# Create a form or chart template

> In Velarya, you build forms and charts in Organization settings > Forms & Charts. Select New template, start from a starter such as New Client Intake or SOAP Note or from a blank form or chart, add and arrange its fields, choose which services and locations it applies to and when a form goes out, then select Publish.

- Source: https://velarya.com/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template
- Who can do this: Admins (Form & chart template builder at manage)
- Plans: Scale, Branded, Connected
- Time: 10 minutes
- Last verified: 2026-10-01

## Start a new template

A form or chart template in Velarya starts in **Forms & Charts**, from a blank canvas or from one of five starters. A form is filled by the patient and a chart by your staff; [How forms and charts work](https://velarya.com/help/how-forms-and-charts-work) explains the difference.

1. Open the menu at the bottom of the left sidebar and select **Organization settings**, then **Forms & Charts** under **Client Experience**.
2. Select **New template**. The **New template** dialog opens: "Start from a blank canvas or a ready-made starter."
3. Select **Blank form**, **Blank chart** or a starter. Velarya creates the template as a draft and opens it in the builder.

![New template dialog with Blank form, Blank chart and the five starters, each marked Form or Chart](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/new-template-gallery-faf57383.webp)

| Starter | Type | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| **New Client Intake** | Form | Allergies, medications, medical conditions, pregnancy, prior treatments, goals, an acknowledgement and a signature |
| **Photo Consent** | Form | Consent to clinical photography, a choice about marketing use, and a signature |
| **SOAP Note** | Chart | Subjective, Objective, Assessment and Plan, and the provider's signature |
| **Basic Treatment Record** | Chart | Treatment performed, areas, device settings, notes and photos |
| **Advanced Treatment Record** | Chart | Indication and consent review, products used, photos, aftercare, tolerance, notes and the provider's signature, with sign-off on |

Every starter is yours to change. Its questions are ordinary fields you can rename, reorder or remove.

## Build the fields

The builder shows the template as the patient or provider will see it, on a page headed with its name.

1. Type the template's name in the box at the top. A blank template starts as "Untitled form" or "Untitled chart".
2. Hover between two fields and select the plus button, or select **Add component** under the last one, then pick a component. Search the list by name.
3. Select a field to edit it in the panel on the right: **Label**, **Helper text**, **Required**, its **Options** (with **Add option**) and its **Connected field**. For a **Logo** or **Image**, upload a PNG or JPEG of up to 5MB under **Image**.
4. Double-click a field's text to rename it in place. The toolbar on each field moves, duplicates or removes it, and you can drag it by its handle.
5. Select **Preview** to fill the template yourself, and the phone button to see it at the width of a patient's phone. **Clear responses** empties your test answers.
6. Select **Save draft**. You see "Draft saved".

![Template builder with the Known allergies field selected and its properties panel, Connected field Allergies outlined](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/template-field-properties-39419e15.webp)

| Group | Components |
|---|---|
| Content | **Paragraph**, **Divider** |
| Inputs | **Text Input**, **Long Text**, **Checkboxes**, **Multiple Choice**, **Dropdown**, **Date**, **Signature** |
| Media | **Logo**, **Image**, and on charts **Photo Upload** |
| Clinical | On charts, **Product Usage**: product, quantity, unit, lot number, expiry date and site |

**Photo Upload** and **Product Usage** are chart components your staff fill during the visit.

A connected field copies the answer into the patient's record when the form or chart is submitted. Text, long text, date, dropdown, multiple choice and checkbox fields can connect to **Allergies**, **Medications**, **Medical Conditions**, **Date of Birth** or **Address**, and on a chart also to **First Name**, **Last Name**, **Email** or **Phone**. **Sex at Birth** connects to a **Multiple Choice** or **Dropdown** question with the options Female, Male, Intersex and Unspecified. On a chart, fields connected to the medical record start filled with what it already holds.

## Which bookings get a form?

**Services** and **Locations** on the **Settings** tab decide which bookings send a form, and on which visits **Start chart** offers a chart: those for its services at its locations. A new template applies to every service and every location until you choose specific ones.

1. Select the **Settings** tab.
2. Under **Services**, choose **Specific services** or **Specific categories** in **Applies to**. A category covers every service in it, including services you add to it later.
3. Select **Browse**, tick the services or categories, and select **Done**.
4. Under **Locations**, select **Browse**, tick the locations, and select **Done**.

![Services card on a form's Settings tab, Applies to Specific services outlined, Dermal Filler and Neuromodulator chosen](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/template-services-picker-6901a6d5.webp)

To put the template back on every booking, choose **All services** in **Applies to**, or **All locations** under **Locations**, and select **Save draft**.

## Set how often and when patients get a form

A form template's **Frequency** and **Delivery** cards decide how often a patient fills it and when Velarya sends it. A new form, starters included, has **Collect** on **Every appointment** and every **Delivery** switch off, so it goes out with no booking until you turn one on.

1. Under **Frequency**, set **Collect** to **Every appointment** for a new copy each visit, or **One time** for a form each patient fills once.
2. For a **One time** form, type a number of months in **Expires after (months)**, from 1 to 120, to ask for it again after that long. Leave it empty, where it reads "Never", to keep the first copy for good.
3. Under **Delivery**, turn on each moment the form should go out: **Send with confirmation** as soon as the appointment is booked, **Send with reminder** with every appointment reminder, and **Send same day** with the appointment reminders that go out on the day of the visit. Any combination works, and each switch sends on its own.
4. Select **Save draft**.

![Frequency card on a form template with Collect set to One time and Expires after (months) set to 12, the months box outlined](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/template-frequency-settings-ed3369df.webp)

What the patient receives at each moment is in [Send intake and consent forms to patients](https://velarya.com/help/send-intake-and-consent-forms).

