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Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 1 of 14 Section 1. 1: Forms Analysis and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by Approved by: 1. 1 FORMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGNWHAT IS A FORM? A form is basically a fixed arrangement of captioned spaces designed for entering and obtaining pre-described information. A form is considered effective if it is: ? easy to complete?
easy to use? easy to store? easy to retrieve information quickly? easy to dispose 1. 1. 2 HOW IS IT IMPORTANT?
In a business, forms and design are greatly needed to allow the company to better organize the way they want their business to operate smoothly and efficiently. Although the presence of forms and design in a company ensures that the company will run better, be able to make better decisions and be able to coordinate activities more easily, these forms and design programs must be covered in the companies budget, in terms of costs. The company will have to make sure that its forms and designs are a unique standard throughout the company and not different in separate sections of the companies total make-up. If, by chance the presence of a universal form in a certain section of the company is a disadvantage rather than an advantage, the forms and policies of other companies may be looked at in order to correct the problem.
When creating a form, companies may use the same standard techniques before making changes to make the form right for its company. Some basic techniques are making sure that the form is easy to fill in, takes minimal time to fill-in, it has a functional layout and it contains an attractive visual appearance. After using the basic standards of form design, the forms analysis, spend countless hours making the design a unique standard for their company, while considering every section of the company, so that the form will be useful to every member of the company. Policies and Procedure Guidlines Page 2 of 14 Section 1. 2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 2 TOOLS AND AIDS FOR FORMS DESIGNING Many companies use the same basic tools to design their forms. In the past when forms were designed, many traditional tools were used to design forms. Some of those tools include the following: ?
pencils, erasers? rulers, triangles? tracing paper? lettering and symbol templates? cutting tools? masking tape and cellophane tape?
correction fluid? rubber cement Now, because of new technology and easier ways to design forms, most of these tools are obsolete. New computer hardware and software have provided many tools and accessories which have allowed companies to train employees to design forms using these advanced tools. Software packages such as Corel Draw, Microsoft Office, which includes Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint along with WordPerfect, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic and many other software packages have made tasks easier to complete.
Their amazing accurate and precise design tools provide picture-perfect quality. Computer Hardware and Software? Pentium Computers Today most designers use computers especially Pentium computers because of their speed and performance. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 3 of 14 Section 1. 2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: ? Corel Draw There are several different software packages that can be used to design the forms. Many companies recommend Corel Draw.
It is an excellent choice to use for designing the form as you would want it on paper. There are excellent designing tools included in the Corel Package which allows you to draw lines of any size, color or shape. It also allows you to insert grids, graphics, graphs or images with different border styles and sizes. ? Microsoft Word After designing the physical appearance of the form with style and borders, Microsoft Word will be used to fill in the forms information because of the various fonts that are available. Also, Microsoft Words ability to change font size, and either, bold, underline or italicize wording, will be very useful in the creation of the text that will appear in the form. ? Microsoft Excel This section of Microsoft Office can be used by the designers to design grids and graphs that might be needed to represent data in the form.
Grids and tables may be inserted into the form to hold data that the applicant may need to fill. Different types of graphs such as pie charts, line graphs, column graphs and combination graphs may be needed to represent a question in the form. For example, the applicant may need to fill in what percentage he / she belongs to as compared to the rest of the field represented by the graph. ? Microsoft Access This section of Microsoft Office can be used to design databases.
The designers may want to include previously designed tables or create new tables to insert into forms. They may also want to only include portions of tables in which they can create queries so that the tables they insert includes only the information that they specified. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 4 of 14 Section 1. 2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: ? Printers An Epson III Laser Jet Color Printer can be used to print the forms. The laser quality will provide the crisp and clear texture of lines and text, along with bright colors to make the form more attractive and visually appealing. Although any laser printer, will provide excellent quality, the color laser jets printers makes the forms more attractive because of how the different colors distinguish between the different sections of the form. ?
Saving Forms All the forms will that are designed by the company should be backed up on the hard drive of the computers. The forms will be saved whether they were used or not, in case of changes in the forms design or in case the company wants to improve on a previously designed form. The forms will also be saved on floppy disks, just in case of viruses, malfunctions in the computer or hard drive upgrading and formatting. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 5 of 14 Section 1. 3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 3 DESIGNING PROCEDURES The two major objectives of this process is: 1) collecting information, which is its reason for existence 2) facilitating a format for the form, which is standard. Facilitative Area The forms are a very important aspect of a company because they provide the information of each employee that the employers wish to know. Since most companies use a standardized format, each company must contain its title and identify the type of form that the applicant is filling out.
