Getting started: GoCanvas 101

Before you get started, you should open our Form Builder tool in another tab in your browser so you can watch the videos, pause them, and use the Form Builder yourself to learn each concept.

Launch Form Builder

Overview of GoCanvas

"What the heck is GoCanvas?"

I'm glad you asked.  Watch this video to get an overview of our platform.

The Form Builder

This is the heart of the GoCanvas product. This video is divided into chapters so you can watch each part of the video separately as you explore our Form Builder tool.

Initially you should spend all of your time in the Form Builder and in our mobile application testing your form out.  Here is your process:

1. Get all of your fields added to your GoCanvas form.
2. Test it out on your mobile device. Learn How.
3. Make changes in the Form Builder.
4. Test it out on your mobile device.
5. Rinse and repeat until it works the way you want it to.

Video Tutorial: Converting a Paper Form to a GoCanvas Form

This video walks you through the process of taking a paper form and turning it into a GoCanvas form.  

Loop Screens: Tables, Grids and Line Items

Loop Screens give you the ability to create "tables" within your forms so your users can add as many line items as they need. This is part of the video above but it is critical that you learn this functionality.

Conditional Fields & Screens

The work your mobile team is doing can be really dynamic and change from job to job. Making fields or screens conditional is a great way to show your mobile workers only the parts of the form they need to see for each particular job. Why show them part of a form they will not use?

Submission Name

While you are in the builder you should create a Submission Name for your form. The Submission Name will show up in the Submissions area of the website and the History area of GoCanvas on your mobile devices. It will make finding past submissions MUCH easier. Watch this very short video to learn how:

Email options

Most of our customers want to control whether submissions can be emailed or not and who they can be emailed to. By default any GoCanvas user can email completed submissions to anyone they want. That might be okay, but you also might want them to email a copy to your Accounting Department each time, too. Watch this very short video to learn how to configure your email options:

Reference Data

This feature allows you to connect a list of data to your GoCanvas forms. For example, a list of your customer information or a price list. This data can then be used by your mobile users to automatically fill in their forms with the data on the list. If they choose a customer name from a dropdown field then that customer's address, contact name, phone number, and email address automatically populate in subsequent fields.

See it in action!

Setting up Reference Data is easy... once you know how to do it, of course!

PDF Designer

If you care what the PDF looks like and our Standard PDF does not fit your needs, you can customize your own completely. This tool allows you to customize the PDF document that GoCanvas generates each time you email a submission. Add your logo, use your colors, display your data however you want. You can make it match your old paper form if you like how that looked. Here is one we built:

We encourage you to use these forms to engage your customers. Ask for reviews on Angie's List/Home Advisor. Link them to your Facebook page. Link them to your website. Emails live forever and they are easily forwarded so these forms can be great marketing tools for your business.

Learn how to use the PDF Designer:

Using GoCanvas on Your Mobile Device

You will need to install GoCanvas on your mobile device in order to fill out your GoCanvas forms. Visit www.gocanvas.com/m to install it on your device.  Or you can search for "gocanvas" in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

These are the basics! There is a lot more that GoCanvas can do but this will get you up and running and benefiting from collecting and sharing data electronically.