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How fields on your form map to Copper

How fields on your form map to Copper

Find out what happens when you place a Copper field onto your Contact Us form

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Written by Product at Copper
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Available with the following plans:

All plans

You can add your Copper fields to your lead capture or people capture website form.

Clicking on a field in the forms builder will show you which Copper field the form field is mapped to. This is especially helpful if you choose to relabel the field on the form, as shown in the example below where the custom field Favorite Color is displayed as What's your favorite color? on the form.

This article details which fields can be added to a form, the customization options available per field, and how each field updates data in Copper.

Users are not able to:

  • Change the form field mappings

  • Change the field type (e.g., changing a custom text field to display as a number field on the form)

  • Change which fields are required for form submission

  • Change which fields update records in Copper

Copper fields

These are the out-of-the-box fields Copper provides that you can place on a form. Some fields cannot be placed on forms.

Full Name

Populates the name field on the record and parses to first_name and last_name on the record

  • Cannot be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text field on the webform

  • Is required

  • Will not update an existing contact record

Email

Populates email with category work

  • Cannot be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

  • Users cannot add another email field with a different category to their form

Displays as a text field on the webform

  • Is required

  • Does not enforce proper email address formatting for the end user

  • Will not update an existing contact record

Message

Displays in the activity but does not map to a field on a profile

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • Is not required

Title

Populates the title field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text field on the website

  • Will update an existing contact record

Description

Populates the description field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • Will update an existing contact record

Address

Users can add each line of the address field as a separate field on the form, and it will populate the appropriate line of the address field on the record. (e.g., you can ask for City or Zip Code without needing to ask for the full address)

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

All address fields display as a text field on the webform, except for Country, which displays as a dropdown

  • The form field will not enforce proper formatting or spelling

  • The form field will not perform address validation

  • Will update an existing contact record

Phone Numbers

Users can add each category of phone number as a separate field on the form, and it will populate the phone_numbers field with the chosen category on the record. (e.g., you can add Mobile Phone and Work Phone to the form)

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • The form field will not enforce a properly formatted phone number

  • If no entry exists for phone_numbers with the chosen category, a form response will create an entry

  • If an entry exists for phone_numbers with the chosen category, a form response will create a new entry

Socials

Users can add each category of socials as a separate field on the form, and it will populate the socials field with the chosen category on the record. (e.g., you can add Facebook and LinkedIn to the form)

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • The form field will not enforce a properly formatted URL

  • If no entry exists for socials with the chosen category, a form response will create an entry

  • If an entry exists for socials with the chosen category, a form response will create a new entry

Websites

Users can add each category of websites as a separate field on the form, and it will populate the websites field with the chosen category on the record. (e.g., you can add Work Website and Personal Website to the form)

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • The form field will not enforce a properly formatted URL

  • If no entry exists for websites with the chosen category, a form response will create an entry

  • If an entry exists for websites with the chosen category, a form response will create a new entry

Leads-specific fields

Company

Populates the company_name field on the Lead record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the webform

  • Will not update an existing lead record

Custom fields

These are fields your company has added to Copper in Settings > Customize > Manage fields on records.

Clicking on a field in the forms builder will show you which Copper field the form field is mapped to. This is especially helpful if you choose to relabel the field on the form, as shown in the example below where the custom field Favorite Color is displayed as What's your favorite color? on the form.

Users can create custom fields of many types. This section details how each type will behave on the form.

All custom fields will update an existing contact record.

Text field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text field on the website

  • The form field has a character limit of 250

  • Will update an existing contact record

Text area

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text area on the website

  • The form field has a character limit of 1,000

  • Will update an existing contact record

Date field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a date field on the website

  • The form field will enforce a properly formatted date

  • The form field will display helper text for the date format of the end user's system settings

    • This will convert to the chosen date format in the Company settings

  • Will update an existing contact record

Number field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a number field on the website

  • The form field will require a number entry, and decimals are allowed

  • The form field has a character limit of 20

  • Will update an existing contact record

Percentage field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a number field on the website

  • The form field will require a number entry, and decimals are allowed

  • The form field has a character limit of 20

  • Will update an existing contact record

Currency field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a currency field on the website

  • The form field will display helper text for the ISO code of the Company Base Currency in Copper

  • The form field will require a number entry, and decimals are allowed

  • The form field has a character limit of 20

  • Will update an existing contact record

Single-select field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a single-select dropdown field on the website

  • The field options will display according to the rank set in Copper

  • Will update an existing contact record

Multi-select field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as multi-select checkboxes on the website

  • The field options will display according to the rank set in Copper

  • Will append an existing contact record

Checkbox field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a checkbox on the website

  • Will update an existing record

    • For example, if an existing record has the field checked but then submits a form where the field is unchecked, the field in Copper will update to display as unchecked.

