A regular site inspector typically completes between 2 to 15 reports each day. The length of these reports can vary widely, with some extending up to 30 pages and taking as long as 2 hours to complete, depending on the scope and complexity.
Using data prefill can cut this time by half, and eliminate the need to repeatedly enter the same information.
Let’s see how prefilled forms and professional form filling software will speed up your task completion, improve your operational efficiency and make your life easier.
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What Is Forms Prefill?
Forms prefill is the process of automatically populating fields in fillable forms with data from previously completed forms or from a third-party data source.
For example, a daily safety inspection form for a construction site includes fields for the inspector’s name, date, location, and equipment details.
By using prefilled forms, this repetitive information can be automatically populated from previous reports or a central database, allowing the inspector to focus only on new findings.
This not only saves time but also reduces the likelihood of errors, ensuring that each report is consistent and complete.
And if you have a CRM with all your client data, you can prefill information you already know about your clients, such as in sales contracts, giving your sales teams more personalized data to work with.
By the way, prefilled data doesn’t necessarily have to be final. You can always change or edit it manually if needed.
Examples of Forms Prefill
If you have processes that heavily involve repetitive documentation, data-intensive tasks and standardized forms, pre-filled documents would make your life so much easier.
- Sales contracts. Admins take order details from a CRM, and prefill a contract form with information like the customer name, address, and phone number Your sales team will only need to fill in several fields, and send it to the customer for e-signature.
- Work orders. Dispatchers prefill a work order template, and send it to technicians who fill them in after finishing their tasks.
- Inspection reports. Field technicians complete prefilled documents and inspection checklists faster, speeding up the inspection process.
- Employee onboarding forms: HR teams populate new hire forms with data from the system, speeding up the onboarding process.
- Maintenance checklists: Technicians auto-fill equipment details, last maintenance date, and standard checks, ensuring consistency and saving time during routine inspections.
Auto-populate multiple form fields in Fluix and reduce form filling time by 70%
Benefits of Forms Prefill
A part of automated form filling functionality, prefill helps eliminate unnecessary manual effort, and lets you stay focused on high-value tasks instead.
- Saved time for your team. With prefilled documents, your teams can focus more on error-checking the new information instead of having to re-enter what has been already done.
- Resource optimization: The time that is freed up from mundane tasks can be used for more strategic and productive activities.
- Better experience for contractors. Data pre-population can make life easier for your partners and clients. Prefill PDF form fields in advance, and make work with you a smoother experience.
- Error reduction. Automation always beats manual effort when it comes to error-proof data.
- Consistency and standardization. Prefill ensures data is consistent and synchronized across your forms and databases.
- Scalability: Forms prefill would adapt to an increasing volume of forms without compromising efficiency.
And what’s more important, you can integrate with other software systems and databases, extracting data and getting a unified approach to data management across all your departments.
To further improve your data management, start using a consistent file naming convention to easily locate and manage your files.
How to Prefill Forms in Fluix
There are three methods of data prefill in Fluix. You can choose any of them or all three, and use each one where needed.
Method 1. Prefill from the forms completed in previous tasks
Data for pre-population is taken from the already filled forms submitted by your teams through previously completed tasks. This means that information entered in earlier forms can automatically populate fields in new forms.
The setup is pretty simple. All you need to do is to choose a form and map relevant fields from which the data will be auto-populated.
Method 2. Prefill from an external tool initiated by Fluix
You can connect Fluix to any tool as long as it can send data via API, and extract data from it.
Basically it works as follows: during the workflow, Fluix sends a request to the external tool, retrieves the necessary data, and uses it to prefill the forms in the middle of the process.
Method 3. Prefill from an external tool Initiated by this external tool
This approach involves integrating Fluix with a third-party tool to trigger the prefill of forms.
When specific changes occur in the third-party tool, a webhook is activated. It initiates the whole process, automatically populating preconfigured fields in the Fluix forms.
This way, you don’t need to check the data in the third-party tool manually and just get a task assigned to you, with already prefilled data in the necessary fields.
Choosing the right method for form prefill in Fluix depends on your specific needs and workflow requirements. Here’s a summary to help you decide:
- Method 1 works best for workflows where data is passed from one task to the next within Fluix.
- Method 2 is suited for workflows that require fetching data from external tools where you use the same data.
- Method 3 is ideal when the workflow in Fluix is triggered by updates from an external tool.
For more detailed steps on each method, follow this settings guide: How to set up forms prefill
Getting Started with Forms Prefill
Getting started with Forms Prefill is a straightforward process. If you have questions or need assistance with settings, contact us at sales@fluix.io, and our managers will be happy to help you.
During a personalized 1-on-1 session, you’ll explore this form-filling solution, see how it helps with your business objectives, and set up your trial account to give it a test for yourself.
With Fluix, you can improve your form filling, provide your teams with the right tools to complete their tasks faster, and start enhancing your operational efficiency from Day 1 of tool usage.
