How Event Forms, fields, layouts and pipelines connect

Event forms, record fields, layouts, and pipelines work together to capture, display, and report on your Event data. Understanding how they connect helps you make changes confidently and keep your setup consistent.

Event Forms: where initial Event information is collected

Event Forms are what reporters use to submit new Events. Each question in an Event Form can be linked (mapped) to an Event record field in the Field Manager. This link ensures the reporter's answer is stored in the Event record, where it can be viewed during follow-up, used in workflows, and reported in dashboards.

If a question is not mapped to an Event record field, the response is visible in the Original Submission tab but does not appear in the Details tab, dashboards, or exported reports.

Event record fields: where data is stored and reported on

Event record fields hold the data collected through both the initial form submission and the follow-up investigation. They are managed in the Field Manager. The data stored in Event record fields is what powers your Analytics dashboards.

Some fields may be calculated automatically. For example, the read-only 'Duration' field calculates the number of days between an Event's start date and end date. It is primarily used for Events that record absences.

For example, the 'Duration' field is calculated from the Event's start and end dates and shows the number of days. It is a standard, read-only field available to all customers.

The Event layout: how Event record fields are organised

The Layout Editor controls how Event record fields are grouped and ordered in the Details tab of the Event record. Changes to the layout affect presentation only. They do not change the underlying data or field mapping. Removing a field from the layout hides it from the Event record view, but the data stored in that field is retained.

Event Pipelines: which fields are highlighted at each stage.

Event Pipelines determine which Event record fields are highlighted at each stage of the follow-up workflow. The highlighted fields help users focus on the information that is most relevant at that stage. All fields included in the Event layout remain available and can be viewed and completed by selecting 'View all'.

How it all works together

• Event Forms collect the initial Event information from reporters.
• Those responses are saved in fields, which store all Event data and feed it into dashboards and Analytics.
• The layout defines how those fields are organised inside the Event record.
• Event Pipelines highlight the fields that are most relevant at each stage of the follow-up process.

Before you change a live Event Form

Most changes are safe. Rewording or reordering a question, and reordering the layout, do not affect your stored data or mapping.

Structural changes need more care. Adding or removing fields, or editing dropdown options, affect how data is collected and stored.