Frequently Asked Questions
Web Form Creation
- What kind of form can I create?
- Almost any kind. For instance, surveys with complex branching logic, multi-page data-entry forms, simple contact forms, order forms, registration forms, etc...
- What kind of form can I not create?
- You may not create a form that asks for a credit card or bank account number. If you need to collect payments,
you must use one of our integrated payment solutions, like PayPal or FreshBooks to safely process payment information.
Forms asking for login credentials or any sensitive information like a Social Security number or passport number will be automatically disabled.
You will need to contact us and go through a review process to ensure that the use of the form is legitimate and appropriate.
You can learn more about our moderation practices here.
- Do I need to know HTML or programming to use FormAssembly.com?
- Not at all. Our service is designed to be easily accessible to anyone, regardless of your technical skill set.
- Is there a limit to the length of one form?
- Technically yes, but you will probably never reach it. Users have created forms that contain hundreds of fields without any problems.
- Can I put the form on my site?
- Yes, you can just copy and paste some HTML code, or use one of our other advanced publishing methods.
- I don't have a website, can I still create a form and receive the responses via email?
- Yes, we can host the form for you. The web address will look like this: http://tfaforms.com/12345
(where 12345 is a unique identifier for your form)
Data Processing
- Where is the submitted data stored?
- Your data is safely stored in our database. You can export it at any time, or browse through it using our web interface.
- Can I receive the data in my email?
- Yes, you can receive a customized email notification each time a response is submitted.
- Can the person who submits the form receive a confirmation email?
- Yes, we can send a customized email to that person on your behalf. Please note that this feature is not available on the Starter plan.
- Can my users submit/upload files with my form?
- Yes. The total upload size cannot exceed 20MB per submitted response. The number of files you can receive is not limited at this time. This feature is not available with the Starter plan.
- Can I create a form to process payments?
- Yes, as long as you use our approved payment solutions, PayPal or FreshBooks, available on the Professional Plan. See also "What kind of form can I not create" above.
- Can I use your processing service with my own forms or do I have to use the Form Builder?
- Our service is designed to work with forms created with our Form Builder. You are free however to further customize the form's HTML if you wish.
Security, Privacy and Reliability
- Who owns the data collected on our behalf? Are you selling it to anyone?
-
We act as a facilitator only, we do not claim any ownership on your data and we certainly do not share or sell it to any third-party.
Our privacy policies are certified by TRUSTe for compliance and transparency.
- Do you comply with the EU Safe Harbor Framework?
-
Yes, we comply with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.
- How reliable is your service?
- To get real-time and historical data on our uptime, please visit
our service status site.
In 2010, our uptime was 99.94%.
- Do you keep backups?
- Yes, we do daily backups and daily monitoring on our infrastructure. We use a reputable and reliable hosting provider (Softlayer, inc.) and state-of-the-art datacenters.
- What is your retention policy? Is my data deleted when I cancel my account?
- Your data will remain available for as long as you have an active account with us. Your data is taken offline once you delete your account, but it may remain stored in backups for up to two years.
Customers on our Enterprise plan may ask for a custom retention policy.
Languages and Internationalization
- What are the supported languages?
- FormAssembly.com delivers web forms localized in over 30 languages.
This means that the web form and any text (such as validation error messages) that may appear
while your visitors are filling out the form will be displayed in your native language.
For the complete list of supported languages, visit
our localization page.
- My language is not listed. Can you support it?
- Yes, you can help us by providing a translation.
- Do you support non-latin character sets (e.g. greek, cyrillic, arabic, kanji, hebrew, ...)?
- Yes, all data is processed and stored in the Unicode format (UTF-8). Your forms will work just fine.
Support
- Do you provide phone support?
- No. We provide free and unlimited support via our request tracking system.
You may also use our customer forum for questions not specifically related to your account.
We do our best to answer as quickly and as thoroughly as possible, without canned answers or runarounds.
Pricing & Billing
- How much does it cost?
- We have free and paying plans. See our plan comparison page for more information.
- Can I try this service risk free?
- Yes! You can sign up for a free account. If you'd like to test the advanced features available in the paying plans only, we do offer a 30-day money back guarantee (no questions asked). There is no contract and you can cancel your account at any time.
If you are a Salesforce user, you can also try our full-featured free test-drive.
