Other ChildCareCRM forms allow you to build a form in ChildCareCRM that can be presented in your web site as a link or imported as an iframe. Client forms are different; they are designed to serve as a bridge between your existing forms and ChildCareCRM, allowing data entered into your forms to be uploaded directly into ChildCareCRM. 

There is only one client form because it serves as a portal through which you can send data to your CRM system. You can have however many forms you want sending data through your client form.

Step 1: Determine if you have access to the client form. Click Settings > Organization Settings > Forms. If you have access to the client form, it will be at the top of your list of forms:

If you do not see it, contact ChildCareCRM support staff and ask for the client form feature to be activated for your organization. You can use the chat feature in the platform or email support@childcarecrm.com or call 866-306-1985 option 2 (02 8039 8276 for Australia).

Step 2: Click anywhere on the client form row.

Step 3: Edit the form header as needed.

Step 4: Click “Settings” in the upper right toolbar. Edit as needed.

A) If you want staff to receive an email when a lead completes a client form, select who the email should be sent to and who it should look like it’s sent from. If you don’t want staff to be notified by email, select “Do Not Send” in the “Send Pending Lead Email To” field.

B1) Check the box to generate a thank-you email to the lead who completed the form, if desired. Otherwise, uncheck it and skip to step C below.

B2) Decide who the email should look like it’s from.

B3) Select “Automatic” if multiple locations will use this form and you have a template group set up for each location. Otherwise, select “Single”.

B4) If you selected “Automatic” in B3, select the template group you want for your thank-you emails. Select the template you want for your thank-you emails if you selected “Single”. 

B5) Enter the delay time for sending thank-you emails, if desired.

B6) Determine who should receive any email replies that the lead might make. (This requires two-way communication to be activated.)

C) Using the drop-down menu, select who is responsible for processing pending leads.

Click “SAVE” when done.

Step 5: Review the import variables as needed to make sure each is mapped correctly. 

“Mapping” is the process of matching the information in your form to ChildCareCRM. For example, a lead’s first name is labeled “First Name” in ChildCareCRM but might be labeled “Lead First Name” on your form and the form’s variable name might be “firstName”. “Mapping” ties them together and identifies them all as being the same thing.

Type: Four data types can be imported into ChildCareCRM: lead variable, child variable, location variable and “submission email”. The first three variable types simply refer to the type of data being sent. Submission email is a different animal; see the “USING SUBMISSION EMAILS” section below to learn how to use this data type. 

Field Name: This is the name of the form’s variable, for example “firstName”. 

Label: This is the label that appears on your form, for example “Lead First Name”.

Mapped To: This is the name that appears in ChildCareCRM, for example “First Name”.

Required: This indicates whether your form requires data in this field.

Child: Many client forms allow information for multiple children to be entered. This column numbers the children, keeping their information separate—child #1’s first name goes with child #1’s last name and child #1’s birthdate, for example.

A) Click anywhere on the variable’s row.

B) Press “DELETE”.

Note that you cannot change a variable type once it’s been saved. If you have the wrong type, delete the variable and then add a new variable.

A) Click anywhere on the variable’s row.

B) Make whatever changes are needed.

C) Press “SAVE”.

If you need to combine multiple values on your form into one ChildCareCRM field, map the first variable as normal. Then, for each value you want to add to the existing ChildCareCRM field, check the “Append Label” checkbox and select the field you want to append to in the “Append To” drop-down menu.

For example, if your form has a place for a lead’s comments but also has a place to collect a lead’s work schedule, you might append the work schedule to the comments, so that the lead’s comments and the lead’s work schedule appear in ChildCareCRM’s comments.

A) Click “+ Add Import Variable”.

B) Select the variable type (Lead, Child or Location). Then click “NEXT”. (To use Email Submission types, see the “Using Submission Emails” section below.)

C) Fill out the form.

If you need to combine multiple values on your form into one ChildCareCRM field, map the first variable as normal. Then, for each value you want to add to the existing ChildCareCRM field, check the “Append Label” checkbox and select the field you want to append to in the “Append To” drop-down menu.

For example, if your form has a place for a lead’s comments but also has a place to collect a lead’s work schedule, you might append the work schedule to the comments, so that the lead’s comments and the lead’s work schedule appear in ChildCareCRM’s comments.

