Forms – Electronic and paper based

A business without paper work can never be imagined. Any task undertaken in a business, like recruiting employees, handling customers, paying bills, and delivering receipts, everything requires forms. Invoices, receipts, contracts, customer information, all are form driven. If you delve into the financial domain all data is form based and extremely important.

Different types of forms are utilized in managing a business. When it comes to financial forms, it is extremely important to have the forms labeled well to understand what they are meant for. Incoming and outgoing transactions must be tracked properly using the right set of forms. Especially since accounting is the heart of businesses, and all financial holdings will be accrued based on form data, they become imperative. Accounts are followed by HR forms. Recruitment is a continuous process, and employment application forms, appraisal form, time punching forms, and payroll forms are required by the HR department.

In much the same way, forms can be applied to any business domains, from hospitals, health care, insurance to legal, judiciary, administrative or government. All of them would have inventory of forms, sales forms, customer / personal forms but the importance of each of these would vary and so would the design.

Web forms are used by business establishments that have online presence. They help to gather information from visitors on various aspects. For companies who have strong Internet wing, the communication address which will be of more importance to them, would be the email address. It is therefore important to have it traced, validated and confirmed before accepting it. The email id serves as contact information in many cases.

Accessibility is the major aspect in a form, as it enables ease of use. Simple and usable forms have become mandatory in business. Layout of the form and the format of the data entry fields are small things that should be taken care of. A most common example is that of the Date of Birth field, you must specify how the date is to be entered. Alternatively you can present a calendar. Mistakes can be reduced to a great deal while filling in an online form, when compared to manual claims. Bland forms which have a lot of information to be filled in, should be spaced out well. Also from the user perspective spending a lot of time filling it up, the appearance and navigation between fields should be managed. Pleasant colors and fonts are always appreciated.

But do not make the form too jazzy as it could ruin the purpose of a form. If the form has anything to do with children then you can adapt a color theme, else it is best to stick to black and white. The forms usability should extend to all types of users, those who are computer friendly and novices. There must be special provisions for handicapped and physically challenged people. Downloading options are not advisable, and the user should be allowed to enter the data straightaway.

Forms can be categorized into paperless and printable forms. Today’s offices are looking for paperless transactions, and they find business forms attractive and efficient. A user must be able to back up data. At times users don’t have own computers and hence cannot store form data electronically, bearing this is mind, there has to be a print option for user, which provides a copy in printed paper format, a copy of filled out difgital form. Whether paperless or printable, forms are indispensable for any business.