Tips for Custom Forms

Find tips for creating and troubleshooting fillable PDFs and custom forms in Onboarding.

Test Forms Before Onboarding Employees

Experiment with forms and test them with multiple people before you onboard your first employee. Testers might be other members of your organization, or you can reach out to other Onboarding users through the The Network.

Convert Fillable PDFs to Custom Forms

HR Managementsupports fillable PDF versions of state withholding forms. However, to offer the best experience for your employees, convert your PDFs to custom forms, which allow greater flexibililty, whenever possible.

Ensure Digital Signature Capability

If you upload a fillable PDF that requires a signature, you may need to change the signature field to an electronic signature. An electronic signature allows your employees to sign the PDF digitally.

Verify that a PDF can be signed digitally

To verify that a signature field allows for a digital signature:
  1. Upload the PDF into HR Management as a custom task.
  2. Review the signature field. For PDFs that can be signed digitally, the signature field displays a clickable blue box.

Create electronic signatures

You must use a PDF editor, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro or BlueBeam, to change a signature field to a digital signature. Refer to your PDF editor's documentation for help creating digital signatures with that tool.

Do not use Adobe e-signature option

Currently, HR Management forms do not support Adobe's e-sign services. In Acrobat Reader, documents compatible with Adobe e-sign services may open with a message indicating that digital ID configuration is required.

To resolve this issue, convert the PDF to an Acrobat form:
  1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
  2. From the More menu, select Revert to Acrobat Form. See Acrobat Help for more details.

Add a Required Question to Ensure That Employees Complete Forms

Employees may inadvertently skip fields in a PDF or move on to another task without completing a form. To prevent this, add a required question at the end of the form. For example, you can add a custom Yes/No question at the end of a state W-4 form or a signature and date field at the end of your Employee Handbook. Be sure to mark these questions as required.

Use Text Fields on Direct Deposit Forms

For forms that include numbers, such as bank accounts, use the Text field instead of the Number field. Advantages of the Text field:
  • Allows for dashes and letters, whereas the Number field limits entries to numbers only.
  • Allows for a validation expression, meaning you can set it up so that employees must enter information in a specific format. For example, a bank account can be set to allow for a certain number of characters or a social security number can be set to include dashes. Employees must correct entries that do not match field requirements before they can proceed to the next step.