Creating a request form
What you'll learn
- When to use a request form versus a file upload
- How to fill in the form's fields, including repeatable ones
- What happens after you submit
When to use this
Document Flow has two ways of creating a document:
- Fill out a request form — when the document is a structured form with fields to capture (amount, date, department, reason, etc.). This article covers this case.
- Upload a file — when the document already exists as a PDF, Word, or scan. See Creating a document from a file.
Your admin decides which kind each document type uses, so you'll only see the ones that are set up for your company.
Opening the Create Document page
You can start from any of these three places:
- Dashboard → Quick Actions → New Document.
- Documents page (Document Flow → Documents) → Create button at the top right.
- Direct URL —
/docflow/documents/create.
Filling in the form
1. Pick a document type
Open the Document Type dropdown and choose the request form you want to create — for example, "Vacation Request" or "Business Travel Authorization". The rest of the page is built from the template your admin configured for that type.
2. Title
The title appears automatically in the format {Document Type} - {Your Name} — for example, "Vacation Request - Rovshan Alizade".
The title is read-only and can't be edited. This is intentional: it keeps a consistent naming pattern across all documents in your company so approvers can tell at a glance what a document is and who it's from.
3. URL (optional)
A single-line optional field for a related link — a project tracker, a meeting recording, a Confluence page, anything that gives context. Leave it blank if you don't need it.
4. Content
The content area is pre-filled with a template that your admin wrote for this document type. In most cases you don't need to change it.
If you do need to edit it:
- Click the pencil icon / Edit button on the Content card.
- A confirmation dialog appears: "The content is pre-filled from the document type template. Are you sure you want to edit it?"
- Click Confirm to make the content editable.
5. Fields
Below Content, you'll see the Fields section — the custom data your admin designed for this document type. Field types can include:
- Text — free-form text.
- Number — numeric input (amounts, quantities, counts).
- Date — date picker.
- Yes / No switch — for simple on/off choices.
- Dropdown — pick from a predefined list of options set by the admin.
- Nested fields — some fields have sub-fields indented beneath them (e.g., a "Line item" field with a "Quantity" and "Unit price" inside).
Field labels are shown in your current language if the admin has added translations. If a translation is missing, you'll see the original label.
6. Repeatable fields — "Add another"
Some fields can be filled in more than once. For example, an expense claim might let you add multiple line items. If a field supports this:
- You'll see an Add another button underneath it.
- Click it to add a new copy of the field (and any sub-fields it has).
- An × icon appears next to each copy so you can remove one.
If a field is configured to repeat a fixed number of times (say, exactly three copies), there's no Add or Remove — you just fill in what's there.
7. Submit
When you've filled in everything you need, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Create.
- The button shows a spinner while the request is processed.
- If validation fails (e.g., the title is missing), an error message appears at the bottom of the form — fix the problem and click Create again.
- On success, you're taken to the detail page for the new document.
After you click Create
You land on the detail page for the new document. It's now in Active status — it exists, and you can still edit, correct, or delete it — but it hasn't been sent for approval yet.
From the detail page you can:
- Review everything you entered.
- Click Edit to change anything.
- Click Start Approval when you're ready to send it for review.
- Click the 🗑 icon to delete it if you changed your mind.
To send the document for approval, see Starting the approval process.
Common questions
Why can't I change the title?
Titles for request forms are generated from a fixed pattern so every document in your company follows the same naming convention. It keeps the Documents list tidy and helps approvers recognize what they're looking at. If your admin lets you edit titles for a specific document type, the field will be editable instead of read-only — most of the time it isn't.
The Content is pre-filled with text I don't want to send. What do I do?
Click the pencil / Edit button on the Content card, confirm the warning, and change it. The confirmation step exists specifically to stop accidental edits — but if you need to change it, you can.
Some fields I expected aren't there.
Either the admin hasn't added them to this document type yet, or they are task-only fields — fields designed to be filled in by an approver during their step, not by the creator at the start. Task-only fields appear later, on the task detail page during approval.
A field is in a language I don't read.
The field's translations haven't been added yet. Ask your admin to add them on the Additional Fields page. Until then, the field shows in whatever language it was originally created in.
I submitted but ended up somewhere different than a colleague did.
Creating a request form takes you to the document's detail page. Creating a file-based document takes you to its edit page (so you can add metadata before moving on). This is deliberate — the flows are different. See Creating a document from a file if you wanted the file upload instead.
Does clicking Create start the approval automatically?
No. Your document is now in Active status but hasn't been sent for review. You need to click Start Approval on the detail page when you're ready. See Starting the approval process.