With Users and Groups, you can collaborate with your teams and even external stakeholders in IndyForms.
This allows you to:
Assign forms and delegate tasks to team members with ease.
Ensure teams complete required forms and meet deadlines with automated reminders and real-time tracking.
Collect and organise responses efficiently with visibility into submissions and progress.
Share forms with groups instead of selecting users one by one.
Restrict access to sensitive data to specific users and subsets of users (Groups).
Easily track who has completed what, ensuring compliance and accountability across teams.
Remember:
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 a respondent to complete. Every time you share a form with a respondent, a new form record is created specifically for them—unless specified otherwise. Learn more.
IndyForms Organisation: An Organisation in IndyForms is a separate workspace with its own dashboard, forms, users, and data. When you sign up for an IndyForms account, an Organisation is automatically created for you. You can join and create an unlimited number of Organisations, and Each Organisation can be linked to one account.
Understanding Users in IndyForms
In IndyForms, a User is anyone with login access to your Organisation. Users can be internal team members or external stakeholders.
There are two distinct types of users in IndyForms. User types determine what the user can see and do in their unique IndyForms account.
User Types
There are two primary user types:
Admin Users: Have full access to the IndyForms platform, including the ability to create and manage forms, view all data, and configure settings.
General Users: Have restricted access, limited to viewing and completing forms assigned to them, and accessing their own data.
Managing Groups
Groups in IndyForms are collections of users that simplify the management of access permissions and form distribution.
Default Groups
Every IndyForms Organisation contains two fixed, default Groups that align with the default user types. (However, additional custom Groups can be created.)
These two fixed groups house all users and cannot be deleted.
They are:
Administrators Group: Contains all Admin Users.
General Users Group: Contains all General Users.
Creating Custom Groups
IndyForms’ default ‘Administrator’ and ‘General User’ Groups may be enough for your needs. However, you will likely need to create additional Groups to manage your unique workflows.
You can use custom Groups in IndyForms to manage how users interact with forms/form records in your organisation. (This applies to "Internal" forms only; that is, forms accessible to your users only, not accessible to all).
By creating Groups that contain specific users, you can define what these Groups (and the users within them) can see and do on records shared with or created by them.
Custom Groups Summary
You can create additional custom groups to:
Assign forms to specific teams or departments.
Control access to sensitive data.
Streamline communication and task delegation.
Users can belong to multiple groups, allowing for flexible permission structures.
You can manage Group access to forms/form records in two areas of IndyForms:
Form settings
Form section settings
Form settings
Within the ‘Settings’ tab of the Form Builder is an ‘Access’ section that contains a table.
Here, you can configure access settings for any number of custom groups for the form (Available for Internal forms only). One form and its records can be accessed in different ways by different groups.
Select the (+) on the column header, add your Group, and select the relevant checkboxes.
By default, users can access only form records in which they are contributors.
If you select the (x) above your added Group, this will remove this Group’s specific access permissions on the form/form’s record/s. However, users can still access form records as contributors—including any additional access as set under the fixed ‘Contributors’ column in the Form Settings’ Access table—if the form (and thereby form record) is shared with them.
Form section settings
In addition to controlling how users can interact with forms and form records, you can also control user access to specific content on a form (internal forms only).
You can revoke view and/or edit access to form sections for specific user Groups.
That means you can hide specific sections, for example, Office Use-only sections, from particular users.
Simply hover your mouse over the form section on which you would like to configure access. A tooltip appears in the top right-hand corner of the section; select the cog icon. Then untick the ‘Can View / Can Edit’ options for your different user Groups or contributors.
Note that before you can restrict sections to some Groups, you must ensure those Groups have access to the form through Form Settings first.
Who are the Contributors?
A contributor in IndyForms is any user (or Guest User for Public forms) linked to a specific form record—either the user has created the form record themselves, or the record has been shared with them. One form record can have multiple Contributors.
There will always be a contributor on a form record, and there will always be administrator access to that record.
For this reason, Access permissions settings (the Access table in the Settings tab) for all forms will always show two fixed options for Administrators and Contributors. You can add Groups here, but you cannot remove an administrator or a contributor from form options.
