Sending a form to a client

A named request sends one client their own private link to a form, by email, by text or both. Because the link belongs to them, Cartenda can show you when they open it, track each thing you asked for, and remind them if they go quiet.

Send a form to one client#

Press Send a form wherever you are: at the top of Requests, on a client's page, or from the search box, where Send a form… is the first thing offered. A dialog opens.

Until one of your forms is accepting submissions, the button is grayed out. Point at it to see why, then publish a form under Forms.

1. Choose the Form. Only forms open to clients are offered. From a client's page, the client is already chosen.
2. Otherwise, click Client. The clients you heard from most recently are listed under Recent, so the one you want is often already there. Start typing to search by name, email, cell phone number or client group. Each client is shown with their client group and their place in it, such as "Rivera Household · Primary", and, when the form has a spouse or partner role, who would answer it with them. For somebody not on file, type their name, email address or cell phone number and choose Add someone new.
3. A client you choose becomes a card with their name and how the link will reach them, such as "By email to …". Press Details to see or change their Email, Cell phone number and Send by, or Change to pick somebody else. For somebody new, those fields open as soon as you add them: enter an email, a cell phone number, or both. The number must be a cell phone that can receive texts, not a landline.
4. Under Send by, choose how it goes: by email, by text, or both. Texting a number needs you to confirm the client agreed to receive texts. See Text messages.
5. Add a Note (optional) saying why you are asking. Clients are far more likely to reply when they know.
6. Press Send. The button names who it goes to, such as "Send to Jordan". While something is missing, the line beside it says what, such as "Add an email address or a cell phone number for Jordan Rivera."

The same fields are in a form's own Share dialog, under Send to clients, with the form already chosen. Press Share at the top of the form, on any of its tabs, to open it. Name the client in the box at the top: choose one from the list, or type a new name, email or number and choose Send to a new client. Add a second client and it becomes a send to many. See Batch sends and schedules. The dialog closes once the request is on its way. Press Share again to send to the next client.

A client can have one open request for a form at a time. In the list, such a client is greyed out with already has it open beside their name. If you send a form to someone who has not yet answered the last one, the send is refused and says when that one went out. Open that request and remind them instead; see Reminders and expiry. Once they have replied, or you cancel the request, the form can go to them again. A client who answered the form through its open link in the last month is still offered, with the day they replied beside their name, so you can decide whether they need the same questions again.

Any member of your workspace can send a form. The form has to be open to clients first, and a form needs at least one question, document request or acknowledgment on it before it can be opened or sent. If it is not, it is not offered in Send a form. On a draft, Share first asks Open this form to clients?, and Open and share opens it, which is held to anyone who can manage forms. A form with nothing on it yet says so in the Share dialog.

Settings you can choose for this send#

These are folded under Reminders and dates, with one line saying how they are set, such as "Reminded every 3 days · link lasts 90 days". Press it to change any of them. If one of them needs fixing when you send, it opens by itself.

• Remind them every 3 days, up to 3 times. On unless you turn it off. See Reminders and expiry.
• Link expires after a number of days, 90 by default, between 1 and 365.
• Ask for a reply by a date, if you want one. Your client sees it at the top of their form and in the email and every reminder. It has to fall after today and before the link expires. You can change it later from the request's page.
• Language, when the form is offered in more than one. Your client starts the form, and gets its emails and texts, in the language you choose. Leave it alone and they start in the language they chose last. They can switch on the form.
• Followed up by and Due for us. These say who at your firm owns the request and when you want it finished. Your client never sees them. If you leave Followed up by alone, it goes to the client's owner, or to you.

If the form asks for a signature and the client shares a client group with a co-client you can reach, you can tick that person under Also has to sign. They get their own link and code once the first person has sent the form, and they sign the same answers and documents. A form with roles says who signs on the roles instead; see below.

Send to more than one person#

When the form names roles besides the client, such as a spouse or a CPA, the send has a People section under the client, with a line for each role. Each role fills itself with whoever holds it in the client's client group, each card says what that person answers and whether they sign, and Leave empty leaves a role for the client to answer. Each person gets their own link to their own part, by email, text or both. One person can fill more than one role, your client included, and gets one link to every part that is theirs. See Several people on one request.

Send it later#

Press the arrow beside Send to choose Tomorrow, 9am, Monday, 9am, or Pick a date and time…. Times are on your workspace clock, which you set under Settings → Branding. Nothing is created until the chosen time. Until then the send sits under Waiting to go out at the top of the form's Requests tab, where you can press Call off, then Call off send, to cancel it.

What your client receives#

The email comes from your firm's name, with the subject "[Your firm] has requested your documents". It says roughly how long the form should take and how many documents it asks for, and it includes your note. It tells them they do not need an account, that the link works on a phone, the date you asked for a reply by, if you gave one, and the date the link stops working. There is an Open the form button, and a line telling them to check with you, using contact details they already have, if they were not expecting it. On a request several people answer, each person's email names whose request it is and gives the time for their own part instead; see Several people on one request.

A text is shorter and always uses the same approved wording. It names your firm, gives the link and says how to opt out. Your note goes in the email only. See Text messages.

If your plan's texts for the month are used up, the link goes by email instead. See Usage and allowances.

When you are at your plan's clients#

If you are already serving every active client your plan includes, both dialogs say so above the send. Sending to someone who is not already an active client makes them one more, which is charged monthly. Nothing stops you sending. See Plans.

After you send#

The request appears straight away under Waiting on client in The Requests list. Everyone you have sent a form to is listed on that form's Requests tab, the same list narrowed to that form, with how far each of them has got. The number on the tab is how many replies have arrived since you last signed in. Sending happens in the background. If a message cannot be delivered, the request is marked Did not arrive. Open it to see why, and use Correct the address to fix a mistyped email or number without starting over.

To withdraw a request, open it, press More and choose Cancel request. This needs permission to manage forms, which owners and admins have. The link stops working at once, and the client is not told. Anything they had already sent stays in your records.

To send one form to many clients, or on a repeating schedule, see Sending to many clients, and scheduling. For a single link anyone can use, see Open links.