## Require sign-off on a chart

A chart template's **Charting** card sets review and prefill.

1. Open the chart template and select the **Settings** tab.
2. Turn on **Require sign-off**: "Completed charts need approval before they are final." A chart completed on it waits in **Needs review** until someone with **Approve & sign off charts** approves it. A chart completed by an Admin, or by a role with **Submit without reviewer approval**, skips review and is completed at once, and the audit log records it.
3. Turn on **Copy from previous** to let a provider start from the patient's last completed chart of this template. Signatures are never copied, so each chart is signed by the provider who completes it.
4. Select **Save draft**. The two switches reach new charts once you publish the template, as the next section shows.

![Charting card on the Advanced Treatment Record template with the Require sign-off switch on and outlined](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/template-charting-settings-b4684804.webp)

## Publish the template

A template reaches patients and providers once it is published.

1. Select **Publish** at the top right of the builder.
2. Read **Publish template?**: "Publishing snapshots the current draft as a new version. Existing submissions keep their pinned version. This can't be undone."
3. Select **Publish**. You see "Template published", and the badge next to the name reads **Published**.

![Publish template? dialog explaining that publishing snapshots the draft as a new version, with Cancel and Publish](https://velarya.com/assets/help/create-a-form-or-chart-template/publish-template-dialog-90ddbd35.webp)

Back on the **Forms & Charts** list, the row menu on each template has **Edit** and **Duplicate**, plus **Publish** on a draft, **Disable** on a published template, **Enable** on a disabled one and **Delete** on a draft.

## What do patients see?

Patients see a form, never a chart. A published form reaches them as a link by email, and by text once they agree to texts. The link opens a page with your practice's logo and name, then the fields in the order you built them, and ends with **Submit form**. A field you marked **Required** needs an answer first, and a **Signature** lets them draw or type their name. **Preview** at phone width shows what they get. When the link goes out, and how to resend it, is in [Send intake and consent forms to patients](https://velarya.com/help/send-intake-and-consent-forms).

## How do templates behave?

| Situation | What Velarya does |
|---|---|
| You edit and save a published template | Patients and providers keep getting the published version until you select **Publish** again, which makes the next version |
| You change the **Settings** tab and save | The change applies at once, to new bookings and to forms not yet finished. **Require sign-off** and **Copy from previous** take effect with the next **Publish**, and a chart keeps the rule of the version it started on |
| A form or chart was started on an earlier version | It keeps that version for good |
| You select **Duplicate** | A draft copy with "(Copy)" after the original's name, and the same fields and settings |
| You select **Delete** on a draft | **Delete template?**: "This draft template will be permanently removed." Select **Delete** and it leaves the list. A published template has **Disable** in its place |
| A form is submitted with a connected field answered | The answer replaces what the patient's record holds. A blank answer never erases it |
| Two fields connect to the same record field | Publishing is refused until one is changed |
| A chart template is published | **Start chart** offers it on visits for its services at its locations, alongside charts set to all |

## If something goes wrong

**Publishing is refused with a reason.** Velarya names what to fix, in the builder and on the row menu's **Publish**: add at least one field, keep one field per record field (for example **Allergies**), or set **Expires after (months)** to a whole number from 1 to 120. Fix it and select **Publish** again.

**"Couldn't save draft".** The template needs a name, and **Expires after (months)** takes a whole number from 1 to 120, or nothing.

**A chart template is missing from Start chart.** **Start chart** lists the published chart templates whose services and locations match the visit, plus those set to all. Publish the draft, select **Enable** on a disabled one, or add the visit's service and location on its **Settings** tab.

**A form is not reaching patients.** Check that it is published, that a **Delivery** switch is on, that its services and locations match the booking, and, for a **One time** form, that the patient has not already completed a copy that is still current. [Send intake and consent forms to patients](https://velarya.com/help/send-intake-and-consent-forms) walks through the rest.

**"You don't have permission to manage forms & charts. Contact your Admin."** Your role holds **Form & chart template builder** at view or not at all. An Admin can give a custom role manage on it in **Roles & Permissions**.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do changes to a template affect forms already sent?

Not their questions. Publishing makes a new version, and every form or chart keeps the fields of the version it was started on, so a patient halfway through a form and every signed record keep theirs. New ones use the new version from the moment you publish. Changes on the Settings tab, such as Delivery, apply as soon as you save, including to forms not yet finished, and a new name shows on every record.

### Can one form cover several services?

Yes. On the form's Settings tab, set Applies to to Specific services and pick every service it covers, or to Specific categories to cover every service in those categories, including services you add to them later. A patient booking any of them gets the form. Leave the services alone and the form goes out with every booking.

### How do I stop using a template?

Disable it. In Forms & Charts, open the row menu on a published template and select Disable. No new forms go out from it and it leaves Start chart, while every form and chart already made from it stays on the patient's profile. A patient who already has the link can still finish that form. Select Enable to bring it back.

### Which fields can a patient fill?

Text Input, Long Text, Checkboxes, Multiple Choice, Dropdown, Date and Signature, plus the Paragraph, Divider, Logo and Image components that show them information, such as your logo or the wording of a consent. Mark a field Required and the patient must answer it before Submit form goes through. Preview on the Build tab lets you fill the form yourself first, at desktop or phone width.

### Who can build templates?

Admins, through the Form & chart template builder permission at manage. A role with it at view can open the Forms & Charts list but not the builder. Providers fill charts with Clinical charts & forms, and they choose from the templates an Admin has published, so every provider in the practice charts on the same templates.