Form responses workflows
You are able to set up forms with Edit, Approval, Release, Download, or Signature Request steps within the Configuring form settingsform settings.
Once a form has been submitted, you can decide what you would like to happen afterwards. Who can edit the form? Does it need to be approved? Should the response not be shown until a "release"? Can someone request a signature on it?
Completing forms follow a set path as displayed below.
You are able to opt in to either the approval or release steps but approval will always come before release.
You are able to opt in or out of each step in this menu:
Configure a form to be approved
By adding a "approval" step to your form workflow, you can empower managers or manager's managers to "sign off" on information before it is released.
How to setup form approvals:
- Add the form to a column in a Custom profile tabsCustom profile tab.
- In Form > Settings > After Submission > Approval — Enable the approval step by clicking the checkbox for: ✅ Require approval
- Select an option for: "Who is responsible for approving this form response?"
- Manager
- Manager's Manager
Configure a form to be released
The release of a person's performance review or other forms often involves specific individualized timing. By adding a "release" step to your form workflow, you can empower managers and other leaders to release the information when they are ready.
How to setup form releasing:
- Add the form to a column in a Custom profile tabsCustom profile tab.
- In Form > Settings > After Submission > Release — Enable the release step by clicking the checkbox for: ✅ Require release
- Select an option for: "Who is allowed to release form responses?" — These are the people who will be able to press the "Release response" button on the profile tab
- Respondent or Admin — The person who submitted the form. For example, a manager in a downward review.
- Admin — In this context:
- An owner or editor of the Review associated with the form response.
- Anyone in the org with the formResponse:update permission.
- The only built in roles with this is Owner
- Using Defining a custom roleCustom Access Roles this permission can be given to any custom access role.
Configure sharing options for a form
Form responses may be configured to support direct sharing similar to how you Collaborating in a scenarioshare a scenario or Sharing a dashboardshare a dashboard. This can be helpful if someone outside of an individual's reporting line such as an HRBP or Team Lead needs to see a form response about them.
A few examples:
- When running a project-based performance review, a peer review from a teammate may need to be shared with the project leader.
- During a review, if someone changes manager mid-review and you need to give both new and old manager access to see/edit the response
- In goal setting, a manager can be given editor access to a direct report's form response so that they can collaborate and refine the goals before they are shared with the rest of the org.
- During onboarding, a manager submits an initial draft of a 30/60/90 day plan. The new hire then has the ability to edit and refine them as they start.
- An HRBP needs to be able to edit a PIP form originally submitted by the manager before it is released to the employee.
- An HRBP just simply needs to be "looped in" to any process and can be added as a viewer of a form.
How to setup sharing on form responses:
- Add the form response history to a column in a Custom profile tabsCustom profile tab.
- In Form > Settings > After Submission > Sharing — Enable sharing by clicking the checkbox for: ✅ Allow sharing individual
- Select an option for: "Who is allowed to share individual form responses?" — These are the people who will see the "+" button to share the form.
- Respondent or Admin — The person who submitted the form. For example, a manager in a downward review.
- Admin — In this context:
- An owner or editor of the Review associated with the form response. (If applicable.)
- Anyone in the org with the formResponse:update permission.
- The only built in roles with this is Owner
- Using Defining a custom roleCustom Access Roles this permission can be given to any custom access role.
- Optionally, click the + Add button under "Share automatically with" to add anyone who the form should automatically be shared with after it is submitted.
- Select the level of access that you would like them to have.
- Select who the person should be. All of the options are relative to the person the form is about.
For additional details on the roles and notifications see: Sharing form responsesSharing form responses
Important setup and usage notes
- If a person has not been invited to ChartHop then they will not receive the invitation to view the form response.
- The form response history must be added to a profile page that is set to Org public or the form response will not be accessible to the person who the form is shared with.
- It's recommended that all other form visibility settings are kept to their defaults if you are using sharing.
- Only the original form submission will automatically share the response. Any edits will not share it, so if you are automatically sharing with a person who is selected as part of the form, then you edit that value, it will not re-share to the new person. The form response must be shared with them manually.
Configure editing options for a form
Depending on the form-based process you are configuring you may want different people to be able to edit a form response until certain dates or actions are performed.
By default, a form response cannot be edited after it is submitted other than by an admin.other than by an admin. You are able to optionally allow either the respondent or the approver to edit the form submission.
How to setup form editing options:
- Add the form to a column in a Custom profile tabsCustom profile tab.
- In Form > Settings > After Submission > Editing — select who you would like to be able to edit by clicking the ✅ for either:
- Allow respondent to edit
- Allow approver to edit
- Select an option for: "How long can responses be edited?"
- Indefinitely
- Default - Recommended for forms where it will not matter if the responses change over time.
- Until it's approved
- Only available if approvals are part of this form's workflow.
- Recommended for forms where the info may be changed until an "Approval" finalizes it such as a Goal Setting process with a manager and their direct report. You can use this to make the approval step a "sign off" that finalizes the form.
