A request form that fills a spreadsheet and tells you when something arrives

Requests for leave, a new laptop, a meeting room, a quote or a place on a course arrive in every possible shape, and many are missing something, such as the dates or who approved it. You ask, wait, copy the answer into a spreadsheet and start again with the next one. A form ends most of that back-and-forth: every request arrives with the same details in the same order, lands as one row in a spreadsheet and sends you an email.

Google Forms and Microsoft Forms do nearly all of it. The assistant does the part that takes thought: from your last ten requests and the questions you sent back, it works out which fields would have prevented each round trip, and it drafts the message people see when they submit. This is the form exit from Five ways out of a repetitive task, and the same steps work for IT problems or volunteer sign-ups.

By the end of this you’ll have a live request form, three test responses in its spreadsheet, email alerts switched on and the link in your email signature.

What you’ll be able to do

• Run a live request form in Google Forms or Microsoft Forms that adds every response to a spreadsheet and emails you, already tested with three made-up requests.
• Turn ten past requests into a short list of fields, so the form asks once for everything you used to chase.
• Send people to it from your signature and a saved reply, so requests stop arriving as loose emails.
• Optionally, post a chat message or create a task for every new request.

What you need

• About an hour.
• Google Forms and Google Sheets (a free Google account works), or Microsoft Forms and Excel with your Microsoft 365 account.
• A chat assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. A free account is enough.
• Five to ten recent requests of one kind, each followed by the replies you sent, in one document. Swap names and other personal details for placeholders such as [NAME] before anything goes into the assistant, or practice on made-up requests first; Before you upload a client document covers what to check about the assistant itself.

Steps

1. Gather the requests and your follow-ups. Search your inbox for the words people use (“laptop”, “leave”, “quote”, “sign up”) and copy each request into the document, followed by every question you had to send back. Each of those questions is a field the form was missing. Then write down how many of these requests arrived last month and how many needed a follow-up: that’s your before picture.
2. Ask the assistant for the fields. In a new conversation, paste prompt 1 from the next section with your requests underneath. Edit the table it returns: delete every field you won’t use, aim for about eight, and replace any list it marked “ASK ME” or guessed (locations, models, course dates) with the real one. An assistant is good at spotting what ten messy emails have in common. It can’t know your stock list or your approval rules.
3. Build the form. Start a blank form and name it the way people would search for it, such as “Equipment request”. In the description, say when to use it and what to do instead if it’s urgent. Add your fields in order and make the essential ones required. Use a dropdown or multiple choice question (Choice in Microsoft Forms) wherever the answer comes from a fixed list, a date question for dates, and one optional long-answer question at the end for anything else.
4. Connect the spreadsheet and turn on the email alert, using the clicks in “Where the settings are” below. If a menu has moved since October 2026, search the vendor’s help for the setting’s name.
5. Write what people see after they submit. Use prompt 2 and fill in the timeframe yourself, so the message never promises a turnaround you haven’t agreed to.
6. Send three made-up requests as Test One, Test Two and Test Three: one complete, one with only the required fields, and one that doesn’t fit your lists, to see whether an Other option or the last field catches it. Check for three rows with each answer in the right column, the confirmation on screen and the alert emails. If an alert is missing, check your spam folder; with Microsoft Forms, give it a day (see below). If alerts later arrive by the dozen, a filter can move them into one folder you check at set times.
7. Share the link where requests start. Choose who can respond, copy the link and open it in a private browser window to see what an outsider sees. Add it to your email signature (“Equipment requests: [LINK]”), your team channel or intranet page, and a saved reply for requests that still come by email (Five email templates built from your sent folder shows how to save one). For the first few weeks, answer emailed requests with that reply, or enter them in the form yourself, so every request ends up in the same sheet.
8. Optional: add a chat message or a task for each request, as described further down.

You’re done when the three test rows are in the sheet and the link is in your signature.

Two prompts and a reply to copy

Prompt 1, for step 2:

Below are [NUMBER] requests I received for [KIND OF REQUEST, for example "office equipment"], each followed by the questions I had to send back before I could act on it. Personal details are replaced with placeholders.

I'm building a form so every request arrives complete. Suggest its fields.

- Base every field on these requests, and say which request or follow-up question it would have prevented.
- Make a table: Field label (in the requester's words) | Type (short answer, paragraph, dropdown, multiple choice, checkboxes, date or number) | Required or optional | Options | Why
- Use a dropdown or multiple choice wherever my requests show a fixed set of answers. If you can't tell the full list from the requests, write "ASK ME" instead of guessing.
- No more than 10 fields. After the table, list what you left out because it would rarely be used.
- Flag any field that collects sensitive personal information, and suggest a way to do without it.

