Introduction to Application/Intake Forms
The Application Form in AcceleratorApp allows you to collect structured information from applicants who wish to join your program. This customizable tool helps streamline the application process, ensuring you gather all necessary details for evaluation and selection.
Where to Find/Create an Application Form
To create an Application Form, navigate to the Side Bar Menu > Forms Management, click Create New Form, name your form, and select Application as the form type. If needed, add additional languages from the dropdown menu to support multilingual applicants.
Step-by-Step
1. Adding Questions
Use the Drag and Drop functionality to add different types of questions:
- Custom Fields - use fields that are already part of users or startups profile and ensure the data syncronization
- Text fields (Long and One Liner) – For open-ended responses like personal statements.
- Multiple choice – To standardize applicant responses.
- Rating scales – For self-assessment or reference ratings.
- Yes/No questions (Single Choice) – To gather binary responses.
- Attachment questions – To allow applicants to upload attachments like CVs, business plans, or portfolios.
- Number questions – For capturing numerical values like financial data or experience years.
- Date questions – To collect date-based questions like birthdates or business start dates.
- User Add Row questions – To let applicants submit multiple entries (e.g., listing previous accelerators attended or founding team).
2. Formatting Elements
Improve the form layout by adding:
- Section Headers – To categorize different areas such as Personal Information, Business Details, and Funding Needs.
- Subheaders – To introduce sections and guide applicants.
- Paragraphs – To provide instructions or additional context.
3. Setting Validations
Ensure accurate and complete applications by setting validations:
- Character limits for text responses (e.g., 500 words for motivation statements).
- Required fields for essential questions (e.g., email, business name).
- Email format validation to ensure correct contact details.
- Numerical range for financial figures like revenue or funding raised.
- Date restrictions to ensure eligibility (e.g., business must be registered before a certain date).
Depending on the field you can apply multiple type of validations
4. Applying Conditional Rules
Personalize the form based on applicant responses:
- Trigger additional fields based on specific answers (e.g., request additional details if an applicant selects ‘Yes’ for prior funding received).
- Show relevant questions based on applicant type (e.g., startups vs. scale-ups).
5. Adding Visibility Restrictions
Control which team members can view the answers to specific questions by setting role-based permissions:
Toggle Access: Switch the setting from "All Roles" to "Only Selected Roles."
Select Roles: Choose the specific roles from the dropdown menu that should have permission to view this data.
Note on Permissions: Users with Admin roles have full access to this data by default and are not affected by these restrictions.
6. Converting Fields into Custom Fields
Frequently used questions can be converted into Custom Fields to improve data tracking and synchronization. This is especially useful for fields like industry type, funding stage, or location. To learn more about data synchronization with custom fields, click here.
7. Sharing and downloading
You can share the application form as a preview link that allows external users to visualize the form without needing an account. However, this link is for preview purposes only and does not allow submissions.
If needed, you can download a PDF version of the form to share it offline.
8. Save and Publish Always
This is the most critical step in the form creation process. Understanding the difference between these two actions ensures your applicants and reviewers always see the correct version.
Save vs. Publish: Always click Save followed by Publish to commit your changes.
Saving stores your work as a draft in the backend.
Publishing pushes that draft live, making it accessible to applicants in the funnel.
Draft Mode: If you only save, your edits remain in "Draft Mode." Applicants will continue to see the previously published version of the form until you hit Publish.
Editing Live Forms: If you need to make changes while a funnel is active, simply "Saving" your edits will not update the live application. You must re-publish the form for the changes to take effect for your applicants immediately.
Best Practices
- Keep questions clear and to the point to reduce application fatigue.
- Use file attachments to collect business plans, pitch decks, or financial statements.
- Test your form internally before launching to ensure a smooth applicant experience.