How to create a webform that captures details from an Account as well as a Contact for CRM

The standard webforms in CRM capture details from one entity exclusively - for example - if you create a webform for new Contacts to register, you can only capture details that are on the Contact entity (form in CRM). If you are in the Business to Business market, and you want to capture details on the business as well as the contact, then CRM webforms are not recommended to be used. Instead Zoho Forms offers you the possible solution (Zoho Forms is a separate application to Zoho CRM - www.zoho.com/forms) - if you are a Zoho One subscriber, you do not need to subscribe to Zoho Forms separately, as it is included in Zoho One).

In the Forms application, create a new form. You can choose from templates, but it is best to start from scratch. Before starting, it is recommended to have a table with the fields which you wish to capture. An example is below:

Field	Module	Type
Company name	Companies	Single Line
Website	Companies	URL
Contact first name	Contacts	Single line
Contact last name	Contacts	Single line

 

In forms, click New form:

A new form creation screen opens, where you must give the form a name, and can enter a description containing the form’s purpose and location (i.e. Website signup form). Once you click on Create, the form is created (note, you can also choose here to use a template, or to start from scratch with a blank form. We will start with a blank form). On the left-hand side of the panel, all the field types are displayed. These can be dragged onto the form that is in the middle of the screen. 

On the right hand side of the form, the properties of the selected attribute are shown. For example, if the field in the above form called your LinkedIn profile is selected, the properties of this field can be amended. 

You can set up multi page forms, by inserting a “page break” from the fields section. It is recommended to keep forms that are used to sign up new members as simple as possible, to minimise the abandoned forms (where potential members simply stop entering data before the form is complete.

Note: if you integrate the form with CRM, note that the fields that are mandatory in the CRM module, must also be mandatory in the form you create.

Note2: you can set a validation not to allow duplicates on certain fields (such as single line or email address fields). Do note that this only refers to a duplicate in the forms database. For example, if you have a duplicate validation on email of the contact person, and email@emaildomain.com is entered in the form twice, then the form will provide a warning that the email address already exists and duplicates are not allowed. However, if the same email address is already existing in CRM, but the contact is filling out the form for the first time, it will not give this warning, as the contact person’s email address has not yet been added in Forms. 

Once the form is setup, and all fields have been captured, you can integrate the form with CRM. To do this, go to Integrations, and select CRM.

The module that is integrated with is the highest level in the relation structure. In this case that would be Accounts - as contacts are a relation to the accounts. If you choose contacts, then you cannot add accounts information. 

In selecting the Accounts module, you then have to set up the integration field mapping. Note that the integration field mapping immediately displays the mandatory fields in CRM. These must be mapped. 

To add a new field from the accounts module to be mapped to the form, you can hit the Plus sign. Do this untill all the fields that need to be mapped to the account are mapped. Once done, click Integrate at the bottom of the screen (you may need to scroll down).

Next, we need to map the fields that are related to the contact. Click “related fields.

The module is fixed to Accounts, as that is the integration set up in the previous screen.In the field “related list”, select Contacts. Same as with the Accounts mapping, the mandatory fields must be mapped. Add the desired mappings to the contact module, and once done, Click Integrate (you may need to scroll down). 

Note: the lead source is captured on the contacts. However, you do not need to ask the person entering the form to add the lead source (as by default it will be the lead source that is associated to the website signup form). To create a lead source, add a single line field, and in the properties, make this field hidden, and in the initial value, enter exactly the value of the picklist Lead Source (from the Contacts module) you wish to associate.

Don’t forget to add this field in the mapping of the Contacts module.

Once the form is complete, you can share the form, either as a link, iFrame, or Embed code. It is also possible to share this form via the WordPress Plugin (see https://wordpress.org/plugins/zoho-forms/ for more details).

To share the form, click on Sharing on the top menu of the form edit screen.

 On the left-hand side the various sharing options are listed. It is recommended to work with your webmaster to establish the best sharing option (i.e. WordPress plugin, JSCode, iFrame). 

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