What Is Microsoft Forms? Uses You're Missing

Most Microsoft 365 subscriptions come with more apps than anyone in the business has opened. Forms is one of the most useful of the forgotten ones. It usually gets filed under "surveys" and left there, which is a bit like owning a ute and only using it to carry a single bag of shopping.

This article covers what Microsoft Forms is, the jobs it does well that people don't think of, how it stacks up against other form tools, and the honest list of things it can't do. If you've already decided to run a survey and want the step-by-step, our guide on how to use Microsoft Forms for surveys covers question design, branching and getting results into Excel.

What is Microsoft Forms?

Forms is Microsoft's web-based tool for building forms, surveys, quizzes and quick polls. You create a form in a browser, share it as a link, QR code, email or embed, and responses arrive in real time with automatic summary charts. Results can be opened in Excel, and new responses can trigger automations through Power Automate.

It's included in Microsoft 365 business plans, from Business Basic upwards. For a work account, the limits are generous enough that most small businesses will never hit them: up to 400 forms per person, 200 questions per form, and up to five million responses per form. Free personal Microsoft accounts are capped far lower, at 200 responses per form, which is one reason to use your work account for business forms.

The real advantage over a standalone form tool isn't any single feature. It's that Forms already sits inside your company sign-in, security settings and data storage. There's no new vendor to vet, no new password to manage, and no customer data sitting in yet another service.

Seven uses people overlook

1. Internal requests that currently arrive by email

IT requests, maintenance jobs, stationery orders, marketing requests. When these come in as emails, details go missing and you end up replying "which printer?" A form asks the right questions every time, and because staff are signed in, you know who sent it without asking. Hook it up to Power Automate and each request can become a task in Microsoft Planner automatically.

2. Approvals

Leave requests, purchase orders, expense claims. A form collects the details, then a Power Automate flow sends an approval card to the manager in Teams. They tap Approve or Reject, the requester gets notified, and there's a record of who approved what and when. For a small business that's a simple, auditable process without buying a separate system.

3. Quizzes for training and induction

Forms has a quiz mode that marks answers automatically, shows correct answers if you choose, and records scores. It's well suited to checking that new starters have read the safety induction, that staff understood a new policy, or that the team took in your cyber security awareness training. A ten-question quiz turns "they attended the session" into "they understood it".

4. Event and course registrations

Workshops, client events, the end-of-year party. Collect names, dietary requirements and session choices in one place, set a closing date, and limit each staff member to one response. The summary chart tells the caterer how many vegetarian meals to bring.

5. Site checklists and inspections

A form opened on a phone makes a perfectly good checklist for a vehicle pre-start, a site safety walk or an end-of-day close-down. Each submission is time-stamped and attributed to the signed-in person, which is far better evidence than a ticked paper sheet that may or may not have made it back to the office. Businesses in transport and logistics and manufacturing get a lot from this.

6. Live polls in meetings

Forms powers the polls in Teams meetings. Ask a quick question during an all-staff meeting, get an instant answer from everyone, including the people who'd never speak up. Useful for picking a date, checking understanding, or finding out whether anyone actually read the pre-reading.

7. Customer feedback at the point of service

Put a QR code on an invoice, a receipt, a delivery docket or the reception counter. A three-question form asked at the moment of service gets more honest feedback than a long survey emailed a month later.

How Forms compares with other tools

Forms isn't the only option, and it isn't always the best one. A fair comparison:

• Google Forms is the closest equivalent. Feature for feature they're similar. If your business runs on Microsoft 365, Forms wins on integration: same sign-in, results into Excel and SharePoint, automations through Power Automate.
• Dedicated survey platforms like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics offer deeper analysis, larger question libraries, panel recruitment and heavy branding. If market research is a core part of your work, they may justify their cost.
• Form builders like Jotform or Typeform do things Forms doesn't, such as taking payments, collecting signatures and accepting file uploads from the public.

The rule of thumb: start with Forms because you already own it, and move to something else only when you hit a specific limit.

Where Forms falls short

• No public file uploads. File upload questions only work for people signed in to your organisation.
• No payments or e-signatures. You can't take a deposit or collect a binding signature.
• Limited design. Themes and a logo, but not full control over branding and layout.
• Basic logic. Branching handles "if yes, go here", but not calculations or complex rules.
• Ownership. Forms created by an individual belong to that person. Create shared forms as group forms so they don't vanish when someone leaves.

The security side: a free form tool attracts scammers too

Here's the uncomfortable flip side of a free, trusted, Microsoft-branded form tool: criminals use it as well. Fake forms asking staff to "verify your account" or "confirm your password" are a well-worn phishing trick, because a link to a genuine Microsoft domain gets past suspicious eyes and some filters.

Microsoft scans for phishing forms and puts a warning on every form telling respondents never to give out their password. The simple rule for staff is worth repeating anyway: no legitimate form will ever ask for your password. If a form does, report it. That's exactly the kind of thing good cyber security and regular awareness training reinforce.

It's also worth a quick admin check. In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, your administrator can control settings such as whether staff can share forms externally and whether names are recorded by default.

What about AI?

With a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, Copilot in Forms can draft a form from a plain-English description, suggest questions and help summarise results. It's a handy time-saver for people who build lots of forms. Without the licence, Forms itself works exactly the same; you just write the questions yourself.

Which is, uh... probably fine. A form takes ten minutes to build. The hard part was always knowing what to ask and what you'll do with the answer, and that bit still needs a person who understands the business.

For more features hiding in your subscription, see our Microsoft 365 pro tips, or let our Microsoft 365 team show you what your licences already include.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Forms free?

It's included with Microsoft 365 business plans at no extra cost, and it can also be used with a free personal Microsoft account. Personal accounts have much lower limits, such as 200 responses per form on a free account, so businesses should use their work accounts.

What is Microsoft Forms used for?

Surveys and feedback, but also internal requests, approvals, training quizzes, event registrations, site checklists and live polls in Teams meetings. Responses arrive in real time and can be opened in Excel or used to trigger Power Automate workflows.

Is Microsoft Forms better than Google Forms?

They're similar in features. For a business on Microsoft 365, Forms is usually the better choice because it uses the same sign-in and security settings and connects directly to Excel, SharePoint, Teams and Power Automate.

Can Microsoft Forms be used for phishing?

Yes, scammers sometimes build fake forms to steal passwords. Microsoft scans for this and warns respondents not to share passwords, but staff should know that no legitimate form will ever ask for their password, and report any that do.

Local IT and cyber security support across NSW

Chewing IT runs managed IT and cyber security for small and mid-sized businesses from our Wyong and Hornsby offices, covering the Central Coast, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hornsby.

Paying for tools you already own in Microsoft 365? Ask us for a licence review and we'll show you what's worth switching on.