- How will I be billed?
-
You are charged the day you sign-up. The Pay-As-You-Go plan is a one-time charge.
Other paying plans are monthly recurring charges.
If you pay with a credit card, the charge will appear as "Veer West LLC" on your bank statements.
- Can I submit a purchase order or pay by invoice?
- For the Pay-As-You-Go, Basic and Professional plans: We can only accept payment with a credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express).
For the Enterprise plan: A credit card is required for a month-to-month subscription.
We accept purchase orders and we can invoice you for an Annual subscription or an Enterprise On-Site license.
- How do I cancel my Account?
- You can cancel your account at any time. Just log into your account, click the "My Account" tab, then "Plan" and click "Cancel Account".
You will not be charged again once your account is canceled.
- Can I get a refund? Do you have a money-back guarantee?
-
Yes we have a 30-day money back guarantee. If, for any reason, you are not happy with our service, we will refund your payment - no question asked.
Simply email us with your refund request and we'll take care of it (usually within one business day).
- Can I get an invoice for the charge?
- 'Paid' invoices are available under your account once your credit card has been charged. Log into your account, click the "My Account" tab, then "Plan".
- Do you have special discounts for non-profits?
- We're happy to offer the first three months of our Basic or Professional plans free to new nonprofit customers.
Click here for details. We also offer a 20% discount on our Enterprise plan.
Starter Plan
- How much does it cost ?
- This plan is completely free.
- What are the limits of the Starter plan?
- Some advanced features, like file upload, secure forms (SSL) or auto-responders, are not available on this plan.
You can still however create an unlimited number of forms and process an unlimited number of responses.
- What does 'Ad-Supported' mean?
- This means that your visitors will see an advertisement after each submitted response (see example).
This also means that the automatic redirection option is disabled in order for the advertisement page to be displayed.
Pay-As-You-Go Plan
- What is a 'credit'?
- A 'credit' on FormAssembly.com is a currency that lets you receive one response to your form. You can purchase credits when you need them.
- How much does a credit cost?
- Credits can be purchased in packs of 50, 100, 200 and 500. You will get the best price per credit with the 500 credit pack.
| Plan |
Cost |
| Pay-As-You-Go |
50 Credits |
100 Credits |
200 Credits |
500 Credits |
| $6 |
$10 |
$15 |
$25 |
- How can I test my form without spending credits?
- Go to your forms tab and select the form you want to test, then in the 'Publish' tab, look for the 'test address'. Using the address provided you can submit a response without spending a credit.
- If I run out of credits, will my visitors still be able to submit responses to my forms?
- Yes, we always process responses to your forms. However the responses will be locked until you purchase more credits.
- I received spam / duplicates / junk responses, can I get my credits back?
- Yes, email us with the description of the problem, your username and the name of the form. We'll gladly refund the corresponding credits.
- What is the difference between the Pay-As-You-Go plan and the Basic plan?
- Both plans offer the same set of features, only the pricing structure is different. If you have a large, or steady stream of responses submitted, you will probably find the Basic plan to be more advantageous, as you will only pay a low monthly fee. On the contrary, if you receive only a few responses every now and then, then the Pay-As-You-Go plan is better suited to your case.
- Can I switch from Pay-As-You-Go to the Basic plan?
- Yes, we want you to use the plan that best suits your needs. If you find, after a while, that you're going to pay over $14 a month in Pay-As-You-Go credits, then you should switch to the Basic plan. Be aware though that switching plan will not allow you to unlock responses that were received while you were on the Pay-As-You-Go plan, so you'll need to purchase credits first to retrieve any locked response.
Basic Plan
- How many responses can I receive with the Basic plan?
- There's no limit to the number of responses or forms you can have under the Basic plan.
- How much does it cost ?
- This plan costs $14 per month. See also our plan comparison page.
- How do I cancel my subscription / downgrade my account to pay-as-you go?
- Login to FormAssembly.com and go to 'My Account', then 'Plan' and click on 'change my plan'.
- Is there a contract?
- No, there is no contract and you can cancel at any time. Please note that cancellation is immediate and there is no refund for any remaining time (except under our 30-day money back guarantee).
- Can I pay on an annual basis, instead of every month?
- Yes, sign up for the desired plan first and then open a support request
(in the support tab) to request the new billing schedule.
