Request form templates, field by field

Eleven requests, three kinds of decision

Six of the forms ask permission to spend money or time: a purchase requisition, a business travel request, a program budget request, a new software request, a staff requisition and an overtime request. One asks permission to change a project's scope, time or cost. Three ask an organisation to hand over information: a school document request, a council freedom of information request and a data access request that also covers correction and deletion. The last asks a manufacturer to book a product repair. Spending requests spend their fields on cost, the budget it comes from and why the alternative is worse. Information requests spend theirs on who is asking, proof that they may have the record and how to send it.

Tables, uploads and the total

Five forms set their detail out in a table: purchase lines, travel legs, budget lines, project impacts and overtime hours. A table field has a fixed number of rows that the person filling it in cannot add to, so each form sets enough rows for a typical request. Seven forms take a file upload for quotes, proof of identity, photos of a fault or a position description. Nothing on a form adds the lines up, so where a total matters the requester types it into its own number field. All eleven are classic forms, because a request is usually printed or filed with the decision written on it.

Getting the request to the approver

A submitted request lands in the responses table and can be exported or printed as a PDF. An email alert can be switched on for each form, and it goes to one address, so routing a request to a particular approver is done by whoever receives it. A webhook can pass each submission to another system once, with no retry. Three forms are Australian: a Victorian council's freedom of information request, a Victorian school's document request and an overtime request under a construction award. Every business and person in the examples is invented.

Every page in this collection

• Budget request form with a cost breakdown and outcomes

  A budget request form makes the case for money: how much, what it buys, what it achieves and why it beats the alternatives. This one does that for a council program bid, with a five line cost breakdown, start and end dates for the funding, measurable outcomes and a required answer on what doing nothing would mean.

• Change request form with an impact table

  A change request form records a proposed change to a project and what it does to scope, time and cost, so someone can decide before the work starts. This one puts the impact in a four row table with days and cost per area and leaves the decision and notes at the end for the project board.

• Data access request form for an app

  A data access request form lets a person ask an organisation for the personal data it holds about them, and gives the organisation enough to confirm who is asking. This one handles access, correction and deletion in one form for a hiking app, with an optional date range, an identity upload and a choice of delivery.

• Document request form for a school office

  A document request form tells an office which record someone needs, who it is about, why and how to send it, with proof that the person asking is allowed to have it. This one does that for an Australian secondary school, with five documents to choose from, an identity upload and a standard or urgent turnaround.

• Freedom of information request form for a council

  A freedom of information request form has to describe the documents clearly enough for an agency to find them, say who is asking and how they want access, and deal with the application fee. This one does that for a Victorian council, with a date range to narrow the search, a hardship waiver option and the four forms of access.

• Overtime request form with an hours table by day

  An overtime request form records the extra hours an employee worked, why, who approved them and how they will be paid. This one does that for an Australian civil construction crew, with a five row hours table, the employee's classification under the Building and Construction General On-site Award and a signature confirming the hours.

• Purchase requisition form with line items and an approver

  A purchase requisition form asks permission to buy before anyone orders: what is needed, what it costs, which budget pays and who signs off. This one lists the items in a four line table with unit cost and supplier, takes the total and budget code, and lets the requester pick the approver by spend limit.

• Repair request form with photos and warranty check

  A repair request form gives a service team what it needs to book a repair: which product, its serial number, what is wrong and whether the warranty covers it. This one adds optional photos of the fault, a proof of purchase upload for warranty claims, and a choice between dropping the appliance off and a courier pickup.

• Software request form with a data and security check

  A software request form lets IT check a new tool before anyone signs up: what it costs, how many people need it, what data it will hold and whether it works with company sign in. This one adds a required question about alternatives, so the request shows the team looked at what the company already pays for.

• Staff requisition form for a new role or a backfill

  A staff requisition form asks approval to hire before a job ad goes out: which role, why it is needed, what it will cost and who signs off. This one separates a new position from a backfill, asks who is leaving when it is a backfill, and requires the position description as a PDF.

• Travel request form with itinerary and estimate

  A travel request form gets a work trip approved before anything is booked: why the trip is needed, the route, what it will cost and who signs off. This one sets the route out as a four leg itinerary table and puts the estimate, cash advance and travel policy tick on the same page as the manager who approves it.