Forms

A form collects information from visitors and records it against a contact in Clockwork CRM. Forms are managed at Marketing → Forms.

Open in Clockwork CRMEnter your Clockwork CRM address at the top of the page to open this in your Clockwork CRM.

The form list

Column	What it shows
Name	The form's name
Created Date	When the form was created, and by whom
Modified Date	When the form was last changed, and by whom
Published	Whether the form is live
Views	How many times the form has been loaded
Submissions	How many times the form has been submitted

The search box filters the list. The ⋮ menu on each form has:

Action	What it does
Submissions	Opens the form's statistics and submissions
View	Opens the live form in a new tab. Only shown when the form is published
Embed	Gives you the code to put the form on your website. Only shown when the form is published
Publish or Unpublish	Makes the form live, or takes it down
Settings	Opens the form settings. See Form settings
Copy	Makes a copy of the form
Edit	Opens the form in the editor
Delete	Deletes the form

Creating a form

Go to Marketing → Forms and select Add Form.
Drag fields from the Modules tab onto the form.
Bind the fields that should fill in contact details to contact properties. See Binding fields to contact properties.
Add a Button and set its Button Type to Submit.
Select Save.
Back on the form list, select Publish from the form's menu.
Check the form's Settings, then share its link or embed it.

A form must have at least one field, and every stage must have a submit button, before it can be saved. Hover over Save to see what is missing.

The form editor

The form editor has a panel on the left and the form itself on the right. Clicking a part of the form selects it, and the panel shows what can be changed about it. It works in the same way as the marketing template editor, described in Email templates and merge fields.

The panel has four tabs: Settings, Modules, Merge Fields and Form Stages. Save is at the bottom of the panel.

Settings

Settings holds the form's Name, then these sections:

Text Properties, Container Properties and Advanced, which work as they do for marketing templates
Form Properties, described below
Template Permissions: the Users and Teams who can see and work on the form. A new form starts with you and the Everyone team. These users also receive submission notifications when they are turned on

Form Properties sets the look of the form's fields:

Setting	What it does
Background Colour	The colour behind the form
Form Field Label Colour	The colour of field labels
Form Field Text Colour	The colour of the text visitors type
Form Field Border Colour	The colour of field borders
Form Field Error Colour	The colour of error messages, such as a required field left empty
Link Colour	The colour of links
Underline links	Underlines links when on
Form Field Appearance	Outline draws a border round each field. Fill gives each field a shaded background

Modules

Modules holds the fields and blocks a form is built from. Drag one onto the form to add it. When a module is selected, its settings appear under the list.

Module	What it adds
Text	A block of text
Input	A single-line field
Checkbox	A tick box
Html	Your own HTML
Date Input	A date picker
Textarea	A multi-line field
Select	A drop-down list
Radio	A choice of one option from several
File Input	A file upload
Image and Video	An image, or a YouTube or Vimeo video
Columns	A row split into columns, to put other modules side by side
Button	A button, such as the submit button
Divider and Spacer	A horizontal line, or empty space

The Text, Image, Columns, Button, Divider and Spacer modules have the same settings as in marketing templates. In forms they also have:

hover colours, such as Text Hover Colour and Button Hover Background Colour, used when the pointer is over the module
Width, Minimum Height and Margin on columns, and a Wrapped Auto Column Sizing column type with a Gap and Justification
Cell Padding on columns, and Image Fit on images
Button Type on buttons. See Buttons
Advanced Settings with a CSS Class applied to the module
Visibility Conditions. See Showing fields only when needed

Field settings

Every field module has Dimensions (the Width of the field), Section Padding and Alignment.

Module	Settings
Input	Type (Text, Currency, Number, Email, Phone Number, URL or Hidden), Label, Default Value, Required and Read only. Text fields have Min Length and Max Length, number fields have Min and Max
Textarea	Label, Default Value, Min Length, Max Length, Required and Read only
Checkbox	Label, Checked By Default and Required
Date Input	Label, Default Value, Read only and Required
Select	Label, Options, Required and Select Multiple, which lets visitors pick more than one option
Radio	Label, Options and Required
File Input	Max Items, from 1 to 5, and Accepted File Types

For Select and Radio, type an option in Add an option... and press Enter. Drag options to reorder them, and double-click one to rename it.

Hidden input fields are not shown to visitors. Use them with a Default Value or a merge field to record something with every submission.

Binding fields to contact properties

Each field except File Input can be bound to a contact property with Bind Contact Property. When the form is submitted, the answer is written to that property on the contact. The label shows Property Bound or Property Unbound.

Once a field is bound, some settings come from the property instead, such as the type and the options of a drop-down. If the property is required, Required is turned on and cannot be turned off.

To create or match contacts, bind these properties:

To create	Bind
A person	First name, last name and email address
A company	Company name. An email address is also needed, from the company or the person

See Form settings for how contacts are created and updated.

Buttons

In a form, a button's Button Type decides what it does. Button Type is only available when the button has no Button Link.

Button Type	What it does
Submit	Moves on to the next stage, or submits the form on the last stage
Back	Returns to the previous stage
Reset	Clears the form
Button	Does nothing on its own

Showing fields only when needed

Visibility Conditions shows a module only when earlier answers match.

Select the module and turn on Enable Conditional Visibility.
Under When, choose All rules match (AND) or Any rule matches (OR).
Select Add Rule, then choose the Source Field, the Operator and, where needed, the Value.

