---
title: "Build a fillable form template from your PDF"
description: "Upload your existing daycare paperwork and drop fields where parents fill or sign, with the child's name already filled in for them."
type: guide
updated: 2026-09-04
canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/documents/build-a-fillable-form-template
roles: ["center_admin", "super_admin"]
platforms: [web, ios, android]
---
The fastest way to get parents signing the right paperwork is to upload **your actual PDF** and drop fields onto it where parents need to write or sign. The parent fills your document directly in the browser, and the signed copy you get back looks like the form you wrote, with their answers stamped in the blanks.
Better still, you can **pre-fill** the fields NestliCare already knows, the child's name, the parent's name, so a parent opens the form to find half of it already done and only has to fill the parts that genuinely need them.
This is the recommended path for any form where the wording matters: enrollment agreements, photo releases, tuition policies, medical and allergy intakes, pickup authorization.
The video below walks the whole loop end to end: an admin builds a permission slip with pre-filled fields, sends it to a family, and then the parent opens it and submits it in seconds. The written steps follow.
## Before you start
Have your PDF saved on your computer. If your forms are in Word or Google Docs, export them to PDF first. If the form only exists on paper, scan it with the NestliCare app on your phone (see [Build one on your phone](#build-one-on-your-phone)) and it becomes a PDF you can build on anywhere.
If your form does not need parents to fill anything in (just to read and sign), use [Send a document for acknowledgement](/owners/documents/send-a-document-for-acknowledgement) instead.
## Upload your PDF
1. Go to **Paperwork → Document Requests** and click **New template** (top right). Or go straight to **New template → Upload a PDF**.
2. On the first screen, **How should parents complete this?**, choose **Fill out fields**. (The other option, **Just acknowledge**, is for read-and-sign documents with no blanks.)
3. Give it a **Title** parents will recognize ("Brown Bees Photo Release", "Field Trip Permission"). The title shows up in their inbox.
4. Pick a **Category** (enrollment, medical, photo release, tuition, pickup, custom).
5. Upload your PDF (drag it in, or click to choose the file).
The PDF appears in the builder canvas on the right. The first page is shown by default — use the page navigation above the canvas to move between pages.
## If your PDF already has fillable fields, let us import them
Plenty of daycare paperwork, especially anything from a state agency, is already a fillable PDF. NestliCare checks for that as soon as you upload, and if it finds built-in fields it offers to import them.
A banner appears above the builder saying how many fields it found. Accept it and NestliCare:
1. Places a box for each of the original fields, in the right spot, with the right type.
2. Flattens the original form underneath, so families do not see two sets of boxes stacked on the same lines.
On a long agency form this replaces drawing forty boxes by hand. You can still move, resize, rename, and configure every imported field afterwards, and you will usually want to set pre-fill and required on a few of them.
Choose **No thanks** to place everything yourself. Fields that were hidden, read-only, or of a type we do not support are skipped, and the summary tells you how many.
If the PDF is protected, its built-in fields cannot be read. The builder says so and you place fields by hand as usual.
## Or let AI place the fields for you
Most forms are not fillable PDFs. A scan of a paper form, a Word export, a state form that was never fillable: none of those carry built-in fields, so there is nothing to import. For those, click **Place fields with AI** in the top right of the builder.
NestliCare reads each page, finds the blanks a parent would write in, and places a field on every one. For each field it also sets:
- the **type**: text, date, checkbox, a choice group, or a signature line;
- the **label**, worded the way the form words the prompt;
- **required** or optional, following what the form says;
- **pre-fill** from the child's or parent's record where the prompt clearly asks for their name, date of birth, phone, or email;
- **confirm before submitting** on safety-critical fields such as allergies, medications, and emergency contacts;
- a smaller or larger **font size** where the blank is unusually small or large.
It takes about half a minute per page. When it finishes, a summary says how many fields were placed and lists anything it was unsure about, for example a line it could not tell was for parents or a group it treated as choices. Read that list. Then click through the fields, fix any box that is off, and adjust the settings you would set differently. **Undo** in the summary bar brings back whatever was on the form before.
Treat AI placement the same way you treat the field import: a fast starting point that you check. It is right most of the time on clean forms, and it tells you where it guessed. The parent never sees a field you have not saved.
A few limits worth knowing. It places fields on up to eight pages per run; place the rest by hand on a longer packet. It draws on the same daily AI allowance as NestliAI, so a very busy day can pause it until tomorrow. And if your organization is not yet cleared for AI features, the button says so instead of running.
## Drop fields onto the PDF
The left sidebar has six tools:
- **Text** — for any blank line where the parent writes free-form text (name, address, doctor name)
- **Date** — for date lines (start date, date of birth, today's date)
- **Checkbox** — for ☐ symbols (consent options, "I acknowledge...")
- **Signature** — for parent signature lines. Parents draw their signature once and apply it to every signature line on the form, so put one of these on each line rather than expecting them to reuse a single box.
