Updated for Version 4.16
Form(s) Identification
The first step in the submission process is to identify which forms will need to be submitted based on the activities you are attempting to be permitted or the type of approval you are requesting. There are two primary options supporting form selection. These two options include:
Select an Organization: Select the appropriate forms based on the organization (Air, Water, etc.) who issues the form(s) you require.
Searching for a Form: Search for the appropriate forms based on the name (or other properties) of the form you require or by describing the activity you are seeking approval for.
Select an Organization
This area describes how to select an organization from the organization browser and view the organization information page. From an organization, all the forms will be listed and any organization specific instructions/information will be provided:
Steps:
Click on the Select Organization button:
Mouse over the organization list and highlight the desired organization.
Click on the desired organization.
After selecting an organization, the details for the organization will be displayed as well as any forms related to the organization.
Searching for a Form
This area describes how a user will search for a form within the system. Forms can be located by searching for a form using the Form Finder tool and then selecting the form from the Recommended Forms links.
The search tool provided allows you to either search for a specific keyword, or a natural language search in which you type in the activity that you are trying to do, and it will attempt to identify the form you are looking for.
An example of a natural language search is: “I need a form for Drinking Water Eligibility”
Steps:
Click on the Finder link in the header:
Type in keywords you would like to use to identify the appropriate form(s) (example: wind power, wind, offshore) or describe the activity you would like to perform:
Potential matches will begin to appear under the Recommended Forms heading. The forms will be ordered based on applicability to your provided keywords or the activity you described.
Click on the form name link for the form that best matches your needs. Please review the summary of each returned forms to ensure relevance to your specific needs.
Submit a Form
After selecting the form to submit, the wizard will walk the user through the process of providing the information required by the issuing department or program, submitting the form and printing the payment voucher for any associated fees with the form and to paying any applicable fees for the form. Each step included in this process is detailed below.
The sections present for a given form, will depend on the needs and configuration of the form in question.
Please note that a form must be officially certified, submitted by the submitter for it to be available for review by agency staff. The agency will not have visibility or access to draft forms that are not yet submitted. The agency will not review form submissions until any associated fees have been paid in full.
Form Instructions
The Form Instructions provides the user with information specific to the selected form and information pertinent to processing submissions of this form type. Click Begin Form Entry button to start a new online submission.
When available, the user has the option to download a paper based, mail-in, submission form. This option can be utilized by clicking on the Download Mail-In Form button, if visible.
Typically, a user will need to be signed into the system prior to submitting a form. When enabled, the user will have the option to submit a form as a guest (without signing into the system). This option can be utilized by clicking on the submit as a guest link, if visible, which will be displayed where the Begin Form Entry button is normally displayed.
If present, the user can click upon the Upload [Dataset Name] button to select and attempt to upload a compliant XML submission for the form. The selected files format will be validated and if value, the provided data will be populated on to the form. The XML format must be compliant with the form design.
Please reference the nFORM Submission XML Upload Guide for further details.
If present, the user can click upon the Download Mail-In Form button to download a PDF version of the form for offline entry, population and review. This form will be mailed back to the agency as instructed within the form. Note: Processing of these mail-in forms can be slower than when using of the online system.
If present, the user can click upon the Print Blank Form button to download a PDF version of the form that can be used for reference and investigatory purposes only. This form is not intended to be used as a mail-in form and may not be accepted by the agency, if received in this format:
Processing Info Section
If present, the Processing Info section allows the user to provide generic processing information about the form submission, as required and select the fee categorization, if applicable. When comfortable with the information provided and displayed, click Next Section button to move to the data entry sections in the process.
At any time, the Save Progress button can be clicked to save the form submission in its current state and conclude data entry for the time being. The submission wizard can be reopened by clicking on the History link at the top of the form and selecting the Edit button next to the appropriate form submission.
Navigate between sections using the Next Section buttons, at the bottom of the wizard or by clicking on a section name in the left panel:
Data Entry Sections
During the Data Entry Sections of a form submission, you will be required to provide the information as specifically requested by the form. A form will be divided into one or more data entry sections that are relevant to the form in question. The user is not required to be complete a section to navigate to other sections of the form.
To complete data entry, all questions will need to be reviewed and answered with valid entries. All required fields must be entered. Required fields will be marked with a yellow or red asterisk in the upper left corner of the field.
As an indication of the status for each section (sections are listed on the left), the following visual cues are provided by the system:
A white circle represents a section that has not yet been validated.
A black circle represents a section that is currently in use.
