How to collect data with your workflows
A step can ask for information as well as be ticked off. Add a data collection field to a step and everyone running the workflow is asked the same question in the same place, so the answers come back in a shape you can report on rather than scattered through comments.
Add a data collection field
- Open the workflow for editing.
- Hover over the step and click the data collection icon.
- Choose the Type of data.
- Give it a label. This is optional, but without one the field is labelled with its type, which reads poorly when a step collects more than one value. Labels can be up to 75 characters.
- Choose Required or Optional, then click Save.
A step can hold several fields. Add the second one from the same panel, and the list of fields on the step is shown above the form.
The field types
- Short text input for a single line, such as a name or a reference.
- Long text input for paragraphs.
- Number input.
- Date input.
- Date & Time input.
- Email input.
- Phone Number input. See Phone number data collection field.
- Website input for a URL.
- Choose from list for a fixed set of answers you define.
- Upload file and Upload image.
- Signature input for a signature or initials. See Signature Data Collection.
- Choose from Data Table, which offers rows from a data table you maintain in the account. This one appears only on plans that include data tables.
Options that depend on the type
Once you pick a type, the form shows the settings that apply to it.
Choose from list
Enter the answers in the Choices box, one per line. Turn on Allow multiple choices? if the person should be able to pick more than one. See Multi-select data collection list option.
Number
You can set a minimum and a maximum value, cap the decimal places, and decide whether negative values are allowed. Each is optional, and leaving one blank means no limit.
Uploads
The difference between Upload image and Upload file is how the answer is displayed: an image field shows a thumbnail, a file field gives a download link. Both accept whatever the person needs to attach, so an image field is a reasonable choice for a step where people usually send a photo but sometimes send a PDF instead.
Required fields
A field marked Required has to be filled in before the step can be completed. This is the main reason to use data collection rather than asking in the step instructions: a required field is enforced, an instruction is not.
What you can do with the answers
- Show and hide later steps. Conditional logic reads these answers. See Conditional Logic in Workflows.
- Put them into the text of later steps as variables, so the instructions name the customer or the date collected earlier. See Using variables in Workflows.
- Send them to other systems through webhooks, Zapier and the API. See Does Manifestly integrate with other services?.
- Report on them. Collected data is included in run exports. See Reporting and filtering on the runs page.
Changing a field later
Editing a field changes the workflow, not the runs already under way. Runs in progress keep the fields they started with, along with any answers already given. See Updating Runs When a Workflow Changes.
Take particular care renaming the answers on a Choose from list field: any conditional rule written against the old wording no longer matches it, and the step it controls quietly stops appearing.
Video walkthrough
This video walks through collecting data in the steps of a workflow.