Building a form in Socket is a case of adding sections, dropping in the questions you need, and setting how each one behaves. You can start from a blank form, a template, or a form generated with AI, and shape it however you like.

This guide covers building and editing your form's content. For sharing it once it's ready, see our Sharing and sending your form guide.

From the "Forms" area, click "New form". You'll choose a starting point: a blank form, one of your own saved templates, a system template, or "Generate with AI". You'll also pick the type of form you're creating, for example an onboarding form, then you'll land in the builder. For building a form with AI, see our Getting started with Forms guide.

Your form is organised into sections, which keep related questions together. Add a section and give it a "Title", such as "Your details" or "Company details", plus an optional description to explain what the section is for.

You can add as many sections as you need and reorder them, and a section can be set to only show based on an earlier answer using conditional visibility, which we cover further down.

Within a section, click "Add field" to open the field picker. You can search for a field by name, or pick one from the categories.

Here's what each field type is for. Under "Text" you have Short Text for short answers like names or references, and Long Text for longer comments. "Contact" gives you Email, Phone Number and Address. "Choice" covers Dropdown for picking one option from a list, Multiple Choice for selecting a single option, Checkbox for ticking one or more, and Yes / No. "Data" has Number and Date. "File" has File upload for documents.

"Company & Tax" brings together a set of fields for capturing common client identifiers, each with built-in validation to catch obvious mistakes: Company Finder, Companies House Authentication Code, Company UTR, Personal UTR, Employer PAYE Reference (ERN), PAYE Accounts Office Reference, National Insurance Number, VAT Number and VAT Quarters.

The Company Finder is worth a special mention. Your client searches Companies House by name or company number and picks their own company, so you capture the right details first time. You can also choose to save what they pick straight onto the client's record in Socket, including their company number and registered legal name, and it sets the client up as a limited company automatically.

Click any field to open its "Field Settings" on the right. Most fields share a few core settings. The "Label" is the question your client sees, the "Required" toggle makes an answer mandatory, "Placeholder" adds faint example text inside the box, and "Help Text" adds a short hint beneath the question.

Some field types add their own settings. A Dropdown or Multiple Choice lets you add and reorder the options, while a Number field lets you set a Minimum, Maximum and Step. To remove a field, use "Delete Field" at the bottom of the panel.

The File upload field lets clients attach documents, and they can even photograph something like a passport straight from their phone. They simply drag and drop a file onto the field or click to choose one. It accepts PDF, JPG, PNG, HEIC, DOCX, XLSX and CSV files up to 10MB each, and you can allow up to 5 files per field.

Conditional visibility lets a question, or a whole section, appear only when it's relevant, based on an earlier answer. It keeps your forms short and stops you asking for things that don't apply.

To set it up, turn on "Conditional visibility" in the field's settings, then choose the earlier question it depends on and the answer that should trigger it. The field then stays hidden until your client gives that answer. For example, you might ask "Do you have an email address?" and only show the email field when the client answers Yes, or only ask for a VAT number when someone confirms they're VAT registered.

One thing to note, you can't currently add a condition to a question that is itself controlled by a condition, so conditions can't be stacked.

Drag the handle next to a field to reorder it within a section, and drag sections to reorder them. To remove a field, open it and use "Delete Field". To remove a section, use its options menu.

At any point you can click the preview icon, the eye in the top bar, to see exactly what your client will see. It's worth a quick preview before you publish, so you can check the flow and that any conditional questions behave as you expect.

Your form saves automatically as you build, and the badge in the top bar shows whether your latest changes are saved. It stays a draft until you publish it.

When you're ready, click "Publish". To share your form and send it to clients, see our Sharing and sending your form guide. If you need to change a form that's already live, see our Editing a live form and versions guide.