Automations/Operations
Collect Onboarding Paperwork Without Chasing Six Forms Separately
Six forms go out to a new starter on Monday. Four come back over the following fortnight, in three separate email threads, and on their first day nobody can say which two are missing.
The short answer
The collection problem and the tracking problem are the same problem. A link sent to the new starter gives everything they return one destination, and a workflow reads each document for the person and the form type and files it under them — so the personnel file fills up as things arrive rather than after somebody sorts an inbox. What is still outstanding becomes a list rather than a recollection. Forms that come back by email anyway are caught by the Email Attachment trigger, because some always will.
Steps this uses
Before and after
What actually changes
As they arrive
- IMG_7781.jpg
- form.pdf
- signed.pdf
- scan0004.pdf
After the workflow
- Personnel/Reyes, M/2026-08-03-offer-letter-signed.pdf
- Personnel/Reyes, M/2026-08-05-policy-acknowledgement.pdf
- Personnel/Reyes, M/2026-08-06-direct-deposit-form.pdf
- Restricted/Work Authorisation/Reyes, M/2026-08-07-supporting-document.pdf
Four returns over five days, filed under one starter, with the restricted one routed away from the personnel folder.
Setting it up
Described once, then it runs
This is the sentence. Send it to the builder and the steps below appear on a canvas, wired and named, for you to change before anything runs.
When a new starter returns a form by email or upload, save a copy, read the person and the form type off it, rename it date-first, and file it under that employee. Message me the person and the form name as each one lands.
One destination per new starter
A link they can use repeatedly over a fortnight, without an account. Everything lands in one place, which is what stops onboarding being assembled from three email threads.
Let each form identify itself
The Read Details from File step reads the form type off the document, so a photographed tax form is recognised as one. This is why returns do not need to be named or sorted by hand.
Route the restricted ones on arrival
Some onboarding documents belong outside the personnel file. The Ask AI About the File step recognises those types and the Move step sends them to their own restricted location rather than the general folder.
Report the gap, per person
The file request's checklist tracks what each starter still owes, and smart reminders follow up without anybody writing the email. A list of what arrived is reassuring; the list of what has not is the one that prevents a first day spent chasing paperwork.
Email cannot hold a checklist
An inbox is ordered by arrival and interleaved with everything else. Onboarding needs documents grouped by person and checked against a list, which is the one view email cannot give. Every team running onboarding through email ends up maintaining a parallel spreadsheet of who has returned what — and that spreadsheet is the real product, built by hand, for every hire.
The photograph of a form is the normal case
New starters photograph documents on kitchen tables. A flat, well-lit photograph of a printed form is read reliably; a dark angled one is not. A single line of instruction about laying the page flat improves collection more than anything downstream, and it is worth putting in the message that carries the link.
What it does not do
It collects, files, routes and shows the gaps. It does not verify a document's validity, complete a work authorisation check, or judge whether what was supplied satisfies a legal requirement. Those steps are the employer's and, for verification processes with statutory procedures, they have their own rules. This makes sure nothing is missing when you get to them.
Then build
Variations worth building next
When a new starter returns a W-4 or direct deposit form, read the employee name, filing status and bank details, and send those details to our payroll app through a webhook before filing the form under that employee.
Gets payroll details to payroll on arrival, without someone re-keying the form.
When a new starter returns an I-9 or a copy of an ID, file it in the restricted I-9 folder under that employee instead of their personnel file, and message HR that it arrived.
Keeps identity documents out of the general personnel file from the first day.
When a new starter sends a multi-page scan of their onboarding forms, split it into the separate forms it contains, read the person and the form type off each, and file each one under that employee.
Handles the starter who scans every form into one PDF instead of sending them separately.
Limits
What to know before you build it
It can work through what is already there
This one runs on a schedule over a folder you point it at, so the documents sitting in it now are read and filed alongside the ones that arrive later. A large backlog is an overnight job rather than an instant one, because each document is read rather than pattern-matched.
It needs a connected account
This workflow reads files out of an email inbox, so it cannot run until that account is connected. Connecting one is on the Max plan, or on any team workspace. There is no version of this particular workflow that runs on the free plan, because the files it organizes never arrive in The Drive AI on their own.
FAQ
Common questions
How should new hire paperwork be collected?
Through one link per starter, used repeatedly over the first fortnight, with each return filed under that person as it arrives and a list of what is still outstanding. Collecting through email means rebuilding that list by hand for every hire, which is work most teams do not notice they are doing.
What if a new starter emails their forms instead?
That route has to work too. Attachments are captured from email, given a home, read and filed under the same person as the uploaded ones. A process that only works when people follow instructions is not a process.
Can onboarding documents be routed to restricted folders automatically?
Yes. Document types that belong outside the personnel file can be recognised on arrival and sent to a separate restricted location rather than the general folder. This matters most during onboarding, because that is when the largest batch of mixed document types arrives at once.
Does this verify work authorisation documents?
No. It collects and files them. Verification processes have their own statutory procedures and deadlines that an employer carries out; a document management system cannot discharge them. What it does is make sure the paperwork is complete and findable when you do.
Six forms, one link.
And a list of what is actually still missing.
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