2.3.4. Form Templates and Saving Options

💡 First Principle: Providing pre-defined forms and flexible saving options streamlines data entry, improves consistency, and enhances user productivity, reducing the effort required for common tasks.

Scenario: Your service desk agents frequently create incidents for common issues like "printer not working." They want a way to quickly pre-fill the category, subcategory, and assignment group for these common incidents.

Form templates and various saving options are designed to accelerate data entry and ensure consistency for frequently created records. The fundamental 'why' is to minimize repetitive manual input, reduce errors, and ensure that common types of records (e.g., a specific type of incident or change request) are created with all necessary default values pre-filled. This significantly boosts user productivity and the reliability of your data.

Key concepts for Form Templates and Saving Options:

• Form Templates: Pre-defined sets of values that can be applied to a new or existing form.
  • Creation: Users (if they have the template_editor role) or administrators can create templates from an existing record by filling out the form and then selecting More options (three dots) > Templates > Save as Template.
  • Application: When creating a new record, users can select a template to populate the form with predefined values.
  • Visibility: Templates can be personal (visible only to the creator) or global (visible to specific groups or all users). Administrators typically create global templates for common scenarios.
  • Why use them? To ensure consistency, speed up record creation, and reduce training needs for common tasks (e.g., a template for "Printer Issue Incident" pre-fills category, subcategory, and assignment group).
• Saving Options:
  • Submit: Creates a new record and redirects the user back to the list view or a new blank form (depending on configuration).
  • Update: Saves changes to an existing record and redirects the user back to the previous view (e.g., the list or the record itself).
  • Insert: Creates a new record based on the current form's values, but leaves the user on the newly created record's form.
  • Insert and Stay: Creates a new record and leaves the user on the same form with the same values, allowing for rapid creation of similar records.
  • Save: Saves changes to an existing record but keeps the user on the same form. This is useful for saving progress on a long form without leaving it.
  • Resolve/Close: Specific UI actions for task records (e.g., Incidents, Problems) that not only save the record but also set its state to a resolved or closed status, often triggering associated workflows.
• UI Actions: Buttons on a form that perform server-side or client-side logic. Custom UI Actions can provide tailored saving options based on specific business rules.

Administrators configure default saving behaviors and create reusable templates that reflect common operational processes. This proactive setup ensures that the platform is not just functional but also optimized for the day-to-day efficiency of its users.

💡 Tip: Identify repetitive record creation scenarios in your organization. Create global form templates for these to significantly boost productivity and ensure data consistency. Teach your users how to leverage personal templates and the "Insert and Stay" option.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Not leveraging form templates for repetitive tasks. This leads to manual re-entry of common data, increasing errors and reducing agent efficiency.

Key Trade-Offs:

• Flexibility (Manual Entry) vs. Consistency (Templates): Manual entry allows for unique data every time, but templates enforce consistency and speed for common scenarios.

Reflection Question: How do form templates and various saving options contribute to both the efficiency of fulfillers and the consistency of data within ServiceNow?