How do I upload PDFs to create forms?

Last updated: August 7, 2026

Upload up to 50 PDFs at once and Onboarded turns each one into a digital form. This article covers the upload step and the options you set before submitting.

Open the upload page

Go to Configuration → Forms.
Select New form.
You land on Upload PDFs — "Drop your PDFs and we'll turn them into digital forms" — with the drop zone front and center.

Two other entry points sit under Other options on the same page. Compliance Library gives you pre-built, industry-standard compliance forms, and Create a New Form starts you from a blank form. Uploading a PDF is the right path when you already have the document your team uses today.

[SCREENSHOT: the Upload PDFs page in its empty state — drop zone plus the Other options card]

Add your files

Drag your PDFs onto Drop files here, or select browse to pick them from your machine.
Confirm the file list. Each row shows the original filename and its page count, read in your browser as the file is added.

A few things worth knowing while the list fills up:

The counter above the list reads {n} of 50 files. Fifty is the per-batch maximum. Anything past it is dropped with the notice "You can upload up to 50 files at a time."
ZIP archives are accepted and expanded into their PDFs. Non-PDFs, dotfiles, and __MACOSX/ entries are skipped, and each expanded PDF counts against the 50.
The name field on each row becomes the form name — edit it now if the filename isn't what you want the form called.
Remove a single file with the X on its row, or start over with Clear all.

Set the document type

Document type tells the AI what kind of PDF it's reading, so it knows whether to expect mostly body text or mostly input fields.

Open the Document type selector on a file's row and pick the closest match:
- Handbook / posters — content-heavy handbooks, posters, and notice packets that are mostly verbatim text with few real inputs.
- Policy / disclosure — disclosures, consents, and notices where the body is read-only and the only inputs are the acknowledgment.
- Tax / withholding — government tax and withholding forms in the W-4 family, with precise numbered fields.
- Generic — the default, and the right choice when the PDF doesn't clearly fit the other three.
If the whole batch is the same kind of document, select Apply to all to set that type on every file at once.

The Document type selector only appears once a file has finished uploading. If you don't see it yet, the upload is still in flight — wait for the row to settle before choosing.

Choose languages and submit

Set Output language. Onboarded detects the language of your document and builds the form in that language; any additional languages you pick here are translated automatically. The picker is limited to the languages enabled on your account and starts pre-selected on your account default. At least one language stays selected.
Select Request Onboarded support if you want our team to review the batch. Each file then gets an Instructions for this form (optional) box where you can leave context — which sections matter, which fields are unusual, anything a reviewer would otherwise have to guess.
Select Create {n} forms.

[SCREENSHOT: the file list with one row expanded — Document type, Apply to all, and the footer with Output language and Create forms]

Verify

You're returned to the forms list with a banner reading "Your forms will start appearing in this list as we prepare your uploaded files for form building."

That wording is literal. Form building runs in the background, and forms show up in the list one at a time as the AI finishes each file. A batch of fifty won't be ready the moment you submit — leave the page and come back rather than waiting on it.

If the Create forms button stays disabled, look for a line in the footer reading "{n} files need attention before they can be processed." That points at a file that failed to upload or a ZIP that couldn't be read. Retry the individual file, or remove it and submit the rest.

Once a form appears in the list, the next step is reviewing what the AI produced and fixing up the field mapping.

Track the build status

Every form built from a PDF carries a build status while the work is in flight. It shows as a badge on the form's row in the forms list, and the column filters by status, so you can pull up everything still outstanding in one go. There are five values:

Status	What it means
`Waiting for AI`	The AI is building the form from your PDF. Set the moment the batch is registered.
`Waiting for Onboarded`	The build finished and is queued for our team to review. This is where a form lands when you tick `Request Onboarded support` on upload.
`Waiting for Customer`	The build finished and is waiting on you to review the generated fields and mappings.
`Build Failed`	The AI build errored. Different from a file that failed to upload before you submitted.
`None`	No build is in flight. The badge is hidden at this value.

Every form in a fresh batch starts at Waiting for AI, so that's what you'll see on every row right after you submit. Where a form goes next depends on the choice you made at upload. Tick Request Onboarded support and the finished build routes to Waiting for Onboarded, where it sits until our team picks it up. Leave the box unticked and the finished build lands in Waiting for Customer instead. Waiting for Customer is also the return leg — it's where a supported form comes back to you once our review is done.

Build Failed is a different problem from the "{n} files need attention before they can be processed" message described above, and the two get confused often. That message is pre-submit: a file that never uploaded cleanly, caught before the batch is created. Build Failed is post-build: the file uploaded, the batch registered, and the AI errored while building the form. Upload that PDF again, and tick Request Onboarded support on the retry if you want our team to look at it.

The badge clears to None — and disappears from the row — once you publish the form version and deploy it. At that point no build is in flight, so there's nothing left to track. For the deploy step, see 📄 How do I deploy a form version to test or live mode?