Please note that we cannot offer a pro-rata refund if you choose to cancel your
account before the end of the year. We will however honor our 30-day money back
guarantee if you're not satisfied by our service during the first month.
Professional Plan
- What is the difference between the Professional Plan and the other plans?
- The Professional plan offers all the features available in the Basic plan,
plus advanced customization and branding options, like personalized emails and landing page routing.
You can also access sophisticated tools to integrate your web forms with other web applications like
Salesforce, PayPal, Freshbooks, Google Apps, and custom remote scripts.
- How much does it cost ?
- This plan costs $39 per month. See also our plan comparison page.
- Can I pay on an annual basis, instead of every month?
- Yes, sign up for the desired plan first and then open a support request
(in the support tab) to request the new billing schedule.
Please note that we cannot offer a pro-rata refund if you choose to cancel your
account before the end of the year. We will however honor our 30-day money back
guarantee if you're not satisfied by our service during the first month.
Enterprise Plan
- What is the difference between the Enterprise Plan and the other plans?
- The Enterprise plan is designed for larger organizations and
professionals who need to manage multiple users in a dedicated and customizable environment.
The Enterprise Plan allows you to:
- - Add, remove and manage accounts for form creators using a centralized administrative interface.
- - Define roles and permissions and set up an optional approval process before forms can be published.
- - Manage your own dedicated template library and list of form themes.
- - Brand the application.
- - Develop custom plugins and connectors to integrate with your information system or preferred services.
- How much does it cost ?
- This plan starts at $125 + $25/user per month (USD). Volume discounts are available.
Visit our Enterprise pricing page for more information.
- Can I be invoiced? Do you accept purchase orders?
- A month-to-month Enterprise Cloud account requires a credit card.
We accept purchase orders and we can invoice you only for an annual subscription
to Enterprise Cloud, or an Enterprise On-Site license.
Click here to request a quote.
Licensing Information
- Can I install FormAssembly on my own server, and store the collected data in my own database?
- Yes, check out our Enterprise On-Site Edition.
PayPal Integration
- How does the PayPal integration work?
- The PayPal connector allows you to easily collect payments with your web form.
Here is an overview of the purchasing process, from the buyer’s perspective.
See also our step-by-step tutorial on how to set up a simple registration form.
- What are the requirements?
- You need to sign-up for our Professional Plan and you need a PayPal account (premier or business account recommended).
- What are the limitations?
-
This service is better suited for simple situations, where:
- You sell only a few different items.
- Prices and quantities are either fixed or derived from the form data using simple calculations.
- Shipping & handling fees and taxes are applied to the total price.
Here are a few examples:
- Selling intangible goods such as music (mp3), software, e-books, ...
- Charging a membership or an admission fee.
- Charging a flat fee for consulting services.
- Accepting donations.
- Selling physical goods, to the extent that inventory is not an issue.
- Do my customers need a PayPal account? Can they pay using a credit card?
- If you are a PayPal premier or business account holder, your customers will have the opportunity to pay using a credit card once they reach the PayPal site, even if they don't have a PayPal account.
- Can I use this service to create PayPal subscriptions or collect recurring payments?
- Not at this time. Our PayPal integration only covers one-time, "pay-now" transactions.
Salesforce Integration
- How does the Salesforce integration work?
- We leverage the Salesforce API and our web form creation and processing technology to make it easy to create and update any record in Salesforce.
For more information, check out our AppExchange listing.
FormAssembly.com is a Certified AppExchange Partner.
- What are the supported Salesforce editions?
- We support the Group, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited editions of Salesforce CRM and Force.com products.
- Is this secure? Do I need to share my Salesforce credentials with you?
-
- Yes, it is secure and no, you don't need to share your own Salesforce credentials with us.
-
We recommend that you create an API-only user, with limited permissions (see our documentation).
We'll use these credentials in our API calls with Salesforce.
- We also support single-sign-on, meaning that you can access our application from your Salesforce account, without sharing your password with us.
- As a certified partner, FormAssembly.com meets the high standards set by Salesforce in terms of information security and operating policies.
The annual certification review includes a thorough audit of our systems to insure that your data and your API credentials are securely handled.
- We use a 256-bit encryption mechanism to store your API credentials and all API transactions are performed over SSL.
- What kind of Salesforce object can I work with? Does it work with custom objects?