Because of this, some Admin users may wonder if additional user Groups are required, when they can simply grant a user access by sharing a form with them (thereby making the user the contributor on the record created through sharing), or by adding the user to a form record as a contributor.
However, sharing one form to multiple users at once is only possible through Groups.
Additionally, there are default restrictions on contributors’ form/form record access.
For example, contributors cannot:
Create their own form records; they can only complete form records shared with them
Share forms with others for their records
View/edit all records in one form.
While IndyForms is designed to allow you to quickly share a form (and thereby a record) with a user who’s not part of a Group, as your team grows, the need for more complex access control is typically necessary.
For this reason, we recommend starting with User Groups, no matter the size of your own team.
Setting Up Users and Groups
Creating Custom Groups
Follow these steps to easily set up new groups in IndyForms.
Access the Groups section in the side menu.
Create a New Group by clicking + Create New.
Enter a Name for the group in the designated field.
Select users from the available options to add to the group.
Finalise Group Creation: Once you've named the group and selected users, click Save to create the group.
Note: If desired users are not visible, ensure they have been added to the Users list. Go to the Users section by clicking Users in the side menu, and add users using the Invite User button.
Adding Users
Follow these steps to invite users to your IndyForms account.
To invite users to your IndyForms account, go to Users from the side menu first.
Click on the Invite User button.
Enter the details of the user. All fields are mandatory, and please ensure that you assign them to their designated groups.
You can also add a customised invitation message to be sent with their invite email here.
Click Invite User to send your invitation email.
Once your users have accepted their invitations and created their IndyForms account, their status will change from 'Pending' to 'Active'.
Adding multiple Users to existing Groups
Following these steps, you can easily add multiple users to an existing group in IndyForms.
Access the Groups section in the side menu.
Click on the Edit icon associated with the desired group.
Search for the Users you want to add.
Select the required users.
Click Save to update the changes.
Adding a User to a Group
To add a user to a group in IndyForms, follow these steps.
Access the Users section from the side menu.
Click on the Groups icon associated with the specific user.
Select the desired user groups.
Click Save to save the changes.
Removing Users from existing Groups
To remove users from existing groups in IndyForms, follow these steps:
Go to the Groups section.
Click on the Edit icon.
Click the delete "x" button next to the users you want to remove.
Click the Save button to update the changes.
Alternatively, you can go to "Users" and edit the "Groups" the selected user is associated with by clicking the "Groups" icon and selecting to delete "x" on groups you no longer want this user on and clicking "Save" to update your changes.
Editing Users' Groups
Alternatively, to make changes to the groups a user is associated with at the user level:
Navigate to the Users section.
Click on the Groups icon.
Remove users from unwanted groups by clicking the "x" next to the group name. To add users to a group, select the group from the drop-down list.
Select Save to update your changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Can a user be both an Admin and part of a custom group?
A. Yes! Admins can be assigned to custom groups just like General Users. Group membership is independent of user role and is used to streamline functions such as access, notifications and assignments.
Q. What happens if I remove a user from a group?
A. They’ll immediately lose access to any forms, documents, or dashboards that were restricted to that group. Their data is retained and unaffected. They will always be able to see the form records they've contributed to.
💡 Tips
Use Custom Groups for Onboarding
Create a dedicated group, such as “New Starters,” and assign all relevant forms to it, including welcome packets, HR checklists, and IT setup documents, among others.
Review Group Access Quarterly
Set a recurring reminder to audit user access and group assignments—especially useful when your team undergoes frequent changes.
Mirror Your Org Chart with Custom Groups
Create custom groups that reflect your business’s organisational structure—such as “Sales,” “HR,” “Compliance,” or “Field Operations.” This approach helps you:
Assign forms and workflows based on job function rather than individuals.
Restrict access to sensitive data within specific business units.
Automate form distribution schedules in bulk to the appropriate groups.
Why it matters: Aligning your group setup with how your organisation operates makes onboarding easier, ensures the right people have access to the right information, and keeps your workspace clean and scalable.