Planning your Forms

Joel Baylis

June 06, 2025 19:58

So, you're ready to set up a form (or multiple forms) in Member365, but you have some questions, such as "What type of form should I use?" and "What is the best way to set up the questions?" This article is meant to guide you in strategically planning your forms to ensure a seamless setup of the actual form.

Before you start setting up a form, we encourage you to go through the following list of questions:

What is the purpose of your form? What information do you want to collect?
Am I requesting ONLY the information I need? Often, forms contain questions from a different time in the organization, and moving to a new system is the perfect opportunity to clean up your data collection, ensuring you no longer gather irrelevant information. More questions create more friction - the general rule of thumb: less is more!
Is this information relevant for / specific to an individual person, or is it related to their organization as a whole?
When / where do you want to collect the information (e.g., during application, renewal, events, etc.)
What questions do you want/need to ask to collect this information?
Are the questions open-ended, or is there a predetermined set of answers from which the respondent can choose?
Can they only choose one answer, or can they select multiple?
What do you want to do with the answers? In other words, how will this information be used?
Are you gathering information or testing whether or not the respondent knows the "correct" answers to the questions (as is the case with tests and quizzes)?

Types of Forms

The "Getting Started" article highlights the types of forms available in Member365, and here's a summary of when to use each of these types of forms.

Membership - These forms are used to gather information during the membership application and/or renewal processes.
Event Registration - Just as it sounds, these forms are used to gather information during events. These events can be attached to the event itself or to specific ticket types, if different tickets require different information to be collected.
Contact Demographic - These forms are helpful in collecting or storing information about individuals.
Organization Demographic - These forms are helpful for collecting or storing information about organizations.
Web Submission - These forms are ideal for collecting anonymous information and can be embedded on your website or sent via email.
Directory - These forms are used to populate your directory with additional information besides that which is already collected in Member365 (Salutation, Suffix, First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Title, Photo, Member Number, Member Category, Organization Name, and Address).
Test - These forms are used for the LMS to create tests that can have predetermined answers for ease of 'marking.'
Random Quiz - Similar to the 'Tests' these forms allow you to create questions with pre-determined answers. Using this form also allows you to create a "Question Bank" only some of which questions will be presented (in a random order) - making it harder for participants to share answers.

Types of Questions

There are several types of questions in the form builder, and this section provides a brief summary of them so you can decide which questions you may want to use for which purpose. When you know what type of question you want to use, simply drag and drop it into the relevant part of the form.

One of the biggest questions you should ask yourself before setting up the questions is, "Is the form respondent choosing from a select set of answers, and can they choose one or multiple options from those answers?"

Another important question is "Do I want to be able to sort people (for email lists or access to workspaces, for example) based on these answers?" If so, you'll need to have them choose from predetermined answers.

Text Input - Text input is very flexible in the sense the person completing the form can type whatever they want, but it comes with the drawback of not being able to filter by what is written.
Date Picker - This allows the responder to enter a specific date (such as a date of incorporation or expiry). ***
Memo / Text Area - Same as the "Text Input" but this field allows the responder to enter longer answers (such as bios or descriptions).
Email address Confirm - As it sounds, this field allows the responder to enter their email and then enter it a second time to confirm it is correct.
File - This field allows the responder to submit a file (or multiple) attached to the form. For example, you may ask for a phot of a certificate, license, logo, or profile photo.
Radio buttons (vertical) - These are used when you have a finite set of answers from which the respondent may (or must) select ONE option. You can use these answers as filters in the list builder. In other words, you can create a list of anyone who has given a particular answer to this question. "(vertical)" refers to the way the answers will be displayed on the form (as seen below).
Radio buttons (horizontal) - Same as above but these are options are presented horizontally (as seen below).
Checkbox (vertical) - These are used when you have a finite set of answers from which the respondent may (or must) select one OR MORE option(s). You can also use these answers as filters in the list builder. In other words, you can create a list of anyone who has given a particular answer to this question. Again, "(vertical)" refers to the way the answers will be displayed on the form (as seen below).
Checkbox (horizontal) - We won't insult your intelligence - shown below.
Dropdown (single-select) - This field behaves much like the radio button question; however, the answers are presented as part of dropdown menu (as seen below).
Header - This is used to create a header for a section of your form. There is nothing for a respondent to respond to with this field.
Iterator Start - This field allows you to place other questions between the "Iterator Start" and "Iterator End" so that these questions can - but need not - appear multiple times on the same form. For example, you may have a "Work Experience" form where you collect company, job title, and start and end date for each job. Some respondents may only have one job to report, but others may have multiple. In this case, you would place the "company," "job title"

Clicking on the '+ Add' button brings up the questions within the iterator

Question Setup

Each question type has it's own set up requirements. You get get to the 'Setup' for each question by clicking the 'Setup' link at the right side of each question.

Once in the question set up, every question type will have a slightly different set up, but every question will have a 'required' toggle. Turning this toggle green means a person cannot submit the form without answering that question.

Now, let's review the steps for setting up each question type.

