FORMS: Work Request Form
What is a Work Request Form?
A Work Request Form is a tailored intake form your Clients use to request work from you. You can build a different form for each type of job you handle (print, web, marketing, and so on), collect payment at the moment a request is submitted, and have each submission automatically move to the next stage such as an Invoice, Estimate, Project, or Task.
Work Request Forms are a form type inside the Forms toolkit, alongside your other forms. You can create as many as you need, one per workflow, each with its own items, settings, and access rules.
How do I create a Work Request Form?
From your Forms area, create a new form and choose the Work Request type.
Each Work Request Form is built as a guided, multi-step flow. Your Client moves forward and back through the steps, and their selections are preserved as they go. When you choose the request type, you pick between two ways your Clients can tell you what they need:
- Itemized: your Clients choose from a set of pre-configured, priced items you have set up.
- Free-Form: your Clients describe what they need in their own words, with the option to build their own line items.
TIP: If you change a form's settings after it is live, the form detects the change and reloads with the new configuration, so your Clients always see the current version.
How do I set up an Itemized request form?
For an itemized form, you add your pre-configured items to the form, and your Clients pick from them on the first step. Totals update live as they choose, taking quantity, rate, discount, and tax into account.
You can optionally require payment at submission. When payment is enabled, the flow adds a payment step where the Client pays through your chosen gateway (Stripe and other supported gateways) before the request is submitted. A paid Invoice is generated instantly on submission.
How do I set up a Free-Form request form?
For a free-form request, your Clients describe their needs in a rich-text editor rather than picking from a list. This is ideal when the work is too varied to itemize up front.
You can also let Clients build their own line items, each with a title, quantity, and rate, so they can spell out exactly what they are requesting.
Work Request Notification
To select who should be notified via email when the Form is submitted, toggle one of the following options.
Form Field Options
You can apply all of the standard Form Fields to your Work Request Form, including Default Fields, Custom Fields, and Advanced Blocks, allowing you to capture exactly the information you need. A Work Request Form can be configured for either Private or Public access which means it can be accessed from the Portal or externally (you choose). For this reason, Name, Email and a Work Request Subject field are compulsory.
In addition, you can add dedicated Work Request Fields, which ensure that Work Request-specific information is stored separately for each request you receive. You can select existing Work Request Fields from the dropdown menu, or click the + icon to create new ones as needed.
Form Assignments and Automations
Like other Forms that have the ability to be accessed externally, Work Request Forms include separate Assignments and Automations for Unknown Contacts and Known Contacts. These options, along with other form features such as Conditional Logic, function identically to those available in a Kickoff Form.
CLICK HERE to learn about Kickoff Forms
How do I make a form public or private?
- Private: Because the submitter is known, the form can offer a Project dropdown so the request is tied to the right Project.
- Public: Anyone with the link can submit, with no login required. The Project dropdown is automatically hidden, since there is no logged-in Client to attach.
Each form can be configured for either Private or Public access.
If you’d like only logged-in Clients to be able to view and submit the form, you can add it to a Dashboard or Portal page. Alternatively, if you’d like to make the form available externally, you can use the direct link found on the Link/Embed page of the form.
How do my Clients find the form?
You decide where each form lives. You can place a Work Request Form using a custom menu item, a Dashboard link, or a button, so it fits naturally into how your Clients already navigate your Portal.
How does automatic conversion work?
Every Work Request Form can automatically convert each submission into the document you want. Per form, you choose one of:
- New or Existing Invoice
- New or Existing Estimate
- New Project, or a Task on an Existing Project
- No auto-convert: the request is created and left open for you to handle manually.
You can also convert any request manually on demand at any time. Every conversion is recorded in the activity log, and you can optionally send a conversion email to the Client.
You control the outcome status too, such as which status to set when a request is converted, and which Task status to apply when a request becomes a Task.
How do I manage Work Request Items?
Your Work Request Items are managed centrally, in Project Settings. This is where you can search, filter, and sort by column to find any item quickly. Items carry the same pricing details you use elsewhere (rate, quantity, tax), so they behave consistently across your forms.
If you have the WORLDs Power-up, Items visibility can be controlled with Worlds, so you can decide which audiences see which items.
What happens to my existing Work Requests?
Nothing you have set up is lost. Existing accounts keep working exactly as before. Your legacy work request items and settings migrate automatically into an Alpha Form, a compatibility bridge that carries your previous configuration forward. There are no duplicate default forms created and no data loss.
IMPORTANT: The Alpha Form preserves your older Circle-based item visibility for continuity, but that visibility only applies to logged-in users. For new forms going forward, use Worlds to control which items are shown.