Starting a template
Templates appears in the menu for the Admin and Manager roles, and for anyone given permission to build or publish templates. Building a draft and publishing it are separate permissions, so you may be able to build a template but not publish it. Open Templates and pick whichever fits:
- New template: start from a blank form and add fields yourself.
- Describe a form: tell the agent what you need, for example "build a daily safety inspection form with a photo and a corrective-action field". You can also attach a PDF or a photo of a paper form. Check the draft it builds before you publish.
- Import: upload an existing Excel or CSV form and the agent turns it into a draft for you to refine. It maps columns to fields; very large or deeply nested sheets may need some tidying by hand.
Add your fields
A template is a list of fields. Each field has a type: text, long text, number, single or multiple choice, yes/no, date and time, email, phone, photo, file, signature, or a person. Add fields to a section with Add field, group related ones into sections, and mark the ones that must be filled in as required. To move a whole section, use Move up or Move down in its menu. To change the order of individual fields, ask the agent, for example "move Location above Inspection date".
Decide the workflow
A form's workflow is the states a record passes through and who owns each one. A simple form might be Open → Closed; an inspection might be Draft → Review → Approved. A new blank template starts with a simple three-step workflow, from draft to approval, and an imported one starts with none. To add, rename or remove steps, ask the agent, for example "add a Review step after Draft, then Approved or Rejected".
Then, in the Flow & Rules panel, choose each step's owners under Step owners (a person, a group, or whoever is named in a field on the form). Step owners can edit a record and move it on at their step, and Tebelis sends each record, with a notification, to the right person. At a step with no owner, anyone whose role lets them submit or approve records can move the record on.
Sending a record back to an earlier step asks for a comment by default; you can switch this off for that transition. You can also require a comment on any other transition, for example on approval.
Who fills in what, at which step
You can make a field, or a whole section, Editable at one or more workflow steps. For example, the inspector fills in the findings at Draft and the reviewer fills in the sign-off at Review. A field with steps set:
- Is hidden before the first of those steps.
- Can be edited at those steps only.
- Shows its value read-only at every other step after that.
A field with no steps set is editable at every step.
Conditional rules (optional)
Add conditional rules so the form adapts as it's filled in. For example, show a corrective-action field only when a check fails, make a field required only in certain cases, lock a field, or set a default value.
Publish
When you're happy, click Publish. To change the form later, click Create new version: records already in progress keep the version they were started on.
On the Free plan you can have up to three live templates at a time. A new version of a template you've already published doesn't count toward that limit.
Versions, archive and delete
Under Templates, tabs sort your forms into Live, Drafts, Superseded and Archived. A draft saves as you go.
A form's Version history lists every version. Set live puts an older version back in use, and Branch copies a version into a new draft for you to edit and publish. Publishing never overwrites an earlier version.
Other actions on a form's row in the list:
- Duplicate: copies the form as the starting point for a new one.
- Archive: retires the form. It leaves the forms list and the new-record pickers, its records are kept, and you can restore it from the Archived tab.
- Delete permanently: only works when no record uses the form, including records in Trash. Otherwise, archive it.
A form that another form uses as a subform can't be archived or deleted until you remove it from that form.
To take submissions from people without a login, see public form links.