Text Input: Write the prompt you want for this question in the 'Label for text input' text box (where it says "Write your question here").
Date Picker: Same as above.
Memo / Text Area: Same as above.
Email address Confirm: Same as above.
File: Same as above. Use the "Minimum Files" and "Maximum Files" fields to choose the minimum and maximum number of files allowed. Use the "Maximum Files Size" field to determine the maximum amount of TOTAL bytes the file(s) can be. (1024 Byte is equal to 1 KB. 1024 KB is equal to 1 MB. 1024 MB is equal to 1 GB.)
Radio buttons (vertical) - Similar to above, write the question in the "Question" field.

For the answers that can be selected, there are two ways to put them in. The first is to write it in the "Answer" box then click 'Add Answer'

When you click 'Add Answer,' you will see the answer added...

The other way to add answers to your question is all at once by clicking the "Paste Answers" button

In the page that ensues, you can paste your answers on separate lines in the indicated box and click "Go".

This will populate all the answers at once, as seen here:
Radio buttons (horizontal): Same as above.
Checkbox (vertical) - Same as above.
Checkbox (horizontal) - Same as above.
Dropdown (single-select) - Same as above.
Header: Use the "Header text" box to write the header, and the "Description text" box to write instructions for that section.
Iterator Start: Same as above. Use the "Minimum Quantity" and "Maximum Quantity" fields to choose the minimum and maximum number of times this section can be iterated (repeated).

NOTE

For the questions that can have predetermined answers on the 'Test' and 'Random Quiz' forms (question numbers 6-10 in this section), you will be able to determine the correct answer by checking the appropriate 'Answer' box(es).

Properties

As you can see, in the 'Setup' section of every question, there is a 'Properties' button.

These properties are foundational in determining how the information in this question will be gathered, accessed, and utilized. While many of these options are consistent, they will vary depending on the type of form you are working on and the type of question you are setting the properties for. Read through what the various 'Properties' can do as they will provide you with considerations for how you want the answers to this question to be used.

Membership

Appears on application - Is this question part of the application process?
Appears on renewal - Is this question part of the renewal process? (check this and the one above if its part of BOTH processes)
Allow member to update response - Once the member submits the response, can they edit it?
For office-use only - Is this question for back-end use only? (Checking this box means the member won't be presented with the question)
Include in Listbuilder - This allows you to filter by the way this question is answered using the 'List Builder' module.

NOTE

While this option is available for all question types, generally it is only recommended to be used for 'selection' questions (i.e., checkbox, radio, or dropdown)***

For 'Text Input' questions - any answers that contain the answer you search for will be included in the list. For example, if someone answered 'Test' to this question and you searched for 'Tes', they would be included in the list. If, however, you searched for 'Testing', they would not be included in the list. These answers are NOT case sensitive.

For 'Date' questions - you must enter the date in the following format and only exact matches will be included in the list: YYYY-MM-DD

For 'Memo / Text Area' questions - same as for 'Text Input' questions

For 'Email address Confirm' questions - same as for 'Text Input' questions

For 'File' questions - you cannot use this as criteria to filter by in the List Builder

For all selection questions, if that answer has been selected at all (even if others have also been chosen for a 'checkbox' question, they will be included in the list.

For questions within the iterator, the same rules apply, but if a person has multiple iterations, if ANY of those iterations fit the search criteria, they will be included in the list.

Include in Form Analytics - Checking this box allows you to get a quick look at this question in the 'Summary' tab of the 'Form Analytics'. For 'selection' questions, you'll see a pie chart, for other questions, you'll be able to click 'View Data' and see a summary of how that question was answered by all form respondents.
Track in Contact Change log? - Do you want to track changes to this question in the 'Contact Change Log'?
Make the answer a clickable link - For "Text Input" answers, this allows you to make the answer a clickable link (if you are asking for a website or social media link, for example).

Event Registration

For office-use only - See explanation in 'Membership' (above)
Include in Listbuilder - See explanation in 'Membership' (above)
Include in Form Analytics - See explanation in 'Membership'
Make the answer a clickable link - See explanation in 'Membership'

Contact Demographic

Allow member to update response - See explanation in 'Membership'
For office-use only - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Listbuilder - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Form Analytics - See explanation in 'Membership'
Track in Contact Change log? - See explanation in 'Membership'
Make the answer a clickable link - See explanation in 'Membership'

Organization Demographic

Web Submission

For office-use only - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Listbuilder - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Form Analytics - See explanation in 'Membership'
Track in Contact Change log? - See explanation in 'Membership'
Make the answer a clickable link - See explanation in 'Membership'

Test

For office-use only - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Listbuilder - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Form Analytics - See explanation in 'Membership'
Make the answer a clickable link - See explanation in 'Membership'

Random Quiz

For office-use only - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Listbuilder - See explanation in 'Membership'
Include in Form Analytics - See explanation in 'Membership'

Accessing Form Responses

Although it is more of a secondary factor in deciding what type of form you use to gather information, you may want to consider what means of access is most intuitive to your Administrative team. As such, this section lays out the ways each form is accessed within the software.
First of all, the responses to all forms can always be found in the 'Modules' > 'Forms' > 'Form Responses' section of Member365.

However, you will be able to access individual form responses in other ways.