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Employee On Boarding Tutorial

This documentation is for frevvo v10.0. Not for you? Earlier documentation is available too.

Employee On Boarding Tutorial

frevvo enables universal access to e-forms and workflows on tablets and smart phones in addition to desktop support on all standard browsers. iOS 6+ devices, iPad and iPhone, running mobile safari are supported. This tutorial will incorporate several frevvo features into an Employee On Boarding workflow. For example;

  • Touch screen wet signature - the new employee can sign to verify the information using their finger or a pointer.
  • Take advantage of device specific capabilities - you will see the correct date picker and keyboards pop-up on your mobile device
  • Screenflows - ability to further divide a screenflow into sections that better lend themselves to an iPad or iPhone using the PageBreak control
  • Ability to upload an existing image or a picture taken with the device camera to the e-form
  • Use the iPad's location services to fill in the address
  • Spaces that render in a device specific manner - support swipe gestures and customized icons
  • Enhanced Task List for mobile devices
  • Quick Approval feature - allows quick review of a task by the appropriate person with accept/reject buttons
  • Generate an additional Pixel Perfect PDF for the federal W - 4 form. It is important to note here that there is no limit on the number of PDFs that can be generated. For example, you can collect the information in your form once and then use it to fill in an unlimited amount of PDFs for the new employee i.e. -the federal W - 4 and the I - 9.

  You can download this tutorial as a PDF.

Please view the New Employee On Boarding video for an introduction to some of the exciting features we will be using in this tutorial. We estimate about 2.5 to 3.0 hours for an experienced frevvo designer to complete this tutorial. It may take up to 4.0 hours if you are a new user. 

What are we going to build?

A frevvo workflow is a series of routed forms that can run on any devices including the tablets and smart phones. In this tutorial, we will create a workflow that can be used when onboarding a new employee joining your company. There will be three participants: the new employee, the new employee's manager and an employee that works for the company HR department. The new employee will complete three forms (Employee Information, W-4 Allowances, Education History) and a confirmation step, where they will have an opportunity to confirm the entered data with their signature after reviewing a the completed W-4 as a PDF. These four steps are referred to as a screenflow. A screenflow consists of steps in a workflow that are performed by the same person. The new employee will complete the screenflow from an iPad and the task will be sent to the new employee's manager for approval. The approval step will be performed on an iPhone using the Quick Approval feature. Once the task is approved, it will go to the HR department for finalization and storage. This tutorial will cover the following:

  • Create the frevvo roles and users needed.
  • Create the Employee Onboarding Workflow using the PageBreak control to design the forms for a mobile device, in this case, the iPad. The screenflow includes a confirmation form for the new employee to review the generated W-4 PDF. The Confirmation form utilizes the Form Viewer and Signature controls. 

  • Create the Approval step using the Quick Approval feature. This step will be performed on the iPhone by the manager.
  • Create the HR Step
  • Generate an additional PDF for the federal W - 4 forms 
    • Add a field for the signature to the W-4 using PDFescape.
    • Upload the W-4 template to frevvo.
    • Map the e-form controls to the field.
  • Create a frevvo space.
  • Test the workflow on the tablet, mobile device and desktop 

What are we going to need?

  1. frevvo account on the frevvo Cloud server or a working in-house installation. 
  2. A tablet, mobile device and desktop computer. If you do not have mobile devices, you can perform the Employee On Boarding workflow from your desktop computer.
  3. You will need to download the W-4 form. You can find the latest version here. Right click and save the form to your desktop. Open the form. Notice the name field is a combination of the new employee's first name and middle initial and there is no writable field in the PDF for the Employee's Signature or the date field next to the signature.
  4. A PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader or Mac Preview and a PDF editor such as PDFescape

Setup users and roles

This is a one-time setup that will have to be performed by an administrator.

We will need three roles: employee, manager and hr. To create these roles in frevvo:

If you are using frevvo Online, go directly to Step 5. frevvo in-house users will have to create a tenant first before adding roles/users. Follow Steps 1-4 to do that:

  1. Login as the frevvo in-house superuser admin.
  2. Click the icon to create a new tenant
  3. Fill in the Add Tenant screen. 
  4. Click the Submit button. Logoff as the superuser.
  5. Login to frevvo as the administrative user for your tenant.
  6. If you do not already see the Manage Tenant page, click the Manage link at the top right of the page.
  7. On the page that is displayed, click the "Manage Roles" link.
  8. Click the  icon and in the form that is displayed, type in the desired role. Note that role names are case sensitive.
  9. Repeat for the second and third roles.

The admin user will also need to setup three users, assigning one of the three roles to each one:

  1. Login to frevvo as the administrative user for your tenant.
  2. If you do not already see the Manage Tenant page, click the Manage link at the top right of the page.
  3. On the page that is displayed, click the "Manage Users" link.
  4. Click on the Add User icon.
  5. Complete the new user form for Jerry Mouse, the manager, Tom Cat, the employee (Select Jerry from the Reports dropdown for user Tom) and Sue Smart - HR personnel
  6. Assign the roles shown in the image above to the users. 
  7. Submit the form.
  8. Make one more user named designer and assign this user the frevvo.Designer role. Use the designer user to create the Employee On Boarding workflow. 

Create the Employee On Boarding Workflow

  1.  Login as the Designer user.
  2. From the Project home page, click  Add Content and pick Create a New Workflow. This launches the Workflow Design Wizard.
  3. Select Add to New Project and name the new project "Employee Onboarding Tutorial." You can provide any description you want. Click Next.
  4. Name the workflow "Employee Onboarding Workflow" and click Next. 
  5. Rename Step 1 "Employee" and leave the default type Create a New Form.
  6. Click Add a New Step.
  7. Rename Step 2 "Allowances", Step Type "Create a New Form", Assignment "None"
  8. Repeat steps 6-7 two more times, naming the steps "Education" and "Confirmation".
  9. Add another step, name it "Approval", Step Type "Approval Step," Assignment "To a User: jerry"
  10. Add another step, name it "Office Use", Step Type "Approval Step," Assignment "To a Role: HR"
  11. Click Finish.

You will immediately see your workflow diagram in the Guided Designer: Workflow editing mode.

Design the Forms

Next, we'll customize each of the new forms created by the Workflow Design Wizard. Go to the Guided Designer: Forms editing mode. Notice that the Employee Form is shown.

You can switch forms anytime by clicking "Switch Form" and choosing another step in your workflow.

You will also see that a "My Items" section has been added for you - this will save some time when designing this form! Refer to Designing Forms for in-depth information on the frevvo features and controls described in the steps below.

As you create the forms, keep in mind the screen sizes of the devices you are targeting when designing forms for mobile devices. The screenflow for this tutorial consists of four forms: Employee Information, W-4 Allowances, Education History and Confirmation. We expect the new employee will complete the screenflow on an iPad. Let's begin with a close look at how the PageBreak control can be used to divide the Employee information form into sections that will make it very easy to fill in the information on the iPad. 

Typically, information about a new employee would include: name, address, SSN, Telephone Numbers, email address and possibly a profile photo. Creating this form for a desktop view would be very simple in the frevvo designer. A form designed for the desktop could look like the image below:  Mobile forms work best when they are broken up into small, logical pieces. The PageBreak control lets the designer create a mobile layout consisting of multiple pages where each page contains a small number of controls (logical groupings). The user navigates between the pages via Back/Next buttons, or on a device that supports it, by swiping left/right. We will use sections plus the PageBreak control to illustrate these concepts.

Employee Information Form designed for a Desktop browser


Design the Employee Information Form

Logo and Form Title

Let's add a logo and form title to give users a frame of reference when they open this form.

  1. Drag and drop an image control from the palette to the canvas. Use this to upload a company logo image, if desired.
  2. Drag a message control from the palette and drop it next to your logo. Type the text "New Employee Onboarding Form" in the message area. You can bold the text by checking bold on the Style tab for the message control.

Employee Information Section

Next we'll add some additional controls to the default My Items section.

  1. Drag and drop a text controls for the Middle Initial fields. Click the Style tab and adjust the widths of the three fields so that they are next to each other on the same line. Notice the required property on the FirstName and LastName fields is checked; do not make the control named MiddleInitial required. 
  2. Drag and Drop a date control into the section and label it Date of Birth. The Date Format  defaults to Automatic. Check Required on the date control's property panel.
  3. Add a text control and name it SSN. A pattern can be used to ensure the correct format number for the Social Security Number. Here is an example of a valid pattern: \d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}. Apply this pattern to the field by typing it into the Pattern field on the Control property pane. frevvo will display an error message if the entered data does not match the Make sure the required property is checked. 

  4. frevvo takes full advantage of the cameras built into mobile devices. You can give the new employee an opportunity to attach a profile picture by adding an Upload Control to your form below the FullAddress hidden field. Users will see a prompt on mobile devices giving the user a choice to upload an  existing  image or take a photo with the device camera. You can specify the allowed file types to be uploaded by checking selections in the Restricted Content Types section on the Properties pane. For Example, check jpg if you only want to allow the upload of files with that extension.
  5. Add a Phone control below SSN. Name the control Home Phone. Help text showing different formats for the phone number is provided when you add the control to the form.
  6. Add a second Phone control to the right of the Home Phone field. Name the control Cell Phone.   
  7. Add a text control to collect Address information from the new employee. Make the width the size of the form and name it Street.
  8. Drag and drop a text field below the Street control. Label it City. Make it Required.

  9. Drag a dropdown control from the palette, name it State and make it Required. Type in the names of some states into the Options section on the dropdown control property pane.

  10. Drop a text control to the right of the State dropdown. Label it Zip Code and make it Required. Designate a Max Length of 5 characters. 

