Build and manage surveys
Surveys let you build structured assessments — intake questionnaires, periodic reassessments, or one-off questionnaires — and record client answers inside Orchard Stack. You build and manage surveys from the Administration area; staff then conduct them from a client's record, and you review results in Reports. This guide covers building and managing surveys.
Surveys are staff-administered. There is no public or client-facing survey link. Staff record a client's answers on their behalf from the client record.
Create a survey
Navigate to Administration and select Surveys .
Click Add Survey at the top of the survey list.
Fill in the survey details:
Survey Name — a descriptive name for the survey (required).
Description — a short summary; displayed on survey listings.
Instructions — guidance shown at the start of the survey when it is taken.
Type — Intake , Reassessment , or On-Demand .
Optionally, check Enable scoring to assign point values to answers (see Set up scoring below).
Add questions
The survey builder has two columns: an editor on the left and a Live Preview on the right that updates as you build. Click + Add Question to add a question. For each question you can set:
- Name / Number — a short label or number for the question (required). This is used as the question's column header in reports.
- Type — the response type (see below).
- Question Text — the question as it will appear when the survey is taken.
- Help text — optional clarifying text shown beneath the question.
- Required — whether an answer is required before the response can be submitted.
Reorder questions by dragging them or using the up and down arrows. Use the duplicate icon to copy a question, or the × to remove it.
Question types
- Single choice — pick one option from a list.
- Multiple choice — pick one or more options.
- Dropdown — pick one option from a dropdown menu.
- Rating scale — a numeric rating. Set the Scale minimum and maximum (defaults to 1–5).
- Number — a numeric value. Optionally set a min/max Range .
- Text — a free-text answer. Optionally set a min/max Length .
- Yes / No — a yes-or-no answer.
- Date — a calendar date.
- Time — a time of day.
- Email — an email address.
- Phone — a phone number.
- Section heading — a display-only heading used to group questions. It collects no answer.
For Single choice, Multiple choice, and Dropdown questions, add the answer options under Choices using Add Choice, then reorder or remove them as needed.
Set up scoring (optional)
When Enable scoring is turned on, you can assign point values so that each response produces a total score:
- Choice and Yes/No questions — enter points next to each choice (or next to Yes and No ).
- Number and Rating questions — enter a Score weight that multiplies the entered value.
The score is calculated automatically when a response is completed and appears as a Score badge on the response.
Save the survey
Click Create Survey to save (the button reads Save Survey when editing an existing survey). You return to the survey list, where the survey becomes available to conduct on client records.
Manage surveys
From Administration > Surveys you can:
- View a survey — see its questions exactly as they will appear.
- Edit a survey — click Edit to reopen it in the builder.
- Delete a survey — open it for editing and click Delete in the top-right corner.
Editing preserves history. If a survey already has recorded responses, saving your changes archives the current version (read-only) and creates a new version. Past responses stay attached to the exact questions they were answered against. A survey with no responses is edited in place. The builder shows a banner whenever you edit a survey that has responses.
Deleting works the same way: a survey with no responses is removed, while a survey that already has responses is archived (read-only) instead, so its responses are preserved. Archived surveys appear in italics in the survey list and can no longer be edited. Only active, non-archived surveys appear under Start a new survey on a client record.