The standard New Request form asks for a title, an impact area, and a description. If your community needs more than that, for example the make and model of a broken appliance or the dimensions of a proposed fence, you can collect requests through a form instead. Members fill out your questions, and Communitrak turns the completed form into a request automatically.
Building the form and turning on its request action requires the Create/Update/Edit Forms permission. Turning on the banner requires the Update Community Preferences permission. Changing who can submit requests directly requires permission to manage roles. Some options may be unavailable or appear differently depending on your level of account access.
This is three separate settings working together, and it's worth knowing what each one does:
A form with the Create Request / Violation action turned on. This is what actually creates the request.
The Forms & Polls Banner preference, which puts a message on the Requests page pointing members to the form.
The Create Request permission, which controls whether members still see the New Request button at all.
There are two separate settings here, and it is worth knowing which one you are reaching for. The banner above is community-wide and purely advisory. A required intake form is set per request type, in that type's review settings, and is actually enforced. A community can use either or both.
Go to Forms & Polls in the main navigation menu and create a form, or open an existing one.
Add the questions you want answered. Any question type works, and file upload questions are useful here since the files come across to the request.
Open the Actions tab and find the Create Request / Violation card.
Click Configure.
Fill out the configuration:
Request Type (required): General, Maintenance, Architectural, or Violation. This is the type of ticket the form creates.
Request Title (required): The title every request from this form gets, for example "Architectural review request." Individual answers go in the description, not the title.
Property (Submitter's property): Uses the household of whoever submits the form. This is the usual choice.
Amenity: Always assigns to one amenity you pick.
Other: Always assigns to a named area you type in.
Ask in Form: Adds a question at the start of the form asking the member to choose the impact area themselves.
Request Header Text: Context that appears at the top of the request description, above the questions and answers.
Default Deadline: Sets the request deadline to this many days after the submission date. Leave it blank for no deadline.
Click Save Configuration. The card's badge changes from Disabled to Enabled.
Optionally click Manage Watchlist to add members or groups who should be notified whenever this form creates a request, for example your architectural committee.
Publish the form.
Click Community in the main navigation menu, then click the Preferences tab.
Find the Requests preferences, below the request category checkboxes. They only appear when the Requests module is enabled.
Check Forms & Polls Banner. The change saves on its own.
Members now see a blue banner at the top of the Requests page reading "Submitting a new request: To submit a new request, please complete a form in the Forms & Polls module," with a Forms button that takes them there.
Two ways, and they are not the same.
Name the form as required intake for that request type. Open the request type, click the gear icon, and under Intake choose the form and set it to Require. The New Request button then goes straight to your form, and a request of that type cannot be created any other way. This is the option most communities want: it keeps the button where people look for it and simply changes where it lands. It is per type, so you can require a form for architectural requests and leave maintenance alone. Leaders keep a small menu beside the button so the office can still file an application that arrived by phone or on paper.
Or remove the Create Request permission from the roles that should no longer submit directly, usually the Resident role. The New Request button disappears for those members, leaving the banner as their route in. This is the blunter instrument: it applies to every request type at once, not just the one you built the form for.
Leave both alone if you would rather treat the form as the preferred path but still allow a plain request. Members then see both the button and the banner.
The member opens the Requests page and follows the banner to Forms & Polls.
They complete and submit your form.
The request is created immediately and appears in their requests list, where they can track it, comment, and add files like any other request.
Each submission produces a pending request with:
The title from your configuration.
A description containing your header text followed by every question and the member's answers.
The submitting member as the creator, added to the watchlist as the target.
Anyone you added under Manage Watchlist, including all active members of any group you added.
Any files the member uploaded in the form, copied to the request's Attached Files.
A deadline set to the submission date plus your default, if you set one.
An activity entry reading "Created from form submission" followed by the form's title, so you can always tell where a request came from.
The banner appears on every request type's page (General, Maintenance, and Architectural), not just the one your form creates.
The banner does not link to a specific form. It sends members to the Forms & Polls list, so name your form clearly and keep the list short enough that the right one is obvious.
One form creates one type of request. If you want a different form for maintenance than for architectural review, build one form per type and turn the action on for each.
The action can create a violation rather than a request. Use that carefully, since a violation notifies the household it targets.
Turning the action off with Disable also clears the watchlist you configured for it. Requests already created are unaffected.
Members without the Create Request permission can still comment on, and upload files to, requests they are on the watchlist for. Removing the permission only stops them from opening new ones directly.
If you have questions or need help, chat with Communitrak Support from any page using the messenger icon in the bottom-right corner.
