Most businesses come to Tanca with a set of paper forms they have used for years. Copying every field on paper straight onto the screen is the wrong approach. This article shows how to convert them so the electronic form is better than the paper version, not just a copy of it.
Four conversion steps
- Gather all the paper forms currently in use. Including forms used by only one department.
- Remove what the system already knows. Full name, employee code, department, job title, start date — Tanca fills these in automatically. Delete them from the form.
- Compare against the built-in request types. More than 50 built-in types cover most needs. Only build a custom form when nothing truly matches.
- Build forms for the rest following article B8-03.
Step 2 usually cuts a third to a half of the fields on the paper form. A shorter electronic form is the main reason employees are willing to use it.
Converting each element of the paper form
| On paper | In Tanca |
|---|---|
| Name, employee code, department fields | Remove — the system fills them in from the profile |
| Date fields | Date field type |
| Multiple-choice checkboxes | Dropdown menu field type |
| Reason field | Paragraph field type |
| Amount, quantity fields | Number field type |
| Auto-calculated total field | Formula field type |
| Space for stapling invoices, medical certificates | Attachment field type |
| Handover person name field | Employee field type |
| Signature lines at the bottom of the page | Not a field — this is the approval workflow, configured in article B8-04 |
The most common mistake: creating a field named "Department head's signature" for the approver to type their name into. It isn't needed — the system already records who approved and when, with a timestamp, and that record is much harder to dispute than a handwritten signature.
Two things to drop entirely
- Form numbers assigned by the administration office — Tanca generates request codes automatically; configuring a prefix in the settings is enough.
- "Comments of…" fields for each level — each approval step already has its own place to record a reason.
Run both in parallel for one month
- Launch the electronic form but still accept paper copies during the first month.
- Count the percentage of electronic requests each week.
- Ask those who still submit on paper why — usually the form is missing a field, or the approval flow goes to the wrong person.
- Once fixed, set a cut-off date for accepting paper and announce it two weeks in advance.
If you don't set a cut-off date for paper, the conversion will never be finished. Someone will always keep using paper as long as it is still accepted.
Legal records
For request types that must be kept on file by regulation — disciplinary decisions, resignation letters, financial documents — consult your company's legal department about record-retention and electronic signature requirements before dropping paper entirely. Tanca keeps a complete approval log, but record-keeping requirements vary by industry and by country.
