FranConnect makes documenting visits easy. This guide helps you build a visit form, create a visit, and assign tasks to the individual questions that prompted them, whether the visit is for site checks, compliance, or coaching.
Previously, a task raised during a visit stood apart from the question that caused it. A predefined task could be attached to a question in advance, and a standalone task could be created on the fly, but anything arising organically in the field had no link back to the question that surfaced it. Franchise Business Consultants and Owners can now create a task in real time and associate it with a single question, so the Question, Tab, and Section travel with the task through summaries, reports, and notification emails.
Topics Covered
Creating a Visit Form
To create a visit form, first log into your FranConnect environment. Click the gear icon at the top of the page to access your admin settings.
On the following page, click Visits on the left-hand column. Then click Manage Visit Forms on the Visits menu.
You will be taken to the following page:
From this page, you can modify your existing visit forms and create new ones. To create a visit form, click the Add Visit Forms button above the table. You will be taken to the following page:
Let's take a closer look at a few of the options on this page.
- Allow Negative Score: By default, a failed question will give a score of 0 for the question. However, using this option, you can subtract the value of the question from the response score instead of treating it as a 0.
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Score Progression Configuration:
- Additive: The response score will start at 0 and increment upward towards Max with each passed question.
- Deductive: The response score will start at Max and increment downward towards 0 with each failed question.
Note: If you choose the deductive method, please note that the internal base score in the system is still 0. So, for example, if you had one question worth five points, the initial display would show that you have five out of a possible five points. However, if you answer this question in a way that generates a negative score, you will actually move to -5 out of five points. While this may appear to be subtracting ten points, remember that you are being given credit for every right answer at the beginning and losing that credit every time you give a wrong answer in addition to any negative points assigned to the answer given.
Fill in the rest of the relevant details on this page. Click Save & Next once you have confirmed that the information you have entered is correct. On the next page, you will build any tabs, sections, or questions you wish to include in your visit form.
Let's cover a couple features that are included in the "Response" section when building a question.
For certain response types, you will be given options similar to the ones seen above. You can check the "Include question value in form score total" box to allow you to set the score value for each answer to the question. Additionally, if the answer to one of your questions is crucial and must be answered correctly, you can check the "Force Failure" box. This box means that if the question is answered in an unsatisfactory way, the visit will automatically be failed.
An example visit form could look something like this:
Once you are finished building your visit form, click the Finish button at the bottom of the screen.
Creating a Visit
To create a visit, first log into your FranConnect environment. Click the Operations drop-down on the left-hand sidebar and then select Visits.
On the following page, click the CREATE VISIT button.
You have three options for the visit you are creating:
- Start Now: Starts the visit once it is documented in FranConnect
- Schedule Now: Allows you to schedule the visit when you create it
- Schedule Later: Allows you to create the visit now and schedule it at a future date
Fill out the form based on the selection you have made.
Once you have confirmed that the information you have entered is correct, click CREATE at the bottom of the page. If you chose to schedule the visit, you will be redirected to the Visits page where you will see that your new visit has been created. If you choose to start the visit now, you will immediately be taken to the visit, which will begin immediately.
Assigning Tasks per Question within a Visit
A task can be linked to a question while you are conducting the visit, from the Visit tab, or afterwards from Operations > Visit Tasks. Before walking through both routes, a few rules apply throughout:
- The Question field is always optional. A task created without one behaves exactly as it always has.
- A single question can carry as many tasks as you need, whether its response was compliant or non-compliant.
- Tasks are listed in the same order as the questions on the form, so the task list reads in step with the visit.
Adding a Task from the Visit Tab
This is the quickest route and the one used most in the field, because you are already looking at the question that prompted the task. Every question on the form carries its own ADD TASK button, and a task raised this way is associated with that question automatically, so there is nothing to select.
Steps:
- Go to Operations > Visits and open the visit you are conducting
- Locate the question and click the ADD TASK button shown to its right.
- Enter the task details. Assign To, Due Date, Priority, and Task Status are required.
Adding a Task from the Tasks Tab
Follow-up tasks aren’t always raised during the visit itself, they can surface afterward, or be logged by someone who didn’t conduct the visit. In these cases, create the task from the Tasks tab under Operations and link it back to the relevant visit and question. It behaves exactly like a task raised from the Visit tab: the question still travels with it into summaries, reports, and emails.
The Tasks tab also serves as a review surface. Its QUESTION NAME column shows every task across all visits, making it easy to spot which questions are generating the most follow-up work.
Steps:
- Go to Operations > Tasks. The TASKS tab lists the existing tasks, with a QUESTION NAME column. Click CREATE. The CREATE TASK panel opens on the right.
- Choose the location in the franchise field, set Link To Visit to Yes. A required Visit No. field appears, listing the visits recorded for that location. Open the Question field and select the question.
- Enter the Subject, complete the remaining details, then click CREATE.
The task is saved against that question and appears in the TASKS list with the question shown in the QUESTION NAME column.
Note: The Question field is optional. Leave it blank if the task is not tied to a single question, and the task behaves exactly as it always has. A single question can also carry as many tasks as you need, whether its response was compliant or non-compliant.
Where the Associated Question Appears
Linking a task to a question is only worth doing if the link is still visible later. Once a task carries a question, that context travels with it, and turns up at each point where somebody reads the task. You never record it a second time.
As you finish the visit. The visit summary lists every task raised during the visit and adds a QUESTION column, so you can check each task against the question that triggered it before submitting.
In the PDF that gets emailed. When the visit is completed, the PDF that goes out records the Tab, Section, and Question beneath each task block. This is what keeps the context intact for anyone reading the visit outside FranConnect.