When working in IndyForms, it's important to understand the difference between Forms and Form Records, especially when sharing forms with others.
Forms vs. Form Records: what’s the difference?
Forms: A form is the template—the set of questions, fields, and structure you design—used to gather information in a repeatable format from respondents.
Form Records: A form record is a single instance of a form assigned to someone to complete+. Every time you share a form with someone, a new form record is created specifically for them—unless otherwise specified. (See below.)
We use the term form "records" instead of form “responses” to align with our focus on compliance.
+In IndyForms, anyone completing a form record is a ‘contributor’. If the record is for an Internal form, that contributor must be an IndyForms user. If it's a Public form, the contributor does not have to be an IndyForms user; they will complete the record anonymously as a Guest User. Learn more.
Sharing Forms
When you share a form with someone, a form record is usually* created for them immediately, and they become the sole contributor to that record.
In other words, when you hit ‘Share’ on your form, you’re actually creating a form record for each respondent you’ve shared it with.
This means:
they receive a unique (blank) version of the form to complete
their responses are saved as a separate record in your system
you can track and manage individual form records separately.
This is useful when you need assigned respondents to complete a form, such as applications or official documents.
*Disabling instant form record creation
There may be cases where you don’t want a form record created instantly for every person you share the form with. For example, if you're distributing an optional survey to thousands of employees, you likely don’t want thousands of blank records automatically created in IndyForms.
This is where the “Create Records Now” option comes in.
You’ll find this setting in the ‘Publish’ tab of the form builder when designing your form.
If disabled, a form record will only be created when a respondent opens the shared form link, instead of upon sharing.
If you disable this option, you must ensure that the respondents you are sharing with have the “Create Records” setting enabled for them in your form’s Settings tab.
In summary:
“Create Records Now” options:
✅ Enabled (default) – A blank form record is immediately created for each person you share the form with, which you can track on the ‘Records’ page for that form.
⬜ Disabled – A form record is only created when a respondent opens the shared form link. This is ideal for optional forms like surveys, where not every recipient needs to submit a response.
Sharing Form Records
Each form record can also have multiple contributors.
If needed, you can invite additional people to collaborate on the same form record, allowing multiple respondents to contribute to a single submission. You can even give respondents permission to share their form record with others.
Key takeaways
Sharing a form → Creates new form records, unless "Create Records Now" is disabled (then records are only created when respondents open the form sharing link).
Sharing a form record → Grants access to an existing record for collaboration.
By understanding this distinction and adjusting the "Create Records Now" setting, you can control when form records are created.
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