Your Digital Form FAQS
Looking for clear answers about digital forms?
This quick FAQ explains the key features, how the pro-Forms® Digital Forms work, what types of data you can capture in the field, and the security, compliance and technology requirements you can expect. Read on to choose the best digital form option for your team, customers and contractors.
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If you’d like to see how Mobile Forms could fit your workflows then why not request a Demo or start a Trial, and share an example of a typical form so we can build the form for your Trial?
What is the difference between Online Forms & Mobile forms?
Online forms are opened and completed in a standard web browser — such as Chrome, Safari or Firefox — using an internet connection. They are ideal when you want to collect information from people outside your organisation, such as customers, job applicants, patients, parents or service users, by sending them a unique link or a QR code. The person receiving the form doesn’t need to download an app or have any kind of account to complete it.
Mobile forms work differently. They are designed primarily for your own staff working out in the field and are optimised for use on smartphones and tablets through the pro-Forms® mobile app. Mobile app users each require their own unique login. In practice, many organisations use both: mobile forms for on-site data capture by employed field teams — such as inspections, job sheets or compliance checks — and online forms for gathering responses from a broader external audience through the web.
Are my forms and data secure?
Yes.
Security and compliance are built into every layer of the pro-Forms® platform.
Your data is hosted in highly secure, purpose-built UK data centres and does not leave the United Kingdom at any point, including all backups — helping you meet UK data residency requirements and supporting your GDPR obligations. System databases are encrypted as standard, and field-level encryption can be enabled for additional protection on particularly sensitive questions within a form, such as those capturing personal, financial or health-related information.
All data is protected in transit using 256-bit encryption from the respondent’s browser to our servers, so information is secure from the moment it is submitted. The platform is fully GDPR compliant and is developed, hosted and supported entirely within the United Kingdom.
If you need to share our security or data handling documentation with your IT, legal or data protection team, our support team is happy to provide this on request.
How do people access an Online form?
Online forms can be accessed in two ways — via a unique form link or by scanning a QR code — and both methods open the form directly in the respondent’s web browser, with no app download or account registration required. When a form link is used, the recipient simply clicks or taps it in an email, a text message, a social media post or a website, and the form opens immediately in their browser on whatever device they’re using.
When a QR code is used, the respondent scans it using their smartphone or tablet camera, which launches the form in the browser automatically.
In both cases, the person completing the form needs an active internet connection for the form to load and for their responses to be submitted.
Forms are fully compatible with all modern browsers and work on desktop computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets without any additional configuration required on the respondent’s device.
What technologies are required for Mobile Forms?
The pro-Forms® Mobile App is available on both Android and iOS and can be downloaded for free from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Mobile users will typically need an internet connection to submit forms in real time, but the app also supports offline working through a built-in store-and-forward mechanism, making it reliable even in areas with poor or no signal.
For the best experience, we recommend enabling QR code scanning on the device camera and turning on location services so GPS coordinates can be captured on forms and images where needed.
No specialist hardware is required — most modern Android or iOS smartphones and tablets will work well. Office and admin users don’t need the app at all. They simply need a reliable internet connection and a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox or Safari to access the drag-and-drop form builder and administration tools.
Can company branding and existing form layouts be matched?
Yes.
The document layout generated when a field user submits a completed form — whether in Word or PDF format — can be fully customised to reflect your company’s brand.
This includes your logo, colour scheme, accreditation logos, contact details and any other standard content you include on your current forms or reports.
We can usually replicate your existing paper-based or PDF form layouts closely, which helps maintain familiarity for both your team and your customers, supports continuity during the transition from paper to digital, and can be important where specific layouts are required for accreditation or compliance purposes.
If you’re starting a trial, we recommend sharing an example of one of your current forms so our team can build a close match for you to test with real data. Most customers find this significantly accelerates their confidence in the platform and speeds up their go-live process.
Can Mobile & Online Forms manage complex processes and situations?
Yes.
Forms on the pro-Forms® platform can be configured with conditional logic, visibility rules, field dependencies and inline calculations to guide users through even the most complex workflows, step by step and without confusion.
Conditional logic means questions or entire sections can be shown or hidden based on answers given earlier in the form — so engineers only ever see what’s relevant to the specific job, asset or situation in front of them. This reduces errors, speeds up completion and makes complex processes — such as multi-asset compliance inspections, layered safety checks or detailed installation and commissioning records — straightforward and consistent across your entire field team.
Calculations can be used to total figures, apply scoring systems or trigger pass/fail outcomes automatically. The result is a more reliable, auditable record that accurately reflects the on-site process, regardless of how many variables or decision points that process involves.
What types of question can be used on forms?
Forms support a wide range of question and field types, giving you the flexibility to capture exactly the right data in exactly the right format for your business process.
Available field types include formatted text fields covering single-line, multi-line, decimal and integer inputs, photo and image capture with annotation tools, customer and engineer signature capture, GPS location stamping on forms and images, multi-select options such as radio buttons, checkboxes and dropdown lists, QR code and NFC tag reading for asset identification, date and time fields, and text labels and guidance notes to help engineers navigate complex forms correctly.
These field types can be combined in any configuration using the drag-and-drop form builder. Conditional logic and visibility rules can then be applied to show or hide questions based on earlier answers, making even complex multi-step processes straightforward and consistent for the person completing the form.
Can users complete mobile forms in their own language?
Yes.
pro-Forms® includes built-in AI-powered translation that allows form questions, answer options and guidance notes to be displayed in the user’s chosen language, even if the original form was built in English or another language. To set this up, you simply copy your existing form and convert it to the required language for the app.
The translation is applied instantly across all questions, answer options and any guidance notes included in the form, helping every user understand exactly what’s being asked of them.
This is particularly valuable for businesses with multilingual field teams, agency workers or subcontractors who operate in a different language to your head office or management team.
Clearer questions lead to more accurate answers, fewer mistakes and less rework — all of which saves time and protects the quality of your data. A wide range of languages is supported through the AI translation feature.
Can the Word/PDF report generated from a form be produced in a different language?
Yes.
The Word or PDF document generated when a field user submits a completed form can be produced in a different language to the one used to fill it in.
This means a form completed in English by a UK engineer can automatically generate a customer-facing or management report in French, Spanish, German, Arabic or another supported language — without any manual translation or additional administration.
It works the other way around too: a form completed in another language can produce an English-language report for your UK head office or management team.
This feature is particularly useful for businesses working with international clients, managing overseas sites, or reporting to multilingual head offices and regulators.
The translation is handled automatically by the built-in AI translation capability at the point of submission, so there’s no extra step for the engineer or the office team. The output simply arrives in the right language.