- We support all the objects, including custom objects, that are available in your Salesforce instance and to which you grant us access.
- Can I update existing records in Salesforce?
- Yes! See our documentation for more information.
- Can I upload files to Salesforce?
- Yes, you can attach files (attachment object) to most salesforce objects, including Leads, Cases, Contacts or Accounts.
Google Apps Integration
- How does the Google Apps integration work?
- We rely on several
Google APIs
to request authorization, write new data to a Google Spreadsheet or publish your form to your Google Site.
We match the functionalities of a Google Spreadsheet form and provide many more useful features.
- Do I need to install FormAssembly from the
Google Apps Marketplace?
-
It's a practical way to sign up for FormAssembly and enable single-sign-on, but it's not mandatory.
You can still use our Spreadsheet integration and Site publishing if you don't use the marketplace
or if you don't have a Google Apps domain. Simply sign-up on our website directly.
- What are the requirements?
- You need a Google account or a Google Apps account.
Google Spreadsheet integration requires our Professional Plan.
Google Site publishing requires a paying plan.
Single-sign-on is available on all plans.
- What is single-sign-on?
-
If you are already logged into your Google account, it's a quick and convenient way to access your FormAssembly account
without having to authenticate again.
- Do I need to share my password with you?
- No, we don't need your password. When you grant us access, Google only shares with us
a unique authorization token. This token allows us to perform our API requests.
You can also revoke our access
at any time from your Google account.
- Why do you need read/write access to my documents?
- In order to write your data to the spreadsheet you designate, we need you to grant us this read/write permission.
Unfortunately, Google doesn't offer a way to request a more restricted access.
Note that you can revoke our access at any time,
while keeping your FormAssembly account and single-sign-on privilege.
- Why do you need read/write access to our Google Site?
- We need this access to create new pages on your Google Site to host your web forms.
A full read/write access is more than what we need, but Google doesn't offer a way to request more restrictive permissions at this time.
Again, you can revoke our access at any time.
- What is your Google Apps deletion policy?
- When you
delete FormAssembly from your Google Apps you revoke any permission you granted us and disable single-sign-on.
Your FormAssembly.com account remains active and is accessible independently
at http://app.formassembly.com.
If you are on a recurring paying plan, you will continue to be charged for your account on the usual schedule.
See also: how to cancel your FormAssembly account and our data retention policy.
FreshBooks Integration
- What is FreshBooks?
- FreshBooks
is an online invoicing and billing service provided by 2ndSite Inc. You can use it to invoice customers, track time and organize expenses.
- How does the integration work?
- With FormAssembly, you can create forms that will automatically, thanks to the FreshBooks integration,
send out estimates or invoices to your customers.
For instance, a customer could order your product or service by filling out your form. Upon submission, an invoice is automatically created and your customer can pay you online.
You can read more about the integration and possible use-cases here.
- Do I need to share my FreshBooks password with you?
- No, we rely on the OAuth authorization protocol, which lets you grant and revoke our access to FreshBooks without having to share
your login or password.
- What access will you have over my FreshBooks.com account?
- Once you grant us access, we use the FreshBooks API for 3 purposes:
- Query your list of clients to see if there is an existing client matching the information collected with your form.
- Create a new client record if needed.
- Create the desired estimate, invoice or billing profile records.
We do not access any other information and we do not store any information retrieved from your account.
- What are the requirements?
- You need a FreshBooks account and our Professional Plan.
Integration with Remote Scripts
- What is the purpose of this feature?
-
This feature allows you to automatically forward submitted data to any remote script,
using the HTTP protocol (the same protocol used when a web form is submitted).
This can be used to integrate with many third-party services like Hubspot, Mailchimp, Google Analytics for Salesforce, or even Twitter.
In fact, any service that relies on a web form submission can work with FormAssembly thanks to this connector.
This connector is also particularly useful if you already have a form set up and you need to keep using your server-side script.
FormAssembly.com will act as the 'middle-man', processing your form and delivering all its advanced features, and then forwarding the data so that your existing business process remains uninterrupted.
- What are the requirements?
- You need to sign-up for our Professional Plan. It is also assumed here that you already have or will develop and host the remote script.
- What are the supported protocols?
- We support the GET and POST methods of the HTTP protocol, with an optional HTTP Basic Authentication.
