🚀 Getting Started

Welcome to Inside Forms! Follow this comprehensive guide to get your internal forms up and running quickly:

Step 1: Connect Your CRM

Link your HubSpot or other CRM to sync form data automatically

Before you can create forms, you need to establish a connection with your CRM system:

• Navigate to the Integrations section in your dashboard
• Click "Connect" next to HubSpot (other CRMs coming soon)
• You'll be redirected to authorize Inside Forms to access your CRM
• Once connected, you'll see a green "Connected" status

💡 Tip: Make sure you have admin permissions in your CRM for the smoothest integration experience.

Step 2: Create Your First Form

Use our drag-and-drop builder to create powerful internal forms

Now it's time to build your first internal form:

• Go to the Forms section in your dashboard
• Click the "Create New Form" button
• Give your form a descriptive name (e.g., "Customer Onboarding Checklist")
• Use the drag-and-drop builder to add fields:
  • Text inputs for names, notes, and descriptions
  • Dropdowns for status selections
  • Checkboxes for yes/no questions
  • Date pickers for deadlines and appointments
  • And many more field types!
• Map each form field to the corresponding CRM property
• Configure form settings like submission messages and notifications
• Save your form when you're satisfied with the design

💡 Tip: Start simple with just a few fields, then expand your form as you get comfortable with the builder.

Step 3: Streamline Your Processes

From there you can start using this and other internal forms you create to kick off your own internal processes

Once your form is created, your team can start using it to streamline workflows:

• Share the form with your internal team members
• Team members can fill out forms directly within CRM records (contacts, companies, deals)
• Form submissions automatically update the CRM record
• Use the updated data to trigger automated workflows in your CRM
• Create additional forms for different processes (sales qualification, customer onboarding, support tickets, etc.)

💡 Tip: Consider creating forms for repetitive tasks your team does manually - this is where Inside Forms shines!

Step 4: Track Submissions

Monitor form submissions, see which internal users are submitting which forms and for which records

Keep track of your team's activity and ensure nothing falls through the cracks:

• Visit the Submissions section to view all form submissions
• Use filters to find specific submissions:
  • Filter by form name
  • Filter by date range
  • Filter by the user who submitted
  • Search by content within submissions
• View submission details to see exactly what was filled out

Next Steps

Once you're comfortable with the basics, consider these advanced capabilities:

• Conditional Logic — show/hide fields based on other answers (see Building Forms)
• Cross-Object Sections — update or create related records (like a contact's associated company) from the same form (see HubSpot Integration)
• Webhooks — push submission data to Zapier, Make, or any HTTP endpoint (see Automations)
• Test Mode — preview a form against a real HubSpot user without impacting production data (see Submissions & Reporting)

🛠️ Building Forms

Drag-and-Drop Builder

Open any form to launch the builder. Drag elements from the left-hand panel onto the canvas, then click an element to open its properties panel on the right. Rearrange elements by dragging their handles. All changes are saved as a draft — publish when you're ready for your team to use the form.

Element Types

Inside Forms supports a wide range of element types so you can capture exactly the data you need:

• Text, Email, Phone, Number — single-line inputs with the right validation and keyboard type
• Textarea — multi-line free text
• Dropdown / Multi-select — single or multiple selection from a configurable list
• Radio / Checkbox — single or multiple selection shown inline
• Date and Date+Time — calendar pickers with timezone-aware handling
• File Upload — attach a single file to a HubSpot file property
• Multi-File Upload — attach multiple files to a custom field
• HubSpot Property — maps directly to a property on the record (uses the property's own type, options, and validation)
• Custom Field — collect data that isn't stored on the HubSpot record (captured on the submission only)
• Associate Record — pick a related HubSpot record (e.g., choose a contact from a company form)
• Cross-Object Section — embed fields from another associated record into the same form (see HubSpot Integration)
• Heading / HTML / Container — layout and content elements for structuring the form

Conditional Logic

Any element (or container) can be shown or hidden based on the values of other fields. Open the element's properties panel and add conditions using AND/OR groups — you can nest groups for complex rules, reference the current date/time, and choose "always hide" to remove an element from the rendered form without deleting it.

