[Audio: Voice over begins]
Government forms may not be glamorous, but they’re essential. And when they’re slow, inconsistent, or hard to maintain, they create delays, extra work, and unnecessary risk.
Take John for example. John works at a government agency responsible for supporting New Zealand businesses.
[Visual: A user (John) is typing on his computer]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
He needed to move a simple paper form online, just a handful of questions. But even that small task required coordinating with multiple teams, checking accessibility, and ensuring the form met privacy and security expectations.
What should have been a straightforward improvement turned into weeks of back and forth, rework, and delays. And John’s experience isn’t unusual. Many agencies tell us the same story.
[Visual: FormBuilder.govt logo scales up on screen]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
These challenges were a big part of why FormBuilder was created, to change that.
[Visual: Three words show scale up behind a city landscape]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Built for business-facing services, FormBuilder helps people like John create secure, accessible, and consistent online forms in days, not weeks or months—so he can maximize efficiency and minimize risk from the very beginning.
Naturally, the next question is, what does it cost to use FormBuilder? The answer is simple. It doesn’t.
[Visual: User opens FormBuilder on their computer and starts adding components]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
FormBuilder is fully funded by government to create business-facing digital services. The only cost that can sit with the agency is if they decide to build a service with API integration with their back-end CRM.
[Visual: Slide break — “The problem agencies face”]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Across government, many teams face the same challenges—slow processing caused by incorrect or incomplete data, long wait times for updates, even for small changes, high development and maintenance costs, and outdated tools that don’t meet modern security or accessibility standards.
FormBuilder was built specifically to solve these problems for our team and for yours.
[Visual: Slide break — “What is FormBuilder”]
FormBuilder is a tool made for government by government that gives teams the ability to build and deliver their own online services.
[Visual: Three template cards pop up on screen]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Using templates creates a consistent look and feel across services, building trust and taking the guesswork out for businesses.
[Visual: Four cards appear on screen with an icon on each describing a unique feature within FormBuilder]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
It lets agencies apply their own branding and content. Simple notifications keep everyone informed, providing both government service providers and customers with a clear summary of the form they’ve submitted.
Reuse information already held so users don’t re-enter data, and choose how submissions are received—including email, bulk download, or API.
A common question we get asked is how our tool compares to other services in the market.
[Visual: Three icons appear — 'Strong security', 'Accessibility', 'Reducing processing time']
[Audio: Voice over continues]
The key difference is that FormBuilder is purpose-built for government, focusing on strong security, accessibility, and reducing processing time.
[Visual: Three steps show on screen. A cursor clicks each of them in this order. Build, Publish, Receive]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
It also has a strong focus on making life simpler for businesses to complete requirements and get the information to you.
While we don't offer data visualisation and marketing features. Instead we provide a tool that focusses on effectively capturing information and routing it efficiently to your team.
[Visual: Slide break — “Benefits and real results”]
[Visual: Testimonials animate in with agencies logos floating in the background]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Teams across government are transforming how services are delivered using FormBuilder to replace manual processes with simple digital experiences.
New Zealand Customs have built ten services using FormBuilder. And have reported having faster processing, improved data quality and reduced manual effort and errors.
[Visual: The FormBuilder target expands up to show the number eight displayed inside of it]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
All while maintaining a high customer satisfaction score of eight out of ten.
[Visual: Slide break — “What services does FormBuilder offer?”]
Forms are built in FormBuilder, then hosted on Business Connect. A platform built and funded to help New Zealand businesses access government services in one place.
[Visual: Business Connect dashboard appears with service cards]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Because the tool is funded specifically for business-facing services, your service needs to involve New Zealand businesses interacting with it, including completing the form for it to be eligible and free to use.
[Visual: Slide break — “How to start building forms”]
John has been asked to collect data from business customers, so he opens FormBuilder on his browser.
[Visual: John types build.formbuilder.govt.nz and lands on template options]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
On the homepage, John chooses between two templates - a single page template for simple, quick forms like surveys or registrations. And a multi-page template for more complex processes involving uploads, payments or conditional logic.
Because John’s survey only has a handful of questions, it doesn't need logic, he selects the single-page template.
[Visual: Single-page template opens and locked sections are highlighted]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
The single page template comes with a set of locked sections, headers, form title, contact details, privacy statement, and declaration, so every form maintains a consistent, accessible layout.
Single page forms also support conditional logic. Allowing users to hide fields and sections to create dynamic forms.
[Visual: John edits logo, email, form title and description field]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
John starts filling in his information. For example he hasn't added his agency logo yet, so he clicks 'edit' and uploads it.
He also updates the agency email, the form title and description.
The applicant detail section is already set so he leaves it as is.
John starts adding questions in the editable middle section.
To add a field, he clicks “Add component” and selects the type he needs from the component library.
[Visual: Component library interaction — adding fields]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
There are more than 20 field components that John can add to his form.
Here, he's adding a single-choice question.
[Visual: Options added to a form field]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
He can easily add the selectable options to the question with just a few simple clicks.
[Visual: Required field setting shown in component panel]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Agencies building their form often ask us 'How do we make a field mandatory or optional?'
