the contact card of the form recipient. (Forms cannot be used to fill out contact information for other contacts.)
• standard contact fields: basic contact information like name as well as phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, found in the standard Contact Info tab of all contact cards, can all be added

The list of custom field types available in forms is as follows:

• text type fields
• amount type fields (not including calculated amount fields)
• date fields
• yes/no fields
• dropdown and multi-select fields
• file attachment url fields

If a field is contingent, it will only show on the form if the conditions of contingency are met, regardless of whether the field it’s contingent on is included on the form. 

For example, if Field B is contingent on Field A being marked “Yes,” you could include Field B on the form, and it would appear on the form only if Field A was “Yes” in the Filevine project. Alternatively, you could include both fields on the form, and if the client marked Field A as “Yes,” Field B would appear at that time.

Because contingent fields do not always appear on the form, contingent fields are not shown in the preview view by default. If you change field values in the preview to meet the conditions of the contingent field, then the field will be shown.

Add a Field

First, middle, and last name fields are automatically included on forms upon creation. By default, these fields are marked as read only. 

In the right side menu, under the Fields tab, search for a field you’d like to add. Fields are organized by project section, with a “Basic Contact Fields” listed on the top and “Custom Contact Fields” listed at the bottom. You can expand a section to view the available fields, or search by field name in the search box.

Find the field you’d like to add, and click and drag it to the desired place on the form. You can also click the field to add it to the bottom of the form. 

Field Settings

Once a field has been added to the form, click on the field to edit the field’s settings.

1. Filevine Field Name: The client’s view of the field name can be adjusted by changing the field name on the form. Changing this name does not affect the name of the field in Filevine, and the Filevine name can still be referenced in the field’s setting menu.
2. Filevine Section: The field’s Filevine project section is listed to help Filevine users keep track of the fields they’re adding to the form. If the field is part of a contact, the Filevine Section lists the tab in the contact card where this field can be found.
3. Helper Text: If desired, toggle the Helper Text option on. When this option is on, you can add additional text on the form. When the client views the form, the helper text will appear beneath the field’s name.
4. Translate Field Values: When this option is toggled on (and the Translate to English option is on for forms) field data from Filevine is translated for the client, and field data entered by the client will be translated in Filevine. You may want to keep a single field from being translated—for instance, if the field data contains only proper nouns, like the client’s name, or their company. To keep the data in this field from being translated, toggle the Translate Field Values option off. Field data will not be translated either from Filevine or from the form response. Generally, this option overrides the Translate to English option for Forms, set in the Communication section. Learn more about how this option interacts with other translation settings.
   This option only applies to the data within the field; it does not affect translation of the field name, which is translated based on the client’s browser settings.
5. Field type: If a field is marked as Required, the client cannot submit the form without filling the field. If a field is marked as Read Only, the client cannot edit the field, but can view the field’s data.

You can reorder a field by clicking and dragging it to the desired place on the form. You can also review and adjust the order by clicking the Order tab in the right side menu and clicking and dragging the fields there.

Note

In order to allow clients to easily fill forms on mobile devices, multiple fields cannot be added to a single line. Each field must take up one full line on the form.

Add Collections

Collections sections from your Filevine project can be added to forms.

Note

Collection sections allow you to collect repeating, structured data. Use cases include address history, medical providers, witnesses, education history, and any other data where a client may need to submit multiple entries of the same type. Learn more about static versus collection sections in Filevine projects. 

When adding a collection section, you can choose to allow a client to view existing items, edit items, add entirely new items, and remove items. Each field in the collection section can also be adjusted using the same field-level settings as other fields on the forms.

Add a Collection

In the right side menu, under the Collections tab, all collection sections for the form’s project type are listed. Click the + icon next to a collection section to add it.

The section appears in the form preview as a block containing all supported fields from that section, displayed in the same order as they appear in the Filevine project.

Note

Some field types are not supported in collection sections and will be automatically excluded. These include Calculated Currency, Calculated Decimal, Calculated Number, Calculated Percentage, Deadline, Person, Person List, Project Link, Project Link List, and Reference Field.

Section-Level Settings

Once a collection section has been added to the form, click on the collection section block to view the section-level settings on the right.

• Filevine Section: The name of the collection section as it exists in Filevine (read-only). You can change the name of the section as it’s displayed on the form by clicking on the name in the form. 
• Directions: Optionally, provide instructions to your clients about how to fill out this section. Directions appear beneath the section title on the form.

The four toggles control which actions and icons are available to the client in the portal:

1. Prevent Adding New Items: When enabled, clients cannot add new items to the collection section. You may enable this setting if you want your client to be limited to reviewing or editing existing collection items.
2. Prevent Access to Existing: When enabled, any existing collection items from Filevine are hidden from the client. You may enable this setting if you want your user to add a new item without seeing any other items in the section.
3. Prevent Editing of Existing: When enabled, existing collection data is read-only. 
   Tip: If you want only some fields in the section to be read-only, you can make those selections at the field level. When this section-level toggle is enabled, individual field settings are overridden.
4. Prevent Item Removal: When enabled, clients cannot delete existing collection rows from Filevine.
   Note: This setting is enabled by default.

The following table shows the client experience for each toggle state. 

Below is an example of what the client would see if all toggles were disabled, and the client had the maximum access.

Field-Level Settings

Fields in a collection section can be configured just like any other field in forms. Click on an individual field within a collection section block to open the field configuration panel. 

These settings apply per field, not to the entire collection section. Unlike other fields, fields without a collection section block can not be reordered—they will always appear in the same order they do in the Filevine project. 

Formatting and Settings

Add Formatting

Click Layout in the right side menu to add formatting features like headers, instructions, warnings, and section breaks. These features can help make your client’s experience with the form easier. They are unrelated to the Filevine project.

Click and drag the feature to the desired place on the form, or click on it to add it to the bottom of the form.

Set Form Settings

To control and adjust the settings for the form, click Settings in the top right corner. In the Settings modal, you can set:

• days until expiration: by default, the form is set to expire after seven days. Once a form has expired, the client will no longer be able to open, edit, or submit it, and the form must be resent if needed.
• document tags: when a client submits a form, a form response PDF is attached to the Activity feed note and added to the Docs section. The tags included here will be applied to the PDF document. (If these tags do not exist in the project, they will be created upon form submission. They do not need to be added in the Tag Manager.) By default, the tag #form-submission is added.
• portal messages: the text here is added to the subject and text fields of the portal message when a Filevine user attaches this form to a message. (The Filevine user can edit the text, if desired, before sending the form.) Click Add variable to insert a placeholder that will be filled with the indicated information upon sending. For example, the {{businessname}} variable would be filled with the Filevine Org’s name.

Publish

Before publishing, you can view what the form will look like to your client by selecting Preview at the top right of the screen. When you are ready to make your form available for sending, click Publish. 

Heads Up!

All edits to a form appear immediately and automatically, meaning that if your form is published and sent to a client, and you make edits on the form, the client will see any changes. If you attempt to make edits on a form with outstanding jobs, you will see a warning message.