A red X represents a section with missing or invalid data entered.
A blue check mark represents a section that has all required information filled out and no invalid entries.
At any time, the Save Progress button can be clicked to save the form submission in its current state and conclude data entry for the time being. The submission wizard can be reopened by clicking on the History link at the top of the form and selecting the Edit button next to the appropriate form submission.
Navigate between sections using the Previous Section and Next Section buttons, at the top and bottom of the wizard, respectively, or by clicking on a section name in the left panel.
The data entry sections may present several different types of questions to capture the data that is required for submitting a particular form:
At any time, the Save Progress button can be clicked to save the form submission in its current state and conclude data entry for the time being. The submission wizard can be reopened by clicking on the History link at the top of the form and selecting the Edit button next to the appropriate form submission.
Navigate between sections using the Previous Section and Next Section buttons, at the top and bottom of the wizard, respectively, or by clicking on a section name in the left panel.
The data entry sections may present several different types of questions to capture the data that is required for submitting a particular form.
Review Section
If present, the Review section provides the user with the opportunity to review and inspect the information entered prior to submission. The user has the ability to print the form submission from this location by clicking the Print Review button, if a physical copy is desired for reviewing purposes. If the information provided is deemed accurate and complete, click Certify & Submit/Signing to move to the Certify & Submit/Signing section in the process.
At any time, the Save Progress button can be clicked to save the form submission in its current state and conclude data entry for the time being. The submission wizard can be reopened by clicking on the History link at the top of the form and selecting the Edit button next to the appropriate form submission.
Navigate between sections using the Previous Section and Certify & Submit/Signing buttons, at the top and bottom of the wizard, respectively, or by clicking on a section name in the left panel:
Certify & Submit/Signing Section
Depending on the certification/signing requirements for the form, this section may be presented differently. The two primary presentations include: Certify & Submit or Signing. Certify & Submit includes a standard certification agreement prior to submission. Signing includes a more stringent electronic/digital signature feature. Examples of each are presented below.
Certify & Submit
In the Certify & Submit section, the user will acknowledge the certification statement and certify the submission by clicking the Certify and Submit button. If the form has a fee and payment is required, the user will proceed to the Payment section, otherwise the user will be navigated to the Submission Confirmation section.
The Finish Later - Save and Exit button can be clicked to save the form submission in its current state and conclude data entry for the time being. The submission wizard can be reopened by clicking on the History link at the top of the form and selecting the Edit button next to the appropriate form submission.
Please note that some forms require payment prior to considering the form submitted. In these cases, payment must be received for agency staff to have access to your submission:
Signing
In the Signing section, the user may be offered the option of providing a digital signature (online) or hard copy signature (physical paper signature):
When Hard Copy Signature is selected, the user will be presented with the Download Certification Form button where the form can be downloaded, printed, reviewed, signed and returned to the agency.
When Digital Signature is selected, the user will be walked through the invitation and signing process. These steps will be followed as a part of this process:
Click Next to navigate to the Choose Signers step.
When a single signature is required, the user will select who will sign the submission (Me or Someone else).
When Me is selected, the user will be required to acknowledge several submission agreement statements and sign the submission by entering their account password, answering a security question and clicking the Sign button.
The Sign button will not be disabled until all acknowledgements are acknowledges and the users password/challenge question is provided.
When Someone else is selected, the user will be presented with the roles required for signature (if more than one). Click Next button if presented with required roles. The user will be provided with the ability to invite others to sign the submission. The user will provide the signor(s) email address and any special instructions. Upon clicking the Send Invite button, signing invitation(s) will be sent to the invitee(s). The invited signers will be required to click on the link on their invitation email (or open the submission and navigate to the signing area) to sign the submission. The invited signers will be presented. This signer's user will be required to acknowledge several submission agreement statements and sign the submission by entering their account password, answering a security question and clicking the Sign button.
The Send Invite button will not be disabled until signer email(s) are provided.
Once signings have occurred, if the form is reopened for editing (e.g., user clicks on the Continue Editing Draft button), all current signings will be removed from the submission.
Submission Received/Completed Section
This Submission Received/Completed section confirms that the form submission was successfully submitted to the agency, displays the unique Submission # assigned to this submission for tracking purposes, any fees charged applied to the submission. In addition, this section provides a means of paying any applicable fees for the form submission, if applicable. The fees due will be displayed in the Fee Details section on the page and means for paying the fees will be presented.
Note: If the form does not require a fee, this Submission Received section will be skipped and the user will be navigated to the Submission Complete section.