It is also useful to include the name of the department, date, codes and instructions that may be necessary to complete the form. ? Identification The title of the form will be placed at the top center of the form and in any case where the form contains more than one invoice, it should include subtitles to distinguish it from the rest of the forms. If the forms will be filed, it will be helpful to place the title in the visible area of the form, which would be the area visible on the form when it is in a filing cabinet or some other type of filing. ? Form Numbers The forms will also include form numbers which will be placed in either of the lower corners on each page of the form.
This will prevent the form numbers from being covered by staples and it wont interfere with the working area of the form. It will also serve as an aid in stocking the forms in small quantities. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 6 of 14 Section 1. 3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: ? Page Numbers It is also very important to ensure that all the pages of the form contain page numbers for various reasons.
This will be helpful in identifying what page of the form it is and help make it easier to sort out forms, especially if they contain more than one page. The page numbers should be placed in the upper right hand corner of the page so that when the form is opened the number of the page will be easier to see when the pages are stapled in the upper left corner. (EX: Page 1 of )? Edition Date The company should ensure that all the forms contain edition dates which show when the form was made. The form should also show how long they will be valid before they need to be updated again.
The edition dates will be included with form numbers. ? Supersession Notice This is simply a method of notifying users and workers in the supply room so that they will know when a new form has been created has replaced the older version of the form. It is also used when a newer version of the previous form has been revised. This notice is usually printed in the bottom margin of the form.
It should let the user know if the form has been replaced and what the number of the new form is. If more than one form is used to replace a single form, then a separate notice should would be more appropriate to inform effective personnel of the change. ? Expiration Dates and Approval of Forms If a form is to be used for only a limited of time, then it should contain expiration dates and limit dates. These will let the users no when and how long the form will be valid and when they should get another one. Because many forms have to be approved by a company first before they are distributed to users, they must allow room for the company to state its approval number, signature or symbol, along with the date that the form was approved.
Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 7 of 14 Section 1. 3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: ? Emblems and Symbols After the forms are approved by the company, the designers must insert the companys emblem or logo on the form. This will validate the form as property of that company and act sort of like a patent so that it wont be used by any other companies. ? Comments and Suggestions In order to have room for improvement on the forms, there should be enough space for any comments or suggestions that the authorizing department wishes to leave when approving the form. The form will have to be approved by the department before the companies logo or seal can be placed on the form. and it will have to contain the companies logo before the form will be valid.
Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 8 of 14 Section 1. 4: Instructions Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 4 INSTRUCTIONS 1. 4. 1 General Instructions To ensure that the forms are easy to fill out, each form will contain instructions for completing the form and what to do with the forms after completing them. The instructions should be brief. The instructions that are located under the title of the form will be basic, general instructions that tell the applicant what to do with the form, why they are filling it out and who they should give it to when they are finished. This should be read by the user before completing the form.
Lengthy Instructions In any case where the form is lengthy and requires a lot of thought to fill it out, an instruction booklet should be included with the form. These instructions are more lengthy but explain more about filling out the form. They should try to answer any questions that the applicant may have about his / her choices while completing the form. These instructions will explain clearly how to fill out the form, including what is mandatory to fill in and what sections are optional. These instructions should be sort of like a written procedure that explains the form in a sort of summary. The font size of the wording should be carefully designed to make sure that the words are big enough and the lines should be double spaced to make sure that the instructions are clear enough to read and understand.
An acceptable reading font size is around 12 pt or 14 pt size. Times New Roman, Arial or Courier are standard true type fonts that are clear and easy to read. Section Instructions There will also be instructions included in each section. These instructions will explain clearly how to fill out each the section of the form.
It will contain information on whether or not the section needs to be filled out in order to determine full completion of the form. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 9 of 14 Section 1. 5: Addressing and Mailing Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 5 ADDRESSING AND MAILING 1. 5. 1 Self-Routing On the bottom of the last page of the form or on the back of the last page, there will be a space for the address of the employer and a space for the applicant to fill in his / her address, along with extra space in case the form has to be sent to multiple routes. This will make it easier for the forms to be transferred to the employer and increase the capability of self routing mail. When addressing to a certain employer, job titles should be used instead of names just in case changes in departments should occur due to promotions or lay-offs. This will change the positions held by certain employees who are in control of certain departments which means different responsibilities for these people. 1. 5. 2 E-Mailing and Faxing Companies that have email will be at an advantage.
