Stages split one form between different people. The first person fills in their part and passes it on, then the next fills in theirs. It is one response, not several. Stages are on Foldr Cloud now and on appliances from 11.3.
What you need
A form with a Page break or Panel for each part. Mark which part belongs to whom, as below.
Set up the stages
- Open the form, choose Settings, then the Access tab.
- Switch on Fill this form in stages. The form starts with two stages. Choose Add a stage for more.
- For each stage, set Stage name (required) and Who completes it: Whoever fills in the form (first stage only), A particular user, or The user chosen in an earlier answer, which names a Person question.
- Switch on May correct earlier parts if that person may change what earlier stages entered. Switch on Email them so Foldr emails the person when it is their turn.
- On each Page break or Panel, set Filled at to a stage. Same as the page keeps a panel with its page. Anything not marked belongs to the first stage. The first page always belongs to the first stage, so put later parts on a later page. Each question’s card in Build shows the stage it’s filled at.
- In Preview, use the stage switcher (Preview as stage) to see the form as a person at that stage would.
- Publish. Publishing refuses a stage with no name, a stage with nothing filled at it, and a person taken from a question not filled at an earlier stage.
What people see
The page shows, for example, Stage 1 of 3: Application, and the button reads Submit and pass on. The next person finds the form under Shared with me, marked Waiting for you: and the stage name, and gets an email when Email them is on. They see earlier parts and cannot change them unless May correct earlier parts is on. They never see parts filled at later stages, and Foldr itself enforces that, not the form’s logic.
The email reads “A response to your form is waiting for you”. If the person hasn’t finished, Foldr reminds them on the form’s own reminder schedule (Send reminders on the Access tab), up to three times, when Email them is on.
Only the last stage’s submit runs the form’s normal submit steps: the output file, custom fields, signing, approvals and automations. Send for signature to the submitter means the person at the first stage. The PDF or Word record of the finished response has a Completed by section listing who did each stage and when.
Follow it up
On Submissions, a response shows Waiting at a stage, with Stage and Assigned to columns and a Filter by stage. Open a response for Stages completed.
- Reassign gives the current stage to another user.
- Hand-off email failed. If an email couldn’t be sent, the response stays open and its trail shows Hand-off email failed. Reassign to the same user to send it again.
- Cancel response stops the response waiting. This cannot be undone.
If something does not work
- Someone sees “This response is no longer waiting for you”. Their turn has passed, or they were replaced.
- Publish is refused. The message names the stage problem. On a form copied or imported from another tenant, it means a named user needs picking again, because users don’t travel between tenants.
- A Person question on a public form asks for a group limit. Only a Person question filled at the first stage needs one. A Person question filled at a later stage doesn’t.
Branches, a deadline for each stage and a group as the person for a stage are not built yet.