Drag, drop and resize controls as needed. Your form should look like similar to the image at this point:

Notice that the My Items section includes a Wet Signature control so the Employee can sign using the a track pad/mouse or a touch screen to verify the allowance selections entered into the form. This is what the new employee will see when signing. 


Save your work

Hidden for IRS Section

  1. Add a Section Control and name it hidden for irs. Uncheck the visible property on the section control. This section will remain hidden on the form but we will map it later for the W-4 PDF.     
  2. Add a hidden text control named FullAddress beneath the city, state and zip code fields that will be populated with the City or Town, State and Zip Code via a rule. Uncheck the Visible and Enabled properties. 
  3. Drop another text control below these controls. Uncheck the visible property for this control. Name this field FirstPlusInitial. 
  4. Add a text field for the Employer Name and another one for the Employer Identification Number. Type the Employer's Name and Address into one and the Employer's Identification Number (EIN) into the other.       

The Employee Information form should look like this at this point:

Save your work.

Design the Allowances Form

In this form, we will collect information for the Personal Allowances section of the W - 4 Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. The section is shown below. The e-form will have controls corresponding to each field on the W-4.

Here is an example.  We will map the data in these fields, along with some others, to the W - 4 PDF later in this tutorial.

For this tutorial, we'll just create controls for Filing Status, Step 2: Multiple Jobs, and Step 3: Claim Dependent.

Download and install this example EOB workflow which includes a fully-mapped W-4. 

  1. In the Guided Designer: Forms editing mode, click Switch Form and select Allowances.
  2. We don't need the My Items section on this form, so you can delete it. Click Save and notice that you get an error message. Click OK - we'll fix this rule later.
  3. Drag and Drop an Image control from the palette, and upload an image of the IRS logo or the top of the W-4 form to give your users a frame of reference when they are filling out this form.
  4. Drag a Message Control into the form. In the Message Property, type

    Please complete the information below. A Federal W-4 Form will be generated. You will have the opportunity to review the form before submitting.

    Change the Type to Bordered. On the Style tab, select Bold.

  5. Drag and drop a Section control to your form and name it Filing Status
  6. Drag a radio control into that section. Name it Federal Filing Status. Enter these options:

    Single_or_Married_filing_separately=Single or Married filing separately
    Married_filing_jointly=Married filing jointly (or qualifying widow(er))
    Head_of_Household=Head of Household (Check only if you're unmarried and pay more than half the costs of keeping up a home for yourself and a qualifying individual.)

    Check the Required property.

  7. Drag in another section and name it Step 2: Multiple Jobs.
  8. Drag a checkbox control into the Step 2: Multiple Jobs section. Name it Multiple Jobs or Spouse works, and add just a single option:

    Only_2_Jobs=If there are only two jobs total, you may check this box. Do the same on From W-4 for the other job. This option is accurate for jobs with similar pay; otherwise, more tax than necessary may be withheld.
  9. Drag in another section and name it Step 3: Claim Dependents.

  10. Drag two quantity controls inside that section, named "Number of Qualifying Children Under Age 17" and "Number of Other Dependents".
  11. Drag three number controls inside that same section. Uncheck the Required and Enabled properties (we will set them using rules later, and this is what we'll map to the W-4.) Name them "Dependent Child Calculation", "Other Dependent Calculation", and "Claim Dependents Total".

Save your work.

Design the Education Form

Design an Education form similar to the image below. We'll use a table control to collect information about the new employee's Education. Refer to the Add/Remove columns in a table topic for more information.

  1. Click Switch Forms and select Education.
  2. We don't need the My Items section on this form, so you can delete it.
  3. Drag and drop a Table control to the form. Name it EducationTable.
  4. Click Col 0 and change the label to Start Year and the Name to StartYear. Repeat for Col 1 and 2 labeling them "End Year" and "Institution." with corresponding names.
  5. Click the first row in the Start Year and End Year columns and change their Control Type to Quantity. Changes made to one cell in a column will apply to all cells in the column.
  6. Drag a Dropdown control from the palette, and drop it to the right of the Institution column. Name it "Degree Attained".

  7. Click the first row in that column. In the Options property, type

    High School=High School
    Bachelors=Bachelors
    Masters=Masters
    PhD=PhD

  8. Click on the Table control then select the Style tab on the Properties panel. Enter these percentage values, separated by a space, to adjust the widths of the four columns: 10% 10% 50% 25%

Save your work.

Design the Confirmation Form

The purpose of the Confirmation form in the Employee On Boarding workflow is to give the new employee the opportunity to review the information in the generated W-4 PDF and then sign to indicate the information has been reviewed and verified.

  1. Click Switch Form and select Confirmation.
  2. We don't need the My Items section on this form, so you can delete it.
  3. Drag and drop a section to the canvas. Name it "Employee Review". 
    1. On the Security Tab, change the type to Wet Signature and check Must Sign.
  4. Drag and drop a checkbox control inside the section. Set the Name and Label to CheckConfirm.
    1. Set a single option "Confirmed=I have reviewed my W-4 and all information is correct."
    2. Check Hide Label.