They will be able to email a copy of the form to the user and have them fill out the appropriate information and then email the results back to the employer For companies that dont have email, fax machines are also useful. They can simply fax the forms to the employees or applicants. The employees can then fill it out and then fax it or bring the form to the employer in person. 1. 5. 3 Personal MailBoxes In most companies, employers and employees have their own personal mailboxes. By including both the address of the employee and the employer, it is easier for employees or users to transfer forms to the employer.
In the event that the employer may be out on a business trip, the applicants may simply drop the forms into the employers mailboxes to meet deadlines. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 10 of 14 Section 1. 6: Form Layout Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 6 FORM LAYOUT? Sheet Size The forms should be designed o 11 carbon paper with a carbon sheet on the back, so that the person filling out the form can keep a copy for him / herself . The sections of the forms should be placed on both sides of the paper to save paper. The information on the forms should not be crammed so that some important information could possibly left out or so that it would make it harder to read the questions due to poor spacing or small lettering. ?
Margins The form should have half inch margins on all sides so that the wording wont be too close to the end of the page. This allows the user or reader to hold the paper without covering any wording on the form. ? Spacing The amount of horizontal and vertical spacing is determined by the amount of headings and sub-headings, size and style of text and the amount of space left for fill in answers. ? Box Format The form will follow a box format which will increase space because the information will go to each end of the page margin. It will have exceptional horizontal and vertical spacing to enable easier reading. ? Borders and Bolding The different sections of the form will be divided by solid black lines.
The headings and sub-headings will be bolded and larger than the question text in order to improve the visual appearance of each section of the form. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 11 of 14 Section 1. 6: Form Layout Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: ? Shading Shading will also be used in the sections where no information is required to make it easier for the applicant to know what sections he / she needs to fill in. This would also be used to highlight sections that need to be filled in, but not by the applicant.
For example, some forms have sections that specify for office use only meaning that they dont have to fill out any information in that section. ? Answer Spaces There will be spaces indicated on the right side of the section that will be lined aligned with one another. They will be used for filling in information that contain only numbers or a letter code. In the case that the answers to the question requires several lines in order to answer it, there will be more than enough space available to appropriately answer the question. Therefore the information must be clear and widely spaced so that it is very easy to fill out the forms. Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 12 of 14 Section 1. 7: Breakdown of Form Arrangements Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 7 BREAKDOWN OF FORM ARRANGEMENTS The form should be set up in a way to make it easier for the applicants to fill in.
The sections of the forms will be organized so that all the related parts of the form are placed one after the other to avoid reading back through the form. The form will have headings and sub-heading which define which section of the form you are filling out and help you understand what kind of information you should fill in. Beginning The personal information will be placed at the first of the form. This will contain things such as the applicants name, address, phone number, and date of birth. Body This will contain the basic purpose of the form. It will have the questions that will be needed to complete the form, depending on what kind of form it is.
For example, if it was an application for applying for a job, the beginning would include the items mentioned above in the beginning section. The body, would contain, previous education, previous employment, the position you wish to apply for and your references. Ending This section of the form will have spaces to fill in the address of the person you wish to send it to, along with your own address. It will have several spaces in case you wish to send it to more than one person.
Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 13 of 14 Section 1. 8: Revising an Existing Form Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 8 REVISING AN EXISTING FORM There are many things to consider when revising a form: ? Previous forms will be considered to be obsolete? Previous editions of forms can be used until there are no more left. Companies can use the older forms until there are no more left before presenting a new form. ? Existing stocks which include the form number and edition date can be used. The now obsolete forms, will be replaced by new ones, but the form numbers and editions dates will be transferred on to the new forms.
Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 14 of 14 Section 1. 9: Replacing Existing Forms with Different Numbers Effective date: March 6, 1997 Issued by: Approved by: 1. 9 REPLACING EXISTING FORMS WITH DIFFERENT NUMBERS? You first have to replace the form numbers and edition dates which are now considered to be obsolete. ? Instead of replacing the number and dates right away, you can wait until there are no more forms left and then make the changes to the new forms.
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