How do you create an electronic form for employees or customers?
Efficiency question :
There are several ways to create an electronic form for employees or clients. Microsoft Forms can be used to quickly create questionnaires, surveys, or simple forms.
Forms can also be developed directly in a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. This approach provides greater flexibility when the form must incorporate specific rules, perform calculations, control data entry, or automate the processing of collected information.
Key considerations:
Before choosing a solution, determine how many users will use the form and, above all, what you want to do with the information collected.
A form intended for a few internal employees does not necessarily have the same requirements as one used by many clients. You should also consider how the data will be retrieved, stored, compiled, and used afterward.
Challenges:
In some cases, the goal is to make the form as short and simple as possible for the user. One way to achieve this is to create a dynamic form in which the questions displayed depend on previous answers.
For example, some questions may become irrelevant based on an earlier response. The form can then automatically display, hide, or adapt subsequent questions. This conditional logic reduces the number of questions shown and creates a more appropriate path for each user.
Technology:
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Microsoft Excel is particularly well suited to creating dynamic forms. It can control which questions are displayed, apply validation rules, and automate actions based on the answers provided.
The collected data can then be compiled automatically and presented graphically, for example in a dashboard or in a report combining different indicators and visual elements.
Microsoft Forms can also be preferred when the main need is simply to collect information or conduct a survey.
Developer's advice:
I recommend visiting the services page dedicated to reports on the SLV Expert website. You can see examples of the types of information that can be compiled and presented from collected data.
For automation requiring greater control, I would seriously consider Microsoft Excel combined with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). A well-designed, protected, and secure form can provide considerable flexibility while automating the compilation, processing, and presentation of results.