How to build a branch-to-HQ operational request portal that routes requests with AI in Formaloo

A single portal where every branch, clinic, or store submits supplies, IT, and facilities requests instead of emailing or calling HQ directly. An AI field reads each request the moment it lands, writes a short triage summary, and sets who owns it, IT, Facilities, Procurement, or HQ operations, without a human sorting it first. The branch gets a confirmation and status updates automatically, and HQ gets a Kanban queue per team plus a location-level trend report so recurring problems at one branch don't get lost in the noise.

This is the form every branch will use, so it needs to work for three very different request types, supplies, IT, and facilities, without turning into three separate forms. The fastest way to get there is Magic Create: describe the form once and it builds the fields, then you drop in the two fields that need to be added by hand afterward.

1. Open Magic Create: From your Formaloo homepage, click Magic Create.

2. Describe the form: Paste this prompt: "Create a form for branch and store staff to submit operational requests to HQ. Include a dropdown for their branch or location; a dropdown for request type with options IT support, Facilities & maintenance, Supplies, and Other; a dropdown for urgency with options Low, Medium, High, and Urgent (blocking operations); a long text field for describing the request; a short text field for what device or system is affected; a short text field for which area or equipment needs attention; a long text field for what item(s) they need and how many; a file upload field for a photo of the issue; an admin-only status dropdown with options New, Triaged, In progress, Waiting on branch, Resolved, and Closed; an admin-only Assignee field; and an admin-only long text field for internal notes."

3. Click Create.

Your form should look like this. Magic Create will have generated most of it. Verify each field and field ID matches exactly:

4. Add the User Profile field by hand: Magic Create won't add this one. Open Add field, add a User Profile field, and title it "Who's submitting this request?" with field ID requester_profile. This links each submission to your portal's user directory, which is what makes the "My requests" page in Part 6 possible.

Note: The User Profile field only fully connects once your portal and user directory exist. If you haven't built your portal yet, come back and confirm this field after Part 6.

This is what makes the routing AI-based instead of a fixed rule per category. An AI Analysis field reads the whole submission the moment it's submitted, writes a short internal summary, and can update other fields on that same row, so it sets the Assignee directly instead of you writing a separate IF/THEN rule for every request type.

1. Open the Add field panel and add an AI Analysis field: It arrives admin-only by default. There's no setting anywhere that exposes it to the branch that submitted the request.

2. Title it clearly: Name it "AI triage analysis" with field ID ai_triage_analysis. This title becomes the column header in your Responses table.

3. Write the prompt: Open the field's prompt box and use the @ menu to pipe in the submitted answers: "Based on @location, @request_type, @urgency, and @request_description, along with @affected_system, @facility_area, or @supply_items if answered, write a two to three sentence triage summary of this request. Then decide which team should own it, IT team, Facilities team, Procurement team, or HQ ops generalist, based on everything submitted, not just the Request type dropdown. A request marked Other that clearly describes a broken device should still go to IT."

4. Turn on "Allow AI to update records": In the field's settings, enable this option and select only the Assignee field. This is the same mechanism Formaloo uses for healthcare intake, where an AI reads a patient's symptoms and updates a Department field so the case routes itself. Here it reads the request and sets Assignee to the right internal team the moment the request lands.

5. Save your form.

Note: The AI Analysis field is available on the Business and Enterprise plans.

The branch shouldn't see all three category-specific fields at once, only the one that matches what they picked. Use Magic Logic to generate all of these rules from one plain-language prompt instead of building each one by hand.

1. Open Advanced logic: In the settings panel on the right side of the form editor, go to the Logic tab.

2. Click Magic Logic in the top right corner of the Logic panel.

3. Paste this prompt: "Hide 'What device or system is affected?', 'Which area or equipment needs attention?', and 'What item(s) do you need, and how many?' by default. Show 'What device or system is affected?' and require it only when Request type equals IT support. Show 'Which area or equipment needs attention?' and require it only when Request type equals Facilities & maintenance. Show 'What item(s) do you need, and how many?' and require it only when Request type equals Supplies. Hide 'Add a photo if it helps explain the issue' by default, and show it when Request type equals IT support or Facilities & maintenance."

