Create easy forms for collecting on-site job info

Streamline Your On-Site Data: Introducing Customisable Digital Forms in Payaca

Is your business struggling with inconsistent or incomplete information from site visits? Paper forms get lost, handwriting can be illegible, and vital details can be missed, leading to delays and costly errors. Payaca offers a powerful solution: Custom Field Sets, our feature for creating easy-to-use digital forms that your field team can complete directly on their mobile app.

This blog post explains how you can use Payaca to standardise your on-site data collection, ensuring you get the exact information you need, every time, for any job – whether it's a solar panel survey, a heat pump installation checklist, or an EV charger site assessment.

What Are Custom Field Sets in Payaca?

Think of Custom Field Sets as your digital, customisable questionnaires or forms. You design them within Payaca to ask for specific pieces of information. For example, for a "Solar Survey" form, you might include fields for:

• Roof pitch (as a drop-down list)
• Property type (e.g., domestic, commercial)
• Number of panels required (as a number input)
• Existing electricity provider (as a text field)

You can tailor these forms for any process, from initial lead qualification to final commissioning.

Why Switch to Digital Forms for On-Site Data?

The benefits of using digital forms like Payaca’s Custom Field Sets are significant:

• Consistency: Every team member collects the same information in the same format.
• Accuracy: Clear, typed responses reduce errors from illegible handwriting. Drop-down lists and specific field types (like numbers or dates) ensure data is entered correctly.
• Efficiency: Field staff can fill out forms quickly on their mobiles. Information is instantly available back in the office, eliminating delays and the need for manual data entry.
• Centralised Information: All data is stored securely within the relevant job in Payaca, easy to access and review.
• Professionalism: Impress clients with organised, digital processes.

Setting Up Your First Custom Field Set: A Quick Guide

As shown in our accompanying video, getting started is straightforward:

1. Navigate to Settings: In Payaca, find the "Custom Fields" section.
2. Create a New Field Set: Give your form a name (e.g., "Heat Pump Pre-Install Checklist").
3. Add Your Fields: Choose from various types:
   • Text for short answers
   • Drop-down lists for predefined options
   • Number fields for numerical data
   • Date pickers
   • (And more to come, like image capture! )
4. Assign to Jobs: Once created, you can schedule an event (like a site survey) and attach your custom form as a task for the assigned engineer. The office team can even pre-fill some information if needed.

What Your Field Team Sees

Engineers in the field will see the assigned form as a task within their Payaca mobile app. They can:

• Easily open and complete the form.
• See any information already filled in by the office.
• Submit the completed form directly from site.

The app is designed to be intuitive, even for less tech-savvy team members, and it works offline, syncing data when a connection is available.

Bringing It All Together: Using Your Collected Data

Once a form is submitted, the data is instantly visible in the Payaca office system, attached to the relevant project. This means:

• No more waiting for paperwork to return to the office.
• All job information is in one place, from initial enquiry to final sign-off.
• This structured data can then be used to pre-populate quotes, invoices, compliance documents (like MCS paperwork ), or even trigger automations within Payaca.

The Future is Flexible: More Enhancements Coming

We're continuously developing this feature. Soon, you'll be able to include image uploads as part of your forms (e.g., "Photo of the meter location") and even allow customers to fill in certain information via the Client Portal. Plus, all this data is accessible via the Payaca API, allowing for deeper integration with your other business systems if needed.

Ready to Organise Your On-Site Information?

Payaca’s Custom Field Sets are designed to give you the flexibility to capture the data your business needs, simply and efficiently. Reduce errors, save time, and ensure every job runs smoothly with all the necessary information at your fingertips.

Watch our video to see it in action, or if you're new to Payaca, book a demo to see how we can help streamline your entire workflow.

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