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Custom forms: How To Complete, Share, and Edit

Nick
  • Updated

What custom forms are, where to find them, and how to complete, share, edit, and export them — for admins, managers, and employees.

Applies to: Admin, Manager, Employee

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What are custom forms?

Custom forms in Sona are structured data-capture forms that live on employee profiles. They allow organisations to record, track, and manage HR information beyond the standard fields built into Sona — including information that needs to be collected from employees directly.

Common use cases include:

  • Return-to-work interviews (capturing details after a period of absence)
  • Health declarations
  • Right to work checks and associated documentation
  • DBS checks and compliance records
  • Supervision and appraisal records
  • Training and qualification logs
  • Onboarding checklists
  • Disciplinary and grievance records
  • Company asset registers
  • Emergency contact details

Each form is built around a specific set of fields (text, dropdowns, dates, file uploads, yes/no, and more). Forms can support single or multiple entries — for example, a training qualifications form might hold one record per qualification, and new records can be added over time. More recently, forms also support nested fields — repeatable groups of structured data, such as multiple emergency contacts or multiple rates of pay on a single entry.

Where custom forms live in Sona

Custom forms are accessed through an employee's profile, not from a standalone section of the portal. They appear as custom tabs or sections within the employee record, under categories such as Employment Details, Absence Management, or Performance Management — depending on how your organisation has set up the form's location.

To find custom forms for a specific employee:

  1. Go to Employees in the admin portal and open the employee's record.
  2. Navigate through the tabs at the top of the profile (such as Employment Details, Personal Information, etc.).
  3. Look for any custom sections or pages that appear below or alongside the standard tabs. Custom forms appear here, labelled with the name of the form (for example, Return to Work, Supervision, DBS Check, Training).

If you cannot see a form you expect to be there, it may be that your permission role does not include access to that form's section. See Permissions below.

Note for new customers: Custom forms are not created automatically. They are configured for your organisation during implementation, or subsequently by the Sona team on request. If a form type you need does not exist yet, contact Sona Support to request one be built.

How to complete a form on behalf of an employee

Admins and managers with the appropriate permissions can fill in or add form entries directly on an employee's profile — for example, completing a return-to-work interview record after a conversation with the employee, or logging a training qualification.

  1. Open the employee's record in the admin portal.
  2. Navigate to the tab or section where the relevant custom form lives.
  3. Click Add (or the equivalent + button) to create a new entry on the form.
  4. Fill in the required fields. Depending on the form, this may include text fields, date fields, dropdown selections, file uploads, or yes/no responses.
  5. Click Save to submit the entry.

The completed entry will appear in the form's record list for that employee. Depending on the form's configuration, entries may stack as multiple records (e.g. one entry per absence event for return-to-work records) or exist as a single ongoing record.

Tip: If the form contains a file upload field, ensure the file is in a supported format and within the size limit before attempting to save. If the page refreshes without saving after you attach a file, try a different browser (Chrome is recommended) and check whether the file is unusually large.

How to share a form with an employee

Depending on the form's configuration, there are two ways an employee can interact with a custom form:

1. The form is visible in the employee's app

If the form has been configured to be accessible to employees, it will appear in the employee's profile section of the Sona app. The employee can open it, fill it in, and submit it directly. This is the standard method for forms like health declarations or self-certification forms.

2. Sharing via a workflow or task

For forms that require a specific trigger — such as a return-to-work interview prompted by the end of an absence period — Sona can be configured to create a task or notification for the relevant manager or employee when the trigger event occurs. This is set up as a workflow linked to the form. Workflows can be configured to send a task to the employee's manager when an absence ends, prompting them to complete the return-to-work form.

If you need a form to be pushed to employees at a specific point in time (for example, sending a health declaration to a group of employees), this currently requires a workflow configuration. Raise a request with Sona Support or see the article Workflows: what they are and how to request one for guidance.

Important: Employees can only access forms that have been explicitly configured to be visible in the app. Not all custom forms are employee-facing — many are admin-only records. The visibility of each form is determined during setup. If you want an employee-facing form created or made visible in the app, contact Sona Support.

How an employee accesses and completes a form in the app

If a form has been made available to employees via the app:

  1. The employee opens the Sona app and navigates to their Profile or My Details section.
  2. They look for the custom form tab or section, which will appear alongside standard profile sections such as Personal Information.
  3. They tap on the relevant form name to open it.
  4. They fill in the required fields and tap Submit or Save.

Completed form submissions from employees are immediately visible to admins and managers with the appropriate permissions in the admin portal.

If an employee reports they cannot find a form they expect to see, check:

  • That the form has been configured for employee visibility (not admin-only)
  • That the employee's app is up to date
  • That the employee is looking in the correct section of their profile

How to edit a form entry that has already been submitted

Editing an existing form entry follows a similar path to completing one:

  1. Open the employee's record and navigate to the relevant form section.
  2. Find the entry you want to edit. Entries are usually listed with a date or summary identifier.
  3. Click on the entry to open it, then select Edit.
  4. Make the required changes and click Save.

If the edit option is not available on a specific form or entry, this is most likely a permissions issue. Ask your admin to check your permission role.

Note that custom form templates themselves are not self-serve for admins — the structure of a form (its fields, sections, and layout) can only be changed by the Sona team. If you need to add, remove, or rename fields on a form, raise a request with Sona Support. Raise separate requests for separate forms to allow each one to be progressed independently.

