Everything works on a phone, and you can stop and come back.
You can fill in a form from a firm you work with entirely on your phone, including taking photos of documents. You do not need an account, a password or an app. If you need to stop partway, you can come back and pick up where you left off.
Tap the link in the email or text the firm sent you. The form opens in your phone's web browser. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
The form starts with the firm's name and any note they added. It may also say roughly how long the form should take, when the firm would like it back, and the last day the link works.
If other people answer parts of the same request, such as your spouse or your CPA, the top of the page says Your part: how many sections are yours, about how long they take, and which documents to have handy. Below that it lists everyone else, their role, and how far they have got, but never what they wrote. Only you and the firm see your answers. If someone else's part is questions you can answer yourself, and they are happy for you to, tap Answer it myself beside their name and confirm. Their questions join yours, and they are not asked them.
The firm chooses how the form looks. Some forms show one section at a time: tap Get started, then Continue after each section. Others show every question on one page that you scroll through, with a Still to do list at the top so you can see what is left. On a long form the list is folded away; tap Show what is left to open it. Either way, the questions are the same.
If the firm sent the form to you personally, it may start with a card called Your details: what they have on file for you, such as your address, phone number or employer. It starts closed. If you know nothing has changed, carry on. To check, tap the card to open it. Tap Edit beside anything out of date, change it, then tap Done. Details the firm doesn't have yet are folded under Add what's missing. Tap Looks right to close the card again.
The firm reviews each change before it updates their records, and nothing reaches them until you send the form.
At the end of the card, How to reach you lets you choose how the firm writes to you about your requests: By email, By text or By email and text. Choosing a text option opens the text-message agreement on its own, with links to the text message terms. Tick the box and tap Agree to texts, or tap Not now to leave things as they were. If you agree, the firm texts you once to confirm your number. Reply YES for texts to start. The question mark beside your cell phone number is a reminder that it must be a cell phone that can receive texts, not a landline. Your receipt and a few other messages always come by email, and if a text can't reach you, the firm's messages come by email instead. Choosing By email turns texts off. Unlike your other details, this choice takes effect straight away. If you also changed your cell phone number above, texts start once the firm accepts the new number.
You do not need to finish in one sitting. What you type is saved automatically, and a note near the top of the page tells you when it was last saved. If a save fails, the page tells you.
To come back later, just open the same link again. If the firm sent the link to you personally, you can start on your phone and finish on a computer. Your answers are saved with the link, not the device. Going the other way, a document question on a computer offers Use your phone's camera: point your phone at the code it shows, and the form opens on your phone at that question.
If the link was shared more widely, for example on the firm's website, your progress is kept on the device you started on. To finish somewhere else, tap Save a link to come back and keep that link somewhere safe. Anyone who has it can see what you have entered so far, so do not share it.
The firm does not see your answers while you are working on them. They may be able to see how far along you are, but not what you have typed. Nothing reaches them until you press the send button at the end. On forms that show one section at a time, a last screen shows everything you entered before you send. Tap Change next to anything you want to fix, then Back to review to return to that last screen.
When you are ready, press Send to followed by the firm's name. If the form needs your signature, the button says Sign and send to instead, and a code is sent to you to confirm it is you. If a note appeared under any document you uploaded, it is listed again above the button, so you can check it before you send. See Uploading documents.
Where the form asks for a document, tap Take a photo, the first button under the question, to scan a paper document page by page. The scanner finds the page, straightens it and cleans it up, and sends the pages as one document once you tap Use scan. Nothing leaves your phone before that.
You can also tap Choose a file or Choose files to take a plain photo or choose one you already have. On some questions, tapping the button opens the camera straight away.
For a clear photo:
Photos are made smaller on your phone before they upload, so they send faster on a mobile connection. For more help, see Uploading documents.
You can switch between light and dark mode with the button at the top of the page.
When you are done, see After you send for what happens next.
Still stuck? The quickest help is from the firm that sent it, whose contact details are at the bottom of the form they sent you.