Staff fillable PDFs allow administrators to upload PDF documents and collect completed paperwork from staff members directly in Playground. These PDFs can be used to gather information and signatures from staff in a consistent, organized format.
The process for creating and managing staff fillable PDFs closely mirrors student fillable PDFs. If you are already familiar with uploading and configuring fillable PDFs for students, the steps and available options will feel very similar.
Create a New Fillable PDF
On the Administrator Dashboard, navigate to the Staff Paperwork tab on the left sidebar and click the Fillable PDF tab. You'll see all of the documents you've uploaded so far.
Click the blue Create drop-down menu and click New Fillable PDF in the upper right corner of the page. You will have two options on this screen:
Add new fillable PDF: Create a new fillable PDF from scratch
Use a pre-made template (typically used for state licensing documents)
If you select Add new fillable PDF, your computer's finder will open. You must select a file to upload in PDF format. Select the document you want to upload, and then click the blue Open button at the bottom right.
Name your document and select continue. You will be brought to a screen where you can view your document and add fields. See below for detailed instructions on setting up your fillable PDF.
Access State Fillable PDFs
Playground has state documents already pre-loaded into the system. Here is how you can access them:
💡 Changing your state from the Fillable PDF screen will change the state associated with your center on Playground.
From the Paperwork tab, click Staff Paperwork for staff paperwork.
Click the blue Create button and select Fillable PDFs.
The screen should automatically populate with the correct documents for your state. If you want to verify the documents currently shown, click Change State to see which ones are listed.
Once you click on a form, you can adjust its settings if needed. For more information on Fillable PDF Settings, click here.
State forms come prefilled with fillable fields. However, you will be able to edit all fields and add additional fields if needed.
Add and Edit Fields to a Fillable PDF
On the left-hand side of the edit fillable PDF page, you'll see a preview of your document's pages; if your document has multiple pages, you can click on these previews to toggle between them.
Add Fields
You'll see the Add Fields editor on the right-hand side of the page. The fields you can add to your document are:
Signature | Use this field to collect an e-signature |
Initials | Use this field to collect initials |
Date | Use this field to collect a specific date like a DOB |
Text | Use this field to collect text from those who are submitting the document |
Checkbox | Use this field to give the option to check a box |
Dropdown | Use this field to give staff a list of preset options to choose from by adding multiple items to the list. |
Phone | Use this field to collect a phone number |
Label | Use this field to add a label to the document that will remain the same for every staff, like the name of your center on a licensing form |
Click on one of these field options to add it to your document. Use your mouse to click and drag the field to the appropriate spot on your document; click and drag the white dot on the lower right corner to resize the field.
You can also place your cursor where you'd like to enter a field and tap the letter near the field type you'd like to add. For example, if you'd like to add a signature field, press "S" on your keyboard.
Edit Fields
When a field is selected, it will be highlighted green, and the field settings will appear on the right-hand side of the screen. See below for descriptions of each settings option. Depending on the type of field selected, different settings will appear.
Field label | Add a label to the field. The label will be used as a header for the answer column when you download the CSV file responses to the form. |
Required | Turn this setting on to make the field mandatory. Staff cannot submit forms unless all required fields are complete. |
Staff only | Turn this setting on if the field should be completed by a staff member.
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Delete | Select the trash icon if you need to delete the field. |
Duplicate | This button will duplicate the field. Once duplicated, drag the field to the correct place on the form. |
Lock to date signed | This setting applies to date fields. Toggle this on to auto-fill the field with the date the document is signed. |
Wet signature | This setting applies to signature fields. Toggle this on to require that the form filler draw their signature. |
Add new item | This setting applies to dropdown fields. Here, you can add dropdown selections.
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Delete off-page fields | This setting removes any fields that are located outside the visible page area of the fillable PDF. |
Fillable PDF Settings
At the top of your screen, select Settings.
Name the fillable PDF.
Here you can add the fillable PDF name and description. This will be visible to the staff filling out the form.
Once the fillable PDF is named, you can review and adjust additional settings that control how the fillable PDF behaves after it is shared with staff.
Expiration date | Add an expiration date to track when the form will expire and when it must be completed again. |
Requires review by administrator | Turn this setting on if you would like administrators to review responses after they are submitted. When enabled, admins will be able to either accept or reject each submission. Rejected submissions must include a reason why. |
Limit to 1 response | Turn this setting on if the form should only be submitted once per student. |
Allow response editing | Turn this setting on if responses should be able to be changed after the form is submitted. |
Receive email notifications for each new submission | Select edit and type the email that you would like to be notified when the fillable PDF is submitted. |
Select the blue Save changes button before leaving this screen.
Preview a Fillable PDF
Select Preview at the top of the Edit Fillable PDF screen to see what staff will see when filling out this form. The one difference between the preview and the staff's experience is that you can skip required fields as an administrator, while staff will not.
Red fields indicate a required field, and white fields indicate an optional field. The top of this screen will let staff know how many required fields remain. Staff cannot continue to the next page until all required fields are filled out.
Save a Fillable PDF
If you're happy with your fields/settings and do not need to share the fillable PDF to staff now, click the blue Save and Exit button in the top left of the screen.
Share a Fillable PDF with staff in the Staff Paperwork tab
Click the blue share button in the top right corner of the screen.
Fillable PDFs can either be filled out by all staff or by individual staff members.
Review Submitted Forms
If the “Requires review by administrator” setting is turned on for a fillable PDF, admins will have the option to approve or reject submissions.
Navigate to the Staff Paperwork tab and go to the Paperwork tab.
Locate the document that needs review.
Under the Review column, click the Review dropdown.
Select either Approve or Reject.
If rejecting the submission:
Enter a reason in the Reason for rejection field.
The Notify staff via email checkbox will be selected by default. If staff shouldn’t be notified, uncheck the box before submitting.
Click Reject submission
After the review is complete, the Review column will update automatically:
Approved submissions will show as Approved in green.
Rejected submissions will appear as Rejected in orange. Hovering over the status will display the reason it was rejected.
Send Fillable PDF Reminders
From the Fillable PDF tab on your admin dashboard, select the specific fillable PDF for which you want to send reminders.
Select the checkboxes next to the names of the Staff you would like to send reminders to.
Click Send reminder at the top of the table. The staff will receive an email reminder for the fillable PDF
Set an Expiration Date for Fillable PDFs
Expiration dates can be added fillable PDFs. There are two types of expiration dates that you can set on paperwork:
Expiration after a certain number of months after submission
Expiration on a specific date
Add an Expiration Date for Fillable PDFs
On the Staff Paperwork tab, navigate to Fillable PDFs.
Click the three dots next to the Fillable PDFs that you would like to edit and select edit.
Turn on the expiration date setting. Two options will appear: "expires a certain amount of time after submission" and "expires on specific date."
Select the date or amount of time after submission that the document should expire and click save.
Add a Custom Expiration Date for Individual Staff
In addition to setting an expiration date for a fillable PDFs overall, you can assign a custom expiration date for individual staff. This is helpful if one staff's paperwork needs to expire sooner or later than others.
On the Staff Paperwork tab, open the document you want to update.
Locate the staff in the list.
Click the three dots next to the staff's name and then click Edit expiration.
Choose a new expiration date for that student only, and click Save.
The new date will apply only to that staff's version of the document, all others will keep the original expiration.
View, Print, and Download Fillable PDF Responses
Print Individual PDF Responses
From the Staff Paperwork tab, find the PDF that you would like to view.
Click the PDF to view an overview of all staff who are assigned this document.
Click the three dots next to the staff's name and then click view.
The document will open on your screen. You can view and print it from here.
Download Form Responses as CSV Files
Navigate to Fillable PDF from the Staff Paperwork dashboard.
Click on the PDF for which you would like to download responses.
Click the Actions button in the top right corner of your screen. Click Download responses.
Regenerate a Fillable PDF
The Regenerate button updates a Staff's PDF to reflect any recent changes made to the form, such as edits to field placement and field types. It can also be used to fix errors in the PDF.
Even if the staff's PDF has already been submitted, regenerating does not erase or change any of their data. It generates a new version of the PDF that keeps the staff's original answers but applies the latest version of the form layout.
To regenerate a form for a specific staff:
Go to the Staff Paperwork tab.
Go the the Fillable PDF tab.
Open the document.
Click the three dots next to the staff's name.
Click the Regenerate option.
This ensures the most accurate version of the PDF is applied to the staff’s submission, with no extra steps needed.