Are you looking for a case study demonstrating Gravity Forms as the perfect solution for a fill-in-the-blanks fillable PDF? Here it is…
Case
An agricultural business consultant called Temi Cole, author of The Big Book Project writes business/investment plans, known as “Poultry Project Reports” regularly for clients.
The plans require lots of bespoke information, data crunching and branding inputs.
Plus, the plans include a variety of advanced mathematical calculations to derive investment outcome scenarios from compound interest loan schedules to discounted cashflow anlaysis.
Problem
Up until recently, when writing these plans, Temi (working solo) would use Google Docs as his blank canvas.
Coupled with a series of Google Sheets to compute the financial analysis (alongside LOTS of manual data entry with plenty of duplicated efforts), this patchwork quilt of applications sufficed as a long workaround.
It did the job.
But each plan took 2 working days to complete after all proof-reading was complete.
Request
Temi gave us the following request for proposal:
- I want a fill-in-the-blanks business plan builder, producing final drafts in PDF format – must be effortless to use – saving time, error and money.
- It’s got to be easy to navigate.
- All calculations have got to be automated and outputs prepopulated on subsequent phases of the builder.
- It’s got be highly customisable aesthetically, with branding and logo present throughout each plan.
- Clients have got to be able to use the builder themselves (user-generated/self-serve) taking the strain off me.
- I want the builder to be very interactive – in a way that supports alternatives analysis and scenario planning.
- Formatting of each plan must be clear and consistent…and professional looking, as if it were handmade.
- PDFs should be downloadable and emailed by notification.
- Plans must be stored in a database and easily reprinted or reproduced if required.
Our Solution: Gravity Form Fill-in-the-Blank Fillable PDF Business Planning App
- The user inputs data into the form fields – facts, figures or upload files, like logo, for example.
- NOTE: Gravity Forms performs all text and file capture/storage, conditional logic routines and simple calculations.
- NOTE: GP Advanced Calculations will perform all complex financial calculations requiring functions such as exponent as used in loan repayment projections, for example.
- The user fills in a dedicated form for each stage of the business plan, with associated field values carried from previous form (stage) entries into the form the user is currently using.
- NOTE: GF Populate Anything carries the user’s entry data from the previous form into the current form.
- NOTE: User submits the form related to each stage of the business plan, and on submission, Gravity Forms redirects user to the next form/stage in the business planning sequence.
- User clicks submit button on completion of each form to receive email notification containing entry data along with a custom PDF version attached.
- NOTE: Gravity Forms sends email notification to user’s email address used in submission (with entry data customised by merge tag).
- NOTE: Gravity Forms is used as the data collection & processing tool and Gravity PDF for converting the form input into a PDF document.
- NOTE: Gravity PDF produces related PDF file of the entry data associated with the notification.
- NOTE: a custom MPDF template is used to present a well-tailored presentation.
- NOTE: Gravity Forms merge tags are used within the MPDF template to deposit the personalised data ie. company name, logo etc. into the right places on each PDF page.
Now, over to you…
- Are you looking to build a similar Gravity Forms fillable PDF solution from scratch?
- Do you have such a solution already, but need some custom development?
- Are you interested in partnering with us on such projects in your agency pipeline?
Hit us with a message below…👇