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Creating Forms

Build custom forms to collect information from your congregation. You can create forms for event registrations, surveys, visitor cards, membership applications, and more. Forms can be linked to people in your database or used as standalone pages with their own public URL.

Training Video​

Creating Forms and Managing Submissions in B1 · Watch on YouTubeNext video: Launching Your Church Website in B1

Before You Begin

Creating a New Form​

  1. Open the Jump menu (the search bar at the top-left of B1 Admin), expand People, and click Forms.
  2. Click Add Form.
  3. Enter a name for your form.
  4. Choose the form type from the Associate With dropdown:
    • People — Associates submissions with people records in your database. People forms are filled in from a person's record, so they don't get a shareable link.
    • Stand Alone — Creates an independent form with its own public URL, ideal for external registrations. Only Stand Alone forms offer a header photo, a QR code, a linked group, and Create a person record from submissions.
  5. For a Stand Alone form, you can fill in the rest of its properties now or later.
  6. Click Save to create the form.

Your new form will appear in the list. Click on it to start adding questions.

Printing a Blank Form​

Need a paper copy to hand out -- for a visitor card at the welcome desk, or a form someone without internet access can fill in by hand? Click Print next to a form on the main Forms list to open a preview, then click Print. Blank fields print with an underline or checkbox for each question so people can fill them in by hand; required questions are marked with an asterisk. The top of the page shows your church logo (the Light Background Logo from Website > Appearance, if you've uploaded one) with your church's name beneath it, then the form name. There are no other print options -- print the whole form or nothing.

Sharing a Form with a QR Code​

Stand Alone forms have a QR Code link next to them on the main Forms list (archived forms don't). Click it to open a QR code for the form's public URL, with the link shown beneath it. Click Download PNG to save the code as an image you can print on bulletins or show on slides. Anyone who scans it opens the form on their phone.

Adding Questions​

  1. Open your form and go to the Questions tab.
  2. Click Add Question.
  3. Select a Field Type:
    • Textbox — For short text answers
    • Whole Number and Decimal — For numbers
    • Date — For date selections
    • Yes/No — For a yes-or-no answer
    • Email — For email addresses
    • Phone Number — For phone input
    • Text Area — For longer answers
    • Multiple Choice — For picking one of several options
    • Checkbox — For checking any number of options
    • Payment — For collecting payments
  4. Enter a Title and optional Description for the question. The description appears under the question when people fill out the form, so use it for hints like "Include any allergies we should know about."
  5. Fill in the extra fields for the type you chose:
    • For text, number, date, email, and phone questions, an optional Placeholder shows sample text inside the empty box.
    • For Multiple Choice and Checkbox, add each option under Choices: enter a Value (what is saved) and Text (what people see), then click the add button. Click the remove icon to take an option off.
    • For Payment, choose the Fund the money goes to and the Amount.
  6. Check Require an answer for this question if the field is mandatory. (Payment questions don't have this option.)
  7. Click Save.
  8. Repeat to add more questions.

The Questions tab lists each question with its type and whether it is required. Click a question's title to edit it, or click Delete in the question's form and confirm to remove it. Use the Move up and Move down arrows on a row to change the order the questions appear in.

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The Payment field type requires Stripe to be configured. If you haven't set up online giving yet, see Online Giving Setup before adding payment fields. People who pay on a form without signing in must tick the I'm not a robot check before the card is accepted.

Managing Form Members​

Stand Alone forms have a Form Members tab for giving people access to just that form.

  1. Open your form and go to the Form Members tab.
  2. In Add Person, search for a person and click the add icon next to their name. New members start as View Only.
  3. In the Permission column, click the role you want:
    • Admin — Can edit the form and view all submissions.
    • View Only — Can view submissions but cannot edit the form.
  4. Turn on Email Notification for anyone who should get an email each time the form is submitted.

To take someone off the form, click Remove on their row and confirm.

