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Creating Plan Questions

Build a reusable set of Plan Questions within the Activity Utility to standardize documentation

Overview

All users

The Activity Utility is where SETWorks administrators configure the settings for each activity type your organization uses — including the Plan Questions that staff answer while documenting that activity. For a billable activity, Plan Questions let you capture the specific details a funder, an auditor, or a supervisor expects to see alongside the service delivery record, in a consistent, structured way instead of relying on free-form notes.

Plan Questions sit alongside Goals, Forms, and Signatures as part of completing an activity record, and answers are collected separately for each Individual on the record — if three people are on one activity record, each person has their own set of Plan Question answers. Because the questions can be marked Required, restricted to specific answer choices, and scoped to specific Individuals, Services, or other criteria, Plan Questions help reduce documentation gaps that put Medicaid waiver billing and audit readiness at risk. This article walks through building a Plan Question template within the Activity Utility.

ℹ️ Note: Terminology can be modified within SETWorks to better fit the needs of your organization. If the terminology in our articles isn't the same on your site, talk to your local administrator to assist in translation.

Before you start

You'll need access to the Activity Utility for the activity you want to add Plan Questions to. If you can't open or edit an Activity Utility, check with your system administrator about your permissions.

Steps

  1. Open the Activity Utility and select a template.
    a. In SETWorks, go to Settings, then open Activity Utility. Either create a new activity template or open an existing one for editing.
  2. Open the Plan Questions tab and create a template.
    a. With the activity template open for editing, click the Plan Questions tab. Any templates already built for this activity are listed under Plan Question Templates. Click + Create Template, then on the General tab enter a Template Name (for example, "Billable Individual - Plan Questions") and an optional Description so other admins can tell what the template is for at a glance.
  3. Add your first question and set its type.
    a. Go to the Questions tab, then click + Add Question. In the Edit Question panel on the right, type the question text (for example, "What is the individual's current employment status?"), then choose a Question Type from the dropdown. Available types include Short Text, Long Text, Number, Date, Yes/No, Single Choice, Select Option, Dropdown, Checkboxes, and Multiselect Dropdown.
  4. Configure the question's details and options.
    a. Add Help Text if staff need extra guidance — this displays an info icon that staff can hover over while completing the question. Turn on Required if the question must be answered before the record can be saved. If you chose Single Choice, Checkboxes, Dropdown, Select Option, or Multiselect Dropdown, an Options panel appears below Help Text — click + Add Option for each answer choice you want staff to be able to select (for example, "Employed - Competitive," "Employed - Supported," "Not Currently Employed"). SETWorks won't let you save a choice-based question with zero options; it will flag it if you try.
  5. Add additional questions and set conditional logic.
    a. Click + Add Question again for each additional question you need — you can mix question types freely, such as adding a Yes/No question after a Multiselect Dropdown question. 
    b. (Optional) In the Conditional Logic section of a question, click the plus sign to + Add Condition so that question only appears when an earlier answer matches a specific value — for example, only asking about employer-verified hours if the individual is marked as employed. Choose the earlier question from the Show this question if dropdown, then set the comparison and the answer value that should trigger the question to appear.
  6. Scope the template with associations.
    a. Click the Associations tab. By default, a template with no associations applies to everyone — any activity record created for this activity type will include these Plan Questions. Click + Add Rule to limit it instead: choose a Record Type (Individual(s) or Service(s)), a Detail to filter on (for example, Specific Individual, Acuity Score, Behavioral Concerns, Date Of Birth, Education, Family Size, Gender, Guardianship Status, Religion, or Voter Status), a Condition, and a Value. For example, associating by Service means that if an Individual receives Community Inclusion, the Plan Questions appear whenever that activity record is created for them.
  7. Combine multiple associations with AND/OR logic.
    a. Click the + to add another association rule, then use the AND/OR toggle to control how the rules work together. For example, combine Service = Community Inclusion with Record Type/Individual = a specific Individual using AND so the Plan Questions only appear on that Individual's Community Inclusion records — or use OR to apply the template if either condition is met. Use the trash icon next to a rule to remove it.
  8. Save the template.
    a. Click Save Template. SETWorks confirms the template was created and returns you to the Plan Questions tab, along with a count of how many questions it contains. From the Actions menu next to any template, you can Edit, Duplicate, or Delete it later.

How Plan Questions Behave Once They're in Use

All users

A few things are worth knowing about how Plan Questions work in practice, once a template is built and staff start using it:

  • Answers are per-Individual. On an activity record with more than one Individual, each person gets their own set of Plan Question answers — one person's answers never affect or overwrite another's.
  • Staff can add more than one entry. Plan Questions aren't limited to a single set of answers per record. For something ongoing, like a progress note, staff can add a new entry each time they document, and earlier entries stay in place rather than being replaced.
  • Editing a template doesn't change answers that are already recorded. If an Individual already has answers saved against a template, those answers keep the version of the questions and options they were originally answered with — even if the template is edited afterward. New activity records pick up whatever version of the template is current at that time.
  • Only a published template can be used. A newly built template generally needs to be active/published before it can be attached to an activity or filled out by staff. If a template you just created doesn't show up where you expect it, check that it's been published rather than left as a draft.
  • Required questions determine whether Plan Questions hold up completion. A template only affects whether an activity record can move forward if at least one of its questions is marked Required. A template with no required questions is informational only — it won't block the record or show up as unfinished work. When a template does have required questions, staff see progress like "Plan Questions (2/3)," and it's marked done once every required question is answered in every entry. Getting a record to Ready for Sign requires Goals, Forms, Plan Questions, and staff check-in/out to all be complete; moving it to fully Complete additionally requires signatures.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I reuse the same Plan Question template on more than one activity? Yes. An active (published) template isn't locked to the activity it was built on — from another activity's Plan Questions tab, you can attach that same existing template instead of rebuilding it. If you instead want a similar-but-different set of questions for another activity, use the Duplicate action from the Actions menu as a starting point, then adjust the copy.

Q: What happens if I mark a question Required but don't add any answer Options to a Single Choice question? SETWorks blocks the save and shows a message telling you which question needs at least one option before the template can be saved.

Q: Does Conditional Logic support more than one condition per question? The Conditional Logic panel lets you add a condition referencing one of the template's other questions and the answer value that should trigger it. If you need to remove a condition, use the trash icon next to it.

Q: What's the difference between a question's Conditional Logic and an association's AND/OR logic? Conditional Logic (step 5) controls whether a single question appears within the template, based on how staff answered an earlier question in that same template. Association AND/OR logic (step 7) controls whether the entire template applies to a given activity record at all, based on details like the Individual or the Service being delivered. Use Conditional Logic to shape the flow of one form; use Associations to control which records get that form in the first place.

Q: Does a Plan Question template have to have required questions? No. A template with no required questions is optional and purely informational — staff can still fill it out, but it won't block an activity record from being marked complete or show up as unfinished work in the Plan Questions progress indicator.