How to view and export form submissions

Viewing submissions per employee:

All form entries for a specific employee are visible directly on their profile under the relevant form tab. You can scroll through historical entries there.

Exporting form data across all employees:

Sona has a dedicated HR Custom Forms Data report in the Reporting Suite that allows admins to export data stored across custom forms for all employees in one place. The data is surfaced in JSON format, which means it requires some post-processing to analyse in a spreadsheet tool.

To access this report:

  1. Go to Reports in the admin portal.
  2. Look for the HR Custom Forms report (it may be labelled differently depending on your dashboard setup).
  3. Click to run the report and download the data.

Note: The HR Custom Forms report must be embedded with the Is Management Dashboard option enabled to respect form-level permissions. If you cannot see certain form data in the report that you expect to see, check your dashboard and permission role configuration, or contact Sona support.

For organisations where specific form data needs to be exported regularly (for example, training records or compliance documents), contact Sona support to discuss reporting options.

Creating and editing form templates

The design and structure of forms — including what fields they contain, what sections they have, and where they appear in an employee's profile — is managed by the Sona implementation and support team.

If you need a new form built, or want to make changes to an existing form, contact Sona support with:

  • The name of the form you want created or modified
  • A description of the fields required (field name, field type, whether it is mandatory)
  • Where in the employee profile the form should live (for example, under Employment Details or a new custom page)
  • Whether the form should be admin-only or also visible and editable by employees in the app
  • Whether multiple entries should be supported (e.g. one record per event) or a single form

Raise separate tickets for separate forms to avoid delays — bundling many form changes into one ticket slows down delivery.

Note: Creating or significantly restructuring a form is treated as a configuration task and may have lead time associated with it. For urgent compliance-related forms, flag this clearly in your request.

Permissions: who can create, share, edit, and view forms

Access to custom forms is controlled through Sona's permission role system. The two core permissions relevant to custom forms are:

  • view_custom_form — allows a user to see form data on employee profiles
  • edit_custom_form — allows a user to add, edit, and delete form entries

Both permissions can be scoped by the level of the employee whose record is being accessed — for example, a manager might be able to view forms for employees at a lower level than themselves but only edit forms for their direct reports.

In addition, individual forms can be restricted to specific permission roles. For example, a Disciplinary Records form might be visible only to HR admins and superusers, while a Training Records form might be visible to all managers.

If you need to change who can view or edit a specific form, contact Sona Support with the form name and the permission roles that should have access.

Creating new forms is handled exclusively by the Sona team — no customer-facing admin has direct access to the form builder.

Common issues

Form not appearing for the employee in the app

The most common cause is that the form has not been configured as employee-visible. Custom forms default to admin-facing unless explicitly set up to be visible in the app. Confirm with Sona Support that the form is intended to be employee-facing, and request the visibility setting be updated if needed.

Form not appearing for an admin in the portal

Check the admin's permission roles to make sure they have that includes the relevant permissions.

Form showing as incomplete / entry not saving

If a form entry is not saving after you click Save, try the following:

  • Switch to Google Chrome if you are using another browser
  • Check whether a mandatory field has been missed — mandatory fields are usually marked with an asterisk or highlighted when you attempt to save
  • If the form includes a file upload, try removing the attachment and saving the text fields first, then re-opening and adding the file
  • If the screen refreshes without saving and no error is shown, this may indicate a compatibility issue with an older form version. Contact Sona Support — the form may need to be migrated to the current form architecture

Edits not saving to an existing entry

This is almost always a permissions issue. If you have view access but not edit access, the Save button may appear but the changes will not be persisted. Contact your admin to review your role.

AI summary not appearing on a form

Some forms support an AI-generated summary field that can summarise the content of a completed form entry. If this is not appearing on a form where you expected it, it needs to be added to the form's configuration by the Sona team. Raise a request with Sona Support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I create my own custom form without contacting Sona?

Not currently. Custom form templates are built and managed by the Sona implementation team. Customer admins can fill in and edit form entries but cannot design or modify the structure of a form themselves. Contact Sona Support to request a new form.

Q: Can I share a form with a group of employees at once, rather than one at a time?

Bulk sharing of forms to groups of employees requires a workflow to be configured. Contact Sona Support to discuss setting up a workflow that triggers form visibility or creates tasks for a group of employees.

Q: A manager can see a form on an employee's profile but cannot add or edit entries. What is wrong?

They likely have view_custom_form in their permission role but not edit_custom_form. Ask your admin to check the permission role assigned is correct.

Q: We need to link a return-to-work form to a specific absence automatically. Is that possible?

This is a workflow configuration. Sona can be set up to create a task for the relevant manager when an absence period ends, prompting them to complete the return-to-work form for the relevant employee. The form cannot currently auto-populate the absence type from the linked absence, so the manager would need to enter this manually. Contact Sona Support to request this workflow be set up.

Q: Can employees submit form entries themselves, or only admins?

Both are possible, depending on how the form is configured. Forms can be set to admin-only, or made visible and editable in the employee app. The visibility setting is controlled at the form configuration level by the Sona team.

Still need help?

Contact Sona Support with the name of the form, the employee record it relates to, and a description of what you are seeing versus what you expect — including any error messages or screenshots where possible.

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