How do you collect department reports without meetings?

How to collect reports with a bot form

1. The bot sends the request. For example, every Friday at 12:00 it messages employees directly with a Fill in report button.
2. An employee fills in the form. It opens right in Pachca, on a computer or a phone, and takes a couple of minutes.
3. Reports collect in a thread. The bot gathers them under its message in the department chat and counts how many came in, who's at risk and who hasn't filled it in.
4. The manager replies right there. If a question can't be settled in writing, they call a short meeting with just the people it concerns.

Why a form beats a meeting

• Points don't get skipped. Required fields won't let anyone send a report without the numbers.
• The status is clear at a glance. An employee picks "On track," "At risk" or "Need help," and the manager knows who to talk to first.
• Reports look the same. They're easy to compare with last week.
• The bot knows who hasn't filled it in. No need to check the list and message everyone.
• Busy people don't drop out. They fill in the form any time before the deadline.

How to set up a bot with a form

1. Create a bot. Go to Automations → Integrations, open Chatbots and webhooks, create a bot and add it to the department chat.
2. Build the message with a button and the form. The button opens the form, which can have text fields, a drop-down list, a date and a time. More in the help articles on buttons and forms.
3. Connect a handler. It messages employees on schedule, receives the forms and gathers the reports in the thread. You can build it without code in n8n, write it with an AI coding assistant or hand it to a developer. Step-by-step setup for a similar bot is in the use case "How do you run a daily standup in 15 minutes?".

Optional: an AI agent to analyze the reports

If there are a lot of reports, an AI agent can go through them. Mention it in the thread with @, and it will sum up the week, build an Excel spreadsheet or tell you who's been at risk two weeks in a row.

How to build an agent for your team is in the use case "How do you build an AI agent without code?". If you're the only one preparing the summary, a personal agent is enough: "How can a manager use AI for reports and planning?".

No bot yet: a message with a template

Type a request with a template in the department chat, choose Schedule message in the send settings and set it to repeat weekly. Employees will reply in the thread under it.

Weekly report in the thread by 16:00:
1. What you did
2. Numbers: target and actual
3. Where you need help

Once the department gets used to it, switch to the form.