URL field

Populates your custom field on the record

  • Can be removed

  • Can be rearranged

  • Can be relabeled

Displays as a text field on the website

  • The form field has a character limit of 250

  • The form field will not enforce a properly formatted URL

Fields that cannot be placed on forms

Some fields cannot be placed on your form. This restriction protects end-user experience, Copper data, and other scenarios.

Fields that would expose Copper data to the end-user cannot be placed on a form

  1. Connect fields

  2. The tag field

  3. The assignee_id field

  4. The company_id field

  5. The contact_type_id field

  6. The visibility field

  7. For the Lead entity only: customer_source_id

Fields that could disrupt our duplicate matching or company identification logic – and could also confuse staff users and end-users – cannot be placed on a form

  1. An emails field with a different category

  2. For the People entity only: company_name

Fields that are system-calculated cannot be placed on a form

  1. interaction_count

  2. date_last_contacted

  3. date_created

  4. date_modified

How Copper creates and updates records from form submissions

When someone submits your form, Copper creates or updates the corresponding fields on the record with their responses.

Creating Leads in Copper

You must have Leads enabled to see Leads options in Forms.

In Copper, People records are uniquely identified by their email addresses, and you cannot create two People records with the same email address. However, Leads do not have a unique identifier.

We recommend you create a custom Lead Source for each form. Copper can manage duplicate Lead form submissions for an exact match of email address + Lead Source.

If the form is submitted with the exact same email address + Lead Source, Copper:

  • WILL create a single Lead for the first submission; subsequent submissions will log additional activities under that Lead.

If the form is submitted with an email address that is an exact match to an existing Lead with a different Lead Source, Copper:

  • WILL create a separate Lead from the form submission and log an activity.

  • WILL NOT log an activity on any existing (non-Form) Leads that have the exact same email address.

If the form is submitted with an email address that is an exact match to an existing Person, Copper:

  • WILL create a Lead from the form submission and log an activity.

  • WILL NOT log an activity on the existing Person record.

In all scenarios, the user designated as the Owner of Leads created from form submissions will receive a notification (based on their preferences) when the form is submitted. This gives them an opportunity to review the Lead and decide if it should be worked, merged, or deleted.

Creating People in Copper

In Copper, People records are uniquely identified by their email addresses.

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is not an exact match to the work email of an existing Person, Copper will create a new Person record, create a new Company, associate the Person to the Company, and log an activity for that Person.

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is an exact match to the work email of an existing Person in Copper, a duplicate Person record will not be created. Instead, Copper:

  • WILL create an activity record and associate it with the existing Person

  • WILL NOT change the Contact Type of an existing Person

    • For example, if you select "Potential Customers", and a form is submitted by an existing Person with the Type "Current Customers", Copper will not update the existing Person's Type to "Potential Customers".

  • WILL NOT change the Owner of an existing Person

  • WILL NOT change the Name of an existing Person

    • For example, if you receive a form submission from "Maggie Cameron" and the email address entered on the form is an exact match to an existing Person, "Margaret Cameron", Copper will not update the Person's first name to "Maggie." You will be able to see the form as it was submitted in the activity, at which point you and your team can decide if you would like to update "Margaret" to "Maggie".

  • WILL NOT change the Company of an existing Person

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is not an exact match to the work email of an existing Person but whose email domain is a match with an existing company, Copper will create a new Person, relate them to the Company, and log an activity for that Person.

Creating Companies in Copper

If your form is set to create Leads, the Company field is plain text and can be placed on your form. This section only applies to forms that are set to create People, as Leads and People behave differently in Copper.

In Copper, the Company field on a Person record is a connect field – it creates a relationship between the Person and the Company. If your form is set to create People, you cannot place the Company field on your form. This is because placing that field on your form would expose your current customer data to prospective customers and would not be a good end-user experience. Additionally, it would not allow you to create new companies from a form submission.

Automatic Company creation

If a new Person submits a form and there is no existing Company that matches the domain, Copper will create the Person and the Company and relate the two.

If the email address is freemail, i.e., @gmail.com or @hotmail.com, Copper creates a Company named for the Person. For example, a submission from "Maggie Cameron" with the email "maggie@gmail.com" would create a company called "Maggie Cameron's Company."

Automatic Company matching

If a new Person submits a form and we find an existing Company that is a match for the domain of their email address, Copper will create the Person and relate them to the existing Company. For example, you have a company in Copper called “ACME Consultants,” and a new Person submits a form with maggie@acmeconsultants.com as their entered email address. The result is that Maggie will be created as a new Person and related to the ACME Consultants company 🪄

Have a question? Contact our Customer Success Team using the in-app chat 💬

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