What you can do in Formatta

In addition to the requisite features for electronic forms products, Formatta's e-forms product line includes some very unique features based on requirements from the U.S. Government:

• Free Formatta Filler - Consumers, businesses, and government agencies want to freely distribute their electronic forms.  The only practical way to do this is to distribute an application that can be freely downloaded as a helper application for browsers (free recipient e-forms enablement).  Formatta Filler allows end users to complete a form online or offline, save a completed form, and route it to others via email (portability).

• Free Electronic Forms - Using Formatta Designer, a business or agency can create and distribute as many free forms as they desire.

• Built-in Recipient and Sender Data Security - Formatta designed encryption into its products and pioneered the development of bi-directional symmetric dual key encryption, a technique that allows two parties to exchange and access mutually-shared, secure data.  Neither the sender nor the recipient need know each other's passwords, yet they are the only two people who can decrypt a specific encrypted electronic form and its associated data. Formatta's client-side encryption technology now makes it possible to securely transmit completed forms via email.

It's interesting to note that "…the IRS hopes within five years to be able to communicate directly with taxpayers via secure email. That would allow completely paperless filing with PIN numbers in place of physical signatures and provide tax refunds within two days."  Not only does Formatta's encryption technology complement today's Internet architecture, but secure email communication is available today.

In just one example below, Formatta's technology web architecture is used to access a forms repository and email a fillable form to a user.  The user can complete the form at his or her leisure, forward the form to others for their review (portability), and then securely email a completed electronic form.  In this model, only two parties can decrypt the completed form:  (1) the person who filled it out, and (2) the form author.

• Form Lock - Using several cryptographic techniques, the Lock feature of Formatta Designer prevents unauthorized people from modifying the electronic form itself, even with another copy of Formatta Designer.  This feature is important for business forms, but even more so for government agencies.  

• Form Verification - In concert with Formatta's Lock feature, Form Verification ensures the form has not been tampered with or "spoofed" (redrawing the form and passing it off as the original).  Formatta forms cannot be recreated and submitted by unauthorized individuals because of the cryptographic controls inherent in Formatta's e-forms architecture.  

This means that the form submitted by a user is the same form a business or agency originally designed and distributed.  This feature solves a legal problem as well:  Ensuring that users don't submit an expired or modified form.  This Formatta feature allows a business or agency to instantly verify whether or not a completed form is authentic.

• Comprehensive and Detailed Audits and Controls - With Formatta encryption technology, electronic forms can be keyed to a single, registered recipient.  For example, a form could be pre-populated, encrypted and sent to an recipient, and only that specific recipient could submit that specific form back to the system.  

• Distribute Other Files - Formatta Filler can also act as a secure "envelope" for transmitting any other type of electronic file, such as word processing documents or spreadsheets -- even other electronic forms (e.g., attach Schedules to tax forms to simplify the filing process).  These files can be encrypted with their own passwords, yet still decrypted by the person who initially designed the form (without having to share passwords).

More than 2,000,000 copies of Formatta Filler have been downloaded.  This figure doesn't include other download sites or companies who install the product internally.

There are 4 primary reasons why Formatta products are popular:

1. Formatta products are easy to use.  Formatta Filler is designed for people who don't like to fill out forms and don't have the inclination to learn yet another software application.

2. Formatta forms and Fillers are freely distributable.  

3. Formatta forms can be saved, submitted to a website, printed, faxed, or emailed.

4. Formatta forms are secure because of built-in encryption.