Forms integrations are the answer to the question every owner asks the week after a form goes up: where did that entry go. By default it went to an email, and an email is where entries are lost. The integrations worth having send the entry to the place the next action happens: the notification to the person who replies, the row to the sheet that is counted, the address to the list that is mailed, the booking to the calendar, the payment to the books. This page walks the five for a small business site in the order they earn their place, says what each needs the form to carry, and keeps the register on this site as the one place the entry always goes, whichever others it also reaches.
The notification and the confirmation
The first integration is the two emails: the notification to the person who acts on the entry, routed by the answer to the field that decides who that is, and the confirmation to the sender saying what happens next and when. Both need the form to carry an email field that was validated as the visitor left it. A notification sent to a general inbox read weekly is the integration that loses the lead, and the routing rule is what fixes it.
The sheet, the list and the calendar
The spreadsheet row is for counting: one line per entry with the date, the form and the answers, so the month's entries are a filter and not a search. The mailing list gets only the entries whose consent box was ticked, never every sender. The calendar gets the bookings, with the preferred time the form asked for. Each of these needs the form to carry the field it reads, and each is a place the entry can be wrong in a different way, which is why the register keeps the original.
The books, and the register that keeps all of it
A paid entry reaches the books as a sale with the charge, the processor's cut and what landed, which on the payment form calculator's worked example is $243.56, $7.36 and $236.20. In Shortcodo Pro every entry is kept with its sender, its status and its payment whatever else it was sent to, paid entries can be pushed to the books as sales, and the forms are kept with their shortcodes; the integrations are where the entry also goes, and the register is where it is.
Questions people ask about forms integrations
Which forms integrations should a small site set up first?
The routed notification and the confirmation, then the register. The sheet, the list and the calendar follow when there is something to count, mail or book.
Should every entry go to the mailing list?
No. Only the ones whose consent box was ticked; a contact form send is not a subscription.
Can the register connect to my books?
Shortcodo Pro pushes paid entries across to your books as sales and matches a paid entry to the invoice raised for it.