- Until the Review or Survey is closed
- Used if the form is associated with a Review or Survey to allow responses until the administrator manually Closing a reviewcloses a review or Closing a surveycloses a survey.
- Recommended for forms where the results need to be finalized and remain unchanged (other than by admins) at the close of the review or survey.
- For a period of time
- Set a number of days after submission that the person can edit the response.
- Recommended for forms where historical information doesn't need to and shouldn't change.
Example Downward Review Setup:
- About: Another Person
- Submitted by: Their Manager
- Approval: Manager's Manager
- Release: Submitter (The Manager) or Admins
- Allow respondents to edit: Until it's approved
- Allow approvers to edit: Until the Review is closed
Configure export & download options for individual form responses
If you need form responses to be downloaded and stored as a PDF, you can allow anyone with access to the form responses to do so. This will display a download button on the form response.
How to setup a form response export:
- In Form > Settings > After Submission > Export — Enable the export step by clicking the checkbox for: ✅ Allow viewer to export as a PDF
- After you select this, anyone who can view the response will now see a "download" button in the top right corner.
- Clicking "Download PDF" will generate a PDF of the form response and all relevant details.
Access restrictions will always be applied and text blocks will not be included in the export.
If you are looking to do a bulk export of form responses, see Form responsesExporting form responses.
Request a signature on a form response
After a form response has been exported as a PDF, you can request a signature on it directly within ChartHop — no external tool required.
This is useful for processes where a written acknowledgment is needed, such as:
- A manager submits a performance review and the employee needs to sign it after it's released.
- An HRBP submits a PIP and the employee needs to acknowledge receipt.
- Any form-based process that requires a documented signature for compliance purposes.
Requesting a signature via the profile
Once a form response has been downloaded as a PDF and uploaded to a person's profile, you can request a signature directly from the Files tab.
- Navigate to the Files tab on the person's profile.
- Upload the PDF, or select it if it has already been uploaded.
- In the document viewer, open the Signatures tab in the right-hand info panel.
- Click Request signature.
- Select who you would like to request a signature from.
- Click Send request.
The signer will be notified and will see a task on their ChartHop home page to complete the signature.
Requesting a signature via an Automated Action
If you want signatures to be requested automatically as part of a workflow (for example, whenever a review is released), you can use the Send Document for Signature step in an Automated Action.
This supports both:
- Generated templates — e.g., a dynamically generated promotion letter.
- Uploaded PDFs — e.g., a static policy document or exported form response.
For full setup instructions, see SignaturesSignatures.
Important notes
- Only PDF files are supported for signature requests.
- Only the following roles can request signatures: Owner, Org Editor, People Ops Admin, People Ops Admin (no comp data), and People Ops Admin (no sensitive data).
- Multiple people can sign a document at the same time — signing order is not enforced.
- Only people who currently have login access to ChartHop can sign documents.
- To cancel a pending signature request, navigate to the document marked Awaiting signature, go to the Signatures tab, click Cancel request, and confirm.
Editing & deleting form responses as an admin
Anyone in the org with the formResponse:update permission can edit forms at any time. The only built in roles with this capability is OwnerOwner. Using Defining a custom roleCustom Access Roles this permission can be given to any custom access role.
Notifications
Notifications are sent to either email or slack depending on your org's notification setting at the following times:
Event | Notification |
|---|---|
Upon Submission | 📨 [If Approvals are used] To the Approver, notifying them to review and approve the form 📨 [If Sharing is used] To anyone who the form is automatically set to be shared with 📨 To anyone else who is set to be notified based on the form settings |
Upon Request for changes | 📨 To the submitter of the form, notifying them they should make changes to the submission. |
Upon Approval | 📨 To the submitter of the form, notifying them the form has been approved. |
Upon Release | 📨 To the person who the form is about, notifying them that they can now view the form. 📨 To the submitter of the form if the submitter is not the person who released the form. |
Upon Signature Request | 📨 To the signer(s), notifying them they have a document to sign. A task will also appear on their ChartHop home page. |
Monitoring form responses
As people submit their reviews, as an admin, you can monitor them within the Performance reviewsreview.
From the Forms tab within the review, you can see a graph that displays the responses.
To view the status of Individual responses, you can go to the Responses tab, then the Sheet or Individual View.
From the Sheet view, you can see the Approval Status and the Release Status.
From the Individual View, you can even take actions as an admin and Approve, Reject or Release forms.
FAQ
The approver has left the organization, how do we approve the form?
The Owner of the ChartHop org will have the ability to approve the form.
The submitter has left the organization, how do we release the form?
The owner of the Review associated with the form response or the Owner of the ChartHop org will still have the ability to release the form.
What if a form is part of multiple reviews, can the owners/editors of all of the reviews release the form?
No. Only the owners/editors of the review associated with that form response. You can see the form response in the Review area of the app.