Using Forms (or something else) to populate a Database or Spreadsheet for questions/escalations

[West, Divina]

Our company has recently transitioned from Smartsheets to Atlassian. 
One feature of Smartsheet I am trying to replicate is Forms. Specifically a form for a team to escalated questions, concerns, decisions needed, etc to a leadership team.

In Smartsheet, when someone would submit a Form, it would auto populate the answers into a spreadsheet that would have columns aligning to each question on the form and allow you to expand upon it to assign, update status, things that were not questions on the form but you want on the spreadsheet, etc. I find this spreadsheet was easier to visualize and manage for the purpose of questions/escalations due to you being able to organize it by date created, assignee, etc and see it all on one page rather than by columns on a RIDA board. Though settling for using the RIDA board is my backup plan. 

So, so far, the JIRA Forms I am seeing in a Software Project allow you to create a Form, the current concerns and drawback I am seeing:

1. you have to choose an issue type for the Form (for our purposes of questions, escalations, decisions needed from leadership, I would choose RIDA or Task, I think)
2. it populates things filled out in that form them as issues, lists, or you can add it to a board which to me seems you should just use a RIDA board at that point?

Questions:

• Any purpose of using Forms in this way. 
• Is there any alternative that would better suit our needs in Jira and/or Confluence? 
• Are forms on Jira Service Management perhaps more suited to our needs and therefore we need to change the type/platform our Project is on? (don't fully understand Jira vs Jira Service Management)

Thanks! 

[Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet]

Hi @West, Divina 

Understanding How Forms Work in Jira Software vs. Jira Service Management

Jira Software Forms

• Forms must be linked to an issue type, meaning every submission creates a Jira issue.
• Best for internal use where you need structured input but want to manage tasks in a backlog or board.
• Doesn't natively support a table-like visualization for multiple form responses.

Jira Service Management (JSM) Forms

• More suited for request-based workflows.
• Responses are managed similarly to tickets but can be easily categorized by issue fileds and then reported with Jira Dashboards.

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🔹 Alternative Solutions for Managing Escalation Forms in Jira

Since your goal is to submit and visualize escalations like a spreadsheet, you may try Smart Forms for Jira add-on.

1️⃣ Using \

Smart Forms allows you to:

- Create dynamic forms without being tied to a single issue type.
- Auto-populate form fields based on Jira issues fields data.
- Export form responses for reporting Exel or PDF.
- Create new issues and Map form fields to Jira issue fields, allowing better tracking and organization. 

- Build-in responses analytics Tab.
- Create new issues after form submissions.

- Ability to share form externally via link, website or to add form on Confluence page.

✅ How This Solves Your Problem:

• Users submit an escalation form → The form creates a Jira issue → All responses are stored inside the issue and mapped to fields → Can be viewed on a dashboard or exported as a report from add-on
• If needed, issues can be filtered by status, assignee, or date, just like Smartsheet.

📌 Check out Smart Forms here: Smart Forms for Jira.

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🔹 What’s the Best Approach for You?

Feature	Jira Software Forms	Jira Service Management (JSM)	Smart Forms for Jira	Confluence with Jira Data
Best for internal workflows	✅	✅	✅	✅
Best for structured escalations	❌	✅	✅	✅
External user-friendly submission	❌	✅	✅	❌
Spreadsheet-like visualization	❌	❌	✅ (Exportable)	✅
Issue field mapping	✅	✅	✅	❌

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