---
title: "Forms"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/forms"
description: "What a form is in 4HSE, the difference between configuring it and filling it in, and when to use a widget instead."
---

# Forms

A **form** turns an activity into structured data: a checklist to tick, an attendance register to sign, a set of fields to fill in while the work is being done.

Forms exist to make data collection uniform. Without them, what happened during an activity survives as a note or an attached photo; with them, the same activity produces comparable records over time, filled in on the spot — including from a phone — and attached automatically to the document that proves compliance.

## Two phases that must not be confused

[Section titled “Two phases that must not be confused”](#two-phases-that-must-not-be-confused)

-   **Configuration** defines the structure: which fields, which questions, which rules. It is done **once**, on the action.
-   **Completion** enters the data during the activity. Every save produces a static document linked to what was done.

Everything in this area follows this split. You configure on the action; you fill in on the session or when issuing the certificate.

## Where a form appears

[Section titled “Where a form appears”](#where-a-form-appears)

Forms are part of the workflow: you never go looking for them in a separate archive, the system prompts them when they are due. There are two moments:

-   **from the session toolbar** — the case of the course attendance register, filled in while the session is running;
-   **when issuing a certificate** — for all other types, the form opens before the certificate is finalised, and the data collected becomes an attachment to it.

![The forms linked to an action](/_astro/related-forms-5.CpTPVfgJ_1qLz6L.webp)

A form can be marked **required**: in that case the certificate cannot be created until the form has been completed. This is the mechanism behind the [permit to work](/permit-to-work/).

## Forms and widgets

[Section titled “Forms and widgets”](#forms-and-widgets)

4HSE has a second way to build something to fill in: the **widget**. It is the same editor — choosing an advanced checklist on a form opens the 4HSE Designer, which is the widget editor — but the two differ in where they live and what they produce.

Form

Widget

Lives

attached to an action

as a file in the archive

Starts

when the system prompts it

when you open it

Produces

an attachment to the certificate

a file you save where you want

Use a form when what you collect is the evidence of an obligation. Use a [widget](/forms/widgets/) when you need something to fill in that does not belong to an action — an inspection sheet, a survey, a report form.

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