Pay Online: If the form accepts online payments, a button labeled Pay Online will be available and this will allow you to make an online payment through the online payment service.
Pay by Mail: If payments by check are accepted, click the Pay by Mail button and a printable form for making such a payment will be displayed. If not prepared to make a payment at this time, click the No thanks, I'll pay later option to continue. Please note that your submission will not begin processing until payment in full is received and cleared.
No thanks, I'll pay later: If you are not prepared to make a payment at this time, click the No thanks, I'll pay later option to continue. Please note that your submission will not begin processing until payment in full is received and cleared.
At this point in the process, the form is considered submitted and is visible within the agency. The form submission will not be reviewed and processed until payment is received for the form submission:
Copy as a New Submission
In situations where much of the same information is needed on a new submission (of the same form type), a copy of a submission can be made in order to create a new submission using the copy feature described here.
This topic describes how to copy an existing form submission as a new form submission.
The Copy As New feature is not available in all installations. This feature will also be disabled in situations where the form has changed significantly.
Steps:
Open the Submission Overview form.
Click the Copy as New button:
The submitter will be asked to confirm that they want to make a copy of the submission.
Confirm the copy at the prompt and a copy of the submission will be opened in edit mode. At this point in the process, the user will be able to follow the same steps used to submit the original form to submit a new, unrelated, form.
View Users with Access to Submission
Users can be given access to enter data in the submission. Users can be provided with access to enter data on the submission and elevated user rights can be provided to add/remove users who have access to the submission.
This topic describes how to view the users who have access to work on the submission (excluding the current user) and their level of access.
Steps:
To view users with access to work on the submission (excluding the current user), perform the following steps:
Open the Submission Overview form.
Navigate down the page to the Access area, in the right panel.
A list of the users with access to the submission (excluding the current user) is displayed:
Sharing a Submission
Submissions can be shared with other users to support collaborative data entry and review.
This topic describes how to share a submission with another user.
Sharing Submission from Submission Wizard
When completing a form submission, the user will have the ability to share the submission with another person so they can enter data, review data or invite other users to work on the submission. The following process describes how to share a submission with another user from the Submission Wizard.
To share access to the submission with other users from the Submission Wizard, follow these steps:
Open the draft submission in edit mode in the Submission Wizard using the steps described in the Edit Draft Submission topic, if not already open.
Select the Options (gear) icon.
Select the Manage Shared Access option to open the Manage Access to the Submission page:
To share the submission, type in the email address of the user who will receive access. Indicate if the user will be allowed to add or remove other users from the submission by selecting the Can Manage Access to Submission? checkbox. Select the Add button to add the user to the submission.
The system will then verify that the user exists in the system and will prompt you to confirm the selection.
Click the Confirm button to approve the user, after approval, the user will display in the list of authorized users in the grid below. After adding the user, they will be sent an email with instructions on how to access the submission.
Click the Done button to return to the submission.
Sharing Submission from Submission Overview
When completing a form submission, the user will have the ability to share the submission with another person so they can enter data, review data or invite other users to work on the submission. The following process describes how to share a submission with another user from the Submission Overview area.
To share access to the submission with other users from the Submission Overview area, follow these steps:
1. Open the Submission Overview form.
Click the Share With or the Manage Shard Access button, depending on the button displayed based on the state of sharing, in the access area down the page in the right panel to open the Manage Access to the Submission page:
To share the submission, type in the email address of the user who will receive access. Indicate if the user will be allowed to add or remove other users from the submission by selecting the Can Manage Access to Submission? checkbox. Select the Add button to add the user to the submission.
The system will then verify that the user exists in the system and will prompt you to confirm the selection.
Click the Confirm button to approve the user, after approval, the user will display in the list of authorized users in the grid below. After adding the user, they will be sent an email with instructions on how to access the submission.
Click the Done button to return to the submission.
Identify Users Editing Submission Section
Users have the ability to view other users who are viewing/editing the section the current user is working within.
This topic describes how the user can view the other users who are viewing/editing the same section of a form.
This feature is only available when multiple users are editing the same form submission section. When multiple users are editing the same section, an alert notification icon will.
display with the Options icon in the upper left-hand corner of the Submission Wizard.
Steps:
Open the draft submission in edit mode in the Submission Wizard.
If the submission is currently being edited by another user, an alert notification icon will display with the Options (gear) at the top left of the page.
To Identify the other user, select the Options (gear) icon. A window will open with text identifying the other user:
