Welcome to FormBase
Getting started with FormBase
Pick an industry, paste your first form, and start receiving submissions in minutes.
Getting started with FormBase
FormBase turns a form into a CRM. Here's the five-minute path from install to live.
1. Pick your industry
The first time you open FormBase you'll see the industry picker. Choose the one that fits — Hotel, Real Estate, Retail, Dispatch, or Generic. This sets your labels (Jobs vs Leads vs Tickets) and your pipeline. Don't see your trade? Tap "My business isn't here" to generate a tailored one with AI.
2. Add your first form
Go to Forms → New Form and paste the HTML of a form you already use. FormBase shows a live preview on the right and lists exactly which fields it will capture. Give it a name and hit Save.
3. Share it
After saving you get a public link and an embed snippet. Put the link in your bio, text it to a customer, or paste the iframe into your website.
4. Watch submissions roll in
Every submission lands in Submissions. Open one to see all its details, add private notes, and move it through your pipeline.
That's it — you're running.
Paste any form, capture the data
How the parser pulls clean data fields out of any HTML form — Tailwind, Bootstrap, custom CSS, it doesn't matter.
Paste any form, capture the data
FormBase's parser is built to read any HTML form. The single rule: a field needs a name attribute to be captured. Everything else — CSS, classes, wrappers, frameworks, animations — is ignored.
What works
- Tailwind, Bootstrap, plain CSS, custom design systems
- Forms with or without a
<form>tag - Fragments (just the inputs) or full HTML documents
- Lightly broken HTML (unclosed tags) — the parser is forgiving
- Text, email, phone, number, date, dropdowns, checkboxes, radios, file, textarea
How to do it
- Forms → New Form.
- Paste your HTML into the editor.
- The live preview shows the real, styled form. The "Fields we'll capture" list shows each field, its type, and whether it's required.
- Confirm the fields look right, then Save.
Labels
FormBase figures out a human label for each field in this order: a <label for>, a wrapping <label>, aria-label, the placeholder, then a tidied-up version of the field name. If a label looks off, just adjust your form's HTML and re-paste.
The original HTML is stored exactly as you pasted it — your form renders identically on its public page.
Set up your industry with AI
Use the copy-paste AI wizard to generate a tailored template and starter form for your exact business.
Set up your industry with AI
If none of the built-in templates fit, FormBase can generate one tailored to your exact business — plus a starter form — in one round-trip. FormBase never calls an AI for you. It builds a prompt; you paste it into the AI you already use (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini), then bring the answer back.
Steps
- Templates → Generate with AI (or tap "My business isn't here" during onboarding).
- Fill in the short questionnaire: business name, type, what you do, what the form is for, and what to collect. Optionally paste a form you already use.
- Tap Build prompt and Copy prompt.
- Paste it into your AI. It returns a JSON object.
- Come back, paste the JSON, and tap Preview.
The preview
You'll see the template it generated — entity name, pipeline, columns, message templates — and a live render of the starter form. Then choose:
- Accept & start using — saves everything and switches you to it.
- Refine template — opens the template editor pre-filled.
- Refine form — opens the form editor with the starter form loaded.
If the JSON is malformed, FormBase tells you what's missing so you can ask the AI to fix it.
Industry templates
Reskin every label to your trade — Jobs, Leads, Applicants, Tickets — and customize the pipeline.
Industry templates
A template is the "skin" that makes FormBase feel native to your trade. It controls:
- Entity name — Job, Lead, Ticket, Applicant, Customer…
- Action labels — "New Job", "Add Customer", etc.
- Pipeline stages — the steps a record moves through.
- Default columns — what shows in the grid for new forms.
- Stage-change rules — automatic messages (see the stage-rules guide).
- Default messages — admin alert and customer confirmation text.
Switching templates
Templates → Use this. The whole app reskins instantly — labels, pipeline, grid. The active template is highlighted.
Built-ins vs custom
The five built-ins (Generic, Hotel, Dispatch, Real Estate, Retail) are read-only, but you can Duplicate any of them to get an editable copy. There's no limit on custom templates.
Editing
Open a custom template's Edit screen to rename it, change the entity words, add or reorder pipeline stages, set default columns, write stage rules, and tune the default messages.
Two label scopes
Entity words live on the template (so switching trades is one click). Generic UI words like Save/Cancel are global and shared across the app.
Customize your columns
Choose exactly which fields show in the grid, reorder them, and keep the view clean as forms evolve.
Customize your columns
The submissions grid shows the fields that matter to you — and you decide which ones.
How columns work
Every field FormBase has ever seen on a form (for the current template) is kept in a field library. When you create a form, the template's default columns are switched on automatically. New fields you add later are remembered but stay hidden until you opt them in — so the grid never gets cluttered as your forms evolve.
Changing columns
- Open Submissions and tap Columns.
- Tick the fields you want to see; untick the ones you don't.
- Use the up/down arrows to reorder them.
- Tap Save columns.
Your choices are saved per template, so your Hotel grid can look completely different from your Real Estate grid.
Missing fields
Open any submission and you'll see every field in the library. If a particular submission didn't include one (because it came from an older version of the form), that field simply shows "—". No data is ever lost or hidden.
Notifications & integrations
Push, SMS, Web2Form and webhooks — wire up where each submission goes.
Notifications & integrations
Each form can fire its own set of notifications and forwards when a submission lands. Turn them on per form in the form editor's Notifications & integrations section.
The options
- Admin push (ntfy) — a free push to your phone. Install the ntfy app, subscribe to your topic, and you'll know the instant a submission arrives.
- Admin SMS — a text to you (defaults to your admin phone). Edit the message; use
{field_name}placeholders. - Customer SMS confirmation — an automatic "we got it" text to the submitter. Pulls their number from the field you map.
- Web2Form — forward the submission to your Web2Form / Web3Forms account by access key.
- Generic webhook — POST the submission JSON to any URL you choose.
Mapping the customer's phone & name
At the top of the section, pick which form field holds the customer's phone and name. Customer SMS and stage-rule messages use these.
SMS credentials
You only enter SMS credentials once, globally, in Settings → Notifications & SMS (Twilio or Termii). Per form you just flip the toggles and edit the message.
Knowing what went out
Open any submission to see its notification log — every push, SMS, and forward, with status, so you can confirm delivery or debug a failure.
Set up SMS
Connect Twilio or Termii once and send confirmations and pipeline updates from every form.
Set up SMS
FormBase sends text messages through your own SMS account, so you control the sender ID and the cost. You connect it once.
Choose a provider
Settings → Notifications & SMS → SMS provider. Pick one:
- Twilio — global coverage, well-documented, free trial credits. You'll need your Account SID, Auth Token, and a Twilio From number.
- Termii — easy signup and strong African coverage. You'll need your API key and a Sender ID.
Enter the credentials and Save settings. Your secret keys are stored securely and never shown back in full.
Use it
Once a provider is connected, SMS becomes available everywhere:
- Per-form: enable "Text me" and "Text the customer" in the form editor.
- Stage rules: auto-text customers as records move (see the stage-rules guide).
- Manual: open any submission and tap Send SMS to message the customer directly. The recipient is pre-filled from the mapped phone field.
Message placeholders
Anywhere you write a message you can drop in {field_name} and {entity} — they're replaced with that submission's values when the text is sent.
Default messages
Set a default admin alert and customer confirmation under the same settings section so new forms start with sensible copy.
Stage-change rules
Automatically text customers when a submission moves through your pipeline.
Stage-change rules
Stage rules let FormBase message people automatically as a record moves through your pipeline — no manual texting required. Rules live on the template, so every form using that template shares them.
Anatomy of a rule
- From → To — the move that triggers it (either side can be Any).
- Channel — SMS, push (ntfy), or both.
- Recipient field — which form field holds the person to notify (usually
phone). - Message — free text with
{field_name}placeholders.
Example: When a Dispatch ticket goes Dispatched → On-Site, SMS the customer: "Hi {name}, your technician has arrived and is on-site now."
Editing rules
Templates → (your template) → Edit → Stage-change rules. Add, edit, or remove rules. Pick stages from your pipeline, choose a channel, name the recipient field, and write the message. The built-in Dispatch template ships with working example rules to copy.
What happens at runtime
When you change a submission's stage, FormBase checks the rules, fills in the placeholders, and sends each match. If a placeholder references a field the submission doesn't have, it's left blank — the message still goes out. Everything sent is recorded in the submission's notification log, and a failed send never blocks the stage change.
Collect payments on a form
Turn on Stripe or Paystack to take payment as part of a submission.
Collect payments on a form
Any form can take payment as part of a submission — a booking deposit, an application fee, an order total. FormBase supports Stripe and Paystack.
Turn it on
In the form editor, open Collect payment and tick Charge on this form, then set:
- Provider — Paystack or Stripe.
- Currency — NGN, USD, GBP, EUR, GHS, KES, ZAR.
- Publishable key and Secret key — from your provider dashboard.
- Amount — a fixed amount, or bound to a form field (e.g. a "quantity" or "amount" field the submitter enters).
Keys are stored per form, so different forms can use different accounts or amounts.
What the customer sees
After they submit, FormBase sends them to a secure checkout page showing the amount due. They pay with card via Stripe Elements or Paystack inline. On success they get a confirmation.
What you see
The submission records its payment status (pending → paid), the amount, the currency, and the transaction reference — visible on the submission and logged for your records.
Note
This is a customer paying you as part of a form. It's separate from your FormBase subscription, which is billed by the platform.