PeopleSoft’s Forms and Approval Builder enables you to design online forms and deploy them to users within your organization based on your specifications for the approval process they require. The Forms & Approval Builder fulfills a niche area within PeopleSoft which allows functional users to develop forms on the front-end of PeopleSoft.
By building and developing forms on the front-end, this allows for the reduction of complex and ‘clunky’ pages, thus simplifying the developer and user experience. Users are able to convert manual procedures within their organization into paperless processes that include workflow-based approvals and offers an audit trail for tracking progress.
For example, Elire worked with Sava Senior Care included implementing a form for requesting absences as well as forms for onboarding new talent. There is no coding required by the user, and a key benefit is the fact that future upgrades to your PeopleSoft system will not require you to update these forms, since the forms created don’t include customizations. Both functional and technical users will find value in the capabilities of the Forms & Approvals Builder and the new fluid interface which allows for form submissions on mobile devices.
Although a relatively simple solution for converting manual procedures into paperless approval processes, the technical Forms and Approval Builder might not be the go-to option for digitizing these workflow processes depending on your needs and use for the form. While forms are easy to put together and submit, data storage isn’t the most straightforward and functionality is limited.
Though developers can map data collected on forms to PeopleSoft Component Interface which allows form data to be copied to a PeopleSoft transaction, tracking and organizing this data isn’t the most intuitive process. If data storage and the ability to customize the organization of the data submitted through forms is a high priority, a template-derived form might not be the best solution when developing a more customized solution would make the most sense for your specific needs.
Highlighted below are a few of the form’s limitations:
- Prompt records are allowed but this may require developers to create records/views that are specific for the need of the forms
- Multi-row entry is not allowed, i.e. grids or scrolls that are available in Application Designer
- There is no field defaulting, data cannot be pre-populated based on the input of other fields
- Enabling or disabling of fields is not an available feature therefore fields cannot be hidden or shown based on user input
- The lengths and formatting of the field are limited to predefined lengths and the types and data cannot be formatted upon user entry
- Peoplecode cannot be added to forms which prevents users from taking advantage of a big feature that exists in Peoplesoft
- Data is stored in forms tables which makes querying data out very difficult
- The search page cannot use field-specific searching. The user must rely on the subject of the form entered in by the user to find specific form data
- The user interface is not customizable and is a bit confusing. It may require some training around to the end-users
- Component interface capability does exist but can be quite difficult to implement due to the lack of editing capability of the data on the forms page
As a quick and efficient solution to replacing basic paper forms and emails with electronic versions, the Forms & Approval builder is worth looking into and exploring. For more information on maximizing the value of PeopleSoft, visit Elire’s PeopleSoft Services. To connect with an expert and discuss your options with our team, reach out to [email protected] to set up an initial call.