D) Click “SAVE”.

Like the hash code, a submission email variable is something that gets passed to ChildCareCRM but isn’t something your lead enters or sees on their form. Instead, it’s a variable that you pass that can change which email template gets used when the system sends the lead a thank-you email. 

For example, let’s say you’ve got one form for new leads to fill out, and you want them to get a “thank you for your interest” email when they’re done. And you’ve got another form for people to RSVP for an upcoming event, and you want them to get a “thank you, we’ll see you Friday” email. 

You may recall from the above that in your client form settings (Settings > Organization Settings > Forms > [click on your client form] > Settings), you can select a default thank-you email template or template group to go out (A and B, below).

Important: The choices you’ve made in your settings define what happens when you do NOT pass a submission email variable to ChildCareCRM. It’s the default system behavior. If you pass a submission email variable, it overrides the defaults set in your client form settings.

To use submission email variables, you will add one new import variable to your client form for every (non-default) template you want to be able to call upon in the future. These variables will tie values to templates, so that when you pass a given value, the system will email the corresponding template.

A) If you haven’t already done so, create the email template you want to use.

B) Click “+ Add Import Variable”
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C) Select “Submission Email” as your variable type.

D) Fill out the resulting form: 

Form Field Label is optional—it doesn’t impact system functionality.

The combination of Form Field Name and Submission Value is what triggers the system to use whatever template you select in “Map To Email Template”. 

So to set up a submission email variable to send out a standard thank-you email, you might fill it out this way:

Then you might repeat the above steps so you can send out a “thank you for your RSVP” message:

You can even set up a variable to send no email (useful if the default is to send something out):

Then you would code each form to pass the desired value to ChildCareCRM, triggering the desired email. Using the above examples, you’d code your RSVP form to pass “emailTemplate”:”B”.
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​How to Send Data into ChildCareCRM

If you are using WordPress, please go to Appearance->Editor then select the Theme Functions file “functions.php” and add a function.

Example Code:
​
A small WordPress code as an example, this is how we receive data through API. You can modify it according to your website platform.

add_action('gform_after_submission_4', 'post_to_third_party_summer', 10, 2);

function post_to_third_party_summer($entry, $form) {

$body = array(

'parent_full_name' => $entry['1'],

'phone_number' => $entry['2'],

'email' => $entry['3'],

'childs_name' => $entry['4'],

'child_1_dob' => $entry['5'],

'school' => $entry['1'],

'comments' => $entry['6'],

‘marketing_campaign’ =>’ Wait List Form’,

'hash' => 'w67fe0h776011498dd4elebe9'

);

$post_url = 'https://live.childcarecrm.com.au/import/webImportReceiver.php';

$request = new WP_Http();

$response = $request->post($post_url, array('body' => $body));

}

The bold lines are specific to gravity forms/WordPress. The hashcode that is in there is only an example.

Every field name ('parent_full_name' => $entry['1'] ) should match with field name in CRM Web Form settings and location/school/campus submission value ($entry value) should match the value in ChildCareCRM Web Form settings.
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​

This is a sample code for WPCF7:
​
WordPress with the Contact Form 7 plugin:

add_action('wpcf7_before_send_mail','contactform7_before_send_mail',1);

add_action('wpcf7_mail_sent', 'post_to_childcare_crm', 10, 2);

function post_to_childcare_crm( $contact_form ) {

$submission = WPCF7_Submission::get_instance();

if ( $submission ) {

$posted_data = $submission->get_posted_data();

}

$body = array(

'first_name' => $posted_data['first_name'],

'last_name' => $posted_data['last_name'],

'address' => $posted_data['address'],

'phone' => $posted_data['phone'],

'school' => $posted_data['school'],

'lead_source' => $posted_data['lead_source'],

'child1_first_name' => "Child 1 First Name",

'child1_last_name' => "Child 1 Last Name",

'child1_birthday' => $posted_data['child1_birthday'],

'child1_expected_start_date' => $posted_data['child1_expected_start_date'],

'hash' => '123'

);

$post_url = 'https://live.childcarecrm.com.au/import/webImportReceiver.php';

$request = new WP_Http();

$response = $request->post($post_url, array('body' => $body));

}

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