A collective is a set of forms that must all be filled out - an onboarding packet, a certification bundle, a client intake set. A collective step enrolls someone in a collective and then holds the submission until that person has completed every form in it. When they finish the last one, the workflow moves on by itself.
Overview
Where an approval step waits on a decision, a collective step waits on paperwork. The submission that reaches a collective step is parked: nothing is pending on anyone, no approval notification goes out, and the workflow does not advance. Flow Forms watches the enrolled person's progress through the collective's forms, and the moment every one of them is complete, the step finishes - its triggers fire and the submission continues to the next step, or to final approval if this was the last one.
Collective Steps and Dynamic Steps
Both can pull people out of form data; what they do with those people differs:
| Aspect | Dynamic Step | Collective Step |
|---|---|---|
| What it asks of the person | Approve this submission | Complete a set of forms |
| Notifies them to act | Yes, an approval notification | Yes, an invitation to complete the collective (unless the step is muted) |
| Holds the workflow | Until they approve | Until they finish every form in the collective |
| Purpose | Get a decision from form-derived users | Make sure required paperwork gets done |
Collective Types
Initial
Enrolls the original submitter in the collective.
Use Case: "Every employee who submits the relocation request must complete the relocation packet before the request proceeds."
Form
Extracts people from the submission's own answers and enrolls them.
Behavior:
- Reads email, name, and optionally phone from form elements you choose
- Creates the users if they do not exist yet, or matches existing ones
- Enrolls them in the collective, recording which submission enrolled them
Configuration:
- Email field (required) - form element containing email
- Name field (required) - form element containing name
- Phone field (optional) - form element containing phone
- Role - role to assign to created users
- Group - optional group membership
Use Case: "The volunteer named on the intake form must complete the background check and waiver forms before the intake is approved."
Managing Collectives
Collectives themselves are created and managed under Admin → Collectives: give the collective a name and choose the forms that must be completed. Each enrollment tracks which submission created it, so you can always trace why someone was asked to fill out a packet.
Workflow Behavior
When a submission reaches a collective step:
- The person is enrolled in the collective (created as a user first, if needed).
- The submission parks. It stays in its current status with nobody pending on it.
- Flow Forms checks their progress as the collective's forms are submitted.
- Once every form in the collective is complete, the step's triggers fire and the submission advances - or receives final approval if the collective step was last.
A collective step is only as fast as the person filling out the forms. If a submission seems stuck on one, check which of the collective's forms the enrolled person has not submitted yet. To bound the wait, give the step a Deadline: when it lapses, the deadline fires - a chase-up notification, an escalation, whatever you configure - instead of the submission waiting silently.