Archive for the ‘event registration’ Category

Enhancing Your Reporting Experience: New Features in the Report Generator

We’re excited to announce two additions to our Report Generator, designed to empower our users to create custom Excel reports according to their unique needs.

Choose the Fields (Columns) Shown in Excel Reports

Select fields/column included in the spreadsheet

Our Excel reports now offer even more flexibility by allowing you to customize the displayed fields/columns. By default, reports include essential information like form fields, submission reference numbers, submission links, submission timestamps, payment details (for payment forms), and contextual information passed during submission.

However, we understand that your reporting needs may vary. That’s why we’ve introduced the ability to create tailored reports, that include only the specific fields relevant to your analysis. Simply navigate to the Fields section in the Settings and check/uncheck the desired fields and metadata items to include/exclude them in your report. It’s that simple!

Filter Form Responses by Tags

Filter fields by tags

We’ve taken customization a step further by introducing the option to filter form responses based on tags. If you’ve assigned tags to form responses or if our system has automatically tagged submissions, you can now generate reports that exclusively include submissions matching specific tag criteria.

For instance, imagine creating a report highlighting all event attendees who not only registered but also checked in. This can be achieved by filtering submissions with the “checked-in” system tag, added when the event organizer scans QR codes from FormSmarts confirmation emails or PDF receipts.

These new features are designed to enhance your reporting experience, providing you with better control over the information presented in your Excel reports. We believe that by offering these customization options, we’re empowering you to extract precisely the insights you need.

We’d love to hear your thoughts—share your feedback with us!

How to Offer an Early Bird Discount on a Registration Form

FormSmarts allows you to schedule when to end early bird pricing on your event registration forms.

What Is Early Bird Pricing?

An early bird package is a registration package offering a discount, usually available the moment registration opens until an expiration date you’ve specified. These discounts will often range between 10-20% off the standard pricing and offer registrants significant savings. End dates for early bird rates vary from event to event but commonly end between 2 and 3 months before the time of the event.

Early bird (deadline) registration package offering a discount on an event registration form

Adding an Early Bird Registration Package

In this example, we create an event registration form with two registration packages (shown above). The early bird package is available from the moment registration opens until June 1. The standard package (full tuition) is available after early bird pricing ends at midnight on June 2.

  • Log in to the form builder and create a registration form
  • In the Fields tab of the form builder, add radio buttons or a drop-down list to the registration form
  • Enter the pricing rules formatted as shown below
  • Click Add Field

Event registration packages, including early bird

Edit the field you’ve just added. Click the button showing a clock face to schedule when each registration package should be available for purchase (enabled) or not (disabled).

Schedule the expiration date of the early bird package

Scheduling When the Early Bird Discount Expires

We schedule the early bird package to be disabled on June 2 at midnight.

  • Select the Early Bird Field Option
  • Set the action to Disable
  • Choose Schedule to set the date and time when the early bird discount expires
  • Pick a date and time, including timezone (the timezone of your account should be selected by default)
  • Click Schedule

Set up an early bird package expiration date and time

We also schedule the standard (full tuition) package to be disabled immediately (As soon as possible option) and enabled at midnight on June 2.

Note how the Scheduled Actions section now lists two scheduled events: the end of early bird pricing and the start of standard pricing.

End of early bird and start of standard pricing scheduled in the form builder

Advanced Early Bird Pricing Strategies & More

In addition to common event registration forms that offer one or a few pricing options, FormSmarts allows you to make event registration forms with multiple fees. Each fee can have a price that changes at specific dates, as presented above. You could for example offer a limited number of registrations at a heavily discounted rate, followed by early bird registrations, then standard registrations.

Customers may also want disable/enable field options at a specific date and time for other reasons. For example, to disable a choice that is time-limited or no longer available.

We could also use this feature to create an application form that a user must submit within a specific 5-day window, but can start to fill out the preceding week.

Why You Should Add a Calendar Invite to Registration Confirmation Emails

A calendar invitation is a type of email attachment that allows the person to easily add an event to their calendar, often by just accepting a prompt on their phone.

When you create an event registration form, you should always customize the confirmation email and set up a calendar invitation with the details of your event.

Calendar invites are supported by most mail and calendar apps. They typically provide a seamless experience, allowing users to import the calendar entry with your event details by simply accepting a prompt on their phone or computer.

Adding a calendar entry helps people organize their time and save the date of your event. And of course, reminds them to attend!

Calendar invitations are supported by Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Calendar on iOS and Mac OS, and the Gmail and Google Calendar apps on Android, iOS and on the web.

Feel free to try this demo and add the test event to your calendar.

Setting Up a Calendar Invitation for an Event

FormSmarts supports calendar invitations with the confirmation emails associated with all types of forms: the registration and payment confirmation emails we send on payment forms, standard auto-responder emails, and the opt-in confirmation emails users can request on the summary page of a form.

Add a Calendar Event

To add a calendar invite to an event registration confirmation email:

  • Sign in to the form builder and find the registration form for the event
  • Click the button showing a pencil to edit it
  • In the Submit Actions tab, click or tap into the Confirmation Email Text box
  • Edit the confirmation email text as needed
  • Click the button showing a calendar (outlined with a red circle on the image above) to set up an event calendar invitation

Edit Event Information

FormSmarts needs some information about your event to create the calendar invite:

  • The event title, which is pre-filled with the form’s title
  • The event start date, time, and timezone
  • The event location (or URL for an online event)
  • The event organizer email. Note that the organizer email is shared in the invite, so use the public email address of the your organization if you have privacy concerns.
  • Finally, the organizer name and the event end date and time are optional.

Set Up an Event Calendar Invite

Keep Event Details Up-to-Date

Calendar invites are linked to a specific one-time event, so unlike most form settings, they are not inherited when you make a copy of a form.

Remember to add your event details when you create a new registration form or update them if you use the same form for several events.

About the Form Builder Blog

The Online Form Builder Blog is published by FormSmarts, a web form service providing all you need to create a form and publish it online in minutes. FormSmarts makes it easy to build a form and embed it on your site. You can then get form submissions by email or store them on FormSmarts and download an Excel report. Learn more about the many other benefits of FormSmarts.