As the backbone of your database, forms play a critical role in how your organization collects and manages information. Designing an effective form structure is key to unlocking the full power of Apricot.
There are two main types of forms in Apricot:
Tier 1 forms: These are the primary, parent-level forms where you store relatively unchanging data, such as demographics or contact information. Each participant will have one Tier 1 record that serves as their Document Folder to store all related Tier 2 records.
Tier 2 forms: These are the secondary, child-level forms that live under a Tier 1 form that work best for tracking dynamic, constantly-changing information.
Continue reading below to learn our best practices for creating forms that capture key data in your organization and establishing linking relationships between these data points.
Core Forms
Most organizations may want to start with these basic forms for data entry, including:
(Tier 1) Client/Participant Information: Track basic demographics for individuals such as their name and date or birth.
(Tier 2) Enrollment/Exit Information: Track which programs an individual participates in throughout their journey with the organization.
(Tier 2) Service Delivery: Track individual services provided to an individual.
(Tier 1) Household Details: Track which individuals reside in the same household.
(Tier 2) Address: Less common; track historical information such as an individual/household's previous three addresses.
Note: If you don't need to report on historical data, you can instead track addresses on the Tier 1 Client/Participant Information form.
Form Structure
The following recommended form structures may not be suitable for every organization. You can customize these forms (as well as create additional forms) to better meet your needs. However, know that once you add a new form, you're unable to change it from a Tier 1 form to a Tier 2 form or vice versa. The Support team is able to make a copy of a form, but certain fields, including linking fields, will need to have their properties reconfigured and no existing records will be transferred to the new form. To learn more about form linking, click here.
Below are our recommendations for which fields to include in the above forms to create an efficient, streamlined data collection process:
(Tier 1) Client/Participant Information
Name: This field should be set to "Duplicate Check" as well as "Quick View" and "Searchable" in the field properties.
Date of Birth: This should also be set to "Duplicate Check".
Important: Do not use a Numeric field or calculations to track "Age". Reports return much more accurate data based on the Date of Birth field, such as Current Age, Age at Intake, and even Age at Enrollment.
(Form Section) Demographic Information: We recommend adding a new section to the form just for demographics; you can include Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Veteran Status, etc.
Important: We advise against using Text fields for demographic data when possible, as inconsistencies in data entry can cause reporting difficulties. We also recommend refraining from the "Allow other" setting for option fields when possible for the same reason.
(Tier 2) Enrollment/Exit Information
Program: Select which program you're enrolling them into.
Important: If you're enrolling an individual into multiple programs, it's best practice to create a separate Tier 2 record per program.
Note: If you need to track data on a program as its own entity, such as different site locations, you can create a separate Tier 1 Program form that links to this Tier 2 Enrollment form.
Enrollment Date: Track when an individual starts a program.
Exit Date: Track when an individual exits a program.
Reason for Exit: Available options can be tailored to your needs and can include values such as "Program Completed" or "Client Terminated".
If you need to track data on the program as an entity, such as site locations, it should be given its own Tier 1 form that links to the Enrollment form. If you only need some data points, such as the program name, this is best tracked on the Tier 2 Enrollment in a dropdown field.
(Tier 2) Service Delivery
We recommend only using one Tier 2 Service form and linking to the Tier 2 Enrollment form, as it allows you to report on services provided to unique individuals without risk of duplicated records.
If you only want to display certain services based on program, you can use form logic to create cascading dropdowns. To learn more about this, click here.
Link to Tier 2 Enrollment: This linking field relates the service to the specific program the individual is enrolled in.
Important: This field should be "Required" with "Same Folder Linking" enabled in the field properties. This allows you to report on information from the Enrollment form and the Service form within the same report section without duplication.
Date of Service: Track when the service was provided.
Service Type: Track the specific service that was provided.
Important: Users should enter one service record per service type provided. While data entry may take longer, it will allow you to determine how many unique services were provided, how many services were provided per program, and other helpful insights in reporting.
(Tier 1) Household
Head of Household Name: Track the "main" individual of the household; this should be a Duplicate Check field.
Head of Household Date of Birth: Track the "main" individual's date of birth; this should be a Duplicate Check field as well.
Link to Individual: This linking field can associate multiple Tier 1 Individual records to the current Tier 1 Household record.
Important: Each member of a Household should have a Tier 1 Individual record created for them, even if they're technically not clients or receiving services. This gives you the opportunity to report on this data, and you can filter out individuals without enrollments if you don't want to include them in a report.
(Tier 2) Address
Status: Track whether the address entered in the record is historical data or currently in use.
Household Type: This can be helpful if they have more than one "active" location.
Address: Track the physical household address.