Equip offers both Forms and Assessments to help you collect and organize information. While they may seem similar, each tool serves a unique purpose. This guide will help you decide which one is best for your workflow.
📄 Use a Form When…
You need to gather information without scoring performance.
You’re documenting support logs, intake forms, observations, approvals, or narrative progress updates.
Responses are open-ended, checkbox, written text, dates, acknowledgements, or simple ratings.
You may need to track submission status or keep a running record of submissions.
📍 Examples: Daily support logs, progress updates, onboarding checklists, consent forms
📊 Use an Assessment When…
You want to track progress or measure skills over time.
You need numeric ratings, scoring, performance levels, or outcome measures.
You’re comparing results over time or across assessors.
The focus is on skill-building, program outcomes, goal tracking, or monthly score trends.
You want to visualize results through charts and reports.
📍 Examples: Goal progress evaluations, skill assessments, program outcome tracking, monthly check-ins with 1–5 ratings
📆 Monthly Check-Ins
For a monthly check-in that includes narrative questions and a 1–5 outcome rating scale, use an Assessment if you want to compare results over time or report on the ratings. Use a Form if you only need to collect the answers as a submitted record.
To request the Form or Assessment on a schedule:
Create the Form or Assessment first.
Open Calendar and create the monthly check-in event.
In Data Collection, turn on Request Form or Request Assessment.
Choose the item, select the Send to Roles that should complete it, and choose a Notify User if needed.
Set the event to recur monthly and add the participants as registrants.
Use a Routine only when the participant needs to complete a step-by-step task sequence. Routines do not replace the Calendar event Data Collection workflow for requesting Forms or Assessments.
🔍 Key Differences at a Glance
Forms
• Purpose: Information gathering
• Input Type: Open responses, checkboxes, dates, acknowledgements, simple ratings
• Visual Reports: Not designed for scored trend reporting
• Great For: Logs, requests, observations, documentation
Assessments
• Purpose: Progress and outcome tracking
• Input Type: Ratings, scores, observations, and question responses
• Visual Reports: Yes, built-in reports
• Great For: Skill tracking, goal metrics, monthly outcome ratings
Equip Tip: Still unsure? Start with a Form if you’re collecting information. Use an Assessment when you want to track growth, measure outcomes, analyze trends, or compare ratings month to month.