# Three capture-form workflows that replace paper

Three ready-to-build Capture Form designs — a building-permit application, a purchase requisition, and a new-hire onboarding packet — each specified down to the fields, workflow rule, and approval process to create.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 8 minute read · Last verified: 2026-08-31

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/capture-form-ideas-that-work

**By the end of this article you'll have three complete Capture Form designs — a building-permit application, a purchase requisition, and a new-hire onboarding packet — each specified down to the exact fields, workflow rule, and approval process to build.**

All three follow one pattern. A **Capture Form** is a fillable PDF attached to a document type: someone fills it in the browser, clicks **Submit**, and the filled form becomes a document with every form field saved as searchable metadata. A workflow rule watches for the new document and starts an approval process automatically.

No printing, no scanning, no retyping.

## 1. The building-permit application

Picture a building department. Someone wants to build a deck, and the paper application that starts everything gets photocopied, walked between desks, stapled to drawings, and — once a month — lost. Here is the electronic version.

**The situation.** An application must reach plan review, every reviewer must sign off, and staff must answer "where is my permit?" without hunting through folders.

**The fields.** Create a `Building Permit Application` document type, then add its fields in the document type's settings under **Admin > Catalog**:

| Field | Type | Options to set |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Permit Number` | Numeric | Auto-increment — the system pre-fills the next number; duplicate check as a safety net |
| `Permit Type` | Text | Choice list (`Building`, `Electrical`, `Plumbing`…) — cascading lists can offer subtypes per type |
| `Parcel Number` | Text | Required |
| `Applicant Name` | Text | Required |
| `Applicant Email` | Text | Required |
| `Project Address` | Text | Required |
| `Expiration Date` | Date | Set at issuance — this field powers renewal searches later |

**The form.** In the document type's capture settings under **Admin > Catalog**, upload your fillable-PDF application and map each PDF field to the fields above. Front-counter staff can fill it in the browser as applications arrive — and if you want applicants filling it themselves, see the sharing article linked at the end.

[Download: Building Permit Application — starter form](https://help.ademero.com/downloads/building-permit-application-starter.pdf)

> **NOTE:** The filled form itself becomes the document, so capture site plans and drawings as their own document type (for example `Permit Drawings`) carrying the same `Parcel Number` and `Permit Number` values. One field search then pulls the whole application file together — or group the pieces formally with a packet, as in the HR example below.

**On submit.** One workflow rule does the routing: a **ContentCapture** trigger on `Building Permit Application`, with an **ApprovalProcessStart** action that launches your `Plan Review` approval process. Add an **EmailSend** action with a receipt template if applicants expect confirmation.

**The approval.** Build `Plan Review` with an intake stage (one person confirms the application is complete) followed by the review group — zoning, fire, engineering — set to require **All** members to approve. Reviewers work from their **Approval Queue** with **Approve** and **Reject** buttons and notes. Rejecting can send the application back to a chosen earlier position for corrections instead of throwing it out.

**Why it beats paper.** `Approval Process Status` is a built-in searchable system field, so "where is my permit?" becomes a two-second field search — and search-result columns show status, parcel, and type without opening a single document. Renewals stop slipping too: search `Expiration Date` with the **between** operator across next quarter and you have the outreach list.

*[Screenshot: Search results for the Building Permit Application document type, with Permit Number, Parcel Number, and Approval Process Status as columns]*

## 2. The purchase requisition

This is the classic accounting form — the one that used to come in carbon-copy triplicate. An employee wants to spend money, and *no document exists yet*: the form itself creates the record, which is exactly what a Capture Form is for.

**The situation.** Purchase requests live in email threads and hallway approvals. By the time the invoice arrives, nobody can prove who approved the spend, against which budget, or whether it was approved at all.

**The fields** on a `Purchase Requisition` document type:

| Field | Type | Options to set |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Requisition Number` | Numeric | Auto-increment — the number that the PO and invoice will reference later |
| `Requested By` | Text | Required |
| `Department` | Text | Choice list — powers budget reviews by department |
| `Vendor Name` | Text | Choice list — it can be sourced from your accounting database instead of maintained by hand |
| `Amount` | Numeric | Required |
| `GL Account` | Text | Choice list from your chart of accounts |
| `Needed By` | Date | Lets approvers see urgency without asking |
| `Justification` | Text | The "why" that outlives the email thread |

[Download: Purchase Requisition — starter form](https://help.ademero.com/downloads/purchase-requisition-starter.pdf)

**On submit.** Start with the same pair: **ContentCapture** on `Purchase Requisition` triggering **ApprovalProcessStart** into your `Spend Approval` process. Then add one workflow rule per approval tier — a **ContentField** trigger watching `Amount` that, when it exceeds `5000`, uses **ApprovalProcessStageChange** to move the request to the manager's stage, and a second rule above `25000` that moves it to the controller's stage. Small purchases sail through; big ones climb.

**Keep it moving.** Enable deadlines on the approval process so every request carries a due date in the queue, reminders re-send automatically, and overdue items escalate to an administrator. That is the built-in cure for the request that sits in someone's queue while the quote expires.

**Why it beats the email thread.** Approval happens *before* the money is committed, with the decision recorded on the document. When the vendor's invoice arrives later (by whatever route), one field search on `Requisition Number` pulls up the approved request beside it — who approved, when, against which GL account. Check requests and expense advances are the same build with two field changes.

## 3. The new-hire onboarding packet

**The situation.** Every hire produces a W-4, an I-9, and a direct-deposit form. Each carries different retention requirements, and none of it belongs outside HR.

**The build.** Create three document types — `W-4`, `I-9`, and `Direct Deposit Authorization` — each with its own capture form, all sharing `Employee Name` and `Hire Date` fields. Then group them with a packet template that marks all three **Required**: the built-in `Packet Completion Status` field shows at a glance which hires still owe paperwork, straight from search results.

[Download: Direct Deposit Authorization — starter form](https://help.ademero.com/downloads/direct-deposit-authorization-starter.pdf)

**Retention.** Because they are separate document types, each gets its own **Retention** setting — an enable toggle, a period (such as a number of years), and a processing schedule that deletes documents past their period automatically. Set the periods your policy or counsel requires per form, not one blanket rule.

**Permissions.** On each of the three document types, grant the HR group its rights — view, search, add, and whichever others apply — and add no one else. Permissions are set per document type, so locking these down doesn't touch anything else in the catalog.

> **IMPORTANT:** Permission grants are additive — any grant from any group a person belongs to wins, and system and catalog administrators always have access. "HR-only" is only as tight as your group memberships, so audit who is in which group.

**Why it beats paper.** No personnel filing cabinet, no annual purge project — completion is a search column and retention runs itself on a schedule.

## Adapt the pattern to any repeated intake

Any process that begins with "fill out this form and hand it in" fits the same recipe:

1. Create a document type, and add a field for every value someone will later search by.

2. Upload the fillable PDF in the document type's capture settings and map its fields.

3. Add a workflow rule: **ContentCapture** trigger, **ApprovalProcessStart** action — plus **EmailSend** if submitters expect a receipt.

4. Build the approval process, and enable deadlines so nothing sits silently.

5. Expose the key fields as search-result columns so status questions become searches.

Expense reports, maintenance requests, records requests, contract intake, visitor registrations — the fields change, the pattern doesn't.

## What's next

- [Create a capture form](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/create-a-capture-form)
- [Share a capture form outside Content Central](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/share-a-capture-form-outside-content-central)