4. Click Generate Rules and review the preview.

5. Approve each rule, or redo any that don't match the prompt above.

6. Save your logic.

Four emails run this workflow: a confirmation to the branch, an internal notification once AI has routed the request, an urgent escalation for blocking issues, and a status update when things change. Each one needs its own template.

1. Create the confirmation email: Title it "Request received." Subject: "We've got your request for @location." Body: a short, warm confirmation thanking the branch, restating @request_type and @request_description in one line, and reassuring them it's been automatically routed, without promising a specific response time.

2. Set its trigger: When the branch submits the form, send this immediately to @requester_profile.

3. Create the internal notification email: Title it "New request routed." Subject: "New @request_type request from @location (@urgency priority)." Body: a factual internal note showing @location, @request_type, @urgency, the submitted answers via @answered, and the reference BR-@rowid.

4. Set its trigger: When the AI triage analysis field finishes and sets the Assignee field, send this to whoever the request was just assigned to.

5. Create the urgent escalation email: Title it "Urgent request." Subject: "🚨 Urgent: @request_type request from @location." Body: composed but direct, stating the request was flagged Urgent (blocking operations), showing the same @answered and BR-@rowid details, and asking the recipient to review now.

6. Set its trigger: In addition to the internal notification, only when Urgency equals "Urgent (blocking operations)," send this as well to the routed team's lead.

7. Create the status update email: Title it "Status update." Subject: "Update on your request for @location." Body: a brief, warm note referencing BR-@rowid, stating the new @status, and explaining in one plain sentence what that means for the branch.

8. Set its trigger: When an internal team member changes the Status field, send this to @requester_profile.

9. Save each template.

Every request gets an internal PDF record, useful for audits, recurring-issue reviews, or just a clean file per request. It pulls in the AI triage read alongside the raw submission, so a reviewer never has to open the form and the Responses table side by side.

1. Open your project's PDF templates and create a new one. Title it "Operational request record."

2. Paste in the HTML below as the template's code:

3. Save the template.

4. Attach it to the internal notification email: Open the "New request routed" email template from Part 4, turn on the Attach PDF toggle, and select "Operational request record." This way the assigned team gets the full record the moment the request is routed to them.

Turn the form into a portal so branches, IT, Facilities, Procurement, and HQ operations each get their own space, without anyone seeing more than they should.

1. Activate your portal from the project settings.

2. Create five groups, one per role: Branch requesters, IT team, Facilities team, Procurement team, and HQ operations.

Branch requesters (external users, since branch staff don't need a Formaloo account):

3. Filter "My requests" to each branch's own data: Hover over the table, click Options → Manage Access, and under Profile Field Access, choose the requester_profile field. Enable Allow users to view user data.

4. Build the internal team groups. For each of IT team, Facilities team, and Procurement team, add:

5. Restrict each team's queue to that team: On the page's Access menu, choose Internal users → Specific teams, and select the matching workspace team. Internal staff don't sign up to the portal the way branches do, so this is the right mechanism instead of the external Manage User flow.

6. Build the HQ operations group, with full visibility across every branch and team:

7. Build the trend report: On the Request trends page, add an AI Analyze block pointed at this form's data.

8. Publish your portal and share the link with your branches and internal teams.

A single intake point for every branch's supplies, IT, and facilities needs, instead of scattered emails and calls landing on whoever happens to pick up. Every request gets an AI-written triage read and is routed to the correct internal team the moment it's submitted, not after someone gets around to sorting the inbox. Branches can check their own status without asking anyone, each internal team works from a queue that only shows their own work, and HQ can see request volume by location well enough to catch a branch with a recurring problem before it becomes a pattern nobody noticed.

Don't build this from scratch — we've already put it together for you.