# When using groups, entity fields only processing in first group, ignored elsewhere **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Tags:** odk-central\ **Created:** [March 10, 2026, 3:54am UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/when-using-groups-entity-fields-only-processing-in-first-group-ignored-elsewhere/57809 "2026-03-10T03:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 8
**Author:** ![LN](https://getodk.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.getodk.org/ln/32/1605_2.png) [@LN](https://forum.getodk.org/u/LN)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.getodk.org/t/when-using-groups-entity-fields-only-processing-in-first-group-ignored-elsewhere/57809/8 "2026-03-11T16:16:10Z")
We've made the container of an Entity declaration implicit in XLSForm which makes things simple for simple forms but may make reasoning about more complex structures harder. First we need to fix the regression and then we'll keep thinking about what documentation or improvements we can provide to make this easier to reason about. Your example @MinimalPotato has this structure: ```auto container1 field1 container2 field2 save to entityList1 container3 field3 save to entityList2 ``` You want to save `field1`'s value to both lists. There's no way to express saving a single field's value to multiple lists so you need to "forward" `field1` with `calculate`s to at least one of `container2` and `container3`. I think forwarding to both as you have done is the easiest to understand. Technically, per our spec, it should be possible to have an Entity declaration at the `container1` level to save `field1` and `field2` to `entityList1` and then only forward `field1` into `container3` and have the `entityList2` declaration in `container3`. That feels really confusing to me so I would not recommend it. The issues discovered in this thread suggest it probably won't work as it should currently. We'll need to develop and write up some best practices as we all write more forms with it! --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.getodk.org/t/when-using-groups-entity-fields-only-processing-in-first-group-ignored-elsewhere/57809)._