Beacon makes it easy to collect signups online. There's no code to write, plus we take care of a lot of the things you probably don't want to worry about, such as:
Data entry - so the data ends up in the right place
Linking records - so new signups are linked to other records
GDPR - keep your contact consent up to date
Email acknowledgements - so sign ups get notified
Tip: Signup forms can be used for a wide variety of custom uses. See here for more details.
Quick start: Set up a simple signup form
Create your form
Go to Forms in your sidebar
Click the Create form button, give your form a name (this will also be shown on the form), and choose Signup from the form type dropdown
Click Create. Your form is already set to go - click the View form button in the top right to view your form with the default sections.
(Optional) Add a logo and choose a colour for the banner and buttons
Logo tip: A logo with a transparent background works best
Colour tip: We find darker or brighter colours work better than light colours!
Customise the sections of your form by adding sections and fields.
That's it! Try running a test registration through the form. After the form is submitted, you'll see that the following happens automatically:
A new Person record has been created
The person who submits the form is acknowledged immediately via email
You've been notified via email that the donation happened
Acknowledging sign ups
When someone signs up via a Beacon form, Beacon immediately sends an acknowledgement email to them.
You can customise the subject and content of this email, as well as the team member who the email is from in the acknowledgement area of the form settings.
Getting notified
It can be useful to know when someone has made a new sign up through one of your forms.
In the notifications section, you can customise who receives email notifications from Beacon each time a sign up is made, as well as the subject and content of the email.
Fixed data
When signup forms are submitted, we automatically create the relevant records in your Beacon database. There's no manual entry.
Each time a new signup is created, you may want to make sure it's categorised in the right way. For example, you could set some of the following on all new signups:
Interests - 'Newsletter'
Notes - 'Signed up online via a Beacon form'
This is how the fixed data section helps you! It makes it easy to segment your data going forwards.
When new signups or people are created via a Beacon form, Beacon adds the fixed data to each record created (as well as the data that comes from the form questions).
You can customise the fixed data that Beacon sets to fit your needs.
Creating other record types
Signup forms are a special case - they can create almost any other record type, through either form sections or fixed data. This is because signups are based on the Person record type, which is linked to most other records.
For example - You can create records for Organisations, Campaign members, Event attendees, Legacies, Gift Aid declarations, Tasks... and if you've created any custom record types; those too!
Here's a few things other Beacon users are employing, to get your ideas flowing:
Collect new supporters as newsletter subscribers
Enrol people that would like to volunteer for your charity
Encourage and track downloads of learning resources
Collect ID details for verification
Run a campaign to collect Gift Aid declarations
Submit CVs or presentations (which are displayed in a Person record)
Automatically create new tasks to contact fundraisers for a challenge event
Set up legacy commitments, including assigning executors
For more details on generally customising forms, see our main forms guide.
