Several people on one request

Some forms are answered by more than one person: a couple who each fill in their own details, a client and their CPA, two people buying a home together. One request can go to all of them. Each person gets their own link and answers only their part, and you get back one reply with everyone's answers in it.

Name who answers on the form#

Who answers is part of the form, so you set it once and every request from that form follows it.

1. Open the form. At the top, Who answers what says "Only the client answers this form" until you choose Add someone and pick who they are: a spouse or partner, a business partner, a CPA, an attorney or an advisor, or Other… to name them yourself. The client is always there, and answers anything not given to someone else.
2. Beside each person, Choose sections lists the form's sections: tick the ones they answer. Each person lists the sections the client and their own people each answer for themselves, which suits questions such as their name, date of birth and photo ID. A professional such as a CPA, attorney or advisor is never asked these: a role you name yourself counts as the client's own only when it is one of theirs, such as Trustee, Beneficiary, Owner or Officer. Each row says what that person answers. The same choice is on each section heading, under Answered by, and the two always agree.
3. To give one question to someone other than its section, choose them under Answered by on the question itself.
4. If the form asks for a signature, tick Signs beside each person who signs. The client signs unless you untick theirs, and somebody always has to.
5. Check it under Preview as, above the preview: choose the client or a role to see exactly the page that person gets, their part only, with the card at the top of it and whether they sign.

Keep on client and Whose number is this offer each role too. That is who the answer is about, which can be someone other than who answers it: a client can give their spouse's date of birth, and it is kept as the spouse's either way. A profile is kept only for the client and their spouse or partner, so an answer about anyone else, such as a CPA, stays in the reply without being filled in next time; the builder says so under the question.

A question can only depend on another one the same person answers, so nobody is ever left waiting for someone else. Keep a question such as marital status in a section the client answers, and put what each person answers about themselves under Each person. A role can't be removed while a section or question is still given to it.

Several of the starter forms already name a spouse, partner or co-buyer this way.

Send it#

When you send a form that names roles, from Send a form or the form's Share dialog, the send has a People section under the client, with a line for each role. Each person chosen shows as a card saying what they answer and whether they sign, such as "Answers Taxes · signs", and how their link will reach them; the client's card says what is left to them. Send names everybody it goes to, such as "Send to Dana and Sam".

• Each role fills itself from the client's client group, with whoever holds that role there and can be reached: their co-client fills a spouse or partner role, their CPA a CPA role, and a role you typed, such as Trustee, whoever has the same words under What they are. A role two people hold is left for you to choose, unless the role takes More than one. Somebody already on this client's open request for the form isn't filled again, and the role says so; a CPA who works for several of your clients is filled for each of them. Change any of them, choose someone else from your contacts, or type a new name, choose Add someone new and enter their email address or cell phone number. When you pick someone for a role, the other people in the client's own client group are listed first. See Clients and client groups.
• Somebody the client's group holds for a role but who can't be sent it is not filled in, and the role says why: they have no email address and no number they agreed to be texted at, they already have this form open, or two people hold the role and you choose which.
• Details on a person's card shows their email address and cell phone number and Send by, as the client's does. Anybody on the request can be reached by email, by text, or both: to text someone who hasn't agreed to texts before, tick Text and confirm they agreed, and their link is texted once they reply YES. See Text messages.
• Press Leave empty and the client answers that role's sections themselves. A form sent to the client alone is answered entirely by the client, exactly as a form without roles is.
• One person can fill more than one role, such as a CPA who is also the trust's attorney, or your client who is also a trustee. Choose them for each role: their card says they are the same person, and they get one link to every part that is theirs. Your client can fill any role but their own spouse or partner's. Choosing your client for a role is not the same as leaving it empty: they answer it either way, but they sign as that role only when you choose them for it.
• Each role takes one person. A role with More than one ticked in Who answers what takes several people instead, such as a trust's trustees: each gets their own link, answers their own copy of the role's sections, and signs if the role signs.
• Where the form is offered in more than one language, Reads in under each person chooses theirs. Their email, texts and pages are in it, whatever language the client reads in, and they can still switch on their page.

Sending to many clients at once, and sending on a schedule, fill each client's roles the same way, from their own client group, on the day each request goes. See Batch sends and schedules. A send lined up for later keeps whoever you chose and checks they can still be reached when it goes.

What each person sees#

Each person gets their own email with their own link. It says whose request it is, which sections are theirs, how long their own part should take, and that only they and your firm see their answers. Your note goes to the client only, unless you choose Everyone on this request under it when you send. On their link, each person sees only their part. The top of their page says what their part is, in sections, minutes and documents, the documents to have handy, and each other person's role and where they stand, but never what anybody wrote. A question that saves a known fact about someone else names them ("Daniel's date of birth"), the same question asked of the person it is about says "Your date of birth", and any other question about someone else is marked with that person's name. Each person can send up to 500 MB of documents in their own part.

Somebody other than the client is told first, at the top of their page, whose request it is and which firm it is for, and what they are asked to do, such as "answer 2 sections · sign". Your client is told the same when their part is more than the usual one: when you gave them a role of its own, or they sign for more than one, such as "answer everything else · sign twice, as Client and as Trustee". That holds even on a request your client answers alone. Under Your details they can correct only their own: who they are, and for the client's spouse or partner, the facts about them. Somebody from outside, such as a CPA or an attorney, is asked only for their name, email address, phone number and employer. Nobody sees or corrects anyone else's.