Field Defaults and Read-only Behavior

For any HubSpot property element you can set a default value, mark the field as required or disabled, and choose whether the default should always overwrite any existing value on the record.

Layout and Density

In Form Settings you can choose label position (top, left, right), label width, and form density (default, compact, super compact) to match the space available where the form is embedded.

🔗 HubSpot Integration

Embedding Forms Inside HubSpot Records

Once you install the Inside Forms HubSpot extension, your published forms appear directly on the record view inside HubSpot — on contacts, companies, deals, or tickets. Reps can fill them out without leaving the CRM, and every submission updates the underlying record in real time.

Admin Auto-Login

If you're a HubSpot portal admin, you can jump straight from a HubSpot record into Inside Forms via a secure, short-lived token. No separate login is required — the extension detects your admin role and authenticates you automatically.

Field Mapping and Pre-fill

• Property mapping — each HubSpot Property element maps to a standard or custom property on the record's object type
• Pre-fill — when a form is opened on an existing record, current property values are loaded automatically so reps only need to change what's different
• Custom objects — in addition to contacts, companies, deals, and tickets, forms can be built against your custom objects

Cross-Object Sections

A single Inside Form can touch multiple HubSpot objects. Drop a Cross-Object Section into the canvas, choose the associated object (for example, add a contact section on a company form), then drop fields into the section just like the main form. When the form is submitted, the associated record is updated (or created — see below) and the association is maintained automatically.

Timeline Events

Every successful submission is written back to HubSpot as a timeline event on the record so your team has a complete audit trail of who submitted what, when, and from where — visible right inside the HubSpot record view.

⚡ Automations

Webhooks

Send form submission data to any external system over HTTP. Inside the form editor, open the Webhooks tab and toggle webhooks on to get started.

• POST to any URL — fires after a form is successfully submitted
• Custom headers — add Authorization, API keys, or any other header needed by the receiving system
• Configurable payload — choose whether to include all submission data by default, and/or add custom properties with merge codes that pull from any form field or HubSpot property
• Multiple endpoints — add more than one webhook per form, each individually activatable
• Failure notifications — if a webhook delivery fails, the account owner receives an email so you can fix the issue quickly

Triggering HubSpot Workflows

Because every submission updates the underlying HubSpot record, any HubSpot workflow watching those properties will run automatically — no extra configuration required. This is the simplest way to kick off rep-driven automations (sales handoffs, task creation, follow-up sequences, etc.).

📊 Submissions & Reporting

Viewing Submissions

The Submissions page lists every submission across your forms. Each row shows:

• Submission ID and timestamp
• The form used and the HubSpot object/record it was submitted against
• The HubSpot user who submitted it
• Submission type (update vs. create) and status
• IP address and browser — useful for audits and troubleshooting
• A badge on any submission made while the form was in test mode

Click any row to see the full submission detail, including the exact values submitted and any webhook delivery results.

Filtering

• Free-text search across submitted data
• Date range filter
• Object type filter (contacts, companies, deals, tickets, custom objects)
• Sort by ID or date

Test Mode

From the form builder, click Test Form to open a preview modal. Pick a HubSpot user to impersonate, optionally choose the mode (update or create) if the form supports both, then fill the form as that user would. Test submissions are clearly flagged on the Submissions page so you can distinguish them from real rep activity.

⚠️ Heads up: test submissions still hit HubSpot — they create or update real records. Use a dedicated sandbox portal or test records when verifying a form.

➕ Creating Records

Inside Forms started as a way to update HubSpot records. Forms can now also create brand new records — contacts, companies, deals, tickets, or custom objects — while keeping your data clean with built-in duplicate detection.

