👤 For pipe admins and people who design processes
🔐 Available on all plans. Conditionals require Business, Enterprise, or Unlimited
🎯 For anyone deciding how each participant should provide information during a process stage
A request is already moving through the process, but a receipt, an opinion, or another piece of information is still missing. When that contribution arrives through a separate message, the team still has to find the right request, rebuild the context, and record the answer in the process.
By the end of this article, you will know when to collect that contribution through a Phase Form and when it is better to keep the work directly in the card. The decision starts with four questions: who is responding, how much context they need, what information they must provide, and who decides whether the process can continue.
📖 What you will understand here:
What changes when the response comes through a form
A Phase Form collects information after a process has already started. It is connected to a phase of an existing card. When someone fills in the fields available in that form, the answers update the fields on that same card.
This is different from the Start Form. The Start Form opens a new request and creates a new card. A Phase Form collects a contribution while the card is already moving through the process.
Consider an expense reimbursement request that already exists. During review, the team notices that the receipt is unreadable. If the only need is to receive a new file so the same request can continue, the interaction can happen through the Phase Form for the completion stage. The requester does not need to open another reimbursement request just to provide the missing information.
The decision is not about creating a second set of fields. It is about how the person should interact with the fields for that stage. Before changing the process structure, check whether only the contribution method needs to change.
- Learn more: See how Phase Forms update an existing card
When a focused contribution makes sense
A Phase Form is usually a stronger fit when someone joins at a specific moment, provides a defined response, and does not need to perform the entire stage inside Pipefy.
Use these criteria to evaluate the interaction.
Who has the information
Start with the person who actually knows the answer. It may be the requester who needs to add a document, a manager providing an opinion, or another participant who joins only at that point.
If that person uses Pipefy occasionally and the contribution can be expressed through a few clear questions, a shared form can keep the response connected to the right card. If the person follows the process every day, checks previous information, coordinates with others, and records several decisions during the stage, the card usually provides the operational context required for the work.
How much context the person needs
A focused contribution should make sense without requiring the person to reconstruct the entire history of the process.
Imagine a purchase request that has completed internal analysis and now needs a manager decision. To respond, the manager needs enough information to understand the request and then record the decision. The form should present the questions and context needed for that decision.
Now compare that with an analyst who performs the final review before payment. That person may need to check information already stored in the card, inspect documents, follow the progress of the stage, and record a conclusion. In this scenario, working directly in the card keeps the operational context that is part of the task.
What information must return to the process
Define the answer that the next decision actually needs. For a reimbursement completion, it may be a readable receipt. For a purchase review, it may be an approval decision and, if the request is declined, a reason.
Pipefy documentation also distinguishes between sharing only the Phase Form link and sending the form through an email template. When the form is sent through an email template, it becomes a task. Sharing only the link does not create a task for that person.
If the contribution needs to appear as an assigned task, include this distinction in the process design. A shared form and a task can both collect information in the card, but they are not the same follow up experience.
- Learn more: See when a Phase Form becomes a task
How rules shape the response
Not every person needs to answer the same questions. When one answer changes what should be collected next, conditionals can show or hide fields based on the scenario.
In the purchase example, the form can ask Do you approve this purchase. When the answer is negative, a reason field can appear so the manager explains the decision. This keeps unnecessary questions out of the interaction and aligns the contribution with what the team needs to review next.
Keep three decisions separate: what the person sees, which information is required, and which rule allows the process to continue. Showing a question does not by itself approve a request or move a card.
Conditionals are documented for Business, Enterprise, and Unlimited plans and can only be configured by pipe admins. If you plan to use them in a Phase Form, test the logic with different answers before expanding its use.
- Learn more: Understand how conditionals show and hide fields
For a deeper look at question design before configuration, see Formulários inteligentes com lógica condicional. The Community article is in Portuguese and helps connect the person filling the form, profile variations, and the data that later rules need.
When to keep the work directly in the card
A Phase Form does not need to replace the working experience for an entire stage. It is an alternative interaction for specific contributions.
Return to the reimbursement example. The requester may use the form only to provide a missing receipt. After that, the analyst responsible for the request continues working in the card to check the information, review the document, and record the stage conclusion.
This distinction helps match the interaction to each role:
- A focused contribution from someone who needs to respond or add information: consider a Phase Form
- Ongoing execution by someone who follows the stage and needs process context: consider working in the card
The choice can also vary within the same phase. The important point is not to treat the form as a mandatory replacement for the whole experience. It works best when participation has a clear beginning, purpose, and expected response.
A useful process design question is: does this person need to respond to the process or work in the process? The answer usually clarifies which interaction provides the right context.
What to check before sharing
Before sending the form to other people, test the interaction as if you were the respondent.
First, confirm that the person can understand what they need to provide without a separate message. Next, check that the answers reach the expected fields in the card. Finally, validate the rule that determines process continuity as a separate decision.
If the process handles sensitive information or needs to identify who responded, Pipefy documents an email authentication option for Phase Forms. Authentication adds an identity validation step and should be selected according to the context and company policy.
Do not assume that submitting the form moves the card or completes an approval. The submission collects information. Continuity depends on the rules defined for the process.
If you are still consolidating the concepts of pipe, phase, field, and form, the Pipefy Fundamentals course reviews that structure and helps connect each element to a real process before you move into more specific modeling decisions. The current course page is in Portuguese.
A simple test for your next phase
Choose a phase that often waits for another person's contribution and write down four answers:
- Who has the missing information
- What context that person needs to respond
- What information must return to the card
- Who or which rule decides whether the process can continue
Then simulate the interaction with someone acting as the respondent. If the person can understand the request and provide the contribution without operating the entire stage, a Phase Form can be a good choice. If the person needs to follow the work, consult the card context, and take several actions throughout the stage, keeping the work in the card is usually the stronger fit.
Before moving on, confirm that you understand:
☐ The difference between opening a new request and updating an existing card
☐ How the participant role and required context guide the interaction choice
☐ That field visibility, response collection, and process continuity are separate decisions
☐ How to test a phase with someone acting as the respondent before expanding its use