All fields are required by default, but the builder can simply uncheck the required box to make a question optional.
[Visual: Rearranging fields and sections via quick access menu]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Because the interface isn't overly complicated and doesn’t require any coding or need of developers, John can simply make these decisions for his form.
John saves his progress, then previews the form to see how it looks to users.
[Visual: Form preview opens in a new tab]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
After a final review, he selects share and submit. He then downloads a JSON version of his form and emails it to the FormBuilder team.
[Visual: Share/submit actions including download and email template]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Along with a description of the service and it's intended use case so the form can be assessed.
[Visual: Slide break — “What are the publishing options?”]
Once a form reaches the FormBuilder team, the team will review the form and come back with any questions they have or suggestions on any user enhancements, that could further boost service outcomes.
At this stage, John is wondering how he can publish his form.
FormBuilder supports two primary publishing approaches. Open access and publishing behind the Business Connect platform.
Open access is designed for simple forms where users don’t require a login.
The second publishing option involves access through the Business Connect platform using RealMe.
This approach is most often used when applicants need features such as saving drafts, tracking progress, completing payments or navigating multi-step workflows.
[Visual: Zoom in on the template types, focuses on multi page template option]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
It is particularly suited to forms built with multi-page templates containing complex logic.
[Visual: Shows the login screen for Business Connect with the RealMe login credentials being entered]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
A key advantage of this option is that all forms delivered through Business Connect sit together in one central hub, accessible to anyone using RealMe.
[Visual: John lands on the Business Connect dashboard. He scrolls down showing all the service tiles available]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
This gives applicants a single place to find, complete and submit applications across government whenever they need to.
After reviewing the options, john decides that open access meets all his agencies requirements.
This is because his form is short, doesn't require users to login or apply year on year, and does not have a lot of complex logic built in.
[Visual: Slide break — “Receiving submissions”]
John has set up his publishing option but is now wondering how submissions will be received.
There are several ways for his agency to access submitted data.
[Visual: Four receiving methods appear — Email, Case Management Portal, Bulk Download, API]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
The most common method is email, where each submission is delivered as a PDF along with any attachments.
[Visual: Example email with submission and attachments]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
This is used for open access link services.
Forms published behind a login on the Business Connect platform can choose to use the fully funded case management portal.
[Visual: Case management interface showing submissions and approvals]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
This gives staff a secure place to review submissions. Assign to teams or team members, approve or decline submissions, and add notes.
The tool also offers access to a secure portal where agencies can bulk download submission data at anytime.
[Visual: Bulk download action on screen]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
The data is provided in JSON format which can be easily imported into Excel and includes everything applicants entered into the form.
Lastly, there's a full suite of APIs for agencies and councils to use.
[Visual: Hub-and-spoke API integration diagram]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
This has the benefit of allowing forms to integrate with the agencies backend systems to save manual entry and speed up processing.
Any development required to integrate with these APIs is at the cost of the agency or council.
Because of the simplicity of his form, John selected all submissions to be sent to a central inbox in his agency.
[Visual: Checklist of testing scenarios being completed]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Once a receiving method has been chosen, we'll set the agency up to do end-to-end testing, and our team supports reviewing the form to ensure no bugs are present so it's ready to go-live.
The FormBuilder team then generates a unique link for John which he can place on the agencies website. He also has the flexibility to share this link in emails or embed it depending on how the form needs to be accessed.
[Visual: Slide break — “Post go-live updates”]
After the form is live, what if John wants to make changes?
[Visual: Opening and editing a saved JSON form file]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Once the form goes live we make sure you've been sent a copy of the final JSON.
This means you can simply open it make changes in FormBuilder and send it back to us.
For example, John needs to add two new fields to his form.
[Visual: Adding new fields like “Business trading name” and “Website address”]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
He makes the necessary updates to his latest JSON file in FormBuilder and sends it back to our team with an explanation of what's changed.
[Visual: Slide break — “Keeping data safe”]
When agencies ask us 'How does FormBuilder ensure secure handling of submission data', we explain that FormBuilder is purpose-built for government use.
[Visual: Split screen showing PEGA and AWS infrastructure logos]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Submission data is stored in PEGA systems hosted on AWS in Sydney, and agencies can choose their own data retention settings.
[Visual: Diagram showing data routing to email, API, and bulk download]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
FormBuilder isn’t a system of record. It's role is to securely route data to wherever your agencies needs it to go.
Whether that's using email, API or bulk download.
The system goes through a rigorous certification and accreditation process every two years, and meets New Zealand information security manual standards.
[Visual: Slide break — “Getting started”]
[Visual: Contact email appears — support@formbuilder.govt.nz]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Getting started is easy and free. You can begin building straight away or get in touch with the FormBuilder team to talk through your requirements, by emailing us.
[Visual: Contact email appears — support@formbuilder.govt.nz]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
Why build everything from scratch when the hard work is already done?
Choose faster delivery, lower risk, and a better experience for both agencies and businesses.
[Visual: FormBuilder website URL appears — formbuilder.govt.nz]
[Audio: Voice over continues]
FormBuilder - built by government, for government, to make the lives of New Zealand businesses simpler.