[PASTE THE REQUESTS AND FOLLOW-UPS]

For example, the edited fields for a made-up office equipment form:

1. Your name: short answer, required.
2. Team: dropdown, required. Finance, Operations, Sales, Support, Other.
3. What do you need?: dropdown, required. Laptop, Monitor, Headset,
   Keyboard and mouse, Other. (People wrote "screen", "display", "monitor".)
4. New or replacement?: multiple choice, required. New starter,
   Replacement, Additional. (Replacements mean collecting the old item.)
5. Needed by: date, required. ("ASAP" told me nothing.)
6. Approved by: short answer, required. (The question I sent most often.)
7. Anything else?: paragraph, optional.

Prompt 2, for step 5:

Write the message people see after they submit my [KIND OF REQUEST] form: under 60 words, plain and friendly.

It must say:
- that the request arrived, and they don't need to email as well
- what happens next: [WHAT YOU DO] within [A TIMEFRAME YOU CAN KEEP]
- what to do if it's urgent: [CONTACT]

Add no promise, deadline or policy that isn't in this list.

The saved reply for step 7, no assistant needed:

Thanks, [NAME]. To get this moving, please fill in the [FORM NAME] form: [LINK]
It asks for everything I need in one go, so nothing waits on a follow-up question.

Where the settings are (checked October 2026)

Google Forms

• Spreadsheet: at the top of the form, click Responses, then Link to Sheets at the top right.
• Email alert: Responses, then More (the three dots), then Get email notifications for new responses.
• Confirmation message: Settings, the arrow next to Presentation, Edit next to Confirmation message, then Save.
• Requester’s email and a receipt: Settings, the arrow next to Responses, Collect email addresses (Verified, or Responder input to let people type it), then set Send responders a copy of their response to Always.
• Who can respond: Publish, then Manage, and under General access choose anyone with the link or a narrower audience. Once it’s live, click Published, then Copy responder link.
• Limited places: for a sign-up with a fixed number of seats, click Published, then Set close date or response limit.

Microsoft Forms

• Spreadsheet: on the Responses tab, select Open results in Excel. Forms saves a workbook connected to the form in OneDrive (in SharePoint for a group form) and opens it in Excel for the web. New responses appear each time you select Open results in Excel again or reopen the workbook.
• Email alert: Settings (or the three dots, labeled More form settings), then under Response receipts, Get email notification of each response. Microsoft advises against switching it off straight away, because the first alert can take a day.
• Message after submitting: Settings, then Customize thank you message.
• Who can respond: Collect responses, then Anyone can respond or Only people in my organization can respond (the second needs a work or school account), then copy the link.

A message or a task for each request (optional)

Email alerts are enough for most people. When a team shares the requests, a chat message or a task for each one keeps everyone working from the same list. Two no-code routes, checked October 2026:

• Zapier, for Google Forms. A Zap with the trigger New Form Response and one action that posts a message or creates a task. The free plan allows exactly that, one trigger and one action per Zap, with 100 tasks a month: each successful action is a task, and triggers don’t count. Premium apps need a paid plan, and free Zaps that poll for new data check every 15 minutes.
• Power Automate, for Microsoft Forms on a work or school account. These accounts include basic Power Automate at no cost, limited to standard connectors, and Forms and Teams are both standard. The flow: When a new response is submitted, then Get response details, then your app’s action, such as Post message in a chat or channel in Teams.

At work, your IT team may decide which apps can be connected, so ask before you build either.

What can go wrong and how to check

Too many fields, so people email anyway

Time yourself filling in the form. If it takes longer than writing the email, people will write the email. Cut optional fields first, then any required field your ten requests didn’t need.

Free text where a list belongs

“Laptop”, “notebook”, “MacBook” and “new computer” mean the same thing, and a count sees four different answers. Any column you’ll want to count or filter needs a dropdown or multiple choice with an Other option. If an older spreadsheet already has this problem, Clean up a messy contact list with formulas shows the method.

The wrong audience

A form limited to your organization shuts out customers, parents and volunteers; one open to anyone with the link works for anyone it’s forwarded to. The private-window check in step 7 shows which one you have.

Questions changed after responses arrive

Each question is a column in the spreadsheet. Reword one after answers have come in and the old answers can sit under a heading that no longer fits them. Finish testing before you share the link. After that, add new questions at the end, never turn a question into a different one, and keep your formulas and notes on a separate tab.

Where to go next

If the same questions keep arriving with the requests (“Which laptops can I choose from?”), An FAQ page built from the questions you answer every week turns them into one page you can link from the form’s description.

In a month, the sheet will hold a month of requests in the same shape, and A monthly summary you build once and refresh each month turns it into a pivot table that counts them by type and team. Count this month’s follow-ups as you did in step 1 and set the two numbers side by side: that’s your own measure of what the form changed.