The app builder
Where a new app lives
When you start a new app and your organization uses teams, the basics section also shows a Team and a Project dropdown. Pick where the app belongs — the forms it creates go there too — or leave it organization-wide. You can only choose teams where you are an Editor. To move an app that already exists, use the project line under its title (Editors, within the same team) or its Access tab (Admins, any team). See Teams and projects.
The screen, at a glance
- 1Top bar — rename the app, grab its public link once live, jump to the live app, or open full Settings.
- 2Basics — which record type this app is built around, fixed once the app is created, and the Live switch that turns its public link on.
- 3Steps — the forms a respondent works through, in order. Each one either Registers (creates the record) or Attaches (adds to one that exists), and is Filled once or Repeatable. See Steps for the full configuration.
- 4Dashboard cards— live counts shown on the app's home screen, such as “registered this month” or “visits this week.”
- 5Live preview — exactly what a respondent sees, updating as you edit. Nothing here is saved until you press Save.
Everything else lives in Settings
The five zones above are what you touch constantly while building. Everything touched less often — appearance, access, the reporting schedule, the programme's dates and who works it — is tucked behind the top bar's Settings button instead of cluttering the main screen, spread across five tabs:
- Design — how steps are shown, page width, header, spacing, background, branding, layout and theme colours. See App appearance.
- Access — the public link, whether the app is live, whether sign-in is required, and whether drafts are allowed.
- Schedule — whether reports are grouped into windows (a quarter, a term), and how those windows repeat. See The reporting cycle below.
- Status — when the programme opens and ends, pausing, closing, reopening, and starting the next cycle. See Running a programme.
- People — who is assigned to the app, which area each person covers, and reminders. See Field workers and areas.
The reporting cycle
The Schedule tab's Reporting cycle section is one of three choices:
| Mode | What it means |
|---|---|
| Always open | Reports are accepted anytime. |
| Fixed windows | You set the windows by hand. The app is closed outside them. |
| Repeating cycle | Windows repeat on a schedule automatically — no manual upkeep. |
Choosing Repeating cycle reveals four more settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Repeats | How often a new window opens — Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly. |
| Cycle starts from | Anchors the first window. An April date gives an April–March year, for example, instead of a plain calendar year. |
| Late days allowed | How many days after a window closes it still accepts responses — useful when a visit happened right at the edge of a period but gets typed up a few days later. |
| Earlier cycles offered | How many already-closed windows a field worker can still choose to file into, beyond the grace period above. |
One decision you cannot undo: the record type
Everything else about an app — its name, description, steps, even its whole design — can be changed at any time. The record type cannot. The moment records start being created against it, its records and dashboard are already built around that choice, the same way you cannot decide halfway through filling a filing cabinet that the folders should have been organized by a different label. If a different record type turns out to be the right one, the fix is a new app, not an edit to this one.