Automate This: How to Digitize Government Forms Without Sacrificing Security

Quick Summary: To replace paper and legacy government forms at scale, rebuild your highest-risk forms first on a FedRAMP-ready platform with built-in HIPAA and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, then extend access department by department using shared form collaboration — no developer required.

Working with FormAssembly, a major metropolitan city government used this approach to rebuild more than 3,500 forms across 12 departments, saving 55 hours of staff time per week and more than $75,000 a year in wages, without lowering its security bar.

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Government forms carry some of the highest stakes of any data collection process. A parking permit application might only need a name and an address. A housing assistance form can include income data, medical documentation, or a resident’s Social Security number. This is information that requires real security, not just a working submit button.

One of the largest city governments in the U.S. learned this firsthand. When the city’s Information Security Manager discovered security gaps in the forms residents used every day across tax filings, housing applications, permits, and public safety requests, there was no time for a slow fix. With thousands of existing forms, complex compliance requirements, and departments that couldn’t afford downtime, the city needed a platform that could handle security and scale at the same time.

The compliance problem most governments share

A typical government forms process runs through the same disconnected pattern:

1. A resident submits a form, often still on paper or through an unsecured legacy web form
2. Staff manually handle sensitive information (Social Security numbers, income data, medical details) without consistent encryption or access controls
3. Each department builds and maintains its own forms independently, with no shared platform or central oversight
4. IT and security teams have limited visibility into where sensitive data is actually being collected or stored

Multiply that across dozens of departments and thousands of forms, and the failure modes compound: inconsistent security, vendor lock-in, slow modernization efforts, and staff time spent on manual review instead of resident service.

For this city, the trigger was direct: a security review of the previous vendor’s forms turned up gaps that needed fixing immediately.

“We were seeking a solution that was reliable, user-friendly, and secure.”

— Andres Rodriguez, Information Security Manager, Major Metropolitan City

What you need before you build

This workflow requires:

• A FormAssembly Government plan (FedRAMP-ready)
• Compliance requirements mapped for each form type — HIPAA, PCI DSS, or general public data
• A designated owner for each form or form category within its department

This workflow does NOT require:

• A developer
• Coding knowledge
• A separate platform per department

How to digitize government forms securely: 5 steps

Step 1. Audit your highest-risk forms first

Before rebuilding everything, identify which forms collect the most sensitive data or carry the greatest compliance exposure: tax filings, housing assistance applications, health-adjacent public safety forms, or anything that touches payment information. These are the forms most likely to have created a security gap with a legacy vendor, and where a secure platform pays off fastest.

Pro tip: Loop in whoever owns compliance or risk management before touching a single form. FedRAMP and HIPAA requirements aren’t optional configuration settings; getting sign-off up front saves you from redoing work later.

Step 2. Rebuild forms on a FedRAMP-ready platform

Move each form onto FormAssembly’s Gov Cloud plan, built for FedRAMP readiness with encryption at rest and in transit. This is the step that actually closes the security gaps a legacy vendor left open. And because it provides a point-and-click setup, departments can rebuild forms without waiting on a central IT ticket queue.

Step 3. Turn on the compliance features each form actually needs

Not every form needs the same protections. Configure HIPAA compliance for forms handling health-adjacent data, and PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment connectors (Stripe, PayPal, and iATS are all supported) for any form that collects a fee or payment. Matching the protection to the form keeps low-risk forms simple while locking down the ones that actually need it.

Step 4. Give departments access without giving up central oversight

Form collaboration lets multiple departments and staff work inside the same secure platform, each managing their own forms, while IT and security retain visibility across all of them. This is what let the major metropolitan city using FormAssembly bring 12 departments and 300+ licensed users onto a single platform instead of running a dozen disconnected tools.

Step 5. Lean on implementation support to get to scale faster

Rolling out thousands of forms across a dozen departments isn’t a one-person job. FormAssembly’s implementation services provided this city with onboarding, training, and consulting hours to get hundreds of staff comfortable with the platform, shortening the runway between “we bought this” and “every department is actually using it.”

What automated government form compliance looks like at scale

Within 18 months, the city had rebuilt more than 3,500 forms on FormAssembly’s platform, spanning tax, housing, public safety, permits, and licensing, with 300+ licensed users working across 12 departments. The city is now on track for 1 to 2 million form submissions per year, all running through the same FedRAMP-ready, HIPAA- and PCI DSS Level 1-compliant infrastructure.

The result: 55 hours of manual data collection work saved every week. That’s more than 2,860 hours annually, and over $75,000 in hourly wages saved each year, without adding headcount or compromising the security that started this project in the first place.

What to build next

Once your base compliance and collaboration setup is running, there are a couple of natural extensions worth considering:

• Salesforce Connector: If your agency also runs Salesforce as a system of record, FormAssembly’s Salesforce integration can write form submissions directly into Salesforce records, extending this same secure intake process into your CRM without manual re-entry.
• Pre-built templates: Give departments a head start on common government use cases like permits, licensing, or tax forms so new forms don’t have to be built from a blank page every time.

Stop choosing between secure and simple.

Government agencies depend on security and ease of use. When your forms run on a platform built for FedRAMP and HIPAA from the start, departments can move fast without cutting corners, and IT keeps the oversight it needs.

This city didn’t just patch a security gap. It rebuilt 3,500 forms, brought 12 departments onto one secure platform, and gave staff back thousands of hours a year. All without typing a single line of code.