Linking a Form to a Group​

You can link any Stand Alone form to a group -- for example, a prayer request form for a small group, or a medical release for a youth trip:

  1. Open the form and click Edit Form (or click Edit next to the form on the Forms list).
  2. Under Linked group, select the group, or leave it set to None.
  3. Click Save.

Once a form is linked:

  • Group members see the form in a Forms section on the group's page on B1.church while the form is open, with a Fill out button that opens it (see Group Details).
  • Group leaders also see closed forms, and can read every submission's answers and print them (one submission or Print all). Leaders can only view answers -- they can't edit the form unless they are also form members.
  • In B1 Admin, the group's page shows a Linked forms section listing each linked form as Open or Closed. It appears for the group's leaders and for people who can administer forms. See Group Members.

A form is closed when it is outside its availability timeframe. Archived forms are not shown on the group page.

Automatically Adding Submitters to a Group​

Linking a form to a group doesn't add anyone to it on its own. To add every submitter to the linked group's roster, also check Create a person record from submissions in the form's settings and click Save.

Each time someone submits the form, the matched or newly created person is added to the group (existing group members are skipped). This is useful for things like a camp sign-up form that should automatically build the camp's roster group.

Sending a Follow-up Email​

With Create a person record from submissions checked, you can also email each person who submits the form. Fill in Follow-up Email Subject and Follow-up Email Body in the form's settings. You can use the {firstName} and {churchName} tokens in both. The email is only sent when both fields are filled in.

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Follow-up emails only go out after your church has been approved to send group email, and they count toward your church's daily email limit. See Turning On Group Email for Your Church.

Duplicating a Form​

To reuse a form as a starting point for a new one, click Duplicate next to the form in the Forms list and confirm. A Form duplicated message appears, and B1 creates an exact copy of the form — including all questions — which you can then rename and edit independently.

tip

Duplication is handy for recurring events where the registration questions stay the same from year to year. Duplicate last year's form, update the name and dates, and you're ready to go.

Configuring Form Properties​

You can update your form's name and settings at any time: open the form and click Edit Form on the left side of the page, or click Edit next to the form on the Forms list. The left side of the form page shows the form's type (People or Stand Alone) and, for Stand Alone forms, whether it is Public or Restricted and its unique public URL that you can share with anyone.

The Edit Form settings are:

  • Form Name -- The name shown in B1 Admin and at the top of the form.
  • Description (Stand Alone) -- Text shown above the questions on the public form page, useful for telling people what the form is for before they start filling it out.
  • Header Photo (Stand Alone) -- See Adding a Header Photo.
  • Form Access (Stand Alone) -- Public lets anyone with the link fill in the form; Restricted requires people to sign in to your church's site before they can open it.
  • Set Form Availability Timeframe (Stand Alone) -- Choose Yes and set an Availability Start Date and Availability End Date to accept submissions only between those dates. Outside them, the form is closed.
  • Thank You Message -- What people see after they submit (see below).
  • Display Mode -- Standard shows every question on one page; Conversational (one question at a time) steps through the questions one by one.
  • Create a person record from submissions (Stand Alone), Linked group, and the follow-up email fields -- See Linking a Form to a Group and Sending a Follow-up Email.

Click Save to keep your changes. To remove a form permanently, click Delete in the form's settings and confirm; to keep it but hide it from the list, archive it instead.

Adding a Header Photo​

Stand Alone forms can show a Header Photo across the top of the form. In the form's details, click the photo box or Add Photo, then pick or upload an image (it is cropped to a 16:9 shape). Click Save. The photo appears under the form's name, above the description, on the form's public URL page and wherever the form is embedded with the website Form element. Use Change Photo to replace it or Remove to take it off.

Use the Thank You Message field to set what people see after they submit the form, including on the form's public URL page. If you leave it blank, they see "Thank you for submitting the form!"

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Stand Alone forms are great for event registrations. Share the public URL via email, social media, or embed the form directly on your church website.

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To embed a form on your B1 website, go to your website editor, add a new section, and select the Form element. Then choose the form you want to display. See Managing Pages for details on editing your website.