Request packs
Most of what you ask a client or a supplier for is the same every time. A wedding needs a run sheet, a family photo list and a signed agreement. A corporate job needs a purchase order, an AV brief and a headcount. A new supplier needs their public liability certificate before they set foot on site.
A request pack is that list, saved once. Add the pack to a booking and every ask in it is created there in one click, ready for the client or the crew member to answer in their portal. Point a lead type at a pack and it happens on its own, the moment a lead of that kind becomes a booking.
Where packs live
Go to Requests in the sidebar and click Request packs on the title row. That page is the whole library: every pack you have built, and the asks inside each one.
You can hold up to 100 packs, with up to 100 asks in each.
Building a pack
Type a name in the box at the top and click Create. Name it after the kind of job it is for, because that name is what you pick from later: Wedding, Corporate AV, Supplier onboarding, Marquee wedding.
Click a pack to open it. The pencil beside it renames the pack and gives you a description field, worth filling in the moment you have two packs with similar names: the description shows under the name in the list, so you can tell Wedding from Wedding (marquee) without opening either.
To add an ask, type what you want to call it, choose a kind, and click Add. Two fields, because building a pack should not start with a dozen empty boxes. Everything else about an ask is set by opening it.
Drag the handle on any ask to reorder it. The order in the pack is the order the person meets them in, so put the thing you most need first.
The kinds of ask
| Kind | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload | They send you a file. |
| Text | They type an answer. |
| Choice | They pick from options you write. |
| Terms | They read and accept a document from your terms library. |
| Task | They confirm they have done something. |
| Contact field | Their answer writes onto their contact record. |
| Heading | Groups the asks under it and collects nothing. |
Headings are worth using once a pack passes about six asks. A pack split into Before the day and On the day reads as a brief; the same asks in one long run read as a form.
Setting up an ask
Open any ask to configure it. What you see depends on its kind.
Every kind has an Instructions box, which is where you say exactly what you need and in what format. Most kinds also have a They can't finish until this is done tick, which makes the ask required. An Upload works differently: Fewest files is what makes it required, so leave it at 1 for something you must have and set it to 0 for something optional.
- Upload asks add Fewest files and Most files, so you can accept one certificate or up to five site photos. Set the fewest to 0 and you have a "send it if you have one" ask. There is also Ask for an expiry date, which makes them enter the date the document runs out. Right for a public liability certificate, meaningless on a run sheet.
- Text asks add an Answer shape, so you can insist on a phone number, a number, a date or an email address rather than free text, and Give them a big box to write in for anything longer than a line.
- Choice asks take your options, one per line, and They can pick more than one if it is not either-or.
- Terms asks take Which terms, either your default terms or any document in your terms library, plus They type their name to accept and They draw a signature to accept.
- Task asks can take Steps from a workflow, which turns a single "confirm you did this" into a checklist built from one of your saved workflows.
- Contact field asks take Which detail this updates, so the answer lands on their contact record and is there next time you work with them.
A Text ask can also write its answer onto the booking. Save the answer onto the booking puts it in the booking's event brief, which is how "tell us about your day" ends up on the booking rather than buried in a request. An ask set up that way is shown only to the booking's client contact, and the editor says so under the picker; crew never see it. Choice and Upload asks have nothing that fits an event brief, so the picker does not appear on them.
Also save the answer to a contact field is separate, and offered on every kind that collects something: an Upload's latest file becomes the field's current one, a Text or Choice answer is copied across. It only shows once you have built at least one custom contact field.
Attaching a document to an ask
Any ask can carry a reference document, so the person can see what you mean before they answer: a site map, a sample certificate, a uniform photo, a stage plan.
Under Document to show them, choose either a file from your Files library or a link to a document elsewhere. Files in a pack always come from your library rather than being uploaded to the pack itself, and that is worth knowing: rename or replace the file once in Files and every booking the pack was ever added to shows the corrected version.
Adding a pack to a booking
Open a booking, go to its Requests panel, and the pack picker sits at the top. It only appears once you have built at least one pack. Choose a pack and click Add pack. You are asked to confirm first, because a pack lands several requests at once and every one of them is visible to the client and the crew the moment it exists.
The same picker sits on a portal, so a contractor register or a stallholder intake gets its checklist the same way.
Adding a pack is additive. Adding the same pack twice really does add every ask twice, so if you want a second copy of a question you can have it, and if you did not mean to, delete the extras from the panel.
A booking holds up to 200 requests. If a pack would not fit in the room left, none of it is added and you are told so, rather than the booking ending up with three of a wedding's seven asks and no sign of the other four.
Adding a pack automatically from a lead type
This is the part that saves the most work. Go to Leads, then Lead Types, open the lead type you want, and expand What you ask the client for. Pick a pack and its asks are added to the booking as soon as a lead of that type becomes one.
That is why the setting sits on the lead type rather than on your account: a wedding enquiry and a corporate enquiry need different things, and the enquiry already told you which one this is. A wedding lead converts and the client's portal already asks for the run sheet, the photo list and the signed agreement, without you touching it.
The pack is added once, when the booking is created. Accepting a quote on a lead that already has a booking does not add the asks a second time, and an ask you deleted does not come back the next morning.
Leads you add by hand have no lead type, so no pack is added. Add one from the Requests panel if you want it.
A pack is a starting position, not a live link
Once a pack has been added to a booking, the requests on that booking are its own. Editing the pack afterwards changes nothing that has already been added, and deleting the pack leaves every booking it was ever used on exactly as it is.
That is what you want most of the time: a pack you improve in March should not rewrite the questions a client answered in February.
There is one deliberate exception. A Task ask that draws its steps from a workflow reads those steps live, so editing the workflow updates the steps on every booking the pack was added to. That is the same behaviour as applying a workflow to a task by hand.
If you delete a pack that a lead type points at, that lead type simply stops adding one, and converts leads exactly as it did before.
What a pack does not carry
Conditional sections are not part of a pack. A conditional section is gated on the answer to another question on that booking, or on a named group of crew, and neither of those exists in a saved pack. Add the pack first, then add the section gate on the booking, where the question and the crew being gated actually exist.
Related articles
- Asking crew for documents and info covers a single request in full, and every setting a pack item copies.
- The Requests page covers the queue everything a pack creates ends up in.
- Capturing enquiries with a form covers lead types, and where the pack setting sits.
- Portals covers the people-and-paperwork records a pack works on just as well as a booking.
- Your terms and conditions library covers the documents a Terms ask can point at.
- Tasks and checklists covers the workflows a Task ask can draw its steps from.
- Where files live covers the library a pack's reference documents come from.