Need help with paperless office workflow

[akm3]

Hello,

My wife is a counselor and wants to replace all her intake paperwork with an ipad app. Perhaps an ipad + pencil.

Is there an app you could recommend where a PDF comes up, is filled out (Both via typing, checking boxes, and writing either with stylus or finger) and then uploaded with a unique file name to a dropbox or onedrive location?

The idea is to have a client come in, hand them an ipad with all the paperwork they need to fill out, they fill it out, and hit submit and bang paperwork done with no paper.

Ideas?

 

[madsci954]

Have you looked at PDFpen for iPad?

https://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/iOS

 

[ZBoater]

I use PDF Expert.

 

[blue2noise]

Simple fillable PDFs are limited. Check out the awesome service from GoFormz. GoFormz.com

 

[garyleecn]

there should be planty of online services does that, like blue2noise said.
but you wanna consider wheather you want to upload and store data on someone else's hard drive. (i'd avoid smaller companies, becasue their lack of ability for secturity protection, and google, personal preference though)

do you have a mac that's on all the time? if you have then you can create a workflow yourself.
here's my idea,
1. client fills the pdf on ipad,
2. 'print' this pdf to a file on mac (i believe printopia can do that), say /incoming/raw files
2.1 optionally you can upload it to your own webdav, or afp/smb location, very easy set up with osx server
3. use some script/workflow/apps to organize name. like you can have hazel (or folder-action if you know how to write scripts) to scan folder /incoming/ and rename all pdf files inside as the the time the file was created (or whatever you like)
4. if you want you can have some 'database' apps (non-cloud) to organize your files for better searching and organization (paperless can do that, and there are some more on the MAS), or you can just use os's build-in search function.

so all you need is a computer (be always standby) and maybe <$100 apps for that, and ~$100 external hard drive for backup. even if you dont have a computer already (seriously? a business without computer), the total cost with a brand new mac mini would be ~$600. would be cheaper with windows/linux solutions

 

[akm3]

Thank you all for these suggestions. I will explore all four options presented.

 

[maconut]

Thank you all for these suggestions. I will explore all four options presented.

It is possible that it could take a long time for some clients (particularly elder clients) to figure out how to do the input of forms on the iPad. I suggest having paper forms available as a backup, and a scanner with OCR (the ScanSnap line is great) to get the data into the computer.

I don't have any affiliation to ScanSnap other than as a happy user. And I know some elder folks that have trouble with iPads, even though many use them successfully. I'm just thinking that if this is a small practice, for some clients, your wife will be doing all of the iPad intake entry (for the client) as part of the first appointment, instead of that being useful time to interact.

 

[garyleecn]

It is possible that it could take a long time for some clients (particularly elder clients) to figure out how to do the input of forms on the iPad. I suggest having paper forms available as a backup, and a scanner with OCR (the ScanSnap line is great) to get the data into the computer.

I don't have any affiliation to ScanSnap other than as a happy user. And I know some elder folks that have trouble with iPads, even though many use them successfully. I'm just thinking that if this is a small practice, for some clients, your wife will be doing all of the iPad intake entry (for the client) as part of the first appointment, instead of that being useful time to interact.

The scanner doesn't have to have ocr, there are plenty apps can do that, some even does a better job
Scansnap also has a Evernote version designed for those tasks, but you wanna make sure if you want to store those info in the cloud

 

[Cassied219]

Does your wife have a website? She could put the forms on the website and they can just submit them to her prior to coming in for an appointment.