- **Dropdown** — when the form asks them to pick one of N options inline (rare on most paper forms)
- **Radio group** — same as dropdown, for mutually exclusive choices (rare on PDFs that already have visible options)
To place a field:
1. Click a tool in the palette. It turns blue ("armed").
2. Click on the PDF where the parent should write or sign. A yellow box appears at that spot.
3. Drag the box to nudge it onto the line. Drag the bottom-right corner to resize.
For multi-line names like "Parent (s) Name: ____" use a single Text field sized to the line length. For checkbox options like the photo-release "I GIVE permission ☐ / I DO NOT GIVE permission ☐", drop a separate Checkbox on each ☐ symbol — do not use Radio for these (radios render as a dropdown rather than two on-page boxes).
The field settings panel floats over the page. Drag it by its title bar to any spot on the screen, and it stays there until you move it again. Useful when the field you need to place sits under the panel's usual corner.
## Configure each field
Click any placed field to select it. The **Field settings** panel slides in on the right with these controls:
- **Label** — what to call the field internally. Make it specific ("Child's Full Name", not "Text field"). The label is also what parents see if they hover.
- **Required** — if on, the parent cannot submit until this field is filled. Always mark the parent signature as required.
- **Pre-fill from** — a dropdown that auto-populates the field when the parent opens the form, using info we already have. Options include **Child: first name**, **Child: last name**, **Child: date of birth**, **Parent: first name**, **Parent: last name**, **Parent: email**, and **Parent: phone**. Leave it on **— none —** for anything the parent should type themselves.
- **Font size** — points; default 14. Increase for handwriting-style forms with bigger lines.
- **Options** — for Dropdown / Radio fields only.
### Use pre-fill carefully
Pre-fill saves parents a lot of typing, but it is not free. It can mislead them into accepting stale info without verifying.
**Use pre-fill for:** child's first name, child's last name, child's date of birth, parent's first name, parent's last name, parent's email, parent's phone. These are stable and unlikely to be wrong.
**Avoid pre-fill for:** addresses, emergency contact name and phone, allergy lists, medication lists, anything that changes over time. A parent who skims past a stale prefilled address has just signed the wrong info into the legal record.
For sensitive fields you do prefill, tick **Require parent to verify before submit**. The parent then has to focus the field at least once before they can submit, and an orange banner lists those fields by name at the top of the form.
## Save and send
Click **Save template** in the top right. Your form lands in the **Templates** tab on the Documents page, reusable forever.
To send it, click **Send** on its card, then pick the **family** and the **child**, and click **Assign**. See [Send a fillable form to a family](/owners/documents/send-a-fillable-form-to-a-family) for the full walkthrough.
When you assign a form with pre-filled fields, choose a specific **child**, not just the family. The child is what tells the pre-fill whose name to drop in. Assign to a family with no child selected and the child fields come through blank.
## Build one on your phone
The template builder is on iOS and Android too, so you can turn a PDF into a form without getting to a desk. Upload the PDF, place and edit fields directly on the page, and preview the form the way a parent will see it before you save.
The phone can also **scan a paper form**. In the app, go to **Documents**, open the **New** menu, and choose **Scan a paper form** on Android or **Build a fillable form** then **Scan the paper form** on iOS. Point the camera at each page and the app straightens them into one PDF. The read-and-sign upload sheet has the same scan option.
The same helpers are there: the field import for PDFs with built-in fields, and **Place with AI** for everything else, including the scan you just took. Scan, tap Place with AI, check the boxes, save.
For a first build of a long form, the web builder is still easier to fine-tune. The phone is for turning paper into a form on the spot, fixing a misplaced box, or adding a form you were handed on the day.
## Tips that save time
- **Build it once, assign forever.** A template is reusable. Build the Enrollment Agreement once; assign it to every new family for years.
- **Zoom for finer alignment.** The builder opens at 150 percent. For tightly spaced lines, hit the **+** button to go higher; **-** zooms back out. Zoom only changes your view, not where the field lands.
- **Use View to spot-check.** After saving, click View on the template card. The PDF renders with your field placements as yellow boxes — you can see at a glance whether anything is misaligned without going back into Edit.
- **Field placement does not have to be pixel-perfect.** When the parent submits, the values stamp on the PDF using the coordinates you set. Within a few millimeters of the underline is fine.
## Troubleshooting
**The PDF will not upload.** It must be a real PDF (not a scan-as-image PDF over 50 MB). Re-export from your source app and try again.
**Place fields with AI put a box in the wrong place.** Drag it. The placement is a draft, and a scanned page with no printed lines is where it guesses most. If it missed a blank entirely, drop a field there from the sidebar as usual.
**Place fields with AI says AI is not available for my organization.** AI features are paused for organizations that are restricted or suspended. If you see this message and do not know why, contact support.
**My field is not visible in the parent's view but I can see it in the builder.** Click View on the template card. If you see it there too, the parent should see it. If you only see it in Edit, save the template again — your placement may not have committed.
**Parents say a field is in the wrong spot.** Open Edit, drag the placement, save. The next assignment will use the new coordinates. Already-submitted PDFs are not changed retroactively.
**Pre-fill is not showing for a parent.** Three common causes: (1) you did not set a Pre-fill on that field; (2) we do not have that data for that parent yet (e.g., their email is empty); (3) the field is for the second parent on a two-parent form (we currently only prefill from the parent who is signed in). Ask the parent to add the missing info to their account, or remove the prefill on that field and let them type it.