Form Modes

In Form Settings, choose how the form should behave:

• Update existing record — the original behavior. Opens against a specific record and updates its properties on submit.
• Create new record — every submission creates a brand new record. Ideal for intake or lead-capture forms.
• Both — the form can create or update depending on the situation. Useful when reps may or may not know whether the record already exists.

Required Properties for Create

HubSpot requires certain properties to be set when creating a record (for example, email on contacts or dealname, pipeline, and dealstage on deals). When you put a form into create mode, Inside Forms checks that every required property is either:

• Captured by a field on the form, or
• Covered by a create default (see below)

If anything is missing, the form won't publish in create mode until you've covered the gap.

Create Defaults

Create defaults let you pre-set property values at create time without exposing them on the form. Use them for values your reps shouldn't have to type — a default lifecycle stage, owner, lead source, or any other property you want applied automatically to every new record.

Duplicate Detection

When a form can create records, you can (and in some cases must) configure duplicate match combinations. A combination is one or more property + operator rules AND'd together — for example, "email is equal to" or "first_name is equal to AND last_name is equal to AND company_name is equal to". Inside Forms checks every enabled combination before creating a record:

• At submit time — if matches are found, the rep sees the duplicates and can acknowledge one (which becomes an update) instead of creating a new record.
• Proactively, while filling the form — matches appear in real time as the rep types, so they know before hitting submit if a record already exists.

Contact forms: because HubSpot rejects contacts with duplicate email addresses at the API level, any form that creates contacts must have at least one duplicate match combination that includes the email property.

Cross-Object Section Creation

Cross-object sections support creation too. Enable Allow creating records on the section, configure its own duplicate detection and create defaults, and the section can create the associated record (and auto-link it to the primary record) as part of the submission. If a duplicate is acknowledged inside the section, Inside Forms updates that record instead of creating a new one.

Tracking Creates vs. Updates

On the Submissions page, each row is tagged as either a create or update. Create submissions also link to the newly created HubSpot record so you can jump straight to it from the submission detail view.

🔧 Troubleshooting

Submissions Not Syncing to HubSpot

If submissions aren't appearing in HubSpot:

• Verify your HubSpot integration is still connected in Integrations — if the token has expired, re-connect the integration
• Check that every form field is mapped to a valid HubSpot property (renamed or deleted properties on the HubSpot side can leave mappings stale)
• Open the affected submission and review the error detail shown in the submission view

Webhook Delivery Failed

If you received a webhook failure notification email or see a failed delivery on a submission:

• Confirm the destination URL is reachable and returns a 2xx status
• Double-check any auth headers (API keys, tokens) haven't been rotated or revoked
• If the receiving system throttles or rate-limits, consider splitting traffic across more than one webhook or reducing the payload size with a custom payload

Missing HubSpot Properties in the Builder

If a property you expect isn't showing up when mapping a field:

• Confirm the property exists on the correct object type — a contact property won't appear on a company form
• Refresh the property list from the builder — Inside Forms caches property definitions for speed
• Make sure your HubSpot user has access to the property (some custom properties have per-team restrictions)

Timeline Events Missing on HubSpot Records

Submissions always save in Inside Forms, but the HubSpot timeline event is written on a background job. If a network blip or transient HubSpot outage causes an event to fail, your account owner can work with support to retry recent timeline events — no data loss on the submission side.

Authentication Issues

If you're having trouble logging in:

• Use the "Forgot Password" link to reset your password
• Ensure you're using the correct email address
• Clear your browser cookies and try again
• Try using a different browser or incognito mode
• If you normally enter via the HubSpot extension, open HubSpot fresh and re-launch Inside Forms from a record — this refreshes your admin auto-login token

💬 Contact Support

Can't find what you're looking for? Our support team is here to help!

When contacting support, please include:

• Your account email address
• Form name or ID (if applicable)
• Description of the issue
• Any error messages you're seeing
• Steps to reproduce the problem

Request A Feature

We're constantly improving Inside Forms based on your feedback. Have a feature request? Email us at [email protected]