If the link reached the wrong person, or they have no part in this, Not you? at the top of their page lets them say which, before they have saved anything of their own. Their link closes, they are not reminded or asked to sign, and you are emailed which of the two it was. Anything they added is on the request, under their name in People, and never in the email. Their part waits for you: replace them, or ask your client to answer it.

Your client can also answer someone else's part themselves, before that person has begun it: they choose Answer it myself at the top of their page and confirm the other person agreed. Nothing moves: the part stays that person's, every question of it, and your client fills it in for them from their own link. A button to answer that person's part now opens it, every question names the person it is about, nothing you have on file about them is filled in or shown, and Back to your own part returns to theirs. Their details stay out of your client's own Your details while your client is answering for them. Once your client has sent their own part, their link opens the one they still have to answer. What they type is that person's answers, and a fact about the person is kept as theirs. Their own link stops asking them anything; if their role signs, they still sign once everything is in. People shows that your client is answering their part, the part reads "answered by" your client when it arrives, and the record says your client did it for them. Until your client has typed anything in it, they can give it back.

Each person sends their part when it is ready, and is emailed a receipt for it that names who is still to send. You are told as each part arrives, and can read it straight away on the request's page, under that person's name, while the others are still writing theirs. A part nobody has sent yet shows only that it hasn't been sent: what someone is still writing stays theirs. Reviewing, exporting and sending the reply back wait until the last part is in, and the request then moves to Ready to review. Reminders go to each person who still has something outstanding.

Wherever people are listed, each is shown one of the same few words: Not started, In progress once they have saved something of their own (opening their link isn't enough), Replied, Waiting to sign, and Signed.

If the form asks for a signature, the client signs, and so does every role marked Signs. Everybody signs the whole reply once every part is in: whoever sends the last part signs as they send it, and the others are sent a link to sign. Their link shows them everything that was sent, and who answered each section, before it asks for their signature. A signer who hasn't signed is reminded three days after they were asked and again on the seventh, and you can remind them sooner from People. Each signer is told before they send whether they sign now or once everyone's part is in. Somebody who signs as more than one role, such as the client and a trustee, signs once for each, in one visit and with one code: they tick Sign as for each role, and each signature on the record says which role it was given as. Also has to sign is not offered on a form with roles, because the roles say who signs.

After you send#

On the request's page, People lists everybody, how far each has got, and a Remind button for anyone still to send their part or to sign. On Requests, a shared request is one row, with each person's progress under its name, and how many parts are ready to read.

Looking at one person

Above the request's track, a row of tiles shows everybody on the request: their name, their role, a dot for each step they have reached, and where they stand, such as "3 of 5" while they answer. Someone who wasn't reached, or who said it isn't them, is outlined so you see them first.

With Everyone chosen, the track below has no times under the steps each person goes through, since everybody reached them at a different moment. Instead each person is shown at the step they have got to: point at them to see when they did it, or choose them to see their part. Those steps stay open until the whole reply is in; choose someone to see their own steps filled in as they go.

Choose someone's tile and the page shows only them: their own track (sent, opened, started, replied, and signed if they sign), their part of what you asked for, their answers and documents, and their record. People marks them, so Replace…, Remind and More are right beside them. Choose Everyone, or press Esc, to see the whole request again. Choosing someone only changes what the page shows. Asking for more, and everything else you can do from the page, still covers the whole request. The address keeps your choice, so you can send a teammate a link that opens on that person.

Who answers which section is fixed when the request goes, so it never changes under someone who has started. What can change is who stands in a role, until that person has sent their part. Anything someone typed or uploaded without sending is theirs, so it never passes to anybody else: whoever answers the part next starts it fresh.

• Replace… beside someone gives their whole part to somebody else. Their link stops opening it, and the new person is sent their own.
• More beside someone offers the rest:
  • Fill in their part for them, when the firm has the answers itself, before they have started it. Once they have saved anything of their own, the part stays theirs until they send it. Their page opens for you, and their own link waits while you do. What you send is recorded as sent by you, for them, and People says it was filled in by you. If their role signs, they still sign the whole reply themselves once everything is in. Give it back to them before you send, and they are sent a new link to their part; the one they had stops working, since it opened in your browser too.
  • Take them off the request. Their part goes back to your client, and their link stops opening it. Not once your client has sent their own part, since it would reopen it: use Replace… instead.

An old link that no longer opens a form says why, rather than just that it has closed: that somebody else was asked, that they were taken off, that the firm is filling in or filled in their part, that they said it isn't theirs, or that the client is answering their part.

• Somebody who filled a role but isn't in the client's client group can be kept there in that role with one click (Keep as), so the next request fills it by itself.
• A button for each role nobody fills, such as Add CPA, sends that person their own link. They take only that role's questions your client hasn't started. Choose somebody already on the request and they take the role on the link they already have. Anything your client has begun stays with your client. A role with More than one ticked always has one, such as Add another Trustee, which sends another holder their own copy of the role's part.

When you review the reply, each section says who answered it, and a section each person answered appears once for each of them, under their name. The PDF, the signed record and the exports say the same.

To ask one person for more after they have sent, send the reply back and choose them under Whose part goes back. Only their part opens again. See Sending back for changes.