Purpose

You can use Local Forms to tailor HRMS to the business processes performed at your LEA.

The HRMS System Administrator can create as many Local Forms as needed. The form can be associated with employees, applicants, candidates for vacancies, positions, etc. It takes a couple of minutes to create a local form, and you specify exactly where in HRMS it should be available, such as the Search Applicant screen, or the Employee Demographic screen. Some forms can appear in multiple places.

For example, you might need to make a record of each time a bus driver completes a random drug test.
- Using the Local Forms feature, you could create a local form called "Drug Test" and specify which information you want to collect, such as the date of the test, the testing company, the type of test, and the results.
- You can specify that the form should be available from the Staff Action page, and you write brief instructions on how the form should be used.
- When an employee takes a drug test, an HRMS user with access to the Staff Action page can fill out a "Drug Test" form online.
- The information entered is stored along with the rest of the employee's information and can be easily accessed.

In another example, you might ask each prospective teacher to sign a commitment document when they accept a job.
- First, you create a Local Form called "Commitment" and indicate that it should be available for each Vacancy Candidate.
- The principal or hiring agent has the candidate sign the commitment document and then faxes it to the central office where it is scanned and attached to the local form.
- Anyone with proper access can now can view and print the scanned form because it is stored online.

Other types of forms you might want to create include surveys, consent forms, benefits enrollment and change requests, demographic information updates, attendance of a continuing education course, etc.

A local form, included in HRMS, called "Photo" lets you store an employee photo. It can be found under "Other" from the Employee Demographics screen.

A companion HRMS Web Report (#000008) lets you easily print a staff directory for each site at your LEA, with the photos sorted by name or position description. This highly-customizable web report will allow you to extract all the data stored in local forms by the name of the form and a date range.

Frequently Asked Questions about Local Forms

How many Local Forms can I create?
As many as you like. There is no limit in the system.

We want to create a form for expense reimbursement. Currently, we use an Excel spreadsheet and send it by e-mail. How can we do this with Local Forms?
You can continue to use the spreadsheet and attach it to a Local Form. If there are no calculations involved, you may want to replace your spreadsheet with a Local Form.

How many fields are on each Local Form?
Up to 9, plus one field for attachments.

Can the same Local Form be submitted multiple times, such as an expense reimbursement request?
Yes. The most recently submitted form shows up at the top of the list of completed forms.

What happens when I no longer want a form available?
Edit the Local Form to set Active = No. The form will no longer be available to end-users, but completed forms will continue to be displayed.

Can the user edit the data submitted using a Local Form?
Yes, as long as it is not frozen. The end user or administrator can freeze a form submission, but only the system administrator can unfreeze it.

Can I get information from a set of completed Local Forms, such as survey results, into Excel?
Yes. The Local Forms web report will allow you to export the data into Excel or to save it as XML. XML data can be imported to Access and other databases. You can also use the Query Tool to extract data to Excel.

Can I delete completed Local Forms?
You can delete them individually. (Note: Please contact HRMS Support to delete multiple local forms.)

What do I do if I need to attach more than one file on a form?
You can't attach more than one file to a single form, but you can create more than one form (Ex: Benefits Part 1 and Benefits Part 2) and attach one file to each form. When you set up the forms, be sure to include in the instructions that the user should submit multiple forms.

What do I do if I need more than 9 text fields for my form?
Create more than one form and instruct the user which forms must be submitted to complete the process.

Where are the attachments stored?
They are stored in a Domino database called "leaattach.nsf". They are keyed to the DB2 tables by a unique ID.

Is there a limit on the attachment size or type?
No. This is to allow maximum flexibility in your storing data in HRMS. However, for the employee photo directory, you should greatly limit the size of the photos you attach or the photo directory will be very slow to load. You should also give user instructions on what types of files they can attach to local forms and how to reduce the size of scanned documents while retaining readability.

What happens when the file holding the attachments gets too big?
HRMS Support has a quick process by which you can begin using a new file to store attachments. We expect this to happen very infrequently, less than once per year for large LEAs, but it depends on how many attachments and of what size are used. You might also want to use a different Domino database if you wish to perform selective backups.

What kind of fields are in Local Forms?
All fields are text fields, though you can store any kind of data in the fields, such as dates or numbers. If you export the data to Excel, you may need to change the format of the cells for Excel to sort the data properly.

I have a Word document that I would like user to fill out and attach to a form. Where do I put it?
Store the Word Document somewhere on your network, your system's web server, or an external web server. In the usage instructions, put the HTML link to a form stored online, and instruct the user to fill out the form, save it, and attach it to the Local Form being submitted. An example of an HTML link is:
<a href="http://www.myschool.com/forms/expense.doc" target="_blank">Expense Report</a>

Who can create new Local Forms?
System administrators create and manage Local Forms using the Configuration settings.

Who can submit data using a Local Forms?
Anyone with proper access to the HRMS subsystem to which the administrator indicates the form belongs. For example, the Photo form that is included with HRMS as a sample is available in the New Hire System and the Staff Action screen. Other forms that you create may be limited to the Staff Action screen or some other subsystem.

What if I attach the wrong file?
You can easily reattach a different file as long as you did not freeze the record.

What if I make a mistake when I am submitting a form?
You can correct your mistake, or delete the form and submit it again, as long as you did not freeze the record.