---
title: Form Do's and Don'ts
description: What Works Well and What Missteps to Avoid when building surveys forms and note forms in Compyle
---

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# Form Do's and Don'ts

## What Works Well and What Missteps to Avoid when building surveys forms and note forms in Compyle

### Do's

#### Philosophy

- Consider how you will need to report on the data before you start the form
- Ask for input from the people who work with that data 
- Try it out for yourself
- Look for overlapping forms to combine when similar information is collected in multiple places
- Set aside time every few months to listen to your users, gather input about forms/data needs, and improve your forms
- Look for new features and functionality in upgrades. 
- Reach out to suggest new features and field types.

#### Practices

- Do: **Use option fields instead of short answer text fields whenever possible**. You can add "Other" as an option for greater flexibility.  
    - Why: easier for your users to select what they need
    - Why: better for reporting because short answer fields don't pull into analytics
- Do: **Add sections to organize your form fields** 
    - Why: easier for your users to work through a section at a time
    - Why: makes form logic rules simpler to set up and test
- Do: **Choose the field type that best matches the information you are tracking** 
    - Why: formatting is based on the field type, and you will be able to get cleaner data in
    - Why: field types help users know what kind of information you are looking for
    - Why: certain field types have added functionality, like url fields display a link to the website address.
    - Why: numeric fields and numeric values for option fields can be used in analytics, but short text answer and paragraph fields cannot be.
- Do: **Use numeric fields and numeric values for options fields whenever possible** 
    - Why: simplify calculations and aggregating data
    - Why: can feed into custom calculation fields on the form
- Do: **Create description fields that will display well on different screen sizes** 
    - Why: make the forms accessible to users on big and small devices will help reduce barriers to gathering information

### Don'ts

#### General Guidelines

- If data is worth capturing, it's worth capturing well. 
- If information will not be used to support service delivery, program measurement, or performance management, you may not need to collect it.
- Balance ease of reporting with ease of data entry.
- How you collect information determines what you can do with the data.
- A little organization and forethought goes a long way.

 

#### Avoid These

- **Don't: Name multiple fields on the same form the exact same thing**

![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-21-22-2342-PM.png?width=610&height=122&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-21-22-2342-PM.png)

- - Why: It makes it harder to be certain which field you are using in rules, calculations, and exports

- **Don't: Use short answer when you need to report on the answers**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-30-37-8930-PM.png?width=460&height=159&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-30-37-8930-PM.png)  
    - Why: short answer and paragraph fields are not available in calculations. They only appear in survey form instance reports and in outcomes tab summaries

 

- **Don't: Use short answer when you what the answers will likely be**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-25-33-3997-PM.png?width=640&height=82&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-25-33-3997-PM.png)  
    - Why: a set of standardized options will be easier to report on, and the short answer fields are not available for use in calculations

 

- **Don't: Use checkbox or multi-select for questions with a single answer**  
   ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-31-36-6528-PM.png?width=447&height=213&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-31-36-6528-PM.png) 
    - Why: checkbox fields always accept multiple options. Multi-select dropdowns always accept multiple options. 
    - Why: If someone can choose both "yes" and "no", they might.

 

- **Don't: Use single select dropdown, likert scale, or radio button when multiple answers should be allowed per person** (*Which vs What; Any vs The*)  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-38-17-0685-PM.png?width=458&height=282&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-38-17-0685-PM.png)  
    - Why: Radio buttons, likert scales, and single select dropdown only accept a single answer.

 

- **Don't: add an extra Date field to survey forms or note type forms to capture the date of the survey or note.**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-18-45-2754-PM.png?width=630&height=79&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-18-45-2754-PM.png)  
    - Why: The date is automatically captured for survey forms and note type forms. 
          - Survey forms will use the survey instance start date for assigning response records to a reporting period.
          - Note type forms will use the built-in Date of Note field to assign the note record to a note type instance and reporting period. The Date of Note can be edited on brand new records but not once the note has been saved.

 

- **Don't: Use short answer fields for comment fields where you would like responses longer than a word or two**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-40-59-4677-PM.png?width=456&height=142&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-40-59-4677-PM.png)  
    - Why: Short answer fields are only a single line tall. This discourages longer remarks and makes it hard for users to see what they have entered if they go past a sentence or two.

 

- **Don't:  Use decimal for # of persons unless it is an average**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-42-20-3400-PM.png?width=456&height=146&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-42-20-3400-PM.png)  
    - Why: People are whole number units rather than fractions.

 

- **Don't: Use only text options for a numeric scale or weighted scale**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-10-2024-11-51-11-2210-PM.png?width=688&height=392&name=image-png-May-10-2024-11-51-11-2210-PM.png)  
    - Why: assigning numeric values will allow you to build calculations into the form, use the field in formulas in analytics, and give you layers summaries to work with.

 

- **Don't: Use a multi-select with numeric values in a calculation unless you want the average of the chosen options**  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-11-2024-12-02-05-1216-AM.png?width=573&height=254&name=image-png-May-11-2024-12-02-05-1216-AM.png)  
    - Why: having a single record with options like 1,3,4, 8 makes it harder to interpret the information.
    - Why: when a multi-select dropdown or checkbox with numeric values is used in a calculation field formula, the system uses an average of the selected options in calculations

 

- **Don't: Use time fields for values you need to sum or average because these capture the time of day as hours and minutes.  **  
  ![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Aug-29-2024-05-31-06-9667-PM.png?width=586&height=202&name=image-png-Aug-29-2024-05-31-06-9667-PM.png)  
    - Why: Time fields cannot be used in calculation fields and in analytics. (*Time Spent fields can be used in analytics as a decimal number of hours, but  Time Spent fields cannot be used in form calculation fields.*)

 

- **Don't: Capture the same information in multiple places** 
    - Why: this makes it much harder to report on the information because it has to come from multiple forms or be combined from multiple fields on the same form
    - Why:  the same participant or organization could have conflicting entries for the same data point if it is captured in multiple forms or multiple fields.

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