Creating requests for documents and info

A request is one thing you are asking someone for: a certificate, an answer, an agreement, a task they need to confirm they did. A portal's request list is the whole ask, and everyone on that portal works through it from their own private link.

This covers building that list. For what has come back on one portal, see Requests dashboard for one portal. For everything across all portals, see Requests screen for all portals.

Where the list lives

Open Portals, open a portal, and expand the Requests panel. The badge on the panel heading counts the live requests people can answer, so archived requests, sections and headers do not inflate it.

Click + Insert, pick a type from the row of tiles, name it, and click Add. The fields on the form change with the type you picked, so you only see settings that apply. When you are building a list, click Add and insert another instead: it saves the request and opens a blank form directly under it.

If you ask for the same things on every portal, save them as a request pack and add the lot in one go with Add pack at the top of the panel. See Request packs.

The types

Upload. A file. Insurance certificates, licenses, photo ID, a signed policy.
Text. A short answer, or a longer one if you tick Multi-line. Once it is added, the row has an expected format (Any, Phone number, Number, Date or Email) that checks the answer before it is accepted.
Choice. A list of options, one per line. Tick Allow more than one answer for checkboxes instead of radio buttons. Enter a single option and it reads as one tick-box acknowledgement, which is the quickest way to ask someone to confirm they have read something.
Date. One date, such as a date of birth or a start date, picked from the phone's date picker. Dates accepted can limit it to Today or earlier or Today or later. The answer stays on the request; to save a date onto the contact record, use Fields with a date field.
Fields. Asks for a value that saves onto the person's contact record. See "Saving an answer onto the contact" below.
Terms. Presents one of your saved terms templates. You can also require a typed name, a drawn signature, or both. The exact version each person accepts is recorded, so editing the terms later never changes what they agreed to.
Sign PDF. Upload a PDF (an employment contract, a policy, a contractor agreement) and each person opens it, ticks that they have read it, types their name and draws a signature. The exact PDF they signed is kept with their signature, and you can download a signed copy: the PDF with a signature page added. Replace the PDF later and anyone who signed the old one keeps their signature and is flagged, with a button to ask them to sign the new one. See Asking someone to sign a PDF.
Tasks. A checklist of things the person has to go and do, then confirm: complete the site induction, watch the safety video, walk the site.
Header. Not a request. A heading, with an optional description and attached document, for breaking a long list into readable blocks or giving people something to read before they answer.
Section. A conditional block. It is created the moment you click the tile, and you set its title and conditions on the row afterwards.

Terms, Sign PDF and Tasks start with Required ticked. When you publish a new version of a terms template, the row shows who accepted an earlier one, with a button that emails them a link to sign the current version. Their earlier acceptance stays on record. More in Terms and conditions.

Tasks

A Tasks request holds a checklist two levels deep: tasks, with steps under each. The quickest route is Add from a workflow, which adds one task named after the workflow with its steps underneath. Apply two workflows to the same request and you get two tasks in it. You can also type a single one-off task.

The request is one ask, so it is one line on your dashboard however many steps sit inside it, while the person still ticks each step.

Tasks and steps default to required, so untick the exceptions. An optional item still shows and can still be ticked, but it does not hold up the request. Required items only hold anything up when the request itself is Required.

Step text comes from the workflow, so correcting a procedure once corrects it everywhere it is used. Editing it on the row overrides it for that portal only. What an item said is recorded the moment someone ticks it, so a later edit never rewrites what they confirmed.

Required, and the upload exception

Text, Choice, Date, Fields, Terms, Sign PDF and Tasks carry a Required tick box. A required request counts toward the person's completion and keeps them on your outstanding list until it lands.

Uploads work differently. An upload has no Required box. It has Min files and Max files instead, both starting at 1. Min files is what makes an upload compulsory: set it to 0 and the upload becomes optional, and the row shows an Optional badge. Raise Max files when one document is not enough, for example a certificate with two pages photographed separately.

Sensitive on a Text, Date or Upload request is for a tax file number, bank details or ID. The answer is stored encrypted, shown masked to your team, and only admins can view it in full, with every view recorded. See Keeping sensitive information private.

Require expiry on an upload asks for an expiry date alongside the file. That is what turns a document you collected once into something you can track and chase on the Requests screen before it lapses.

AI expiry date check (Upload with an expiry date). WorkZerk reads the expiry date on each uploaded file and compares it with the date the person entered. In Needs review and in the Review window the file shows Matches the document, or Document says with the date it found, so you know which files to open. It reads PDFs and images, takes up to about 10 minutes after the upload, and never approves or rejects anything: that stays with you. To stop it for a request, tick Don't use AI to check expiry date when you add the request, or No AI check on its row. Files for that request are then never sent to AI and show Not checked.

Saving an answer onto the contact

Pick the Fields tile and choose the field in Custom or linked field. The list has three groups:

+ Save to contact. Your custom fields that save onto the contact record. The answer is written straight through, so a license number asked once is there to read next year without digging back through submissions.
Linked fields. Built-in contact details such as Company, First name, Last name, Mobile and Website. The person sees their current value and can update it.
Custom fields. Custom fields set up as reusable questions only. The answer stays on the request.

You manage custom fields under Fields. See Custom contact fields.

For uploads, Document type files each upload under that document type on the contact, so the same certificate across several portals reads as one history. See Tracking a document across portals.

On a Choice request you can tick Save these options as a reusable custom field, which puts the option set in the Fields picker for future requests. Answers still stay on each request.

Attaching something for them to read

Any request can carry a reference document through Attach a document, link or YouTube video: upload a file (PDF, PNG, JPEG or WebP), add one from your Files library, or paste a link to one you host elsewhere. Use it so people can read the policy before they sign it, or see the PPE photo before they confirm they have it. An attached image can be shown inline on each person's page rather than as a link, and a YouTube link, such as an induction or safety video, plays on the page. See Attaching a document or video to a request.

Ordering the list

Drag the grip handle to reorder. The + Insert dividers between rows add a request in a specific place rather than at the bottom, and Hide insert turns those dividers off once the list is settled.

Order matters: it is the order people meet your questions, and the order the dashboard and the printed report list them in.

Conditions: who sees what

A condition hides a request until it applies, which stops a list bloating for everyone in order to cover a few. There are two gates.

On an answer. Any request has Show only when under it: pick a Choice question and the answer that reveals this one. For a group of requests, use a Section instead: open it, click Limit who sees this, and set the question and answer there. Ask "Are you bringing your own equipment?", then put the four equipment questions in a section gated on Yes. Add several conditions and choose Match all or Match any. The question has to sit outside the section it controls, or nobody could ever answer it.

On who they are. A section also has Show only for specific people: a list of everyone who holds a link to that portal. Tick the ones it applies to. Leave every box unticked and there is no limit. On a portal with more than 30 people, the list shows only the people already ticked, and a Find a person by name to add box below it finds the rest.

Set both and they combine: the person must be ticked and have given the answer. Sections do not nest, so starting a new one closes the one before it.

Archiving and deleting

Archive a request to take it off the live list without destroying anything. It stops being asked, drops out of the panel's count and your default view, and the request and every response already given are kept. Turn on Show archived to see archived requests, each with an Archived badge, and click Restore to put one back.

Delete is for a request you should never have asked. It is offered once nobody has answered yet, or after you archive the request, and it deletes the answers and files with it.

Each request also has Admin history, which lists changes made to the request and who made them. See Tracking changes to a request and its answers.

Getting help

If something here does not match what you see on screen, email [email protected] and we will take a look.