Form

An arrangement of captioned fields designed for entering, collecting, and/or extracting information, regardless of media. The term includes the following.

(1) Electronic Form. An image that has been electronically generated and/or stored, and that is accessed for electronic fill-in, transmission, and/or printing.

(2) Paper Form. A form produced from a hard-copy master using conventional printing, duplicating, or copying equipment; paper forms are completed manually, either by typewriter or by hand.

(3) Types of forms include the following.

(a) DOE Form. A form developed for use by DOE and its contractors and approved by the DOE Forms Manager. A DOE form is used to obtain or provide information to at least two or more field elements or a field element and Headquarters. All Report Forms (RFs) are also considered to be DOE forms and are approved and numbered accordingly.

(b) Headquarters Form. A form developed for use within DOE Headquarters only and approved by the DOE Forms Manager.

(c) Local Form. A form developed for use within one specific field element or at Headquarters only and approved by the originating office’s designated forms manager.

(d) Optional Form. A form developed by a Federal agency for use in two or more agencies and approved by GSA for nonmandatory Government-wide use.

(e) Report Form. A form designed for collection of data from persons or organizations either inside or outside the collecting agency. RFs include the following.

1 Information Collection Form. A form used to collect information from the public. For the purposes of this Guide, Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) facilities, off-site contractors, and financial assistance recipients are considered to be the public. Information Collection Forms must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

2 Interagency Form. A form used by one or more agencies to report information to another agency(ies), as covered in the information management responsibilities of 41 CFR; Interagency Forms must be approved by GSA, except those used for general statistical purposes, which are approved by OMB.
(f) Standard Form. A form prescribed by a Federal agency, pursuant to its regulatory authority and approved by the GSA and, if required, by the OMB, for mandatory Government-wide use.

A fixed arrangement or captioned spaces designed for gathering, organizing, and transmitting prescribed information. A form must comply with all regulations cited in 41 CFR 102-193, 44 USC 3101 and 26 CFR 1220.30.