Some use cases require collection of tabular data in tables, with complex mathematical equations in some columns
For example, emissions leak surveys. In this type of field work, a field tech collects values from field instrument, things like velocity and temperature, and enters them into a spreadsheet. Add some conversion rates and other values like diameter, and pretty soon the calculation gets a bit complex.
In many use cases, a field tech will record this type of information on paper and then transpose those values later into Excel. Or they might bring along a ruggedized laptop and enter those values directly into Excel while in the field. the Excel sheet they use might look something like the screenshot below:
Lots of individual spreadsheets and files…
There’s nothing wrong with using Excel for this stuff. Excel is pretty damn awesome at what it does.
But what if you have a bunch of these sites?
And what if you have to do this for each site multiple times a year?
Pretty soon you will have 50 spreadsheets saved in your cloud drive, or one giant spreadsheet with 50 worksheets or more.
It can get messy…just ask anyone working on them, or ask your own client if they like to sift through dozens of multiple worksheet spreadsheets to find their answers…
How do you build a table in XForms?
Easy. The Form Template Designer is fairly straightforward to use. To get started, add a new field to your form, and select the “Table” field type. Once you do that, you will be presented with a screen like the one below.
When you add a new column, your screen will look like this:
What are the benefits?
This question is easy:
- Centralized location for all of your data (instead of an ever-increasing number of disparate files spread out in your Cloud storage)
- Create the formula once, no need to worry about formula mistakes making their way to other rows, or worksheets, or other spreadsheets
- Field tech can take their phone to the field (which they likely already carry around), instead of taking a laptop
- Automations on the backend, like auto-PDF generation, instant notifications to the Project Manager, auto data extraction and insertion elsewhere via the XForms open APIs
- Instant access to the data and PDFs to your own customer, providing additional transparency to them
What this looks like when using it on a phone..
What does this cost?
At XForms, we use a per user per month billing model currently pegged at $25/user/month. So if you had 5 people using XForms, the total fee for this system would be $125 per month. While not free, most firms can afford $125 per month for a system that automates a lot of mundane things, frees up your staff’s time to do more important things, doesn’t make mistakes, keeps things consistent, and ultimately costs less than the payroll hit to do this manually with your own staff.
Want to chat with us about your unique needs?
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