The operators depend on the source field:

Source field	Operators
Checkbox	Is Checked, Is Not Checked
Select and radio	Equals, Not Equals, Is Empty, Is Not Empty
Date	Equals, Not Equals, After, Before, Is Empty, Is Not Empty
Number and currency	Equals, Not Equals, Greater Than, Less Than, Greater Than or Equal, Less Than or Equal, Is Empty, Is Not Empty
Text	Equals, Not Equals, Contains, Does Not Contain, Is Empty, Is Not Empty

Merge Fields

The Merge Fields tab lists the merge fields that can be placed into the form. Clicking one copies it. When a contact opens the form from a link in a bulk email, the merge fields are filled in with their details. See Email templates and merge fields.

Form stages

Form Stages splits a form into steps. Your Form Stages lists them.

The + button adds a stage. Double-click a stage to rename it.
Drag stages to put them in order.
Thank-you Message is the message shown after the form is submitted. It always comes after the last stage. A new form's message reads "Thank you for completing our form. We will be in touch with you shortly."

Select a stage to edit its modules. Each stage needs its own submit button.

Page branching rules on a stage decides where Submit goes next, based on the answers so far.

Select Add Branch Rule.
In Go to page, choose a stage, Submit form, or Submit & redirect. For Submit & redirect, enter the Redirect URL, which can contain merge fields.
Under When, choose All match (AND) or Any matches (OR), then select Add Condition to add rules, as for visibility conditions.

Branch rules are checked in order and the first one that matches is used. A branch rule with no conditions always matches. If none match, the visitor goes to the next stage.

Form settings

Settings in the form's menu on the form list opens Form Settings. Select Save to keep your changes.

Contact Management

Setting	What it does
Enable auto-create new contacts action	Creates a person or company from a submission when no match is found. Uses automation credits
When a duplicate is found	Skip links the submission to the existing contact and leaves it unchanged. Update Existing Record updates it with the submitted answers, when auto-update is on
Tag new people with and Tag new companies with	Tags added to contacts the form creates
Enable auto-update existing contacts action	Updates contacts with the answers from bound fields. Uses automation credits
Prefill matching properties	When a contact opens the form from a link in a bulk email, bound fields are filled in with their current details

An existing contact is matched on the submitted email address, and a company also on its name. Each contact created or updated uses one automation action credit. Without credits, the submission is still saved but no contact is created or updated. All people need unique email addresses.

Embed Settings

Allowed Domains lists the websites the form can be embedded on. Enter a domain without https:// or a page name, such as clockworkcrm.com, and press Enter. The form can only be embedded on these sites. Its own link works everywhere.

Notification Settings

Setting	What it does
Send email notifications to users	Emails every user and team member in the form's Template Permissions when a submission is recorded. The email lists the answers and links to the submission. On for new forms
Send confirmation email	Sends a marketing template or email stencil to the contact who submitted the form. Choose the template and the sending address in Use this sending address...

A confirmation email is only sent when the submission is linked to a contact with an email address. It uses one email send credit.

Publish makes the form live at its own link. Unpublish takes it down, and the link stops working.

Embed opens Embed Form:

Button	What it does
Copy Embed Code	Copies the code to paste into your website. The form appears in a frame that resizes to fit it
Copy Link	Copies the form's link
Close	Closes the dialog

A form can also be added to a landing page with the Form module. See Landing pages.

What happens when a form is submitted

The visitor completes a reCAPTCHA check.
The submission is saved, with the answers, the page it came from, and the visitor's browser.
If the form was opened from a link in a bulk email, the submission is linked to that contact.
Contacts are created or updated, following the form settings. If the submission names both a person and a company, the person is linked to the company.
Uploaded files are saved with the submission and added to the contact's files.
Notification and confirmation emails are sent, following the form settings.
The visitor sees the thank-you message, or is redirected if a branch rule says so.

Each time the form is loaded it can be submitted once.

Submissions linked to a contact appear on their timeline. See People.

Submissions and statistics

Submissions in the form's menu opens three views: Overview, Submissions and Field Metrics.

Overview

Section	What it shows
Total Views	How many times the form was loaded, and by how many unique visitors
Total Submissions	How many submissions, and from how many unique submitters
Conversion Rate	Submissions per view, as a percentage
Engagement Over Time	Views and submissions over time
Form Engagement	Submissions against views
Device Breakdown, Operating System and Browser Breakdown	What the form was viewed on

Submissions

Form Submissions lists every submission, with the Contact, the Referer (the page it came from, or Direct) and the browser, and the Submission Date. Filter by shows All Submissions or only those With Contact. Export downloads the list with the filter applied.

The ... menu on each submission has View submission, and Go to person record or Go to company record when it is linked to a contact. View submission shows when it was submitted, the referer, the browser, every answer and any attached files.

Field Metrics

Figure	What it shows
Total Fields	The number of form fields tracked
Total Responses	The number of submissions
Avg Response Rate	The average percentage of submissions that answered each field
Unique Responses	The number of different answers, across all fields

Each field then has its own card:

Figure	What it shows
Response Distribution	Each answer given, as a percentage of responses, with how many gave it
Total Responses	How many submissions answered the field
Unique Values	How many different answers were given
Response Rate	The percentage of submissions that answered the field. Green at 80% or more, red under 50%
Skipped	How many submissions left the field empty

Landing pages, pages a form can sit on
Email templates and merge fields, the editor and merge fields
Website analytics, traffic to the pages holding your forms

Last updated 28 September 2026